Hooked On Fridays

I really enjoy reading some of the posts on Julia's Hook On Houses blog each Friday. People go there and just link posts about anything that makes them happy. Check it out here. This post is also being shared on theinspiredroom.net on Melissa's Happy Life blog event today. And don't forget to check out Kelli's House for her Show and Tell blog party today.

Today I am hooked on the remodeling we have been doing lately. Not only do I love the new look we are creating but I love the unity it brings to my husband and to me as we work together to create a home we enjoy. Day by day things are getting done. Jim has been working tirelessly on all the aspects of making this a great place to be. The process has been slow and laborious and so worth it. Here are a few sneak peeks as we are still working on the cabinetry. Double clicking will enlarge any picture.


I have used a lot of copper in the room so decided on the burnished copper hardware. I really love it. It compliments the Silestone, brick tone counter top and white cabinets nicely.

I got this copper tray with the black leather liner from a client that was moving. If you love garage sales and thrifting you would love my job. People are so generous when they are moving and delight in getting rid of a lot of their things to lighten the load. This happened to belong to my friends, Helen and Larry, so it has added meaning to me, plus it has the colors and textures I was working with to create an old world Italian look in the kitchen. I actually used three things they gave me, I'll point them out to you.

I have a rather extensive pear collection and they go great with the colors I used in the room. The jar I have showed once before and it was my thrift store find for $4.99. I went online and researched pears in Italy to see if it could work in with my Italian theme. Much to my delight I learned that pears were grown extensively throughout Italy until about 100 years ago. So Voila, the authenticity was there, so I brought them into the kitchen.

The fruit on the copper plates in these art pieces were my inspiration for the room. The cat on the shelf is for all the cats that inhabit the Vatican area. I heard there are more cats than residents there. The sculpted bust is representative of all of Italy's beautiful art.

Last year we made our first trip to Italy and loved every place we went. Venice was a real favorite and I happened to find this wall art with the perfect colors. When I see it I remember that enchanting time and can just see our grandsons, Spencer and Ross making a silly face, standing on the bridge getting their pictures taken. I love to accessorize with things that bring wonderful things to my remembrance.

I love this little wire covered tray and decided to make a little bird cage out it to give these little wooden birds a place to live. These little birds were purchased on a very special shopping day with our daughter, Laura, when they were living in CA near us.

"I also love this because it says to my brothers..
"Yes, we do like pets..here are ours!"

I was able to take a lot of the accessories out of my home decor inventory from our design business. That was helpful. I think these flowers are perfect in the room.

We a had our first company for dinner last night~a couple of great young missionaries and Barbara and Alex came. It was fun and has been quite awhile since we have had people over.

Loved these dishes that came from our inventory as well.

The large wooden mortar and pestle was a gift from my last client and is actually from Italy. She is a professional chef and I will treasure this gift. I had actually been looking for one online at the time she gave it to me. The large terracotta urn was a purchase made on a great shopping trip with my dear friend Michelle. I think of her when I see it. Now she is living in Canada and we all miss them! The black metal garden element on the hearth was captured from the front porch and painted black by Jim.

More pears!

I like these bottles and again, they came from the warehouse.

This is one thing I did buy new. When I saw this table it just seemed like it was made for our room. The colors on it could not be more perfect and the old world look is fabulous. The copper rooster...warehouse find. I'll show you the cabinet side of the room when it is done~soon hopefully!

It is so much fun to accessorize your room in a theme and yet still make it eclectic and make it you. If you don't love something, don't use it. Find a way to re-purpose things that are fun and unique or combine things for a little whimsy~like the bird cage and pets. Every room should have a little fun in it someplace. Pick something fabulous as your inspiration and then let it happen!

The old broom and the copper plate that holds the crock on the table with the vines are both from Larry and Helen's home. The grandkids call that broom the Harry Potter broom! I just love its gnarly old broom handle.

The large copper clock is from our library. I use to have a regulator clock in here so I just switched them out to bring in more copper. Jim painted our ceiling fan blades black to go with the black appliances and black fireplace. Shopping the house makes sense as we all tend to have a thread of similar things that we collect because we like them.

I had a coppery, metal wall art piece of an olive branch so I put that over the window. I bought it to put over a couch in a home we staged once, and remember thinking I'd probably never use it again. Now we enjoy it everyday. We have complete privacy so we are not putting window coverings in the room. Until next time~enjoy the home you are creating each day! I think I said "love" way too many times in this post! Each was heartfelt, however!

Rainy Days and Mondays Always Get Me Down.....

Have you ever thought of laundry in this light before?

Years ago an Alabama grandmother gave a new bride the following recipe.
This is an exact copy as written and found in an old scrapbook -with spelling errors and all.

