Redesigning a Condo ~

Today I Redesigned three different rooms in a Condo in Beaverton. This client had beautiful items to work with. Many of his things are from India so I had a lot of fun placing items together to display his treasures.


(Click on photo to enlarge)


The living room is a great size with a lot of natural light. I pulled the sofas away from the walls and created a better seating arrangement for conversations.



I removed the coffee table and replaced it with the ottoman. This way he can use it to prop his feet up or to place a tray on top to hold drinks, etc. while giving him much more space in the room.


By pulling the sofas out from the walls, it gave me room to create a mini bar for entertaining. I used the mirror that was above the fireplace and hung it vertically to create a backdrop.



The mirror that was previously on the fireplace mantle was too high to reflect anything other than the ceiling light. I replaced it with a smaller, circular mirror and used beautiful Indian art pieces to surround it.



In this Condo, the dining room is the first room that you see when you enter. I removed the rug underneath the table and simplified some of the art on the walls. I suggested to the client that he relocate a hanging light fixture that is in another room and place it above the table for a functional solution for lighting in this room.



This is his bedroom. I scooted the bed to the left and relocated the dresser to underneath the window. By doing this, I was able to bring in a chair from another room and place it on the side of the room where the dresser had been. I also placed a standing lamp beside it so that it can be used as a reading chair. I replaced the art piece above the bed with pictures from India that worked well with the other items that I incorporated in this room.

If you live in the Portland/Metro area and would like to have a Redesign, please call me at 503-997-2325. You can visit my website at www.myrenewedspaces.com.

Thanks for visiting!

To "herb" or not to "herb"

I know that we all have things that we're good at, and some that we're great at! We also have things that we want to be good or great at but find that it just doesn't come as naturally for us as for others. For me, as you know, I love anything that has to do with decorating, designing, space planning, painting, and so on. When it comes to cooking or having a "green thumb", well that's just not my thing! I CAN cook, I do, and it's decent. I'm just saying that there are those out there who have a natural knack for it and can whip up anything off the top of their heads and that's not me. Let's also talk about people who can stick anything into soil and have it flourish! Again, not me.
Last year, I planted herbs so that I could attempt to add flavorful, healthy ingredients to my dishes. I planted some into a container on my front porch so that all that I had to do was to walk out the door and snip, snip. It worked a couple of times. Oh, they grew. They grew into what looked like house plants gone CRAZY! The problem was that they were "out of sight, out of mind." I didn't remember to go out and snip my fresh greens. The end result was that they got out of hand and never had any trimming. You get the picture.
I decided that I was going to attempt again this year, but this time I was going to try to grow them indoors. I know that to really do this properly, I probably need a grow light or a window sill that gets a lot of natural sun. I have neither! What I do have though, is really cute herb containers! So if they don't grow in my window sill, I may go get a grow light. For now though, they look cute enough for me - which is really more important (just being honest!)


I've had three of these little planters for a while that I was using here to store pencils, etc. in. I wasn't crazy about the color of them anymore so here's what I did.


I taped up the tops and sprayed with Rustoleum's Eden.


I wanted to add some chalkboard labels to look cute and for me to remember what they actually were. I took mailing labels, cut them into 2" by 3" shapes. Then I sprayed them with chalkboard spray paint. After two quick coats of that, I pealed off the backing and stuck them onto my pots. How easy, huh?


Now, let's hope that I can put these herbs to good and healthy use. They have a much better chance this year being right in front of me. I'll be looking at their cuteness and maybe, just maybe, I'll remember to cook with them!

~ Apartment Redesign ~

Today I had the privilege of working on a Redesign for a sweet lady in Vancouver. She lives in an apartment, so the goal was to make her home feel warm and inviting by using the items that she already owns to bring in color and interest.


(click on pictures to enlarge)


She has a sectional sofa that I separated and angled to help break up the squareness of the room. I found a bookcase that she had in the dining room, and used it behind the sofa to add some height on this side of the room. She has a lot of fun African inspired items, so I brought a lot of them together in this room to showcase them. I took the coffee table out of the room and replaced it with the cute little round table between the two sofas to give her more space.



