House & Bounty

Interior Design Book Review: Collected, Volume 1

I am a big fan of Sarah Richardson (you probably know this if you’ve been reading here for a while). Sarah, in my mind, makes design approachable and doesn’t take design too seriously. She’s meticulous and thoughtful, but her designs are playful, and she’s not afraid to take risks. Over the last year or so, she started releasing volumes of her latest book series, Collected. Honestly, I hesitated to purchase it because I was already so familiar with her projects. I wasn’t sure there would be anything new for me, but I was totally wrong, and it is amazing.

The first volume is titled: City + Country. The theme throughout the series is pairing opposites and showing those design styles in the same book. I would definitely put myself in the “country” category. Everything about the lifestyle and design aesthetic fits me perfectly, but who doesn’t love visiting a city!? And I enjoy the more modern and sleek aesthetic, even if it’s not how I want to live everyday life. The book is full of so many gems. Here are some of the reasons why I love it.

Other Designers & New Projects

As I mentioned, I was already familiar with most of Sarah’s work (well, at least what she shares on her website and social media). To keep the book fresh, Sarah included other designers like Sophia Burke and Susana Simonpietri. They bring a different but complementary aesthetic to the book. I wasn’t familiar with these designers, so all their spaces were new to me. Sarah also included a couple of her projects that I haven’t seen before (usually collaborations), but Sarah’s island house is featured heavily as it should be…because it’s freaking amazing!

Presented Project-By-Project

The book has two general sections: City & Country. Within each section is a series of projects. The book highlights the designer, location, and basic information about each house/project (size, bedrooms, bath, and, usually, a fun fact or two). This added information gives a sense of the project’s overall scope and provides more context when looking at the pictures. Sarah gives a little background on each project and then calls out clever things about the design. It gives more information about the project but usually focuses on take-home points, so readers can implement some of those design elements in their own homes. I also appreciate that there are usually exterior pictures of the homes. I know that the focus is on interior design, but I wish more books, more designers, and novices included the house’s exterior. I like to see how it all works together.

Commercial Spaces are Included

Spack dab in the middle of the book, between the City & Country projects, is a couple of commercial spaces. I know residential spaces are most applicable to readers buying this book, but I love commercial design, too. I wish more books or Instagram accounts focused on it. Those spaces can be fun, take more risks and demonstrate design concepts (I think it’s hard to fill a large space!)—three cheers for this section.

Highlights Women Artists

One of the best ways to make any space interesting and personal is to add unique art. For a long time, I felt like there were only two choices: big box store art or “art show” art. I didn’t love either option. Nowadays, there are so many ways to find artisans and purchase directly from them on the internet. I love that Sarah highlights some of the women artists that she enjoys. She includes artists with a wide range of prices, so there is something for everyone’s budget.

Overall Impression

Just like everything Sarah does, the book is great. Her writing is friendly, the design tips are good, the book is organized well, and the pictures are pretty. In addition, the book is super affordable (half the cost of other design books). It’s a great addition to the library and I constantly find myself flipping through the pages and reading her tips.

Spring 2021 One Room Challenge: Week 4

Ah! A wonderful surprise happened on Friday – the wallpaper arrived (3 days early)! Also, it was the same dye lot. Whew! What a relief. We spent Sunday wallpapering the last part of the office. It was a tricky spot. There are multiple corners (two inside and one outside), but we felt like old pros after getting by the first corner. You can see below what we had left to do (the yellow outlined walls).

The good news is it only took two hours. I think we’re getting better!

Hardwood Floors

We spent the rest of Sunday prepping for the wood floor installation. Initially, I planned to install the floors over the weekend and finish the wallpaper sometime this week. However, I realized that our floors were sitting in the basement, which has a different temperature and, I’m guessing, moisture level than the house’s first level. Jeremy and I brought all the boxes upstairs and unboxed everything. We started the install yesterday, and it’s about 33% done.

