Client Project: Tudor Project Update

I live in a town that happens to have many old homes with great character and architecture.  Every once in awhile, one of these homes is lucky enough to be saved from a builder, who would tear it down and build a brand new 3500+ sq foot McMansion.

My clients, Beth and Steve, bought one of these old homes, and I was lucky enough to work with them on designing their living room:

(You can see a little of the wood beamed ceiling in this shot, just gorgeous!)

Small Changes, Big Impact - Painting Our Exterior Brick

We have made extensive changes to our home, inside and out.  However, some of the most high impact changes happened to be the cheapest / easiest ones we've made.

(Our house at the end of last summer)

Last year, I shared the before and after of our exterior, here.  However, the many changes that we made were done over the course of about 4 or 5 years.  The change that took our renovations from nice, to wow, in my opinion, was\ painting our brick and adding fresh landscaping.  Don't just take my word for it, take a look.  Here is a picture of our home after we changed the roof-line/windows/siding:

This picture was taken just about a year ago.  I remember being so excited to get our flower boxes planted, stepped back to take it in, and realized it was kind of sad looking!  That is when I knew something had to be changed.  Here is our home after new paint/plants:

Client Entryway: Before and After

So....I'm trying to get together a post about plans for our living room re-design.  It's taking me longer than expected because I seem to have lost my mind today.  Organizing photos and thoughts isn't in the plan so, to break up the blog silence I thought I'd share a before and after of an entryway I recently worked on.  If you follow me on Instagram, you may already have seen this one:

And today, a photo taken on my clients iPhone:

Client Progress: Living Room Budget Re-do

Shortly after I started this blog, I started receiving phone calls from people in my community asking me for help with their homes.  Today I'm going to share pictures from the very first couple I helped!  Although we started their makeover about a year ago now, we are still working on pulling the finishing touches together.  

(one of my favorite and most impact-ful features of the room is a pair of Ikea mirrors we added to the TV wall)

They had their second baby shortly after we purchased the upholstered pieces and they wanted to take some time off to adjust to the changed family.  Once we started meeting again and decided on some of the finishing pieces, their basement flooded and they had to redirect funds to fix the basement!

Changes in 2014

I've made a lot of promises that I haven't kept on this blog of mine!  Most recently I promised to share Christmas pictures from around the house.... never got to it! 

(Picture taken at Christmas time.  This wreath is still hanging since it is "winter-y."  That's my little artist, painting away)

So, I'm done making promises.  However, I'm ready to break my blog silence.  I think after so long away, I've had trouble deciding where to start.  Lot's of post ideas are running through my head.  Although the blog has been silent, I still have lots going on around my house as well as client design projects I'd like to share.  I'm just going to have to make the jump back into this game.

If you stick around to read this blog in 2014, here is a glimpse of what you can expect to on the home front.  I'm focused on adding the finishing touches to our home.  At any given time, I have at least 5 - 7 near term household projects floating around in this head of mine.  We've already started knocking away at a few of them this year (err, we hired out help).  So far, we've updated our fireplace mantle:

We are waiting on a Statuary Marble slab and surround, but the change so far has been dramatic; just check out the before pictures below:

The above is two photos I "merged" from the real estate listing.  Just in case you don't believe me here is another picture right after we moved in and had made some pretty major updates (new electric, new drywall, new floors, etc.):

Using the same contractor (Jim's Handyman Services, if you happen to be in the western 'burbs of Chicago), we added a built in bench with storage to our family room (on which I happen to be sitting as I type):

Ok, this is a really poor instagram shot but it's all I've got.  As an aside, you can follow me on Instagram here where I share home projects/client updates in real time.  Anyway, we really enjoy having an extra table for breakfast / lunch (this room is open to our kitchen).  It is nice to have the additional storage for toys/legos/art supplies.  There are more additions in store for this room as well, so stay tuned.  

Most of my household projects involve adding the finishing touches to our home, including window treatments, art, and organizational systems.  

(our master bedroom, with new rug and window treatments)

However, the biggest ongoing project is a bit of a re-design in our living room.  I will dedicate another post reviewing all of my plans at a later date, but it all started with the purchase of this sofa:

(colorwise this shot of the room is bland right now, but I have plans to add in a lot more interest very soon!)

I hope to be back later this week to share a few shots from recent client projects!

Tudor Project Living Room Design: Before and Progress

Well hello there!  My blog silence has lasted a bit longer than I hoped for; but I hope the wait was worth it.  I'm really excited to share some images and design plans from one of my recent interior design projects. 

(client progress picture)

I've been in process with a few clients for several months now, so I should have several other before and progress pictures from other clients soon, as well.

