Kitchen/Bathroom

Here's some other photos of my bathroom and kitchen that I have previously posted on.

I'm keeping my post short today, I'm going to the fabric store today to pick out some new upholstery for my grandmother's chair! I hope everyone has a fun Halloween weekend!!

The Loft

This is a room on the 2nd floor of our house. This is my getaway room. The reason I like this room the best? It has no television which means I never have to worry about my husband or daughter coming upstairs and hanging out up here. This is my favorite room to take a Sunday afternoon nap or to catch up on with a new design magazine or book.



The sectional and leather chair are from World Market, the tables are from Martha Stewart and the wicker chaise lounge you can barely see and the lighting are from Ikea and the pillows and throws and most of the accent pieces are from Restoration Hardware and Williams-Sonoma Home.

I think every girl needs a room where no one wants to hang out in except you! Make sure to hide the good cookies there too!

My House

This is the house I have lived in for the last 4 years. I have a love/hate relationship with it, I love it because I think the exterior is different then most homes, its also quaint and comfy and has so much character. My hate comes into play because its an older house and there is always something that needs fixed. When I moved into the house my husband had lived here for a year and had lawn chairs in the living room and a banquet table in his office. The house has changed just a bit since then!



This is my favorite time of the year and when I like the outside of our house the most. I like that the ivy on the house is starting to fade and my mums are in bloom. There is no doubt we have made our house into a very nice home.

Another View of the Basement

This photo is a follow up from yesterday's posting. Now that I'm more comfortable being on the floor that's finally dry I took another photo at another angle.

My Living Room

My living room is a combination of about every store you can think of. The paint on the wall is linen by Restoration Hardware, the rug from Walmart, the couch, ZGallerie, the coffee table, Crate and Barrel, the tv cabinet, Martha Stewart, the chair, Pier One,



the curtains, lamps and small table are fromTarget and the cd cabinet and black side table are from World Market, The screen is an antique bought from an auction over 10 years ago and most of the items around the room are made by my daughter or given to me from my grandmother or gifts from the people I love.



The fireplace was resurfaced with slate this summer and done for a bargain using large slate off the shelf from Lowe's and then cut smaller. The room has happened over time and like always is a mix of high and low priced items. I think the key to a good room is to take your time and let the room come together. I think when you do that you end up with a comfortable room that means something to you!

LOVE!!

Its funky I know and it probably won't float everyone's boat but I think this chandelier is simply to die for!



I was at my realtor/friend's home last night and when I walked into the entrance of his home he had this chandelier hanging in his foyer and I think my heart actually skipped a beat!

(This dining room was styled by Lili Diallo.)

Oh Yea!

Am I excited?? You have no idea! We worked our butts off this weekend and I'm telling you I could barely get out of bed this morning. Why am I so excited? This is the first house that I have owned that I have crossed off all my mental to do list/projects. Could I sink in another $50,000.00 into the house? Absolutely, but whenever I move into a house the instant I even think about buying the house I have a whole idea in my head on everything I want to do.

This is the last big project on the house that we completed this weekend. The first was the staircase going down to the basement. We live in a very old house house and we had a very old and ugly basement.



The fix was simple, a little paint and some vinyl tiles. I still would like to paint the banister going down the stairs but for the moment this will do and is a big improvement!



I can't believe I am posting this photo but I'm going to let you see what our basement looked like for years. It was the catch all room and a place where we put everything while we remodeled the rest of our house. (Ok so we stored things in our garage too!) This is the reason why I have always hated basements! It was so ugly, bad paneling, vinyl tile that was popping up all over the place and a cheesy bar at the end of the room.



We were on a major, major budget (what's new!) and we only spent $150.00 on the room and basically painted the whole darn thing. The ceiling tiles were torn down which left the exposed wood which we decided to paint black. It gives the illusion that the ceiling is much higher then what it really is. We tore out the nasty bar and we primed and painted both the walls and the floors. I know there's some footprints on the floor but I want to wait until the paint can dry for a few days before I wipe them up, I just really wanted to show the room off. (The room had dust everywhere!!) We decided not to put anything on the floor because if it rains really super bad there are a few spots that have gotten wet in the past and we wanted to play it safe.