If you’ve been reading along for a while, you’ll probably remember the saga (ok, that’s probably a little dramatic) of picking a wood floor. I re-read that old post, and it has a ton of helpful info. Sometimes you forget how much you learn! Just a reminder, we ordered Bellahardwood pre-finished white oak flooring from Lumbar Liquidators. We’ve already installed it in the dining and living rooms (you can get a glimpse of the floors below – I promise to do full reveals of the rooms after the one-room challenge).

I have nothing but positive things to say about the flooring. It’s durable, easy to install, and beautiful. The undertones are muted and serve as a nice neutral backdrop.

Updated Timeline

Our cabinet order was delayed by a couple of days which creates a gap in our timeline. Instead of having two full weeks to assemble and install cabinets, it’s going to be compressed to a week…maybe a week and a half. There’s nothing like working under a time crunch!

Here is the updated timeline:

Week 5: Finish Flooring, Sew pillow

Week 6: Finalize styling plans, Order accessories, Frame art, Paint new baseboards

Week 7: Assemble and Install Cabinets, Install counter

Week 8: Install Trim/Baseboard, Style and Photograph

I’m definitely starting to feel the pressure. Hopefully, getting all the small stuff in order will help the last week feel less stressful. I’m not too confident about it…

Chair

Sadly, our chair (Belmont) is delayed until October. Timeframes are crazy right now, so it’s understandable. However, we won’t install the reading sconce without the chair since we need to hang it at the right height for the chair. For now, I’ll put the old white chair in the corner.

The chair is made by Braxton Culler, an American-made company based out of North Carolina (of course!). If you go to the company’s website, you’ll see a ton of different chairs. I knew I wanted something comfortable and skirted. Originally, I wanted a swivel, but it didn’t seem necessary after thinking about the room. There were two contenders – The Osborne Chair and the Belmont Chair. The Osborne is an updated, transitional chair. It definitely felt hipper and more modern. I really like it, but the Belmont chair just looked so comfortable!

The Belmont Chair is more traditional – like something you’d find at your grandparent’s house. I think the right fabric choice will update it and this is one of the strengths of Braxton Culler. The fabrics are very good, well the sample pieces were. I guess I should wait until the actual product comes before I state my final opinion. However, I ordered fabric samples from several companies and Braxton Culler’s were hands down the best.

I ended up ordering the Belmont chair from the website Luxedecor.com (here is the link). The chair was available on several other websites but Luxedecor had all the fabrics as options, so I went with them. The only bummer was you can’t visualize the fabric on the chair. My workaround was to go to the “Design Your Own” Section on Braxton Culler’s website. From there, I could pick a chair and fabric. On their website, it only offers a couple of pieces, so the Belmont (and the Osborne) were not available but I picked a similar enough chair to visualize the fabric. This is what it looked like:

I really liked it! The subtle strips create a nice texture (the fabric itself is textured, too!). I also really liked the plaid fabric shown on the pillow. I did some internet digging and found the fabric was Mignon 2 Lagoon by Stout Fabrics. I ordered a yard of it from Going Decor. I plan on making a throw pillow cover this weekend with my mother-in-law. I am a very, very (one more for good measure), very novice sewer. My MIL has done all kinds of things, and I am always impressed by her skill. Maybe that will rub off on me a little!

As always, check out the other guest participants and the featured designers to see updates on their projects!

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8

Spring 2021 One Room Challenge: Week 3

I spent 10 hours wallpapering on Saturday with only a few essential breaks (lunch and to get more wallpaper paste). The result, so far, is really good.

The wallpaper pattern has a slight sheen to it. You can’t really tell in the picture above, but when light hits those parts it looks shiny. In the picture below, the light creates little ripples or waves on the wallpaper. The wallpaper is perfectly flat (no bubbling, folding, or waving). This is purely due to the light and the sheen of the wallpaper.

