Home & Garden, Tips & How To

Family Room Tweaks

Our family room got a few 'tweaks' getting ready for the photo shoot with Romantic Homes. When Staci Dumoski, the editor at Romantic Homes, requested that the slip covered ottoman be in the living room, that meant that I had an extra coffee table. I thought that our new table was more 'romantic' than our industrial cart, so I moved it into the family room and put our cart in the basement.
My daughter's always my most observant and honest critic. She said, "I don't know, Dad. This coffee table looks so good in here that I bet the cart doesn't make it back in here!"  (I think she might be right!)  It's surprising how much this small change brightened the room. I'm glad I left the top of the table the original wood tone. It flows well with the other wood in this room.

I had also been thinking about painting the mirror above the fireplace for a while. I reasoned I could always paint it back if I didn't like it but I'm loving it blue! I used a couple of shades of blue chalk paint that I mixed myself and a gold glaze mix on the details. Then I used a chalk paint antiquing wax in the corners.
I love fabric. One of the things that always gets me redecorating is finding a new fabric that I love. I found this linen stripe at warehousefabrics.com and made several pillows out of it. The photos of our house are planned for a Spring 2017 issue of Romantic Homes so I used pastel accents in every room.

My peonies were all gone by the time of the photo shoot. A sweet friend showed up at my door in the morning with all the peonies that were left on her bushes! I combined them with hydrangeas I had gotten at the store for this bouquet on the coffee table.

Behind the couch, I put some faux Spring branches mixed with bird cages and gold candlesticks.
My mercury glass lamps are a constant because we use them in the evenings.

I added some matching gold and mercury glass candlesticks to the mantel.
I moved my one fireplace screen in here for the shoot. I took these pictures before Kristen got here.


I hope you're having a wonderful summer! This is our last week of our grandson's teeball games, my son goes back to Boston tomorrow and our bathroom demo starts on Wednesday.

I'll be back soon with our guest room that I haven't shown you in a while.

love and blessings~
"Behold, I will set your stones in turquoise, and your foundations I will lay in sapphires. I will make your summits of rubies and your gates of crystal, and your entire wall of precious stones."
Isaiah 54:11,12


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Home & Garden, Tips & How To

Family Room Tweaks

Our family room got a few 'tweaks' getting ready for the photo shoot with Romantic Homes. When Staci Dumoski, the editor at Romantic Homes, requested that the slip covered ottoman be in the living room, that meant that I had an extra coffee table. I thought that our new table was more 'romantic' than our industrial cart, so I moved it into the family room and put our cart in the basement.
My daughter's always my most observant and honest critic. She said, "I don't know, Dad. This coffee table looks so good in here that I bet the cart doesn't make it back in here!"  (I think she might be right!)  It's surprising how much this small change brightened the room. I'm glad I left the top of the table the original wood tone. It flows well with the other wood in this room.

I had also been thinking about painting the mirror above the fireplace for a while. I reasoned I could always paint it back if I didn't like it but I'm loving it blue! I used a couple of shades of blue chalk paint that I mixed myself and a gold glaze mix on the details. Then I used a chalk paint antiquing wax in the corners.
I love fabric. One of the things that always gets me redecorating is finding a new fabric that I love. I found this linen stripe at warehousefabrics.com and made several pillows out of it. The photos of our house are planned for a Spring 2017 issue of Romantic Homes so I used pastel accents in every room.

My peonies were all gone by the time of the photo shoot. A sweet friend showed up at my door in the morning with all the peonies that were left on her bushes! I combined them with hydrangeas I had gotten at the store for this bouquet on the coffee table.

Behind the couch, I put some faux Spring branches mixed with bird cages and gold candlesticks.
My mercury glass lamps are a constant because we use them in the evenings.

I added some matching gold and mercury glass candlesticks to the mantel.
I moved my one fireplace screen in here for the shoot. I took these pictures before Kristen got here.


