Miss Marilyn’s Home

Marilyn is a dynamic person with a kind spirit whom we met a few months back to help her transform her beautiful Colonial style home.  Her goal was to make some changes to the home in order to suprise her husband when he returned home from his deployment.  Of course we were happy to have such a great home to play in and very happy to help Marilyn with this great welcome home suprise for her husband!  New flooring, paint and lighting, then final touches for her home, here are some of our favorites.  

The dining room was beautiful to begin with, but just needed a few tweaks here and there to add a bit of uniqueness…

Dining room before

We moved some of her furnishings around and in doing so, added a table to the room along with a beautiful oil painting

a beautiful piece of artwork, Japanese tea set and a few touches makes for a nice add to the room

 For the buffet, we added a new mirror – it had the right style, but  it wasn’t quite the right color, so I bronzed  the interior of the frame and painted the exterior black to match the beautiful artwork I found at Uttermost. 

New mirror, artwork and topiaries

 And  here is the final design -

Dining Room After

 

My next favorite areas of the home required only small changes.  With the foyer, we appreciated the book collection, but felt like the opening statement for the home could be a bit better…

Foyer before

 

Another great find, the Sascha Console Table was mixed with a great mirror and items Marilyn already had.

Great entryway!

As for books – Marilyn and her family have a library full of great books – and having a place to study was one of the special spaces we wanted to create…

study area before

 

A beautiful desk was the first thing I wanted to find – it couldn’t be too big or too small – the Okalani Writing Desk was just right!  Paired with a beautiful Parsons chair I found at Homegoods and combined with Marilyn’s accessories, I think we did a wonderful job!

Study area after

The office area was a fun project for Pam and Shelagh and I think they did an awesome job.  We added crown molding and yes, did paint the office a new shade of green, but it’s how the room was finally pulled together that makes it beautiful.

Office before

Between Pam’s attention to detail and Shelagh’s knowing how to keep books categorized, they not only made sure the office was made pretty, but kept the organization of the books in order.

 
 
Office after
We did the entire first floor redesign to include the master, kitchen, breakfast  and living rooms, but my final ”Most Favorite”  is Marilyn’s sitting room.  Situated off the first floor master bedroom, this is one of my favorites because it is unique in itself. 

sitting room before

 In order to move the desk out of the sitting room, we converted the entertainment cabinet into a computer hutch by adding some interior shelves.  A new area rug, bookshelves and floral arrangements were all that we brought in.  The rest was already in the home – and so beautiful when all pulled together!

Sitting room after
So much fun for us, a wonderful change for Marilyn and her family.  We hope you like it too!  Let us know what you think!

Such a loving husband :)

Chad and Rita came to us last fall to have us help them with their beautiful new home in Breckenridge Estates, and of course, we were happy to oblige!   Both young professionals with an adorable baby girl, this was their first home and it is absolutely gorgeous!  With our help, we added just the right accessories and furnishings to help complete their transition from new house to first home.   Here are a few photos of the work we completed:        

office after ...the awesome side table is a great find from Uttermost

  

Living room after

  

A centerpiece and table runner made especially for Rita

  

     

and for Kylee, we did a cute playroom …      

     

       

Kylee’s new playroom

 and made those cute butterfly curtains from crib bedding…       

Handmade curtains for Kylee

  

About a week before Christmas, Chad calls and wants to give Rita a great gift for Christmas.  He said that when we did their first floor for them she was so happy she cried, he knew that a bedroom makeover would be a wonderful gift to her.     As much as we would have loved to play magical elves, there just wasn’t enough time to pull it all together just right.   So we sent a gift certificate!        

Here is the magic we completed for Chad and Rita!       

Click on a photo to start the slideshow :)   

The Amani armchair is from Uttermost too!        

Hope you enjoy!       

Kate

Nick’s Home Renovation

Lordy - I  need to keep up with the stuff we do!  Just finished another redesign today (an upcoming post), but haven’t told you all about the one we finished last Friday! It was our first official project for 2011.   Pam, Shelagh and I  just put the finishing touches on Nick’s home and to say we had fun is an understatement.  A young school teacher living in Stafford (he’s cute and single too),  this is Nick’s first home purchase, and though it has taken a few months to complete the project, I think Nick is happy with what our team accomplished in his 80′s era townhome.    Of course, us girls had the most  fun because we got to put the pizazz into the final steps.  Sorin, Dorel and crew …well, I’m sure they had fun in their own way…       

Living Room Before - note the icky ceiling!

When we first met Nick and reviewed his home, one of the first things we noticed was not the old carpet, nasty blinds covering a sliding glass door or the old ceiling fan, but that ceiling!  Oh my gosh, I’m not sure what happened in the homes’ previous life, but who ever tried to fix it….well….I’ll be nice and give you credit for not leaving gaping holes.           

 Here is the same room view and what it looks like today…       

    

New ceiling, new floors, new french doors ...New, new new!

 Thank you Nick for letting us add the crown molding and recessed lights - details do make a difference!  Here’s another view of the living room “before.”       

Living room before

…and after.        

Living room after

One more shot before we transition to the kitchen…       

Living room and Kitchen before - ick ceiling light goes well with that ick ceiling

and after…Please direct your attention to the bar area …       

Living Room and Kitchen after - nice new lights, cabinets, etc, etc, etc.

 Before we began the renovation, the bar area was simply a half wall which wrapped around to enclose the base cabinets, and it had this silly narrow countertop.  We removed the wall, added a countertop big enough to put more than a soda on and added great lights.   I will always suggest that end panels be added to cabinets – it just looks nice!!!  …!!!      

 Another before photo of the kitchen…. the fridge and closet pantry, as well as the u.g.l.y. ceiling fan and florescent light is no more…      

kitchen before

  and….after      

Tan Brown granite, new sink and faucet, and great subway tiles!

  Another before shot -  can you see the soffit?       

kitchen before

Nice backsplash!

Soffitts gone!

By removing the soffit, Nick was able to get taller wall cabinets – which really made the room look more grand and added more storage.  Oh, and you can’t really tell, but we made the opening to the kitchen larger by knocking out part of the wall.  We re-plumbed and moved the refrigerator over to the other side so the view from the living room was more pleasing… and about that pantry/closet….     

 The closet took up a LOT of useable space, so it was replaced with a pantry cabinet with pull out drawers…      

A pantry cabinet with pull out drawers makes life easy!

Kitchen after

Next is the dining room.  You can see a bit of it above, but here is what it looked like before.        

dining room before

dining room before

Dining room after

Dining room after

 Lastly, we couldn’t just make the main living areas nice without taking a swipe at the powder room…        

powder room before

 I think after 22 years, this linoleum is ready to retire…as is the vanity, toilet, etc….        

Powder room after

 Most all the artwork and accessories were ordered through Uttermost, but the art for this wall is a “Kate” original.  I have a curly willow tree and every now and again will cut off some nice branches.  Here’s where some of those branches now reside.  I know, I know – anyone could do that!        

 We renovated the entire first floor for Nick and though it took some time, it was well worth the wait!  What do you think?