A Mini Kitchen Makeover

This post is sponsered but the ideas and elbow grease are my own. 

So it all started with a simple plan to find some much-needed task lighting for our kitchen. The countertops can be a little dim in these dark winter months. It's been 2 years since our original kitchen renovation and finding the right (affordable) lighting option just feel by the wayside. 

Before we get into my new accordion sconces lets back up a bit and talk about some general style concerns I've had about our kitchen from day one. As much as I wish we lived in the country this house is in the city and I've always felt like our kitchen was a little too rustic.  I started to have the sneaking suspicion that I needed to take drastic action. 

Last week I head over to the new World Market Store in Brooklyn to look for some inspiration. I was blown away by all the cool stuff; it was hard to stay focused. Luckily, I found 3 great sconces and a jute runner. Feeling pretty victorious, I took my new finds home.

(Accordion Sconce) // (Jute Rug)

I immediately hung my new sconces. I loved the light that they cast on the countertops, but the overall vibe was still not right. It all felt a little too serious. I experimented with a few different pieces of art but nothing was working. As I was searching around the house for just the right thing, I uncovered a scrap of David Hicks wallpaper and remembered that I had two and a half rolls of it stashed away. 

After a quick convo with my husband, who is insanely tolerant of my freestyling ways, I grabbed my emergency tub of wallpaper glue and my favorite small paint roller for applying the adhesive and got to work. 

I LOVE the way the wallpaper and the black sconces work together to create intrest above the open shelving. The look is so dynamic that I was able to keep the styling on the shelf pretty simple. 

In the past, I've used patterned runners in the kitchen but the bold patterned Hicks paper required something different. I think the simple nubby texture of the runner is perfect. 

In a kitchen, nothing beats the durability of jute! 

I decided to wrap the paper all the way around the kitchen. I love the way it frames the window. 

We might be the last people on earth the still have white appliances. Replacing the stove and refrigerator is defintately on my short list for 2017.  What brands do you guys recomend? 

(Accordion Sconce) // (Jute Rug)

For now, I'm just going to bask in the glow of my new World Market sconces and obsess over how great they look with the Hicks Hex paper and my new runner.  

To all of my Brooklyn people, you should check out the new Cost Plus World market location. It's a truly unique shopping experience in Sunset Park Brooklyn. “BEYOND at Liberty View,” houses Bed Bath & Beyond® and their family of brands, including Cost Plus World Market®, buybuy BABY® and Face Values®, all under one roof, located at 3rd at 31st Street.

Thursday, January 12th through Sunday, January 15th Cost Plus World Market will be celebrating their grand opening with several events, special giveaways, and offers and you are offically invited! 

Schedule Of Events:

Thursday, January 12th - 15th

•  $10 Cost Plus World Market gift card for the first 100 customers in the door

Thursday, January 12th   – Sunday, January 15th  

• Free tasting and live entertainment
• 4-7pm Thursday & Friday
• 1-4pm Saturday
• Free tote bags for the first 100 customers in the door each day.
• Daily raffle drawings! Prizes include two (2) $250 World Market gift cards each day.
• Spend $40 you'll get 2 free movie admissions. limited to the first 250 customers each day
• Plus, Save an extra 20% Home Furnishings, Decor, Gifts & More/Save 10% on gourmet food & non-alcoholic beverages

Cost Plus World Market
850 3rd at 31st Street, Sunset Park

Store Hours:
M-Sat: 9am – 9pm
Sun: 10am – 7pm
 

One Room Two Ways: My (virtual) Living Room Makeover with Modsy

THIS POST iS SPONSORED BY MODSY, THE OPINIONS, AND IDEAS IN THIS POST ARE COMPLETELY MY OWN.

Fun fact, my followers have never really seen a picture of my living room, and for good reason. Despite all of the energy, hard work, and inspiration we have poured into our kitchen, entryway, back yard, and garden-level apartment, our living room remains my least favorite room in the house – which is a total shame given all the time we spend in there. With the big pressing projects more or less finished, I’m starting to turn my attention to the rooms that I want to love – because I truly live in them!

So here’s the deal with our less-than-loved living room: it is small, has no windows, has this little door on one wall, and a large opening to the dining room on the opposite wall. That means that furniture placement is super limited and I can only sit two people comfortably in the space. Bummer! I’ve had a lot of time to think about my options, and I’ve been entraining 2 very different directions. Unfortunately, I’m still on the fence about which way to go. I’m hoping you, my internet friends, will chime in and let me know what you think!

Lucky for both of us, I teamed up with Modsy to create a few life-like renderings to help us explore the untapped potential of my sad living room. Pretty cool, right?