Sadly, I ran out of wallpaper after we completed 3/4 of the room. I’m bummed this happened…I used the wallpaper calculator and everything! The wallpaper budget is starting to really add up. It may become the second most expensive thing in the room (cabinets are the first). We had a couple of pieces of wallpaper that were discarded because, well, I screwed up. We (my husband and I) cut a corner piece on the wrong edge (doh) and another corner piece looked pretty wrinkled, so I threw it away. Hindsight, I probably could have saved it.

The rest of the wallpaper is due to arrive Monday. The plan is to tackle it sometime during the week, so our weekly schedule doesn’t get off course. We’ll see how it goes. 🙂

More Wallpaper Youtube Videos

Last post, I shared a couple of the Youtube videos I watched to prepare for wallpapering. I found a couple more that would be helpful.

Trade Professional’s Guide to Wallpaper Decorating: One of the most informative videos I’ve found. You’ll feel really wallpaper smart after watching it. While they talk about installation, I found the background information and common issues segment the most interesting and helpful.

How to wallpaper corners: I usually try to keep things PG, but wallpapering around corners sucks. My number one takeaway from this experience is f*ck the corners. This video gives you the general process of how to wallpaper the corner of the room. I have my own tips for this below and a silly cartoon about the experience. Please enjoy.

Tips & Tricks for Paste-The-Wall Wallpapering

  1. Have an excellent laser level. Jer and I bought this laser lever, and we couldn’t be happier. We used it multiple times when wallpapering (to start each wall, basically).
  2. Corners, Oye. We followed the directions on how to wallpaper corners. You should really watch the video or look at the cartoon for the general process. Here’s the thing that you need to know – nothing is ever perfectly straight. The walls and the corners are not straight. Lining up BOTH the pattern in the corner and having a straight piece of paper was not working no matter how much we tried (and we messed with the first corner for three hours). We finally decided the most important thing was to have a straight edge to start the new wall. So, basically, the corner would look how it looked, and I was not having any feelings about it. We used the laser level to set the straight line (we had to adjust it once or twice to ensure there weren’t any gaps in the corner). After we prioritized the straight line, it worked out well. The corners look fine for the most part. Since there is distortion from the corner, it can hide some of the imperfections. If you look at the first photo in the post, you can see the corner looks just fine. Bottom Line: Prioritize having a straight edge on the new wall.
  3. Keep a wet towel and dry towel with you at all times. Every video I watched said it’s better to use MORE adhesive than not enough. This leads to a ton of glue accumulating on your wallpaper smoother. If you don’t clean this off, you’ll be spreading the glue all over your paper. Yes, you’ll wipe the paper down with a wet sponge, but it’s better not to make a huge mess in the first place. If my smoother got glue on it, I would quickly wipe it off with my wet towel and then dry it before using it again. I cleaned the wet towel whenever I changed my water (see below).
  4. Change your bucket of water frequently. After watching the trade professionals video (linked above), I learned leaving any glue on your paper will create shiny spots. Likewise, if you don’t keep your water/sponge free of glue, you could create a big mess (you’ll basically be spreading the glue all over the wallpaper when you are trying to clean it). I changed the water every 3-4 sheets of wallpaper. That may have been excessive, but I don’t see any shiny spots so far, so I think it worked.
  5. Have a Buddy: Paste-the-wall wallpaper is pretty easy, and I think one person can do it alone. However, having my husband there to help was super nice. If I became frustrated or needed a minute to step away, Jer could jump in (and vice versa). I’ve found that wallpapering requires patience and attention to detail. By having another person present, you guarantee someone will have the bandwidth to maintain the needed attention. It’s also nice when you have to cut the paper and generally makes it more fun.
  6. Add a little water to the adhesive if it gets too thick: I noticed that the adhesive was getting thick after a couple of hours. This made it difficult to spread on the walls. If I added a small amount of water, it made it liquid enough to apply easily.
  7. New at this? Order 25% more than you need. Wallpaper is expensive and that motivated me to order just what I needed, but I should have accounted for the novice factor and assumed I would make mistakes.