"WARSHING CLOTHES"

'Build fire in backyard to heat kettle of rain water. Set tubs so smoke wont blow in eyes if wind is pert. Shave one hole cake of lie soap in boilin water.


Sort things, make 3 piles
1 pile white,
1 pile colored,
1 pile work britches and rags.
To make starch, stir flour in cool water to smooth, then thin down with boiling water.
Take white things, rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard, and boil, then rub colored don't boil just wrench and starch.
(For you non-southerners - wrench means, rinse)



Take things out of kettle with broom stick handle, then wrench, and starch.
Hang old rags on fence.
Spread tea towels on grass.
Pore wrench water in flower bed. Scrub porch with hot soapy water.
Turn tubs upside down.
Go put on clean dress, smooth hair with hair combs.. Brew cup of tea, sit and rock a spell and count your blessings.

Paste this over your washer and dryer, next time you think things are bleak, read it again, kiss that washing machine and dryer, and give thanks. First thing each morning you should run and hug your washer and dryer.'

AND WE THOUGHT WE HAVE IT ROUGH?

Our New Laundry Room

Glimpse of Pantry Doors


Decor Only~Thank Goodness!

I finally found the lamp from our warehouse I wanted to use in here. I tried several but I liked this one best. I love lamp light in all the rooms, it just adds a great atmosphere at night and eliminates having to have all the over head lights on.


I used to have a lot of navy blue in our house but slowly it is all gone now except for a few things that I truly love. So I have used some blue accessories in this room so I can keep them close by. These pansies are a beautiful ceramic piece I bought years ago on a shopping trip in Los Gatos with my sweet mom. My dad had passed away and it reminded us both of him and his love for growing pansies in our backyard when I was growing up. I just love this little thing! It makes me feel a closness to each of my parents.

I adore this blue bottle it looks so pretty with the sunlight on the window sill.

I love the fun shape of this purple bottle.

A glittery bird vase and tiny pansy
Make me happy and look great against all the green outside.
A laundry room should be fun.
It makes the work a lot more palatable day in and day out.

I really do want this laundry recipe in our laundry room someplace. None of us have anything to complain about in the laundry department except maybe having too many clothes, too many choices, too much of everything. I think I will go hug my washer and dryer after I hug my hubby for all his hard work to make this a very nice place to do laundry!!

Staging An Occupied Home For Sale

This is the home we staged last week. I am just experimenting on making a slide show with SmileBox and you are my Guinea Pigs.


Staging an occupied home presents challenges that a vacant home does not. You have to work with what they have, keep the home livable, and bring in things from the warehouse to enhance it. All this happens after an extensive consultation and "to do" list for the homeowner which includes items for removal, cleaning up, de-cluttering, new purchases, repairs, etc.

In the best of all worlds, they follow my written instructions to the letter and everything goes according to the design plan I have worked up from my photos. Often we come and find things not exactly the way we had hoped and then the order of the day is ~ adjust and smile.

We decorate the entire house in one day. It is hard work but very fun too. I could not do this without the help of my assistants, Emily and Maureen. They are the best! Nor could I do it without the technical assistance of Jim who helps me move all the heavy things to the houses and de-stage it when it is sold.

Once the written report is done I take that and my photos and begin the process of deciding what I have that will work in each room in the house. The tricky part is coordinating a feeling with colors, art work , accessories, floral and plants, linens, dishes, etc. that will pull the house together.

For this house we brought over two very full van loads of accessories from our warehouse. I spent about $50.00 to buy things we didn't have, but that is minimal and normal now that we have a pretty substantial inventory. As it turned out, I didn't even use the items but, that is OK...there is always another house. (Hopefully!)

What made this home more difficult was the colors in the main rooms are so muted. As an example the sofa is a salmon and muted blueish gray, patterned fabric. It is very hard to make that "pop" as the overused term goes. One of the best colors for making a house come alive is red and that just would not work in this house. Also things like wallpaper in the dining room remained in place although removal was recommended. The chandelier, a favorite treasure brought from their larger home was installed here, but is way over-scale for this room. That meant finding dishes in our collection that were the right colors to blend with the living room and somewhat plain, and having a shorter centerpiece than I would normally use so it wasn't nearly touching the light fixture. Every detail has to be considered. So, come on in and take the tour!



Make a Smilebox slideshow

Our objective is to make the house look inviting and spacious and well cared for by the owners. We also try to make it look like real people live here so it does not have the sterile quality of a model home. We want the prospective buyer to think they would just love to live here where everyday is restful and wonderful! We realize they have probably been working like crazy to get their home on the market too, so when they come here we want things to look and feel done! We want them to feel like they would be leisurely stepping up...!

What do you think? Did we do it?

Room With A Past

I just have to say how much I love visiting Room With a Past once a month. Each month they are open for four days only and it is a wonderful girl party each time. This is collective shop located in a warehouse near us, that sells all things vintage, at wonderful, affordable prices. There is a group of very fun women who run the shop and each of them collects, restores and sometime leaves 'as is'...the lovely things they sell.