In case you are new to Modsy, it’s an online service that allows you to look at furniture and accessories in a highly realistic 3D rendering of your space. I still don’t know how they do it, but all you have to do is upload a few images of your space and before you know it, you are mixing and matching options in a scale model of your space. If you think that sounds like fun, you are totally right! Ready to get this virtual makeover party started? Ok, let’s go!

Option One

The first and by far the simplest option, is to embrace the small footprint of the room and simply add a few appropriately scaled pieces. In addition to its size issue, our living room is also suffering from a lack furniture. Believe it or not, we don’t have a rug, storage, or any extra seating. I know, it’s the classic case of a cobbler’s son having no shoes – I can’t believe it. But, the nice thing about designing a room from scale renderings is that it’s super easy to tell if a piece will work before you bring it home. That is especially nice because it is a small space, and I have no room for error.

So here’s what the space could be. Pretty good, right? I told you the renderings were life like! Going into this project, my number one goal was to add seating. Beyond that, I wanted to create a layered, inviting, well-lit space. I think this option accomplishes that!

Here’s a look at the other side of the room. I am ready for a total refresh so everything here is new! The first order of business has to be the sofa. We love our old one, but this new one is just a little shorter with the same amount of seating. Our current sofa is too long to accommodate side tables, but still only seats two. To a designer, that is crazy talk, and we can do better! This new sofa is a win-win. 

Opposite the sofa I added a smaller occasional chair. I’ve actually tried adding a chair here in the past but because our current sofa was so long it felt a little congested. The new sofa frees up much-needed floor space (another win). I love the wallpaper and knew I wanted to keep it, so I added a couple of strategically place mirrors to help create the illusion of more light.

Layering 2 lighter colored rugs and 2 glass top tables also helped keep the space feeling light and bright. I added a white ceramic chandelier for overhead lighting (on a dimmer of course) and a couple of floor lamps for mood lighting.

We actually watch a lot of television, so if we go with this option, I will be seeing a lot of this view. The console has a light feel because of the glass panels which is super important in this small space. Plus, it is providing some much-needed storage!

Here’s another view of the space looking back into our dining room. But there's more…

Option Two

Ladies and gentleman, I give you option two. The second direction is a much bigger undertaking, but I think it could definitely be worth it. This option involves removing a wall. Specifically, we would have to remove the wall with the black door (check option one) and join the current living room with a similarly sized space on the other side of the wall. I've already investigated, and it is not a load bearing wall so I'm free to demo. The new floor plan would look like this. For reference, the old wall divided these two spaces in half. 

I’m not sure what possessed one of the previous owners to divide up the space in its current configuration. My best guess is that it had something to do with creating extra bedrooms. The new space will be bigger and much brighter but it does involve loosing what is technically classified as a second, first floor bedroom. I can’t image anyone in their right mind ever using the space that way, but for the purpose of resale, that kind of thing can matter. I still think the overall payoffs would be worth it.

I used a lot of the same pieces from design option one for this space. However, I opted for a slightly larger chair and added in a new side table and reading light. I also swapped out the white chandelier for these simpler, clear glass pendants. The new space will actually have 2 ceiling lights, so I felt that something simpler was in order.

The wall behind the blue chair with the credenza is the former location of the sofa if you can believe it! My plan is to use the credenza to store my printer and all our home office stuff that desperately needs a place.

As another point of reference, this is the wall that formally had the green Fornasetti paper. If I go with this direction, that beautiful paper will also have to go (my sister just read that and died) -- But don’t worry I have a plan!

Another big change I'm considering as part of this plan is the addition of an opening between the new living room and the hallway. The new opening mirrors the one to the bedroom in size and shape and it sits about where the television was in the first configuration. The new opening really opens up the narrow space and allows for a less constricted flow. 

Recently, I’ve been obsessed with decorative painting. So in this second option, I want to try my hand at some DIY trump l'oil moldings. I found this simple molding stencil and I actually think that will make this a pretty easy project. 

The other plan I have for this space is adding a (non working) vintage fireplace mantel. Our house was built in 1910 which is just on the cusp of when builders stopped putting in fireplaces. Unfortunately, we ended up on the short end of the stick and I would be thrilled to install one. I was emboldened by the fireplace I successfully made for the One Room Challenge back in October. I think both of those details would go a long way towards making the space feel like it is original to the house.

In this layout, the sofa lives away from the wall. Behind the sofa are French doors that lead to our bedroom. Luckily, that room gets a ton of light. Besides space, one of the primary advantages of option two is that the new living room will get light from two directions!