Final Thoughts On Wallpaper

One of the things that I saw over and over again when reading about wallpaper is most manufacturers recommend a professional installer. I get it because some papers are much more difficult to work with and the paper is so expensive. My opinion is with non-woven, paste-the-wall types it’s totally DIYable. I’ve already purchased wallpaper for the laundry room and it’s prepasted. We’ll see if I remain as optimistic with this type. 🙂

As always, check out the other guest participants and the featured designers to see updates on their projects!

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8

Spring 2021 One Room Challenge: Week 2

Last weekend we demoed the office and prepped it for all the new stuff (floors! wallpaper!). It now looks like this:

An almost blank canvas. You can check out week 1 and the full design plan here.

Painting Wood Trim

I also painted the trim/casing. My advice for anyone painting wood trim is to sand it with a sanding block. I know other DIYers recommend a liquid de-glosser instead of sanding, but in my experience, the sanding block does a much better job of roughing up the wood and the paint adheres better. It gives a much more durable finish and you’ll be happy you don’t have to touch up your baseboards once a year. We painted the trim with Behr Ultra White Enamel gloss. It’s a bright white and provides good contrast with most paint colors, especially if you paint the room white or off-white. As a reminder, here is what the room and trim looked like when we purchased the house.

I spent the rest of my weekend researching how to hang wallpaper. I picked the Alma by Cole & Son (buff & gold) wallpaper. You may remember a while ago; I posted several wallpaper samples as I tried to finalize the office design.

As you can see, all the papers have floral/nature-inspired prints. I particularly liked the ones with geometric patterns mixed in. Honestly, once I looked at them all, I knew right away that Alma was the right pick. If you are considering using wallpaper for any room, you should definitely order samples. The experience of seeing it in person and holding it in your hand will make your decision-making faster and easier. You’ll get a better idea of the texture, colors, and print clarity when you have a sample.

Prepping for Wallpapering

I’ve only ever wallpapered one wall in my life (my son’s mural), and I didn’t use a standard method. I used liquid starch (a la this tutorial), so I could easily remove it when he got older. However, I am going to actually, FOR REAL, wallpaper the whole room for this job. So I did a deep dive into how to prep the walls. I thought I would share my non-official guide to prepping for wallpaper. I’ll be sure to update everyone once the wallpaper is completed (hopefully this weekend). (Quick disclaimer: I’m NOT an expert. This is just how I approached it and what I’ve learned. I write this as “you should” because it’s easier for me to write about something like I’m explaining it to someone. If you did it differently, I bet it’s totally great.)

