around the ole’ Leonard house. For what ever reason, the Christmas decorating has been done in stages this year. It has taken a while to get the place ready for the holidays, but I think it’s as good as it’s gonna get this year. Like so many of you, this has been a busy week….I’m ready to sit back and start enjoying it all. How about you? Thought I’d share some of my Christmas “decorating” with you and what we’ve been up to.
The kids made a gingerbread house from a kit…they thought it was the greatest thing ever! Well worth $9.99 at Walgreens.
Everything was going smoothly…..until it was time to share the icing bag.
We had a few tears…
and a tantrum.
But in the end, they managed to finish their masterpiece.
I tried real garland this year for the first time….it didn’t last long. 2 weeks later I took it down. What a mess!?! So I went back to my Ballard’s boxwood garland.
I used real garland on the light fixture
and on the mantle.
You’ll see that I like wreaths.
I’m happy to report that our tree is still standing.
Please don’t mind the orange extension cord.
The only thing I changed up this year are the bows on the wreaths. LOVE the upholstery webbing. It made such a big difference on my $2.99 Michael’s wreaths.
We made some treats for our friends
and had a Christmas party at school.
We have a Christmas program tonight and then all of the kiddos are off for the next 2 weeks. I’m looking forward to some time off, too! Is your shopping finished? I hope to be finished this weekend. Now if only some elves would come and help me wrap! Stop by on Monday to see my bestie Maria’s house decorated for Christmas…it is something! Have a great weekend friends.
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.
After our family left on Saturday, and in between football games, we made it out to buy our Christmas tree. As we were driving off with the tree strapped to the car, I half-jokingly asked my husband if the tree falls off the roof does that mean we don’t have to put one up this year? Well, I almost got my wish. We were about 5 miles from our house when we noticed the tree had slid down and was hanging off the back of the car. My husband got out and re-tied the tree to the car and we drove the rest of the way home with the hazard lights on driving about 15mph. Since last year, I’ve developed a “thing” with Christmas trees because of a little situation that we had. You see, in the middle of the night our tree came crashing down. And when I say crashing down, I mean it sounded like someone threw a brick through the window and shattered glass was hitting the ground. My husband bolted upright and was ready to attack whomever was breaking into our house. I was able to mumble out the words ‘Christmas tree’ before he went on the attack. Sure enough, there it was lying face down on the family room floor in a puddle of water. And that smashing glass sound was the sound of my ornaments. Can you say…. oh crap! We stood the tree up right, mopped up the water and went back to bed, only to find that the darn tree had fallen down again when we woke up. It took everything in me to not drag the tree to the woods behind my house and leave it there…lights, ornaments (what were left), ribbons and all! But we figured out why the tree fell and unfortunately I have no one to blame but myself. Since I wanted the tree to be taller, I stacked up boxes of tile under the tree to give it more height. Somehow when the tree shifted/settled it tipped right off of the “platform” that I had created.
And here is this year’s tree…all 8 feet of it, no plans on making it taller. Finger’s crossed this one stay’s vertical.
Can you tell my daughter helped me decorate the bottom of the tree? She believes in “more is more”. Have you put your tree up? In case you are in need of a little inspiration or motivation, these may help.
via Holly Mathis
via Holly Mathis
via Holly Mathis
I wonder if this one is on a “platform”?
Now, who has done their Christmas shopping??? Have a great Monday.
Do you remember a while ago I posted about the lights that I was having made for my bunk room? Didn’t mean to leave you hanging, but after that post, I was contacted by HGTV.com about featuring my bunk room on their ‘Stylish Bunk Beds’ feature. I was so excited to be asked, but that meant I could not show you my lights until the feature went up on their website. Flash forward 6 weeks and my room has been featured!
And here it is in ‘real life’……
The bunk room is our upstairs “bonus room” which we added onto the house in 2006. I love how light and bright the room is which serves as a guest room a.k.a. sleepover space and playroom. On the other side of the room is my office space which is in desperate need of some organization. I’m not sure if that will ever happen. These days, I’m having my doubts.
My electrician did a fantastic job on the lights. He nailed it. I couldn’t be happier with how they turned out. While I was at it with the lights, I made some other changes to the room (surprise, surprise). I added a board and batten wall treatment which instantly made the room feel different. I also purchased some inexpensive navy quilts from Target. I don’t know if you’ve ever made up a bunk bed but they are a pain in the a**. So I learned that thin quilts are the easiest way to get the job done. I splurged on the John Robshaw fabric which I used to make the large 24″ pillows. To save money, I backed the pillows in a solid, navy linen.