Rather than using one big rug in the space, I’ve gone with 2 smaller ones. I love the look, but it is something I've never done in real life.  Testing an out of the box solutions like this rug combo is super easy when you can use a platform like Modsy to pretty much switch things up endlessly.

Well, what do you think? Option one or option two? I think I have a favorite, but I really want to hear form you. I obviously enjoyed taking Modsy for a test run, and am thankful for these awesome renderings. Now you get to see my vision and judge for yourself! As a designer, I imagine new spaces and renovations all day long, and it’s challenging to visualize how a space will look, even for me. With Modsy’s drag and drop scale model, you can put the math aside and let creativity have free reign!

Holiday Home Tour // BSHT Christmas 2016

How in the heck is it already December? I know everybody says it but I'm truly shocked! We are on the verge of saying goodbye to 2016 and It's time to deck the halls. Truth told, I never go super big with the holiday decor in my own house because I do so much of it for other people that I honestly get a little burnt out. That said I'm no Scrooge and I always regret not putting a little effort in. So, last August I signed up for White Buffalo Styling Co.’s BSHT 2016 Christmas Home Tour because I knew it would force me to get my holiday act in gear. Thank you, Lindsay!

This is actually my first go round with a holiday home tour, so thanks for stopping by.  If you are joining me via the lovely Simple Stylings, welcome and be sure to hop on over to Inspired By Charm after this. So glad you are here and don't worry I'll post the full schedule at the end of the post so you can check in with everyone.  Ready to hear a little bit about my five dollar DIY wreaths? Great, let's get started.

If it is not already abundantly clear my m.o. this year was simple. I didn't have a lot of time to shop or prep so on a recent trip to my second home (A.K.A. Home Depot)  I spotted some five dollar live garlands. I grabbed 4 with no clue what I was going to do with them but figured it was a low-risk situation.

Next, I did a little rummaging in my ribbon bin and unearthed this amazing greek key ribbon. As an always and forever fan of black and white I figured it was a sign. I decided that part of keeping in simple this year involved a limited color palette. 

Now WTF to do with the garlands?! After playing around with the garlands on the bookshelf I decided that what I actually needed were wreaths, but with literally hours to go before the tour, I needed to make what I had work. 

Luckily the garland was sold in a coil so it was pretty easy to fashion it into a wreath. To create my wreaths, I cut one garland in half and then coiled it around to create my desired size and shape. I ending up liking the look of 2 to 3 layers of garland coiled per wreath, but xperiment and see what you like. The look I was going for is more of a thin shaggy wreath rather than a traditional thick wreath.  I actually really like the look, it's a little less formal and actually WAY more my style.

To hold the coiled layer together I used some thin galvanized wire every 8-10 inches.  With the wreaths constructed I headed back into the dining room and quickly realized they were still missing something... S***!!!!

This time I heading to my collection of spray paint to see what I had. Turns out I had about 4 cans of gold spray paint. So gold it was! I used a little less than one can of paint to make 3 wreaths and 2 mini trees but be advised that all gold spray paint is not created equal. It's especially important when spraypainting something like a garland, to use a brand like Montana Gold brand because it has a lot of actual metallic particles in the paint. Trust me, it makes all the difference. I used a hardware store band (that I normally like) first and formost the coverage wasn't great and the color actually looked a little brown.

I also decided to paint these two tiny trees. I used a few small white Christmas ornaments to round out the look. Funny story I wound up with these bad boys because of a holiday decorating video that I made for the Beekman 1802 holiday collection. If you feel like watching a video of me decorating a mantel, today is your lucky day! 

In the interest of keeping it simple this year, I'm limiting my tour to the dining room with one little peek at the kitchen. With the DIY, this post is already getting al little long. 

In here I truly keep it simple. The little red candle sticks and the magnolia leaves are about all I can deal with.  My friend and super talented photographer Manuel Rodriguez shot this. Fun fact, I got my first DSLR camera this week. I'm really enjoying shooting for myself but I've still got a few things to learn. 

Today's Tour:
The DIY Playbook   |   House Seven Design   |   Katie Gavigan   |  
Bliss At Home   |   Simple Stylings   |   Inspired By Charm

Be sure to visit all the homes on the BSHT 2016 Christmas Tour: 
White Buffalo Styling Co   |   Julie Blanner   |   Hi Sugarplum!   |   The House Of Silver Lining   |   The Inspired Room   |   Restless Arrow   |   Cuckoo4Design   |   A Designer at Home   |   Dimples and Tangles   |   Place Of My Taste   |   The Chronicles Of Home   |   Sarah M. Dorsey Designs   |   Style Your Senses   |   Cassie Bustamante   |   Jones Design Company   |   The Makerista   |   House Of Hipsters   |   The Curated House   |   Craftberry BushZevy Joy   |   withHEART   |   Nesting With Grace   |   Life On Virginia Street   |   My Fabuless Life

June Weekend Decorator // DIY Ribbon Molding

When my good friend and long time Weekend Decorator collaborator, Manuel bought a new apartment with his boyfriend last year I knew I had to get my hands on it. If you follow my work you'll know that Manuel photographs a lot of my projects so I was thrilled to be able to work a little DIY magic in his space. 

