How My New Home Office Came to Be . . . 

by in Home Love Stories 13

Hi Neighbors! It’s been a while! The past few months have been very busy for our family, around our home & new adventures for our kids(young adults!). We installed New flooring in the Kitchen and Living Room which I have already posted. My husband and I fell in love with the color & style of the floors, that we decided to have the same flooring laid in our Master Bedroom and my Daughter’s room on the second floor of our home. 

After our contractor laid the floors, and the room was empty, I decided to give the wall a fresh coat of light gray paint and repaint the white trim a brighter white. Then we moved all my daughter’s furniture back in her room. Her New bedroom looked so bright and refreshing. I should have taken some photos. So, about 2 weeks after all the renovations in her room, she decided that wanted to move out and get an apartment. That was not expected so soon! But, I am so proud of my Megan . . . wanting her independence. (She really is only a hop, skip and a jump from us, which we are very happy about. I actually see her more now than when she lived at home! So towards the end of April, I moved my home office from a small section in our Family Room to my own space. I’m having a lot of fun working on the progress of this room between work & family. So this is what I have done so far. 🙂

BEFORE. . .

AFTER . . .

I will have more updates on the rest of the my office space. What to do with enclosing the closets?? Wood bi-fold doors or Drapes? Any suggestions?? 

The Graduate

by in Home Love Stories 3

Hello everyone.  What a strange year I have had since I Iast posted. My ex husband died and left his house to our son Alexander.  It has taken a huge amount of work to make it habitable.  Alexander moved into the house with his girlfriend about 6 weeks ago.  Then last week he graduated from university with a first class honours degree in music technology He has set up his own business doing the lighting and sound for music events and it seems to be working well so far. Tony and I are empty nesters now and my craft stash has expanded to fill aAlexander’s old room.

Sliding Door

by in DIY Home Projects, Home Love Stories 2

This was a “One Thing Lead to Another” project that happened after finishing our built-in bookcase in the office. The swinging door had been off for months while the bookcase was being built. In fact, I liked it off. It made the office feel bigger and more accessible. And mistakes of all mistakes, when the bookcase was finished and the swinging door went back on, the bookcase was completely covered by the door! So this happened.

We don’t always get the opportunity to repurpose materials in projects, but we had saved this door for a handful of years with the idea that someday it would work somewhere.

Even though the door is almost always open, we wanted to offer privacy inside and used a spray for a frosted glass finish.

Inside the office: the sliding door and the built-in bookcase.    Plus the gong has a new home 🙂

Entryway Update

by in Home Love Stories 3

I was inspired to update my entryway after reading Melissa Michaels book The Inspired Room. Specifically, to add a lamp and layer objects, using a newly purchased wooden red tray.

Before, a somewhat seasonal rotation of décor, no welcoming light for evening and night, a bit tired and bland. The grandkids are allowed one “gong“ each, per visit. But sometimes we get carried away anyway.

The red wooden tray was a find at Christmas and fun to use to corral a wintry scene. The sparkle of Christmas faded into a dull January and I knew I was ready for a change.

The whale’s tail hits the mark for Spring and Summer. Maybe I’ll replace it with a globe in September before the Fall pumpkins return.  

Can You Fall In Love With Fabric?

by in Home Love Stories 4

I don’t think I can confess to the amount of hours I spend looking at decorating magazines and blogs,, and searching the internet for inspiration. It is amazing how my style can be influenced subliminally by frequently seen images. For a very long time my favorite movie was “You’ve Got Mail.” One day I realized my living areas looked an awful lot like Meg Ryan’s apartment. 

Most of my redecorating involves paint, fabric and thrifty finds from yard sales, Craigslist and Ebay. Throw in some repurposing of furniture and moving things I already own from room to room. The chair pictured above was purchased on Ebay years ago…I loved the chair design but.the cushions that came with it were rather flimsy…I had lived with them for years.. A recent jolt of confidence in my skills prompted me to improve the chair to make it more suitable for our living room. 