I hope you're having a wonderful summer! This is our last week of our grandson's teeball games, my son goes back to Boston tomorrow and our bathroom demo starts on Wednesday.

I'll be back soon with our guest room that I haven't shown you in a while.

love and blessings~
"Behold, I will set your stones in turquoise, and your foundations I will lay in sapphires. I will make your summits of rubies and your gates of crystal, and your entire wall of precious stones."
Isaiah 54:11,12


I'm joining these linky parties"

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Home & Garden, Tips & How To

Ticking and Toile in the Dining Room

Hi Friends~

My last couple of posts have been sharing all the changes I made while preparing for a photo shoot with Romantic Homes. I've shared the living room and entry with you and today I'm sharing the dining room.

I used a beautiful toile, that I found recently, in the living room, and since the living room and dining room are essentially the same room, I used it in the dining room too.

I made two new slipcovers for the head and foot of the table. I made these slipcovers more fitted than my previous ones made out of drop cloths and added a gentle ruffle. I'm keeping the old slipcovers to use when my sweet (messy) grandchildren eat over. ;)
I had originally covered the cane-backed dining room chairs with the same drop cloth. But after finding this toile and the coordinating ticking, I decided to recover them with ticking. I added a few layers of batting before adding the fabric to make them more comfortable.
 I got these beautiful delphinium from our local florist ~ Megan at This and That. If you live in the Big Rapids area, be sure to visit her beautiful shop! She special~ordered these and had them waiting for me the day before the shoot. I used to have these growing in my yard but they didn't survive one of our cold Michigan winters. They are one of my favorite flower because of beautiful blues.

I still have not found any bar stools that I love at the price I want to spend. I've painted ours an antique white so that they 'disappear' a little.



Sorry for the poor quality of the picture below. It's really hard to get certain angles with all the windows in our house and the glare off the floors.
Kristen had a list of shots that Staci Dumoski, the editor of Romantic Homes, had specifically requested, but she took pictures of everything! Even things I hadn't planned on. I'm sure most of them won't make the magazine but there was no stone left unturned!  You can see her list here on the dining room table.
I'll be back soon with pictures of our family room. I moved our new coffee table that was in the living room to the family room and the industrial cart has a new home in the basement. I did it for the shoot but we all like it so much that I think it's going to stay that way. It really lightened up the room.

Our shower door and claw-foot slipper tub have been delivered. We ordered these from Menards and they shipped within days. A plumber is coming today to see what needs to be done in our master bath for the new tub and vanity. Demo is scheduled for next Wednesday so I am boxing things up and my husband and I are moving to the main floor bathroom. We have another bathroom upstairs but my son uses that, so we'll use the downstairs for a couple of weeks.

As soon as we hear from the plumber, I'll order a vanity. We need to make sure our plumbing comes out of the wall. Our current vanity sits on the floor and the one I'd like has legs.

love and blessings~


"Behold, I will set your stones in turquoise, and your foundations I will lay in sapphires. I will make your summits of rubies and your gates of crystal, and your entire wall of precious stones."
Isaiah 54:11,12

I'm joining these linky parties:
Rattlebridge Farms
.dwellings-theheartofyourhome
scoop-229
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Home & Garden, Tips & How To

Ticking and Toile in the Dining Room

Hi Friends~

My last couple of posts have been sharing all the changes I made while preparing for a photo shoot with Romantic Homes. I've shared the living room and entry with you and today I'm sharing the dining room.

I used a beautiful toile, that I found recently, in the living room, and since the living room and dining room are essentially the same room, I used it in the dining room too.

I made two new slipcovers for the head and foot of the table. I made these slipcovers more fitted than my previous ones made out of drop cloths and added a gentle ruffle. I'm keeping the old slipcovers to use when my sweet (messy) grandchildren eat over. ;)
I had originally covered the cane-backed dining room chairs with the same drop cloth. But after finding this toile and the coordinating ticking, I decided to recover them with ticking. I added a few layers of batting before adding the fabric to make them more comfortable.
 I got these beautiful delphinium from our local florist ~ Megan at This and That. If you live in the Big Rapids area, be sure to visit her beautiful shop! She special~ordered these and had them waiting for me the day before the shoot. I used to have these growing in my yard but they didn't survive one of our cold Michigan winters. They are one of my favorite flower because of beautiful blues.