With beautiful high ceilings and huge windows the bedroom had a lot going for it. However, like a lot of new construction, the space was pretty minimal.   So my goal was to add a little old world detail.  With a coat of blue paint (Benjamin Moore Bespoke) and some black grosgrain ribbon, I brought some classical details to this Tribeca abode. Keep reading for more imaes and a dramatic before and after!  

Before the space was in need of a little style. The downside of high ceilings is that they can make your furniture feel squat and it's hard to figure out how to take advantage of all that vertical real estate. In additon, Manuel and Tobias were in need of a bedside table refresh and desperate for some "grown up" bedding!

To get started we gave the walls a fresh coat of paint. My kick ass assistant Ian taped off the edges and we got to work. By the way, I found Ian on Task Rabbit. I highly reccomend hiring a helper if you need to knock out a project fast! 

Next, we got to work creating the ribbon molding. Using the edges of the wall as a guide I marked out the positions of my moldings. I positioned the ribbons to framed the bed. This had the unexpected benefit of creating a faux headboard. We used nail head to hold the corners in place. Funny side note: I used a black Sharpie marker to color the nail heads black. 

We cut the ribbons extra long and left the greek key details for last. To create the greek key I used a template that I gridded out on graph paper.  If your Interesed in a Steep-by-steep how-2 for this project? check out the full post on the One Kings Lane Style blog here.

As someone who loves to change thigs around I love how simple this project is to create and how easy it would be to remove (although I can't imagine wanted to take them down). Even thought Manuel and Tobias plan on being in this apartment for a while ribbon moldings are a simple and low-commitment way to add charter to a wall. Attention renters, this one's for you.

Photo my Manuel Rodriguez

Here are my go-to supplies for this project:

Photo my Manuel Rodriguez

Photo my Manuel Rodriguez

Get the Look! 

All photos by Me, unless otherwise noted. 

Your Plain Closet Doors Never Had it So Good

When I'm searching for ways to beautify the ugly reality that is sometimes life I always try and look to classic architecture. Good design is all in the details, so what's a girl to do when face with lackluster doors? Never fear! Adding architectural upgrades reminiscent of a chic European Pied-a-terre could't be easier. With two Faux-plaster ceiling medallions and a quart of paint, I gave a pair of Hollow-core Bifold (read: boring) closet doors a new life. Keep reading for the step-by-step guide to this my simple DIY update. 

Here’s What You’ll Need

• 1 quart semigloss paint (I used Benjamin Moore, Spruce Green)
• Finish nails (I used 2″)
• Paintable caulk
• Hammer
• Painter’s tape
• Faux-plaster ceiling medallion (mine are 14″ in diameter)
• Dummy doorknob  (one per medallion)

Step 1: Secure the Medallion

To ensure the medallion is centered, use a tape measure to find the center of your door before you hammer it in place. To attach the medallion, use two nails, one at the top and one at the bottom. Depending on the thickness of your doors you might want to use a shorter nail, especially for closet doors, to prevent it from going all the way through.

Step 2: Seal the Edges

Next, I applied a bead of paintable caulk to fill the seam between the medallion and the door all the way around the edge. To smooth out the surface of the caulk I ran my finger along the wet bead, wiping the excess onto a paper towel.

Tip: Cutting the tip of the caulk applicator at an angle will help you get an even application.

Step 3: Paint

Once the caulk is dry it’s time to paint! For most doors one quart of paint is more than enough to do the job. I like to use semigloss paint because the finish is washable and more forgiving of surface imperfections than high-gloss paint. A 1-1/2″ paintbrush makes painting all the little details of the medallion a snap.

Step 4: Attach The Knob

To finish, I installed a dummy knob in the center of each of the medallions. These nonworking knobs simply screw into the surface of the door and act as handles, allowing you to open and close the door. And there you have it, simple as 1, 2, 3, 4… plain closet doors transformed.

This post originally appeared on the One Kings Lane Style blog where I'm known to contribute from time to time.  All Photos are by Manuel Rodrigues.