Decorating and kids - life lessons

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Decorating and kids - life lessons

For most of my youth I heard "this is why I can't have nice things" more times than I care to recall. After my brother was born, we pretty much heard it daily. Apparently kids + nice things = destroyed. After years of hearing this it settled into the recesses of my brain. When I began decorating after the birth of my first child, the saying came to the forefront of my mind. I decided to invest in cheap "throw-away" accessories, dinnerware, flatware, glasses, drapes - you name it. I lived at Targe

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Playing Around on Polyvore

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I've known about Polyvore for years, but I've just recently started playing around with it. What a wonderful way to decide how images will work together! I know a lot of people like Olioboard, but I love that I can add items to my Polyvore account from wherever I want. Love it! Today I played around with taking traditional pieces and mixing them with modern accents to create a transitional table. Check it out below and let me know what you

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Hellooooo everyone!

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Hellooooo everyone!

Well hello and happy Friday everyone! I know, I know. I've been MIA lately but launching an e-boutique is A LOT of work! Luckily it's up and running (as of today) so I can take a little bit of a breather.  If you get bored this weekend, give it a look: www.dumondefurnishings.com. Yesterday I was able to get out and run errands for the first time in ages. While out I picked up the items to make a hanging pendant light. If you read my post on the Paris show, you know basket lights were everywhere! They were even used in one of my vendors catalogs:

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Let's talk Paris (and trends)!

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Let's talk Paris (and trends)!

Oh Paris... My first trip to Paris was in 1999. My mom asked me if I wanted to go and I said "sure." I honestly didn't know anything about Paris nor did I care about it. I always thought of it as  just a city in France where the people were stuck up and hated Americans. And then I got there. Instantly I was in love with this magical city. The history, the culture, the people! Yes, I said the people! I love the French. I know that is an unpopular decision among most Americans, but I've always found the majority of the French to be quite charming. Sure there are rude Parisians, but not an different than the rude Texans, New Yorkers, Californians or anyone else for that matter. I've been blessed to visit Paris three times in  my life. I've gone each year for the last two years.

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Guest Post: Kitchenette Makeover

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Guest Post: Kitchenette Makeover

Hey there ya'll, it's Tara again! I have been working on my kitchenette in the basement! We have company coming for Thanksgiving and I wanted to get it done before things got too hectic! So our house has this cute little apartment like quality to it. It has a bedroom, kitchenette, dining room, living room, and full bathroom. Well we revamped everything except the kitchenette. It was just some builder grade oak cabinets and a slab of crappy formica with a sink in it. NOT anymore! I decided I was going to paint them. This was kind of a test. I want to paint the main kitchen but needed a testing dummy! Ok so I got too excited and forgot to take a real before picture. Sorry it's dark, all I have is the camera on my phone!

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No Sew Pillows

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No Sew Pillows

This is one of the best projects to try if you are wanting to venture into no-sew land. While it took me 30 minutes per pillow, most can do it in a lot less time (darn Type A and making sure everything was perfectly even and matched).

This is pretty straight-forward but if I have left anything out or you don't understand anything please, please, please let me know and I will try to explain better.

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Fixing Splintered Wood

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Fixing Splintered Wood

Working with wood is awesome! You can create so many great things. As much as I love creating beautiful things with wood there is one thing that always seems to happen - splintering.

Splintered wood is most often caused by using the wrong blade for the wood being cut and usually only happens on one side. More times than not you can make sure it's on the side that won't be seen. But sometimes you just can't get around using the splintered side (or if you are like me, you aren't paying attention and end up using the wrong side -oops). Usually when I do that I try to prime and paint it hoping it will cover the damage. That rarely works and it pretty much ends up looking like this:

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My Own Cozy Nook

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My Own Cozy Nook

Believe it or not, for the last two weeks I've been working on one section of the bedroom. One 10 foot X 2 foot area - the window bench! Just a reminder of how it looked when we bought the house (from the listing):

One of the first things I did was remove the maroon blinds and recover my existing shades with No Sew Roman Shades. So we were stuck here for a bit:

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Coffee... It's How DIY Gets Done!

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Coffee... It's How DIY Gets Done!

I love coffee. I love DIY. But I'm a much better DIYer when I've had my morning coffee. This morning I was sipping coffee and watching Renovation Realities on DIY and I thought "look, they are drinking coffee too. Hmmm... Coffee...It's How DIY Gets Done!" Yep - that's how things usually happen in my world. Sitting around doing something with very little brain involvement when something hits me! Have a great Saturday everyone! I'm off to make my new no-sew pillows!

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My Top 10 Neutral Luxe Bedrooms

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My Top 10 Neutral Luxe Bedrooms

If you are like me, whenever it's time to remodel or redecorate you spends hours pouring over the fabulousness that is Houzz. I love Houzz. Ever since I stumbled across it a few years ago, I've been addicted. It's truly house porn. Although I've already started the master bedroom redo, I'm still looking for ideas to finish off the decor. Natch, I took to Houzz where I compiled by top 10 luxe bedrooms. Enjoy!

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