Pepper Design Blog - Page 125 of 358 - A Little of This & That... Renovating, Decorating, DIY Projects & Family

We Have Just Booked Flights to Europe…

August 13, 2012

and I need your help. We bit the bullet, booked those non-refundable tickets and are now making car, B&B, ferry, train and packing plans for a big Europe trip!

The good news is that we’ve had a little reserve stash of miles and cash set aside for a little while to make this happen (we didn’t know where we’d go or what we’d do, but knew that we’d like to try for one more big family adventure before expanding our family again. The adventure we embarked on before Liv came along included Australia, New Zealand and Thailand). And we’re not expecting to dip into our home renovating fund or savings accounts, so we’ll plan on sharing our budget travel tips here as well.

The bad news is is that I’ve become engrossed in research – but we don’t have much time! So if you have been to one of the three countries on our itinerary, I would love to hear your thoughts on must-dos, where to stay lists and any tips that you might have. We haven’t even narrowed down which cities we’ll see in each, so we are all ears!

The plan is to start in Ireland, spend a week touring and driving at our own pace as we visit the countryside, the beautiful castles and the amazing coastline. Then we are off to Spain (by taking a short flight from Dublin to Barcelona) for another week of traveling via car to see the beaches, visit the local markets and mix & mingle with our new Spanish friends (fingers crossed) over tapas and wine. Finally, we’ll cross over to North Africa via ferry (a 30 minute ride from the south of Spain) to tour Morocco for six days. Ah, I can’t wait.

We are excited and thrilled and can’t believe that this is coming together (pinching ourselves that we managed to make it happen amidst it all). We’ll be moving slowly, staying at family friendly B&Bs and through apartment rentals (we plan on using this awesome site to help us) with a focus on enjoying our time with Liv and as a family, and not stressing about every museum or famous site.

But I’ll admit that I’m a little stressed… we are getting a late start on the planning part of this adventure and if you have any experience with these three countries (we’d hate to find out we left a city one day before a huge festival in Madrid or missed a very cool hike in Cork…) – feel free to email or share in the comments below!

Curb Appeal: Speaking of Trim…

August 10, 2012

Wednesday I revealed the newly painted house and shared that we are still pretty up in the air about what color to paint the trim. Up in the air might be an understatement. Completely unconfident in our decision is probably a better description. And this is one of those decisions that you want to be confident in. These babies are only getting painted once (well, you know, for a while).

Part of the delay is that we’re actually considering a little restoration work with a few of the windows that have chipped, don’t open correctly or have been painted shut (they’re the original 1930’s wood sash windows, so they’ve been through a lot) before we move ahead on the project because now’s a great time if ever to knock that out.

But despite those decisions, a big first step is deciding which paint color to have on standby. {sigh}

Hmmm… now to the untrained eye (aka one that hasn’t been squinting at the above image for hours on end), I can see how this might be both uninteresting and uneventful. But rest assured, I’ve been running circles in my brain on which of those two dark browns I prefer more – the chocolate or the huskier grey-brown? (The latter.) Which of those whites? Pure or off-white? (The latter.) It’s starting to get dizzy.

For as long as I can remember I’ve been absolutely certain I would go with a clean, crisp white trim. Certain of it. But then I kept walking out the front door to this image every day:

And the fact that our plantation shutters on the inside of the house are more of an antique white did not settle well. (See how the tan is much richer in the above pic than the version at very top of this post? This color is my favorite time of day.)

So I headed back to Lowe’s and picked out an antique white for the trim as well as a couple of browns – perhaps a contrast is nicer, after all?

Here we are getting dirty after dinner. Sorry for the late night pic :-).

I did a sloppy job of throwing my colors up (that’s way too large of a brush and I definitely didn’t tape or lay any drop cloth… but it was late and I wanted to have a fresh perspective in the mañana – with all of my options up). One tip I can throw into the above photo is that working inside of a plastic grocery bag saves loads of clean up time. The edges are rolled down and when it’s time to toss my used supplies (paper towels, empty sample cans, foam brushes, etc) I simply roll up those side handles of my plastic bag, tie a knot at top and my loose paint and trash is well contained and ready to be tossed.

In this photo I’ve done the squinting for you. It’s got that blurry, I-can-almost-picture-all-windows-in-that-color look:

Maybe try squinting a little more and hold one finger up over each window for a few seconds.

The off white is in the lower right corner, the grey brown right above that, the dark brown on the bottom right side of the first window, and the pure white on the top left side of that first window. Below that (lower left corner of left window) is one shade darker than the house, but it doesn’t have much pop or umph.

Here’s another look at the two browns side by side. The one on the left is a traditional dark chocolate brown, the one on the right is that grayer, hazier version of brown.

Leaning towards antique white… but desperately fearing I’ll regret not going with a bigger contrast (like brown) or with the pure white option in a few months. It’s like the time I let my cousin talk me into painting the trim and doors inside of the house an off white because it would match the walls better. I finally remedied that this spring and the trim and doors are now a brilliant white. Which is 10,000x better.

