Texas-sized Mood Boards

My sister and her husband are about to close on a gorgeous home in Texas. We are all so thrilled for them.

I am particularly thrilled because she asked for my help to create some mood boards for her new place. Yipppeeeeee! Sign me up!

The Dining Room

This is how the dining room looked during their house hunt. It’s a nice, big space with lots of natural light and tall ceilings. A great blank slate!

I decided to start with the dining room because it’s a manageable space and easy to attack. I created a few different rooms to show her and her husband to give them some ideas for their formal eating area.

You can ignore the prices…there’s no way on earth that I would let them pay that type of money to decorate a room! But I wanted to find pieces that would give a certain look and feel. If they like it, then I know that I can find better-priced options.

On this particular board, I love the happy rug, green buffet, curtains, and chairs. The bird art just screams my sister since they have lots of ties to the North Carolina coastline. Luckily, she likes it, too! They also love the table, rug, and buffet. I think that we’re on the right track!

She is really searching for meaningful pieces and not just items to fill a room. I am looking to make each space memorable and meaningful to them. I love finding ways to make it special!

On this board, a few can’t-fail items are kept the same. But I changed the dining chairs, curtains, and lighting fixture. I love them all but have learned from personal experience that comfy dining chairs go a long way. (We bought ours at World Market a few years ago and still love their perfect look and cushy feel). I’m just not sure how comfy these chairs would be for a long dinner party.

I really love this light fixture over the table, too. Her style is rustic cottage traditional. I am trying to incorporate her tastes into a space that feels like them without going crazy in any one direction.

Apparently, I’m a little more comfortable with bright colors than she is. I loved these curtains, which had the colors from her desired palette (aqua, yellow, raspberry, moss green, and navy). I even saw them in person last week and liked them even more!

I think that it was a little too busy for her, and that’s OK with me. At least she’s honest so that I know what to do better to make them happy.

I switched out the green buffet to this wooden one, though I think that it is too similar to the table.

She loves big art, and these colors are so pretty. We might do something like it in another room (the family room?). I am tickled that she likes the bird art enough to keep it for the dining area!

The dining chairs were switched again as well. This time, these more-traditional French chairs came into play. I like how they make the room feel more elegant against such casual pieces, but they are still slightly rustic in their finish, too. It wasn’t quite their style, but I wanted them to see several options before they decided!

I took all of my favorite elements and made my ideal space. If I was to decorate their dining room using the hints of their style, these would be the choices that I would make!

Of course, it isn’t my house, so I am more than happy to do what they want. She put some color swatches in the mail yesterday to show me the palette for their entire house! It will be fun to shop with them in hand.

The Master Bedroom

This is how the master looked during the home tour. That ugly blue wall will be the first thing to go before they move in, thank goodness. So I designed a nice, calming space that used a lot of items that they already own.

Bright, fun, happy colors combined with lots of calming neutrals and natural textures. I think that this room could easily become the haven that they want. They already own that awesome white bed (we found it on Craigslist and she painted it white), the arm chairs, and the over-the-bed art print from Crate and Barrel.

I will use what they already have to tie in more elements of color and peace. The rug underneath the bed will be big enough to go on both sides and at the foot of the bed. I picked out a his-and-hers nightstands to add even more character to the room.

And those hanging bedside lights? I can totally make those, yo. Then we just add a few colorful accessories and lamps and voila! Done master bedroom!

The Family Room

It’s been so much fun to design a whole house. I’ve been working on more projects to help them like their new home, but the family room is where we are focusing next. They will spend the bulk of their living time in this area of the home.

Creating a room is so much easier when you have a starting point, like a rug, art print, or curtains, that incorporate a lot of the colors and/or style that you want to see in the rest of the space. So I found some contenders for potential rugs in their family room.

As you can see, I stole #3 to put in the master bedroom above. It is a gorgeous color and pattern but is still soothing and neutral for these sometimes color-shy folks.

I would have to say that #6 is my favorite out of these three. It’s such a large, bold pattern, but the gray behind it really brings it back to the reality of a nice, soft, family room rug. I like #5, too, but knew that it would probably be too modern for their taste. But the pops of yellow are fun.

And I heart #9. In fact, it might be my favorite out of all these possible rug options for the family room space.

