framed wallpaper

I walked into the playhouse I'm decorating to get the measurements and check out the space for the last time until I go back to Utah to do the install. And...my heart sank. I knew it was the end for my first wallpaper project. The walls are textured. Super textured actually. I would need to hire out a professional to come flatten it. I didn't want to give up my frame wallpaper. So it looks like now I am going to frame my frame wallpaper. 

It's not so bad actually. I can do it at home and it will save me hours of time in Utah. And if I play my cards right I can pick up some sweet bamboo frames I saw at the wholesale frame shop. I'm going for tall and skinny. The bummer is that the wallpaper is currently sitting inside the playhouse waiting for me. I'll get it back :)

Look at these lovely framed wallpapers that have me inspired.

effortless style

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hgtv

house of fifty

Spirit lifted! I think it will be the perfect solution.

i see a white door and i want to paint it black

I have had a thing for black interior doors for quite a while now. I first fell for them when I saw Nate's New York apartment and all the doors and cabinets were painted the coolest blue black gloss.

{Photos: William Waldron for O at Home, Spring 2007}

Still one of my favorite spaces of all time. I totally only watched Oprah when Nate was on....and for those favorite things too :) I will never forget sitting in my little LA apartment and swooning over this apartment. Too bad I didn't have DVR in 2007.

Here's a little video for you if you've never seen it.

Husband does not agree about the black door situation. He did say, "Why don't we paint all the doors a different color." Because that would look better honey. Hopefully I will wear him down over time. Or maybe after school starts and he is at work I will get my paint on and see what happens. But you see, I like to give my husband a say on design things. Mostly because he pretty much lets me do what I want in the end. And he also is very supportive of my design endeavors and craigslist addiction.

Maybe I can entice him with images like these.

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Not a new trend at all but it is classic and timeless. I think it could really rock my house's world.

Wish me luck!

ping pong love and a favor

Have you all seen this fabulous ping pong table floating around Pinterest? It is from Coastal Living's beach house and I think it's fab! I want to dig a basement just so I can have one. And it's probably the only way a ping pong table would ever go in my house. 

Found here

Love it!

And in other news, I have to give a quick shout to my good friend Andrea who has a 50% chance of going home tomorrow. If you have a one minute, please go vote for her. This vote is only for a few hours. And every vote counts. Thanks so much! Vote here :)

the five day makeover

What do you do when your client calls on Monday asking if we can decorate her daughter's room while she is at camp that week? You divide, conquer and do it! That is one awesome Mama! And the whole family pitched in for the surprise while she was away. It was quite an adventure. And we actually pulled it off except for a few things that needed to be ordered.

There are still a few loose ends to tie up but here are a few sneak peeks of our busy week.

Luckily, the dad of the house is very handy and also an extremely good sport. We asked him to build us this chalkboard headboard. And on Thursday night we asked him to make this parsons desk {to be ready for reveal Saturday morning mind you} and he happily did. Isn't it awesome?! Looks just like this one, but without the price tag.

The big brother painted the room a gorgeous light gray lilac. And they all pitched in with the dresser redo. Aren't the dry erase panels fun?

The cork board is on the wall now and we are waiting on the shelves for the books instead of underneath the dresser. And we had intended to get fresh flowers but it didn't happen in time :)

The easiest project was probably this one

It probably only took me 20 minutes and we used a lantern that was already in the room.

All in all it was a huge success! She was super surprised and she loved it! She is currently deciding between houndstooth and chevron curtains to complete the room. We wanted to let her pick them out herself since we had to order the fabric anyway. The entire room was a pretty big gamble considering what a fashionista this one is. We were so thrilled she liked it all.

Not bad for 5 days. I say job well done!

pinterest challenge summer edition

Silly me! I totally thought the Pinterest Challenge was tomorrow for some reason! Oh well. I really love what I did this time, unfortunately they look much better at a distance than up close. And they are not up on the wall yet. 

I started with these $3.50 hooks I found in June. 

Thinking of these Anthro stunners.

I cut my tape and got them all prepped and ready.

I painted them with oil based gloss black that I had on hand. And tried to be as careful as possible since the rounded edges left little dimples here and there. 

Here they are! Not perfect at all but at a short distance they look pretty awesome. In fact the hubby came home to see them and I said I painted them myself and he said "yeah right" he thought I bought them!! And then he tried to recover himself a little :)

I love them! I know they will look even better hanging in a row on the wall. I will update after I do so. And with the anthropologie ones coming in at $18 a pop and since I had all the supplies I needed it was a savings of $43.50! Not bad at all!

Make sure you check out the challenge at Young House Love, Bower Power, Centsational Girl, and Ten June!

boards

When planning the playroom at the end of May I thought it would be an awesome and easy to make some bulletin boards. It was. But it also came with a lot of stress and hard work. They had so many components that had to come together. In the end they worked out so well.

Well except that when I measured the short attic walls I had no idea one side of the room would be 3 inches taller than the other side. No biggie. 

After getting cancelled on for installation of a few things. I tried to figure out a way for me to install a few things without messing them up. Realizing how much money we would need to spend on tools or renting tools. And knowing I might do a second rate job. I had to let go. And that is a realllllllllllly short version of how it went and how I actually felt. I was devastated. But, I knew after explaining it to new contractor man that he was fully capable to finish even if I wasn't there.

So these are not hung on the wall, but they should be by the end of the day today. Not that I can guarantee pictures for you {me either!} or anything. 

