By now you’ve probably seen these stunning photos of the spaces created for the Gill family  by Traditional Home and Ballard Designs.

This room was an empty room with a few chairs and some instruments.  But the family “wanted a “salon” – a room to sit around and enjoy each others’ conversation, listen to music and just hang out with family and friends.”

The before isn’t too shabby huh?  That just confirms the fact that good bones can take a room far.  High ceilings, millwork to die for, big windows for natural light and french doors, wood floors…I’ll take it.  But when I see photos like this from a house I’ll never have I fight the feeling to shrug it off and think thoughts like it’s hopeless, I give up, forget it, only people who win contests and have rooms called salons can have such a pretty home…. Instead, I shake it off and try to learn.

I believe that you can learn something from every room whether you like the style or not, whether you have wood floors or not. Just because this house is nice and had a talented design team work on every inch doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy it and even get something for ourselves.  Really, they didn’t do this room just to show off, although it’s totally brag worthy.  It’s supposed to be inspiring~and I believe it is. It’s worth it to watch this quick 1 minute transformation video, then we’ll discuss, ok?

Here are three of my observations…

1. There are lots of seats

I’m a big fan of seats and so is my hiney. Since this isn’t a family room where they will have game night and watch tv together, I like that the designers opted for lots of chairs and a dainty settee instead of a big sprawling sofa.  When you have a group of people over, everyone breaks up into smaller groups to chat anyway.  Look next to that settee in front of the windows, there are two wooden side chairs, personally, I would not have thought to put those there but they work as a surface like a table or for seating if you have a little crowd.  A smart idea.  Even though I don’t have a salon in my house, these photos remind me of one of my old goals with our family room, sneak in as much seating as possible.

2. There are lots of styles of seats

The two leather Chesterfield style chairs were already in the room but remember, you don’t have to get a Chesterfield sofa to match.  You don’t want the matching police to fine you. It’s fine and even considered good design to use a mix of different styles.  As you look at the seating there is overall balance but not a Rooms to Go look. It looks like the pieces were as they say collected over time with their different heights and profiles and materials and scale.  It looks layered and gives us permission to pull chairs from different rooms to get the same look.  Makes me want to pull in some random chairs I have from around the house just to see what I can fit together.

3. Mix up the surfaces.

I see three small tables and a shelf {and look, a little orange bench~more tush resting ability}.  I love the different heights of the tables.  The one here on the left and in front of the settee are both higher than what many of us might choose.  I know I automatically assume I need coffee table height. But, since these tables are so airy and open, they almost disappear.  And on the right in front of the french door is a drum style table.  And don’t forget the shelf on the left wall…

Just because something is called a book shelf doesn’t mean it has to be loaded with books. It’s great to have bookshelves with books but, I like the idea of incorporating an open shelf on a large wall.  You can use a shelf instead of a dresser or table as more of a display area.  {sidenote: I am in love with that white branch candle up there}

The design team also styled the shelf three ways.  I notice texture, color, glimmer, crisp white, and layering used in each photo.  Remember, in this room, it’s not for books.  No need to get defensive and claim it’s unrealistic to not pile books on a book shelf, this is a display piece on purpose.

I see so many more lessons from this room as well, layering, pops of color, texture, neutrals, I really could go on.

Do you have a take away from this room?

Don’t forget tomorrow is the yard sale linky party.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

I asked Karen from The Art of Doing Stuff to guest post today about how she completely revamped her home in a matter of weeks.  Karen’s blog is currently one of my top five favorite blogs, her writing style, well, you’ll see.  And..

Look at her abs!  Besides having abs of wonder, she is a Jill of all trades and a television host in Canada.

Hi everyone!  I’m new here, so I should probably introduce myself.  My name’s Karen and I do stuff.  You may remember me as the girl who inspired Nester’s tree stump table!  The basic premise of my site The Art of Doing Stuff is,  ”If I can do it, you can too”. It’s not that hard.  Any of it!  Except math.  Math’s usually pretty difficult.

I’d like to thank Nester for inviting me over here today.   The invitation came after I commented on her post about editing her house into a place of calm.  She methodically got rid of her stuff until her house felt, not empty, not soulless, but peaceful.

And she did it in a totally reasonable, accessible way that anyone could accomplish.  Nester said … and I quote “I didn’t start by emptying out a room and selling everything.”.

Conversely …. I did.