Trying to please their neutral color desire while adding some texture and a bit of color, all three of these options would work well!

Subtle. Just like highlights.

I really thought that she would go for the rust-colored beauty of #13, but her favorite out of the whole bunch was #9 and this one, #14. The gold is very pretty and warm.

This whole experience has been fun so far! Rather than designing each room, we are going piece-by-piece from now on until the entire room comes together. It will be more time-consuming but this way will pin-point exactly what they want in the long run. I’m looking forward to the challenge!

Even better…I am headed there for a visit in April to help do some real decorating!

What things do you like so far? Which rug would you choose for the family room?

Fall Decorations Have Arrived At Last

It just never feels right to put my fall decorations out when the rest of the world gets ready for fall. We don’t experience “fall” here until around December. Sometimes it surprises everyone by arriving in late November. But that’s during a good year.

Rumor has it that the temperature dropped below ninety degrees this week. I don’t believe it for a second because I was gone for work.

Just like I don’t believe that we ever get rain here in Arizona, because it only rains when I am gone for work.

Because it is almost November, I thought that it was high time that some fall decorations get some lovin’ from me. They have been out for a few weeks now, and I’ve really been enjoying them.

Even if it is still one-hundred degrees outside…who says that the inside of my house can’t feel like fall?

Inside my house, with pumpkins and leaves and yummy-smelling candles aglow, I can almost forget that I live in the scorching desert where fall simply doesn’t exist.

Almost forget.

It was actually a lot of fun getting decorations out this year. After the fall season last year, I scored a bunch of cute pumpkins and vase filler for pennies on post-holiday clearance. And then I forgot all about them until I opened the storage bin this year.

I was able to score lots of these tiny little pumpkins, which make me oh so happy!

And tiny gourds, of course. I don’t think I’ve ever used that word on this blog. This day will go down in history!

I really love this floral arrangement, which only comes out once a year because it is so color-specific. Do you recognize it?

It’s my wedding bouquet! What a fun way to remember that four years ago this month, I got hitched to my sweetie pie.

I also scored some bigger pumpkins on clearance last year. Who says that I’m not patient?! I spray-painted some of them white, but you should not be surprised about that. I tend to spray paint a lot of things around my house.

Sometimes for no good reason.

Just kidding. It’s always a good reason when spray paint is involved.

I love how festive the dining room is. This is my favorite tablecloth in my vast (read…three) collection of tablecloths. I scored it last year at Dillard’s clearance. The price tag said $89 for this quilted, thick beauty. I paid $8. And then I ran out of the store before they could change their minds.

Here are more of those cute little pumpkins! Really, they were about twenty cents a piece last year on clearance. Yes, of course I remember how much they were!

As much as I love the holidays, I am also anticipating some shopping after the fact. My Christmas decoration supply is not nearly to capacity yet…

For even more nature going on in this room, I put out our wicker placemats. I love these braided guys…and they make the entire table feel that much homier. Is that even a word?! (It didn’t spell-check, so I’m going to say yes)!

For some unknown reason, I have never thought to move a pretty vase of flowers to the side of the buffet. But oh my heck, I love it. These will stay forever!

Or at least until Christmas season comes around…then the sticks go in all the vases throughout the house. It’s as wintery as we can get in Phoenix, Arizona, after all.

Dead sticks.

Oooooo, so natural and harvesty!

Not much fall happening here, except the spray-painted pumpkin. And the leaves on the mantel.

Wow, these photos make this section of the house look super bright. I guess it is…but I like it like that!

More small pumpkins along the mantel. I really want to give this whole wall a facelift soon…maybe this winter if we get the back yard finished! It’s too stinkin’ hot to work outside in the summer time, so we will have our work cut out for us over the next several months. We are gutting and starting the entire yard from scratch. And I’m feeling just a teensy weensy overwhelmed at the whole idea!

For this wall…maybe some whitewashed pallets halfway up? Then a simple white mantel above them spanning the entire brick wall? A dark teal painted on the wall above the horizontally laid pallet boards? And a giant ceramic moose head hanging over it all. Because that just makes sense in my little brain.

Side note: I went into a Z Gallerie yesterday for the first time. I’m a little slow to this game, folks, but I get it now. And, seeing the moose in person only confirms that someday he will live in our house.

