What Makes a House A Home?

I was reading one of my favorite blog, Hooked on Houses where Julie referred to this post from Centsational Girl.

Treat yourself to something worth reading. Loved this post!

ENJOY!!

Same Time Last Year~Our Cottage Decked Out for Christmas

I Love to Include These For the Kids
It Has Been A long Time Since
They Have Been Home For Christmas

Way Back When!
Christopher, Laura, Jennifer
(Approx 1984?)

The Tree

Creche From My Childhood

Mini Cake Stand and 40's Glittery Girl

Contents of the Mini Cake Stand~Tiny Ornaments

Plethora of Snowmen!

Snow Fam and Vintage Wire Tree

Shelves of the Beautiful Cabinet

Uncle Tom Gave Me One Christmas~
Tears of Joy and Surprise Were Shed!

The Kitchen


Preparing for a Christmas Luncheon

The Dining Room

Mantel With the Carollers Gramma Jo
Gave Me Year After Year~
Cherished Memories

Buffet With the Beautiful Roses from
Laura And Robert's Christmas Wedding
(No One Can Say We Did Not Get Our Money's Worth out of These!)

Spencer's Bear, Poley, Joins the Dinner Guests!

The Guest Room
Not a Creature Was Stirring Not Even A Lamb!
(Sorry Not A Mouse Fan!)

We Love Christmas Books
(Deanna Munoz~these glasses are for you!)

No Guests Overnight This Christmas!

Our Bedroom Dresser

Memories and Reflections

Our Room

The Office

Family Room

Bathroom Shelf Top

Grampa Ross' Childhood Sleigh Bells Among the Other Stuff.
The Bells are Nearly 100 Years Old!

Beloved Byers Carolers Up Close

Some Festive Ducks Aunt Beth
Gave Me Last Year in the Entry

House Perspective

ARE YOU HAVING TROUBLE SELLING YOUR HOUSE?
Why the real estate market is faltering these days...

Your house as seen by.....YOU.

Your House as seen by .......The BUYER

Your house as seen by ......The LENDER

Your House as seen by.....The APPRAISER

Your House as seen by ........... the COUNTY TAX COLLECTOR

IS IT ANY WONDER?

Designer Nightmare

Can you say.... EVERYTHING?

Jim and I have had some serious fun looking at the lobbies of various hotels and motels in our travels. I guess when you are into decorating you just tend to notice things more. This is the lobby of a Comfort Inn in Northern CA.

What these people were thinking is beyond me, but I bet it has something to do with an inheritance and trying to save a few bucks on the design features of the inn. This place just screams "ouch" from the minute you lay your eyes on it. Since this is your first impression when you walk in, I think they have some serious welcoming issues. The room we had was 100% better but the lobby and dining room were atrocious.

As we have been thinking about how we can run our decorating business with no overhead we had this idea. Perhaps we could call several hotel and motel establishments along a route we want to travel, offer to come in and redesign their lobbies in exchange for a room? It would only take a short amount of time and then we could be on our way.

Take a look at this picture! First of all, the decor (using the term loosely) does not go with the location and genre of this Comfort Inn at all. Have these people never been to Disneyland? It is all in the details of the land you are trying to create. It is located in a little mountain town near Yosemite. The Lobby is small and the furniture is way too fancy-pants for this place. A hunting lodge theme would work so much better here. A few carved bear accessories, maybe some skis on the wall or a picture of a mountain scene, a couple of nice comfy overstuffed chairs and some hunter plaid would work so much better. I wouldn't sit down on this love seat with a stranger if I was waiting. Would you? No, chairs are better here.

I don't personally like hunting cabin decor, but that is an example of what would work. Something less formal, warm and comfortable would compliment and blend with the location and the exterior of the building. It is like a good hair cut..no one notices it. Blending is important. The current decor is something that rattles your cage and makes you wonder why you came. It should just welcome you in, period.

And then there is scale. The scale is completely wrong. You don't want to put a gianormous, gilded mirror over a small velveteen love set. Yes, it is true the sofa has a gold trim but, people...this does not a match make. Trust your gut on this one. This is painfully wrong.

And you definitely don't want to slide it over towards the window to accommodate the weird ceiling above the love seat. Something that is placed over a sofa is to complement it and should be directly over it. And the phone thingy..I can't go there with this combo!

AND no, a 70's K-Mart ginger jar lamp does not compliment any of it. And hello, check out the height that the picture hanger selected for the rectangular tiny picture? What the...? I could go on about the round ornate gilded, glass top table, but you get the picture and it is worth a thousand words. How does someone unconsciously get it ALL wrong? Multiple choice usually affords one at least some right answers?

This is just too crazy! I'm just sayin'......we have found a need...now maybe we should try to fill it! If they don't have anything good to work with for a redesign, like this place, maybe a night's lodging and a few bucks for a consultation will work? The general public needs to be spared. We volunteer! This would not be a money maker...just a labor of love along the path to our destinations!

Copper Pumpkins

My kind of DIY craft & tutorial!
I'm Hooked!

Go to Walmart
Buy some cheap, fake, ugly, mini pumpkins
for $1.00...near the 47 aisles of costumes and candy.

