Pepper Design Blog - Page 132 of 358 - A Little of This & That... Renovating, Decorating, DIY Projects & Family

Celebrating 5 Years + San Francisco

June 29, 2012

I thought I’d share a few pics from our surprise anniversary trip to San Francisco last weekend. We celebrated our 5th anniversary on Saturday the 23rd and on Sunday headed up to the Bay Area for a quick day and night to explore the city.

We were actually up in the Northern California area to celebrate a wedding with friends of ours, so location and babysitter proximity (my parents are in the area) were both in our favor. Here we are on our actual anniversary at the wedding:

The day after the wedding we packed our overnight bags and whisked ourselves away to San Francisco (about an hour and a half north of where my family lives in Santa Cruz). I can’t remember the last time we explored, shopped and went out to dinner without a toddler in tow!

Growing up so close to SF I’ve been to the city many, many times, but we decided to revisit all of the fun sites as official tourists, even booking tickets on a double decker bus on Monday morning.

We had so much fun visiting near every tourist-y spot in the city.

Favorites of ours (and must-sees if you come up to visit San Francisco) include: Fisherman’s Wharf, Pier 39, Ghiradelli Square, Haight & Ashbury, Golden Gate Park, the Golden Gate Bridge, Union Square, Chinatown, North Beach (and little Italy), a ride on a cable car (don’t wait in line, instead have your cash ready and hop on as it stops at an intersection) and Alcatraz (must book several weeks before your visit).

I love to visit the city just for the beauty of walking it. If you can get beyond the crazy tourist gimmicks (which can be equally fun – like one of my favorite guys in head to toe silver up above – or the bushman!) you’ll notice every detail that makes this city special.

I also highly recommend a fresh bowl of clam chowder right on the water – sourdough bread bowl is a must!

We enjoyed a delicious meal in the Financial District at Prospect (great recommendation from a friend), followed by a yummy hot fudge sundae at Ghirardelli.

One last image from the weekend, does this not remind you of Full House? Ah memories.

Such a great getaway! and so happy to have been married to my mister for five years.

Dining Room Dilemma: A Colorful Bench

June 28, 2012

Last week I added the new Orla Kiely curtains to the dining room and I immediately loved how the vibrant pop of blue worked with the vintage buffet! But with the new matching color scheme, the room also felt like it was lacking a dose of contrasting color to really mix things up. So the wheels began turning for updating our current ottoman-turned-dining bench…

Right off the bat I’m thinking that a new set of taller legs and a covering in a soft velvet would make this guy work for the space. The tufted ottoman is a Craigslist find (surprise!) but he’s been with us for a while and has slowly begun to wear and tear (literally) and up until recently has been on the replace or let go list.

But perhaps he can be remade into something awesome. Here are a few badly photoshopped ideas of what colors might work well with that bold blue (and a few random lumbar pillows that might coordinate well for the end chairs):

A soft pink to lighten things up? I found the softest pink velvet for $10/yard at our discount fabric shop. (pillow)

Or how about mint green? A favorite summer accent of mine! (pillow)

Or perhaps something a little more limey would look best… (pillow)

Burnt orange?

Or how about plum to cool down that bright blue? (pillow)

I’m not quite sold on any of the pillow pairings but you can see where I’m hoping to go with a little color in this space, and if pricing out velvet and new legs ends up being pricier than a new upgrade, here are a few benches that I have my eye on:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Oh I love that minty Ballard bench with the curved legs!

Read the full dining room story by starting here: choosing a rug, curtain call part 3, curtain call part 2, curtain call part 1, newly styled bookshelves, a buffet-over, upgrading the lighting, the before.

Curb Appeal: We’re Painting the House!

June 27, 2012

Kevin and I headed up to San Francisco for a quick trip to celebrate our 5th anniversary and we had such a great time! Thanks to those who left a comment or sent an email wishing us a great day!

Now that Kevin is out of school for the summer, I cannot think of a better anniversary present than spending some time together working on a few big changes for the front of our home. We tend to reserve major renovation projects for when Kev finishes up classes for the summer (which, by the way, I’m so proud of him for right now! Three of his hardest years down, two to go until he finishes up his degree in architecture ), and he just wrapped up finals last week.

This summer is no exception with a big wrap around deck (side yard and back), pergola, outdoor eating area, side yard wall, landscaping and overall outdoor beautification on the list. I am even more excited about that fact that we are once again partnering with Lowe’s to help participate in their Trend & Design theme for the summer – curb appeal!

The above is our home today, and here’s a quick reminder of where we started at:

Not too shabby so far, right? But we have BIG plans, starting with painting the house!

Olympic and Graco have offered to partner with us for this project and of course that made the reality of such a big undertaking feasible for us to move ahead with as early as this upcoming weekend! Wow.

I have been patiently looking forward to updating the traditional white on the front of our home since the day we moved in four years ago and excited doesn’t even begin to capture my feelings at the moment. Overwhelmed, giddy, smiling ear to ear might get me a little closer.

Olympic has a helpful tool that allows you to upload a picture and then play with paint colors. I can’t get too color carried away as we live in a Spanish style house and I tend to love these particular bungalows in beiges, tans and browns anyway, but that’s where we’re starting our search.I uploaded our current outdoor photo into ColorClix to get a better idea of what our home would look like in a few favorite shades.

The first step is to use the tool markers to identify what is a paintable wall vs plants vs roof, etc. (these same steps apply for interiors, but identifying interior walls, furniture, windows and trim instead).

Then it was time to experiment away!

This light Vanilla Brandy is a favorite:

As is Dusty Trails with its ever so smoky-tan appeal:

A slightly darker option is Stony Creek:

Applesauce Cafe rounds out my fourth favorite tan (I sometimes wonder where these names come from – what a fun job) with its honey undertone:

Kevin really digs the idea of a mossy grey house. If we lived in any other style I think that I would be on board (or at least seriously consider the option), but I’m not such a fan for our home:

Will keep you posted on the progress! We are deciding colors asap and it’s quite daunting.

Next up on the paint list is trim. I’m thinking white, but perhaps a dark brown would be option 2. Spanish homes are known for their creative trim-on-trim styles and maybe an even better, dual option is out there somewhere… this is when long walks with Liv and sneaky iPhone camera shots of my favorite homes in the neighborhood become very helpful as local inspiration. It’s not odd to pretend like you’re talking to someone at arms length while you line up a shot of the neighbor around the corner’s home, right?

Any home painting tips, thoughts? or do you have any big projects lined up for this summer?