LAST BUT NOT LEAST...I will post pictures of my latest design projects.

1st one is an office of a friend. Trying to make it look professional and masculine yest bring in a warm feel too so it is not sterile. Pictures to come.

2nd-I am re decorating a great friends home. She wanted to update her Living and Dining Room with new flooring-she is doing, keep the furniture, add some new paint and accessories. I went around her house and found a lot of things that could be switched around. We still have some work to do but I will update you with photos on that as well.

For more information I will also post my business card with contact info...feel free to call. Each consult is $150.00 for up to 2 rooms. I will listen to your concerns, walk your house for other things you may have that we can use, collect my ideas from the information you have provided and the pictures I take. Then I come back with a portfolio of ideas, places for you to go and shop, etc.  Then you go, armed with ideas and help and YOU DO IT YOURSELF! If you want my help after that to shop for you, set up your rooms, etc, I charge $75.00 and hour.

COMING UP...How to WALLPAPER! And...more Chalk Painting!

I will be putting up my wallpaper next week! Finally chose some I love. Powder room, breakfast nook and one wall in the Dining Room. 

I am teaching a couple of classes for 2 women's church groups on Saturday. I will have someone take pictures and post for MORE IDEAS on chalk paint!

JANUARY WEDDING-WINTER WONDERLAND-ish

1. We are having a wedding
2. It is our oldest daughter
3. We have never done this before
4. It is at our home
5. I am doing all the decorating and food
6. I can use all the help I can get

So now what? We have 4 daughters and one son. I have never done this before. I want it to be BEAUTIFULLY STUNNING! The kind of feeling that when people walk in, they are just blown away! I want the food to be amazingly tasty. The kind of recipes that people continue to ask for! But-I can't do it alone and this is where you, my friends come into the picture. Now that you have an idea of what we are doing decor wise...what would you add? We want several warm food choices, some yummy meats, as well as salads and veggies. I have my ideas but would love anyone else's. In particular I am searching for some wonderful sauces to go over chicken and meatballs. Also, I have some great recipes for a meatier salad as well as a fruity one but am up for ANY SUGGESTIONS! I would love this all DONE before Thanksgiving so the Holidays can actually be enjoyable! Colors are blues, cream and silver, lots of lights, mercury and regular glass, dessert bars, hot cocoa bar, candles, lanterns, 2 trees-not Christmasy-just trees-we have some fun ideas for those so...fire away friends. Send your recipes and ideas my way!

 

My Favorite Home Decor!

 So our Abigayle made her own "clubhouse." She decorated it with things she loved and made it special.

It is the ONLY room in the house where you can draw on the walls...

 As you can see "Girls Only-exsept family that we allow" which would include Kenner (brother) and cousins!

...the ceiling

The sky's the limit!  (clouds included)

A couple of Goodwill purchases-earned with extra chores!

Welcome! (to Abigayle's Attic)

A few more pictures of our outside decorating (from God, of course)

 Tree in front yard this morning.

 Front yard

Colorado view from family room

 Another view from the upstairs hall of our "back yard!"

 More favorite decorating...for Abbie's birthday!

...and Kenner's birthday (both this week!)

(note to self-no need for flash next time-we look completely washed out!)

More Wallpaper...

The room to be papered-The Breakfast Nook (and lunch, dinner and homework space!) 

 In the running... french floral- looks more red than pink in person

 French Provincial...

 Pinkish red and green stripe

 Yellow background- baskets and birdcages

 blue background floral planters

 white background -topiaries

 Red trellis

 green trellis

 yellow pattern

 green-adorable!

 What it

 looks like on the wall (upside down!)

French floral/birds

Vote for your favorite-I will not choose by your votes but I am interested in what you think!

WALLPAPER!

WALLPAPER...I LOVE IT! If you have ever bought a house that was built and decorated in the 80's or early 90's, you do not love it! It is a pain to remove-especially the old stuff and back then people just used to layer it on-one right over the other. Remember the floral pink and blue wallpaper with matching curtains, bedspread and rug! Those were the days!

