Beth from Make Me Pretty Again just finished up her living room makeover. It all started with a pile of reclaimed wood. And Pinterest. And Houzz. In other words, DIY inspiration is empowering.
Liz from Darling Dwellings recently submitted her living room before and after and I knew you’d want to see it too. When something dungeon-like is transformed into bright, fresh and colorful, I’m motivated to paint a room, move things around, shop and dig into DIY. It’s so fun when others see potential when it comes to turning a place into our home.
Her living room before was dark, but look at that gorgeous ceiling and there’s hardwood under that purple carpet!
After some DIY attention, she now has a bright funky space that fits their modern style.
You can see more of Liz’s home tour at Darling Dwellings. Thanks for sharing, Liz! LOVE the transformation, modern mix and those gorgeous drapes!
With furnishing the small apartment on a SUPER tight budget, we decided that one of these trunks would make a great coffee table since it would also provide a storage solution for the tiny apartment space.
We started out by cleaning up the trunk. It’s not in mint condition, but my daughter appreciates imperfection and character too or well, the fact that it was a “free” solution helped.
We gave it a basecoat of white spray paint and let it dry…
We used two strips of FrogTape to preserve stripes of the white spray paint underneath two coats of aqua spray paint. Be sure to press down the edges of FrogTape before spraying!
More spray paint…
Then peel off the FrogTape while it is still wet {yes, you will get paint on your hands}. I don’t remember the first aqua-color we tried, but it was too swimming pool blue. DIY is sometimes a trial and error. So, we used the yellow FrogTape Delicate surface for the second try and Rustoleum Painter’s Touch Ultra x2 in Satin Lagoon. Much better…
And I always get so excited and want to keep embellishing and stenciling when it’s so easy and fun to do, but Ali liked the simple “Tiffany & Co.” look of white stripes on lagoon blue and who am I to argue with that because I have to agree…it’s pretty darn cute.
Painted steamer trunk cost:Great price for dual purpose, first apartment furniture. And the pop of color? Love it!
Since I’m up to my eyeballs in apartment renovations, you’ll be seeing quite a few posts of our progress leading up to the reveal. Please bear with me until I get to the fun/creative/decorating stuff…I can’t wait for that part myself! It’s the reward for the dirty work, isn’t it? I shared the first project yesterday {sanding floors} and here is the apartment “before-before” and after cleaning/’in progress’ but before paint. Got that? lol It’s just the before pictures before and after cleaning, before and after sanding hardwood floors.
Everything got a bath. E.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g! It went from disgusting to clean. As you can tell, someone was a heavy indoor cigarette smoker. Thankfully with washing/scrubbing everything, sanding floors and primer+paint, airing out and sitting empty for quite a while, the smell will diminish. I apologize in advance for these ‘before’ cleaning pictures. I did spare you worse ones, I promise!
Okay, ready?
Dirty kitchen ‘before’ and before cleaning…{gag…what is the brown stuff all over the walls? Tobacco? Cooking grease? Coke explosion? Maybe we don’t want to know!}
All cleaned up and in progress…ready to move forward
paint ceiling {done!}
paint walls
paint trim
paint cabinets
redo countertop
storage and organizing solutions
thrifty furnishings
decorate!
There’s a paint fest going on! Envious, aren’t ya?
Pantry under the stairs – before
Apartment before then ‘after’ cleaned/sanded…
wall 1
wall 2
wall 3 – dirty before
in progress…
{You just turned 360 degrees and saw the entire first floor!}
Stairs are so narrow with a bend…we’ll have to get creative with upstairs furniture/getting furniture up!
before:
clean (done as of yesterday)
sanded (done as of yesterday)
stain stair treads
fun paint technique on the risers
paint trim and ceiling
patch ceiling/trim
Someone obviously wasn’t too careful with moving furniture out {it’s a super tight squeeze and odd angle for furniture} and tore off the trim and part of the ceiling on the way down…uh oh!
I love the vintage light fixture hanging in the hallway upstairs…
patch and paint ceiling
fun idea for the small wall space coming up!
