A peek at the changing colors in the living room. Original colors are bold, deep and rich from Old World Tuscany – rich terra cotta, deep gold, emerald sage, tumeric yellow. The new palette is sunkissed Mediterranean with clean watery blues, sophisticated grays and creams, a bit of smoky orchid. I’m excited to see it begin to pull together! New Home updates: Solar tubes Painting Progress Home Update Week 7 Home Update Week 11 Week 19 Painter’s Progress New Home Update Week 22 ... [Read More]
Home decorating
How to Add a Chunky Frame to Your Favorite Poster
We've had a gallery wall along the basement stairs for - evah! Because we live so far away from family, this was the landing place for all the graduation, wedding, new baby photos from the extended family. Add our own family milestone photos as well and it was an impressive number! I picked out half a dozen that I wanted to keep on display elsewhere and put the rest into an album. It was refreshing to have all that open space!!! And boring. It needed to have a pop of color, a place to rest the eye. To the rescue, Hobby Lobby. Posters 66% off. I loved the colors in this women's watch poster, the background went beautifully with the new wall color, the roses added the pop so badly needed! I already had a poster frame from a grocery store clearance -- even better at 90% off! ... [Read More]
Basement Makeover
Remember this unique wallpaper from the Stair Makeover we did a while back?? It was here when we moved in and I'm so glad to say it's no longer a part of the scenery! Those ships have sailed into the sunset!!! One of our projects over the holidays was to work on the Basement room. It was a playroom, a model train room, an exercise room and, eventually, a very tired room. A fresh wall made that even more obvious. Here's what was here -- besides the ships: A wall full of overflowing bookshelves. I sold many of them, donated a bunch and whittled almost 5000 down to about 500. Model trains, cars, and anything else that had wheels were displayed on the two long walls at head height.Unpainted doors covered the water meter.And this "lovely" carpet that has been here literally for ... [Read More]
Kitchen Remodel: Improve Storage Part 3
Just a peek into the rest of the cupboards in our new kitchen. Plus a few more takeaways for you to consider in making over your kitchen! This cupboard is only 15 inches wide, but it is worth its weight in gold. Cutting boards, cooling racks, pizza pans, trays, jelly roll pans and various sized cookie sheets are stored here. I can take one out with ease and not have to move more than one or two pieces to do so. Previously these were all in one pile in the garage storage! Plus more. I got rid of six jelly roll pans. SIX! I have never made a jelly roll and have no plans to ever make a jelly roll. I use the pan once or twice a year for big sheet cakes. I have no idea how I accumulated six!! This little drawer is the other 30 percent of the drawer space in the kitchen. It is next ... [Read More]
Kitchen Remodel: Create workstations to Improve Storage
The peninsula is the main work space in my kitchen, as it is in many kitchens. Chopping, mixing, rolling out cookies, kneading bread dough -- a lot of food preparation happens here. So you'd think that storage in the peninsula would have to do with food preparation. Like most kitchens, this one falls a little short of the ideal. I like anything that requires less time on chore stuff and makes life easier so come along and I'll show you some of the ideas behind this part of the kitchen storage. This drawer represents a full 70% of the drawer space in the kitchen! The left half is closest to the dining room so that's where the tableware is stored. The right half does indeed have tools for food preparation and is used at the peninsula - ideal! Dividers essential in staying ... [Read More]
Kitchen Remodel: Six Steps to Improve Storage
One of the goals in our kitchen remodel was to improve the amount of storage available. This is the pantry wall. For this wall I wanted it to be storage from floor to ceiling and to make the refrigerator look like it "belongs". We met -- and exceeded -- the goal so much that I'm going to make a separate post on just this wall. Here's how we gained a huge amount of storage space ending with the takeaway for planning your kitchen remodel! Before: the upper cabinets were a standard 12 inch depth. I couldn't even reach the handles on the cupboard above the refrigerator! Because the kitchen was built before the microwave was standard, this was the only bit of counter space available to put a microwave. I actually liked it at this height (have I mentioned I'm not a tall ... [Read More]
