11.02.11

Before and After.

Last week I stumbled upon some fascinating before and afters over at  Country Living.  My ultimate favorite?  This Mississippi renovation that took six years to complete.  Well worth the wait, don’t you think?
Exterior before….
 …and after…
 Living room before….
..and after…
upstairs before…
…and after…
 (Girls)
(Boys)
Foyer before….
..and after…
Check out more renos and all of the sources here.

10.31.11

Home Sweet Home.

After a very long week in California, I am so happy to be home.  In typical Salmon fashion, I landed at Dulles, hopped in a cab at 4:45 and went to E’s parent-teacher conference at 5:30.  Whew!  Here’s a little recap of our weekend.

Frosty pumpkins.

Back to back Halloween parties.  (No, I didn’t make these.)
 My Superheros.

A whole lot of flying.

Happy Halloween!

10.28.11

Fashion Friday: Clothing Sources.

Thank you to everyone for their sweet notes about our photos.  Ryann did such an amazing job.  A few readers emailed me with questions about what we are wearing in the pictures..
 My shirt and scarf are from H &  M.  I probably bought them in September… they may still be in stock.  Earrings are Kenneth Jay Lane, Mike gave them to me for Christmas a few years ago.  E’s flower is from Anthropologie (she actually borrowed that one from Mom.)  I actually bought it from the clearance bin a few years ago as well.
My jeans are actually from the Gap beleive it or not.  I LOVE them.. Bought them last year- super comfy!
My boots are Steve Maddens that I bought last year at South Moon Under.  I’m sorry… a lot of the items that I am wearing came out of retirement and are no longer available.  For those of you asking I was able to pull together a similar look (and I was able to find the boots online!)
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Lou’s outfit was also made up of a lot of items that are out of stock.  Here is a similar look that I pulled together:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
Lou’s tunic in this picture is from Crazy 8.  I bought it last summer.
So many of you asked about E’s clothes. Most of these items are also no longer in stock, so I pulled together a similar outfit to E’s as well:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

I think that about covers it!

10.27.11

Basement Design Process.

Last week after tweeting about having to replace the floors in our basement (our sump pump broke) I received an email from a reader asking to show pictures of our basement.  Well, I have never really shown you our basement because the project is essentially on hold until we save up enough money to really do it right.  We are slowly working on it.  With that said, I do have enough snapshots to show you the makings of our bar.  As most of you know, I am a BIG FAN of Ikea, and all of the cabinets in our bar are actually from Ikea.  The entire set cost us $3,400.  Not bad considering our bar is the size of a small kitchen.  The quality is outstanding.  We love them.  Here is a taste of our long journey (apologies on the photo quality, they were all taken with my iPhone.)
 May 2009
July 2009: I had to use the planners at Ikea because they are not compatible with a Mac.  If you have a PC, you can do it at home.
 
November 2009: Searching for countertops.  We decided on a combination of AKRUM Brown/Black and White uppers with glass.
 May 2010:  Ultimately, we decided on Carrara.  As you can see, this piece had to be replaced because it was cut from a different slab.
 September, 2010:  The marble was fixed, but when my tiler hung the tile incorrectly, I almost had a heart attack.  (Can you see the lines?)  They had to come back and dig out individual rocks and reconstruct the wall.
October 2010:  Better.  If I could make one suggestion to Ikea, it would be to sell a stain that matches their cabinets.  As you can see, we added wood paneling to the other side of the bar to match the lower cabinets.  It took me 5 hours and several trips to Benjamin Moore to have a paint mixed that would match it perfectly.  We lightly painted it on the wood paneling, I think it looks great.!
I apologize, these are the only pictures that I have.  Once we get the floors fixed, I will be sure to share more!

10.25.11

The Cheapest Art Around….

Because it’s free!  I am currently renovating a loft for one very special teenager.  There is a lot to be done, and while the client has champagne wishes and caviar dreams, mom and dad have a strict budget.  So, we are looking to invest in a few pieces that will make the room and leave the rest to a lot of creativity and elbow grease.  With that in mind, one thing that I do not want to blow our budget on is artwork.  Let’s face it,  she’s 16 now and the reality is that her taste will become more… ahem… refined in the next few years.  So, using my Google wizardry, I was able to find a fantastic selection of free, yes, FREE printables that are just perfect for a teenager.