oh, baby

It's official as of 11pm last night I have a new nephew! In honor of Anson, here are some adorable and unique nursery designs.

Images from: oh dee doh and design sponge

head bored?

At some point I'd like to add some more flair to my bedroom decor by adding a headboard of some kind.

paint: save space and money by painting or stenciling a design onto inexpensive plywood or directly onto your wall.























art: buy or make a large scale piece above your bed (just make sure it's attached firmly to the wall!). Below Polaroids are tacked up in a heart shape, found objects are assembled into art, and a mirror frame is used to frame out a free form collage.
























fabric: drape it, add grommets and hang directly on the wall, upholster an old headboard or piece of wood, stretch fabric over canvas stretcher bars.

diy kitchen results

The kitchen is done for now and we're really pleased with the lighter, cleaner, and more colorful outcome. It is definitely better than the brown on brown look of 1981 that we dubbed "burnt toast". After much deliberation we decided to go for a quick and inexpensive back splash update and actually painted our horrible brown flowered tile a retro teal color, that I absoltely love. I had my doubts this process would work, but the results are fantastic for just $15 and a few hours of work. The finish is shiny and solid; you cannot damage it by scratching or cleaning it.

What we did:

Cabinetry: Removed cabinet doors and drawers, removed hardware, removed cup hooks (the old owners loved them and used up to 9 per cabinet door--what an eyesore and a pain to remove--thanks Josh!), filled holes with wood putty, cleaned and sanded everything, 2 coats of kilz primer, and 2+ coats of "snowstorm" white latex paint, attached new hardware and hinges (from home depot).

resource: this old house article

Back splash: Deep cleaned, removed light switch plates, sanded tile surface and then wiped it clean, 3 coats of kilz primer, 2 coats of "tropical breeze" oil paint, 1 coat of oil based polyureathane for shine.

resource: diy article

All in all this took 2 full weekends to complete; twice as long as I expected, but all in all not too tedious or difficult.

making a splash

Back splash options:
Stainless steel: check out an inexpensive version of this idea at Ikea
Glass plate: GlassKote is the only place I've found that carries this product
Metal tiles: American Tin Ceiling Co.
Beadboard: Any old Hardware store

I'm leaning towards painted beadboard in a fun color like red, chocolate brown, charcoal gray, or a teal. My cabinets are white (or they will be... :) and my appliances are also white with black details.

simply fab

I'm on the hunt for fabric to make curtains for my living room. The color scheme in the room is neutral (tan and chocolate brown) and red with small touches of turquoise; the room is also open to the dining room and kitchen (kitchen will be white and silver). After striking out at the local fabric stores I've stumbled onto some great online stores.

The above fabric are my favorite finds so far for curtains. They are from Pink Chalk Fabrics .

Midwest Modern Collection, Garden maze in mustard--by Amy Butler

Ginseng Collection in Rust by Joel Dewberry

Other online stores to check out:

Modern Fabrics

Trendy Fabrics -- check out the good prices on Amy Butler

Purl Soho

I should say that I have not purchased anything from any of these stores, so I can't vouch for service or shipping times.

Happy crafting!

kitsch chic

Have a bit of free time on your hands? Check out Imagini Style Finder and take their fun style quiz. Take in the eye candy and choose what fits you best; in the end it summarizes your personal style. I am "kitsch chic" or "...a real magpie, always on the look-out for things that will add happiness and personality to your retro-styled home. You love to mix old and new to create an interior design cocktail that's easy, fun and whimsical." That fits me to a T. What's your style?

burnt toast

We've settled in to our new place and now I'm itching to put my years of stored design ideas and HGTV knowledge to the test. Thus far with the help of my parents we have done some gardening, laid a linoleum floor in the art room/office, removed the beheamth microwave (quite possibly the first one ever made--I swear it was haunted too, it kept randomly turning on and off), and replaced the oh so attractive florescent box light fixture in the kitchen. We've continued to work on the garden, decorate, and do a few small projects here and there all of which leave us panting and sore by the end of each weekend. I don't mind though, so far it's been very satisfying and a good workout.

