A LITTLE GREEN || adding new {magnolia} life to an old wreath

When we moved {a few months ago} I did a lot of purging.  It felt so good.  We accumulate so much stuff!  I don't know if you are like this, but when we moved and lived out of boxes for the first few weeks, I realized how little we needed.  As we remodel our home, I am working at cleaning and organizing as we go.

As I am slowly starting to decorate some of the rooms, I am working hard at re-purposing items I already own.  It's so easy to go buy new {which I seem to do a little too often}.  I am really going to push myself to be creative with what I already own!

I was cleaning the storage shed last week and just about tossed this wreath into the burn pile.  It survived the 'purge and move' but it was just taking up space and I was ready to toss it.

I changed my mind set and tried to think of how I could fall in love with this little darling of a wreath.  So, I loaded the girls into the car and we ran to the store in search of some artificial flowers….which can be tough since some look we too artificial.  Especially when I didn't want to have to leave our little town of McMinnville in search of   fake greens.

Believe it or not, I found some decent magnolia stems and leaves at Wal-Mart.  I directed the flower stems, and hot glued the leaves and one of the  flowers to the wreath. It gives it a little personality, and I spent $10 and less than 10 minutes on the project.

We are looking at tile to resurface the fireplace.  My top two contenders are...

and

both are from Pratt and Larson.  If you haven't been to Pratt and Larson and you are thinking of adding tile in your home, it is my absolute favorite place to purchase tile.  They have a 'seconds' store which is fabulous for smaller projects.  Their tile is hand made and B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L!

I am slowly adding accessories here and there.  I have a few bigger projects I want to tackle for the living room, but I need to steal doors from the house and a dresser that's being used to hold our tv.  So, I will wait until my new doors are installed and the basement is finished.  All in good time….at least that is what I keep telling myself ;-)

Have a lovely weekend!

A LIVING ROOM UPDATE

I thought I would post a few photos of the living room.  It's slowly coming together and I am loving everything about it!!

Our living room furniture arrived a few weeks ago.  I still have  A LOT I want to do in this room.  I am amazed how fast time flies!  Kiddos and moving seem to make me realize it even more. :0) When I would tell someone that we moved 2, 3 and now almost 4 months ago, I realize how time is gone in the blink of an eye!!  And it doesn't seem like we have done much to our new space….the to-do list is long and we better get cracking!  With little people in our lives, we spend a lot more time playing and adventuring than just working on the house {like we use to}.  But, I wouldn't have it any other way!

This was the living room when we moved in.  Clean, and great natural light.

I painted the walls a soft gray, and added blue and green floral curtains and the room looked quite different with just those changes.  The bay window had an great upholstered cushion, however, the fabric didn't go with my new color scheme.  I knew I couldn't sew one, so I tried painting it with Chalk Paint!  It took three coats, but it covered beautifully! It isn't soft, I would compare the feel to that of an outdoor furniture cushion. But it doesn't crack when you sit on it and it serves is purpose beautifully!

I am in love with the new sofa and chairs.  The cushions are down and super comfy, and the fabric is a soft linen color with a subtle herringbone pattern.  It has enough pattern that I don't worry about noticing every bit of dirt, but it's still light and keeps the room feeling lighter.

Remember our beautiful cherry mantel?  Matt really loved it but it was just a bit too dark for me.  While he was gone at work one day, I painted it with Chalk Paint®.  That's one of the beauties of Chalk Paint®…..I painted 3 coats of paint and waxed it in one day.  I didn't need to prime or prep the existing wood…..I love this stuff!!  I painted the mantle COUNTRY GREY, a soft grey with a bit of green.

Matt wants to replace the stone and I want to add some art work above the mantel, we will see when that happens!

I bought two matching oak tables from this little hole-in-the-wall space.  They were in great shape, but very dated with a yellowed varnish- very 80's oak.  I wanted more of a chocolate brown color to compliment the oak floor.  I used MMSP MILK PAINT to act as a wash/stain.  I sill wanted the wood to show, I just didn't want to go through the hassle of stripping, sanding and refinishing the oak tables.  I used the color CURIO.  I applied one coat and sealed it with furniture wax.  It was done in less that one hour….love that!