Yes.  I really did.   Two years ago I sold every single thing I owned and painted my whole house white. Within 2 weeks.  I’m a bit extreme like that.

And this is how it happened …

When I first moved into my home 12 years ago I didn’t own a thing.  Aside from the contents of my hopeless chest, which contained a small juice glass with the Coke logo on it and a set of salt and pepper shakers (shaped like mason jars),  I had nothin’.

Sad but true.  I could finally afford to buy my own house, I just couldn’t afford to put anything in it.  Luckily the house I bought was a 170 year old brick cottage.  This worked to my advantage because when you put old junk in a new house it looks like old junk.    When you put old junk in an old house, it blends.

Over the years I slowly acquired a whole lot of old junk.  I either bought it at an auction, at an antique store or when I was really lucky, I found it at the side of the road.  In amongst the cigarette butts and dried up worms, I found things like perfectly good soiled chairs.  I stripped, painted and disinfected for about a decade.  The home I ended up with was very cozy and comfortable.  Picture Granny’s house without Tweety Bird.

My living room then.

Literally everything in it was old and every piece of furniture had a folded up piece of cardboard under at least 1 leg.  Without the cardboard stuff had a tendency to tip over and hit you in the shin.  I had red velvet curtains and a red velvet couch and my dining room was painted red.

My dining room then.

The decorating wasn’t exactly spastic, but boy oh boy, wherever you looked there was some sort of antique assault followed by a one two punch of colour.   For the first year it was cozy.  For the next decade it was oppressive.

I never created proper storage, which was desperately needed.  In the olden days people only owned one coat and a bar of lye soap so they didn’t need closets.  Being that it was built in the olden days, my house didn’t have much in terms of closet space.

Because of this I never had anywhere to put anything.  Things were shoved under the couch, books were scattered from one end of the house to the other and I could never find my stupid stapler!!

One day I took a look around at my very cozy, grandmotherly house and screamed.  Oh my Lord, who lives here???!!   I got itchy and claustrophobic and I’m pretty sure I even developed a twitch.  You know when something isn’t right in a room and you keep moving things around to make it better?  That wasn’t working anymore.

My foyer then.

I hated, hated, HATED every inch of my house.  I hated it like it had wronged me.  It was personal this rift between me and my house.   I felt sweaty and disorganized and frankly a little bit curious about all those medications everyone on Intervention seemed to love.

And then one day my fella spotted a couch that he liked.  It was a taupe, minimalist, sectional sofa.  I liked the couch too.  The problem was, that couch would look stupid in our house.  Completely ridiculous.  Which depressed me.

We came home couchless from the couch shop, I took one look around at my retirement home house and it happened.  And it was instant.

I full-on snapped.   Within 2 weeks I sold everything I owned and painted my whole house white.

My living room today.  And yes, that’s the couch that started it all!

photo by donna griffith for style at home magazine

It’s been 2 years since “the incident” (not to be confused with “the great centipede purge” of 2007).  I have filled the house back up with things I love.  Some of them old and some of them new.  There’s even one thing that I found at the side of the road!  I installed floor to ceiling book cases and found a place to store everything.  And let me tell you … white is the botox of paint colours.  We both look younger and fresher for it.

My foyer today.

photo by donna griffith for style at home magazine

My dining room now.

This larger than life portrait is one of the few things I kept.  When my father died 10 years ago, my mother gave me and my sisters $2,000 with the stipulation that it be spend on a piece of art in memory of my dad.   I bought “Margaret”.  I will never get rid of Margaret.  Even if you go through the same thing I did and sell everything you own, save the things you truly love and have meaning for you.  Things like Margaret.

photo by donna griffith for style at home magazine

My twitch is gone and I feel much calmer and much more comfortable.   I was a bit worried that going so extreme with the white was going to make my house cold and sterile.  That when guests walked in they’d break out into a sweat, worried they were in store for some unexpected surgical procedure.  But it isn’t cold at all!  As long as you add in a few fuzzy things (cats count), white can be very cozy.  Think of our friend the polar bear.  What’s cozier than one of those?

And you wouldn’t believe how much easier your life becomes when you just have somewhere specific to put the extra toilet paper.   And the board games!  Go ahead!  Ask me to find my Scrabble board.  I can do it in 30 seconds flat with time left over to grab the Boggle!

Plus, since redoing my house, it’s ended up in the pages of Style at Home magazine.  That would never have happened with Granny’s house.  Ever.