Bathroom needs a complete overhaul, but we’ll see what’s in the budget. Hate.hate.hate the faux tile walls and yellowed tub surround. Actually, I hate it all! I may be able to get away with a new floor, vanity and lighting but that’s probably all we can manage financially for right now. Those walls and tub surround have to stay for now. Wahhhh!
new flooring
new baseboard trim
new vanity
new mirror/medicine cabinet
storage solutions
new lighting
paint
caulking
decorating!
This bathroom is so tiny, the sink/vanity only leaves a small entrance…
Bedroom before…
who paints half a room and walks away?
After will turn this small room into 3 areas:
office/study area
bedroom for one
dressing room
Improving with every little bit of TLC and elbow grease. Ah, progress. Still a ways to go, but getting started is always the tough part for me and we’ve passed that goal!
Hello! Janel here from Hating Martha!
It is such an honor and privilege to be here.
Roeshel is the coolest. And her blog is pretty great too.
Oh wait…here is a picture of me. So you can picture me talking.
Yep, picture that while I share.
Okay, recently I shared about my Living Room’s jazzy new makeover.
I wanted to be sure to share it with Roeshel’s readers.
See, Roeshel has great style. And sometimes, sometimes when I
am in a decorating pickle I sneak on to her blog and look at her
house. Then copy it. Ha!! Don’t tell her.
See if you can see some hints of Roeshel in these pictures (the after ones…doh!)
I Spy Roeshel …
That coffee table I made from 2 wood pallets and a couple large tiles.
I “white washed” it with white spray paint for a beach look.
That area rug I made from 10 small rag rugs. It cost a grand total of $20.00. Crazy right!
The slipcovers I splurged on. I chose white for the sofa because my kids love to snuggle with the animals. I wanted to be able to bleach it if necessary.
All the pillow were made without sewing. Safety pins, beads, and fabric.
The corner gallery wall and nautical dresser were past projects.
And my favorite…a buffet that was a lost cause, which I repainted.
I added vintage directions as wall art and some of my favorite pieces from my home.
Did you see Roeshel’s inspiration? Well, I hope so. Or I just paid her a terrible insult.
If you don’t like the new redo…Roeshel has no inspiration whatsoever!
I don’t know what you are talking about?
I used shades of cream, white, and grey whenever I was in doubt.
And, I used blue as the central accent color…in all shades.
Natural elements were used as much as possible for accessories.
I tried to copy Roeshel’s wonderful way of keeping history and style married together.
She does a great job of making a space feel “lived in” even if it was just, just decorated.
Well, if you liked what you saw stop by Hating Martha and say hi!
If you don’t like what you saw…hmmm…yeah, you can still stop by!
Hi Blog Friends! I’d like to introduce you to Maggie from
A couple of years ago Maggie and her husband purchased a 1951 ranch in Texas that needed a lot of work. They knew it would require a lot of commitment, but they both love do-it-yourself projects {who doesn’t?!} and knew that they could tackle it on their own.
The room that needed the most help was their living room, which looked more like an Italian restaurant than a cozy country cottage. The amazing after…
Their goal was for the space to feel organic, like it had been collected over time. Maggie found that by purchasing only the things that they love, the space, in turn, feels more cozy than if they were to go to one store and buy a lot of coordinating items.
Here are some more tidbits about the makeover:
The wall color is Olympic “Toasted Almond” in flat and the color on the trim, built-ins, and fireplace is Olympic “Ultra White” in semi-gloss
The decorations are from a variety of discounted home stores including TJ Max, HomeGoods, Tuesday Morning, Target, and even Walmart. They also found a lot of great things at resale and antique shops. {Sounds just like my own decorating plan of action!}
The curtains are actually painter’s drop-clothes from Lowe’s. Maggie wanted something light and airy, but also didn’t want to spend a ton of money since they needed 8 curtain panels. They fit perfect in the room, and the $9.99 price tag wasn’t too shabby either.