And we still have A LOT of work to do in the house!  This is the view into the dining room and kitchen.  You can see all the way through that we have all of our new interior doors stacked in the kitchen.  Matt needs a place to spray all of them, so they just wait.  We both really enjoy having projects. but there comes that time with every project that you just want to be done!  We haven't reached that point yet, hopefully we are a lot further along before we do ;-)

Enjoy the sunshine friends!!!!

A LITTLE BREAK || and a lot to be thankful for

You may {or may not} have noticed that I haven't been as regular at posting as I usually try to be.

We have been sick, injured and I have just been a little burnt out.

And then the trees and flowers began to bloom.  The sunshine appeared and I am gently reminded that the seasons come and go.  The seasons in our lives {the good and the bad} are short lived in light of eternity.  The last couple of months have been a little rough.  I am ready for this season to pass, but I know that the trials bring me closer to God.  And, they remind me that I have so much to be thankful for! {That is our neighbor's barn in the background, isn't it cool?!?}

To add a little sweetness to our home, we brought home 6 new chicks.  They are darling.  I haven't had luck introducing new girls to the old girls, but I am determined that they will all get along.  This whole 'pecking order' is so disturbing.  Hens can be so mean!  Matt still needs to build them a chicken coop, hopefully by the end of summer they will have a beautiful new home!

My mom made this quilt for Savanna.  Isn't it darling?  It's so bright and cheerful.  She just dropped it by last week!  I am not a quilter, but I sure appreciate the time that goes into it.  And what is better than snuggling with a baby swaddled in a beautiful blanket?!?

She made Addilyn's quilt for her when she was born.  Isn't it darling?

And there is nothing like chocolate to cheer a girl up!  Do you know my secret ingredient to box-mix brownies? Sour cream!  About a half cup of sour cream makes all of the difference {thanks for the tip Candice!}  Toppings don't hurt either...

I added marshmallows, coconut, pecans and chocolate chips.  It took less than 5 minutes to prepare.  The house smells amazing and the other people instantly think I am amazing and the best cook in the world.  I am telling you, boxed mixes to wonderful things for my family!

I have a lot of fun projects in the works.  Both for clients, and in our home.  I can't wait to post pictures!!  In the mean time, go make some brownies ;-)

HOUSE PROGRESS || a quick update

Thank you for all of your sweet  comments, emails and FB messages about Monday's post.  You guys are so great.  I try to keep this space primarily about decorating/design/construction, thank you for the encouragement!

I thought I would update you on the progress of our various house projects!

In between  work {Matt has several smaller jobs going that is taking up all of his time during the day and I have a couple of ongoing design projects}, loving on my family {Savanna is almost 1!!} and just doing my best to keep our home in order, owe don't have a lot of room for working on projects.

We have replaced one of the doors.  We picked a style that we thought fit the house, painted it black {Matt sprayed it with a true black, semi-gloss} and Matt hung it over the weekend.

We decided to replace all of the interior doors {upstairs} and paint them black.  We both LOVE them!  You may remember this conversation we had before we moved ;-)

I have started taking down the wall paper in the dining room.  By started,  I mean I have spent a total of 15 minutes.  I take what I can get!

And, Matt's office….

Over the weekend, he sprayed the book shelves white.

Ahhhh, the power of paint!  Don't you love how it brightens the room??

We also got the first coat of the wall color on.

We have been working in here after the girls go to bed, so it's taking a while!  By 8pm my mind is mush and my body is tired!  I help for about 15 minutes, then go to get ready for our ice cream and tv viewing.  Sad, I know.  Matt is a rock star and has obviously been spending more time painting than I have!!

Well, that's it for now!  I am hoping to have photos of the design studio by Friday.  And possibly a little give away!!

Have a great day!!

BLACK DOORS :: and a little bling

 Matt and I have been married 11 years.  It really does seem like we were just married…..time sure flies!  When we were newlyweds, our heated discussions were usually about family, work or money.  Geesh, I was a selfish young bride!  Thank goodness those heated discussions are pretty few and far in between.  Do you know what most of our heated discussions are about now?

Homes and spaces.  

It sounds really shallow.  Like maybe that's the only thing we are passionate about.  But, I assure you that's not the case!  I could really get into boring details here, but I will spare you.

A few days ago, we had heated discussion….it went a little like this.

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Me : What do you think about me painting the interior doors {at the new house} black?  And maybe adding some pretty glass door knobs?