We bought our first home in Lehi, Utah. The year was 1995. It was an adorable ranch style and brand-spankin' new! We were so excited and I was so ready to put my new decorating skills to use! I had an adorable watermelon themed kitchen-navy blue, red, white and green. The family room was a cute blue and yellow-lots of pillow, bright and airy-LOVED that room. The bedrooms were fairly roomy and bright. Ours looked out over Mt. Timpanogas. Beautiful view! My first attempt at decorating the walls was sponge painting them. I am not a talented painter-I can do the basics but fancy stuff is not my forte! Needless to say, when Cal arrived home that night he thought that I had thrown up Pepto Bismal on the walls (and blinds that I neglected to remove before beginning the project!)

Because of my lack of talent in the painting department-I was drawn to wallpaper! In 1998 we moved to Parker, Co. We lived with my parents for 6 months while our home was being built. I had that whole time to plan out my decorating scheme! We had wallpaper in the kitchen, powder room, borders in all bedrooms and it was FABULOUS!!! My favorite wallpaper to this day is still the one in that kitchen. It was an adorable blue and white large diamond pattern. If I could find it today-I would use it again! My second favorite was our last kitchen. It was a very french style wallpaper pattern-floral with birds, white background with blues, reds, pinks, greens. It was a happy room! My friend Lisa Lundell helped me to paper it and we had fun doing it too!  Many who came in thought the wall was painted with the pattern-like a mural-LOVE IT! Now I am on the search for a new wallpaper-a few-I need to do the kitchen and powder room first. As I find it I will post pictures and then the process itself. This may take a few months but meanwhile, any questions you may have about wallpapering-feel free to ask. I actually flew out to KC to help my sister with her bedrooms. 

MY TOP 3 REASONS TO WALLPAPER

1. It is different-I like different! Every home in Colorado has the same basic look. Brown leather couch in the Family Room, beige walls, beige carpet...BORING! Spice it up a little.

2. The wallpaper made now is so much easier to remove and put up. You can find so many different kinds-pre-pasted, vinyl, inexpensive, expensive, high quality and very scrubbable-wallpaper is great in kitchens and baths for that very reason. Buy a little extra-just for that child that really likes permanent markers! (learned from experience!)

3. It brings life to a room! Choose a pattern you love and when people walk in the room they will see YOU in it! There are so many classic styles and patterns to choose from that will last a very long time!

So, off I go to Guiry's to search for the PERFECT PAPER! Wish me luck! (I will also go to look for pictures of my favorite wallpapers and post them so you can agree with me!)

The blue and white-my favorite! (a favorite addition to this picture is my sweet Abbie and our good friend Chris Chandler!)

Our last house-kitchen wallpaper-LOVED IT!

Don't know how well you can see the watermelon patter EVERYWHERE! This was a happy room as well!

STRIPES!!!!

So our 2 oldest came home from college for Winter Break. While they were here they decided to paint their room. The one who wanted it most was Sydney since she will be here for the next few months working and getting ready to serve a full-time mission for our church. She researched and found out the best way to paint stripes. Our favorite blog and most informational was our friend Tiffany (also our family photographer-quite a renaissance woman!) You can find her blog by googling Landeelu. As you can see We began with these tools, plus a few sponge brushes and the paint of course!

Firs step was to wipe down walls. There were some dirty spots-obvious I know, but does not always happen. Syd measured very carefully and to do 12" stripes. She drew lines 12" apart all the way around the room. Next she put the tape on the bottom of the line where it was to be white and the top of the line where it was to be khaki. 

After everything was taped she then went back and painted Mod Podge over the edges of the tape.to ensure that no bleeding would occur. This worked great and we got the idea from Tiffany's blog!

We decided that equal stripes to the ceiling might be a bit BORING do once we reached the 4th stripe we just painted all the way to the ceiling. We were tired and ready for it to be done! We all LOVED how it turned out! 

Final product! We still have a bit of touch up on the white from colors we were trying out before our final choice!

...another view

Our missionary daughter who figured this all out and did most of the work.

Room before taking off outlets

...after

...after