Like I said there are still a few minor things here and there that I'd look to finish up but for now I think I'm going to sleep for the next 2 days!

Guess What We Did This Weekend?

We've been busy and the to-do list is so close to being checked off, come back tomorrow and see what we've done!

Basement Bathroom Remodel

Drew bought our current home prior to me moving in with him so of course I have to give him a little grief because when he was looking at houses this bathroom was actually considered a bathroom! I don't know about the rest of you but would you even wash your hands in there?



Or take a nice refreshing shower?



Well we finally remodeled the space this summer and are very happy with the results. We used basic ceramic square tiles on the floor and subway tile in the shower area. The sink is mounted to the wall to save on space. We used brushed stainless steel fixtures and everything was bought right off the shelf, to save some dough. The paint is light gray. The shower curtain is from Crate and Barrel (Marimekko-Lahtimaja).



This is our shower stall now, the fixture is hanging from the ceiling so it feels like its raining!



I would have to say that this falls into the category of biggest improvement so far on our house!

Trends

Fashion and interior design go hand in hand. For instance the color gray is showing up all over the place from sweaters to paint.

I recently found this great lighting fixture at Urban Outfitters. I seriously love this!



It reminds me of the long layered metal necklaces that are also popping up all over the place!

My Sanctuary

Scary basement? Why yes it is, but it was the only space we had left in my house that I could claim for myself. I needed a place to work on my design boards and a place to paint. My awesome husband painted the room for me from top to bottom and I used a little of this and a little of that to finish the room off.

Below is what a little paint can do.



The only thing I bought for the room was the fabric to cover the large shelving unit and the orange Herman Miller desk chair. The two items cost me less then $10.00!

The large shelving unit was left by the previous homeowners and I store everything in it, paint, markers, canvases and even my sewing machine. This area is my favorite, everything is in plastic bins and labeled. Its my OCD dream room come true!

The greatest part of this room is because it barely cost anything I don't mind it getting dirty so its a fun space to do crafts with Sloan.

I highly encourage every girl to have a little corner in her house all to herself!

Its Better When There Is A Story Behind It

I feel like I haven't bought a knick knack in ages but I can't seem to buy something unless the piece means something to me. I think when it means something to you it makes your house a true home and sets you apart from the rest. I have items from my grandmother, things from my mom, gifts from Sloan or Drew and even gifts from myself. Here are two of my favorite things.



The first is a monkey I bought at Midland Antiques. I love monkeys, I mean who doesn't? I used to call Sloan a monkey when she was a baby. This piece is always a good conversation piece when we have friends over, especially when we have a tea light in the small container. He is actually quite creepy. So creepy in fact Drew, Sloan and I tend to move the monkey all throughout the house to surprise one another. We've put it in each other's bed, on the bathroom floor when someone is showering. The scariest place was on Drew's chair. What made it so scary is that the monkey fell out of the chair and we're not really sure how it fell. We actually call him the murder monkey. Weird...yes, but a great silly memory.



The second photo is Sloan's hand print that she gave to me when she was five years old. We've lived in 3 different places since then and it has always hung in my kitchen. The reason it's in my kitchen...my mom hung my hand print in her kitchen when I was a little girl.

So the next time you are picking things to decorate your house remember pick something you love and that mean something to you.

Artwork

This is a painting I did a few years ago for Drew. He has it hanging in his office now. I used regular household paint to do it. I simply used the paint I used to paint his office and added black and white. He says, its his favorite gift from me, and I'm going to pretend to believe it.

I'm Totally Stealing This Idea!

My daughter, Sloan has been collecting Pez dispensers for as long as I can remember and I've never been able to come up with an idea on how to display them so they have sat in a pink bin in her bookshelf for years. Well one of my favorite blogs, Apartment Therapy has come to the rescue.

The photo is from an Apartment Therapy home tour of a woman named Amy, who has a fearless way of decorating with color and displaying her collectibles. The photo below is how she displays her Pez collection, on the wall with simple blue poster putty. My daughter flipped when I showed her the picture, so I suppose my to do list has just become a bit longer!

A Look Back on the Kitchen

I've been organizing my house photos and came across my kitchen remodel from a few years ago and thought I'd post them. This was my first time I ever did a complete gut of a room and am really proud of how it turned out. It's a small space but it is quite efficient, the perfect work triangle and even though its small its easy for Drew and I to work in there at the same time.

