Blog – Page 12 – No. 29 Design

how my floors are holding up…

I’ve had a lot of questions about the state of my painted porch floors. I painted stripes on my floors last summer using Benjamin Moore’s Floor and Patio paint. After a long and cold winter of no use we are finally back on the porch. The door connecting the porch to the kitchen is open all day long. A nice breeze comes in front the yard, the birds are chirping and we’ve gained a room back. Over the winter the porch has gathered some grime, as well as the dog prints on the floor from when our dog uses the back door to visit the yard. Let’s just say the gray and white stripes were looking more like gray and gray stripes. I took my Swiffer Sweeper Wet Mop and fixed all that. You can see the difference in the white stipes alone. The stripe on the right has been…

perfectly mismatched furniture

Have you ever wanted to mix up your furniture and not have the matched sets that most of us started out with? Take my bedroom for example. My dresser, bed, armoire and two nightside tables all look exactly the same. Five pieces of furniture in total unison with each other. I’m over at the Hooker Furniture blog today giving some examples of how you can achieve the perfectly mismatched look for yourself. Come stop by… via Glen Layton Homes

the banquette bench {building the back}

Now that my bench was ready it was time to create the back in order for it to become the banquette I’ve been planning all along. First up was building the frame for the back which would later be upholstered, connected to the bench and then mounted to the wall. I took the measurements for the width and height of the back. I would be making a frame along the top and sides for a couple reasons. First of all my wall has a chair rail that I would not be removing. I needed to measure and notch out two sections on the side of the frame so that the back of the bench could fit directly over the chair rail. The second reason is that I would be installing a cleat on the wall. The frame along the top will then be attached to the cleat. This way I’ll…

my junior designer

My 11 year old daughter has always been very creative. This weekend she proved that the apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree when she decided to redecorate her room on her own. With some birthday money, a trip to Target and some rearranging she ended up creating a room that is definitely all her. She added some Christmas lights around the room, some new throw pillows and seating for a reading corner. She even took an old cork board, fabric and upholstery pins and made her own jewelry display. I put an order in for one of my own! My five year old got in the redecorating mood also. He wanted to redecorate and the glass jar with paperclips didn’t seem to pacify him. I came into his room to find this. See the black dot on the wall of sailboats and barn stars? Well here is the…

the homework station…

I finally got around to doing something I’ve been meaning to do throughout this entire school year, just in time for school to finish up. I blame it on the fact that I don’t get to IKEA too often. I was looking for a solution for homework time. My children do their homework on the dining room table since the kitchen table is being used for snack time. I had a tablecloth on there to protect the table from the pencils and notebooks but I hated covering up the beautiful wood on the table. A cleaner surface helps me stay neater as well. Once the table cloth is on it is an invitation for clutter in this house at least. I’d been searching for a desk pad that could be taken out at homework time and then put away when the work is done. One my last trip to IKEA…

new craft storage central…

Now that I have a bench with three drawers in my kitchen I have myself a new dilemma. What goes in the drawers? I know, not a bad problem to have at all. I thought about putting all my paper plates, plastic cups and plastic utensils in there but I’m happy with all that in the built in hutch in my dining room. Then I thought I’d make the drawers my paper towel and napkin storage. Too bulky and the extra paper goods are better off in the garage right now. I was mulling all this over as I got some play dough out for my youngest one day. That is when the lightbulb went off. The cabinets next to the kitchen table are used for all sorts of items. Cookbooks and office supplies are in the upper cabinet, as well as three magazine file boxes. I use those for…

the banquette bench {choosing fabric}

There are a lot of steps involved in turning my tv entertainment center into a banquette bench. Even with all the measuring, cutting, sanding, painting, and building, this step is actually the one I was the most nervous about. I decided to take my own advice about choosing fabric for your home and I kept my eyes open for something geometric. I wanted a heavy weight fabric that was durable. I looked at everything from online fabric stores to tablecloths to shower curtains. As long as the quality is good I didn’t count anything out. You can buy a shower curtain or a tablecloth for a very reasonable price. This Target Threshold tablecloth caught me eye and I knew my search was done. I paid $18.99 for a 60 x 104 inch tablecloth which will fit the backrest of my banquette bench perfectly. target threshold trellis tablecloth I’m still up in…

eye candy {a pantry wall}

The other day my daughter and I watched an episode of one of our favorite shows, American Dream Builders. I’m pretty sure she watches it to hear Elaine’s cackle and see what controversy she brews up. I watch it because I want Lukas to design my kitchen. In the last episode I heard him utter a phrase which made me pause the tv to write down what he said so I could Google it. European pantry wall. I didn’t get many results beyond a restaurant in Canada but it is something that I’ve been planning for a while. My dream would be to have one of those walk in pantries which are a room in themselves. Since the square footage in my home couldn’t possible allow for this I’ll go to plan B. If and when I redo my kitchen I plan on limiting my upper cabinets along the sink…

reclaiming the porch…

The past couple of weeks my three season porch has looked like this… This is not exactly what I wanted for spring. I started my porch renovation the end of April last year. I had plans to finish up and enjoy it all summer. It took longer than expected and I finished it mid-August. We enjoyed it as long as possible until the weather turned cold and then closed it up for the winter. Now that spring might possibly eventually come and grace us with her presence I want to be ready. That means finishing up this leg of my kitchen banquette and reclaiming my porch. The first step was moving the kitchen table and chairs aside My kitchen looked like this for an afternoon until my husband got home from work to help me move the bench. Poor guy is so used to me changing and rearranging that he…

the kitchen banquette {choosing hardware}

Now that the paint is dry it is time to start accessorizing my banquette. I was thinking at first to try something new and fun but the more I looked the harder it became to pick something. I have a mix of finishes going on in my kitchen between my chrome cup pulls on my drawers, the chrome knobs and the oil rubbed bronze lighting. Adding anything new to that mix would become too much. I decided to try and make this banquette look like it has always been there. I found a cup pull in the exact same size and finish as my drawers at Simply Knobs and Pulls. They had a huge selection but I reigned myself in and stuck with my plan. Once my three cup pulls arrived they were a perfect match. I centered them on each drawer and attached them. I have no pictures of…