Several months ago, I found a cane arm chair at a thrift store and just had to bring it home.  Something about its shape spoke to me.  As I mentioned before, I had every intention of placing it in our master bedroom, as a place for ‘The King’ of this castle to take off his shoes at the end of the day.  Unfortunately, over the course of this makeover, ‘The Queen’ happened to fall in love with it, and thinks it might just belong downstairs. 

I stripped it down to its frame before the holidays began, but sadly, it was cast aside for the frenzy of Christmas crafts and holiday décor.  I tried to finish it before Christmas when I discovered how to make double welt cord, but then my last needle broke and the chair was returned to the garage.  This past weekend, I returned to this project, and finally finished it! 

Here is the chair ‘Before’:

And ‘After’:

I kept it classic this time.  I didn’t pick a snazzy modern fabric or the latest geometric for the upholstery to wow you.  Instead, I chose a neutral camel velvet because I wanted it to be a timeless piece ~ one I could rotate throughout the house based on whim, feeling, and mood ~ all the things that dictate furniture placement in my home these days. 

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“Wow, just wow!” was all I could say when Kelly from The View Along the Way sent me pictures of her DIY upholstered bed.  Apparently Kelly “accidentally reads too many DIY blogs” (aren’t we all guilty of that?) which led her to coax her husband to help her build this. 

She was inspired by Jonathan Adler’s bed which retails for over $2,700.

I love her amusing post how she describes the whole process and the title too: “We Made Our Bed Now We Lie In It.”  Don’t miss the significance of the date on the plywood, a major cool sign this was meant to be hers. 

Hop on over to The View Along the Way and give Kelly a virtual high five. 

She’s earned it!

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Melanie from Washington recently wrote this to me:

“Hey Kate, I read that when you remodeled your house a few years ago, that you designed and built your kitchen.  We’re in the beginning stages of gutting our very dated kitchen and we’re starting over from scratch!  We’re so excited!!  My question for you is, were there any pitfalls you ran into?  Anything you learned along the way you’d be willing to share?  What should we know about building a kitchen starting from four bare walls?  Help!”

Great question Melanie!  Me and my Mister built our kitchen over five years ago, so to answer Melanie’s question, I had to dig through the archives and pull out all my files to refresh my recollection of the process of building our kitchen from scratch.  It resulted in a mild rash and minor heart palpitations, but I’ve since recovered.  

No, I’m kidding.  I absolutely love kitchen design, and loved the entire process of choosing all the details of the one in our own home.  I’m one of those people that if I overheard at the grocery store you were building a new kitchen, I’d butt my ponytail right into the conversation and want to chat all about appliances, countertops and the exact style of door front you’re choosing for your cabinets.  “Really?  Oh, fabulous!” 

Building a kitchen from scratch is an enormous task.  Unlike throwing the latest most popular shade of paint on your walls, a kitchen must be a space that can stand the test of time.  My kitchen suits the style of my home, and also my own personal tastes as well.  While there are a few things I wish I’d done differently, for the most part, I really love the floor plan and finishes we continue to live with every day.  

Ten Lessons I Learned from Building Our Kitchen

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Greetings! Announcing the winner of last week’s MirrorMate giveaway: #779 Martha of The Simple Things blog, congratulations Martha !! 

Now on to the giveaway for this week!   Are you struggling with decorating a particular room in your home?  Need a little help deciding where to place your furniture, what size area rug you should buy, or just having trouble picking a paint color on your walls?  My Design Guide is an online interior decorating service that will help you solve your decorating dilemma!

When you purchase a standard design package from My Design Guide, you have professional interior designers available to you at affordable prices.  You take their Stylefinder quiz, then email several pictures of your troubled space.  Next, their professional interior designers consult with you about the style you’re looking for, and what you like and don’t like about your existing furniture and décor.  Your designer then creates a plan based on your needs, including a list of resources tailored for you (just like this), within a week!

For a quick video on how the process works, take a peek here. 

Good news!  My Design Guide is giving away three Design Consultations to three lucky readers (a $49 value)!  

With a design consultation, a professional interior designer will answer your questions about one of your furnished rooms.  Perhaps it’s paint colors you are struggling with, window treatments, flooring or carpet selections, art, accessories or bedding, or simply your furniture arrangement.  Your questions answered for free if you win !

Eligibility to win one of three Design Consultations with My Design Guide:

1) State a problem spot or space in your home where you need help and name it in a comment! 

2) For a second chance to win, take the My Design Guide Stylefinder Quiz, then tell me your ‘Style’ in a comment!

3) For a third chance to win either link to this giveaway on Twitter, or link to this giveaway on Facebook, then leave an additional comment telling where you mentioned this giveaway (FB or Twitter).

Three winners chosen by Random.org.  Giveaway ends Monday January 17th at 8 p.m PST. 

GOOD LUCK!

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Jennifer from I Heart Organizing wrote to me today asking if the board and batten loft solution from Monday would work in her home on her ‘Problem Wall’.  Jennifer wrote:

“I would love to do this project right in between our front door and large picture window in our living room/entry.  It almost looks to be a similar situation to the room you worked on . . . I have always struggled with no coat closet in this room.  When I saw what you did, it seemed like a perfect solution!  Just wondering your thoughts.” 

So I got a little creative with her entry and decided with a little Photoshop ‘cut and paste’ she could visualize her improved foyer. 

Here is Jennifer’s ‘Problem Wall’ now:

And what it would look like after installing some simple board & batten.   

I hung her pictures a bit higher to accommodate for the ‘new’ wall treatment.   Since Jennifer is a busy mom of three boys, those extra hooks will come in handy.  She could use some extra storage, but there’s no need to make it drab or expensive, so I added this upholstered bench. 

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