When we bought our beach place, the primary bedroom was pretty yucky . . . like all the bedrooms! The mattress was horrible, and the carpet was SO stinky. And check out the old-school wallpaper border above the bed! Like the rest of the house, our first step was to get rid of almost all the furniture and paint the walls and ceilings Cloud White. Boy, that was a tough week! Then we paid a local company to pull up the carpet and replace it with LVP, and we paid our local electrician to check all the outlets, add can lighting, and…
Have you heard of Gretchen Rubin? I’m a super fan of hers — I love the way she encourages her readers and listeners to seek moments of joy in daily life. So many of her ideas and suggestions resonate deeply with me. One of my absolute favorites is her suggestion to design your summer. Many of us look forward to summer — I certainly do! — but at the end of the season I often feel like I haven’t really enjoyed it as much as I’d planned. Daily life and my to-do list…
I’m back with another room transformation from our beach house in Bethany Beach, Delaware. The house has three bedrooms and two bathrooms and is up on pilings, so there’s not an option to expand the living area. Instead, we decided to turn one of the bedrooms into a bunk room with a pair of bunk beds. We wanted a style that would work for kids or adults, and we wanted to maximize the space. When we bought the house, the room looked like this. (The house was sold furnished.) I love all the visual space, but…
We finally have our finished photos from the beach place, and I’m so excited to share each room with you! First up is one of the easiest transformations — the fireplace. As you can see in the photos below, when we bought the place, the fireplace was pretty blah. It just wasn’t my style at all. And I felt like the black metal was pretty depressing, especially when compared to the beach decor. I was itching to do something . . . anything! Once we decided on the colors for the condo, I used the couch color and the…
A few weeks ago I had the privilege of going to France with my parents and my two daughters. This was one of my mom’s dreams — she’s been talking about it since my oldest daughter was born — and I’m so glad we were able to do it! We had an absolutely lovely vacation, and I’ll remember it always. One of my favorite parts was watching my kids interact with and experience life in a different country. They loved trying to speak French and eating all the delicious food! As with…
I’m very happy to say that our renovations at Bethany Beach are finished, and the property on the Delaware shore is open for bookings! What a relief. After months of hard work and lots of miles logged in our cars, I’m so thankful that we can share this calm beach house with our guests (and enjoy it ourselves, too!). I’m planning to do a step-by-step post for each room, showing the before and after and everything we did during the renovation — would that be helpful or interesting? I could also talk…
We have this weird little room in the front of our house. We’ve never really known what to call it (except “the little room”), and a few years ago we began calling it “the conservatory” in a very high-brow accent. This very small room has stumped me for years. How could we use this space most efficiently? How could it be part of our living space? The previous owners used the room as an office. That never worked for us because it’s just so small. And we couldn’t add…
Every spring, I tend to get the itch to clean and organize, and then I dive in with both feet. Half a day later, I’m staring at piles of boxes and realize I’ve created an even bigger mess in my desire to make everything perfect. Please tell me I’m not alone in this! Last week, I finally found a plumber who fixed a problem we’ve had with our tub since we moved in five years ago. Five years!! Five years we’ve been living with a tub that didn’t…
I have so much to show you design-wise, but it’s not completely ready yet. I’ve spent the last month trying to find a contractor who will finish this one last job for the beach house rental, but no luck so far. As soon as that’s ready, I’m going to flood your inboxes with photos of the renovation! While we’re waiting, I thought I’d step outside the design box and share some of my favorite tips for enjoying the cherry blossoms in DC. Springtime here is magical, and…
A few weeks ago I was chatting with the guy who works in the framing department at Michaels, and I complained about how expensive it is to get things framed (despite the frequent sales at Michaels). He leaned across the counter and said in a conspiratorial whisper, “You should buy frames off the shelf and spray paint the mats.” Light bulb moment!! What a fantastic idea. I’m happy to report that this hack works really well! I painted the mat on the lower left in the picture above (Deep Forest by Rustoleum), and the final result…