BACK TO BASICS

'Basic' is exactly where The Hubs and I are right now.

After our downstairs remodel 4 years ago, we moved our attention upstairs and updated the master suite and my office and made plans to re-carpet the hall and redo the guest bathroom and the other bedrooms as time and funds permitted.

But, a couple of months ago we noticed that downstairs, our beautiful new wood flooring was looking a little strange in places, and I could hear water when no water was on, specifically in the laundry room....


Three weeks later, with a slab leak under our belts, rerouted pipes, a storage crate on our driveway, flooring and drywall removed, and a week with noisy, hot, annoying drying machines, we have a large empty space and are looking at the basics once again...

Flooring.  Paint.  Moldings.

Basics every room in every home requires.

I am always amazed at the impact those 3 simple things can make in a space.  As I do this daily, it probably should NOT amaze me - but the impact a change of paint color or flooring or the addition of some details like molding and trim have in a room - kind of blows me away.  Every home needs floors and paint - and hopefully the choices made will add warmth, texture, color, interest and perhaps charm.  These things alone can change a plain box into a place that invites.

Basics create the backdrop for everything that makes a house a home.

Over the years I have seen some really bad choices - (your contractor/painter is not your designer, no matter how sure he sounds about that paint color or that wainscoting style.)  It helps to have a whole house plan and to carry the design aesthetic throughout the entire house.

I do love a room re-do from time to time, but this time our house is going back almost exactly as it was. We were happy with what we did in the remodel.  Four years later we were still happy.  We were lucky enough to be able to find the same gorgeous wood flooring to replace the damaged areas and were able to salvage the built-in bookcase.  It looks good as new again.  The Hubs is happily filling it with his beloved leather book collection as I write.

In the middle of this dusty disaster, I couldn't help thinking of the opportunity I had to make a few changes. Since we were basically a construction zone, including noise and dust, I add can lighting to the family room and changed the look of the mantle and fireplace (The Hubs has hated that fireplace for over 18 years - it came with the house - we were due for a change).  The demo required us to replace the wainscot in the powder room, but I changed it up a little with a shiplap treatment.  In the laundry room - a room I had yet to upgrade, we added a high board and batten wainscot and will add a sink and open shelving.

I've always had a big pet peeve in the family room - all the media cords!  We have surround sound speaker cords, tv cords, blueray cords, receiver cords, cable cords - I  have a big 'rat nest' jumble of them behind my media case. I'm quite sure there are several thousand feet of wire and cords we don't need back there, but I would never be able to put it all back together if I disconnected them.  This is perfect timing to unravel that rats nest and make some sense of it.

Its been a few years since I've had the opportunity to really edit my home accessories.  As I put things back into place, I'm taking the time to clean house and redo - something we should all do every few years so we don't fall into the 'hoarder' or 'clutter' category, or even worse - the 'out of date' category.  In fact, if I'm honest, this is a perfect opportunity, as we unpack the big giant crate on the driveway, to KonMari our possessions.  So, if it doesn't 'spark joy', it will be looking for a new home.  I'm quite sure we will have quite a large KonMari pile.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

A LITTLE FLORAL INSPIRATION

I'm a fall baby.  Born in October, I always love the end of the year seasons, when the air turns crisper, colors turn warmer, and the promise of family gatherings and Christmas cheer are on the horizon.

On the other hand, Spring is a pretty magical time, too.  I love the new growth in the garden, and picking new plants, and bringing the outdoors inside a little with plants, flowers and accessories.  Nature can be heady.  Moss can be magical.  Spring casts a certain spell...

It cast a rose spell on us - The Hubs and I had a slight sprinkler problem and some plants had to be removed for the repair - which left a little room in the garden for more roses....  Here's what came home with us...

Carding Mills (David Austin English Roses)

The Alnwick Rose (David Austin English Roses)

Sweet Mademoiselle (David Austin English Roses)

Bolero (Romantica)

I love the look of these multi-petaled English roses and the amazing color and fragrance.  We actually went back for another of the white romantica rose, Bolero.  Once it bloomed we were stunned at its size (4") and beauty.  It has over 100 petals and opens up with just a blush of pink in the center and has a wonderful scent.  We fell in love.  

I look forward to the Spring Celebration at Rogers Gardens, a plant nursery in Corona del Mar, California, each year. They are are a serious nursery, and a large one, but more than that - they also have several gift shops, a restaurant and an on-site florist.

Each Spring, their team of florists fill the largest of the gift shops with dozens of beautiful fresh arrangements for their Spring Celebration. It's a bountiful display of their considerable talents that looks beautiful and smells even better.  I can provide a look for you here ....I wish I could also send the aroma!

Hope you enjoyed the little floral tour - its back to the garden for me - I have to go plant roses!

MASTER BEDROOM AND BATH REMODEL - All Mine!

Just 1 week away from starting our master bedroom and bath remodel I suddenly realized what a task it was going to be.  Not only did I have to move everything out of the bathroom, closet and bedroom (everything), but I also needed to move us into the guest room for a prolonged stay as we gutted the master suite.

It was long anticipated and even longer needed, but I didn't relish the cramped quarters, the dust, the smell of tar, drywall paste and paint.

These rooms hadn't been touched since the construction of this home in the very early 90's, except for possibly carpet or paint - and neither done by us.  We moved here in 2001.