This summer, I was referred to a couple that recently moved into my neighborhood.  They bought a beautiful historic home with lots of charm and character.  Having moved from a small condo, the couple needed more seating/furniture and wanted to start making purchases for their living room.  However, they had no idea where to start given the large scale of the room (25 ft' x 21 ft including an alcove area) and they were also challenged by the homes architecture.  Furthermore, this home has not been updated much over the years and they had to make some large scale expenditures to make the home more functional for their family.  This of course meant a tighter budget upfront! 

Exterior Updates

Hello!  Trying to post really quickly here, so this post will be short on words, long on pictures.  I mentioned about a million times on this blog that we placed an effort on improving our curb appeal and landscaping this summer. 

(Almost) Free Landscaping Makeover

I'm really new to this whole "landscaping" stuff.  Our first place was a condo and our outdoor space was a 6 x 8 foot balcony.  The first four years in our current home was spent expanding and renovating the home on the inside, and tearing out the overgrown jungle on the outside. 

Side Entry Mini Makeover

Each year we've lived in this house, I've only added annuals to the planters in the front of our house.  Here is what I did to our window baskets this year:

Given the amount of work we are taking on outside this summer (we just completed a project this weekend that I hope to share soon but if you follow me on instagram you might already have seen it), I decided to keep it simple and use Dragon Wing Begonias and Sweet Potato Vine.  A friend of mine plants this variety of begonia each year and I always love the look, so I decided to give them a try. 

What do you see? (An Entryway Revamp)

I've always been fascinated with homes; more specifically, other peoples home's.  My husband was previously a real estate agent, and when he was licensed - and before kids - I could honestly spend countless hours browsing the MLS.  (It probably comes as no surprise to you, then, that I'm so fond of "visiting" the homes of bloggers.) 

 

Of course I would spend some time looking in the upper end of the price ranges for each community; but it was never the most expensive / perfect homes that really drew me in and kept me coming back for more.  It was pictures like this one that I loved to come across:

What do you see when you look at this entryway?  Yellow walls, an awkward wood staircase and bad tile / linoleum?  Or, are you like me?  All I can see, when looking at this picture, is replacing the wood spindles and hand rail with black iron (not to mention bringing the walls down a notch with white/cream paint):

 

My New Coat Hooks and a Mudroom Makeover

The back entry to our house - or mudroom, let's call it - is most used since it is closest to the garage, backyard, and driveway.  So while we have a nice large closet in the front entry, it doesn't do us too much good since we are constantly coming in and out the back way. 

Our coats landed everywhere, from the floor to the stairs to the couch just off the stairs.  It drove me crazy for years.  But lucky for me, it recently started driving my husband crazy, too!!!  Once that happens, I usually get the ok to spend a little money to make the space more functional. 

Here is a peek at my new coat hooks:

I'm so loving these Equestrian-inspired Stable Hooks from Anthropology.  This room has a really tall ceiling, so these 9.5" tall hooks were the right scale and worked with the color of our light fixture, as you will see.  I found this hook while searching google images for Stable Hooks.   I was so happy to find them, and then sad to see that Anthropology no longer sells them.  Not to be deterred, I found five available on Ebay from two separate sellers, yeah!

Living Room Before and Afters

Finally, I'm ready to share more detailed before and afters of our home.  Today, I'm starting with the living room and entryway:

For those of you just joining me, let me explain.  My husband and I purchased our home in 2008 from the first and only family to own this 1924 bungalow.  The home was out of date, and had to be taken down to the studs to be habitable (by today's standards)! 

Our Home Tour...again...

I shared our home tour over at It's Overflowing last week, but it includes many pictures that I have yet to share here at my own site!  So, I felt I should share it here too if you didn't get a chance to stop over there and check it out.....

We bought our current home about 4 years ago.  One day back in 2008 I was complaining about the shared walls of our city condo (which you can tour here) with my husband and he unexpectedly said "ok, let's move."  We took about two weeks to get the condo ready for sale and a month later we were closed and moved out!!!!  This all happened so quickly that we had no where to go!  So, humbly, we went home to my parents house.

Christmas Bathroom (and a before and after)

Before I move on to today's post, I'd like to mention that later next week, my Christmas Tablescape and tips for setting a Christmas table will be featured on Pottery Barn's blog!!!   I would love to have all of you stop by to check it out.   I will post the link on my blog when it's up.

Ok, so are you tired of the Christmas decor posts yet?  Sorry if you are...I have only a few more, I swear.  But, this one is also a little bit of a before and after as well.  Two for one.

 

We have a teenie tiny bathroom for the boys.  I haven't gone with a theme in this bathroom.  My theme is "try to keep it as clean as possible."  Every Christmas and winter I like to switch out a blue and green shower curtain for this black and white one from Target (Dwell Studio).  This is one of the only rooms in the house that you will find red this Christmas.  And only a tiny bit at that; but I love the way it stands out against all the white and black.