One of the great things about writing this little old blog is meeting so many nice people. One of those blog friends that I’ve gotten to know is Mary. Mary is quite the DIY’er, she is handy, thrifty and not afraid to use power tools. Mary recently tackled her guest bathroom and sent me some pictures.
This is what Mary started with………
A table that she purchased from a flea market. Who knew to shop at flea markets?!?! In the south, they only sell tires and boiled peanuts. Which does come in handy when you have the family packed into the car heading to Disney World and you get a flat tire at the Daytona International Speedway exit, which just so happens to have a flea market. Thirty minutes later and one new tire, they had us back on our way to Mickey’s house. Sorry, I digress.
This is Mary’s new vanity after she worked her magic. She painted it navy blue and added a marble top. Wow..so pretty!
Her husband installed the penny tile.
She found this old door knob at an antique store and uses it as a towel hook. What a great idea! I know one friend that is going to try this (wink, wink, Maria).
Mary made the star out of driftwood and said she has the burns from the glue gun to prove it. Ouch, that glue gun is painful!
She painted the bathroom BM Beach Glass. And if all of that wasn’t enough she made the shower curtain, too!
Great job, Mary! Thank you so much for letting me share it!
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On a different note, just wanted to let you know that I’ve added a search button on the navigation bar at the top to help your search for things a little easier.
before & after , cottage community , kitchens , long distance design , my design
an e-design update
Several months ago, I showed you a dining room e-design project that I completed for my client in Utah.
This is her dining room ‘Before’
During the demolition of the walls
And this is the design board that I created for her dining room.
Here is the ‘After’. The natural light in this room is fantastic.
At the time that she contacted me, she was about to start on a full kitchen remodel. Well the kitchen turned out fabulous and she just added the finishing touches! She used the same two fabrics that I suggested for the dining room and carried them into the kitchen for her window treatments.
So pretty.
I love this office space off of the kitchen….
….and that pantry!
Love how the roman shades turned out.
If you are interested in the fabrics used for the window treatments or in my e-design services, please contact me for more information.
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This week I was able to getaway for a short visit to Orlando and met up with my husband while he was there on business. One of our favorite places to visit while we are there is Celebration. If you haven’t been, Celebration is a community that was developed by who else, Disney! It is an adorable cottage community that is a must see if you are a lover of all things cottage. When Celebration was first being developed 15 years ago, the interest was so strong that they held a lottery drawing for those who were interested in living there. At the time, my husband and I tried to get one of the apartments (this was pre-kids), but with no luck. Our number wasn’t drawn.
This diner, Market Street Cafe, is our favorite spot for breakfast. Strong coffee and good omelets.
This is their Starbucks. Cute, right?
Thanks Mom for making this getaway possible!
Have a great weekend.
Last year I worked with a family to create a comfy place for watching TV and for entertaining in the family’s bonus room. It was a very large space with roughly 700 sf. The homeowner’s needed storage space for books, games, videos and toys as well as a wine bar for the husband’s extensive wine collection. So with the help of my carpenter, we divided up the space by building a large window seat, bookcases and built-in cabinetry for the wine bar. The large window seat lifts up and provides loads of storage. The built-in’s frame out the beautiful view of the golf course that can be seen from the back of the house.
As you can imagine, before the large room served as a storage catch-all for the busy family. Here are some before pictures.
The palm tree picture you see above was our inspiration for our colors in this room. During our initial consultation, the homeowner asked me if we could incorporate this picture into the design. The homeowner is drawn to bright colors and the rest of her house has a British Colonial feel. This is the color palette that I came up with.
The large-scale leaf print was the inspiration for the wall color. We choose a sassy, leaf green for 3 of the walls and on the other wall we wallpapered it in grasscloth. By papering one wall, this also helped to break up the large space. The only thing her husband asked for in the design were leather recliners. The dark brown leather recliners not only made the husband happy, but they also helped to ground the other elements that we had going on in the room. Here is what the room looked like after….
We painted the back of the bookcases a soft turquoise which is the homeowner’s favorite color. The bench seat cushion had not been finished when this picture was taken. Unfortunately, this is the only view of this side of the room that I have….this was in my pre-blogging days!
Here is a view of the wine bar area before…..
And here it is after….in this picture you can see the wall color that we used in the rest of the space.
We built a small wall to enclose the wine fridge and to give it a custom look. The bar-height table and chairs back up to the couch and creates the wine bar area. This was such a fun project to work on because when we started the room was just a shell. It was fun to see it transform into a room that the family uses and enjoys everyday. Thanks “S” for letting me share!
My friend, Joann, recently remodeled her 1980′s kitchen and she let me tag along with her during the adventure. She had a good idea of what she wanted in her new kitchen and did a great job with the design details. It turned out beau-t-ful!
The old kitchen was closed off from the family room and had a drop down ceiling with fluorescent lights. They decided to open up the wall by the sink and created a breakfast bar which opens into the family room. By opening up the wall, the kitchen feels like it doubled in size. They also replaced all of the flooring with gorgeous, dark, hardwood floors throughout the main living areas of the house.
Look at that poor cabinet door just hanging in there.
The dreaded drop down ceiling.
And here it is today. Lovely. The old pantry was removed and a built-in pantry was added. She chose black honed granite for the counter tops and marble for the island. So pretty.
Those are plastic Halloween spiders in her light fixture.
I love the new farmhouse sink and faucet…and the latches on the cabinets.
They also updated their built-in bookcases in the family room and refaced the fireplace with new bricks and mantle. But that is a nightmare story for another day.
I know it was a royal pain to go through, but the end result is gorgeous. Thanks for sharing Joann!
When I met with my clients they were interested in adding some coastal style and details to their house. In this case it was the husband who was into the design process and his wife stepped back and let him go. Usually, it is the opposite. We started with the remodel of their kitchen. Initially, my clients wanted to remove all of the cabinets and replace them with white cabinets, as well as replace the counter tops and appliances. They also wanted to tile the back splash. Once the first estimate came in for all of this, they decided that they would like to look at other options. Like many of us, they were unsure about investing so much money into their kitchen and not seeing a return if and when they sold their house. See, he likes to move a lot. His wife, has to reel him in every now and then. I can relate. However, it is my husband that has to bring me back to reality. Does anyone else find themselves in this situation? This is what their kitchen looked like before.
And here is the after.
We had the cabinets painted, and added some some molding to the top of the cabinets and also under the cabinets. By adding the molding along the bottom, it disguises the under cabinet lighting that was installed. In kitchen remodels you get a lot of “bang for your buck” by adding cabinet lighting. It completely brightened up the space. We fell in love with the colors in the tile and it picked up on the blue-green color that we painted the kitchen and family room, which is BM Vale Mist.
Here is the breakfast room before.
And after.
In the breakfast room, we added tongue and groove planking, replaced the table and chairs. We also replaced the sliding glass doors with french doors, which you can’t see in this picture. The light fixture belonged to the clients.
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