Category Archives: Mantels
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: Bungalow Fireplace Gets Creative Additions
Yesterday I showed you this before and after picture of the vintage bungalow we’ve been slowly touring…
Today, I’ll finish this fireplace area with a few very creative additions. 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.
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…
Mantels: The 'Hearth' of the Home
Oh boy, kinda corny, huh? Oh well. But certainly the mantel and hearth do have a ‘heart of the home’ feeling. Typically, they’re the focal point of the main room in the house. That’s why we love to decorate them.
This was how I decorated the mantel in the living room of ‘Our House’ for the summer… So for the fall, I changed it around just a little bit and now it totally has a warm fall feel, take a look: Read On…
Putting it into Words: DIY Tips on Making a Good Vignette… it can be an Odd Balancing Act
Ever have something that you’re good at, but when someone asks you to explain how to do it, you struggle with being able to put it into words?
I’ve struggled with that too, especially several years ago, before I started to decorate for hire. I had natural ability to create but really hadn’t ‘wrapped my mind around’ exactly what it was that made one arrangement or vignette look so much better than the next.
It took me many years of studying, both books, and pictures, plus doing and re-doing many, many arrangements, vignettes and hanging artwork to be able to ‘get it’.
I was constantly asking myself, (yes, out loud sometimes) what did I like or not like about this or that vignette, until I was finally able to put it into words…
So here are a just a couple of tips that on what I’ve learned to make vignettes or arrangements look great.
Our House… Living Room Mantel… Before, Before and After!
I just realized this is the third time I’ve posted about “Our House” living room mantel. (And I’ve learned the correct way to spell it too! I always thought it was mantle…nope, it’s mantel.)
The first post was the Christmas mantel, the second was the Valentine’s mantel, and now this third post which is going to be a two-fold post about the mantel.
First, in my determination to ‘lighten up’ the living room, I decided to change the usual, non-holiday mantel display, with a lighter approach. So to start here’s what it recently used to look like:
This photo was taken just before my quest started to ‘lighten up’ the living room, (which I share both the window treatments before and after, and the tutorial on making them). The two art glass pieces on each side of the mantel are very special to me. Both are gifts from two of my kids, so before I replaced them with something else I needed to secure a special place for them elsewhere. With that accomplished, here’s what my mantel looks like now: Read on…
Lovin' this Valentine's Day Fireplace Mantel
Our friend, Beth from one of my favorite blogs Home Stories A 2 Z announced she’s hosting a link party featuring Valentine’s Day mantels. She has no idea how perfect that timing was for me. You see I really wanted to post a dining tablescape for Valentine’s Day, but due to the huge Read on…
