Projects

Last week, I told you about the guest room/office makeover happening at my house right now.  I thought I would show you some before photos and the best part, the progress photos.  There has been quite a change in that room these past weeks! The palette of the space was inspired by the hallway in author Edith Wharton's home, The Mount, her gorgeous home and gardens in Lenox, Massachusetts.  You can read more about this here. This photo has been stuck in my head since I visited there five years ago with my husband. AStoriedStyle.com When I am trying to visualize a space and come up with a design, I sit in it and stare.  I wish I drew more, and I do dabble in it, but I do better if I just look at the space - to get a feel for it...dare I say...to let it talk to me a little bit? Our guest room/office has the most natural light in the house - two full walls of windows.  Since we moved here three years ago, this room has been the guest room/nursery, and then when I moved the girls to the same room, the catch all for other rooms that have been under construction.  I would say it has been full of castoffs from other spaces a good year. In this before photo, you can see the previous striped walls.

The most popular DIY on my site by far is my Acrylic/Lucite Rods.  They add a lot of glamour and style to a room for not much money.  I have used them here, here, and here. I posted on my DIY Acrylic Rods with Plumbing Hardware awhile ago, but the Gray & Gold Nursery presented an extra challenge because I needed to turn a corner.  This room has two full walls of windows, and I really wanted to join them together rather than separate the walls.

AStoriedStyle.com

AStoriedStyle.com

I seriously considered titling this post "What You Can Do In Thirty Hours". This makeover was a quick one, but it turned out beautifully, and it seemed to be just the happy, colorful space the clients requested. And the clients?  None other than this sweet couple. AStoriedStyle.com Remember them?  I turned their honeymoon photo from the 1940's into a canvas for my closet turned laundry room update. AStoriedStyle.com When I got married, I received a beautiful thing - grandparents.  And this pair is near to my heart, I just adore them.  A few weeks ago, we went for a visit (the kids LOVE visiting "the farm"), and as I sat down with Granny, she was telling me about some fabric she had gotten to make some cushions for her back porch, along with some vibrant, striped chair cushions. It was bright and colorful, but I chuckled when I told her she had been telling me about what she wanted to do to the back porch for over a year.  (she sounds like me, ha)  It was at that very moment I decided we were going to make it happen. AStoriedStyle.com We did not have much time, but I knew it would not take too long to get things going for Granny...especially since I knew the power of spray paint. This project began on a Saturday afternoon and ended Sunday afternoon, and you can see the before photo below.  The green glider swing you see in the background has been in Granny's family since she was a little girl, and it is special so we decided to give it a special pop of color. AStoriedStyle.com With the color scheme of the cushions and fabric Granny had already purchased in mind, I drove "to town" and paid visits to Home Depot, Lowes, and Pier1.  After loading up the car with spray paint, plants, pillows, and a few decor items, I headed back, and that evening, we started painting. We painted into the night, and Granny was right there with us, spray painting away.  (not too many eighty somethings doing that!)  Kent and I did not let Granny and Papa Z see their new back porch until we moved everything back in and unveiled the space, and they were so happy with it.  Doesn't it look lively and cheerful?

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