Decorating Using What You Already Have In 5 Easy Steps.

So this week begins our latest design project helping a friend who's budget is tight, as is with most first-time home buyers. It's a great space for the size and has loads of potential. She has numerous collectables she has acquired over the years and needs help fitting them all in a small space. To help her stay within budget, we will "shop" around her house and use items that she already has. We will combine them together in new and interesting ways, while eliminating other items to create a fresh new look.  As we were making notes for her, we realized the tips we were giving her could help others as well, so we're sharing the basic tips today.

Step #1: Find An Inspiration Photo

 Better Homes and Gardens

We chose this one from the Better Homes and Gardens website as an example to work from. This magazine is great to use for ideas, because they don't generally do anything over-the-top or expensive. Now it is important to choose a realistic inspiration room that has similar elements to what you already have. Remember you are going shopping in YOUR home and if you pick a completely different style and color scheme from what you already have, it's going to be a very sparsely decorated room.

Step #2: Get Organized

It's now time to start de-cluttering and organizing your stuff. This is where your inspiration photo is the most important. Start by first going through your home and find everything you can that looks like it would go nicely in your inspiration room. Using our inspiration photo here, we could start by going through the entire house looking for blue and neutral toned items. Organize them into a pile and then go back through and get rid of everything that does not fit your vision (furniture included). These items can possibly replace what you have pillaged from the rest of the house or they can be sold at a garage sale when your project has been completed.

Step #3: Paint is your friend

Now it's time to take your photo to the paint store and chose a wall color. Use you photo and get numerous similar shades of the photo color. Just because the color you see in the magazine is beautiful it doesn't mean it will look good in your home. You might have to go lighter, darker, warmer or cooler, depending on the light in your room. Take the sample paint chip cards home and see how they look. Chose several favorites and go back and get sample cans of each color. This will give you a much better idea of how the color is really going to look in the room. It's almost impossible to tell from those tiny little cards. You will also want to match up your picture frames, which would also require a few cans of spray paint. Are all the pictures in your inspiration room black, as in the photo below and yours are an array of different colors? Take the frames off and spray them. It really unifies a collection of art or photos.

 

Better Homes and Gardens

Paint may also be needed to transform a table into what you see in your picture. The photo below is a great example. A can of blue paint will make that mahogany table of yours look like an entirely different piece of furniture.

 

Better Homes and Gardens

Step #4: Decorate!

Once everything has been painted, you get to start doing the fun part - decorating! Start playing with the furniture and try different arrangements. At this point you may find that some pieces don't really work and may need to be removed. More often than not, less is more and just because something fits your vision, it may not fit inside the room. After your furniture is in place, you can bring in your pictures and accessories to complete your look. If your missing key elements and can't finish your design, don't worry, we can handle that in the next step.

Step #5: The Wish List 

Now that you're done decorating, you step back and realize that perhaps there are a bunch of key elements missing, like that amazing bookcase in the picture that you don't have. This is where the wish list comes into play. If you know exactly what you're looking for, you'll be able to find it somewhere. Garage sales or perhaps an inexpensive retailer like IKEA will have what you need. This also keeps you from straying and buying on impulse, which will most likely be something you don't need and doesn't fit your design.

End of an Era....Sigh!

 

Well the kids have decided that they need a more grown-up room and want me to repaint it. Apparently it looks like too much of a nursery. They also got bunk beds as of recently that cover up most of the art I painted for them anyway. I knew it wouldn't last forever, but I can't help but be sad to let it go. The time is going by so fast with them and I feel like I just don't have enough time to really soak it up like I would like to. This summer is especially zooming by. I really wish they would take their time growing up, but I guess that's just not possible. At least I have lots of pictures though and the next mural should be lots of fun. I'm doing a retro style Disneyland themed mural for them. I just need a bit of spare time to draw up some designs and then I'll get started on it.

 I did Jake's portrait with the style in mind of the old Dick and 

Jane books (which Jake is actually learning to read from).

At the time when I painted Sam's portrait, she was in ballet. 

She looked so sweet in her little pink outfit!

Jennifer

 

Inspiration from my favorite happy place.

On one of my many recent excursions to Disneyland I took these pics in the new Ariel ride line. I think the murals are so playful and fun for a bathroom! They have a very Art Nouveau feel to them. The color scheme is really nice and the designs compliment the arches so nicely.

Jennifer

The lovers, the dreamers and me.......

