House Revivals

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Goals for Our Home in 2011

A couple of Days ago Nester, over at Nesting Place asked this question: Do you have goals for your home? Of course, going into a huge renovation on our recently purchased beach house, I thought, oh boy, do I!

CNS Photo From www.carolynbates.com via The Washington Post

Do you know my husband adores the color blue? It's never been a favorite of mine,

so I haven't really used it too much. Now I'm thinking that was just a bit selfish.

I want my husband to enjoy being home. Isn't this blue porch ceiling dreamy?

Wouldn't you love to take a nap on this porch?

And then I heard that quiet voice. You know the one -- that annoying little voice that challenges you to go a little deeper? Suddenly, I wasn't thinking about flooring and colors and textiles. At least not the way you might think. I began to think about my husband and my children who will visit and the many friends we hope to host. And the question became: How can I create a home that welcomes, honors and serves the people who will grace our doorstep?

The beach house has this wonderful wrap around porch --

what if we painted the ceiling of this porch blue like the sky? So my

husband could come out here and relax, listening to the

surf under a peaceful blue canopy? How is it that I am loving blue?

Maybe it's just that I needed an attitude adjustment!

The floors on the main level of the house are natural flagstone. Nothing I can do about that -- it would be much too expensive to replace.

Stone floors are beautiful, but they can be cold, and hard on the feet,

back, knees, legs, and hips; and on the the little heads of wee visitors

who may be toddling around!

Maybe we can warm and soften this space up with huge area rugs with extra thick padding underneath. Maybe something cheerful and lighthearted, so our visitors can feel a reprieve from the stresses of their everyday lives.

Kodari Bricks 99700 Pink Purple Hand Knotted Wool Rugs by Brink

I love that the colors on this plush wool rug mimic the colors

we find on the shells and sand and amongst the dune grass at the beach.

We want our guests to be comfortable -- so that they will come for return visits. Have you ever been to visit a friend, and discovered that the guest bed mattress is an old hand me down, with lumps and broken springs?

Photographer Lisa Romerein Coastal Living 2010 Ultimate Bach House

Now, I am always grateful to anyone who opens their home to my family -- even if all they can offer is the living room floor, and a few less than perfect nights will no doubt build character, but wouldn't it be nice to offer them a space with a light to read by, a little table for their glasses, and some really wonderful bedding?

Amanda Webster Design

Who wouldn't want to sink into this mattress after a day of beach combing,

then wake up to the morning sun reflecting off the surf?

When I was a little girl, my mother would help me prepare the beds for our guests. She explained the importance of using a really good mattress pad (saves years of wear and tear on your mattress, and is so much more comfy to sleep on, as a good mattress pad "breathes"). She taught me to make a perfect hospital corner, how to pull the top sheet high enough to fold over the edge of the quilt (this, she would say, prevents your lovely quilts from fraying, and keeps them clean). Of course, the top sheet was always put on "upside-down", so that her guests could appreciate the pretty patterns when the covers were folded back. Fresh pillowcases and then a good fluffing of the pillows to finish up, and the bed was ready for our honored guests. I think a goal for my house is that its guests feel just as pampered and welcomed as my mother's guests did all those years ago.

KitchenBath Ideas a BHG Network Site

Wouldn't it be lovely to invite your guests and family into a sunny cheerful kitchen while we work?

I know my kitchen isn't much right now, but it has great bones, and great light, and views of the bay to the east and the ocean to the west.

With a nice center island and some stools, I could invite my friends and family into the kitchen for a cup or tea or a glass of wine -- or to lend a hand.

I think this is doable. I think I can achieve these goals for my home. I think I can create a home that welcomes, honors and serves the people who will grace our doorstep. What do you think?

*** don't forget to enter my give away for a CSN Gift Certificate by January 10th

This post is being linked to:

Market Yourself Monday at Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Show Off Your Cottage Monday at House in the Roses

Style Feature Saturday at Perfectly Imperfect

Saturday Nite Special at Funky Junk Interiors

Transformation Thursday at Shabby Chic Cottage

Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap Up

Feathered Nest Friday

Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday

Inspiration Friday at Southern in My Heart

Just a Girl's Show and Share Day

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Modern Style and a Giveaway!

