When I completed my daughter’s bedroom renovation last month I had achieved all of my goals for that room. There was storage, there was a new desk area in the form of a cloffice, there was lots of fabric and color and it all made for a perfect not-too-girly space for my tomboy of a 10 year old. The one remaining problem was the bare wood floor. Although hardwood is great for some rooms, for a 10 year old girl a soft carpet to hang out on is key. The perfect rug had two criteria. My daughter wanted something soft and fuzzy, I was hoping to find something neutral to go with anything. Put those requirements together and you have a shag carpet! When Mohawk Home offered a rug for me to review I jumped at the chance. Mohawk Home, the rug division of Mohawk Industries, is the largest manufacturer of area…
Read MoreI visited the Museum of Fine Arts here in Boston a couple weeks ago and got some inspiration while viewing one of my favorite paintings. The painting is called The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit and was painted by John Singer Sargent. It is a huge painting (about 7 feet x 7 feet) of four sisters in a very untraditional portrait setting. via mfa.org I’ve always loved the colors, the expressions of the four sisters, as well as the sheer size of the painting. While staring at it I started to notice the wallpaper behind it. It is a huge damask pattern in very subtle colors. The wheels started turning in my head and now I can’t get that pattern or the colors out of it! You never know where you get some inspiration. Don’t be surprised if this turns up in my own home somewhere!
Read MoreI am Boston Proud. This past week has been a difficult one here in the Boston area with the loss of three young lives as well as too many people injured for life. If that wasn’t hitting close enough to home my small town was put under lock down. I live right next to Watertown. We joke that life in Belmont is like 1950’s America. It is basically Mayberry. On Friday it resembled something closer to a war zone. Helicopters constantly flew overhead, SWAT teams searched the deserted streets and we were told to stay indoors. The lock down was eventually lifted and that was when it got even more difficult. The search was not over but we were told we could go out but be cautious. I decided to have pity on our poor dog and take her out. That’s when I heard the gunfire that the suspect responded…
Read MoreThis week my children are off for april vacation. No. 29 Design is going to take the week off as well. I’ll leave you with some pictures of this beautiful teacup arrangement my daughter made with her Girl Scout Troop… I’ll still be pinning and tweeting of course. Just because it’s vacation doesn’t mean the inspiration stops!
Read MoreI’ve been searching local antique shops in my area for a chair for my daughter’s bedroom. I had a chair there which had armrests and wasn’t working with the floating desk, the armrests kept bumping into the front. I had it in my mind to find a wooden chair that I could upholster and paint. I hit the jackpot… I had the fabric all picked out already. A yellow and white damask to brighten up the area around the desk. When we first bought it the chair pad was pretty hard. I planned on adding some foam, then batting and then the fabric. It was a simple job to unscrew the chair pad from the frame. I set the screws aside and got to work on the chair pad. The old padding and fabric were removed. I either pulled the staples out or ripped the fabric if the staples were too…
Read MoreI was recently asked to participate in the Wayfair DIY Blogger Challenge. Wayfair has teamed up with Hometalk to create this challenge with a couple simple instructions. Pick one of three items, a mirror, a lampshade or a bookshelf and give it a complete makeover using one of three themes. The three themes were Geometric Pattern, Incorporating Rope, or Black and White. I decided to work with the Furinno pine bookshelf and somehow incorporate rope. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect since I was in the market for a bookcase for the bedroom my two boys share. In my head I saw the bookshelf with a white wash stain (which would allow the wood grain to show through) and wrapped in sisal rope. I wanted something that would fit in with the rest of the eclectic decor in my sons’ bedroom. Giving it a white wash would allow the piece…
Read MoreThe house tour continues again. The room of the week is my daughter’s pre-tween bedroom. I’ve posted a lot of what I’ve done in there to take it from a little girl’s room to something more mature. The cloffice was a big part of the renovation in that it updated the room and kept it fun at the same time. Here is what the room looked like before we moved in… After some paint, a window treatment and a wall decal the room looked like this… Three years later and my now 10 year old decided she wanted a “tween” room. No pink allowed! We painted, gutted the closet, moved furniture around, lined the bookcases with wrapping paper, added sentimental artwork and ended up with this (for a point of reference you are looking at the same wall as the image above)… There are a couple projects in here that I haven’t…
Read MoreMy “because it’s pretty” series has become a way of showing you the latest aspect of design that has recently been occupying my mind. Whether it is the latest fad, a design crush or more of an obsession, I get it out of my system by sharing it with you. My latest is chairs. Chairs of various design painted the same color to be more specific. If I were to do my kitchen or dining room space all over this is probably the way I’d go. I’d shop all the yardsales that will soon begin as the weather turns warmer. I’d collect wooden chairs that don’t match at all and then bring them all together with the same coat of paint. Let me show you what I mean… via elle dĂ©cor via design sponge via bhg via hgtv via indulgy via ingerstedt via sweet as candy via mixed decor demon…
Read MoreWe have a winner! Congratulations to Eugenia, the winner of this gorgeous wool rug from GoldenAge USA Congratulations and thank you to everyone who entered!
Read MoreThe house tour continues today. I’ve already showed you my foyer and explained a bit about my home. Today we move on to the living room. The whole main floor flows very nicely with the living room directly off the foyer. The living room then connects to the dining room, which leads you into the kitchen and then back into the foyer. The sun room, which is only used during the warmer months, is off the kitchen. The layout is a very comfortable one. It flows well and no room is cut off from the other. The only negative about it is that it makes a fantastic racetrack for the little ones. I’m assuming they’ll grow out of this at some point! My entire main floor is painted in various shades of neutral. The living room is Benjamin Moore Shaker Beige. Beside painting the room the only big change I…
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