  1. Read Your Wallpaper Instructions: I don’t know what wallpaper was like 20 years ago, but it seems there are more options today than back then. The first goal is to determine what type of wallpaper you have by reading the instructions. This will tell you how to hang it and what supplies you need. There is the classic paste-the-paper wallpaper where you need to brush adhesive onto the back of the paper and let it soak in and then hang it up. There is peel and stick wallpaper, which I guess is like a big sticker. I’ve never used this, but it’s widely used on the internet. There is prepasted wallpaper. The glue is already on the back of the paper and you either have to soak it in water or spray with water to activate the adhesive. The last type is paste-the-wall wallpaper. For this type of paper, you roll or brush adhesive onto the wall and hang the wallpaper without soaking it in any water. I ordered my wallpaper from Wallpaperdirect.com. They have a few videos that explain this in more detail (paste-the-wall, paste-the-paper). My wallpaper is paste-the-wall.
  2. Evaluate Your Walls: I hope that before you purchased any wallpaper, you evaluated your walls. Some walls, like those that are heavily textured, are typically not recommended for wallpapering. There may be some exceptions with certain types of paper, but if you have textured walls, you should do a ton of research on what paper could be used and how to do it. If your walls are smooth and already painted, you only need to fill holes and make sure it’s clean and dust-free (luckily, that’s me). If you have a slight texture or damaged walls, you may want to consider putting up wallpaper liner. This is like a slip for your wallpaper. It will smooth out any imperfections.
  3. Purchase Supplies: Now that you’ve read the instructions and evaluated your walls, you can go to the store and purchase what you need. For most people, you’ll need some adhesive and wallpapering tools. If your walls are textured, you may need the wallpaper liner, and if you are using prepasted wallpaper, you’ll need something to wet or soak the paper with. I took a quick shot of what I purchased for wallpapering below.
  4. Prep Your Walls: For us, all I had to do was wipe down the walls and make sure they were clean and dust-free. We have a smooth finish on our drywall, so there wasn’t anything else we needed to do. Again, if you have slightly textured or damaged walls, you may want to hang wallpaper liner.
  5. Re-Watch All the Youtube Videos: Get jazzed up and informed before you start the install. The ones I’ve watched over and over and over again are these three: How to Hang Wallpaper!, How to hang wallpaper – paste the wall, Hanging wallpaper – paste the wall.
Hyde Super Guide | Sponge | Wallpaper Adhesive | Paint Roller Cover | Paint Tray | Smoothing Tool | Utility Knife | Paint Roller Frame | Laser Level

I’m hoping this time next week I’ll have a beautifully wallpapered room and the pictures to prove it. Fingers crossed!

Again, check out the other guest participants and the featured designers to see updates on their projects!

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8

Spring 2021 One Room Challenge: Week 1

Well, the day has come! I am participating in my first One Room Challenge, and I am so excited. For those who don’t know, the One Room Challenge is a biannual event that encourages bloggers/designers/Instagrammers to transform a space in a relatively short time frame (the current ORC is eight weeks long). I have been a big fan of the ORC for years. To say I’m nervous is an understatement. My first project includes multiple parts, and some are things I’ve never done before. There’s nothing like a deadline to keep you on your toes. Am I right?

For the ORC, I’ll be re-doing one of the hardest working rooms in our house – the home office! It’s a small room right off the entry and, as you can imagine, I spend a lot of time there. This is where I do all my design work, blogging, creative stuff, bill pay, my husband does all his volunteer work and where I have video chats with friends. Not only does it get used a ton, but it’s a major spot for storage. We store files, photography equipment, craft supplies, old memories, office supplies, old textbooks, picture frames, electronics, and more.

The Office & The Problems

The office is oddly shaped and measures about ~8.5′ x 9′ (the walls are a little wonky, no perfectly square room here). It hasn’t changed much since we first moved into the house. At move in, the room had green carpet, beige walls with a world map border, a boob light, and orange-toned wood trim. From the beginning, I knew I wanted to add cabinetry for storage. Until now (eek!), the room had a mish-mash of old office furniture to make it work…barely.

I got ambitious about a year or so ago, removed the border, and hung a new light (it’s staying, guys!). But, as you can see below, the room is cluttered! As I said, it’s a room that needs storage. It also happens to be the dumping ground for DIY projects (or test ideas). It does have some special features, like the self-opening filing cabinet, an old relic from my husband’s parent’s office. The back corner is, well…too embarrassing to show. It has picture frames, stacks of textbooks, and random computer parts (never know when you’ll need a hard drive!).

When looking at the wall closest to the door, you’ll see even more stuff. Most of these are random things that don’t belong. So the office is also serving as a weird waiting room for my stuff. Each piece hoping that I will soon get to it and determine its future. Despite all this stuff, I still really like the office. It gets great light and is a perfect size.

Design Plan

Now that everyone sees the mess, we can get to the fun stuff – the design! For the most part, the office’s floor plan is not changing; it’s just going to be upgraded with cabinetry, a built-in desk, and new furnishings! Some of the current items are staying, like the round rattan table from Target, the beaded light, and organizational pieces (magazine holders, etc.). Still, the majority of the room will be replaced.