And to throw a little curve ball in, Kevin recently brought home a sample of a mossy green and is wondering about ‘colors’ (as in not brown and white) as a trim option. Oh boy.

What do you think? and Happy Weekend!

PS Here‘s a link to all of ouryard-related posts, especially those involving this summer’s goal for our family: more curb appeal!

Office Makeover: Progress!

August 9, 2012

I went to bed last night thinking that the morning would bring a brand new Friday. But alas, that’s how long this week has felt :) (poor Liv had a 103 degree fever all through the night and day Tuesday and work has lately been getting the best of me). Instead though, it is a beautiful Thursday and one that I’m more than happy to embrace. Especially considering that tomorrow is Friday!

Before I share my latest room update, a BIG thank you to Kate for featuring me in her Best of the Blogosphere round-up at Centsational Girl! Her every-other-Friday posts are among my favorites because they share some serious talent and new bloggers to explore and follow. I near fell out of my chair when she linked a recent project of mine up, check it out here.

I have a little room progress to update you all on today! This room has admittedly become the hardest and most challenging room to get right in our house. And being that it’s my woman-cave, I’ve been working extra hard to make sure that it feels right, that it feels like a space that I would happily spend most of my day in (my company is up in Northern California, so I really do spend most of my day at that desk and on those computers).

The office was on a serious roll back in 2011 when we knocked down the old kitchen (rebuilt it on the other side of the house) and turned that space into my work zone. But then half way through the new office design process, my ideas and inspiration fell apart and the room came to a halt. For quite a long time. (I’ve never been a fan of finishing a space just to get it done, I figure that new inspiration will eventually come and I’ll be all the happier with a result that is right on.)

But I have made a few changes along the way! And I’m really happy again with how everything is coming together.

Among the new changes, a new bedding set from Target in a neutral, cozy tan, an awesome bamboo Craigslist chair find, amazing bookshelves (same Craigslist sale) with the most wonderful, original campaign-style handles ($100 for two huge bookcases!), moving my favorite Ballard Design gold medallions to either side of the window (plus one on the bookshelf in the above pic), and finally stealing a rug from the dining room and swapping out the below trellis version in the office (an all jute rug is the way to go in there – and doesn’t the organic shape in the above photo look much better than the rectangular one below?).

Often shopping is not necessary. A space can easily be refreshed with a bit of shopping the house! Amazing how moving one bright vase to a new room or exchanging accent chairs with another bedroom will give those accessories a new life.

The new white dressers are making a huge difference in the room as well. Previously, I had found a neat mid-century modern wood credenza that fit in the space, but I quickly out grew it storage-wise and have been on the lookout for something fun in a bright color. When these dressers popped up on Craigslist I went to check them out and knew they were immediately right.

That crisp white look makes all of the difference! And the original handles and pristine shape these vintage guys are in is perfect for this home.

All of that storage! It’s wonderful.

My desk (which is actually an old dining room table) is usually covered in notebooks and computer screens and glasses of water… but occasionally I put away all of the clutter and find this:

I’m still on the search for the perfect velvet to recover my chair in – perhaps a navy blue? and the rest of the wood could use a new coat of stain (in a non-cherry color). It’s worth noting that I love to be organized but am not a sparse person – I really, truly enjoy staring up at those tall bulletin boards (made back here) and finding dozens of pictures of Olivia, our family, my favorite tear sheets, work docs and a few quotes and prayers that help to focus me. Even if it means that above my desk might feel a bit crowded. A well-organized file bin is helpful, a stack of unsorted papers on top of that is usually the regular.

The room is slowly embracing my initial color palette as well, now it’s time to add a few pops of coral and pink (I’m thinking in the form of a bit of DIY art, a new lamp? and a few new pillows):

(Just for comparison’s sake, here’s what I first identified as these particular color plans in the room back in February):

Pretty close, right? I would have bet that my ideas would have changed quite a bit in the last six months, and while they did – they didn’t travel too far from the original.

Next up, art for these walls, a bright coral or pink pillow for that chair (might recover the cushion? Did I mention I scored it for $25?), a new fabric roman shade for the big window over the dressers and a reupholstered office chair. Maybe more? Time will tell.

For more Office Makeover posts, check out: a new tufted headboard for the guest bed, our floor plan, color inspiration, a new trellis print rug, stuck in a rut, designing and sewing the curtains, diy fabric bulletin board panels, handmade capiz pendant light, organizing the bookshelves, wall collage part 1, part 2, fabric bulletin board inspiration, (new) inspiration board, new lamps, wallpapering open shelves, finding the perfect credenza, new trim, dining table-to-desk, a new desk & bookshelves, installing remnant carpeting, grasscloth wallpaper, painting the office nook, finding carpet for the office, chocolate brown wall ideas, plastering progress, inspiration for a diy desk, back in action!, desking hunting for under $300, bookcases under $300,inspirational rooms, room layout options, demo part 1 & demo part 2.