Aren't they cute?

The opening each month is held on a Thursday evening and the ladies always dress up in these adorable vintage clothes and hats, they serve goodies and a great time is had by all. You are apt to see several old duffers dozing off in the car while their wife is having a ball. Taking a man in here would be akin to a bull in a china closet kind of a scenario. They would H-A-T-E it!

I just love hunting for just the right accessory for something I am working on or designing. This month I purchased this darling oval mirror for over my little book case in our backdoor entry. I just love the shape of it and it is the perfect size. At $18.00 I felt it was a real bargain. And since it is vintage it is nicely made and quite heavy, unlike the ones made today.


What is so fun about this place is that it is run by women who love to shop and love simple and beautiful things. And as I said the prices are great. When I helped my friend, Faye, decorate her cottage we got so many cute things here.

I love this type of shopping because the thrill of the hunt is so compelling. You just never know what you will find. In the past few weeks I have found these items that I truly love. Both of these came from thrift shops. It is always a hit and miss but the hits are so much fun. It is a great way to go green by recycling, reinventing and saving money.

I wish I knew how to take photos of something that has glass on it and how to avoid the glare. I do know how to turn off my flash but because we have so many windows in our house, it is hard to take a good photo without reflections. I resorted to laying it on our bed which helped some. This picture is a nice big print with great matting and framing. The mat matches our wall color in our hallway perfectly. Price $12.00.

As I have been accessorizing our kitchen, I have been going for an Italian look (my own brand). The accent colors are rust and mustard while the neutrals are a warm creamy latte and brown with black appliances. I have a vintage/old world looking cupboard, made for me by a dear friend that I can never part with, so I tried to find some fun things to put inside. I about fell over with delight when I saw this pot at Goodwill for $3.99.

I love this pot for its vibrant color and the olive branches on it. It is in perfect condition. It is every bit as fabulous as the fancy one I saw at Sur la Table for $79.99. Cha ching...score!

Accessorizing in the Kitchen

Each week over at Hooked on Houses there is a meme to share something that you are hooked on. The is also one over at Kelli's called Show and Tell where I am submitting this post as well. Right now I am hooked on getting our new kitchen decorated and I want to show and tell you a little about it.

Actually it is not even finished yet but here are a few sneak preview photos to give you an idea of what we have been working on lately. I am so excited to have this new Italian look (my version) in this room. I am even more excited about being a team with my husband and doing it all together. I love the colors we have chosen and am feeling pretty happy with the whole project.

Selecting The Perfect Counter Top

Over the last several weeks, as some of you know, we have been remodeling several areas in our home. The current project is our kitchen. This is always the most exciting room to redesign. It is usually the heart of the home and the place that people congregate in their daily lives as well as when entertaining. A great kitchen will sell an otherwise average house in a heartbeat. Whenever people think of a newly remodeled kitchen one word pops into their minds almost immediately. Granite. Everyone seems to want it! We thought we wanted it too until I started actually looking at it.

I think what people really mean when they say they want granite is that they do not want little six inch tiles with grout or a laminate surface. They are looking for a stone surface for its beauty, durability and it value in terms of resale. However, as we have found, sometimes in working with what is already in the kitchen, granite is not the best choice.

Our home is several decades old and has random plank oak flooring with wooden pegs. It is a beautiful floor and in excellent condition after many decades of being carpeted. We had it refinished a few year ago and love it.

I am still looking for the perfect area rug in our dining room!

Because it is in the adjoining rooms of our kitchen, we selected a stone tile pattern for our kitchen and had it installed in our kitchen, entryway, laundry room, pantry and small bath at the same time. We really like this floor and did not want to replace the entire run of it during our kitchen renovation as that would be quite costly and it is practically new.

When purchasing a granite counter top you usually go to the showroom and choose a color and pattern that you like and then hope for the best. Since granite in not a man made surface you will never get one that looks exactly like the one in the showroom. There are always naturally occurring variations in the pieces. Granite is very beautiful and I love it, but it was not for our kitchen and here is why.

Usually granite is sold in 8 foot slabs. I spent quite a bit of time in the granite store selecting what I thought would be a good choice for our kitchen. Then you wait a few days while they actually truck in your pieces. Once you sign off the pieces indicting that this is what you want, you will soon have a beautiful new counter top. It sounds simple enough, but not really. Twice we went down to see the granite they brought in for us and it did not look anything like the sample in the showroom. We needed three slabs and each was as different as you can imagine from the other two. (Note: If you are keeping your flooring or cabinets, you need to take a sample of them with you when shopping for a counter top.)

