Silver Baskets

I love this idea from Martha Stewart!  I will be spray-painting some old baskets of mine and giving them new life!

image via Martha Stewart

Sophie's Closet Redo

We spent this weekend redoing Sophie's closet. We needed a place to store her toys, clothes and linens and also be able to close the doors to make it "disappear". Enter The Container Store's Elfa closet system. I love its ease of assembly and its versatility! As she grows, we'll be able to remove shelves and add rods where necessary. Oh, and Darren got my a label maker for my upcoming birthday, so I was a happy little neat-freak this weekend!

Sophie's closet BEFORE

Sophie's closet AFTER.  All the toys were on the floor of her room, and now are in their own little bins.

I love my labelmaker!

Lath Feature Wall

I have been obsessed with doing a feature wall somewhere in my house using reclaimed lath. Turns out that a lot of free lath is available from demolitions. I'm still trying to convince Darren to let me drive into a slightly sketchy neighborhood in Baltimore to pick some up!

image via Erin Martin Design

image via Remodelista

image via Parliamentology's flickr

For a totally easy, step-by-step tutorial of making a feature wall from lath, see Remodelista's post here.

Rustic Serenity Bathroom

Look at this gorgeous bathroom remodel, spotted over at Design*Sponge. All the elements were thoughtfully chosen by the owners. I love the white brick wall, the reclaimed wood shelves, and the dresser-turned-vanity. This is totally my inspiration for my master bath one day!

all images via Design*Sponge

Homemade Linen Pinboard and Photo Display

Remember a while ago, I posted about a DIY Photo Display? Well, it's something that I've been wanting to do for a long time, but I wanted to cover an entire wall and couldn't find anyplace that sold bulletin boards in the large size that I needed. Pottery Barn sells big linen pinboards, but at $150 each, it would easily cost me over $1000 to cover my wall. Soooo...I made a wall-to-wall linen pinboard myself for about $100!

Darren and I are not handy people (we wish we were!). So, the fact that we were able to do this project speaks to how simple it really is. The only downside is that the boards are so huge and unwieldy that it's really a 2-person job. Other than that, it was a breeze! I'm thrilled with the results and am excited to share my tutorial with you:

Before: my little photo ledge looked a bit pathetic against that big blank wall.

1. Start off with a big sheet of Homasote.  This is compressed recycled paper that is commonly used for soundproofing.  It's the same size as a sheet of drywall (4 feet by 8 feet) and can be found at Home Depot or lumberyards for about $25 per sheet.  It's not heavy, but it is very big.  Because my wall was so large, I used two entire sheets.

2. Drape your homasote with the fabric of your choice.  You will need 3 yards of fabric to cover an entire sheet of homasote.  I chose white linen and this was the most expensive part of this whole project. It cost me about $65 for all of my fabric.  I've seen people do this with patterned fabric too and that can be very pretty, but it's hard to line up the pattern with the edge of the board.

3. Using a staple gun, staple the fabric to the board.  I used binder clips to hold my fabric up as I stapled.  When I got close to the binder clip, I would remove it and stretch the fabric with my free hand while stapling with my other hand.  Make sure you are pulling the fabric as you go, to ensure a smooth surface.

4. Once the fabric is all stapled, trim off the excess fabric so that you don't have a bunch of loose fabric in the back.  Then, flip the homasote board over and pre-drill holes where you want the screws to be.  I made three holes along the top and three on the bottom.

5. Line up the board against the wall exactly where you want it to go.  This can be very hard if you are using a huge board, like I am.  To manage this, I decided to use my dining table to hold up my board and pushed the board flush up against the wall.  Using the drill again, drill through the holes on the homasote right into the wall.  You are marking the wall where the drywall anchors will go (sorry, I forgot to take a picture of this).  Put the homasote board back down and install drywall anchors.

6. Put the homasote board back up, right back in the exact spot where you had it last against the wall.  All the holes should now line up with the drywall anchors.  Screw the board in using drywall anchors and finishing washers (optional).  Once you line up one hole, all the other ones should be a breeze.

Drywall anchor and finishing washer.  I intend to cover these up with photos.

Voila!  Here's the finished project!  I love how it easy it will be to add and change pictures.  Plus, I won't need to spend money on frames every time I want to print out new pictures.  We often have guests over and I think it will be fun for people to look through our family photos and see how we've changed over the years.  I'm looking forward to making new memories to add to our new photo wall!

A Well-Stocked Pantry

image via Design*Sponge

One of these days....when my girls are a few years older and less likely to grab things off the shelves...I'm going to have this pantry in my dining area.

Master Bedroom Redecoration

Darren and I have been so busy and productive, but I haven't had a chance to show you the fruit of our labor until now. We've spent a lot of time redecorating our master bedroom (the last frontier in our home) and now it's pretty much done! One motivator was that, once the new baby arrived, we'd have no energy for another 2 years to tackle anymore projects. Here are the pics...enjoy!