  

This blue glass vase recently moved to this location after I realized that its ceramic twin looked so nice against the buffet. I love the see-through look of the glass up on the mantel. And, of course, I love that it’s blue.

And the yellow burst of colorful flowers just makes me happy. As do random orange pumpkins by random candle lanterns.

We actually do eat dinner here when I’m home, and I love it. It feels so festive when eating off of a quilt!

The reflection in the mirror is kind of nifty. It makes it look like there is a crazy amount of color in every single section of this room! Maybe there is…but it serves as a great reading nook as a result!

This is the not-so-fall view from the kitchen/dining room. I wish pillows weren’t so dang expensive, or that I knew how to sew. Then I could have pillows for every season! Maybe that’s what I can look for on clearance in a few weeks…

I really love spending time in our home, which is a good thing. I’m in here a lot during the summer, which is (thankfully) finally coming to an end.

When I first bought these mirrors, I was so afraid that it would look like the side of a ship with portholes! Luckily, I don’t think that feeling comes through at all…

And my sister helped me paint this dresser, which was a long and laborious labor of love. This entire home has been a piece-by-piece project. But that’s what makes it so fun!

I love these chairs. We use them all the time. They are comfortable and beautiful and perfect. I’m so glad that we finally got furniture in this room! It was worth the months of saving and of having an empty room when we first moved in just over two years ago!

This is the fall view from the front door looking in towards the kitchen/dining area. As much as I love these colors (and love that I can leave these decorations up for a few months of holidays), we all know that my one true love of an event is right around the corner.

You can chant it with me: Christmas. Christmas. Christmas!

Happy Weekend! I’m in California today…third trip this week, and I’m beat!

Big Updates for a Little Bathroom

We’ve come a long way since the blessed day that we moved into our first home just over two years ago. Goodbye, oak-colored cabinet. Adios, ghetto mirror. See ya later, outdated and atrociously ugly light fixture.

This is how we look today in our master bathroom. Yippeeeeee! Do you want to see how we did it?

Good answer.

 

Most recently, our bathroom has looked like this. The cabinet was updated with a dark stain, but that awful barely-held-on mirror literally stared me in the face every time I was in there. It was covered with paint and muck that I simply couldn’t get off.

And the light is $9 at any home improvement store. I am shocked that they still sell it, but I’m sure it is simply for the crazy-cheap price so people can put ugly, affordable things in their bathrooms.

I decided to spend some of my birthday money on some improvements in here. This all started when I found this gorgeous mirror at, where else, TJ Maxx. I knew that a giant (and clean!) mirror would go a long way in this little bathroom in making a nice statement.

And since my plans to blow out the back wall and make this space twice the size were halted before I could even finish saying my plan, I knew that these little changes were all that were going to happen.

But, as you can see when I put the mirror in place to see how it looked, we had some location issues with the old lighting fixture.

Hooray! We’ll just use this as a chance to update that as well when we move it to higher up on the wall to accommodate a massive mirror underneath!

I was a little nervous about removing the old mirror, since it was attached to the wall with who-knows-what substance. After reading lots of advice online, I covered the mirror in duct tape to prevent any shards from flying if when it broke.

 

And then I got some trusty tools to carefully pry the mirror from the wall. I always wear gloves when I work, and then I grabbed a putty knife and some hanging wire to saw behind the mirror and adhesive.

I’m so glad that, yet again, something was done poorly on this house before we moved in! Look at this! They attached this mirror to the wall using lots of those little sticky pads. Which meant that my job just got a lot easier.

It came off in one piece with very little work from me and no flying glass shards. I was elated!

With the mirror down, I next decided to tackle the old lighting fixture. I made certain that the circuit breaker for the bathroom was off before proceeding. I’m a paranoid wimp like that.

Electricity, like mountains and thunderstorms, always wins.

The face plate was soon off, which left the wires and screws exposed to remove the rest. The quality installation by the previous owners meant that this guy had not even been grounded before!

Crazy!

 

So then I had some gaping holes left in my wall where the lighting fixture and mirror had once been. Since we were moving the light up a few feet, the holes needed to be patched.

For the little holes, I used my trusty drywall hole filler gunk. It works like a charm.