The floor plan below shows the general setup (the colors are not accurate). A chair and side table will remain on the left wall. The wall across from the window will have one cabinet and be the main “work area.” The computer monitor will be here, the same as the current setup. The wall across from the chair hosts the majority of cabinetry and will be the main storage source in the room. Hallelujah.

Here is a detailed elevation of the cabinetry. This is from the supplier’s website, so it’s pretty basic but gives you a good idea of the setup. The wall will have an open shelf unit in the center flanked by two large cabinets. For the base cabinets, I ordered mostly single-door units. I included one two-drawer cabinet to serve as the filing cabinet. The three drawer cabinet that goes on the adjacent wall (the other part to form the desk) is not shown. The cabinets are white with inset doors.

I’ve played around with Homestyler, a great web-based floor planner program, and made a rendering of the room, so it’s easier to understand. Most of the details are different, but it communicates the general setup and feel of the room. Homestyler has been updating their program over the last year, and I’m still getting used to the new features. I honestly miss many of the old options, but I think I need more time to learn how to use the program.

The design board of the room below gives you the visual direction of the room. Over the course of the 8 weeks, I’ll talk more about the different components. A couple of things are still not ordered (blinds and a few accessories), so things may change slightly. The general vibe is a warm, comfortable pallet with blues and greens mixed in for good measure.

Wallpaper | Bamboo Shades | Bead Light (no longer sold) | Swing Arm Light | Chair | Rattan Table | Hardwood Floors | Magazine Holder | Paper Organizer | Blue Fabric (chair fabric) | Plaid Fabric (pillow)

The To-Do List

Alright, here is where my anxiety starts ratching up as I write down all the things that we need to do in a short period of time.

  • Replace carpet with hardwood floors
  • Paint window trim and door casing white
  • Replace baseboards (they’ll be thicker and white)
  • Wallpaper the entire room (I’ve only wallpapered 1 wall my entire life and used a completely different method. Please keep me in your thoughts)
  • Obtain cabinets (delivery date is early June) and assemble cabinets
  • Install cabinets (never did this before) & add needed trim
  • Install butcher block countertops
  • Replace light switches, outlets, and plates
  • Replace blinds
  • Sew a pillow cover
  • DIY a frame for some DIY art, maybe buy a frame?
  • Put the room together and pray the chair arrives before the end of the challenge.

Definitely check out the other guest participants and the featured designers. Hope to see you next week!!

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8

May Link Up

A bird built a nest on our deck this year. Every morning we check on her, and she is dutifully sitting on her eggs. My husband snapped this picture one afternoon when mom went to get something to eat. Two beautiful blue eggs!!

The Mitchells Vs. The Machines – This is the best movie I’ve seen in a very long time. It’s technically a kids movie, but it has something for everyone. It’ll make you laugh and warm your heart.

The 12 Week Year: Do you need motivation and new strategies to help you achieve your goals? Well, the 12 week year REALLY delivers. It’s a short book, but it gets right to the heart of the things that hold us back.

How Long Can We Live: A fascinating article in the New York Times Magazine talks about human longevity. Do we have a limit? What is the limit? An interesting read.

Interior Design Book Review: Made for Living

Okay, I love Pinterest and use it all the time, but design books hold a special place in my heart. For whatever reason, I never tire of looking at them over and over and over again. Each time I find something new to appreciate. Plus, I love reading about design. Design books aren’t cheap and many aren’t sold in brick and mortar stores. I’ve made a goal to build an interior design library for myself and thought I would share the book reviews here.

The inaugural book is “Made for Living” by the prominent Amber Lewis. The book was just released in October of 2020, but it’s already a classic. It’s a quick read that you can get through in an afternoon or two. The writing is conversational and casual. The photography is gorgeous and the featured interiors are inspiring. Amber gives advice throughout the whole book to help the reader achieve her style. But there are several other design gems that would appeal to anyone (not just those trying to emulate her style).