I don't know why this was one of the last rooms in our house to get a new look.  I suppose it was because it was more than a face lift - it was a complete remodel - and there were other areas of the house that needed our attention first...(see Kitchen post).

The plans for this remodel included removing the tub (because we never ever used it) (also because it was ugly) and installing a shower in its place.  We removed the outdated vanity and extremely outdated light fixtures and mirror, installed new flooring, new paint, new windows, new tile, a new built-in dresser/bookcase unit, new electrical, new vanity and new plumbing.  Still to come is a new ceiling fan, bedding, curtains and accessories. As always seems to be the case, the budget got a little stretched with the discovery of some water damage and dry rot in the sub-flooring and a few other little surprises.  Surprises were expected - and we were able to resolve them quickly.

We have a deck off of our master bedroom. It is such a wonderful thing to have with a beautiful view of the golf course and the water hazard... but it is a wonderful thing we have never, ever, used.  We recently converted it from a standard style deck (rain, dirt and leaves fall through the decking to the patio below) to a solid surface (rain, dirt and leaves stay on top).  It makes the patio below oh so much more livable.  The deck; however, remains a project.  It's extremely hot there in the mornings and only a little shaded in the afternoon.  I plan to carry the tile I used in the bedroom to the outside to make it more livable.  I will somehow need to create shade.  I would like it to be a lovely retreat in the morning instead of a walk on the sun.... Suggestions appreciated.

The master suite, with the addition of bedding and window coverings, will be a lovely, calm, uncluttered retreat - even though at this point in our lives the only thing we would be retreating from would be the dogs...

I truly love Pinterest - have I mentioned this before?  It is a wonderful cache for a creative mind - I so love that they finally have sub-files- so that my Christmas, Halloween, Food and Craft boards aren't so impossibly large and hard to manage.  How can you possibly find things when you have to sift through thousands of photos?  Instead of 10 different Christmas boards, I can eventually have just one, like a file drawer, that will open and with other 9 boards combined inside in their respective categories.  A bit of an organizational curve is involved while transferring everything to sub-files....but worth it.

Anyway, back on subject...  I mentioned Pinterest because it is a great place to store your inspiration photos.  Often, when working with clients, we start a joint Pinterest board to store ideas and resources.  Here is what I posted on my remodel board.

MASTER EN-SUITE INSPIRATION

I wanted wall faucets - So much cleaner around the sink. 

More space on the counter -

and it looks cool, too.

 I love them.

I'm having a big built-in unit in the bedroom, opposite the bed. 

Like this, but....

with drawers on the bottom for clothing storage.

which eliminates the need for dressers and keeps the room simple and uncluttered

and provides a space for display and the TV.

not as wide - my wall is smaller

I originally thought of these to light the built-in, but decided against sconces.

But they are really cool, right?

I chose an exposed thermostatic fixture for the new shower
such a classic look...

Love how the valve is on the outside and not the inside of the wall...

Not brass though -
although I may live to regret it, I chose chrome...
it's beautiful

Took me a while to figure out vanities.  The one we had needed to be replaced, but the space was not a standard size at over 8 feet.  I had to go custom.  I like the idea of a makeup spot, but decided I needed the storage more.

A Plus created my custom vanity.  They are the best.
The new vanity has so much more storage than the old one.

I completely fell in love with brass as my accent metal for knobs and pulls, sconces, etc.

The Hubs and I wanted these Restoration Hardware brass framed mirrors for over the sinks

We were extremely fortunate to find two of the aged brass mirrors from a Restoration Hardware outlet.  

I liked this brass vanity lighting but,
the mirrors were 4 feet tall and that left NO room for a vanity light on top.
I settled for recessed lighting over the sinks.
and found sconces to go between the mirrors

One of the problems with this room I wanted to resolve was the open floor plan
that made the sleeping area open to the dressing area.
It was impossible to sleep through the Hubs getting ready for an early morning workout.

Another problem was the tiny toilet room - we practically had to climb onto the toilet to close the door.

I hoped to be able to add doors to the dressing area entrance, and remove the door to the toilet

Something old and amazing would be perfect.

Can't wait to show you what I found...

We chose faux wood tile for the flooring throughout.

I'm particularly fond of the herringbone pattern and decided to use that in the bedroom area.
The herringbone pattern would be too large for the smaller dressing/toilet/closet area - so I ran those tiles straight.

The Hubs wasn't sure about the herringbone.

I added horizontal (shiplap) planking to the vanity wall.  I wanted to put it on the wall behind our bed and in the loo - but The Hubs really wasn't sure about shiplap.  In fact, he was sure he hated it -

so that project is still to be completed.

Change is difficult for some people....
but I have a feeling he will like it when he sees it completed.

I chose beige with a gray undertone for the wall color.

I originally wanted a color similar to the ceiling here 

but because the windows to this room reflect the green of the golf course and all the trees around the house,

all the paint samples turned weirdly green and bright on the walls.

I must have tried 10 different samples and they were all awful - so,

I had to neutralize the paint - 

I loved the soothing tones of this room, and the simple bedding and curtains

We found a neutral rug.  I wasn't planning on neutral, but the Hubs and I found one we both liked.

....and then there's the deck...

Which is another project entirely - but I LOVE this tile....

Look for the completed project - soon - (I hope).