Category Archives: House Into Home

10.13.11

Thank You Washington Post!

If you are a Washingtonian, be sure to pick up the Washington Post today where you will see a spread on Lou’s room!   
Last month, a friend of mine (Thanks JJ!) sent me an email about a Kid’s Room Contest, and suggested that I enter Lou’s room.  When I went to the site to submit, it didn’t seem to be working, so I figured that my entry didn’t “take.”  Well what a surprise when I received a call last week from Delece Smith-Barrow from the Washington Post that we won!   They came out last Friday to take pictures and Lou had a ball entertaining them in her room.

09.27.11

Lou’s Room: The Reveal.

Bit by bit, we have been working on Lou’s big girl room since last spring.  And I am proud to finally show all of you the finished product.
In between work, kids and blogging, we built the room, step by step.  It all started with a plan.
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Unfortunately, the fabric for the curtains has been discontinued.  It is a P. Kaufman fabric.  The Pattern is Camelot and the color is Lake.
We were able to repurpose the bed skirt from the crib to make the bed skirt and borders for the throw pillows.  The sconces were on sale at Restoration Hardware.
Corrine Marlowe painted the stripes on the ceiling in the same Melon Shine paint that I used on the bed.
 I kept the Little Castle glider from the nursery because I love it so much.  The store that I bought it from (that has since gone out of business) allowed me to customize it with my own fabrics.  The little chair was a gift that Mom brought back from Rhode Island when she found out I was pregnant with E.
 Luckily our changing table was convertible.  The mirror was a originally a butterfly picture that I scored on clearance at Home Goods.  I painted it Pear Green.
I knew exactly what I wanted for the chandelier… the problem is that it didn’t exist.
Then I found Lindsey at Simply Salvage, who worked tirelessly on this baby.  Poor Lindsey had no idea what she got herself into with me.  This took over 4,000 hand painted beads.  She painted them Bird’s Egg to match the walls.
My little Lou Lou Bug simply adores her room.  When it was finally done she stayed in there for hours.  While in another room, I heard her talking to herself saying “This is a dream come true!!!  I love my room.  I love my chandelier… I love my pink bed… I love my special lights (that would be the sconces.)….  I love my flowers.. ” Yada, yada, yada.  It warmed my heart.  And that my friends, made it all worth it.  She has slept in her room every night since.

07.22.11

Copy Cat.

As most of you know, we have been working on Lou’s Big Girl Room.  First, the bed, then the mirror, shelves and stripes, next up:  new lighting.

We have all seen this Majorie Skouras chandelier, which I love.  Unfortunately, it is a bit out of my price range.  But that’s ok, because it’s far to large for Lou’s little room and the turquoise beads would be a bit too bright.  That being said, check out this tutorial on making your own.  
I was able to locate the beads that I beleive they used on the original.
 Here’s the turquoise 
and here’s the green.
I know my limits (ability and time)  and will be outsourcing this one, but I am confident that it will be just perfect as we have painstakingly selected all of the elements.  I can’t wait to send you pictures of the finished project.

04.06.11

Turning A House Into A Home.

Our house is a typical builder’s grade house. When we originally moved here in 2004, we thought that we would live here a few years and eventually move “up.”  However, we love our house, we love our neighborhood and our neighbors.  One thing I didn’t love- our kitchen.  I will never forget the day of our walk-though. I walked into the kitchen and started bawling my eyes out because I hated the countertops (and really, the whole kitchen.)  My mother (God rest her soul) who was also my Realtor told me to suck it up, that we can always change the counters.   It seemed so wasteful getting rid of them because they were granite.  Albeit ugly granite, but granite nonetheless.
(Image from previous owners, 2003)

The thing that drives my husband crazy (okay, one of the things) about me is that our house is in a constant state of change.   He has come home from a business trip and I will have literally painted an entire room a different color.  I’d like to think it keeps things interesting, he would tell you differently.

Because we decided that we were going to be here for some time we (okay I) started designing to turn this house into a home.   It ended up being more “changes” than Mike signed up for.  We ended up editing a little more than just the countertops.  Most of the major was done work in November of 2009, and while it is not completely finished, I am finally willing to show you some “tweener” shots. (Thanks to Ryann Laden for the pictures)   Here are the results thus far:

Our cabinets were in perfectly good shape, I just hated the color.  So- we painted them.  We built a bulkhead to get rid of that awkward space in between the cabinets and the ceiling.  We also had extra room so we built in some shelving on the end of the island and the lower cabinets.  This has opened up our kitchen so much.  I am so in love with the boards that we had installed on the ceiling.  It wasn’t cheap, but I think it adds so much character to the space.
 Next to the sink we moved two sets of cabinets up to the ceiling and added a cafe shelf.
  We replaced all of the hardware with Gilmore knobs and pulls from Restoration Hardware.
We chose a honed Carrera, which I know is very popular, but it was just a natural fit for the space.
Ahh… My favorite part:  my new apron sink.  I like to call it my double-wide. This was something that I went back and forth on for weeks, and it actually held up the process because I decided at the last minute that I couldn’t live without it- and boy, am I that glad I did.  We had to replace the cabinet under the sink with a smaller one, and that cabinet took about 6 weeks to come in.  Then we had to have the painter come back and paint it (he had already painted the existing cabinet.)
In a few weeks my Imperial Trellis roman shades will be hung.  Again, seems quite predictable, but the color way is so perfect in my kitchen. I tried so many others and none were quite this perfect.
So there you have it- our almost-done kitchen.  I couldn’t be happier with the results and am so happy to come home to it.  The best part?  On Christmas morning last year, Mike looked around and said “Honey, I really love our kitchen. ”  RIP ugly countertops!
  Stay tuned for the exciting changes to our living room, dining room and family room!