It's a new year and a time for a fresh start. I love new beginnings, looking back at the old year, deciding what worked, what to keep, and how to move forward. In my home, I have always enjoyed paring way down in the new year, focusing on streamlining the decor and using more modern and clean lines. I'm loving this modern dining room furniture, from CSN store allmodern.com.

How can you go wrong with a classic Platner table and Bertoia chairs?

What better way to start the year than by winning a $15 gift certificate for any of CSN's more than 200 websites?

How about a bright pop of pink to chase away the winter blues?

Here's what you need to do to enter the give-away:

First, go visit allmoderndotcom and look around, then leave me a comment

For additional chances to win:

Become a follower of House Revivals, and let me know in a separate comment
Tell me how you would spend your $15 gift certificate in an additional comment

That's it. Three chances to win a CSN gift certificate! We will choose a winner randomly on Monday, January 10th. I need to be able to contact to you to tell you if you've won, so please be sure I can access your email address.

edit: This drawing is now closed ** this give away is available to readers in the US and Canada only.

Good luck!

Friday, December 31, 2010

Best of 2010

So many bloggers are doing "best of 2010" posts, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Although I think I went "live" in late 2009, I didn't really do much until 2010. Mostly because I was too busy "doing" to even think about recording what I was doing, but also because I didn't really understand what blogging was. Until last year, I thought blogging was just something done by radio talk show hosts, I guess, and hadn't really read a lot of blogs.

Then, in 2009, I found out several of my friends had started writing blogs, started following them, decided to start a blog, and then realized there was this whole bloggy world out there. Who knew???! So, I was a little slow getting started, posting weekly, if I was lucky, and taking the summer off almost completely, but I have managed to come up with a "best of" list.

First, the posts that seem to get the most hits and have the most links are from the woven star series. This was such a fun project that just used vintage book pages and glue! (okay, and glitter and tinsel, too)

Woven Stars from Vintage Book Pages

My personal favorite project was this very quick, very easy wreath, made from vintage book pages. This is the project I kept for myself. I love the subtle blend of color and texture....

Next, one of the bigger projects I posted about was this bathroom renovation. This renovation was for a house that we sold this year, and the house would not have gone under contract for nearly as much (top dollar in a cratered market), nearly as quickly (six days) had we not done this work.

Part One of the Bungalow Bathroom Renovation Series

The post that got the most laughs was probably this post, where I described how we added a window to an old chicken coop to create a new design studio. This was another "green" project for two reasons: First, the window was salvaged from ReSource, and second, the original wall was so leaky, we actually increased the R-Value of the wall by adding a window -- that never happens!

Do you like our retaining walls? These were recycled pieces

of broken concrete from our old patio and our old garage

floor. I'm not really sure why I never blogged about them....

The post that made me feel the most grateful, was this post, about a Habitat for Humanity Show House that I worked on with a colleague. We had pretty tough rules -- nothing but white paint, nothing on the walls, unless you could hang it by a push pin, and all the furniture and accessories needed to be sourced from either the ReStore, or another local second-hand source. Oh, and we had only a few hours to do everything, and builders were still working on the house while we set up. Fortunately, we had lots of help from local volunteers!

The sweet woman who was purchasing the home was

so moved when she saw the staging, that she wept.

It was such an honor to work on this project.

The project that nearly killed me was creating what seemed like a million of these flower covered lanterns for my beautiful daughter's summer wedding (the reason I took the summer off from blogging). I talked about making them in this "What NOT to Do" list. I was only "allowed" to blog a tiny bit about the wedding preparations, as my daughter wanted the guests to be surprised, but I did manage to post this horrendous picture.

Pretty sad, right? I was trying to slip the lantern over this lamp,

so I could send my daughter a picture of how the lantern would look

when lighted. Only, the wire armature of the lantern got stuck

on the CFL coil, and yadda, yadda, yadda....

Ultimately, the flower lanterns turned out beautifully, hanging in great swags from the rafters of an old net shed on the Oregon coast, but I never did blog about that....

The ongoing saga of 2010 was our on-again-off-again house hunting adventures. For months, we weren't sure if we would be transferred again -- the likelihood changed from one day to the next. We looked a tons of houses, and finally decided we loved this one. But it had some issues....

Read about how we met our beach house, and what we plan to do with it in 2011.

For Christmas I participated in a bloggy Holiday Home Tour.