I love the rustic/vintage details.
~*~*~*~*~
The dining room was also in desperate need of some help. The walls were also faux finished and the room was just dark and dingy.
Maggie and her husband installed beadboard for some cottage charm. They installed wallpaper on the top portion of the wall which gave the room the elegance it deserved as a dining room.
Because they’re fans of an industrial farmhouse look, they installed two industrial outdoor light fixtures on the wall.
The chandelier is a DIY West Elm inspired knock off. $10 price tag by using an old lampshade and a lamp kit.
They purchased the buffet from an antique store and painted it a coral shade of red to coordinate with the couch that is in the adjoining living room.
~*~*~*~*~
Beautiful transformations! See more DIY from Maggie at
THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. Winner has been contacted via email. Congratulations, Elizabeth G.!!!
It’s that time of the week! Time to share your latest do-it-yourself projects. I’m always so inspired by your creativity and hard work.
I’m still slowly making progress in the family room. Our living room and family room are joined by a set of interior French doors. Both rooms serve similar purposes. The living room is where Mr. DIY and I hang out and watch tv. The family room is where the kids hang out. So a little privacy between the two rooms is preferred.
Wallpaperforwindows.com has a huge selection of decorative etched, stained glass and privacy window films. I chose a light frost privacy film for the windows (just measure size and quantity in the order and they cut to size). It’s a translucent film that obscures visibility through the glass. Perfect for allowing the light to shine through but gives a little privacy between the rooms. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to install too!
First, I cleaned my windows. I spritz the glass with Windex, wipe with a dryer sheet and clean with a paper towel. I think I saw this trick on Pinterest and it works so well.
Once the window was dry, I gathered my supplies and washed my hands:
Optional: helper
Spray bottle with water and a few drops of dish soap (do not shake)
Window film
Squeegee (credit card type tool provided with my window film order)
Paper towels
Mist the glass with the soap/water solution.
Peel away the window film from backing. (I recommend pulling away from the long side first, not the shorter end to prevent crease/fold line.)
Place onto misted glass. I love that it’s vinyl and not “sticky” (It’s adhesive-free! No residue when removing in the future). Film can be easily moved around for perfect placement.
Once in place, mist the film with soap/water solution. Working from the middle, squeegee the film (this pushes the water and air bubbles out).
Simply dry with a paper towel.
It’s that easy.
See the difference?
Privacy!
Before BEFORE (before we moved in)
Before
After
(I can’t wait to show you looking into the living room from the family room…working on it!)
Wallpaperforwindows.com is giving away a $75 store credit to one lucky DIY Show Off winner! Giveaway starts today and ends Friday, Apr. 6. Open to US and Canadian residents only. I chose the light frost privacy film but there are more options:
Colored window tint (not just frost but a rainbow of color selections)
Frost
Leaded glass-look
Stained glass-look
Etched glass-look
Great option for decorating mirrors or privacy/decorative accent for doors, windows sidelights, etc.!
Let’s see what you’ve been up to!
<div align="center"><a href="http://diyshowoff.com/category/other/diy-project-parade/" title="DIY Show Off"><img src="http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/ac195/Roeshel/DIYprojectparadebutton-1.png" alt="DIY Show Off" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
1. You must use the button above or text and link to this post to share the linky love. Here is the link: http://diyshowoff.com/category/other/diy-project-parade/.2. Your post must be recent, shared at one DIY Project Parade only (not continuously) and be DIY related.
3. Include your name or blog name and project title. Add your permalink (not your blog url, but your DIY project post url). Feel free to link a Past Post, just invite your readers in a current post with a quick note.
4. Or email your link to thediyshowoff@gmail.com and I will add it for you.
5. This blog linky party is for DIY projects only. Links not related to DIY will be deleted. Please share your link one week only.
6. NOW you can “like” the links! What a fun idea! Most liked links may be included in a post of DIY Project Parade highlights later in the week, featured on DIY Show Off Facebook or Pinterest.