I still have not found any bar stools that I love at the price I want to spend. I've painted ours an antique white so that they 'disappear' a little.



Sorry for the poor quality of the picture below. It's really hard to get certain angles with all the windows in our house and the glare off the floors.
Kristen had a list of shots that Staci Dumoski, the editor of Romantic Homes, had specifically requested, but she took pictures of everything! Even things I hadn't planned on. I'm sure most of them won't make the magazine but there was no stone left unturned!  You can see her list here on the dining room table.
I'll be back soon with pictures of our family room. I moved our new coffee table that was in the living room to the family room and the industrial cart has a new home in the basement. I did it for the shoot but we all like it so much that I think it's going to stay that way. It really lightened up the room.

Our shower door and claw-foot slipper tub have been delivered. We ordered these from Menards and they shipped within days. A plumber is coming today to see what needs to be done in our master bath for the new tub and vanity. Demo is scheduled for next Wednesday so I am boxing things up and my husband and I are moving to the main floor bathroom. We have another bathroom upstairs but my son uses that, so we'll use the downstairs for a couple of weeks.

As soon as we hear from the plumber, I'll order a vanity. We need to make sure our plumbing comes out of the wall. Our current vanity sits on the floor and the one I'd like has legs.

love and blessings~


"Behold, I will set your stones in turquoise, and your foundations I will lay in sapphires. I will make your summits of rubies and your gates of crystal, and your entire wall of precious stones."
Isaiah 54:11,12

I'm joining these linky parties:
Rattlebridge Farms
.dwellings-theheartofyourhome
scoop-229
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Home & Garden, Tips & How To

Our Photo Shoot with Romantic Homes~Entry

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a wonderful day!

Well, our photo shoot is over.  And after working so hard to get everything ready for the last two months, I have crashed!

What an adventure! It would be one thing to have one or two rooms ready to photograph but having eight rooms ready really wiped me out! My husband claims I collapsed on the kitchen counter as soon as the photographer left. He might be right.

I know HE was the one who drove an hour to Grand Rapids to pick up our son at the airport while I took a nap!

Anyway, our photographer was Kristen Wheeler at khphotographics and she was so enjoyable! She's originally from Michigan and now lives with her husband close to New Orleans. She came alone and stayed almost three hours. She used one lense and got overall shots of each room. Then changed lenses and got close-ups of details.

She also did a live video connecting to all the people at Romantic Homes! That was cool. If you're on Facebook you can watch it on my page. Otherwise, here's the link.

So in the next several posts, I'll try to show you our house as it was staged for the photo shoot.

In our entry, I bought two sweetheart roses for my little wheelbarrow. I just placed the plastic pots in the wheelbarrow and covered them with foliage.  This picture was taken before I staged the French shopping cart.

I got a new camera and I love that it takes a wider shot. Here you can see the entry as it goes into the rest of the house. You're looking straight down a hall and into the kitchen. You can also see how our stairs go up.


Then shortly before Kristen arrived, I took these flowers out of water, wrapped them in craft paper, and put them in my basket.
We played around with this a little bit, staging it in front of the dresser. I think I might have liked just the white flowers better, even though I chose the bright pink, but Kristen really liked the pop of color. The photos are planned for a Spring issue so the colors are appropriate. An umbrella, a rain coat and a loaf of French bread complete the vignette.



I haven't shown you the other end of the room for a while. The clock used to be on this wall. It's now in the living room. (see the last post) And these pictures used to be above the piano.
You can also see my door painted here.

Our baker's rack is still in the other corner.