I thought this went well with my sister's post below about telescopes-

"Who said that every wish would be heard
and answered when wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that and someone believed it.
Look what it's done so far.
What's so amazing that keeps us star gazing
and what do we think we might see?
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection. 
The lovers, the dreamers and me."

-Kermit 

I'll keep star gazing for sure!

Photo courtesy of NASA

Old telescopes make me happy!

Here is a picture I took recently of some old telescopes.  I used Photoshop to age the image so it would look a little older and more interesting.  I love telescopes.  When I was a little girl I wanted to be an astronomer.  That was when I thought all you did was look through a telescope at the beautiful heavens above.  Then I realized that it was all math, and you hardly ever get to look through a telescope.  That is when it started sounding really bad to me (the math portion of my brain is a small, shriveled pathetic little thing.)  I did get a bit of a thrill as a kid though, when I had the pleasure of meeting Clyde Tombaugh, the man who discovered Pluto.  This was the coolest thing ever for a wanna-be nerd like myself.  I knew that all other planets had been discovered long ago by famous dead astronomers.  It was so neat that I got to meet the only one alive in my lifetime.  Then, they went and took it away.  I was so sad, not only did he lose his achievement as an astronomer, I could no longer say I met someone who discovered a planet.  I was truly heartbroken!  He had passed away before it was demoted, but his family was still very sad.  In my home state, New Mexico, Pluto is still considered a planet in honor of it's resident, Clyde Tombaugh. 

Anyway, I have always loved telescopes. They are elegant and beautiful.  I have one that my family and I take out to see the stars in the summer.  When I saw these, I had to snap a picture of them.  I think they will make a nice reference for a painting.

Angela

Already Getting Excited About Halloween!

I was in Pasadena today, volunteering at Assistance League of Pasadena (I'm a member there) and I decided to make a run to my favorite store for holiday decorating ideas-Stats. I'm particularly fond of the area, because of all the historic buildings. My husband and I even got married right across the street from Stats at Castle Green. The spot where Stats is was originally part of Castle Green. There was a covered bridge that went across Raymond Ave., so guests could cross to the next building without getting their clothes muddy on rainy days (back before the road was paved). That part of the hotel is now gone, but as my family and I were walking through the back half of the store, we noticed a lot of finely detailed moldings and columns that my husband and I suspect might be remnants from the old hotel.

 

 Photo of Castle Green taken today, by my husband Dave. This is the side facing Raymond, right across the street from Stats. The part that juts out on the far left is the remnants of part of the bridge that still exists.

 

 

Post Card of Castle Green circa 1911. The above photo is of the side of castle Green, as seen from the park, which is still there. You can see the bridge on the far right that connected it to the building across the street where Stats is now located.

Anyhow, to get back to Stats, it is a great store for decorators, carrying tons of silk floral stems, decorative items and more Christmas decorations than you can imagine. At this time of year they start stocking the shelves with fall and Halloween decorations and we got a little glimpse of what is in store for the upcoming holiday. I wish they had had more up, but my kids were with me and they probably would have been too scared to go inside if everything was out, so it probably worked out for the best. They had these great lamps that were decorated with tea and black stained cheese cloth and each wrapped with a different spooky character. They also had little plastic spiders attached. I tend to go for decorations that are more old-fashioned looking, so I might make one for this year myself, done in a more Victorian theme. As I was scratching around Michael's on the way home to get some spray adhesive for my vision board project I'm working on, I saw some wonderful old-fashioned looking hanging ornaments that I think will work quite nicely. I'll have to go back and get them, when I have time to think and plan. I wish I had snapped a couple of quick pics, but I was in a hurry and didn't think about it.

Jennifer

Inspiration on Vacation

 

 Went out of town for the fourth of July up to Los Osos, CA. A small town on the central coast, near the more well known town of San Luis Obispo. We spent time at the beach, as well as at my favorite haunt, the Avila Valley Barn. It's the prettiest farm stand I've ever been to and it's like stepping back in time, which I also love. I always get tons of great design ideas when I'm there, as well as lovely produce to bring back home with me. I often think how wonderful it would be to work there and get to enjoy the beautiful little valley that it's nestled into and all the friendly visitors that come to get their produce and ice cream cones.

View of the mountains across the street, as the fog makes it's way over the top.

I adore this old stove and would love to have one like it when I find the perfect home to settle into. I love the red, yellow and white color scheme too. Not to mention the "Home Cookin" sign above the stove. I will keep it in the back of my head for the next kitchen I do.

Jennifer