As you can see from my last post updating the kitchen is high on my list of indoor projects. I've attached a picture of the kitchen as it looked before we moved in. It is pretty nice to work in since it's compact, but in terms of style well it's lacking to say the least. It's overall look has improved a bit already since the microwave and light fixture have been removed, ikea shelves added next to the door (to the garage), and colorful kitchen accessories added.

Planned kitchen updates (date of completion tba)

• paint cabinets white or light gray
• replace cabinet hardware
  
• cover brown floral back splash tile with metal tile
  
• at some point paint the walls a color, but for now the fresh tan paint job works

Any other advice?

kiss the cook

I'm in love with the kitchen designs below and hope to do a diy update on my own sometime soon. Now I just have to decide what style I'm going for...

craig's list chic

Things are looking good on the house front, so I've officially started combing craig's list postings and craning my neck out the car window to look for garage sale treasures. Our home isn't much bigger than our apartment, so luckily we'll really only need a few pieces of furniture. Today I hit Craig's list gold, when I stumbled across these babies...Eames-style metal and orange plastic chairs. I'm in love and at $20 for the whole set I'm feeling like a very lucky girl! The lister does say they're scratched and need of a little TLC, but I'm feeling confident I can fix them up pretty easily. The only other things I would love to get, but don't necessarily need, are a danish modern style sideboard (to use as an entertainment center), another work desk for the art room/office, and a vanity table (I always liked the idea of this, though I'm not great with makeup). Otherwise I'll be saving my pennies for plants and paint.

Walls of Many Colors

The house hunt continues and the decorating possibilities continue to occupy the corners of my mind even as I grade the last few student projects of the year. Here are a few I found on Domino's website--they listed the wall color used in each photo, which is ever so handy, so I'll include it as well just in case any of you are in the mood to paint too.

Colors (left to right)
Waterfall-Benjamin Moore, Saint Paddy's Day--also B.M.
Blue Green--Farrow Ball, Rivera Azul--B.M
Pear Green--B.M, Direct Green--Sherwin Williams

oh domino

At the moment I'm between teaching "regular" school and "night" school; I should be making the best of this time at school and working on grading, but I've been working all day and need a quick break. Here are a few more inspiring images for my future dream home. The images above are mostly from Domino magazine--I think this will be my next subscription, it's lovely.

Below you'll find some kitchen floor is amazing; it's actually made from recycled wine corks. If Josh and I end up with one of the fun, but carpet-tastic ranch style homes we've been looking at we'll have a lot of carpet to rip up and replace with either bamboo, some sort of laminate, or cork. Here are a few places you can shop for environmentally friendly flooring: Eco Friendly Flooring (in WI) and Corkstore.com

mentally redecorating

The school year is winding to a close and my students are driving me a bit batty with their spring fever and shorter than usual attention spans. Unfortunately their behavior spreads to me some days and I feel just as anxious for some well deserved time off.

I did manage to finish 2 small pieces and one larger piece for the end of the year staff and student show. They are mixed media pieces with drawings, digital photos, and fabric sewn together quilt style. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. More ideas are floating around for paintings and sewn pieces, but I also have a mountain of grading waiting for me to get to tomorrow...so we'll see which gets done.

I've also been obsessively dreaming about finding and decorating our first home (the house hunt is still on, but we found a few really promising places today). Here are a few ideas I've come across and would like to recreate. Most images are from various Design Sponge blog posts.

errands and daydreams

Today I spent over an hour wandering around Jo-Ann Fabrics (a big suburban version) and was overwhelmed by the rows and rows and rows of fabric. I thought I'd hit the mother load, only to realize after looking through them that there were only a few bolts of fabric I even remotely liked. The selection was better than Hobby Lobby, my normal stand by, but overall the prints seemed a little dated and stuffy (lots of florals and little kitty cats, etc.). In the end I bought 2 yards of fabric, a few remnants, and some yarn to add to my crafting stash. Next I'm planning to check out Prints Charming II, a small independent fabric store.


Here are a few inspiring images (mostly from Design Sponge). I'm feeling the greens, grays, yellows, and whites lately...seems soothing and springlike.