 

Put filler over the hole, then flatten with a putty knife. Repeat until the area is nice and smooth without an indentation from the previous hole. I love this step because it instantly makes a huge difference to not have a bunch of holes in my wall.

For the big hole with the old lighting box, I waited for Hubby’s expertise to proceed. When things have potential to catch on fire, I prefer to have a carefully-watching eye. We make a good team in our home improvement efforts!

He sized up and cut the new hole for the junction box. This is mounted to the wall (or studs in new construction), and it went much higher than the old box.

 

Hubby used a utility knife to cut through the drywall. He stood on the vanity for support. I took pictures.

See? A great team!

Oh no! Just like we feared, the wall directly behind the new hole was block construction! Which meant that the new junction box that we had carefully selected wouldn’t fit deeply enough inside the hole to work.

This problem took a few days to solve until we eventually found a non-standard box that was only 1.25 inches deep. That was just enough room for the box to go into the wall without coming out past the drywall. Phew!

 

Hubby was able to chip and smooth away enough block to bring the wires through to the new hole. He used a rope to latch around the wires, then carefully pulled them through the tight spaces of the block wall. It was tricky, but he did it!

And the new, narrow junction box could go in at last.

Since the originally-planned box was a circle, I had a few more places to patch later on. I was just so relieved that we came up with something to work in our not-very-deep hole so I wouldn’t have to abandon my hopes of these bathroom updates.

I had already done lots of research online trying to find a loveable light with an equally-loveable price tag. I finally found something wonderful at Lowes, which has an impressive lighting selection.

Holy smokes! How to choose! Luckily, I knew exactly which one that I wanted.

And they had it in stock, so I brought it home. I like that it is an updated modern look on an old classic. I didn’t want anything too crazy in here. Being a fan of never-outdated things comes in handy at times.

Hubby got to work with the fun part now…finally seeing the new light being placed!

Oh man. We’re getting closer now, and I am really loving it. I am so glad that Hubby is willing to go along with my little ideas now and then.

My goodness, I love it! But, as you can see, my work is far from done. With the electrical portion complete, the ball came back to my court to finish the patching and painting.

I couldn’t resist putting up the new mirror to see our progress. We are definitely on the right track here! Some of the voices in my head suggested that we just leave the hole open since it will be covered with the giant mirror. But I didn’t want to leave that exposed for the next owners some day.

Because you know that I’m taking my birthday present mirror with me when we go!

And I didn’t want critters crawling through the hole, either. In fact, I had a silly dream that all of my scorpion enemies found this hole instantly and started to come in en mass. It was a lovely dream. Nice enough that I woke up shouting. Which woke up Hubby, too.

So, needless to say, the hole got patched the very next morning. I had lots of “help” here from my Dad and sister, who supervised the entire process. It was nice to have company (and so many opinions!) while working on the fun stuff to get this project complete.

After everything turned from purple to white, I knew that the spackle had sufficiently dried. I will say this…it’s a very good thing that this hole would be covered by the mirror for the rest of its life.

A drywaller I ain’t!

Now it was time for paint so we could finally get that big, beautiful mirror in place underneath the big, beautiful lighting fixture.

And it’s done! And I love it! And it took longer than I though, but that is how it goes with every project that I do!

I’m going to start guesstimating a week for these projects, just so I feel better when it only takes me three days.

As with everything I’ve done on this house, I am very happy that it’s over! But I am also very happy with the results. It was worth all of the blood, sweat, and tears that Hubby shed to make this project a done deal.

According to the before-and-after pictures of the clock, this entire thing only took an hour and a half to complete. I will let you draw your own conclusions.

I have truly been enjoying the look. It makes the entire bathroom look so much more finished by having a giant framed mirror in there. And the new lighting fixture gives off a ton of light! It is wonderful, even though it is much higher from people now.

I am tickled. And glad it’s over!

What have you been working on this week? I just finished staining all of the cabinets in my brother’s new house. It took fifteen hours on Monday, and ten hours yesterday. This Saturday, I get to go back and do a coat of polyurethane to seal it all up. I hope I can get feeling back in my arms before then!

It looks awesome, in case you’re wondering. Pictures of that next week when it’s all done!