I replaced the back cushion with a larger more substantial pillow. I looked online and found a site where I could order foam for the cushion cut to order (http://www.thefoamfactory.com/). I chose foam that was three inches thick, more than double the existing cushion. 

 Choosing the fabric at first left me a little insecure. I wanted something that was both traditional and modern, neutral but not solid. Looking at fabric for days online wasn’t enough. I couldn’t tell the weight of the fabric . So off I went to Joann’s to just browse….I was not ready to buy….this decision was going to take more time. Wrong! I browsed the bargain fabric first and nothing spoke to me. So I headed back to the upholstery fabrics. When I saw this fabric I knew it was “the one.” I loved the weight, the texture, the design. I walked away to look at other selections, but came back just two minutes later and decided this was it. A 40% off sale helped to seal the deal. I was in love and taking the plunge. 

My sewing skills are rudimentary, but I can sew a pretty good removable pillow casing. It was finished within hours of arriving home from Joann’s.  I put it on the chair when finished and took pictures to send to my daughter. Lots of pictures. It took a while longer but I managed to sew a removable cover for the seat cushion too, It’s not perfect but I love the results. 

 I am not sure about pairing the accent pillow with the chair (it was made from two placemats from Target) and I don’t ever decorate with teddy bears. It was a gift from a three year old girl for Valentine’s Day. So sweet.

 I do love the way my chair turned out. I already have plans to incorporate the fabric into slipcovering my Pottery Barn sofa without spending a thousand dollars. Stay tuned!

Ready for Spring

by in Home Love Stories 10

I need a little refreshing for spring but I need some advice. We recently moved the tv from above the fireplace to this wall and put this chest below it but I’m not loving the red color of it. Should I paint it lighter or darker, like a navy? Thank you in advance :)

These two look sweet in this picture but most of the time my house is a race track (mostly from Dillon the blue dog). My English Lab Rosalee is very sweet and lazy. 

OK so I’m taking everyone’s advice and I took the chest to a consignment store this morning because I ordered the table that Kristin recommended and it should be here sometime today.  Now I may need some help decorating it but I will update once I get it put together and in place. Thank you all again for being so nice but honest with your feedback!

Our new puppy

by in Home Love Stories 9

I am pleased to introduce you to our new Weimaraner puppy, Sunny. We got him two days before Christmas and he has been so much fun to raise so far. Unfortunately, we had the sudden loss of our beloved 8.75 year old Great Dane, Jolly, in early December. This left an opening for a new dog to join our family and he has helped us heal, somewhat. Sunny has just graduated puppy kindergarten on Feb 20, and will be 4 months old this Friday. He is growing like a weed now, as you can see by the second photo! Hope you enjoyed meeting the little guy – he is a snuggle bunny 🙂

Hanging Wall Clocks

by in Home Love Stories 4

I have always like hanging wall clocks, but they can be expensive and hard to find the style I like: vintage style.  I have a few standing vintage style clocks around the house that I didn’t know what to do with.  I found 2 decorative wall brackets in a nicely large size at Hobby Lobby on sale for around $7 bucks each.  So with 4 appropriate nails, a hammer and screwdriver I used a ladder to mount the brackets up on both sides of the entrance to my kitchen;  I then used 2 S hooks to hang two clocks up.  Now one can see the time/tell the time 5 times in my kitchen because now it has one wall clock, two hanging clocks, one on the microwave, and one on the stove.  But one doesn’t hear the ticking sounds from clocks or digital clocks.  And the 5 sources are in sync at telling time so all is good.  //(~!*)\

New Home: Needing Advice

by in Home Love Stories 7

My small family and I moved into this home a few months ago and we are so excited to get started on renovations. We painted the inside and put in hardwood floors and a set of french doors to the patio. Our next project—in the coming months—will be the exterior paint colors including new windows, shutters, and window boxes. I need advice on paint colors. We are considering painting the brick too since it only goes halfway up. I love a cottage/farmhouse look and all things white and ocean colors in the inside. Please let me know if you have any suggestions! Thank you!