Even the dogs get it

I recently won this rug from Karastan in a drawing at the local ASID meeting.  I confess, considering I never specify carpet for a kitchen or bathroom, I'm not too familiar with the details of carpeting.  But I can tell you this:  Good quality real wool carpet feels soooooo amazing underfoot!  The dogs agree - I think it's their new favorite spot!

Before & After - Dining Room

Our Dining Room was a mint green color when we bought the house.  I know, a lot of people liked the color, but I despised it.  We decided to go bold and we painted it black (maybe more of a dark steel gray). 

Here's what it looked like before:

 And here's what it looks like now:

Our dining table was a great KSL find (KSL is a local version of craigslist), which we paired with Toro chairs from cb2 (no longer available). The rug (also no longer available) is from FLOR.

The wall art includes photos we've taken during our trips, a framed street map of our neighborhood from 1979, and that amazing painting by an artist named Ron Thunder.

There's a corner of the room you're not seeing yet.  It's a work in progress.  Stay tuned...

Another Bulletin Board

My good friend Rebecca also made a bulletin board for her home office (she's a very talented freelance graphic designer).  I absolutely LOVE the fabric she chose (also from JoAnn Fabrics).  

She started with a basic bulletin board (the type that comes in a thin pale wood frame).  She removed the frame, then tightly wrapped her fabric around the edges and stapled it in place.  She then attached the picture-hanging hardware to the back, and that was it - she was done!  My method and Rebecca's method are both super easy and inexpensive.

DIY Project - Bulletin Board

This bulletin board was super easy to make, and cheap too!  I bought a really ugly oak-framed print from the D.I.  (Deseret Industries, our local thrift store) and a used corkboard.  I removed everything from the frame and spray-painted it black.  I then removed the corkboard from its original frame and cut it to fit my new black frame.  I ironed my fabric piece (this one from JoAnn Fabrics) and glued it to the corkboard.  (I used Mod-Podge but ended up with a little bit of wrinkling, so I might recommend trying something different, maybe a spray-mount?)   This is so much more fun than a boring ol' cork board!

And yes, I have the same screensaver that everyone else in the design blog world has.  Find it here.

DIY Inspiration - Future Stair Project?

This is what our staircase looked like when we bought the house.  Since then we've pulled up the carpet runner and painted the walls (we've painted ALL the walls seen here - no more orange sherbet or mint green!).  Now we've got these beautiful wood treads, but UGLY risers full of staple holes and cracked wood.  I think the cheap luan they used to cover the risers would need to be replaced, and that just seems like way too much work, so I started wondering if wallpaper might conceal some of these flaws.  Not that wallpapering would be an easy task, but I do think it would look pretty frickin' cool! 

 

Shawna's stairs, from Door Sixteen, using Ferm Living Bindweed wallpaper

 

from Design*Sponge

 

from Sugar City Journal, using a fabric pattern printed on regular paper, applied with Mod Podge

The simple things

I bought a can of spray paint for $ 3.44 at Lowes (Valspar metallic aluminum) and it's changed my life. Seriously, it's really that easy? Yes! This light switch cover was hideous.  I wish I had a good before photo, but you'll just have to trust me.  It was a terrible antique brass finish. I almost threw it out, and then I remembered the spray paint. 3 coats with drying time in between, and I was done. I'm not sure how long the finish will last, but who cares - at least the cover didn't end up in the trash!  Plus I can always buy another can of spray paint... 

Note the screws.  Aside from the fact that they're the wrong color (need to replace them), the slots line up vertically.  A little side note about me.... in the rest of our house all of the screw heads are horizontal.  Yes, I'm quirky like that.   The reason I obsess about this is because I learned in my tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's Pope-Leighey house that he insisted on the same thing with the screw heads, another way to emphasize the horizontal lines of nature.  This is my tribute to him.  However, in this instance, the horizontal lines just didn't work.  That being said, you'd never find a switch cover like this in one of his homes anyway.

Oh, and I decided to spray paint the plastic ivory doorbell cover too, because I could.

Mom & Dad's Kitchen Facelift

It was about 2 years ago that we remodeled my parents' kitchen.  We did it all in 1 week!  So here's what it looked like before:

We're talking original 1977 kitchen, complete with mustard yellow fixtures (other appliances used to match the sink, but had already been replaced.)

Now this is what it looked like when we were done:

In one week's time, with a ton of help from others (mom, dad, boyfriend, sister, brother-in-law, cousins, and a very talented uncle), we did all of this:

• Removed the peninsula wall cabinets and installed them on a separate wall, one on top and one on bottom
• Painted the cabinets (ask me how if you're interested)
• Painted the walls
• Installed new cabinet knobs
• Replaced the countertops
• Installed laminate flooring
• Installed new undercabinet lights
• Installed new sink, faucet, and disposal
• Installed a tile backsplash

Crazy, right?  AND.... it all cost less than $ 3,000!  Don't get me wrong, I love designing new custom kitchens just like anyone else.  But this is a great example of what a little time, money, and creativity (plus LOTS of teamwork) can accomplish.