The small pillows I made using this fabric from Calico Corners. Much easier on the wallet.
The bunk beds from Ikea were my attempt at trying to get as close to a built-in look as possible, obviously for a lot less. These little bunk beds came in a flat box with about 200 pieces. I looked at my husband and said “omg…I may be in over my head”, and I’m the type that won’t go down easily without a fight! We assembled the beds and then I painted them BM ‘White Heron’ to match the wall color. Can you say nightmare? Don’t forget, we multiplied this times 2!! I still don’t know if I’ve recovered from that project.
The seagrass rug is from Pottery Barn as well as the navy and white striped rug. I purchased the throw from Serena and Lily. I love the little bit of color that it adds to the space, plus it is super soft.
The P-L-A-Y letters came from Joann’s and I painted them navy. I purchased the small children’s chairs a couple of years ago from an antique store and I also spray painted them navy. I made the chair pads from a seersucker shower curtain that I purchased from Target.
In this picture you can see the chairs and fabrics a little better.
I think that pretty much covers everything in the room. Thank you so much HGTV.com for asking me to be a part of their feature.
TGIF. Busy week. Sick kids. Now I feel like I am fighting off something. Hope I stay healthy. We have a fun, football filled weekend coming up. How many more ‘f’ words could I fit into that sentence? Here’s a few more……
But on a bright note, Sharon of Ms. Magpie Designs featured the planking in my kitchen on her ‘Friday Fave’ feature. Thanks, Sharon!
Here is a picture of the planking in my kid’s bathroom. I’m happy with how it turned out….now if I could just find the time to paint the cabinets.
Have a great weekend.
Image via 2008 HGTV Green Home
I have had this picture on my inspiration board for as long as I can remember. It is an antique belgian bakery cabinet. When I found a space for something similar to this in my dining room, I enlisted the help from my friend’s husband, Kenny. He has amazing carpentry skills and can build just about anything. I handed Kenny my chicken scratch drawings and dimensions and he went to work. I like how the HGTV cabinet is low and long, but for my space I needed something that was the right scale in comparison to my fireplace. My design inspiration started with this coffee table that I purchased at an antique store about 5 years ago.
I knew this coffee table had another life in it. So off came the top…
Here it is…a sad, plywood box.
I know, it’s not looking so good…but of course I couldn’t resist filling it before it was even finished. The next step was attaching the boards from the old coffee table and adding some decorative trim to give it the look of an old piece of furniture.
The old table top was not wide enough to cover the entire top of the cabinet so I added a strip of wood and stained it to match the existing top. I then went over the entire top with the stain to give it a darker finish.
After I stained the top, I stained the plywood frame. This was definitely not my favorite part of the project. If you have ever stained anything you know how strong the smell can be. I went over the stain with cream paint that I had on hand…I think it is Behr Swiss Coffee? Afterwards, I went over the cream paint with sandpaper and sanded away. I’m very happy with how it turned out. Everything that I have in the cabinet I already owned. My favorite piece is the large wire basket that I purchased from the antique market.
Some of you have asked about the horizontal planking that I used in my kitchen.
I could put this in my entire house and be very happy. I never get tired of seeing it. What I actually have on the walls is exterior hardi-planking. It is a cement fiber board that is used for exterior lap-siding. My contractor and I found this product when we were trying to find an affordable alternative to wood planks. The hardi-planks are approx. 7″ wide and come in 12′ lengths and cost $7.00 per board. You can purchase these planks from Home Depot or any building supply store. I really like that they come in long lengths so when you are running them horizontally on a wall you will not have a lot of seams. Here is a close up of the front side which is the smooth.
and the back of the board.
I like to use 1/8″ spacers in between each board. In some installations, I have seen the boards butted together. I like the spacing just to give definition. Here is a before and after of a bathroom that I did for a client. Beware, the “after” pictures were not styled (ie. the toilet lid, crooked pictures, etc). Just some quick pictures that I took for myself in the middle of the project.
As you can see, the planking took care of the wallpaper issue.
Hello friends. Is it ok if I call you that? Thank you for all of your sweet comments and emails from Friday’s feature. I feel like I have made new friends overnight.
A couple of months ago, I purchased 2 of these from a local antique store. The mate is not pictured, but they look the same. They were listed as “grain bin spouts” on the ticket and were $30 each. Have you ever found something at an antique store and clutched it with all of you might? Have you ever felt like you have just won the lottery? That’s how I felt when I spotted these. I raced up to the checkout counter to make my purchase. The ladies at the counter asked me what I was going to do with these. I sheepishly responded, “um, I don’t know”. I was afraid if she knew the deal that I just scored she would change her mind and not sell them to me. I realize how crazy I must sound. My husband and kids thought I had lost my mind when they saw these sitting in the garage.
