Blog – Page 46 – No. 29 Design

Finding an idea where you least expect it

I get ideas from almost anything. Catalogs, magazines, blogs, Pinterest, and HGTV to name a few. Sometimes I see a room or an idea and it gets me thinking. I’ve even gotten an idea from a childrens’ book once. A while back I was watching “Modern Family” and found that instead of laughing, I was paying attention to the wall in Phil and Claire Dunphy’s kitchen. Hooked on Houses Hooked on Houses I came to a couple conclusions. I like plates. I like pretty plates. I like pretty plates on walls. I wanted pretty plates on the wall in my kitchen. I had the perfect spot near my kitchen table. I didn’t want an overwhelming number of plates, just a couple well placed ones that would add color and texture to my space. I hunted at my usual places and found these three from HomeGoods, Pier One and Target. I…

How I painted over wood panelling and lived to tell about it

We live in a multilevel home and our designated playroom is six steps down from our main level. It’s a great space for the kids toys, the piano, our sleeper sofa, and the resident hamster. I had plans to put two IKEA Expedit’s next to each other. The toys would stay down there. I would never step on a Lego in the middle of the night in my living room. No stray stuffed animals would migrate up those stairs. These were all great plans except for one thing. When we moved in my playroom looked like this. My kids were terrified. The grain of the wood was so large and dark. I was told by by my five year old that he saw faces. Slightly concerned, all I could think of was the movie “The Sixth Sense”. I asked him to show me what he meant. Up close the knots…

Breathing new life into your bookcase

When I was putting together my daughters’ nursery almost 9 years ago, I purchased the Cameron bookcase from Pottery Barn. Pottery Barn Cameron 3-shelf bookcase It held all her books, picture frames and extras. On some days it was even a dollhouse. When we moved into our new house she changed furniture to my old bedroom set from when I was little. She didn’t have the need for the bookcase anymore, so into the basement it went. I had a table for my foyer which just wasn’t making the cut in the new foyer. The only place for the table was on the wall near the door. This meant that when the front door swung open, it would bang into the table. No big deal except the tabletop has a iron frame with a separate glass top. Not a good idea in my house! So I shopped my house to…

Neutral is my favorite color

I grew up in a household with all white walls. My father’s furniture business was very contemporary so color was pretty minimal. The color was brought in by accessories, but never on the wall. My first two places were rentals so I wasn’t allowed to touch the walls there. I did the best I could with adding color elsewhere. When the time came and my husband and I built out first house, I finally had my blank canvas. I went to town. Shocked? Don’t worry, I’m not that bold! I started with the living room/dining room. It was one big room running from the front to the back of my house. Two half walls with columns on…

A good window treatment is not hard to find

A while back I was browsing the internet, checking my daily blog reads and I came across this. little green notebook I’d been looking for something to put in my childrens’ bedrooms and was not happy with the options out there. Let me explain myself a bit. I have a girl and two boys. All very active children. My daughter has her own bedroom, being the oldest and the girl. My two boys share a room and are having a blast in the process. Putting curtains in their rooms which hit the floor brings up images of this… Daily Mail So I looked for a better solution. I wanted color, something substantial. Pelmet boxes. I did tons of searches, and came up with a simple way to do it. These are what I’ve made in the two kids’ bedrooms. First my daughters’ room. She just has one window so I…

Rules for the bathroom…

My 3 children all share a bathroom that is still in the process of being decorated. I got the “childish” themed bathroom out of my system with my last house. I had the whole matching fish set from Pottery Barn on display in there. I’m going for something that is a little more timeless this time around. In keeping with that, I found this great idea for some wall art for the bathroom. Not childish in design but still fun. apartment therapy So I came up with my own version. Basically the same idea, I just added the line “Don’t get wet” because I’m funny like that. And if no one but my kids laugh then I was still funny. Here is my version…. I printed it out and then trimmed it to fit the frame, leaving a white border. I love how it looks so serious, until you read it.…

The basement

So we have decided to go for it and finish our basement. I’ve had tons of contractors come through to take a look and give us some quotes. I’d just like to say that the basement has stayed the same size, but as the budget expands, the ideas deflate. We started out with this…. The quotes came rolling in. We had plans for a family room, a small kitchen, laundry room, built ins, recessed lighting, closets, movable posts, oh my! My retinas still hurt from reading the numbers they were giving us. So we made some changes. Lots of changes. Edits, deletions, call them what you want. We now have a family room space with semi flush mount lighting. A laundry room with no built-ins. Just a good old IKEA Expedit for storage. No kitchen, just a fridge in the storage room. The built-ins won’t be so built in. The…

A blog

I have been toying with the idea of starting a design blog for a while now. There are so many different types out there. You have the gung-ho do-it-youselfer’s who go to Home Depot on Monday and have a finished kitchen by Friday. Not me. Then there are the ones with style and fabric and a budget the size of Texas who have all the ideas and pay someone to do it all. Nope. Then you have the people who post the things they like. Wait, back up there. Then there is me. I have lots of pretty ideas in my head. Some I think up myself, others I get from what I see out there. It’s like Pinterest in my head. I love Pinterest. There I said it out loud, and saying it on the internet is a lot louder than actually saying it out loud. Plus my two…