My awesome dad hemmed these curtains for me, but I accidentally asked for them too short. I might readjust the length.

I've rearranged and moved around a lot of accessories from other parts of the house. Here, the mirrors used to be in the dining room and the lamp was on my bedside table.

We only have 3 bedrooms, so now our master bedroom has to double as an office. I'm trying to keep it as clutter-free as possible. Lucite accessories work well, as they don't take up visual space.

We got an awesome deal on this armoire...from $1800 to $500 at the now-defunct Big Pagoda in San Francisco.

Pom-Pom Fringe Curtains

Here's yet another easy idea I'm stealing off the internet for Sophie's (and possibly the new baby's) room. Martha Stewart shows how to easily affix a pom-pom trim to sheer linen curtain panels for a whimsical and custom-made look. The best part is, if you don't know how to sew (raising my hand here), you can just use fabric glue! I can just imagine this in about a dozen color combinations.

images via Martha Stewart

Black Doors/I love Springtime!

As I alluded to in a recent post, I finally took the plunge and painted all of our interior doors a high-gloss black. And boy, am I glad I did it! Even Darren, who was skeptical, agrees it was the most bang-for-our-buck renovation that we've done so far. It makes all the rooms look "decorated" and very chic!

Here is a standard, cheapo contractor-grade door before.

And here's a shot from our front door of a couple of black doors, after. Sorry I don't have more photos to share right now!

On a different note, I LOVE SPRING! Look at all the pretty flowers!

Sophie's Big Girl Room

Why, hello friends! I know I've been a horrible blogger in the past few weeks, posting once, maybe twice a week. And with pathetic entries, too. Well, I have a good reason (I promise). We've been so busy lately putting up two closet systems, emptying out our former office, and converting it into Sophie's big girl room. All the hard work paid off though, because I...am...in...love with her new room!

Here is the ugliness that was Darren's office before. And this is much cleaner than it usually looks.

Halfway done cleaning.

"S" is for....well, you know...
The industrial metal letter "S" is from Anthropologie. We had all of our interior doors painted a hi-gloss black last weekend.

Ta-dah! Everything is done except for the window treatment. I'm thinking of doing bamboo blinds or roman shades.

The absolute best part of her room is the bookshelf wall. Sophie's first words when she saw this today were, "WOW. Cool."

The "Van Gogh" above the shelves is actually an oil reproduction in a gold gilt frame, given to us by Darren's parents. It lends a whimsical and colorful touch to the room, and emphasizes the high ceilings.

This handpainted dresser was bought by my sister at a yard sale for about $20. I changed out the knobs for ceramic ones from Anthropologie.

She just can't get over seeing all her books like this!

And finally, no more stuffed animals please! They are the bane of my existence. I use these wicker baskets to corral them all.

Cream-Colored Bedroom

image via House Beautiful

I've been staring at this image of Ina Garten's Manhattan bedroom for a while now, mesmerized by the simplicity and tranquility of the space. I think I'll repaint the room a cream color first, then reupholster my headboard in a cream linen. Random thoughts (sorry!) for my design inspiration files.

Ming Cabinet

For our honeymoon back in 2006, Darren and I drove down the California coast. We went from Monterey/Carmel through Big Sur, all the way to Santa Barbara. Before we flew home, we spent one day exploring San Francisco. One store I discovered was Big Pagoda, a purveyor of contemporary asian-inspired furniture, right outside the gate to Chinatown. The furniture was unlike any I'd ever seen...asian, but not too ornate or lacquered or garish. It was simple, well-crafted and elegant. Alas, the price tags were way out of my budget.

Ming Cabinet, from $1800 to $500

Well, the other day, I checked in on their website and discovered that they were going out of business! I browsed around and found an armoire that I loved and did a double-take when I saw the discounted price. It was 75% off! I've been corresponding with the owner and today, the cabinet is mine! Since Darren insists on keeping a television in the master bedroom, this is going to corral all his peripherals and maybe some bed linens too. I can't wait to show everyone the finished room once it's all redecorated!

Master Closet Reorganization

I finally achieved my first major New Year's resolution...reorganizing our master bedroom closet. Darren and I have to move things out of the home office to convert it into a bedroom for the new baby, so we're consolidating two bedroom closets into one. This was major work, as it entailed existing closet demo, designing/building an IKEA Pax wardrobe system, and majorly editing our clothes (a process which was very overdue). I'm finally done and I absolutely love the results!

The final result. I'm going to hang a lightweight, tall mirror at the back wall.

Before: Darren's side of the closet

After: Darren's side

Before: Mily's side

After: Mily's side

My favorite feature: a jewelry tray. No more tangled necklaces!