Anthro

I love Anthropologie's store displays.

These flowers are made from cut up plastic bottles.

Marshmellows!

And my favorite:

I took a 3D Sculpture class in college and we often had to make sculptures out of everyday objects. Whoever makes these displays would have rocked that class. 

Pumpkin Decor

After dropping Riley off at school last week, I stopped by our local nursery and found the prettiest pumpkins. 

I also found this little purple plant. I have no idea what it is. If any of you are gardeners let me know! It has the most beautiful leaves. I am just hoping I can remember to water it.

I especially liked this gray pumpkin. I had never seen a gray pumpkin before.

And the little white pumpkins are so cute.

Since Riley wasn't with me to pick out these pumpkins, we decided to take her to a pumpkin patch farm over the weekend. My husband has been out of the country for a week so Riley and I headed to NC to hang out with my family. We went to Ganyard Hill Farm in Durham and Riley had a blast. 

And, we got to bring home more pumpkins!

 

Pumpkins are a quick and easy way to transition to Fall without going overboard. How do you decorate for Fall?

I'm a finalist! And I would love your vote!

I entered this cabinet makeover in the Design Refuge September Challenge and I am one of the finalists!

I could really use your vote! And your friend's votes :) Head on over to Design Refuge to check out the competition and cast your vote! 

A little bit of orange

Tuesday's post was about remote control storage and I meant to post my latest solution yesterday but the day got away from me. I had a few minutes to take photos this morning so here it goes.

I found this box at a craft store. It is meant to transport and hold art supplies. I liked the size and knew it would be pretty easy to transform.

I removed the hardware on the front of the box

and filled the holes with wood filler.

Then I primed, painted and applied several coats of high gloss polyurethane.

I also used some charcoal gray felt to line the inside compartments.

A couple of you mentioned a universal remote in the last post. That is definitely a great way to reduce the clutter of remotes. But, even so, I would still want to hide the remote. The great thing about this box is it is roomy enough to hold several remotes or just one large one. The extra compartments also allow to you corral other miscellaneous items. 

It's such an easy way to add a little color to a room.

If it doesn't work in my client's house, I will be happy to keep it myself :)

Have you seen the remote?

Today's topic is probably not high on most people's list of interests or concerns, but it is one of my pet peeves....

the remote control.

It's not the remote itself that bothers me, but the lack of designated storage for the remote. In this day and age, there are some people that have 4-5 remote controls to work their complex audio systems. There is a remote for the TV, a remote for the cable/satellite box, a remote for the DVD player, a remote for video game consoles, etc, etc, etc. The result is remote controls in between the couch cushions, underneath chairs and sprawled across coffee tables. I have spent a ridiculous amount of time looking for misplaced remote controls in my house. A few months ago, I decided to rectify this problem by providing storage specifically for the remote controls.

In our living room we use this old divided drawer. 

 

I don't love that you can still see the remotes, but at least they have a designated place. Riley loves this box and uses it to store her crayons and rocks and other miscellaneous items. 

In our sunroom, we use this box that I found at Luckett's back in May.

It is perfect because it has a nice drawer to hold all of the remotes completely out of sight. 

These solutions are working great for us. Much less time spent looking for the remote and even Riley knows where they belong. I am working on accessorizing a living room for a client and wanted to provide them with remote control storage. They have a more contemporary feel to their room so I needed something less rustic than the aged wooden boxes I have been using. 

A quick google search for remote control storage brought up this beauty.

Um, I think I would rather keep my remotes between the couch cushions. I am sure these are really practical, but there has to be a better solution. The point is to hide the remotes - not make them stand out!

I saw this on Amazon.

I like the idea and the price but don't love the style of the faux leather and the picture cut out. 

Jonathan Adler has remote control storage on the brain too and offers this Stash box.

So cute but it is out of stock in all of the good colors and at $78.00 I think it is a little too pricey. So, I have decided to create a DIY version of a remote control storage box for my client. Check back tomorrow to see the outcome! Do remote controls everywhere drive you crazy too? Do you have designated storage or just let them stay wherever they land? 

We had a perfect weekend.

The kind that involved relaxing on the couch,

eating yummy food,

 and working around the house just enough to make us feel productive despite all of the football that we watched.

We hung this light fixture in Riley's bedroom and I love it! Every time we turn the light on she says, "BEAUTIFUL light!" As you can tell by the empty curtain rod, we have a ways to go in this room before it will be finished, but I know the light is already going to be my favorite part. 

So far this Monday has not been near as perfect as our weekend - car trouble, annoying miscommunications, and a much needed toddler nap disrupted by the doorbell. Not good. At least Monday is almost over :) 

It's finally Fall!

Johanna S. Brandt Architecture | Nicklas Rudfell Photography

And this weekend it is supposed to get down into the 30s/40s at night. It may be time for our first fire! If only our fireplace was as gorgeous as this one...

Happy Fall, y'all!

Before and After - Dining Room Cabinet

Today's before and after is one of my most difficult yet rewarding projects to date. I have been working on it for a few weeks and am forever grateful to my husband (and our friend, Hunter!) for helping me all weekend or I never would have been able to complete it. I bought this cabinet back in June from a wonderful store in my hometown of Burlington, NC. One of my readers, Melissa, asked for my favorite places to shop in my hometown and The Gingham Daisy is by far my new favorite place to go! The owners were so sweet and they have great stuff! I can't wait to go home again so I can stop by! They gave me a great deal on this cabinet and I also scored an amazing light fixture for Riley's bedroom that I will share with y'all soon. Below is a before picture of the base of the cabinet that I showed you last week.