7. Visit a few other links to make some friends and to collect some creative inspiration!
$75 CREDIT ~ WALLPAPER FOR WINDOWS GIVEAWAY
How to enter:
Leave a comment on this post sharing where you would use this product. Interior or exterior doors? Window? Mirror?
Leave a comment regarding your thoughts today.
Leave a comment about each way you’ve shared a link to this giveaway to help spread the word. (Twitter, FB, G+, Pinterest, blog)
I’m working on the family room and still so undecided on a few things so I wanted to make a list of some things I’m loving, things that are inspiring me:
My trip to the thrift store this week resulted in two Venice prints. A little more expensive than I’d normally consider ($10/each) but the retail price shows $40/each and they have an old world feel that’s perfect for the living room. $80 for $20. Not bad.
Winter gives me spring fever. I love being snowed in when I don’t have to go out but I can’t sit still and get bored looking at the same old thing (as if I have time to be bored) but staring at the same four walls day in and day out and looking at tons of inspiration (thanks to my talented blog friends!) – well, it makes me itchy to re-do and re-arrange. And so, my living room was the victim of my decorating bug. Today, I give you the evolution of the living room.
When Kristine from the Painted Hive revealed her living room, my mouth may have been hanging open. I might have drooled. Mostly, I’m inspired.
Sigh…isn’t this straight out of a magazine? She has a beautiful home.
We’re starting our family room makeover (more on that coming Sunday) but I’d love to copy/paste Kristine’s living room into my family room. If I was technically savvy…I’d make that happen.
The living room is open to the dining room and it’s just has dreamy. I love the mix of rustic and industrial, don’t you? Some people just have a talent for pulling it all together beautifully…
One last peek, then you’ll have to visit The Painted Hive for MORE including details, more Pin-worthy photos, DIY, links, sources and cost breakdown.
Ready to see more of this beautiful room PLUS lots more DIY and decorating at the Painted Hive? Click, be redirected and inspired {or envious!}.
One of the reasons I don’t need the sitting room to be a reading room, is I have a reading nook in our living room which rarely gets used. Not that I don’t read. I just read most before I go to sleep at night.
I love wall stencils {not being a fan of real wallpaper since the summer of 2007′s painted wall paper [3 layers] removal debacle…never again!} and Shoshanna from
LivingRoom Transformation: Here it is when we bought our home. Before, at time of closing:
Lots of strange angled corners to work with.
We repurposed this mirror by taking it down and framing it (more details here). It hangs in our back entry way.
The white walls were painted wallpaper. Fun!
We also tore out the nasty carpet and refinished the wood floors.
Then, I always wanted a red room. So – I painted the room red. It wasn’t quite what I pictured but I really loved it for a little bit. Excuse the mess. Some of these I snapped right before I began painting.
We installed French doors between the living room and family room.
We mounted the tv above the fireplace…I’m not sure if you can tell, but there aren’t a lot of options (wall 1=staircase, wall 2 = entry to hall and built-in shelving, wall 3 = French doors, wall 4 window/fireplace/window). It’s really not too high for viewing. We’ve adjusted to it being there. Our wood burning fireplace isn’t used at this time (another future project). Since behind the fireplace is a brick chimney and the walls are plaster, I currently hide the wires with garland (upcoming project to build up the fireplace surround will take care of that problem). Brick? Someday we’ll replace it with marble and I got a dirty look when I suggested we paint it. Mr. DIY does not like painted brick.
It didn’t take long before I didn’t grew tired of dark red. The room wasn’t getting any light. It just didn’t “feel” like the right color.
Here it is today:
Color is Benjamin Moore Smoky Taupe. It changes color in different lighting.
Mr. DIY’s leather chair has been replaced with another leather chaise. Compromise.
Updated pictures below.
My thrift store find – wine corks.
Vintage French linen pillows – Restoration Hardware
French pediment – Ballard (I plan on adding more trim to the French door to fill in the gap)
It’s weathered and says “Flanders Sweet Shop”
Drapery is from Target and Ebay. I ordered an extra panel to lengthen them. I love them framing the French doors.