This is what I learned from this unsettling experience:

• If you have a patterned floor, think twice about granite as your choice. Our particular floor is really beautiful but varied in both color and texture and pattern. The problem~ that is exactly like those same characteristics in a slab of granite. There were pieces of granite we looked at that would have looked like we had run the same material on both the counter and the floor! They were much too similar and there was not enough contrast. Granite seems to work beautifully with wood flooring but not always so well with geometrics or color variations in patterned flooring.

• If you have a counter run of more than 8 feet like we do, you may run into matching problems. We have a 19 foot run of counter which would have looked like a plaid shirt with mismatched stripes if we had selected the granite we liked in the showroom.
  
• You can have a beautiful stone counter tops other than granite that looks great with patterned flooring. Patterns mix best when the scale of the patterns is quite different. Since we have a rather large, random, pattern on the floor featuring both copper and silvery metallic tones, I have selected a much smaller, predictable pattern for the counter top. The pattern is in black which will compliment the black appliances. The color will compliment the warmer tones in the flooring.
  

I ended up selecting a Silestone counter top which was more expensive than granite but was right for our home. The color is kind of a brick and not represented well in this photo. We do have a brick hearth and black cast iron fireplace in the room as well so lots of patterns going on and the counter top needed to be subdued and still compliment the colors in the existing elements of the room. Silestone does have a lovely shine like granite as opposed to a Corian mat surface.

There are at least four companies that make a fabricated stone counter top like Silestone that is amazing. It is virtually maintenance free. No annual sealing or anything like that. I learned that they are all made by the same manufacturer on one machine and distributed to the various retailers. They are made of crushed quartz~ which is essentially granite with a man made pattern for more continuity. When that pit in my stomach went away I knew it was right for us. Whew!

Even though I have worked with several clients selecting countertops for their kitchen renovations, I realized that every one of them had a wood floor and that made granite selection pretty easy.

So when you are making a purchase of several thousand dollars, be informed, select carefully and realize you will be living with it for a long time. If you plan to sell your home, think stylish, updated and somewhat neutral. Remember to think about what is already in the room and coordinate accordingly. Go more to the neutral side and jazz it up with paint and accessories. Something classic will appeal to the largest number of potential buyers and you will tire of it less frequently over time. Happy hunting and think beyond granite sometimes! I'll have some photos of our finished project in a few weeks.

Easter Craftiness

Just kidding! Actually I don't have too many Easter decorations to begin with and I have very little out this year. But something really weird happened ...a tiny wave of craftiness hit me. I am not into crafts and I rarely like anything I make in that department but... I did decide to create...or I should say, embellish a couple of things I picked up for a song this year.

I found this little critter cage for $5.99 at TJ Maxx...it was empty. I thought it was cute so decided to add some lime green moss, a little peep I had and a few eggs. That is about the extent of my craftiness...impressive, huh?

Yesterday I went to this very cool shop with some business associates. You are all gonna want my job when I tell you that we met to go shopping (for the businesses of course) and then we toured a home one of the ladies had just beautifully staged and then found ourselves having lunch. It was a rough day at work but I managed! While shopping I found this cute bird cage for $19.99. It was empty so since I had some moss left and a cute little nest and some eggs I did this. Wouldn't "The Nester" just be green with envy?

I told you I am not much of a crafter, but I can put things together and this was fun, fast, and finished in a flash! My kind of craftiness. The eggs below are some that I have made and or purchased over the years. I love the little chicken wire basket that holds them.

Wouldn't it be fun if you could save eggs your kids decorate when they are little that aren't hand blown and so fragile? Wouldn't it be neater if your little kids could even hold and decorate a blown out egg without cracking it?

Once while decorating eggs with my friend, Lee, I discovered that you can have kids decorate eggs you can keep. Did you know that you can hard boil and decorate eggs that will last forever a long long time? If they don't have any cracks they will be just fine for years to come. I always thought they would start smelling rotten, but nope. All that happens is that the egg inside dehydrates and shrinks and they are like a little rattle over time. Think plastic egg with a small chocolate egg in it. The first few years I would leave them out but hidden for a few months to make sure they were not rotten before storing them away. I have never had a problem and neither has Lee and she still has some that her mother painted for her when she was a little girl. Try it, it is eggciting.

The eggs that you see with the patterns on them are done with hard boiled eggs and spring tissue papers. You just tear some pieces dip them in liquid starch (or maybe Modge Podge) and press them on the egg and dry. Our daughter, Jen, taught me this little trick ten years ago when we were in Scotland she made them for Piper's first Easter. I fell in love with them but they were the blown eggs so would not transport easily. Finally I just made some of my own. Again, my kinda thing. They really are pretty cute for the effort that goes into them.

Well, I hate to put all my eggs in one basket but this is probably the only crafting post you will ever see from this chick!

Happy Easter!
I gotta go feed my carrot!