Picking the Perfect White

First, her section on white paint is the best I’ve ever seen. There is so much discussion on the internet about how to pick the RIGHT white paint, but there isn’t much info given beyond designers sharing their favorite ones and touching on undertones. I haven’t seen any articles that tell you the factors which influence a white-paint decision. Amber gets into the nitty-gritty details about this. Undertones, of course, play a role, but she talks about the importance of light, environment, and feeling. If you are feeling stuck on picking the right white, bookmark this section of her book. You won’t be disappointed.

Mixing Shapes

An interesting concept that I never really thought about before, at least consciously, is the impact of mixing shapes in a design. This is something that people may do unconsciously, but reading her explanation for why mixing different shapes matters made so much sense. It shined a light on something I never really thought about.

Shopping Vintage

If you are familiar with Amber, you already know her brand is synonymous with vintage. So it’s no surprise that the book goes into great detail about vintage shopping and the things you must keep in mind. You don’t need to have access to Round Top Texas to be able to use her tips. They’ll help you at your local thrift shop or flea market.

No Filler, Only Facts

Lastly, her room-by-room suggestions are straight to the point and pack a punch. There’s not a lot of filler here and each tip is thoughtful and right on target. Some of these tips may feel familiar (use durable flooring in a mudroom), but you’ll walk away with some new ones too.

Overall Impression

As I mentioned, this book is already a classic. I was familiar with most of the pictures in the book (there may have been a few projects that I haven’t seen), but nothing felt surprising or new. It’s nice (and educational!) to have Amber discuss the details of the project and the thought process behind the design. It gives you a sense of how the spaces came together. Overall, a beautiful book with useful information.

Round-Up: BURRYCO Dresses & Stud Earrings

I’m baaaaack. Every couple of months I need some downtime where I don’t worry about blog content and I just work my regular full-time job and live life. It’s a nice reset and I always come back excited and ready. So, please forgive my occasional disappearance. The last couple of weeks I’ve been enjoying the beautiful midwest spring (which took a 180-degree turn this week when it snowed for two days–oye!).

I wanted to come back with a fun post about things that make me happy. The first is a brand I found a couple of years ago–BURRYCO. Their dresses are so cute and, sometimes, pure craziness. I like them because they feel happy, bold and each piece has a personality. The dresses are reasonably priced (usually between $150-$200), but here is the bummer – I have no idea where these pieces are sold. I always find them on RueLaLa or Overstock. I tried to get to the bottom of it this week and went searching, but I couldn’t find anything. They don’t have a website and they may have a Facebook that is barely functioning (it looks super suspect). Since they don’t have a presence online and are not carried in any stores, tracking down their products is hard. Nevertheless, their dresses are cute and feel completely unique.

1- Midi Blue Stripped Dress| 2-Flower Mini Dress | 3- Red A-Line Dress

I pulled together a couple of my favorites ones right now. I can’t get enough of this blue and white striped dress with embroidered sleeves. I’m not sure what is on the sleeves- maybe birds. It feels summery and reminds me of this dress by Stella Jean. That flower mini dress feels so in right now (can anyone say grandmillenial?) and that red one looks perfect for a day at the office. They also make this colorful Morroco-inspired dress (#4), which seems perfect for traveling, and that pineapple dress (#5) screams vacation. Lastly, I can’t get over #6. It looks like a tweed or other thick fabric that would be perfect for working at an office during the winter.

4- A-Line Dress | 5- Maxi Pineapple Dress | 6- Pink Short Dress

We’ll start my next “happy” list with a fun fact! I’ve had to re-pierce my ears 4 or 5 times since I’ve been an adult. If I don’t have earrings in all.the.time, my holes will close within 3-4 weeks. To keep these babies open, I’ve been wearing small ball studs for a year now and I’m getting a little bored. I started searching for other options and found so many cute ones.