I found the leopard print drapery panels and small lamp in another room. They were the perfect things to incorporate into the African inspired room. I also "stole" the awesome Elephant canvas from another room. I love how it adds so much color in here.



In the dining room, I placed the two shelving units on either side of the window. This client would like to add Italian style into her kitchen and dining room so the large wall became the perfect place to hang her beautiful piece of art. It was hiding on another wall and didn't show up very well. It's so pretty, it looks as though you're looking out the window in Tuscany! I also found the wall sconce in the hallway to hang beside it.

This client is allowed by the apartment complex to paint an accent wall if she chooses. I suggested that she paint the wall that the window is on in the dining room, a soft grey blue. First off, I chose this wall because it can be seen from all areas and because the cream colored shelving units will look great against the color. There are hints of this soft blue in the living room as well. I also suggested that she replace the dining room swag curtain with some cream colored panels. These would also look good against the blue wall without competing with the other colors.
We talked about a few other inexpensive, simple changes that she can do by painting picture frames and a lamp without needing to replace them. She is also going to purchase another lamp to go into the living room on the opposite side to create a sufficient amount of light for the evenings.

This was a fun project to work on. It thrills me so much to leave someone's home knowing that they are happier with the space than before I came. It makes me realize that I've got the best job in the world!

Little black desk~

I found this great little student sized about 2 months ago. It's been sitting in my garage waiting for it's makeover. It was in great shape except for one corner that had a pretty good sized chunk missing. I just sanded it to round it off and then rounded the other side to make it match.


Then it got primed, painted and a new coat of paint to the hardware and it became... this. I applied a seal to the top to make it more durable.


I decided that I liked it much more than the one that I was currently using. I know that you really can't see the actual desk well in this picture but I wanted to show the overall change of my little "office". This picture is the one that I used here to show you my message board.


This project started out with painting a cute little desk and ended with cleaning out my old one, reorganizing and redoing my little office corner. I don't love having an office space in the corner of my dining room, but for now it's the best option that I have downstairs, so I can live with it. I wouldn't even surprise myself if I changed it all again soon!
Now I need to give the old desk a fresh coat of paint and put it on craigslist. I'm often tempted to keep every piece of furniture that I refinish. My husband's pretty good about reminding me that it's not an option for me!

I love a round table!

One day while thrifty shopping, I spotted a round coffee table in need of some love. I walked away without it and regretted it terribly. From that time on, I decided that if I came across another one at a price that I liked, I'd grab it.


Then during another day of bargain hunting, I found this one. It had nice style and details to it but it was in sad, sad shape!


It was priced at $20 and I felt like that was a bit steep. I found the man in charge and pointed out just how beat up this thing was. This is how badly I wanted it! I'm usually shy about asking someone to take less than the price that's on it. I got it down to $15. The next thing I knew, this table was sitting next to me in the passenger seat of my car. We made it home in one piece and that's a bit of a miracle since it was hanging over onto the gears on my car and partly onto my seat. Wanted. It. Bad!

Round is such a great shape to incorporate into a room. Everything else in my Living room has straight lines so I wanted to break that up a bit. I had taken my last coffee table out of the room so that the Grandbabes wouldn't fall on the sharp edges. I figured that this one would be more kid friendly as well as being adorable!


I gave it a good sanding...


Then a coat of primer...

Then way more coats of paint than I really should have needed. I had originally decided to give it a coat of glaze but I just didn't like the way it was looking. So I painted over that.


Notice my lazy dog!

After about 5 coats of paint, it looks like this.
I'm still deciding if I want to distress it and "beat it up" a bit. For now I'm living with it just like this. It's going to naturally get dinged up from wear and tear with 3 little cuties ages 3 and under running around. So go ahead sweet babes, bang away! Grammy loves her some shabby!

