Boy Aquatic Themed Room

Love the orange pop wall and the subtle blue with orange and brown - fabulous!

Like the drawer unit - think the shelves look a bit awkward there as does the clock off to the side. And the stuff next to the drawers looks cluttered.



Loving the collage!



Very cool collage and the chair/pillow look good! The guy said he bought the art on iStock (vector files) for cheap and then dropped it on a color background in Photoshop to print - SMART!! (and cheap)

A close up - the chair's shape looks a bit odd in this picture...

Thoughts? Do you like the underwater idea? Do you like the light blue with chocolate and bight orange? Anything you would do different?

Cool Wall Art for a Nursery

Um.. I think these are awesome!! I think you could easily make these with cheap frames (i.e. $5 canvas backers at Ikea), wrapped in canvas/white fabric. Then it's just taking other fabric and cutting shapes and little triagnles. Love it! I think it's great for a boy nursery but could easily be for a girl nursery with just different colors.

I Know, I Know

I've been such the stranger. But honestly - i'm not DOING anything I hate to post too much! haha Let's see... i'm moved my priorities around a bit and made HOUSEKEEPER my#1 because we need it...

Other news: Austin has put the wood filler into the fan upstairs and plans to install the fan tonight - woo!

Other than that, we've put the washer/dryer for sale on Craigslist (the one that came with the house) - we've gotten one hit so far (only wanted 1 piece though) so we'll see.

That's all folks!! I will write tomorrow because I need some advice on a gallery i'm thinking of putting in the hallway!!! :)

So I Woke Up Motivated to Do "House Stuff"

Found a blog i'm in love, Bower Power, and it gave me SO many ideas. One is this... what do you do? Basically - you go buy 4 cheap beveled mirrors (ugly if it makes them cheaper, preferably smooth surfaces). You take them home and cover the mirror with newspaper/tape. You spray paint them your desired color (I would likely do black). Then you remove the paper and hang them in a cluser - voila - you have a "large" mirror on the CHEAP. I like it because you could easily increase the number for a larger space (do 6 or do 9), or turn them horizontal, or even do a cluster of different sized mirrors. Very cool, easy and cheap!

Note: This could be done in any room, but she did it in her dining room and I liked it. I could see it in a guest room... :)

Kitchen Renovations: Refacing Cabinets

Forgive me as i'm unsure where we found this... but we're VERY inspired by this kitchen!

BEFORE


AFTER


Clearly the remodeler spent LOTS of $ on cabinets to the ceiling, new cabinets with glass fronts, the granite slab against the back, the wood backsplash, moving the dishwasher, etc. Furthermore, I would not be interested in doing anything this extensive, certainly not in our first home. However, I think the greatest idea we got from it was for a refinishing...

So i've done a lot of research on cabinet refinishing/renovating/refacing and decided, depending on how much our home costs/how much we have for upgrades/etc. we may look at doing the cheapest option for the kitchen: refacing. This, "they" say can last for a long time and is the cheapest option. Basically it involves:

1. Removing all cabinets/drawers from the kitchen and sanding them all down.
2. Patching all holes of current hardware.
3. Priming them and painting them a color (we LOVE the color above). What color would you call that?
4. Adding new hardware (I heart the European Bar Pulls above).
5. Putting them back on.

Yes, that's very oversimplified, but I’ve found lots of people who did it on their own and I’m super, super inspired by them:

Kitchen #1
Kitchen #2
Kitchen #3
Kitchen #4

This is where I want to buy my hardware (per numerous recommendations online):

myknobs.com

Here are some job aids I like:
This Young House Tutorial
Ron Hazelton Tutorial
Lowes Tutorial

So what do you think? I'm so excited!!!