Category Archives: Living Room
Our House: Wet Bar Cabinet Stencil Project
Right in the middle of painting my new wet-bar cabinets, I was contacted by Royal Design Studio to post a little something about their stencils.
Well, perfect timing! I wanted to add a little bit of something to the two cabinet doors, and they offered me to select one of their lovely stencils…
(yesterday I showed you some details I decorated on the shelf above the wet bar, click here if you missed that post)
I selected the Wicker Stencil because I thought it sort of mimicked the click here to read the rest of the story…
Our House: Wet Bar Details
Last time I showed you the fun before and after pics of our new wet-bar in the lower level family room at ‘Our House’.
To create loads of character in this corner, we built in new things, like the barn sash window and beadboard. But we also added in vintage or vintage inspired items too. click here to read the rest of the story…
Our House: Wet Bar Finished!!!
Yay! The family room is done… finally! I’ve been working away on it, little bit by little bit for most of the winter. (I’ve still got a few projects to show you, but it’s is done!!)
I’ve worked on several different projects this winter/spring, from painting, to making a canning jar chandy, to getting a new sectional and creating a huge folding screen for it with vintage plantation shutters, making a new more neutral window treatment, and re-doing a table and chairs set I found on Craigslist, and installing a wide plank laminate floor, making a sign from old fence boards, re-doing a tennis themed folding screen, making numbered pillows, confessing my secret to an easy fireplace, and having a lot of fun moving around the furniture to create a sort of ‘Ralph Lauren meets 1900 Boy’s Club’ style room.
So here’s how and what I did in, what was once, this boring corner of the family room. click here to read the rest of the story…
Someone Else’s House: Amazing Attic Remodel (part 2 of 2)
Yesterday I left you right here, with the change in the living room of this attic remodel, if you missed that you can click here to read about it.
So let’s pick it up from here… click here to read the rest of the story…
Someone Else’s House: Amazing Attic Remodel (part 1 of 2)
Update!!!
Here is the before and after of the amazing attic… this is the living room, that’s the room below the attic…
Well, it really isn’t even fair to call it a ‘remodel’ because it was just an attic with a little hatch in the ceiling of the 2nd floor for access.
Then once up there, it was completely unfinished space with insulation on the floor.
Whose house is it?
Well, it’s my son’s house in Columbus, Ohio. This is a vintage circa 1930’s duplex in the Grandview area of Columbus.
I don’t have any before pics, just updated with the one before pic… and here are a few details of his amazing work and creativity, and how he transformed this completely unused space into a remarkable whole other additional floor with 3 more rooms to add to his house!
I just have to start by saying although this probably isn’t the way most people would start, my son is quite adventurous and willing to try just about anything, usually approaching a project and ‘figuring it out’ as he goes along… This was no exception to that system he’s perfected… (and by the way, he’s not a carpenter by trade, he’s an engineer… and specializes in computer software, but honestly, can do just about anything you put before him… ok, enough bragging)
So as the story goes, one evening when a couple buddies were over, click here to read the rest of the story…
Someone Else’s House: Drastically Change a Vintage Fireplace with Paint and a Little Bit of Fabric
Can you believe it? The same fireplace in in both these pictures, and no structural changes were made… just a little bit of paint and fabric… and elbow grease.
Yes, this is what they started out with: click here to read the rest of the story…
Our House: A Fireplace with a Few Confessions…
In the family room at ‘Our House’ I recently installed a fireplace and brick chimney chase all by myself!
You maybe noticed it in this picture I showed you a little bit ago when I told you how I turned these plantation shutters I found on Craigslist into a giant folding screen behind the sectional.
Well, there on the right is the brick chimney and fireplace I installed, all totally on my own.
DIY Pillows… Count Your Pillows, One by One…
And in case you lose count… no worries, because they have numbers on them to help you out.
For these pillows I started out on my click here to read the rest of the story…
Our House: Family Room Entry Gets a New Floor, and I Love It!!
When we bought ‘Our House’ 15 or so years ago, the lower level was unfinished. We spent that first summer getting it finished. Since then, though I’ve changed the wall treatments, furniture and light fixtures… (a few times) I haven’t changed the flooring. (not counting rugs)
We originally purchased really good quality flooring and since it’s a lower level family room, it doesn’t get beat up like a main level floor would.
However…
And that’s a big however! Even though it was still in great shape, I am sick of it!
The carpet part of the room is still fine. It’s super neutral and has a ‘cable knit sweater’ pattern to it that I still like. But the vinyl by the patio door, that’s a different story. At the time it was awesome, sort of retro styled, but I am just so sick of the green and pattern.
Yep! We decided to replace the vinyl with laminate, (ok… so who’s the ‘we’ in we? click here to read the rest of the story…
Our House: Easter Mantel
I wasn’t going to decorate the mantel this year for Easter… I had just updated it a little bit for Spring/Summer, although I don’t know what inspired me, certainly not the weather…
We’ve had so, so, so much snow this winter… the ground has been buried under feet of the stuff for months, and if I didn’t have as many years of life experience concerning winters in NW Wisconsin, I may doubt that Spring will ever come. But I know from history, that spring eventually will win out and arrive… right?
I had finished some Easter decorating with fun DIY projects this year, but that is all for the dining room… and I guess I felt that we needed a little bit of Easter décor in the great room too.
So here’s what I came up with: click here to read the rest of the story…
