$64, for real!

I haven't been over to Urban Outfitters for eons!  I always forget that they have lots of great inexpensive trendy filler for very little coin.  
It is kind of like shopping at Forever 21 for me...  I always feel like I'm bit too old to be there. I know damn well I would look ridiculous if I bought an entire wardrobe there, but I can always get a cheap bit of sass that helps me feel not so mommy dinosaur.  Anyhow, ditto goes for my house. 

So here is a great little gem, and the best part about this brass number?
The price. 
$64! yes. $64.


And I leave you with some other bargains.

$598


Pillows in general...


And some brightly colored tapestries that are $39.   I suggest making into some slipcovers, drapes, pillows... whatever...at  around 100"x84" you can't get fabric that cheap.









Floor to Ceiling Goodness

There is really nothing better great natural light.  Even the most beautiful spaces can look drab if the windows and lighting suck.  
I have always wanted big, tall true-divided light windows. They are on my wish list...

 via Cococozy

 love this studio space....

 via Country Living

I remember watching "The Holiday"for the first time and just being in love with the windows in Amanda's home...

Ah, one day!

Bathroom on the Cheap/ Lipstick on a Pig

I received a lot of questions and emails about the bathroom I featured yesterday.  I decided to do a post to help answer them and to hopefully inspire anyone else out there that is stuck with a "dated" bath. 

We have 2 of these lovely 1960 era baths. 
 One day our big plan is to renovate and make both baths into one master bath and add a second full bath using a corner in our family room that is right near the bedroom hallway.
 UNTIL THEN something had to be done.  

before picture taken when we were looking at the house to buy,
sorry it is so blurry...
.




#1 TILE

First off, we had bigger issues than the fact that it was chartreuse yellow.  I knew the yellow could work since it was going to be a kid's bathroom.
It turned out the shower/tub had rot and mold.  
There was no wall board holding the tile up on the first foot, it was all rotted and tiles were loose.  

before

We had a contractor friend come in and tell us we needed to replace the first  18-24" of tile and fix the wall backing.  I was really hoping he would say "Its crap, rip it all out!" (We did rip out the rickety sliding doors and replaced them with a white shower curtain.)
They weren't able to save much of the tile they ripped off, and I couldn't find a match so we needed to improvise.  I found some glass sheets at a local tile store that had 
the same citrus yellow with green so I snatched up 6 square feet.  

In order to make it feel fresh we added inexpensive white squares around the 6" stripe as filler.  
I had plans to add lots of white to the rest of the room,
 so I crossed my fingers it would look all right .  New grout helps too... 



#2 WALLS 


When you are stuck with colored tile you have a few choices when ripping it out is not an option... 
-Paint it with a paint designed for ceramic.

-Choose a color scheme that makes it feel fresh for the walls.  Pattern helps too by drawing your eye away from the tile.  Stick with one or two accent colors, don't go crazy.

-And breaking all the color with white makes it feel fresh.  You can do this with a white shower curtain, white towels or by painting your vanity white.

There is no hiding the fact that it is old tile, but you can put lipstick on a pig and call it Miss Piggy.
 Just saying.


The walls had a shimmery white vinyl wallpaper on them. That go ripped off the day we closed. The walls eventually got painted with green and white horizontal stripes to tie in the glass tile.

#3 LAMINATE CABINETS

Good sweet mother loving gold and grey hell, I really can't think of one nice thing to say about these cabinets and matching counter.  Just yuck...


 I had been dying to paint these!  Thank goodness for The House of Fifty article.  I told my husband I had a new pattern and we were going to have to sacrifice the laminate in the name of O'verlays.  He actually wanted to keep them as is since they were eventually going to be ripped out- IN A FEW YEARS!  Being  a designer, eyesores bother me more than most people.  If I can paint them away, I will. 

So I painted and O'verlay-ed.  
I cleaned the cabinets with TSP to remove grease and grime and then lightly sanded. 
 I rolled on 2 coats of XIM primer, that stuff is the bomb. It sticks to everything!
Here it is with one coat, squiggles still slightly visible but better... 
You can also use Rustoleum Countertop paint, except they don't have it in white. I used it when I did my kitchen counters and it is pretty awesome.  No priming needed.  It bonds to laminate.

I then painted them with 2 coats of white semi-gloss and faux painted the counters to look like white marble.  See the tutorial here.  
I added the "Grace" O'verlays to the cabinets using Liquid Nails Clear Silicone. 
(They will be available in the next few days on the site. We had February 1st as the original launch date, but the article came out early.) 
I also changed the hardware to antique brush brass knobs that were hand me downs to me from my in-laws...

I toyed with the idea of painting the sinks white using a kit, but I did this once before in an apartment I rented and it started to peel after 1 year around the drain. I also have 2 boys that love to play in the sink, so I sadly nixed that idea...




#4 MISCELLANEOUS

As far as vintage goes, I am all for it- except when it comes to a 50 year old toilet.  Bleach, etc.... It got replaced. I prefer a fresh start and to know that when I catch my 4 year old  fishing something out of the toilet the grossness is all in the family...


We also replace the ceiling vent.  You don't want to know what the inside of one of those looks like!   
10 pound dust bunnies amongst other things.

And lastly there is nothing like some good old elbow grease and Comet.

Hope that answers any questions! Let me know if missed any thing!











I have been dying to tell you...