I scored a bunch of vintage boxes and crates at an estate sale (3 are the same found at Pottery Barn for $24. I paid $8 ea!). This little box holds the remote controls.
My style? You’ll see that I have a bit of interior design ADD. French, vintage, traditional, farmhouse and so on but the thing I love about designing my own space is that I can decorate with things I love and I don’t have to follow any rules. And we’re obviously not minimalists. It’s for us, not for a decorating magazine, right? We love how much taller and bigger the room looks and our mix of decorating styles works for us. I’d love new furniture but it’s not in the budget and this set from the 90s is in excellent shape. It works for now.
A few updated photos/fall decorated…
When I found out that “living rooms” were next up on the Good Mood Board event {blog friends sharing themed mood boards with a mood board linky finale}, I couldn’t wait to get started. Remember the last time when I put together a mood board for my guest bedroom and shared the reveal about a month later? A mood board is awesome motivation for giving your DIY plan direction.
Well, this time, I’m doing a mood board for our family room. It’s a mess of a room right now with old mismatched furniture (not in a good mismatched way and not in a good “old” way – we’re talking hunter green striped couch with matching hunter green side tables…hellooooo 1990s!), walls in desperate need of paint, another plywood floor, windows with wood blinds but no drapes, huge potted plants and one ugly fish tank with one lonely gold fish that Mr. DIY refuses to part with (in fact he bought a fish tank 3x the size and it’s sitting empty along side the other in the family room at this time). I’m saving the ‘before’ until I have an actual ‘after’. Hoping that sometime early 2012 demolition and remodeling will take place.
Anyway…Mr. DIY usually doesn’t offer up much in the way of preference when it comes to decorating but I think he’ll like this comfortable design. If I like it, he likes it. (He’s wonderful that way!) His only request is a ceiling fan. And of course the fish tank has to stay (gag!) but I’ll disregard that in my design today. It might look like I’m swapping out one mismatched room for another. lol But this is my starting point in terms of colors and overall style. A mood board for me is a visual starting point – colors/overall feel. It might not be literal in the sense of each piece (definitely not as some of the things are not in my budget) but it gives me an idea of where to start in terms of design. Paint choice, furniture, color, textures…
Neutral, Navy, Texture. I even decorated for Christmas…
It looks a little cluttered but I never ever claim to be a minimalist (unless you count the one time when it comes to fish tanks). It’s so hard to fit all of the details on a little design board…there’s more space in real life. See something you like? You can see the details of my olioboard here.
Get this look
What I like is that with this design, I can add in more color with accessories.
Pops of red
or yellow/mustard
or green/chartreuse
or orange/rust
or even pink/fuchsia if I was so inclined (and only if Mr. DIY became color blind) and it’d still look pretty.
Very versatile.
What do you think of my first rough draft? I love seeing if the real design will be anything like dream version.
Make sure you pop over to check out the next design in line from Chris at Just a Girl …
Another fun day of Roomspirations – Living Room edition hosted by Kelly at
I haven’t share much about our living room in a while. Nothing exciting or new going on in there except my new Shaw Ikat panel rug (you can win one HERE – Hurry! Today’s the last day to enter!). The rest of the room is a “working with what we have” while other more important projects are going on. It’s comfortable and it’s where Mr. DIY, Lalka and I hang out in the evenings. In fact, I’m sitting on the love seat right this minute as I’m typing this up. There’s a lot going on in our living room but we love it.
Our livingroom that will undergo another DIY transformation again one of these days but not any time soon. When we bought this house, it had old nasty stinky carpet. Walls were painted wallpaper. First thing – out came the carpet and pine floors were sanded, stained and poly was applied. Wallpaper was scraped and painted.
Before
After – you never see cat trees/posts/condos in magazines…but it’s real life for cat owners. I do love that hers is a neutral ivory fleece.