I saved money by using stock cabinets and using simple subway tile as the backsplash. My middle range picks were the LG hi-mac countertops, School House Electric Lighting and the cork flooring on the floor. I splurged on my window treatments and my appliances especially my stove.

I think its important when doing a remodel to stay true to your house and the best compliment I have received is that the kitchen looks like its always been there.

Pleasant Surprise

As you all know I have a few birds in my house and for the last few years I've been on the owl bandwagon. So it was pretty cool when I was at my mom's house last week and she told me she had something for me from my grandma. My grandmother died over 10 years ago so I had no idea what it could be. Of course I was hoping for the blue bird sugar bowl or the flowered mixing bowls but instead and surprisingly it was something cooler. My mom gave me the owl pictured below. My grandma and I were not alike when it came to decorating or the way we took care of our house. My grandma rarely changed her decor and was a pack rat that would buy things (lots of things) just in case or if they were on sale. I never saw this owl in her house and I'm assuming it was packed away upstairs just in case.



I'm glad just in case turned out to be me!

Blech

Here's one of those projects I've been putting off for the last 4 years. Its the staircase to our upstairs loft and bedroom area. I was trying to come up with a clever idea but have decided to just be safe and clean it up and paint it. I'm hoping to be done in the next couple days. The area is prepped and cleaned (boring) and so tomorrow I'll start the painting. Come back to see the final results!

Farewell Summer!

I have mentioned it more then once but I am really sad to see summer come to an end. I feel like we barely had any warm days to sit on our porch and enjoy the weather and we didn't get to the pool one time. So as everyone else is excited about cashmere sweaters and new boots I'm totally bummed to have to put away my outdoor furniture and flip flops for the next 7 or 8 months.

Not Always Pretty

Just because these pictures won't make it to the pages on any design magazines doesn't mean I'm not equally as proud of our latest accomplishment. Cleaning the garage!! This project has taken 4 years to complete and this garage has served us well. It has held alot of my belongings when I first moved in here with Drew, then it held old dishwashers and refrigerators and stoves and the countless excess junk from all our home remodeling projects.



This garage project was one of my summer projects that I have happily checked off the to do list. Everything now has a home and is organized. If you look all like items (tools, toys, car items, etc.) are together. I think our cars will be the happiest because now they finally have a home!

Master Bedroom

This is our finished master bedroom. Like I have previously mentioned its outside of how I have normally decorated a room. I wanted the room to be a bit more modern then what I have usually done and I wanted more color.


We needed storage, lots of storage and that's what we got with room to spare. Unfortunately I still have to store seasonal clothes in tubs and change them out for winter and summer but I suppose that's what happens when you're living in an older house.


Its pretty obvious that most of our things came from Ikea but we also shopped at West Elm, Jonathan Adler, CB2, Crate & Barrel, Urban Outfitter, Pottery Barn and Midland Antiques. I think what I like most about the room is that its so organized and I made good use of the space.

Perhaps I Got Ahead of Myself

Guess what? Putting together a new blog is harder then what I thought, perhaps it might take longer then a weekend....I should've guessed when there are books (big books) on how to operate this new system I'm switching to.

Stay tuned!

Give me till Monday...

I've decided to change to wordpress and say good bye to blogspot so I have been working on my new design and will have it up by Monday. Come here on Monday and I will have a link to show you the new house to your Home. I'll post photos of my master bedroom at that time. In the meantime, if you miss Domino magazine (like me) check out Lonny an online magazine with the same vibe. Its really cool!

Master Bedroom

When we originally moved into the house our bedroom was downstairs but we decided we would move upstairs into the loft area because the room was much bigger. This is the room before we did anything. Its your basic beige empty room.



At the time I used paint and furniture that we already owned and did a quick makeover. The room was nice but not functional. There is only a very small closet that doesn't even begin to work for just my clothes. We lived with this room for a few years but then decided to make the room more functional and I also decided to go outside of "my box" and try to design a room that I normally would not of done.



Here's what the room looked like as it started to come together. I did keep brown in the room because virtually everyone of my rooms has brown in it and I like the house to have a flow to it. Stay tuned tomorrow to see the finish result!