We have a magnetic chalkboard

Bulletin board

Peg board

 And magnet board

Sorry the color looks different in every picture. I'm ashamed of my camera skills.

I got the frames locally in Boise at a discount frame shop for $36 each. The inside measures 24 by 30 inches. And the frame is clearly big and chunky. I love the color! It is Sherwin William's Gray's Harbor in their ProClassic semi-gloss paint.

I backed the metals with wood and adhered everything with fabri-tac and glazier points. And reinforced the bulletin with some wood stirring sticks in the corners. I'm nothing if not resourceful.

And while I am already talking too much I am about to blow your mind. Fabri-tac and Magna-tac are the exact same thing. I said it. I was blown away when I called the company to ask where I could find Magna-tac in my area. And the nice lady on the phone said that it is commonly sold as Fabri-tac on the west coast and Magna-tac on the east. But the product was exactly the same. Whoa. Isn't that crazy? Maybe you already knew that and I am just crazy.

10 points if you are still reading :)

Anyway! We couldn't see out the back window on our drive down. And maybe this was the second paint color. And no, they are not on the wall yet. But here they are and I still love them.

shelving after

Well, my little Ikea VITTSJO didn't get the makeover I was expecting. The big plan was to replace the glass with wood {glass in a playroom not too safe} and paint it a fun color. But once we put it together we all really loved the dark color against the light walls. But, we still needed to replace the glass with wood and paint it. What's a girl to do? Oil rubbed bronze spray paint of course! Worked like a charm.

I love it in the space and it really is doing it's job here with storage. Some the kids can reach and some out of the way so it can all be rotated to keep the toys exciting. 

Before

After

 It seriously worked so perfect in the room. The toys were all in random bins tucked under the short walls in the room. Now we took the one tall wall and maxed it out. And for $110! Well, a little more than that after we replaced the glass with wood. Thank you Home Depot for being so patient with me and cutting all that wood for me!

In the end, we all loved it even more than we were expecting we would. And maybe I want one for my bedroom now. Oh Ikea, why are you so far away?

nursery reveal

I'm so excited to have my first e-design sent back to me! I love how it all turned out. Here is the board one more time.

They did an amazing job getting it all ready for the arrival of their first baby girl.

I wish I could take credit for the stripes but the homeowners executed them perfectly before I came into the picture. They totally make the room.

Katie Daisy

I'm so in love with the fruit!

They worked so hard and it turned out so well. I am so happy to have been a part of it!
Happy Baby!!!

catching up

I feel like I have been playing catch up this week! Hopefully this weekend I can get all caught up and feel back to normal {and get over this little annoying cold too!}. It's been one busy, hectic week. But all in all a good week so that's a relief.

I have been busy working on a few client projects and my projects as well. I have been doing a lot of shopping for the playhouse I am working on and stumbled upon the cutest teacup set and teapot at One Kings Lane.

Aren't they cute? And just $16 for the set of 6 cups and saucers! This playhouse is going to be tricked out :)

How about another project of mine?

I wanted to do a large pin board for my office. I really liked this one from Courtney Hill via decorpad.

But I already had two large cork boards to work with. I also really like Bryn's boards from her office. Plus, there is going to be a lot of pattern in the room eventually so I wanted to keep the fabric simple.

I used the same method from the bulletin boards in my daughters room for these. But I wanted to add some nail head trim to them. Nail head is expensive if you do not buy it online. But I was in the zone and wanted them to be done immediately so I trudged off to Home Depot anyway. I found brass thumbtacks right next to the nail head. And I thought why not use these instead. Which coincidentally took up more time because I had to go search for more thumb tacks at more stores. I need to learn to just hit up the next Home Depot instead of trying Lowes and Walmart. Didn't I learn this while searching for the brass corners!? Go to the original source and it will save you time in the end.

 

Are you still reading? 

 

Well, I haven't hung these yet but here they are in all their glory.

 

 

 I love how the thumbtacks turned out. They are not prefect and I just used my finger to space them apart. I love that it is easy to make little adjustments as needed. Now I just need to hang them during my weekend catch up! I hope you have a nice weekend, whether it's relaxing or productive!

 

campaign lacks and 30 by 30

I slept in until 7:15 this morning. Ahh, I rarely sleep past 6:00 over here. It was a nice morning. I wanted to share my lack hack with you. This is probably not a big surprise but I went with the campaign side tables. And I am obsessed with them! I love them so much.

 The hardest part was finding the brass corners locally. But after many trips to different hardware stores I was in business. Note: Lowes does not have them, home depot does. And you need 8 corners per lack side table. Four on top, four on bottom. The best part is they aren't much, the cost of both side tables and hardware was under $25. Not too shabby.

I am playing around with the styling of everything still, including my cute new pillows. I love them too. They will be even better once I change out the polyester pillow form for a down form. But they tie in all the colors of the room and for that I am happy. Here is some more playing.

Too much light but you get the idea :) The coral pillow is one of the ones I sewed a few weeks ago. The other ones were a birthday present. I have more pillows on my list. 

Speaking of my list, I've decided to self impose a challenge on myself. I'm thinking 30 projects by 30. I turn 30 in about 6 weeks. 30 by 30 seems fitting, especially because it seems my husband is planning some type of whoopla. I'm not sure what it is but I want to look fancy if people are going to be say hiding in my closets or coming to my house for dinner. Who knows what he has up his sleeve.

So, lets start the list:

1. coral pillow

2. campaign side tables

3...............

I better get started!