I need to brag on someone!

I'd like to share with you, my cousin in law (there's such a thing, right?) the artist! Steve Pearce has recently retired after serving his career with the Fire department. He will now be able to devote himself full time to his craft.


He's just amazing! He sketched this piece from a photo that I gave him of my oldest granddaughter. It's something that I cherish and I personally think that it looks amazing with the colors in my living room!


Check out his latest piece! I'm amazed by people that have this kind of gift. I love the way that he captures reflections. Doesn't this look like a photograph?

I just had to share this man's talent with you. His website is at http://www.srpearceart.com/ He has a gallery of different pieces that he's done on his site. If you'd like to have him create something for you, contact him for a one of a kind piece of art to treasure.


Look at this one! It's one of my favorites, (other than the one of Addyson)

Good luck Steve! Your talent makes this world more beautiful with your artwork in it!

Pretty bird!

I just had to show you the newest addition to my "Spring green craze". How cute is this little bird? Want to know what's even cuter? The price. I got it at Real Deals for $5.99. If your lucky enough to have one in your town, I'd highly suggest that you go to visit them. You won't believe the prices and what awesome stuff they have. You can visit them here to search for a location close to you.
It's also a great place to shop for gifts. This is beginning to sound like a commercial. I honestly don't work for them, I'm just so impressed with their store.
Check 'em out!

I'm dreaming of a ....warm spring!

It's another beautiful, warm, spring day at my house. Okay, to be honest it's warm because I have the heater set to go from 68 to 70 degrees. That's right, I live in Oregon where it's beautiful and green year round. The down side to that is that the rain is what keeps it so green. It's certainly a mixed blessing! So... being in another "I want it to actually FEEL like spring" mood today, I added another touch that will help to satisfy me for now.


I took my Christmas wreath apart to leave only the natural twigs. Much better!


You'd better believe that I'll keep those cute pine greens for Christmas decor. They're really life like. The berries had seen better days, so they went bye bye.


I hung the wreath from some ribbon in front of my big mirror next to the armoire. The ribbon was free considering that it came wrapped around my new Spring blanket, so naturally it was already the perfect color.
I just took a nail, stuck it right through the ribbon just underneath the top edge of the mirror and then tied a bow. Easy!


Some (and by some, I mean men) might say that they can't see in the mirror and wonder if this is such a brilliant idea. I say, if you wanna look at yourself go into the bathroom! That isn't what THIS mirror is for! I do love though, that even when you cover up a mirror in this way, it still reflects so much around the room and makes it feel much larger.
So, whether it really is feeling like Spring at your house or if you have to be creative like I do, this is just another simple thing you can do to bring a feeling of nature into to your home.
Happy spring dreaming!

"Pottery Barn" eggs

I love looking at the awesome displays at Pottery Barn for inspiration. I enjoy it even more when I figure out a way to get a similar look for a fraction of the cost!
I really love the cute Easter displays they have this year. I especially love their $19.00 Easter eggs.


I bought 2 packages of wooden eggs at JoAnns. I had to buy 2 packages since only 5 eggs come in each one. I still only spent about $6.00 on eggs after using my 40% coupon.



I used Sticky Tack (awesome stuff for many uses - watch for a future blog about that) to hold the eggs up while I sprayed them with my satin ivory paint. I would recommend using a spray primer since raw wood soaks up paint like a sponge. I didn't do that since I always seem to learn the hard way. I used almost a whole can of spray paint on these 6 little eggs!
After they were dry, I used letter stencils to trace the letters onto the eggs with a thin black sharpie. You could also use a cricut to apply vinyl letters (wish I had one of those sooo badly) or even scrap-booking stickers. I had considered using the stickers but then reconsidered when I imagined my grandkids peeling them off, oh so innocently. After tracing with the sharpie, I took a small paint brush and painted in the lines for each letter.


Of course they're not perfect, they're not Pottery Barn! However, they are perfect enough for me at 1/3 of the cost.