Boo!

Happy Halloween weekend!

I'll be spending mine with Wolverine, a mermaid and a monkey.  Yes, the days of themed, coordinated Halloween costumes have gone out the window around here. 

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Welcome to my newest sponsor, Vintage Townsquare, an Etsy "thrift" shop for your home and wardrobe.  More to come on Monday. . .

Thank You

I started writing this blog 365 days ago.  I've written 264 posts. 

I've been busy. 

It's been fun.

I wrote my first post a year ago, hoping I could stick to it, and hoping it might help my decorating business. I didn't know it would also come with a whole community of new blogging friends.  Thanks to those of you who have explained things to me, answered my questions and mostly for your daily words of encouragement through your comments and emails.

Short Curtains

While I rarely ever suggest that anyone use short curtain panels in their home, I'm seriously pondering this style for our house.  This is mainly due to the fact that I only have two yards of this fabulous fabric (found months ago in a remnant bin), a roll of Stitch Witchery and a strong determination that it's going on our windows in the breakfast area.

The more I think about it, short curtains might be a nice change around here.  And, there's less chance of dirty little hands tugging on the bottoms of them, right?

Here's a few instances where I definitely think they work:

Apartment Therapy

House to Home

Ideal Home magazine

What's your take? 

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Today, I'm also participating in Marianne's "Love the One You're With" series over at Haven and Home.  She asked me to share a room or space that I really like in my home.  It was a nice chance to focus on what I've finished instead of what still needs to be done. . .

An Incredible Kitchen Makeover

Recently, I asked readers to send me before and after photos of their completed room makeovers.  (Don't you just love a good before and after?!)  When I received Emily's email about her kitchen transformation, I had to look several times to make sure it was the same space.  Here's what it looked like before:

And, the beautiful result:

Emily is a design consultant in Dallas and has a relatively new blog, A Well-Dressed Home (which is great, btw!).  She is on a mission to convert her husband's bachelor pad into "their" home and her kitchen was just one of the projects on her "overhaul" list. 

I asked Emily to share her best advice for others pondering a kitchen makeover of their own.  Here's what she had to say:

In the interest of saving money, use as much of what you already have as you can. A few areas where we were able to save:

1. I desperately wanted taller upper cabinets. So, rather than tearing out the existing 30" uppers and replacing them with 42" uppers, we added 12" glass uppers on top of the existing cabinets.


2. I purchased our 1/2" x 1/2" White Carrara Marble backsplash at a tile and stone outlet store for about 30% less than stone specialty stores.

3. I've been obsessing over lantern pendants and I just had to find a way to incorporate them in our makeover. I found ours at Overstock.com for $163.99 each! About 40% less than most retailers!


4. Rather than installing a substantial 3 cm thick granite, we installed a thinner 2 cm and added a 2 cm applied edge to make it look like a 4 cm!

Areas where we splurged:


1. We added a lot of lighting...under cabinet, upper glass cabinet and pendants over the island. The lighting makes a world of difference and I am SO glad we decided to spend the extra money to have it added!


2. We added additional base cabinets under the island counter top, which also meant additional counter top space, which we love. We removed the old wine rack and added 2 pot and pan drawers, a smaller wine rack and a trash drawer...I absolutely LOVE our trash drawer!


3. We spent a pretty penny on cabinet hardware, but I think it adds a lot of character, so I am happy we did it!


Thanks, Emily, for sharing your tips and lessons learned.  Another angle, before and after:

Great job, Emily!  To submit your recent room makeover for consideration, you can email your before and after photos to emilyaclark {at} bellsouth {dot} net.

Breakfast Area Update: Inexpensive Framed Art

Since adding the striped wall, my breakfast area is coming along and when I recently found these notecards tucked away in a drawer, I knew just where they were going.

They are of "landmarks" in our little town, drawn by a local artist.  I bought them at a going-out-of-business sale several years ago with intentions of someday using them in our house.  I thought this wall would be the perfect place:

I found these frames at Ross for $8 each.  They are intended for use at weddings, showers, etc. for guests to write good wishes on the mat, but the opening is the perfect size for a small notecard and the large white mat makes them look like they were custom framed.  I've also seen these frames at Wal-Mart for $10-$15.

This is a great solution for anyone who has a large wall (especially in a dining room or behind a sofa) and needs to fill lots of horizontal space.

I like the way it's coming together, but still have several things I want to do.  My lantern pendant is on its way and I have a window treatment project in the works. Until then. . . .