So... House of Fifty featured O'verlays.  
I am really excited about this!  I have been wanting to tell you guys and show you pictures, but we had to wait until it launched.  As many of you know, I can't keep anything a surprise.  I sneak peeks of all my projects, so I am really pleased with my self control at the moment.  Rare thing.  

Especially since I re-did a bathroom and a headboard and some other stuff just for this issue. (Part of the reason it was so crickets around here November-December. I was secret busy.)
 And I so wanted to show you. And now I can.

A big thanks to Janell, she did such a great job on the article and is so nice to work with...


 It gave me the big push I needed to get the gross boy's bath finished.  Here is the before of my ugly laminate bathroom...
and the after using the soon to be released Grace pattern and lots of stinky laminate paint...
There is also a step by step before and after how to.  
We found this old oak dresser for  free on the side of the road and accepted the challenge. A little paint, some 2" Harper O'verlays and reclaimed hardware from a different dresser...

 and some 1/2" thick Anne frames on the MALM...



 Check out  more here.  

(pg. 66-75 since I stink at knowing how to link specific stuff)
Let me know what you think!

I will be back soon in a bit with some other stuff...











Yay for the weekend!

I so need a little down time away from the computer and work.  I had a reality check yesterday while I was working in my office.  My kids were in the neighboring room playing with the babysitter.  I overheard this conversation ...

Joe (my 4 year old) to the BBsitter: "You pretend you're me and I'm Mom."
BB: "OK. Hi Mom"
Joe: "Ask me to play, OK?"
BB: "Do you want to play with me?"
Joe: "Not right now sweetie. I can't. I have to work on my computer. "

Daggers! Right in the heart!

I have had my ass glued in front of the computer all week trying to get brochures, CAD drawings and every other little annoying thing done that requires Photoshop and Illustrator and loads of hair pulling and the patience of Jove.  I am so done! Need a break! And the fact that my kids are role playing my neglect only makes it all the suckier.  So I am going to try to disconnect from it all for a day or two. 

I hope you all have a great weekend! I leave you with some of my faves from Pinterest.

This reminds me of my childhood. 
I used to read a book that had a stream in it and I always imaged it looked something like this.
Happy Deja-vu, I guess.

So cool. Would love to do this, but probably never will.

Ditto for this...

Peace out folks!

For all you list makers:The Whiteboard Alternative

As a person with A.D.D., I cannot live without my list.  I have about 5 floating around at all times, and I like to keep a master list in big plain site too.  
In my new office I didn't want to add more clutter with a white board.  I had a big mirror hanging over my desk and a bunch of whiteboard markers, so I improvised.  
Works great, and much prettier than a whiteboard.  

The only downside is now whenever I look at the mirror to check my list, I can actually see the overwhelm on my face and that I really need to tweeze the brows- need to add that to the list.

this next


 I have been banging my head against my cabinets wondering what to paint them for 2 years, even though I got the kibosh from the Mr. more times than I can recall.
 ( I block out "No" really well). What is it with men and wood anyway? And it isn't even real wood. 
So, I think this is it... 
Gloss. Navy. 
Its the new fake wood. 
Or so I say.

I have toyed with so many colors, from grays to bold persimmon, but navy works with my scheme and its a color but neutral all at the same time.
Here is some more glossy blue love that has me wanting to sign on the dotted line...
(navy and pinky lilac- my color combo of the month)


 Not navy at all, but it has me rethinking my exterior door...



Boy+Girl LR

Its winter, the time of year I am hyper-hyper focused on my house (mostly because I am in it all day).  Now that my office is off the living room I am well aware of all the loose ends going on in there, and my ADD is wanting to finish them. 
 So between work I am bopping back and forth and tying down my color scheme.  Blue (to make the men happy) and magenta/lilacs (to make me happy). The boy/girl scheme has had some teal and yellow babies too.  
Here is where I am at.  New painting underway...
 the painted entry wall...
  a new ottoman cover I am almost done sewing...
 and a bunch of pillows I am still on the fence with...
I have a few more things to paint and stitch up, but the color scheme is BRIGHT and totally making winter more bearable.   Hope to have this mammajamma finished by the end of the month. 

T.G.I.M.

Mondays generally suck, so lets celebrate that nonsense!
I have a new favorite drink, thanks to SOMA, a local restaurant... the SOMATINI. I recently went there with my niece Ashley to celebrate her birthday. We had one, went and got our nails did, and returned afterwards for a second.  I am telling you they are really that good.
 I decided to try to whip one up for myself this evening.
Super easy, and they made cooking dinner much more glamourous...

Blend a handful of cherries ( frozen or fresh) with the juice of one lemon and a bit of sugar.
Pour into a shaker with some ice and 1 1/2-2oz black cherry vodka (which I didn't have on hand because I never buy the flavor flave stuff, so I say  vodka or gin- still tastes GOOD). Shake and serve with a twist, enjoy.
PS... Lime juice would be perfect too.
PPS... if you are lazy or don't have a shaker throw the booze and ice in the blender and have it frozen.

doesn't my phone take amazingly crappy photos????

"Fiona"

Latest and greatest O'verlay. Hot off the press!
 She comes in 7x29 1/4", 7x22 1/2,  7x15 1/4" & 7 12 7/8". 
 More sizes to come.
Get her here.

*Hearts*

I found another pattern to obsess over thanks to Heather over at Love your Space...
Organic Compounds" by Kick.Stand.Press.  is just plain kick ass.

sing it with me... awwwwesome!

 I am also quite fond of their "Goodbye Seahorses".
Would love them on an acid yellow background for my boy's bath.

See more of their handiwork here.





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