I’m savin’ time, I’m savin’ money’ (I’ve had the same stapler for the past year) and I’m not walking around with a bunch of cartoon squiggly swear words over my head all day.

I figure I’ve gained at least an extra half an hour a day because I’m no longer wandering around trying to find stuff or trying to figure out where to put stuff.  That totals an extra 3 1/2 hours a week, or 7 1/2 days in a year.  An entire week’s worth of time was gained by clearing out the crap I didn’t need and finding a proper place for the stuff I did. Of course, I’m just estimating here, but it seems like a reasonable estimate to me.  I worked it out on paper and it all seems right.

Want me to staple it together and send it to you?   ‘Cause I can!  In an instant.

Visit Karen at The Art of Doing Stuff

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

Lindsey has no idea I’m going to talk about her house today.  But, it has to be done.

Last week Lindsay shared some photos of her house with a post called Get Real { A House Tour}. And she showed photos of her house as is.  Nothing new, we’ve all seen bloggers show their real life house. But, I learned a lot by looking at Lindsey’s house and I thought it would be fun to chat about.

I’m hoping I can put into words what it is that I have taken away from seeing her home in full use.  Basically, I still think her home looks ridiculously gorgeous. And, we all know, her style is perfectly lovely and her house is just amazing but, even if you don’t love your house as much as you love Lindsey’s there’s a lot to learn from these rooms, they look great even lived in. Kind of like the beautiful girl who wakes up with bedhead and an old tee shirt on. I think there are many a country songs about how that girl is prettier anyway.

So what IS it?  What’s the secret to having a pretty house even when it’s completely lived in? This is something I desire in our own home~I can’t escape the fact that we live fully in it so, how can it look ok in the midst of life?  That’s the real secret, right?

Here are a few things I noticed:

1. Space.

Lindsey doesn’t fill every square inch with tchotchkes, patterned rugs, patterned drapes, 5 extra chairs… even with two bolts of fabric on her floor, there’s still room for toys.  No matter what size house we have, the temptation can be to fill it up, but, allowing some room for the everyday happenings can create space for you to feel more comfortable with the stuff of life sitting out in full view.

2. Cleared off surfaces.

Linsdey jokes about what is on her counters and island but, for the most part, they aren’t covered with decorative pretties that go unused.  Most things on her island are things she used that day. So, leaving stuff out didn’t just add to the already there stuff.  So, if you know your season of life is going to be messy, why not clear off your surfaces to accommodate what needs to happen.  Let’s face it, it still looks pretty good and not overwhelming to straighten up because she doesn’t have a bunch of non essentials happening. And, when you find extra house plans on your island, if it isn’t already coated with pretty unused things, you don’t get annoyed as much.

3. A dedicated dumping spot.

Yes, it’s filled with stuff, but, I bet she could have it cleared off in 8 minutes if she needed too.  I can learn from this. I keep thinking I’m disorganized because we always have shoes, bags, keys, receipts and so on and so forth and things of that nature and everything….all over our foyer and kitchen.  WHY don’t I just acknowledge that we need a dumping ground and create a place for it so that I’m ok with it?

We’ve talked about it before: The two Ways to Achieve your goal of a less messy house

1. You can learn methods and tips and tricks to help keep your home less messy.

2. You can lower your expectations and accept the fact that you will have messes and that each season of your family’s life will bring different kinds of beautiful messes.

My office has looked like for the past week.   My In-Laws even stopped by and I didn’t try to straighten it up.  I just closed the glass doors hoping they would put a prettier frame against the reality behind them.  Instead of seeing a big daunting mess, I can see the fact that our taxes are done and I get to work from home.

Remember this book? A Perfectly Kept House is the Sign of A Misspent Life: How to live creatively with collections, clutter, work, kids, pets, art, etc…and stop worrying about everything being perfectly in it’s place. Yeah, that puts a little spin on our priorities.

We have a hardworking home that puts up with all of our abuse. I’m really grateful for our beautiful mess.  Instead of thinking about what my house isn’t, I want to focus on what she is.

Yesterday afternoon on a whim I asked on facebook and twitter if anyone had a photo of their lived in house they could share.  I got so many beautiful photos and am still getting them~thank you all!  Here’s why…

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

This weekend I finally found something that I had wanted for a very long time.

I wanted a sailfish. I felt dumb even admitting it here a few times.  Why in the world did I want a sailfish on my wall?  I remember a fish {was it a sailfish?} on my grandparent’s wall growing up and I’ve always been drawn to the taxidermied fish on the wall in cheap seafood restaurants. But, I could never explain why I wanted one.