Matt : I don't think you should paint them.  If I have time, I would like to make new doors. INSERT me rolling my eyes.

Me :  When are you going to find time to just widdle up 8-10 interior doors.  I think painting them would look great.

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Matt :  It could look great, or REALLY BAD.  If you don't want me to make them, then I think we should buy new doors.

Me : I think that's a little over kill, do we really need to buy all new doors?  I just wanted to paint them and add pretty hardware.

Matt : What do you mean 'add pretty hardware?'  You started out with wanting to paint the doors.

Me : Yes, but you can't paint them and not add new hardware.

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Matt : OK, well that is going to get expensive.  So, if you don't want to do ANY OTHER improvements, we can buy new doors and hardware.

Me : Are you talking about buying doors made of solid gold? What do you mean we can't do ANY OTHER improvements?

Matt : If we are going to do it, I want to do it right.

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Me : Well, what if we buy 1 door and handle set at a time?  We can change it out as I finish {decorating} each room.

Matt : No, if I am going to have to paint or finish doors, I want to do them all at once.  Plus, I want to change out all of the hardware at once.

Me : How about you don't worry about it and you just let me do my thing.

Matt : Under his breath 'it's going to look like cra*'.

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Me : I don't need your help.  I was just being polite by asking your opinion.  I will do it ALL myself.

Matt : You know how to change out door knobs?

Me : Yes, plus I have my own tools, I can figure it out.

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Matt : You know what?  You are right, we can just do 1 at a time.  You can try painting them, and if you don't like how they turn out, we can just replace them one at a time.

He is a good man.

Pictures to follow, after we move in ;-)

Have you painted your interior doors a color other than white?

JANUARY :: a busy month

Hello and thank you for bearing with me as I only posted once last week!  I probably won't post much for the next 3-4 weeks, I will be a little busy ;-)

My to-do list includes….

Packing, purging and cleaning our house….and a garage sale this weekend!

Turning our Main Street property back into a vacation rental.  {More on that soon ;-}

Packing up my design studio, I am moving the studio in 3 weeks!  

Updating the website with all of the changes.

Still working on design projects for clients, keeping my children alive and still trying to keep our home somewhat livable.

I love the challenge and I am super excited for this next phase.  I can't wait to fill you in on all the details!

Until then, don't hesitate to call if you want Chalk Paint, I am still happy to meet you if Fridays don't work.  I have the best customers….thank you and I can't wait to share all of the new changes with you!!

I will be back soon!

xoxo

OUR HOME :: my home office

Good morning!

Well, as I mentioned last week, I am trying to be better about snapping photos of our home and projects I am working on.  Today I thought I would show you a few photos of my little home office.  It's a hard working little room with a lot of bright light.... and a squeaky old wood floor....and I love it!

Our home office is just at the front of the house, only a few steps from the front door.

When we remodeled our home, we thought having the home office near the front door would be great in case we ever met clients there.  We never meet clients here, but I still love where it's located ;-)

This is usually where I spend  at least 2 hours every afternoon while the girlies are napping.

We get fabulous lighting in this room.  A major bonus when you are attempting to get work done!  I found some great organizing pieces at Staples, Martha Stewart has a fun line of office products.  I just noticed Staples has 40% off of Miss Martha's line of products, but this week only!  I might have to make a late night run because I can never be too organized!!

Speaking of organization, I am old school and still like to write things in my calendar.  I am sure some day I will know how to enter dates into my phone....

One wall of the office is painted in Chalkboard paint.  It provides a lot of entertainment for little hands!

I also have a cozy reading chair.  It was never intended for the office, but when we moved back into this home, we didn't have any other place for it!

Matt built me some fun shelves that flank two of the four walls.  They provide a lot of extra storage without making the tiny room feel even smaller.

I have random cubbies and trays for all types of little trinkets!

And a basket filled with little 'tools'.

I threw this little 'wrapping station' together one morning when I was wrapping birthday gifts for Matt.  It's a bit rinky-dink, but it keeps my wrapping paper from getting wrinkled!

I usually have piles of flooring/wall covering/fabric samples all over.  I typically just have 1-2 design jobs going at a time, but I sure seem to clutter up my limited counter space in no time!

Speaking of clutter, I better get to work!  Thanks for taking a look-sie at my little home office.

xoxo~Darci

OUR HOME :: living room + kitchen

Hello and happy Tuesday!

