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 17, 2014

diy gold leafed shelves

Hello hello!

I've taken a bit of a break this last month from blogging.  Unplanned.  Just with client work, and family, and flu season, and holidays, etc., the blog has gotten pushed to the side for a time.  I do appreciate your emails and messages, and I do try to respond to all of them, though I am not quite caught up yet.  So thanks for being here, I'm excited to show you what I have been working on.

I have written about my Guest Room/Office Makeover a couple of times - the first post talked about how the color palette and trim was inspired, and the second post was how the paint and trim came to be, quite a feat! But my beautiful new space would not be what it is without my dear friend, Jen.  You may know her from her really great blog, IHeartOrganizing, or her shop where she sells her practical and pretty products to help make your life more orderly. jen and grace We met at the BHG Stylemaker Event the year before last and hit it off.  It was funny too because after reading her blog all of this time, I had thought before that "we could be friends".  This past year at BHG Stylemakers, we were roommates and stayed a couple of days extra to pal around together.  It was so fun and truly one of my most enjoyable trips to NYC ever.

I had told her before about this cough, rather hoarder looking "storage room" of mine (basically the "receiver" of projects around our house - i.e. "the bathroom is getting redone, so throw everything in here room"), and we both said, "wouldn't it be neat to collaborate?"  It sounded awesome, but I was skeptical it could ever really happen.  We live at basically opposite ends of the country and both have businesses to run and families to raise.  But she hopped on a plane, and we did it together.

[caption id="attachment_9012" align="aligncenter" width="500"]Storied_Style_Organized_Office_Before_1 image via IHeartOrganizing[/caption] The above photo is courtesy of Jen and showcases what we had to go through.  This is the previous state of the closet.  Yes, it had gotten so bad, I would literally throw things in here "that belonged" and shut the door, thinking I would get around to organizing it "later".  Anyone else have any "later" spaces? Much to my surprise, Jen did not run away screaming.  She stayed with me for days, going through this mess, sorting it and putting it away, long into the night(s).  This is true friendship.  Love you, Jen. jen grace kids Jen wrote about this makeover, especially focusing on the organizational aspects of it here and here.  There are TONS of good, practical ideas here, so check it out. Now onto the shelves... I bought a pair of these Stairway shelves from CB2 when they were having a major sale a couple of months ago. stairway-grey-wall-mounted-bookcase I bought the gray instead of the white because at the time, they were cheaper and in stock!  The white was backordered, although if I had gotten the white, I could have skipped the lacquering of the shelves since the shelves would have already been lacquered white. I knew I wanted/needed two large shelving units on either side of my desk for storage and prettiness (and Edith Wharton's design philosophies - see this inspiration post), but the room is not huge so I needed to be mindful of scale.  We have nine foot ceilings in our home, so I knew it would be a good idea to take advantage of height.  These CB2 shelves are eight feet tall, which is giant for this type of off-the-shelf piece, so it was a good choice. The shelving supports were pretty non descript before.  Gray. Metal.

shelving supports before

I spray painted them gold before I gold leafed them just to ensure they would be gold even if I missed a tiny spot.

spray paint

I could have stopped here, but I am so glad I didn't.  The gold leaf gives so much dimension to these shelves.
November 3, 2014

Last week, I told you about the guest room/office makeover happening at my house right now.  I thought I would show you some before photos and the best part, the progress photos.  There has been quite a change in that room these past weeks! The palette of the space was inspired by the hallway in author Edith Wharton's home, The Mount, her gorgeous home and gardens in Lenox, Massachusetts.  You can read more about this here. This photo has been stuck in my head since I visited there five years ago with my husband. AStoriedStyle.com When I am trying to visualize a space and come up with a design, I sit in it and stare.  I wish I drew more, and I do dabble in it, but I do better if I just look at the space - to get a feel for it...dare I say...to let it talk to me a little bit? Our guest room/office has the most natural light in the house - two full walls of windows.  Since we moved here three years ago, this room has been the guest room/nursery, and then when I moved the girls to the same room, the catch all for other rooms that have been under construction.  I would say it has been full of castoffs from other spaces a good year. In this before photo, you can see the previous striped walls.
July 9, 2014

I almost feel silly writing about my flower wall, because let's face it, a monkey could do this DIY, but it is fun and colorful,...

July 8, 2014

diy turquoise bead chandelier

I am so excited to finally share this tutorial with you - a tutorial that sprouted in my brain nearly a year ago, as I was walking through World Market.

I spotted this wood bead chandelier, [caption id="attachment_8764" align="aligncenter" width="504"]world market world market[/caption] and instantly, I saw this. [caption id="attachment_8765" align="aligncenter" width="319"]robin degroot robin degroot[/caption]   I have loved that Majorie Skouras chandelier for years, and the semi-precious stones on it are beautiful.  Of course, it is also $4800.  (as it should be because it is amazing and spectacular)  So my wheels started turning, and I went up to the cash register, plopped down my 40% off coupon and was promptly told this chandelier was backordered.  I still placed my order and was told it would be a few weeks.  Those weeks turned into months, MONTHS, and finally, I got a call that it was here.  It was great timing too because I wanted to do a piece of lighting over the table in my Home Depot Patio Challenge that was really special.

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