decorating
Problem Room Update: Petite Fireplace
If you recall, I have been pondering how to decorate around a petite fireplace in our dining room. Clearly, I’m focused on the important things in life. I was contemplating decorating the space with some sort of gallery wall or collection. I’ve been trying to get rid of things, not collect things lately, so this would be a gallery wall or collection that I do not currently possess. In the meantime, I decided to go big or go home big. Literally. We have a photo of our daughter when she was 3 years old that my husband just happened to snap at the most perfect moment. I think he was actually setting up…
Halloween Bat Mantel
A couple of weeks ago a strange man at the train station offered my kids packages of Starburst candy. I’m sure the man was just trying to be nice and the candy was unopened, but still. In context, it was an uncomfortable situation. It was one of those lessons in “we don’t take candy from strangers.” Except on Halloween, right mom? GAH! My kids are wild about Halloween. They’ve been planning their costumes for months. And they really, really, really like it when we decorate the house for Halloween. Just because one year I went a little crazy with Halloween book covers and such and now they think we should decorate…
How NOT to Make a Book Pumpkin
This is a cautionary tale should you fall down the Pinterest hole of comparison inspiration and decide you too need to join the throngs of DIYers making book pumpkins. As I did. Please heed these warnings. STEP 1: Put one foot on the slippery slope to a moral abyss. To cut a book apart you’re going to have to throw your moral compass out the window. Let’s just be frank about that. It doesn’t matter how bad the book is, one simply does not cut a book apart. To loosen yourself up for the slide down this slippery moral slope, might I suggest doing something equally egregious, like double-dipping your chip in some…
Fall Dining Room
Last week I bared my soul and discussed all my problem areas. No, not those problems areas. I definitely don’t want to talk about those. I shared pictures of the rooms in my home that were giving me decorating issues. All of that sharing was extremely therapuetic. As was the furniture rearranging session prompted by all of that sharing. I’d like to tell you my husband was surprised when he got home, but it’s not the first time this has occurred. Furniture rearranging happens. When you least expect it. To start, I played a lovely game of musical tables with 3 various accent tables. The table in the dining room went…
3 Walls That Have Me Stumped
Like anyone who appreciates pretty spaces, I’ve had oodles of fun creating spaces in our home that reflect our family’s style, interests and life stage. And by “our family” I really mean “my” because face it, if I let my kids decorate our house we’d have posters of kittens on every wall and Nerf gun targets around every corner. Handy Husband probably wouldn’t even decorate, unless you count lots of computer monitors as decorating, because that would mean putting holes in perfectly nice walls that he’d have to patch later. But I digress. It takes time to create a pretty space. Ideas don’t happen overnight. Money doesn’t grow on trees…much…
Jewelry Organizer From an Old Door
When you move, all of your organization systems are magically *poof* gone. Then you find yourself untangling necklaces day after day that you’ve been storing in a sandwich baggie in the bottom of your carry-on luggage. It’s a quick way to go mad. So I decided not to go mad. At least that day anyway. My favorite salvage item from our house in Oregon are these doors. They were in our basement and when we remodeled, I didn’t want to get rid of them. It’s not often that you find doors with cool details that have not had a circle drilled through them for a doorknob. It’s like winning the…
Boy Room Vignette
On Friday I showed you the display shelf I made from a silverware tray. Ready to see the rest of the wall? Your wish is granted. Other than the dresser, which is from IKEA, all of the items on this wall are things we already owned. The wood arrow was made with scrap wood. The “T” is one of those cardboard letters from JoAnn’s. It has been painted and repainted over the last 5 years. The step stool was made in high school shop class one million years ago and we finally gave it a makeover. The bookshelf was a found object left in the trash. That painting was made by a…
Display Shelf from a Silverware Tray
Our kitchen in Ireland has no shallow drawer to hold a silverware tray. It’s a conundrum. Instead of throwing the silverware tray away, it was still sturdy and useable, I decided to put it in a box and wait for a silverware drawer to magically appear inspiration. Most of my good ideas, like this one, came to me in the shower. We’ll just stop there because I don’t want to scar your mind. My idea? I could turn that silverware tray on its end and make it into a shelf. SHAZAM! Then I did a little dance and almost slipped in the shower. The first thing I did was notice how truly…
Shovel Head Owl Art
It’s hard to find an appropriate title for “she took a rusty old shovel head and a bunch of random metal scraps and made something cool.” But that’s what happened. As you might have guessed, this is a Junk Whisperer project. Who else do I know that would turn a shovel head into a funky, awesome piece of outdoor art? No one. The Junk Whisperer had the vision for this shovel art project, but she used the mad welding skills of my uncle to make her vision come to life. Interestingly enough, my uncle is quite the talented guy, as are many of my relatives. He made my first car –…