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Have an Etsy shop or design-related business you would like to advertise on my blog? Details here.

In My Shoes. . .

Wonder what my days are like?  Not necessarily glamorous, but never boring. You can read a play-by-play of one of my days last week over at Camila's "In Her Shoes" series.

And, speaking of shoes. . .  they seem to be an on-going battle around our house.  Lots of little shoes (accompanied by lots of little dirty socks in the fall and winter) take over, and it drives me crazy.  So, I've purchased one of these from IKEA, hoping it will solve all of our problems.

I especially like the wire baskets (that you buy separately).  They're big and only $2.50 each.  I think they would also be a great solution for kids rooms, laundry rooms, kitchens, etc., and would be fun spray painted in bright colors.

 

Do you have the same problem in your house?  If so, what's your best shoe solution?

Curbside Style

Check out my latest fall treasure. . . fresh from the trash.

Actually, I spotted them sitting in front of a neighbor's house by their garbage can on trash day.  I circled them several times on my walk before deciding these babies were coming home with me.  (I don't know whose house it was, so if you are the neighbor these happened to belong to, I'm now embarassed and . . .  thank you?)

The lights no longer worked, but I planned to use them indoors anyway.  I got my scissors and went to work removing all of the strings of lights.

I then sprayed them both white to make them feel more "ZGallerie" and less crafty.  I also thought the white would work nicely on my dining room table.

I do love a freebie, but I was especially thrilled when my babysitter walked in the next day and said "I love your pumpkins! Where did you find them?"  Funny she should ask. . . 

My Office in Gaston Alive Magazine

I recently started writing as a contributor for a local publication, Gaston Alive! magazine.  This month, I'm sharing how I designed our home office on a tight budget.  You can read the full article online here.

And, you can see more before and after photos of my home office (and a rundown of the bargains I found) here.

An Eye Sore No More

Ever since we moved in, I always thought there was a great opportunity to decorate the area at the top of our stairs.  After all, I see it at least 64 (or so) times a day as I run up and down.  And, for nearly two years, I've cringed every time I see that little spot.  Up until last weekend, it looked like this:

And, after some paint, mirrors and accessories:

I bought the chest for our last home and frankly, I was sick of the flowers.  It didn't look like our house anymore, but the piece fit the space perfectly.  Spray paint to the rescue. 

I gave it two coats of Valspar interior/exterior black paint in gloss/laquer.    I also replaced the more traditional knobs with the fun, painted ones I found at HomeGoods last week.

Since the wall was tall but narrow, I stacked two mirrors (found at HomeGoods for $30 each).  Mirrors open up this small area and using two smaller mirrors is often a less expensive option than buying one huge one. 

I also painted this small brass box that I picked up at Goodwill for $2 in a bright, glossy blue.  To quote my husband, "it gives a pop of color."  Yes, he's been reading my blog--alot apparently.

Blue + Green, With a Splash of Pink

Our baby girl is working harder every day at scaling the sides of her crib, and I know it's only a matter of time before she catapults her little self over the side.  This can only mean one thing--it's time to work on her big girl room.  (Yes, this is how I think.)

This is her nursery:

When we moved into our house, I was 6 months pregnant, fat, tired, lacking creativity. . . you get the picture.  I didn't do things much differently than the nursery in the last house.  I did, however, buy this Pottery Barn rug (a Craigslist find, of course) and would really like to keep it in her "new" room. 

So, how do you keep an existing rug (or piece of furniture, for that matter) and create a completely different look?  Work with a whole new color scheme.  Our nursery was gender neutral because we didn't find out what we were having, but she's definitely a girl so it's time to pretty up her room.

As of now, my plan is to keep the green and add a strong dose of peacock blue (maybe through a painted dresser), with a splash of hot pink (something in the magenta family).  I'm thinking of a color combo somewhere along these lines:

Angie Hranowsky

Elle Decor

House Beautiful

House to Home

Steven Sclaroff

I think my first step will be to paint the bamboo dresser that's been sitting in my garage since Spring.  And, then I'll start shopping for a bed once she nose dives out of her crib.

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Speaking of kids, Kirsten at 6th Street Design School is devoting an entire week to "Good Design, with Kids In Mind."  She asked me to be a contributor (which I think is funny, considering my house usually looks like a small tornado has come through. . . ).  Anyway, I'm honored to be part of her "panel of experts" and look forward to reading what everyone else has to say on the subject.