MY FAVORITE DESIGN TOOL

If I was a real designer and had a bag of tricks, this one would be at the top of my list!  I'm such a visual person, yet indecisive at times, that when I have an idea I really like to see what it might look like for real in my space. So, enter....photo editing!  With a photo of the space I'm working with, I turn to this tool over and over again. Last week when working on an arrangement for the artwork for my dining room , I played around on the computer before I framed one print or hammered one nail. Trying several different arrangements really gave me a feel of the look I wanted.  Clearly this would have been going overboard... I liked this one o.k. but it didn't add any height-everything felt short and squaty. I finally settled on this arrangement. Then I used painter's tape to put the prints on the wall, just to make sure I liked how it was looking in real life. And, the final product: Here are a few o......

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DINING ROOM ARTWORK

There's nothing like company coming to provide me a little motivation to finish up loose ends on projects.  Granted, our company this weekend will be around 15 6th grade boys and 3 college students, but still, visitors none the less.  (I will be forever grateful for any little prayers you might remember us in this weekend... 15. sixth. grade. boys.  For three days. With one shower for them all to share.  Oh yeah.) Are you tired of seeing my dining room yet?  I hope not, at least until I finish the last two projects for it.  After completing the china cabinet I finished up the next to the last project...artwork. I've told you I have tall walls (10 feet) so there was a pretty big space between the top of the china cabinet and the ceiling.  I considered putting something on top of the cabinet, but wanted to keep a cleaner look, and there's already enough stuff piled inside the cabinet without adding more to the top.  I thought abo......

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PINTEREST HOVER BUTTON

Happy Friday Friends! Just popping in today to show you this really cool feature.  Run your cursor over this photo... Did you see the Pinterest icon pop up in the center? I noticed this feature on Kelly's blog A Swell Place to Dwell the other day, and she kindly shared the link with instructions on how to add it.  (Click on that link...Kelly has painted a really cool green dresser also.  Go Green!) Now, this icon will show up on every image in your post, but there is a line you can add to your image code if you want to block the icon from showing up in that particular photo.  I think this would be courteous if you have borrowed a photo from someone else, so that their photo is pinned from the original source and not from your post.   Here's the link with instructions on adding this feature if you're interested for your blog.  Be sweet and be sure to click on over and pin from there if you want to save this for future reference.......

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MEET MY NEW FRIEND {FAUX DEER HEAD}

Thank you all SO MUCH for all of your sweet comments about the green china cabinet.   It was a lot of work, but a labor of love and I truly appreciate your encouragement along the way, and your excitement with me for the finished product!  Next week I'll have one more thing to show you in the Dining Room, and then we'll move on for a while.  This is my youngest sister Sarah and her BIG baby Denmark. She drew my name for Christmas, and I knew just what I wanted.  We both have come to love all things antlers and (faux) deer heads and this creative, resourceful girl figured out how to make her own!  I dropped some pretty good hints :), but still had no idea that she actually made one for me until she lugged a really big box into the living room while we were opening presents. She was nice enough to share how she did it with us, so I'll let her take it from here... * * * * * * * * * * Materials: floral foam bricks pop......

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GREEN CHINA CABINET

Well, here she is! After almost two full weeks of work (off and on), it's finally done, and I'm going to make you scroll through way too many pictures. Let's remember the very sad before... And the oh so fun after! I wanted to create a glam, sophisticated look and lighten up the inside, so I used my wedding china, crystal, some other white dishes and thrifted milk glass I've collected to style the shelves.  I like symmetry. Now for the details, I sanded, filled in gouges, sanded, wiped, and primed before painting three coats of color.  Yes, I can confirm that dark colors are tricky and take more paint.  The color I used was Behr's Pine Scent in semi-gloss.  I used a good Purdy brush for the corners and a foam roller for the rest.  Also, a huge trick I've learned when painting with latex paint is to use a coat or two of poly on the flat surfaces that will have something sitting on top of them.  Late......

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FIND GREAT DESIGN...AT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY

Over the Christmas break we took a day to visit a new local library that we had not been to yet.   I know that many of us enjoy nothing better than reading home design blogs, but sometimes there's nothing like cracking open the pages of a good ol' book. While Caleb was looking through shelves of books about Star Wars and Emily was looking for e-books to load on her Nook, I wandered over to the home improvement/design/decorating shelves.  I was pleasantly surprised at what I found!  These were just the 5 that I checked out, but there was shelf after shelf of great choices.  My favorite one that I actually read all of in one sitting was Lara Spencer's I Brake for Yard Sales.   I'll never tire of seeing trash turned to treasure, and what an eye this lady has for all kinds of design styles!  These pages were from Extraordinary Interiors , a book about incorporating salvaged items into a home's decor.  Look at all of the un......

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