Faux Plants to Bring Some Green to Your Room

I have been on the hunt for some greenery for my living room. I’ve searched at a few places, like Home Goods and Marshalls, and online quite a bit. I’ve bought and returned one larger plant. Am I having commitment issues??? No, it’s just that I haven’t met the right one yet. But I’m narrowing down the hunt and wanted to share some options that I love to save you some time in your hunt for the perfect green match....

How to Create a Wood Accent Wall

We have always had an “accent” wall in our son’s room. Even when we repainted his room to create the Star Wars Boys Room, we kept a wee accent. A recent overhaul of our daughters room and some need for balance between siblings gave us the idea to punch it up — and having a bunch of free wood that Nichole found on our local marketplace that was begging to be made into something. We drew many options of what...

To runner or not… Durable runners for kitchens

The kitchen can be a messy place. Even for those of us low mess cooks, accidents happen, kids drop things, husbands drip marinara sauce. So does it make sense to put a runner in your kitchen? Indeed it does! We have about 9 feet of runway between our cooktop and sink. While I considered a cushy rug for just in front of the sink, I wanted something to run through the space. There are several options to withstand high traffic...

How to Remove Trim without Wall Damage

Here’s a simple way to remove trim without putting decent holes in your wall or pulling some of the paint and drywall paper off – it may take longer to remove the trim but overall, it’s faster than having to patch holes from your prybar or mud, sand, and texture where the wall comes with your old trim. Tools you’ll Need Utility Knife: My Olfa is going on 10 years (similar knife) I like that I can extend the blade...

Girls Butterfly Bedroom Refresh

It has been so fun to update my daughter’s room. She turned 5 this year, and while we’d slowly converted her room from a nursery to a bigger girl room over the past years, it was time to make it fancy and match her big girl personality. Her nursery was really adorable – with grey/purple walls, white and grey elephant decor. I hand-made several things, including her curtains (at 7 months pregnant), her elephant mobile (6 cute hand-made elephants on...

Great Studio McGee-Like Sources for Digital Art for Framing

We’ve provided some tips here on how to create wood-wrapped canvas art for under $100. Here we share some of our favorite sources for digital art to create a Studio McGee style in your home. Juniper Print Shop Juniper Print Shop was one of the first digital download stores I found with great prints for large-format art. We have a few prints from Juniper Print Shop. I love these in our formal living room and my office. Here are the...

Easy No-Sew Custom Pleat Curtains for Arched Windows

We have a large arched window in our front room. It’s great for natural light (half of our house doesn’t get the best natural light), but finding window treatments for arched windows is TOUGH. The length of the window is large, and from the top of the arch to the floor is about 128 inches. It’s really hard to find cute curtains that are longer than 108 or 120 inches. For a few years, I got by with a look...

How to Brighten Fireplace Grout and Stone for $50 – Schmearing DIY

Schmearing a fireplace can positively change the way your fireplace looks – our reason was to brighten up our room! When we moved in, we wanted to update this fireplace. It’s in our family room, and we wanted to keep the cozy look of stone (which matches our exterior stone), but wanted a different look. Here is how we’ve had it for a few years, after Ryan updated the mantle to a new beautifully made mid-century model wood mantle (which...

DIY Pottery Barn Dollhouse Bookcase – Finishing

There were a lot of lessons from this series of projects for our daughters room. I had this wonderful thought about spraying with an airless sprayer — it was a spectacular failure. Such is life. At least you can sand your way out of those failures.. Involve the Kiddos One of the great things about this project series was our daughter’s design and finish input. We didn’t deliver on her request for a rainbow painted bookcase but we did keep...

DIY Pottery Barn Girls Desk Hack – Finishing Touches

We are so happy with the way this custom Chelsea Pottery Barn -esque vanity turned out for our daughter and the finishing touches. There was some finishing challenges and some good lessons on the journey as we undertook our first furniture project with red oak wood. See our Instructions for Building the Pottery Barn Vanity here! Time for Sanding the Vanity To clean up some of the drawer face markings from routing I put my oscillating tool to use –...