a home decor blog, making it pretty one space at a time
My younger sister just bought a new house, and I’m helping her redo the kitchen! And it’s so fun to work in a different style than I normally do.
As I’m getting ready to decorate it, I rounded up 12 gorgeous blue and white accessories that you might love for your home, too.
On Friday, I had the amazing opportunity to have my home shot for a magazine. I spent two weeks prepping my house and countless hours cleaning, but when everything was finally ready, what a pinch me moment! A photographer, stylist, and photography assistant flew into Utah to take pictures of my house. I still can’t believe it!
The number one question I got was “how did this happen? How do you get in a magazine?” I thought I would answer that with lots of behind the scenes information! [Read more…]
I have three sisters. One lives in Utah, somewhat close to me. My baby sister lives in Montreal. And Carli, the third sister lives in England. Well, she’s moving with her family to Salt Lake City TODAY! She bought a house in the Avenues of Salt Lake (if you remember, we’re redoing her kitchen). I figured, since she’ll arrive without any furniture, I might as well surprise her with a budget living room makeover!
When my family moved to Florida a year and a half ago, we didn’t have a sofa for 2 months! It was so terrible not having a place to sit at the end of a long day. I know it’s hard for her to leave England, so I thought I’d try to soften the blow just a tiny bit and try to make her new house feel a little like home.
[Read more…]
At the end of July 2018 we moved into our current house! We LOVE this home, but getting here was not easy. My husband and I are both self-employed and I’d always heard that because of that, getting a mortgage would be tricky, but I didn’t realize HOW tricky!
Here’s a quick video where I go over our story of buying this house:
[Read more…]
Hey friends! Making my home a beautiful place is definitely my favorite thing. But what I don’t talk about much is that I also try to do little things to be environmentally conscious at home! So today I want to share with you 100 ways to make your house eco friendly, too.
Alright, I have a bad habit that I need to confess- I hate painting ceilings. You have to empty out the whole room and then paint above your head- no thanks! But my living room and kitchen ceilings were so bad.The ceilings were the original peach color, super dirty, and the edges had white paint from painting the trim.
I decided it was finally time to bite the bullet (especially since we have a magazine coming to photograph my house in a few days!) and just do it! Thankfully, along the way I picked up some tips and tricks. Here’s how to paint a ceiling.
Here’s some closeups where you can see just how bad the ceiling was! Most of the time it didn’t bother me, but it was on my long imaginary to do list that just nagged at me. No longer!
Start by prepping the room for paint. Pull out any furniture you can. Cover any thing you don’t want a random paint splatter with a drop cloth or old towel. Take down draperies. Have a wet rag in case paint gets on anything besides the ceiling.
Next, clean that ceiling! I hope yours isn’t as disgusting as mine! Either way, you’ll want to clean it. The easiest way is to take a steam mop or Swifter to the ceiling and clean the whole thing. That way you don’t have to hop on and off a stool while cleaning the whole ceiling. #timesaver
And now, take your painter’s tape and tape off light fixtures so they stay paint free. Note, for painting around a ceiling fan, use a small angled paint brush and cut out around the fan. Then, use a roller and paint between the blades. It’s a pain because the blades move, but it’s doable.
Finally, it’s time to start painting! The best method I’ve found is to paint the perimeter of the room and then work in until you’re done. Make sure your brush has an extension rod so you can easily roll on the paint without being on a stool. Use the small angled brush to cut in at the corners after the ceiling is painted.
Here’s a helpful hint- I’ve picked a white paint color I love for the walls of my house. Its Ultra Pure White by Behr in eggshell. I have now painted most of my walls, trim, and now ceiling in the same color and sheen. I love that I can overlap the paint on the wall while I’m painting the ceiling and the color and sheen match.
I used to use a satin finish for my trim, but if I wasn’t perfect with my painting it was obvious. I’d sometimes accidentally paint the satin on the walls and it looked awful. I love the simplicity of having one product for everything.
It’s also nice in case I find trim touch-ups while I’m painting! I just grab a brush and cover those. I always keep a gallon of the paint on hand so I can just dive into a project without driving to the store.
Another method for painting ceilings is to use a paint pole that holds paint in the pole. That way you don’t have to dip the roller into the paint. This saves a step and I’ve heard that it is a great way to quickly paint a ceiling!
It felt SO good to cross this big task off my to do list! My kitchen is really dark, so adding more white paint to the ceiling just gives one more surface to reflect paint and lighten things up!
The white paint on the ceiling actually makes the room feel bigger because it just feels like the walls just keep going up.
The biggest pain with painting ceilings is the prep and clean up. We took everything out of the living room and were up late cleaning up. Honestly, just don’t think about it and dive in. It feels SO good to be done! And yes, it’s worth it.
My ceilings needed two coats of paint. My shoulders are a little sore after painting both rooms in a day. But dang, I think it looks so much prettier! And fresh! If this is a task you’re putting off, just know if a few house you could have a massive transformation!
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Hey friends! So, I recently shared the before/after pics in a one year update in our Fairview Cottage home. And I got a lot of questions about my record player stand! So I decided to roundup some of my favorites and share them with you here!
First things first, I’m not selling my house. BUT we have a magazine coming over to shoot most of the rooms this Friday… The pressure is on! So I started making lists of things that needed repaired. You know, the issues that have been nagging me that I haven’t gotten around to fixing. I want my house to look amazing- every detail! So I made a list of the most important repairs before listing your house (or just photographing it 😉 ).
Side note- I’ll do my best to take you behind the scenes on Instagram stories. Make sure to tune in!!
I figure, the projects I’ll be working on is similar to what I would do if I was trying to sell my house. Except I get to actually enjoy my upgraded house!!! [Read more…]
Our kitchen is nice and big, but the only place we have to eat is in there too so it doubles as a dining room. When we first moved in, I put the rug down from our old dining room and called it a day. Well, it’s always been too short and awkward under the table (half of the chair legs would sit off the rug)- it was time for a change!
But the room had all been designed! Now, adding in a new rug was tricky because it needed to match the rest of the components of the room. I thought I’d walk you through the process for how to pick the perfect rug in case you need a new one too!
I attended a conference recently and a speaker talked about why she loves to redo furniture. She said it’s because she believes in second chances- in life and for furniture. I love that! So when I needed a table for a project and only found a dated 90’s pine table, I figured I could breathe new life into it. Here’s what it looked like when I bought it-
I grabbed it for $20. I loved the shape of the legs and top and could see so much potential! Want to see how I gave it a DIY white washed driftwood finish?!