I'm sorry I didn't get pictures of the whole room. I was just taking pictures while I waited for Kirsten to get here. And if you saw my instagram today you know there's a bike in here waiting for the upcoming birthday party now! And lots of shoes. ;)

We were blessed with beautiful weather! This was the view out our patio door at the end of the room.
As you can see, we haven't had a chance to do anything to our cabana yet. We're still going to try. I'll show you pictures of our whole deck very soon.

Here's sweet Kristen working hard.

I'm at home waiting for our new shower door to be delivered and tomorrow our new slipper tub will arrive. Our son will be here until Tuesday, and on Wednesday the demo on our master bathroom starts!

(Don't tell my family but I was happy to be the one to stay home today and wait for the shower door! Ha!)

I'll try to be back as soon as I can and share the rest of the rooms with you!

love and blessings~
"Behold, I will set your stones in turquoise, and your foundations I will lay in sapphires. I will make your summits of rubies and your gates of crystal, and your entire wall of precious stones."


Standard
Home & Garden, Tips & How To

Our Photo Shoot with Romantic Homes~Entry

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a wonderful day!

Well, our photo shoot is over.  And after working so hard to get everything ready for the last two months, I have crashed!

What an adventure! It would be one thing to have one or two rooms ready to photograph but having eight rooms ready really wiped me out! My husband claims I collapsed on the kitchen counter as soon as the photographer left. He might be right.

I know HE was the one who drove an hour to Grand Rapids to pick up our son at the airport while I took a nap!

Anyway, our photographer was Kristen Wheeler at khphotographics and she was so enjoyable! She's originally from Michigan and now lives with her husband close to New Orleans. She came alone and stayed almost three hours. She used one lense and got overall shots of each room. Then changed lenses and got close-ups of details.

She also did a live video connecting to all the people at Romantic Homes! That was cool. If you're on Facebook you can watch it on my page. Otherwise, here's the link.

So in the next several posts, I'll try to show you our house as it was staged for the photo shoot.

In our entry, I bought two sweetheart roses for my little wheelbarrow. I just placed the plastic pots in the wheelbarrow and covered them with foliage.  This picture was taken before I staged the French shopping cart.

I got a new camera and I love that it takes a wider shot. Here you can see the entry as it goes into the rest of the house. You're looking straight down a hall and into the kitchen. You can also see how our stairs go up.


Then shortly before Kristen arrived, I took these flowers out of water, wrapped them in craft paper, and put them in my basket.
We played around with this a little bit, staging it in front of the dresser. I think I might have liked just the white flowers better, even though I chose the bright pink, but Kristen really liked the pop of color. The photos are planned for a Spring issue so the colors are appropriate. An umbrella, a rain coat and a loaf of French bread complete the vignette.



I haven't shown you the other end of the room for a while. The clock used to be on this wall. It's now in the living room. (see the last post) And these pictures used to be above the piano.
You can also see my door painted here.

Our baker's rack is still in the other corner.

I'm sorry I didn't get pictures of the whole room. I was just taking pictures while I waited for Kirsten to get here. And if you saw my instagram today you know there's a bike in here waiting for the upcoming birthday party now! And lots of shoes. ;)

We were blessed with beautiful weather! This was the view out our patio door at the end of the room.
As you can see, we haven't had a chance to do anything to our cabana yet. We're still going to try. I'll show you pictures of our whole deck very soon.

Here's sweet Kristen working hard.

I'm at home waiting for our new shower door to be delivered and tomorrow our new slipper tub will arrive. Our son will be here until Tuesday, and on Wednesday the demo on our master bathroom starts!

(Don't tell my family but I was happy to be the one to stay home today and wait for the shower door! Ha!)

I'll try to be back as soon as I can and share the rest of the rooms with you!

love and blessings~
"Behold, I will set your stones in turquoise, and your foundations I will lay in sapphires. I will make your summits of rubies and your gates of crystal, and your entire wall of precious stones."


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