Go to JoAnn's and buy a can of copper
spray paint behind the locked cabinet doors.

Spray the pumpkins, or better yet
have your awesome hubby do it!

From Crass to Class in 120 seconds!
They really are pretty...

It would be fabulous on walnuts, pods or pine cones also!

Enjoy in numerous ways.

If you want some but don't want to store them...
buy the real mini ones at the grocery store and toss
after the autumn festivities.

They would make great place markers at Thanksgiving.
Just prop a cute little name tag against the stem.

Most of the different shapes they have @Walmart

In case you can stop over for dinner!
Click Click for a closer look...

I promise our walls are NOT lime green,
not sure why they are coming out
this way with our new camera!

******
I am participating in the last Hooked On Houses
posts over at Julia's. Thanks for hosting this blog party for
over a year, Julia! Onward and upward! I am also
posting it on Melissa's Blog Party.

Home Lighting

I think we would all agree that lighting is very important to creating atmosphere or ambiance in a room. I would carry it one step further and say it is the most important aspect of any room. Don't we all look more lovely basking in the glow of candle light as opposed to the harsh glare of florescent lighting? So it is with our homes. In terms of decorating we have basically two types of light. Natural light that enters the windows from the sun and artificial lighting that we get from lamps, etc.

Natural light is so important to the way a home looks and feels and the most important thing regarding that is to keep your blinds and curtains open during the day. I cannot tell you how many homes I have done redesign or staging consultations in that look so uninviting and boring for this reason alone. If privacy is an issue there are several solutions~you just have to have natural light.


As for artificial lighting, it has come a long way in the last several years. If I needed to select one place where people try skimp and save, it's the under utilization of lamps. I have worked in very expensive homes that have the worst lamps imaginable. You do not need to spend a fortune on lamps but you do need to get enough lighting in each room. One of the best places I have found for great and affordable lamps is HomeGoods. They have some very fun and funky lamps with interesting shapes and shades. I love this one. I have gotten some gorgeous lamps for under $70 and most of theirs are under $40.00

They can be functional and fabulous
you don't have to sacrifice one for the other.

The details of your home...all of them, are
what make it interesting.
Think Disneyland~it's all in the details.

I am lovin' the fun shape of this whole lamp and
having two for the price of one by having it in front of
the buffet mirror.

This is our only expense lamp. I have found
that the cheaper pharmacy lamps usually
do not hold the position you
want them in very well over time.
If you want one, get a good one.
This one was $200.00 at Pottery Barn.
The high quality was worth it. It has
been great for several years already.
It is a keeper.

Ambient (which literally means something that surrounds) light or task lighting is important in every home. We need lights to see what we are doing! Examples of this are most overhead lighting, desk lamps, reading lamps, etc. In this definition I would exclude lights that are recessed in the ceiling to give a dramatic look, spot light art, etc. These are more decorative although they can be ambient if placed over a counter or desk, etc.

Lamps are essential to create ambiance or a nice warm cozy feeling in a room. Often people are annoyed that their homes do not have overhead lighting in their bedrooms, this is a good thing. Bedrooms should have lamps to create a nice warm glow, not just stark overhead lighting. Various types of lamps that create ambiance are table lamps, floor lamps, up lights and torchieres and chandeliers. The nice thing about lamps is that you can vary the lighting in various parts of the room by simply switching them on and off or by using dimmers, 3-way bulbs, etc.

This is one of those touch lamps
that has 3 settings
...Love it!

I love the buffet lamps because they are actually taller than regular table lamps which helps with the scale with our bigger, taller furniture and beds. They are great on lower end tables so your light sounce is actually high enough to illuminate the pages of your book.

This is one of the homes we redesigned:
The lamps are too low and too small for this bed.

These are Perfect!
We found them in another area of the home,
not being used.

When you have placed your furniture correctly your lamps should always form either a diagonal line or triangle. What we see so often is a sofa with two end tables and a lamp on each one. This is not correct unless you have another lamp to form a triangle on the opposite side of the room. If you have a lamp on both side of your bed make sure you have another one on your dresser to form a triangle. It does not have to be an equilateral triangle. Two can also work if they are placed on the diagonal (one on the dresser diagonally across from the one near the bed.

It is also fun to have some smaller accent lamps throughout your home to cast some interesting shadows or highlight something special.

This has a sweet little glow at night and illuminates
the naughty and contented cat that ate
the canary in the bird cage.

This tin punched lamp casts a
wonderful fun light on to the wall.
Double click to see the pattern illuminated.

This little fringe lamp adds
a touch of light on top of the armoire.
You all know you can use books to bring
things up to the height you want.

And of course don't forget candles
and oil lamps for a cozy touch.
I will not be using this candle but have
blackened the wick to make it appear that I do.

Just a note on candles. Even if they are just decorative in your home, light the wick briefly to give the appearance that they are used. White wicks just look weird and are most often accompanied by a dusty candle top. Not good.

So invest in some nice pretty lamps and if your lamps are old...get some new ones. Nothing says outdated like a trendy lamp from the distant past. You can always change the shade, add some embellishments, paint it or do something to lighten and liven things up. Let there be light...lots of it.