I hope you had a great weekend!  Last week Matt and I had a fun interview.  The interviewer asked if I had photos of our home on the blog.....oops.....I realized I don't have many photos of our home!  Soooo, I thought I would post a few over the next couple of weeks.  It's a great incentive for me to tidy up and finish a few projects!

We renovated our home almost 9 years ago. but I will share those photos and details on another post.

Today, I thought I would share our living room and kitchen.

We have a long hallway/entryway.  When you 'round the corner', the space opens up to our living room and kitchen.

My oh-so-talented hubby built the cabinets.  They have held up really well to all of the abuse I give them.  But, we do plan on repainting them this winter...

When we remodeled this home, we were young newlyweds with a small budget.

I would have done things a little differently if our budget had allowed.  Our one splurge in the kitchen, was the 36" dual-fuel WOLF oven.  I use that baby everyday and I am so glad we scraped our pennies for her!

I LOVE my island!  Matt milled down quarter-sawn white oak to make a countertop that can comfortably seat six.

This is a hard working island!

If I am not using it for cooking, we are eating at it, doing crafts on it, or some other ridiculously, crazy project.

You can see the microwave is tucked into the island.  I love that it is out of eye sight, but still easy to use.

When we repaint the cabinetry this winter, I am thinking of painting the island a lighter color.  What do you think?  Stay dark, or lighten it up a bit?

The kitchen opens right up to the living room.  This space truly is the heart of our home!

I am always changing out the pillows.  I have a ridiculous stash!

I usually sew my own pillow covers.  It's less expensive than always buying new, and I can pick the perfect fabric for the look I want.  I found these pillows at Pier 1 and I had to snag them!  Sometimes a girl just wants to buy a pillow and not have to sew:-)

Love fresh flowers in the house, especially sunflowers!

I am always changing out the decorations on the mantel.  As soon as Autumn arrives, I will change everything up again!

This window seat is Addilyn's favorite area.

We keep toys and books in the open cubbies.  Kids can easily get to the toys, and I can easily throw them back in the baskets at the end of the day.

It's a great little 'kids' corner that is tucked to the side of the living room.  It can get messy, but it's out of the main walking path, so it's not a big deal to have books and toys scattered about.

The living room leads to our new covered deck.  I love that the covered deck almost doubled our living space!

And, just in case you thought I was neglecting my sweet-peas during my little photo session, they were right there in the middle of it ;-)

We love us some Sesame Street at our house.  Addilyn gets to watch TV for an hour, and I get some work done...it's a win-win for both of us!

Thanks for taking a peek into our little home.  Come back next week for more photos!  Until then, have a lovely day!

~Darci

TV CABINET :: to build or not to build

Matt has designed and built numerous TV cabinets for different clients.  As you all know, custom built-ins can make such a difference in a living space!  When we remodeled our home, we talked about doing an entire wall of cabinetry in the living room.  But, life happens and living room cabinetry falls to the bottom of the priority list. So, we use this cabinet.

It has served it's purpose well.  It's nothing fancy or custom.

It holds cozy blankets, electronics, bibles and books that we are currently reading.

Matt modified the door {with wire mesh} so that the remote can still register with the electronics.

It works just great.

I vote that we save our money, time and energy for a summer vacation.

But talk to me this winter and my answer may be different {wink}!

before + after :: BACK DECK

When we renovated our home 7 years ago, we decided to add a concrete back deck.  It was about 5 feet off of the ground and underneath was covered/enclosed storage.  The deck is on the South side of the house and gets hit hard with sunshine and pounding rain.  Eventually, the concrete started to leak.....

We 'ignored' the problem for a couple of years, last summer, Matt decided we needed to address the issue.  Let me tell you, it was a big issue!  All of the existing concrete deck had to be removed.  We decided to go ahead and cover the deck....while we were at it {wink}, so we could enjoy the outdoors more than 3 months out of the year!

It took Matt about 6 months {working the occasional evening and weekends} to finish the space.  I still have decorating to do, but I thought I would show you the new covered deck.

The weather has been amazing for the past few weeks.  I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed sitting out here, cuddling with my sweet little babe!

Like I said, I still have some decorating to do.  But, let's be honest, I am not sure when I will get to that ;-)

Have a lovely day!!