It just so happened that that very same day, I found something else I had long wanted.  Some mounted antlers. Another thing I couldn’t explain.  The whitewashed antlers both pretend and real are somewhat trendy right now but, I wanted the real thing.  I’ll tell you more about how I found them in another post.  Right now I’m talking about the why.

Saturday morning my husband and I were upstairs. We heard the boys shouting, “The tree is falling down!”.  I remember wondering what tree I have in my house that could fall down and if they were building something with my bonsai tree.  Then we heard the groan.

This majestic old tree made our rental house feel like home.

We did most of our photo shoot with Amber under the canopy of the tree.

It had rained steady but not too heavy for 24 hours.

And the tree just leaned.

He’s been growing next to the creek for a hundred years?  And the roots just gave way.  And I found myself mourning a tree and then feeling bad because there are mothers losing children and I am morning a backyard tree. In a house we don’t even own.

Later that day I was reading and came across this quote on Ann’s blog…

What kinds of articles are most likely to be emailed by users of the New York Times website? Researchers did a six-month study of the most-emailed list and discovered that, more than utility or surprisingness or feel-good factors (which were all helpful for an article’s prospects), it was a sense of awe that made a given article most likely to be shared. ”

And I thought about Awe.  And awe reminded me of the tree that isn’t mine but I liked to pretend it was.  And I looked up at my fish and realized it was full of awe and when I walked into the sitting room, those antlers stuck out all unbalanced but perfectly placed and I remember we told the hunter who harvested those elk that the antlers were awesome.  He told us that elk antlers are the fastest growing bones on the planet.

Suddenly I realized why I decorated with a rock at Christmas.

I connected the dots of why my landlocked house feels right filled with starfish and sea biscuits and sea fans every month of the year. My fascination with nests and eggs and feathers makes more sense now.  I love to incorporate things in my home that give me a sense of awe. And for me those things are items made by my favorite Designer.

Maybe for you something totally different invokes a feeling of awe.  But it’s worth thinking about, do you have anything truly awful in your home?

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

She invited me in and immediately apologized profusely for what a mess her house was.  I expected to see a normal house in normal disarray like how mine looks when I’m about to host a big bunch of people in a couple of hours. I was wrong.

Her home was stunning.  It was gorgeous. It was glorious. Maybe a little breathtaking. It looked like it was ready for its close up in Southern Living.  This girl was so talented. She had a great eye for design and beautiful furniture.  I wish I could show you a photo. You would gasp.  And she was apologizing for the mess?

I made two mental notes that day.

1. Never invite her to my home because if HER house isn’t good enough for her, mine certainly won’t be.

2. Stop apologizing for small imperfections in my home.

I had always apologized for my home to protect myself so people wouldn’t think I was a slob or at least they would know that I acknowledge I can be a slob and that I’m not ok with it and that really, I have much higher standards than this and my house does not meet my requirements.

It wasn’t until that life changing moment in that unmessy, beautiful home that I realized that all apologies have power.  After that day, I made it a point to start controlling my apologies and using them for good and not evil.

Be sure to visit the other 31 dayers:: The Inspired Room, Remodeling This Life, Chatting at the Sky, Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, My First Kitchen, Life With My 3 Boybarians, Reluctant Entertainer over the next 31 days.

Want to read all the Less Messy Nests posts? Click here.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

domino

One of my favorite things to do is to pair up non matching chairs and tables.

southern living

source?

decor pad

Look around your home, do you have a small pair of chairs you could try at the ends of your table?  If you have a breakfast area and a dining room, switch out a few chairs and see how that looks.  Take the bench from the hall and try it on one side of your table.

Shop the house and see if there is a more fun arrangement for your table just to change things up.

the cottage

You might find a combination that suits your family better.

{My husband eats breakfast here every morning}

Spur of the moment linky party because I am insane, do you have a table and chair combination that didn’t come together?  Do you have an inspiration photo that you’ve written about? Link up and inspire us. I’ll leave it open for a week so you can have time to add your link.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

This is a repost from July 2009, but it’s one of the most common questions I get asked:: “where did you get your armoire?”

I recently painted my yard sale purchased, pine armoire.

This is how it looked before. I think about 25% percent of houses in my neighborhood have a piece of furniture that looks like this. I love how warm it was and how it was such a great victim to withstood the abuse of 3 boys.