Because of the layout of the room – see the pictures where there is something on every single wall…the tv is most convenient over the fireplace for us and believe it or not, we don’t suffer from neck issues. :)
Before
After
Before
After – French doors now separate this living room with another family room/library/office room (not even touched yet – another project for another time). Sorry about the blinding lamp on the left…took this picture at night. (Lalka can usually be found at the top of Mt. Kitty.)
Before – scraping painted wallpaper over plaster walls. Not fun!
After
What do you think? Now how about you? Head over to the View Along the Way to see Kelly’s beautiful living room and join us in sharing your living room in the Roomspiration party! Here’s the schedule for the rest of the linky parties. Hope to see you there!
Hi, DIY friends! I’d like to introduce you to Halley from a Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That and Everything in Between.
Halley recently transformed her living room. She claims it wasn’t an expensive remodel. Just basically a lot of paint, new hardwood floors and some rearranging of art work from other areas of the house to create this amazing transformation.
You won’t believe what this pretty living room looked like before!
Living room before was dark and no doubt about it, the first word that comes to your mind is “brown”…
More brown…
Now, take a look at the WOW! I love the new floor, lighter walls and exposed beams which were lost in the sea of brown before.
See the little bit of the breakfast bar area before…
Now:
What a beautiful makeover and HUGE difference! I just love it!
Halley, this is such an inspiration. Proof that it doesn’t take a lot of $$$ to transform a room. You did an amazing job! I love the new fresher look! Pin It
Zoe has an awesome list of accomplishments: before and afters AND great how-to’sincluding everything from painting paneling to homemade deer repellent! She addresses her blog to her Chicago house and the changes that are taking place. Check it out! I love her latest project too. So cute!
Looking good, Zoe! Thanks so much for sharing your hard work! I look forward to seeing more!
Looooooong post today but I’m just bursting with excitement to share the amazing experience with you, my dear blog friends! If you’re like me, hearing about an awesome opportunity related to blogging when it’s my blog buddy just fills me with joy to no end! When I was invited to the all expense paid trip to participate in the Shaw Floors HGTV Home Design Challenge, I could barely contain my exclamation and hands in the air “YES!”. That noise that you thought was thunder last month? That was me jumping up and down! I’ve never had the opportunity to decorate a room from the floor up. My main experiences are extremely tight/non existent budgets in my own home.
Meet the Design Challenge bloggers:
Roeshel from The DIY Showoff
Cassity from Remodelaholic
Pam from Retro Renovation
Jill from Material Girls
Katy from Charles & Hudson
Julia from Casa Sugar
Rhoda from Southern Hospitality
Lindsay from Living with Lindsay
Carmen from The Decorating Diva
Ethan from One Project Closer
I loved meeting these talented bloggers! Some long time virtual friends, some new!
All super friendly and so talented!
Lisa LaPorta, Cassity from Remodelaholic, Roeshel from the DIY Show Off, Rhoda from Southern Hospitality, Lindsay from Living with Lindsay.
Cassity and I have already shared a sneak peek of the reveal with you…
Now here’s the story of my intoxicating participation:
Last Tuesday I arrived at the Biltmore Inn. I could hardly keep my jaw from hitting the floor of the bus as we drove up through the front gate and along the beautifully landscaped drive. I imagined it must have been just the way Mrs. Vanderbilt felt the first time she arrived as she hadn’t seen it before her marriage to George Vanderbilt. Breathtaking and overwhelming beauty of the lush landscaping and stunning Smokey Mountains in the background.
My room at the inn was gorgeous…and there was a press package full of goodies awaiting my arrival.
After a long day of travel, nervousness and excitement, this bed was so inviting!
Check out my view of the estate and Smokey Mountains…
Later that evening, we attended a welcoming reception to meet the Shaw Floor team, the HGTV Home group and the bloggers as well as meet our design challenge partner face to face. I was thrilled to learn that my teammate was long time e-friend, Cassity from Remodelaholic! I’ve been a fan of her blog for quite some time and love her style. She is just as sweet in real life as her blog persona reflects. Love her!
