my home

all about the renovation of our 100-year-old home.

My husband and I, along with our four small children, live in a 1919 foursquare in Fort Worth, Texas. We have been renovating it for six years, and yes, we have lived in it the whole time! Chapter by chapter, while dealing with white dust and blocking off parts of the house in plastic sheeting, our adventures are chronicled here.

December 5, 2013

AStoriedStyle.com

I'm so sorry I haven't posted this tutorial until now, we have been having some technical difficulties around here! As I have stated before, I am not the most technologically advanced girl on the planet, though blogging has forced me to learn quite a bit in the past couple of years.  Although I hope to get more of a grasp on Photoshop in the next year, these chalkboard prints were not done in any fancy program.  They were created in Microsoft Word, imported to iPhoto, and printed at my local Walgreens.  How's that for simple? I'm going to show you how I made the chalkboard prints so you can make your own design, but I also figured I would make the ready-made "All is Calm" and "All is Bright" prints downloadable for you.  Therefore, you can print them off at your leisure and enjoy them in your own home. Let's begin the tutorial on how I made these pretties...
December 2, 2013

Hello everyone!  I hope you all had a beautiful Thanksgiving!  I can hardly believe it is December, I'm still enjoying Thanksgiving thoughts and smells, and then, BOOM, it's time to think about Christmas!  It's a bit jarring, is it not? After I posted the above photo on my Instagram, I got a few questions and emails about it, so I thought I would tell you all about my table decor, flower arranging, and my favorite recipes from this year's dinner.  Even though Thanksgiving is over, these are definitely ideas you can use for your Christmas dinner, plus it's nice to tuck away inspiration for next year.
November 25, 2013

source Hello readers.  Thank you so much for your support as I finished up some big projects, finalized furniture and fabrics and prettiness for clients, and...

November 13, 2013

Hello!  Hope you all are having a great week!  As much as I love Christmas and my Christmas makeover, I thought I would take a little holiday break today and show you my drab-to-fab settees.  Frankly, I'm super excited about them and couldn't wait to show you!  Don't worry though, for those of you waiting for more tutorials and details on my holiday challenge space, they are coming soon!  (Hanging Wreath tutorial here in case you missed it) But let's start at the beginning.  When I bought these vintage Bernhardt settees for $150 at an estate sale. Then I tried to strip them myself.  (it did not go well)  Which led me to writing this article about DIY fails.  It was a sad day. But I called the experts (Little Jack Horner's if you live in the DFW area), and they fixed my mess and gave my settees the beautiful grey wash finish I was dreaming of. Then came the difficult decision of the upholstery.  (see this post)  The world was my oyster, and I was having a hard time narrowing down ideas and finding the perfect fabric.  For several months, the settees looked like the image below, with patterns rotating in and out.   I thought I had decided, and there were roadblocks so I started again.  I knew I wanted a wide stripe down the middle of the front (tons of great inspiration here!), and something striking on the back.  Well, the upholsterer brought them back last week, and my jaw dropped.  Finally, nearly a year after purchasing them (oy vey), my settees are here, sitting in my living room, in all their makeover glory.

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