I’ve wanted to paint this piece since I saw Meredith’s painted armoire {here’s her before}. So, naturally, two weeks before we moved, I grabbed a pillow and an oval box for color inspiration and then all my color wheels and found a color I thought would be a good choice.

My goal was to have a robin’s egg blue but not a bright one like Martha leans toward but a dirty, natural feeling blue. Also, since I was painting over pine that had plenty of knots, I wanted to make sure it was a color that would look ok if and when the knots bleed through the paint. Because bleeding always seem to happen with knots.

I have painted raw pine in the past. I’ve used coats of primer and paint and within weeks, yes, WEEKS the knots start to bleed through. This time, I tried Behr Paint and Primer in One. {And wouldn’t it be nice if I were getting a big fat check from Behr since I’m broadcasting how much I love this product? I am not. Behr has no idea what a Nester is.}

So, it’s been almost 6 weeks now and so far, no bleeding. I will tell you if and when I see any signs of knots coming through. And if and when they do come through, I will be ok with that because I picked a color that will look even better with knots.

Here’s how I, the world’s most horrible, impatient painter, painted my armoire. And it turned out great.

1. Put the furniture on movers {those round things} and put plastic on the ground and move the armoire onto the plastic away from the wall. I did this all by myself thankyouverymuch. I think I even left the TV plugged in.

2. Get your professional paint roller holder thing and line it with your professional liner. Cake pan and aluminum foil.

3. Get your paint. Here’s the formula for what I used if you must have it. I think I would have been happy with any of the 20 colors I choose from. Usually, when people try to pick a robin’s egg they go waaaay too turquoise. You almost want a gray. Then, when you put the color next to gray it should look robin’s egg. {216 is the bottom number under the “B”}

I used Sherwin Williams Halcyon Green 6213. But remember, you really cannot tell what paint colors truly look like by looking at a computer screen. And I adjusted this photo so you could read the words so, if you think you would like it please get a sample first. In real life, the color is more greenish grey than what you see in the photo on my computer. Quietude, the one above also looks fantastic. I like the eggshell finish. I don’t like it really shiny so eggshell is a good choice for me. Why did I do a color match? Because I decided to paint this the same day I painted this. I didn’t have a Behr color wheel and I didn’t want to go to Home Depot, grab colors then come home and decide. Which is how you must do it. Never decide a color in a florescent lighted store. You need to choose it in the room where you will be using the color.

And for the record, the color in our front room is Sherwin Williams Comfort Gray.  It’s a more watery, lighter, gray blue than the deeper more intense blue/green Halcyon Green.

4. Start with a brush and do the corners. Or start with a roller and do the sides. I don’t really have a set way. I did wipe down the piece with a damp cloth first too, I guess I should add a number in for that. But other than knocking off the dust, no prep work.

5. I took the drawers out and left them for later. I also removed the handles with pliers because I didn’t want to mess with painting around them. I picked out some I liked better.

6. Decide where you want the paint to stop. You can paint all of the inside or be lazy like me and just do the doors. I simply painted whatever I could with the roller and let it stop at the edges. No brushing meticulously for me. I only used the brush in the tight corners and around the hinges.

7. I admit I didn’t do the best painting job ever to grace the internet. I painted three coats, I waited a few hours between coat one and two and then overnight before I did the third coat. I think it took me maybe 4 hours total from clean room to clean room.

8. I liked the fact that I had big square hinges to work around. I got a little paint on them but so? I’m not expecting the paint police anytime soon. They are busy arresting people who are too afraid to paint, because we all know that is a much bigger offense. And, yes, I left everything inside while I painted it.

9. Why am I still numbering? Here are some close ups, I won’t bore you with my words…

I love that you can still see the wood when you open it up.

Don’t forget to paint the top. I didn’t paint the back.

Where I decided to stop the paint. There’s no wrong.

I didn’t let the paint dry long enough before I shut the doors so there is a little paint that rubbed off. I could fix it but I probably never will. {One year later~still haven’t}

There you have it. I feel like every time I see this piece it thanks me for taking the time for painting it. It was so quick and simple. My only regret? I should have painted it years ago.

Want to paint your own furniture but want to do a little more professional job?  My friend Mandi from Altar’d furniture wrote an ebook that will tell you all the tricks and tools that she uses in her business {she sells painted furniture}.  For $10 you can get her secrets and step by step real, correct processes to paint something that’s nicer than my yard sale armoire.