Progress at Casa Dunn

Our family came in town with paintbrushes in hand (not really); they have been soooooo helpful. I can't believe how much we've gotten accomplished!

We've painted the living room and kitchen, added blinds in the family room, added a new kitchen sink, and right now my dad is installing a ceiling fan.

Here are some action shots..







I had originally picked Mercer for our kitchen color, but it ended up being a bit too dark. I decided to choose the same color that used to be in our master bedroom in California:



Valspar "Seine"

Please Use Your Imagination

Today our family starts coming in from out of town. We have my parents, my husband's parents and my husband's grandparents visiting us in our new home.

I wish our home was looking more like this....











and less like this:











Dear Family - please use your imagination and pretend our home isn't the construction zone it really is.

I won't be around my computer much with my family here, so everyone please have a great and safe weekend!

The (major work in progress) Bar

I have 12,923,580,259,802 things to unpack and do before my husband's parents come in from California at 4:45 today (!!!), so a quick little post is in order.

I wanted to share with you our new bar (in progress). Although not big drinkers, husband and I share a love for vintage barware.



I'm going to be keeping things real around the blog now that we are in our house. Unfinished walls and electrical sockets are how we roll right now. I should have moved Char's ugly water dispenser though.. it's her master bedroom reserve and actually does need to be moved.. ANYWAY! :)

IKEA sells the best little shelf for only $15. It has such great clean lines, and even the galvanized silver is pretty cool if used in the right setting. I'm going to prime this baby and spray paint it an eggshell or satin black. I'm hoping the after will channel this amazing piece from Room & Board:


Let's consider this post the "before".. I'm planning on the after's to look something as polished as this image from Lonny:

For The House : Fixed Roman Shades

This 'For The House' installment isn't something that I'll buy, it's something I'll make.

First let me say that even though the majority of my favorite blogs are about interior design, a couple of them aren't. Darby is one of them. Her family is just so imperfectly perfect and it's just like what I hope to have someday. She is a super mom!

Anyway, back to "For The House". Darby made these gorgeous fixed Roman shades for her bathroom:



And I looove them. I'm planning on making one (or a couple?) for our house.

To get Darby's instructions to make them, click here.

Another vote for black wingback

Is that sexy or what??

Also - Some of you asked I was doing all the reupholstery - I really wish I was that handy! But no, I leave upholstering to the professionals.

Craigslist DEAL.

Oh Craigslist, I heart you so much. Where would I be without you?

I found this set of furniture on Craigslist, but the seller lived pretty far and I could not fit all three into my car. I asked if there was anyway he could deliver and he said YES!

I'm sure no one wanted them because of the very dirty and old upholstery, but I saw past that and I know they will be fabulous when recovered.

[ listing picture ]

Guess how much I got these babies for? $65!

The two wing backs will go in our formal living room, and the loveseat will go in my office.

Now I just need to figure out what to reupholster them in. The possibilities are endless... but I'm thinking either white or black (with nailheads) can go the extra mile and show off the sexy curves of the chairs.





I know - pretty boring, but classic. However, I decided to keep this settee for our kitchen nook:



And it will get reupholstered in something super fun. Not sure what that is yet though.. I'll keep you posted.

HOMEOWNER TIP: If you cannot splurge on new furniture (like us)... buy used from Craigslist and reupholster. It's about half the cost of a new piece, and usually old pieces are much better quality!

Speaking of Fabric...

This is the perfect stripe. So so perfect. It's from the cover of last month's Elle Decor, with Ellen Pompeo.



Unfortunately the pillows were cut from antique afghans which is pretty tragic because I really want that stripe fabric. Preferably to cover my dining room chairs in.

Anyone know of something similar?

Fabric Jackpot

I love when blogs take me places I wouldn't normally find. For instance... today via Style Files I found quilthome.com. It doesn't sound too glamorous, but they have so many very beautiful fabrics.

Here are some favorites I saved. Hmm... where can I use them??

Sunshine & Shadows

Lantern Bloom


Lantern Bloom (so beautiful, could even be framed)


Modern Meadow (a great modern take on herringbone!)



Brandon Mably (cool chevron!)


Ginseng

This is only a very small handful of what is on the site. If only they were upholstery weights. But these cottons would be good for pillows and maybe even headboards.

Best part? They are $8.95/yard!

The Stairway

Remember this image from Sarah Richardson?



Here is our staircase today:



Arg, iphone! Why must you put a crazy orange blob in the middle of the picture? The paint is blue/gray.. you can see it accurately at the bottom of the the staircase.

HOMEOWNER TIP! This stairway's ceiling goes very very high and I would have nearly killed myself trying to paint it myself. So I had the painters paint only this stairway, and I will paint the rest of the room (living room). It saves money to do the painting yourself, where you can. But it's also much safer to have professionals do the dangerous painting.

Have I mentioned - we are having both sets of parents and Matt's grandparents come stay with us next weekend for Memorial Day. It will literally look like a construction zone. I'll be sure share pictures once the painters leave to show you the chaotic mess that is our new house so far. (the patched wall is a good example).

Also, in case any of you ask what this paint color is - it's a Home Depot color-matched blue from Martha's old Lowe's line (but looks nothing like the swatch). So in other words, completely custom. I'll provide the formula once I take some better pictures.

Great Expectations

I am sooo happy and excited that many of you readers are excited to see what I do with our new space. But I have to put out this small PSA.

Buying a house is very expensive. Fixing this house up is also very expensive. Because of this, I will not be able to decorate everything immediately.

I know, big unhappy face. But it's actually a good thing. I think spaces should breath and grow along with the homeowners. When I work with clients, I like to give them spaces that they can continuously add to (and subtract from). Because your home is a reflection of you, and you are always growing and evolving. Cheesy, eh? But true.

There will not be room reveals every month.. in fact many of the rooms I have no idea what I'm going to do with. (Like our master bedroom!!). And I'm pretty sure our formal living room will be empty for a long while. But what I WILL be doing is a lot of painting and upcycling things we already have. I'll also be acquiring unique and beautiful (and inexpensive) things from antique stores and Craigslist. There will be a lot of reupholstering. And when we are able to, I'll buy a new sofa and bed.

I'm also very busy with work (yay!), so finding time to decorate for myself is another challenge. But it's a very good thing that I'm very thankful for.

I hope I am not disappointing anyone! I just wanted to put it out there. :)

Although I don't know exactly what I want to do with our new spaces, I am looking out for inspiration pictures of how I want our space to feel. Here a couple of those images...

[ Canadian House & Home ]

[ Nest Interior Design ]

ps- do you ever wonder about my husband? See, he's probably my biggest fan and I'm very lucky that he is always approving of everything I do.. and tells me it looks great. As long as I don't spend too much money! :)

White

I remember growing up my parents always had white walls. I used to BEG them to paint (future interior designer!) and they finally allowed us kids to paint our rooms. But the rest of the house remained white. (If only I had pictures. I picked lime green. It was actually pretty awesome.)

Fast forward, and here I am with our new home and I didn't even think twice about it - I wanted our family room to be white. There is just something about a white room.



















The family room is the only room we're having professionally painted.. the ceilings are too high for me to attempt it! I cannot wait to see how it turns out!

My all time favorite white is Chantilly Lace by Benjamin Moore. But since we have so much surface area to cover (all the ceilings, all the trim and the entire family room), I chose Snowcap White by Valspar to save money. It's also a very beautiful white and pretty similar to Chantilly Lace. If you're one a budget (like us), my advice is to save the expensive paint brands for smaller rooms with big impact.