Holiday Home Tour

And finally, if you read nothing else that I've posted in 2010, please, please, please read this post about electrical safety in your home, and please, please, please, pass this information on.

This bathroom was styled by decorator to the stars, Nate Berkus.

Nate Berkus is personable, and fun, and his styling is absolutely beautiful.

Please click this link to read why interiors styled for a photograph, are not necessarily styled for living.

Wishing you all a safe and beautiful New Year!

The post is being linked to:

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Sumo's Sweet Stuff Market Yourself Monday

Made With Love Monday at Sew Chatty

Best of 2010 at Craftaholics Anonymous

Show and Tell at My Romantic Cottage

Remodelaholic's Anonymous

Southern Hospitality's Top Projects of 2010

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Twelve Days of Christmas

Here is little bit more "Christmastide", for those who celebrate the Twelve Days leading to Epiphany, or for those who just want to savor the season, now that the hustle and bustle has died down.

These crowns remind me of the Wise Men, who saw a star, and knew something wonderful had occurred.

They understood this new star could only mean a Great King, a King of Kings, had been born.

And so they traveled a long distance to see this King of Kings. They encountered political intrigue on their journey, but were always loyal to this new King. They had great faith. And when they finally found the boy they sought, they gave him gifts they had carried "from afar."

Thank you for humoring me on my nostalgic look at Christmas, and the often forgotten story of the Wise Men, whose journey was just beginning the night the shepherds watched over their flock.

* These crown ornaments were made from up-cycled cereal boxes, using a simple customizable template, some paint, a little glaze, old paper, and a string of plastic beads. There are a lot of decorative applications for crown designs throughout the year. If you are interested in a tutorial and patterns for these or other crown designs, let me know in a comment, and click "follow" in my sidebar, so you will be sure not to miss the tutorial.

I hope you all are having a wonderful Christmastide!

This post is being linked to:

A Little Birdie Told Me at Rook No. 17

Giggles, Glitz, and Glam

Market Yourself Monday at Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Made With Love Monday at Sew Chatty

Saturday Nite Special at Funky Junk Interiors

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Inspiration Friday at Southern in My Heart

Crazy Cute at Between You and Me

Look at Me, It's Fun to Craft

A Crafty Soiree at Yesterday on Tuesday

Get Your Craft On at Life as Lori

Strut Your Stuff at Somewhat Simple

Thrifty Thursday at Tales from Bloggeritaville

Under $100 at Beyond the Picket Fence

Shabby Chic Cottage Transformation Thursday

Hookin' Up With HoH

Time Travel Thursday at Brambleberry Cottage

Power of Paint at Domestically Speaking

Tea Rose Home

Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts

Penny Pinching Party at the Thrifty Home

Upcycled Awesome Best of 2010 at The T-Shirt Diaries

All Things Merry and Brite at All Things Heart and Home

Tell Me Tuesday at Vintage Pollyanna

Handmade Tuesday at Ladybug Blessings

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

A Vintage Inspired Giftbox

Remember the woven stars that I made for my mother-in-law? Well, they needed to be packaged up and put in the mail, but first I needed to find a gift box that was just as special as the stars. The stars were woven from folded strips of vintage book pages. I chose an old gardening book, because my mother-in-law has such an amazing green thumb. So, what do you think, is this box worthy of her stars?

I wanted a round box that was sturdy enough to store the stars year after year. After quite a bit of searching for the perfect box, I found this.

Isn't it beautiful?

Really, it was almost perfect!

It just needed to be covered in vintage book paper, and it needed to be made taller, to fit three woven stars. Piece of cake. Covering the box with vintage paper was easy -- I just glued the paper on. Since we had a bit of a time crunch, I just used a high tack white glue.

I covered the both the box and the lid before extending the height. To extend the height, I cut a strip of cardboard and glued it into a circle, using the lid as a guide.

I then cut a second, narrower strip and glued it around the first cardboard ring. This was to build out the thickness at the top of the box so the lid would fit snugly. Because of the added bulk on the inside of the lid from the vintage book paper, the lid would not have fit if we had built out the top flush with the original sides, but we did need to build it out a little bit.

Here the cardboard ring is not glued to the box, yet -- we're just checking the fit.

The cardboard ring was then covered in book paper and glued into the box, extending the height just enough to fit all three stars, and for the lid to sit nicely.