Same House, Different Quick Fix

 Bookshelf before:

Bookshelf After:

Before I even saw the fireplace at my friend's home, I saw the gorgeous wall to wall bank of built in bookshelves  with storage below. Let me paint the picture of this cozy family room: comfy couches, soft carpet, huge gabled window to the outside that frames a beautiful maple, large fireplace, piano, books, games and throw blankets. I can imagine how much quality family time this room enjoys, it's the perfect setting.

To start, the bookshelf was great, filled with photos, memorabilia, books and book collections.  I loved the large black and white photos covering the backboard.  Said friend and I started tinkering (well, mostly me with her wondering why I continually get sidetracked), and realized that there was just a lot of stuff on the shelves.  The first thing you see when you walk in the room are the shelves, and while it was family friendly and family filled, there was too much.

I suggested that she limit the palette of the pottery pieces on the shelves, rearrange the books and streamline the memorabilia. She did this all in one day all on her own and I think it looks fantastic!  The pottery, photos and memorabilia she left on the shelves stand out and have more space for viewing and touching.  The books look so organized in an effortless manner.

Other tips:

• arrange books in order of height
• bring book spines close to the edge
• give items space

Take a look at your bookshelves or display shelves, do you need a friendly opinion on how they might be improved? Better yet, send me a picture and we can blog about it!

Quick Fix

Quick post today about a quick fix.  A friend invited me over to take a look at her front porch (more on that later), of course I became side tracked as she gave me the tour of her lovely home.  She has recently had this beautiful fireplace redone including the mantle, the photos don't do it justice.  But neither did the small scale items she had place on the mantle. 

By simply removing the small items and finding some great pottery/crocks that she had in her cupboards, we gave her mantle a very quick fix. Cost:  $0.

What do you think of this before/after?

Subway Sign Art

Recently I visited Restoration Hardware where these huge hanging Subway Signs caught my eye and have had me obsessed ever since. There is one wall in my living room that needs a large vertical hanging. I love letters and numbers and the black and white graphic aspect of these art pieces. Priced at $795 each, this is a definite DIY project. Armed with inspiration, I am hoping to figure out the best way to reproduce subway sign art at a fraction of the cost.

Sign content - I decided on names of places that are special to my family and I.

Fonts - sizing and spacing on a Word Document. This is what I have so far (this may look a bit different than the final project due to compatability issues with word and blogger):

CAPE GIRARDEAU

3630 ½ SENECA

DIAMOND HEAD

SAN LUIS OBISPO

R E D M O N D

S U G A R B E A C H

HAYDEN LAKE

C A R M E L

Today I am off to the print shop to figure out how the least expensive way for me to reproduce the exact fonts and spacing I want onto a large blank stretched canvas.

My sister-in-law, Wendy is working on this project as well. Visit her post on SimplyBrookes for her point of view. If you have any ideas, or are inspired to join in, please comment.

Hopefully I will soon be posting a terrific replica of this Subway Sign art.

SUP

I finally checked off an activity on my summer list a few weeks ago,Stand Up Paddle Boarding, or SUP. Using large, lightweight and very stable boards, you can readily paddle through the water enjoying an full body workout with ease. At the NW Outdoor Center on Lake Union, rentals are $13.00/hour.

With my nephew in town, this was a great adventure on a hot, sunny day. An added bonus was close up views of the famous house boats on Lake Union. We were also able to remove our life jackets, dive into the lake from the paddle board and reboard easily. I was so sure of our stability on the boards, I paddled back in and grabbed my camera to document our day including the downtown backdrop.

Hope you have the opportunity to try this popular new sport.

Pearly Girl

Pearl photos courtesy of daughter Andie
Animals have a way of filling your home and heart with their presence. I've always felt that they know the true you. We recently lost our cat Pearl, she had a gift of centering your day. The queen of love, serene and senile, quietly insisting you stop and pet her. The reward was her instant appreciation of your attention with purring and grateful eyes.

Thank you Pearl, we'll miss our Pearly girl.

Front Porch Before/After

A close friend, who is selling her home, asked me to "refresh" her front porch. To me, this is the perfect project: simple, streamlined and finite. (Insert image of me gleefully clapping while embarking on this projecto). If I could travel around neighborhoods "pearing down" clutter while helping a home make its best first impression, I would be so fulfilled.

Front Porch Before
Front Porch After
Planter After
Sitting Area Before
Sitting Area After
Sitting Area After
As you can see from the photos, CC's front porch is in great shape, we just thought it could be better:

To Start - We removed everything from the porch (aside from the large planters and bolted bench), hosed it all down, cleaned the windows, removed spider webs, etc. A new front door mat was added.

Plantings - The mismatched pots were pulled, not because I had a problem with the variety, I wanted the porch to appear large and low maintenance. We also had a plant budget and filling large containers can add up. If you want to make an impact with a large planter, you have to overflow the container with plants, the fuller the better. We also cut back a lot of the greenery along the staircase making it tidy and open.

Sitting Area - The bench was in a perfect location for enjoying garden views and passerbys. To showcase the area, we removed the hose reel, found a great outdoor seat cushion and pillow, and added a side table and candle lantern that were hidden in the back yard. With the existing wisteria framing the view, this sitting area became even more inviting.

Do you have any front porch before/afters? Thanks for visiting and please feel free to comment/suggest!

Long Time No Post

It's been ages since I have blogged. We've been a house of transition, dropping this guy off:



For his first year here (WSU Dorm room):



In this beautiful part of Washington state:



I'm not sure when I will get used to him being away, but we have fallen back into routine, thus blogging resumption will ensue. Thanks for understanding!

For more photos of the beautiful Palouse region of Washington State, please visit this incredible photographers' website, David Bostock Photography: