Desk before & after

Good Monday Morning!  

I hope you had a wonderful weekend. My husband, Kayla and I saw the move The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel!  It was fabulous. It is about 7 older people that move to India because they don’t really have anything else going on in their lives.  Kayla was by far the youngest person in the audience but even if you are young, I’m pretty sure you will like it. It was all about being adventurous and living independently!
I only have a couple of pictures of the new house today.  Apparently, installing insulation isn’t that exciting through photography! Hmmm…..

But the exciting part is that they are almost finished with the stonework.  I love it because it is gray and beige. I like the warm and cool tones to it!

I thought it was rather interesting how they put the insulation into the wall. They staple the plastic on the 2×4′s and then put one hole in the plastic and blow it in.  Last time I thought about insulation was when they had those big sheets of it and it was so messy!  Awesome!  I took 1 single photo  so as to not bore you too much! Ha ha

Now, on to what I have been working on for the past 1 1/2 weeks. Kristin from My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia inspired me with this photo! Isn’t it a work of beauty!

http://myuncommonsliceofsuburbia.com/2012/02/24/finally-the-finished-loft/

Here is my before photo with all of the extra accessories that didn’t work somewhere else in the house. Seriously??  It looks so cluttered!

Here is my after.  I wanted to get this painted before we move to the new house in the summer. Also, this is the paint that I selected for the trim (at the new house)  so it was good to see it on something. It almost has a little pewter color to it which I like. It makes it a softer black.

I love the way that Kristin painted the backs of the shelves in a soft blue.  Since I painted the hardware an apple green, I can’t decide if I should paint the backs of my shelves. What do you think?  I also didn’t paint the chair.  It is going in the garage sale in June and I plan on using the money to purchase an upholstered  side chair from TJMaxx Homegoods.   Also, I plan on reaccessorizing the shelves when I move.  I just threw some of the old accessories back up there to take a photo!

About 1/2 through the painting I e-mailed Kristin and told her that I wasn’t sure if I was loving her for the inspiration or hating her!  It was a lot of work but I loved her response to me.  She said, “Do you not remember the wine glass in the photo?”

We also plan on adding a sheet of cherry wood to the top of the desk. It is in such bad shape that painting it black just isn’t enough. I’ll need the hubby’s help for this though so I will show you that in a few months!

Have a Great Day!

Children’s Art Gallery

Happy Friday!   Good news / Bad news at our house.  The good news is that the hubby was supposed to go back to Africa for work a few days ago but his passport is missing/lost so I get to enjoy his company for another week or so.  Bad news because it is very distressing for him but since I am writing the blog, I get to be happy about it!  Have any of you ever lost your passport or had it stolen?    What a nightmare!

Today I wanted to show you an idea that I began YEARS ago (oh, that makes me seem old).  When my daughters were little, I couldn’t possibly frame all their artwork so I chose one piece every year and framed it in a simple black frame. In our old house we had all of them displayed throughout the basement. It was awesome and so many wonderful memories.  Well, since we are in a rental we don’t have as much space but there is a back hallway that was perfect for a few of them.  Next week I will tell you what I did with the rest of their art/trophies/clay sculptures, etc.!!

Forgive the hospital green walls,  Rental!

The two faces below are their self portraits when they were in kindergarten.  Is everyone saying ahhhhh!

Here are a few more examples that I found on Pinterest!

This photo shows thumbnail size pictures of all the child’s artwork! What a great way to collect it but not take up too much space!

Source: flickr.com via Diana on Pinterest

 

Since it is getting close to the end of the school year I am hoping that these artwork ideas might be helpful. Next week I want to share what I have done with all of the girls other paraphernalia that they have collected over the years!
Happy TGIF!

May 3rd, 2012 by Your Day Simplified
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Accessory Addicts

It’s summer time and with that comes long days outside (hopefully). I got the idea for this post from one of my favorite blogs, La Dolce Vita – so thanks to Paloma and her guest blogger who wrote the post Arianna Belle!  I love these ideas because they’re very cheap, easy to make and accessible.

Love how putting things on a tray makes it seem more intentional and less messy.

You could hang a string on the inside of a cabinet closest to your backdoor so you always have them handy.

Or possibly the least expensive way- use an existing hanger!

Wishing you a sunny summer!

Susie’s kitchen

Good Monday Morning!

      Recently I was helping a client figure out what went wrong with her new paint choice.  Before she painted the walls in her kitchen, she had a printed wallpaper that tied her backsplash,countertop, cabinetry and flooring together.  But once the wallpaper was removed, she found it very difficult to select the correct wall color.

This is a large, open kitchen with lots of natural light. Her cabinetry is in great shape and she really likes the granite countertop and the terra cotta flooring. In this picture you can see that the island wall color is a pale yellow and you can also see that color next to the shelves near the window.

With the honey tone of the cabinetry and the taupe/green backsplash, it just didn’t feel quite right.

This hallway really shows how yellow the color was.

My first thought was maybe a grayish-taupe tone. That way it would pick up the gray in the terra cotta tiles, the gray in the granite and still look pretty next to the cabinetry.  But gray just looked dirty next to the cabinets.

Then I thought maybe a beautiful creamy white. After all, my client really wanted it to look bright and sunny but the creamy white just looked like a builders standard and not special enough. While at the paint store  we fell in love with the backsplash tile that she ended up using.  It really helped us to decide on a paint color!

Here is the beautiful backslash and the first AFTER picture!  The picture doesn’t show it as well as it looked in person but it looked amazing with the granite!  When we saw it we just knew it was the perfect thing to tie everything together.

This picture shows it a little better but you will just have to trust me that it looked awesome in person!  My photography definitely needs improving! You can also see the beautiful brown color that we selected. It has a little purple undertone in it and so it really worked with the pinky/red tones in the terra cotta tile and the granite!  I think it made the cabinetry look even better than they looked before and luckily the client really liked it and it didn’t make the room any darker.

I absolutely love this color.  It looks rich and deep and adds so much to this kitchen!

We were very happy with the final results.  Have you had this much difficulty selecting paint color???  I make my husband crazy every time we have to paint anything in our house.

For the new house I just want white walls.  Easy, right???  Not!!!!  There are about 50 shades of white so I narrowed it down to 2 that coordinate with the cream cabinetry that we are using in the kitchen. I painted 2  12″ x 12″ paint boards (one of each color) and I have been carrying them around with me for days. I am trying to get a feel for them in all different kinds of light.  Crazy, I know!

Now, on to the update for the new house.  Not much new because they have been working on electrical and that doesn’t look too impressive (really I didnt want to bore you) but I do have  a few pictures to show you.

Yea!  We have a front porch, shutters and windows installed!

The house is getting wrapped with this black plastic and then wire mesh. The stone will attach to the wire mesh.

That is the beginning of the island in the kitchen.

This is the master bath. They removed the 2 built-in open shelving units on the right and re-built the arch so that it extends all the way across.  I didn’t want the open shelving in the bathroom. I was afraid it would become a catchall place. I’d rather have the room be wider and gain more floor space.

Okay, now you are really going to get a glimpse of my control freak personality but as I was walking up the stairs and saw this ledge I thought “Christmas” hmmm….   So I asked if I could have an outlet there and Voila!  they put it in immediately.   I love my superintendent!!

I hope you get some time to get outside and enjoy the Spring sunshine!