1- Pink Flower Stud 2- Gold Flower Stud 3- Tulip Stud 4-Flamingo Stud 5- Rainbow Stud 6- Ice Cream Stud

I particularly love the Kate Spade flower earrings (#1) and Kendra Scott floral geometric studs (#2). The Flamingos (#4) are small and discreet but add color and personality. The Tulips (#3), rainbows (#5), and ice cream cones (#6) are perfect for summer. I’ve already purchased several pairs and I have to say they make me smile.

That’s it for today! See you next week!

April Links

Make Life Beautiful with Paula Sutton: Reading this interview with Paula Sutton was a delight. She is so conversational, warm and friendly. I absolutely loved her advice to let your personality shine in your designs. Isn’t that what makes design so fun? Read about Paula’s adventures at her blog, Hill House Vintage.

Glitterbomb Trap Catches Phone Scammers: Ever wonder who’s behind all those scam calls? Check out this video. You’ll see how modern-day scammers are convincing people to send thousands of dollars to them and how their operations work. It’s fascinating AND disgusting at the same time. If anything, this video should be a public service announcement and is a good resource to share with vulnerable populations (and it’s very entertaining). Also, you get a little bit of satisfaction when some of those individuals are caught.

Tina (HBO Documentary): I’m embarrassed to admit I knew very little of Tina Turner’s history before this documentary. Her story has some highs and lows, but what caught my attention is Tina’s ability to keep going and preserving. The pinnacle of Tina’s career was in her mid 40’s, after a messy divorce where her husband retained basically all the rights (and money) to her original content. This documentary serves as her swan song and it’s a beautiful goodbye.

Updates & Crawling Towards the Finish Line

Living Room & Dining Room

Can you believe that we started updating our floors almost 6 months ago!? While we finished the floors in early January, sadly, the living room sat empty without any baseboards until last weekend. Here is what the room looked like right after we finished installing the floors.

The floors looked greeaat (imagine Tony the Tiger saying that) and, in my mind, the rooms were basically done. I knew we had a couple of weeks of work left. But the seriously cold winters of the Midwest really slowed things down. We planned on installing new trim, so my husband needed to cut each piece in the garage. As you can imagine, that didn’t sound like a very appealing job in the middle of winter. As any responsible couple would do, we ignored the project until the weather improved. (To be fair, we had a few warm weekends between when we finished and last weekend, but it didn’t seem like a priority.)

After just a couple of hours of work, the living room baseboards were installed on Sunday. Installing baseboards is pretty easy, but it takes time and patience to get it right. I learned a ton about different types of joints – butt joints, scarf joints and coping corner joints. I’m not an expert, but I found this, this and this helpful when learning about installing trim. Now that they are installed, its tempting to move everything back into the room, but the finishing work (filling holes multiple times, sanding, caulking and painting) needs patience. My plan is to work on this a little bit every day for the next week and finally re-install the living room furniture next weekend (hopefully!!!!)

That also means that I need to finalize the updates I was planning for this room, which are minor. I plan on replacing the pillow covers (already ordered!), updating the blinds to a natural fiber and possibly changing up the console table.

The dining room is, uh, going a little slower. I am hoping that next weekend we’ll start installing the board and batten (again weather really delayed us). Fingers crossed this happens soon, because I am already…..

Planning for the Next Project

You know when there is a lull in another project, so to keep yourself busy you start planning the next one? Well, beyond the living room, dining room and bedroom, I have started planning ANOTHER room. I don’t want to go into too many details, but we’ve started getting wallpaper samples and I am VERY excited. Want to guess what room I planning?

We’re going to complete this secret room during the One Room Challenge (starts May 6th). The project is going to include NEW FLOORS! WALLPAPER! CABINETS! I am slightly worried about getting all the supplies in time, so I am trying to finalize the design decisions within the next couple of weeks and order the big stuff by April 1st.

Better get back to work. 🙂