You see when I saw them, I immediately thought of this from South of Market. It is the zinc bucket light and is $1550.
I have just the place for them. I called Bob, my electrician. I showed him the bin spouts and my inspiration picture and asked him what he thought. What I love most about Bob is that he comes from a place of yes. So off he went with my bin spouts in hand to create my lights. Bob is coming over today to take some measurements before installation. I hope to have them up this week. You’ll be the first to see.
In other Monday happenings, this little girl is starting Pre-K. She is so excited!
If you have a “tween” then you probably know how they have their own opinions about everything. Well I am the proud owner of a tween, and when it came time to decorate my son’s bedroom he certainly didn’t disappoint. Let’s just say he kept me on a short leash. Of course I had put a lot of thought into how I wanted to design his room, and my main goal was to design a room that would grow with him. I scoured design blogs and presented my “options” to him. Here are a few of the options.
Option 1. Neutral Colors.
via Southern Living
Option 2. Preppy & Masculine (This was my personal favorite….boy, I tried to push this one)
via Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles
Option 3. Preppy & Industrial
And the winner is………………… #3. Yes, he came around and let me do my version of this room from Restoration Hardware Baby & Child. I really liked the RH headboard but it was $750. Ouch.
So I thought I would try out my DIY skills. I found this headboard at a thrift shop for $5.00, yes f.i.v.e. I almost forgot to take a before picture. This was done several months ago, before I started blogging and realized the importance of good “before” pictures.
I covered it with batting and then used a faux leather a.k.a. vinyl, both of which I had on hand.
A few clicks of the staple gun, and here it is.
As you can see, I should have pulled the fabric tighter. It was kind of tricky trying to staple and pull the fabric by myself. I really could have used another pair of hands. I did iron the fabric to try to get the crease out (hence the ironing board in the background) but I didn’t do so good. But once the headboard was hung, and the euro is in place, the crease disappeared!
I’m pleased with how it turned out, considering it only cost me $5. The room was already painted this color. I tried to talk him into repainting. I wanted to paint his room “Sterling” by Benjamin Moore, which is a very pale blue-gray.
He wanted a bright, “tropical” blue, so needless to say we stuck with the current color. Maybe I will paint his room while he is at school. If he is like my husband, he’ll never notice 
I purchased the rug and bedding on sale from Restoration Hardware. The nightstand is also from RH. I had the bed skirt and euro custom made out of burlap and trimmed in navy linen. I still need to have the euro monogrammed (which I will also have to do when my son is at school…he’s not into monograms either). The number 9 above his bed represents his football jersey number, is from esty.
The framed pictures are actually from a calendar that I purchased at Barnes and Noble. The pictures are old Florida Gator football programs and are really charming. Some date back to the 40′s and 50′s. The calendar cost me $15 and the frames are from Wal-Mart. I think they came in a 2 pack for $5. I got away with hanging these in there because they are “Florida Gators”. I told you he wasn’t easy! The lamp base belonged to my husband when he was little. I love that my son is using it now. The shade is from Pottery Barn.
In the end, my son was really happy with how his room turned out and I think the end result was a good compromise for both of us. Do your kids like to give input on how you design their rooms? I’d love to know.
One of my favorite pieces from Jayson Home and Garden is the Palma desk. I have admired it for a while. I’ve even seen her up close and personal. The desk has two pull-outs on each side and runs nearly $1,000.
Here it is in a beautiful office by Designer Georgia Carlee.
In this month’s Traditional Home, the Palma desk was featured in an article on the Cultural Arts Alliance Designer Showhouse in Alys Beach, Florida. Designer Holly Floyd Shipman used the desk as a table in the banquette of the kitchen she designed for the showhouse. Love that idea. The weathered gray finish looks so pretty against the light floors and creamy wall color.
So you can probably imagine how excited I was when I came across the Campaign desk from World Market. You’ve gotta love a good knock-off. It is currently on sale for $199 (originally $229…still a great price).
And here is my latest World Market purchase.
Our living room is long and narrow so I divided up the space by placing the desk behind the sofa. It provides a great place for the kids to work on the computer and to do homework. As you can see the finish is not as weathered and gray or rustic as the Palma desk, but still has a really nice finish. It even has pull-outs like the Palma desk.
And while we are on the topic of weathered and gray, I found my first gray hair this morning! Is this what the impending 4-0 is going to look like? Yikes! Have a great weekend.
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