interior design

diy burlap ottoman

My best friend and I were google searching like mad for a couple square ottomans for her living room. She wanted something unique, somewhat rustic and since she has 6 kiddos, it had to be durable. We also didn’t want to break the bank. As you can imagine, it was a hard find.

After some searching we got a little obsessed with burlap…

and in the end decided to make something ourselves out of the burlap seed sacks from her husband’s farm. They might be a little overbuilt (very heavy)…but at least her little ones can’t move them all of the place!

This was the beginning sketch;it ended up varying slightly as the design progressed.

It’s basically an mdf box with little rubber furniture feet from Home Depot.

I bought some 1″ upholstery foam and glued it to the outside of the box.

We found the cleanest used seed bags we could and cut them into strips a little wider than each side. Then folded the edges, glued them and stapled the fabric on the inside top edge and along the bottom.

For the top, we cut up some old wood from their barn.

We did end up making these storage ottomans…so the tops are removeable.

diy burlap wreath

We were recently introduced to burlap wreaths! And fell in love immediately of course. I decided to make a holiday gift project out of our new discovery and just finished making NINE as Christmas gifts for family and friends. I made sure to hand them out at Thanksgiving so everyone could display them during the holidays.

It only took about two evenings to complete. And by two evenings, what I really mean is that I worked on them on my living room floor while toddlers excitedly rummaged thru all of my supplies and did their best to “help”. By the end my four year daughter was arranging her own clusters of beads, tilting her head and saying…this looks beautiful, right Mommy? It was actually a delightful evening or two!

I decided there are enough tutorials on “how to make a burlap wreath” out there…so why crowd blogspace with my own rendition of exactly the same directions.

Here’s the blog I used:

http://www.lifeonmarsblog.net/2012/03/easy-burlap-wreath.html

I varied it a little during my mass production though. I was using burlap twine and hot glue by the end to adhere my embellishments…the wire just wasn’t working for me 🙂

Here are some photos of row + harlow wreaths…

diy beaded chandelier

We were recently searching for an inexpensive / easy to transport / chic chandelier for a friend’s out of town wedding…and as you can imagine there wasn’t a lot to choose from. The bride wanted a fixture to bring an ambience to their barn reception…not necessarily using it as “light” but more as a design element within the space. Finally, about 5 days before the wedding, we decided to just make our own!

We did some internet research on do it yourself chandeliers and eventually decided upon a beaded chandelier (see link below). We quickly headed to our local Lowes for a hanging wire basket and spray paint, and also to the local dollar store for an insane quantity of beaded necklaces.

If you try to make your own, I highly recommend purchasing necklaces close to the color you are spray painting. For our chandelier, we wanted it to be a mix of off-white and khaki, so we used silver and gold colored necklaces. This will save you time in the end…you won’t need to paint coat upon coat for coverage.

http://dollarstorecrafts.com/2010/05/make-a-beaded-chandelier/

image from tutorial…fun color!

We’re considering repainting our chandelier to a bright color now that the wedding is over and we don’t need it to be white anymore…maybe a bright yellow or blue like in the image shown above. Here are some shots of the one we made…we’ll post the pictures from the wedding photographer once we have them [udpated photo below]!

final installation

cottage style: kitchen & great room remodel

We just completed construction on phase one of living room and kitchen remodel project! To give you some background, our client bought an early 90’s style home in a great location (Ogden Dunes…yep, near the beach!), always dreaming of updating the interior but having a hard time getting things moving. She was open to just about anything…which was very exciting for us.

They wanted to open up their existing kitchen (see image below) which was small, closed off and a little awkard. They also wanted update their living room fireplace and foyer area. She had a picture cut out of a magazine she had been carrying around for awhile which showed the style she was looking for. It was a modern cottage/beach style interior…which we totally loved as well. It was very fitting for the area they lived in and since their home had great “bones”, we really had a lot to work with.

existing kitchen…not a lot of counter spaceand very closed off

existing kitchen bay window…wasted space and not really used

existing living room…nice cathedral clgs and large windowsbut not a lot of character at this point

check out this curved fireplace mantle…made of drywall!

existing foyer and stair

existing foyer light

Design Concept:

Floor Plan

Rendered PerspectiveEntry view from Foyer to new stone fireplace

Rendered PerspectiveView from Fireplace to new open kitchen bar

Rendered PerspectiveEntry into Kitchen with island and coffered wood ceiling

Rendered PerspectiveView from Kitchen bar to Great Room

Finished Great Room (Phase 1)

Finished Great RoomLook at those beautiful wood floorsand the the new fireplace w/built-ins!

Updated FoyerNew wood treads on stairs, woodwainscoting and chandelier

kitchen & living remodel – conceptual designs

This summer we completed a conceptual design for a kitchen and living remodel. Our client was originally just asking for help with paint colors…and of course I had to laugh! Not that we couldn’t help with just colors (we do that from time to time), but we could do so much more! I really just wanted to get a feel for what she really wanted for the space…what she loved about her home, what she didn’t love, and ultimately what sort of design aesthetic she was attracted to.

Design Concept:

repaint existing oak kitchen cabinets black

paint all existing cabinet pulls silver

repaint all wood trim white

install wood flooring thru-out

add a white wood wainscot with a chalkboard wall

built-in shelf for coffee display

install a tile backsplash

add a drum pendant light over kitchen table

a rug to “ground” the table

add a furniture style island with pendant lighting

(there is so much wasted space in the middle of the kitchen)

remove all existing drapery and install white blinds

remove all wood chairrail and wall covering borders and repaint walls

add white wood bookcases on both sides of fireplace

install track lighting to accent photography in specific locations

keep existing lamps, just replace the shades

add a shag rug to living room

buy one accent chair for reading in living room

and finally, a paint scheme of dark gray, tan, white, yellow and coral

Well, at first she was a little shell-shocked at all of the ideas…especially since she was just asking for paint colors. But she was also very much in love with all the ideas and the possibility that her home could actually be something better than she ever imagined! She also didn’t think her husband would ever get on board…especially with the idea of painting the kitchen cabinets.

A few days later she called me from the paint store and they were already buying the paint! I think in the end her husband really came around because we were able to visually show him our intent thru our conceptual designs and images. And if you look back at our design concept, there isn’t a whole lot of new and expensive items…besides the built-in bookcases, wood floors, and painting the cabinets. I don’t think they ever went thru with the wood floors either. But the rest was enough to completely change their space anyway!

Conceptual Drawings: