Season’s Greeting,
Welcome back to our Holiday Decor blog series. Today is blog post #6 – Holiday Chair Decor.
In case you’ve ever wondered how to add some flair to you chair, check out the photos below. Don’t you just love how these simple little touches add such drama.
Do you add flair to your chairs?
Until next time…Happy Decorating & Happy Holidays!
Happy Holidays All!
Welcome back to our Holiday Blog series. Today’s blog post (#5) is all about the Cranberry.
Cranberries are synonymous with Thanksgiving and Christmas, but the have much more to offer than just being the sweet finishing touch to your holiday meal. Their vibrant red waxy skin, which acts as a preservative, also makes them desirable as a decorative object, as they can stay fresh for several weeks.
Any of the decorating ideas below can be easily duplicated. Or if you’re feeling extra creative, give it a whirl and create your very own masterpiece!
Of course, the Christmas Holiday wouldn’t be complete without some tasty cranberry treats. I think I’m definitely going to have to try these three below. If you’d like a copy the recipes just click on each image.
To learn about the History of the Cranberry, visit The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation here . Want to learn more about the health benefits of cranberries,please visit The Unionville Times here. Check out Three Dog Bakery to learn how cranberries are beneficial for your 4-legged family members too!
How have you used cranberries in your holiday decor and/or recipes? I’d love to hear from you, as well as see photos of your masterpieces!
Until next time…Happy Decorating & Happy Holidays!
Happy Holidays Y’all!
Welcome back to our Holiday Decor blog series. This is # 4 in the series and today I’m sharing my top Christmas Decorating Tips & Tricks. These are the things I’ve put into practice and fine tuned over the years to help keep my sanity in check during the hustle & bustle of the season. I hope you will find them helpful too.
Kristy’s Top Holiday Decorating Tips
To see the other blog posts in our Holiday Decor blog series just click on their names: “Outdoor Holiday Decor’ , “Gorgeous Holiday Wreaths” , and “It’s a Candy Cane Christmas”.
Until next time…Happy Decorating and Happy, Happy Holidays!
Sweet Greetings All!
Welcome to our 3rd installment of our Holiday Decor blog series. Today it’s all about the Candy Cane!
When I began gathering pictures of things that reminded me of Christmas, I knew my holiday files wouldn’t be complete without Candy Canes. As you will see, it turns out that they are not only tasty treats, but make very festive decorations as well. Plus you get the added bonus of devouring them when the mood strikes!
Of course a blog about candy canes wouldn’t be complete without a few tasty recipes. If you’d like to try any of the recipes below, just click on the photos.
Before I sign off, I’d like to leave you with this…
Just in case you would like to see the 1st installment in our Holiday Decor blog series, go here . To see our 2nd installment, go here
Until next time…Happy Decorating and Happy, Happy Holidays!
Welcome back to our Holiday Decor blog series. This is 2nd in the series, but in case you missed the 1st holiday blog “Outdoor Holiday Decor”, and would love to check it out you can catch it here .
To me, my outdoor holiday decorating just isn’t complete without a wreath or swag on the door. Sometimes my wreaths are over-the-top, and other times they’re fairly simple. But the one thing I almost always try to do is to create a cohesive look from the outside to the inside. I like for my outdoor decor to act as a prelude to what guests can expect my indoor decor to look like.
What’s your style? Not sure? Well look no further. I’ve done all the homework for you! Whether you’re style is fairly simple in design, such as the pine cone, ceiling medallion and/or yarn wreaths below…
or perhaps you like a little more pizzazz like the monogram wreath, the silver & blue wreath, or the natures bounty wreath…
or you’re looking for something that tells a personal story as the wine lovers wreath, the skating wreath or the recycled cards wreath does…
or perhaps you’d just like to surround yourself with classic holiday treats as in the Candy Cane wreath, Peppermint wreath, and/or the Marshmallow wreath.
Whichever direction you decide to go, keep true to your personal decorating style and you can’t go wrong!
Until next time…Happy Decorating and Happy, Happy Holidays!
Season’s Greetings Everyone!
Well, I hate to admit it… but once again the holiday season has snuck up on me. I’m not sure if this is a sign of me getting older or a sign of me trying to juggle too many things??? Hmmm…I think I’ll take the latter reason, thank you very much!
As I sat smack dab in the middle of my entry sorting through the many boxes of Christmas decor, an overwhelming ugh feeling swept through me. For starters, I haven’t been feeling well all week. Secondly, I’m usually done with decorating our home for the holidays by now. But mostly because I was tired of all of our ”stuff” – a hazard of the job! However, with everything being in fairly great shape I just couldn’t justify spending any money on new holiday decorations, but I desperately wanted/needed to put a new spin on what I already own.
So, being short on time, and quite frankly, lacking any genius ideas of my own (I’ll blame being sick & tired for this!), I went cruising for some inspiration. I found so many great ideas that I’ve decided I’ll be writing a series of holiday blogs over the new couple of weeks to showcase my favs! The first in this series will cover Outdoor Holiday Decor.
I love the beauty and simplicity of the ideas below. I love that fact that they’re festive enough for the holidays, yet can be kept up all winter long for a warm and welcome feeling.
Which one will you try? You probably already own everything you need to pull off at least one or two of these looks. Okay, so not everyone has a horse & barn to hang a festive wreath, but I just had to include it because, well, it was one of my favs! I love the sweetness and serenity of the photo, and it reminded me of the neighbors behind us. We get the pleasure of seeing these gorgeous creatures from our breakfast room window every day. All the pleasure, none of the work!
As for me, I haven’t made up my mind yet. When I’m finished with all of my holiday decorating I’ll post some pictures for you to see.
Until next time…Happy Decorating & Happy, Happy Holidays!
So, my last blog on this Whirlwind Remodel, The Planning Stages , I showed you the before and after photos of the floor plan. For this go ’round, I’ll be sharing some of the before, during and after photos of this “Dream Kitchen”. And I do mean, Dream Kitchen! This kitchen has all the bells and whistle you’d ever want and need: 60″ Dual Fuel Wolf Range, Warming Drawer, Wolf Microwave Wall Oven, Wolf Convection/Steamer Wall Oven, Double Gaggenau Grills, 36″ Subzero Refrigerator, 36″ Subzero Freezer, 3 Subzero Refrigerator Drawers, 1 Subzero Freezer Drawer, 2 Dishwashers, Trash Compactor, and an Ice Maker.
To refresh your memory…here’s the Before (left) and After(right) floor plans.
Material Selections & Finishes
Without further ado…some before & during photos
As you can see we did a lot of demo work. We tore out the secondary staircase & wall to open the Kitchen and Family Room; tore out the existing Kitchen cabinetry and donated what we could salvage; tore out the bow-shaped windows to enclose the patio for the new Breakfast Room addition; and, tour out the existing Laundry Room to make room for the new larger Kitchen. The Laundry Room found a new home in one of the garage bays, but that will be in a different blog. I have so many more during photos that I’d love to share, but if I included them here, this could possibly become the longest blog in history. So instead of doing that, I think at some point in the future I’ll put them all together in sequence of events and make a video…of course that would require me to learn how to do that! Hmmm…I do have a 16 yr old computer whiz at home that I’mpretty sure I could bribe with some $$$!
Here’s the “Just About Complete” Photos. There’s still some finishing touches to be done – light fixtures, televisions (I mentioned they’re huge sports fans, right?), final clean-up, etc. But it’s quite the transformation, don’t you think? FYI…if you’d like a closer look at any of the photos, just click on them to appear in a new window for a larger view.
If you’ve been following along from the beginning of this Whirlwind Remodel, you may recall me mentioning that pennies were part of the design plan. Did you notice where they found their home? Hint, look at the bar area. Pretty clever don’t you think? How do you like the hand-painted mural above? I presented this idea to the clients before demo began and they were very hesitant. They just couldn’t picture a mural above their stove-top. Much to my surprise and delight, they decided to go for it at the very last minute.
One of these days I’ll get back in there to have professional photos taken…I just have to catch this jet-setting family at home…which is no small feat!
Until next time…Happy Decorating!
Awww…Fall! Perhaps my favorite season of the year. Not too hot, not too cold…just right. There’s just something about the cooler air that puts a pep in my step and in the mood for some seasonal decor. Ordinarily, I would have my Fall Decor already out (didn’t I say that last year?), but I’ve been chasing my tail and well, something had to give. During my down time (midnight), I’ve been collecting pictures of outdoor fall decor that inspires me and thought I’d share it with you too…you know, just in case you’re getting a late start too!
Until next time…Happy Decorating!
Back in mid-July I wrote a about the whirlwind remodel I had been working on and posted some before and during photos (you can find that post here Whirlwind Remodel). Well, the remodel is finished – in record-breaking time – 8 weeks, from start to finish! And since this remodel took on a life of its own, I will be sharing it in a few blogs.
So to start, the Kitchen/Breakfast, Family Room & Laundry Room floor plan went from this…
To this…
As you can see, the original Kitchen & Breakfast Room footprint was a nice size, but it simply wasn’t working for this very active family of five, let alone the addition of the entire teen basketball team from time to time. Hence, the 10 bar stools around the new island! So a remodel was in order.
Originally, the remodel was to encompass the Kitchen & Breakfast Room, as well as, the Master Bath. However, within a few weeks of designing and planning, a decision was made (since we were already going to be stirring up dust, as the homeowners put it) to remodel the Laundry Room, Family Room, Entry, & Dining Room as well. So we went from roughly a 2,200 sq. ft. remodel to approx. a 4,000 sq. ft. remodel, but our time schedule remained the same. Pure insanity! (Just in case you’re wondering, the homes total sq. ft. is approx. 8,000 sq. ft.) At times, we often joked that it might be cheaper to bulldoze and start fresh, but we prevailed!
So, you might be wondering, “Where does a designer & builder begin?” First on the agenda…interview the clients – as a team! Ask very pointed questions, and then listen! Fortunately, the clients had been thinking about this for a while and had developed quite a lengthy wish list: (1) enlarge the Kitchen & Breakfast Room; (2) create an open floor plan between the Kitchen & Family Room; (3) enlarge the pantry; (4) add a larger, functional laundry room; (5) to have all rooms well-equipped; (6) have a killer backsplash; (7) make it look like it was original to the house; and (8) to start and complete the remodel within a ridiculously short time, 8weeks tops! Second on the agenda… the designer & builder needs to team with other trade experts (i.e., electrician, plumber, cabinetry maker, installation teams, etc.), and approach the job as a united front to deliver on time, and to exceed the clients expectations.
I must admit, I was a bit skeptical that we would meet the tight deadline. Typically, a remodel of this magnitude can take 4-6 months, but I can still hear the builder saying, “This job site is gonna be nothing but asses & elbows til we get this job done!” This still cracks me up every time I think of him saying this. Seriously, I’m laughing out loud right now! It also makes me think of my dad because this is so something he would say! Love ya dad:)
Until next time…Happy Decorating!
Remodeling your home is a very personal experience, and an investment (in time & money) that requires thoughtful planning. And depending on the size and scope of your remodeling project (total revamp of a Kitchen, Bathroom or entire home, a new addition, all new flooring, etc), this will probably be the 2nd largest investment you’ll make in your home. Over the past couple of years, I’ve seen a big shift in my interior design business to include more remodeling projects with the majority of those projects being Kitchen and Bath remodels. Another area on the rise for remodeling projects is a well-planned, well-organized home office. This is no big surprise as the number of people working from the home, either full-time or part-time, continues to rise monthly.
Listed below are a few of my top tips of things to do when planning for a remodel.
Until next time…Happy Decorating!