(Not very many pictures this night…maybe when Shaw releases theirs. I had my camera but we were all just getting to know each other and I wasn’t comfortable snapping pictures. Did I mention that I’m shy?)
The Design Challenge: Design a room around a beautiful floor in the Shaw Floor’s new HGTV Home line.
The time came to be assigned a room (“bay”) and to pick our flooring ‘out of a hat’. Our room had a big picture window and board and batten. Great start! Just our style. Design fate was on our side when Cassity reached into the bag and chose “hardwood and area rug” for our flooring! Again – exactly what we would have chosen! We immediately decided to design a living room in our space. One that we ourselves would love to have in our home.
Hardwood (Rockbridge/Dusk) and Ikat Panel Area Rug
Our plan: A casual coastal cottage…sort of like this:
Just kidding!
The Biltmore is a late 1890s mansion in Asheville, NC. We enjoyed a very interesting and informative guided candle lit tour. No expense was spared in this place. As you can tell from the picture, it is enormous! Every detail inside is over-the-top. I can’t even fathom having that much money ever, let alone over 100 years ago. Seriously? Who had an indoor lighted swimming pool, bowling alley, something like 43 bathrooms with indoor plumbing WITH hot and cold water, elevators, pool tables, granite, marble, picture frame molding and tapestries at every turn, fountains, 4 huge expansive floors of richly decorated rooms including an enormous library with spiral staircase? It’s all self-sustaining with a village full of shops, a dairy and a winery. I felt like royalty. We were treated like royalty too!
We then dined in a beautiful garden courtyard on the Biltmore Estate. I swear it was decorated by faeries with twinkle lights and gorgeous centerpieces. (As you can tell, my mind wasn’t exactly on camera settings! Oops!)
Look at the adorable place settings…I just love attention to detail, don’t you?We had fun talking, laughing and getting to know each other and eating delicious foods and desserts.
We headed back to our rooms to get a good night’s sleep for more surprises the next morning. While we were sleeping, our flooring was being installed by elves. Not really elves obviously…but it all felt so magical!
Wed. morning, we boarded a bus for a three hour drive to our next destination. While on the bus, each team was given a box full of magazines, fabric samples, little fun odds and ends, pictures of furniture and paint swatches along with our hardwood floor sample (handscraped maple) and a picture of the area rug we chose. Cassity and I learned that we share a love for the same style and that girl is so creative, she made our design board 3D! Putting together our design board was fun.
A chance for the inner kid to get creative with our passion for decorating and design. Cassity and I are both inspired by vintage, texture, neutral backgrounds with fun accents bringing in color, rustic woods and traditional pieces. We decided on a beautiful light blue as the wall color. We wanted accessories to pop in a cozy cottage atmosphere.
We arrived at Tribuzio Hilliard. TH is a commercial photo studio with movie set type bays (or rooms) with a warehouse full of furniture and every accessory imaginable from floor to ceiling. My first impression was complete ‘awe’. I felt like a little girl in a gigantic doll house. Talk about a dream come true!
And just like any good dream, things only got better when we were greeted by talented Lisa LaPorta of HGTV’s Designed to Sell! Oh my! Star struck for sure!
There were our own embroidered director’s chairs too! Isn’t that so thoughtful and awesome? Every detail of this event was just so personal and special. A girl could get used to this type of pampering!
Lisa was available for design tips, giving her opinions and advice and moral support and she was just darling overall. She is full of creative energy and a joy to be around. She played a huge part in making us feel comfortable, less nervous and as if we were stars too! We had so much fun getting acquainted with her. Of course we couldn’t help but ask for an autograph along the way.
Lisa LaPorta, Cassity (& Lydia) and Roeshel
Here is our room the first time we saw it. The flooring had been installed the night before.
Before
“Shopping” was done in the warehouse full of photography props. So it wasn’t real shopping, at least not in a store. I can’t tell you where things were purchased. But hopefully the room inspires those seeking the same look on how to re-create a casual coastal atmosphere.