There are actually two top cabinets that sit on top of the base. 

Each cabinet had 6 glass panels with images of Greek gods inserted behind the frames. 

I was immediately intrigued by the cabinet and admired the thoughtfulness someone had obviously put into building it. That being said, I am not really into Greek gods as decor, so I knew I would make some changes to the cabinet. When I bought it, I had no idea what I would do with it but I knew it had too much potential to let it go. My husband hauled the cabinet home for me and it sat in our dining room for the past 3 months. 

About two weeks ago inspiration struck and I got to work. Because our dining room doesn't get a lot of natural light I wanted to use mirrors to brighten the room. I had seen cabinets like this one by Oly and decided to try to recreate this look.

Oly

This is what the cabinet looks like now!

I painted the cabinet white and had mirror cut to size at Lowes. I used liquid nails to attach the mirrors over the glass panels and then my husband cut molding to make the decorative pattern on top of the mirror. The molding is attached with super glue. 

The cabinet has great hardware

and unbelievable storage.

It even has lined drawers for silver. If only I had some silver :)

One of the cabinets folds down like a secretary. I used some leftover Imperial Trellis wallpaper to line the back of the cabinet and turned it into a bar. 

I am so happy with the end result but it was a LOT of work!

Let me know what you think! 

*Want more before and afters? Check out Design Refuge's September challenge!

Yesterday

Yesterday was a really long and busy day. I had a client meeting in the afternoon that involved new drapes, pillows and banquette cushions. Thankfully, everything looked beautiful when I was done so I was ready to celebrate and it just so happened to be my husband's birthday! We decided to go out with friends to a local Mexican restaurant. 

We celebrated with margaritas,

tacos 

and a sombrero!

(I remember a similar celebration involving a sombrero, tequila and my friend Suzanne when we were actually in Mexico many years ago, but that is a whole other story....)

Anyway, it was a fun night and a great way to celebrate Paul's 37th birthday!

In other news, Riley had her first school pictures this week. Being mommy of the year, I totally forgot that it was picture day and showed up late with Riley's hair looking like a rat's nest. Riley is still adjusting to the "drop off" each morning and there are always tears involved. The teachers swear that she stops crying a few minutes after I leave but after looking at these pictures I am not sure I believe them.

They either took the pictures right after I left and she hadn't recovered yet or my child cries all day long at school. I love that Jellycat Cow made the picture too since he is practically another student. I expect that they will start charging me tuition for him soon. 

Our weekend plans involve yet another project.

I hope it is successful so I will have something to show you next week.

Have a great weekend!

Thoughts on Paint

I received this comment from Meg recently:

"Can you do a post about kinds of paints that are best to use? I never know, I have all this wood furniture I want to paint white, like my daughter's little table and chairs, but not sure what kind of paint to use - have you had good or bad paint experiences?"

 I have actually had a few people ask me a similar version of this question over the years and it is a hard one to answer since every situation is different, but here are my general rules of thumb.

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Furniture

DecorPad

Martha Stewart

Little Green Notebook

When painting furniture I usually use a semi-gloss or high gloss paint.

Sarah Richardson

I usually prime first to make sure the new paint will stick. I always do at least two coats of paint and sometimes I follow up with a coat of polyurethane to make it really shiny.

Claire Watkins

However, your furniture needs to be in pretty good condition if you are going to use a glossy paint because the gloss will show nicks, scrapes and scratches. I really hate sanding but sometimes it is necessary to get the clean, glossy look you want.

House Beautiful

When using semi-gloss and high gloss paint, you may notice that you can see brush strokes. To avoid this, use a foam roller on large areas and a foam brush to fill in little nooks and crannies.

House Beautiful

You can also spray paint your furniture to avoid brush strokes. Spray painting is a much faster way to paint but it is really easy to get drip marks. Try to paint several light coats instead of a few heavy coats. 

 Krista Ewart | House Beautiful

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Walls

When it comes to painting walls, I usually opt for flat paint.

Elle Decor

Steven Gambrel

House and Home 

People say that flat paint is harder to clean but with the invention of the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, I no longer have to worry about that problem. I like the depth of flat paint on a wall and I like that it hides imperfections. I have started using an eggshell finish in my bathrooms, but I use flat paint everywhere else.

Despite my love for a flat wall, I do really like the look of these lacquered walls.

Elle Decor

Miles Redd

Todd Romano

Steven Gambrel

I have never used this finish before but I am definitely considering it. There is something about these rooms that just feels so grand. 

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Preferences

Favorite paint brand: Benjamin Moore, Benjamin Moore, Benjamin Moore! I'm sorry but I love their paint colors and I think their paint covers better than most. Even though it costs a little more, it is worth it!

Paint to avoid: I have had a bad experience with semi-gloss Valspar paint from Lowes on furniture. I have used it twice and both times it had horrible coverage even though I primed first. I have never used Valspar paint on walls so I don't know about the quality in that application, but I will not be using it on furniture again.

Favorite spray paint: I actually do like Valspar spray paint in high gloss lacquer for furniture. I don't know why the spray paint works when the regular paint doesn't but that is how it has been in my experience. The spray lacquer has nice coverage and leaves a nice shiny finish.

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So, that is my two cents worth on paint. I am sure none of this is very enlightening but this is my usual approach when picking a type of paint. I hope that helps answer your question, Meg! If anyone has anything to add please leave a comment!