We began our shopping in the furniture and architectural accent (fireplaces, lighting and more) section. I even put on a safety belt and rode a hydraladder (or cherry picker) to view items stored near the ceiling!
Going up!
Every time we walked into this department, we spotted something new as if someone kept adding furniture when we weren’t looking or our furniture fairy godmother waved her magic wand and there was the piece we’d been looking for! It might have been that as things were removed by teams, more things were visible but I never had so much fun “shopping”!
Other rooms had floor to ceiling sh
elving thrift-store-style packed full of goodies: lamps, vases, baskets, throw pillows, books, candles and holders, silk greenery, planters, fillers, clocks, statues, throws, bedding, mirrors, art work, dinnerware, glasses, curtains, fabrics, even food and drinks!
We eagerly filled a couple of carts with ideas and great accents. We then chose our accessories and even though the room wasn’t ready for staging, we couldn’t resist playing around and putting things together.
Cassity and me – taking a break from playing with positioning furniture and decorating before room is painted.
We even got to jump up into the back of a florist truck stuffed full of every type of beautiful fresh flower imaginable to choose whatever our heart desired for the room!
My hotel room was stunning. High ceilings, beautifully decorated and another amazing view.
Our room at the studio, chandelier and some accessories were being painted while we slept. Wish we had those DIY elves in real life!
Bright and early on the last day, we headed back to Tribuzio Hilliard to complete our rooms. The paint was even more beautiful on the walls than on the swatch! Love it! We quickly got to accessorizing while our talented helpers hung the gallery wall art, installed the chandelier and helped with any little request along the way.
Thank you to our helpers!
This entire time, we had an amazing design assistant, Linda, who helped us along the way, searching for our decorative accents, working hard to make our vision become reality and pointing out professional photo things on our set that we wouldn’t have known about otherwise.
Cassity from Remodelaholic Linda S. Roeshel, The DIY Show Off
Cassity has the sweetest baby girls who gave our room a big thumbs up too!
AREN’T THEY PRECIOUS?!
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Once our room was completed, Cassity and I were interviewed on video by none other than Lisa LaPorta to discuss our design and our room! We were blushing with pride and from praise. I was a bit tongue tied. Cassity’s a natural in front of the camera. There was little time for prep and I always think of what I should have said or could’ve added after the fact AND if I had known about the video, I might have changed out of my casual attire for something prettier but I’m so excited to see that video!
Here are some TONS of our after shots we took. We can’t wait to see the professional catalog-worthy looking photography of our design, hard work and pride and joy.
Mantel:
Here’s the wall you don’t see. Just like a movie set!
We went through all 5 rooms designed by 10 bloggers, 5 teams, each of us interviewed by Lisa LaPorta and I have to tell you…we’re up against some stiff competition! I don’t have a picture of it – I was being interviewed but the other bloggers listed above will be sharing their experiences and photos! Be sure to visit them for more details! Which brings me to the reason for the Design Challenge. All five rooms will be displayed on Shaw Floors’ Facebook page from September 1-30th where you will have a chance to vote every day for the entire month for your favorite room. We really need your support! There’s something in it for you too! More on that to come soon but don’t worry – I’ll remind you to get over there to vote and enter when the time comes.
So, that’s my fairy tale/dream come true story of the couple of days a DIY blogger got to play being a real designer. It’s something I never in a million years would have thought I’d get to do. Sure, I dream big just like everyone else and getting to do this, meeting my e-friends face to face and others who share my DIY passion as well as some pretty interesting and amazing people was just the highlight of the year.
A HUGE THANK YOU to Shaw Floors, HGTV Home and Empower (Hi Rachael, Hi Ashley, Hi Taylor!). And most of all, thank YOU my dear blog friends, because I know I would not have been invited it if weren’t for you and your amazing friendships! And I pray that each of you are presented with wonderful, dream come true opportunities one of these days too! :)
Thank you so much for sharing my excitement! Want to see more details? I promise you, you’ll see more of our room by my awesome partner, Cassity at REMODELAHOLIC and I’ll have something more to share with you coming soon!
