What the heck have we been up to?

Well, May is a gigantic month for us..Design House, Mother's day, Spring Market and Memorial Day.. so June and July seem like a good time to calm down a little, regroup… shop shop shop, to get our spaces filled back in, and start preparing for the next Design House.


It's time to start thinking about trends and palettes for the fall, and the general direction we would like to see the house go.
The summer is also the time when stuff starts arriving for Christmas…you’ve heard of Christmas in July…well…it actually happens in June here…

All of the thousands of new ornaments for our Holiday Show House arrive throughout the summer and early fall to give us time to unwrap, price and sort.


It's also the time we all take a moment to catch our breath and have a moment with our families.

This is absolutely the greatest job in the world, but if you’re not careful, it can literally be all you do.

There is always another event on the horizon, there is always an empty spot that needs to be filled, another dresser to paint....there is always another Christmas ball to price…so whenever there is a moment to breathe….  We think it's important to take advantage of that!

WE love you all and hope you are taking advantage of the calm(ish) moments in life as well!

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Sneak Peek: Cheryl's Kitcken Confidential

I'm having fun going through all my pictures to put together a timeline of our kitchen renovation. We have lived in our house for 7 years now and started this project in 2010 and finally we will have a kitchen soon.

Ken and I are both in the food & beverage industry so days off sometimes are non existent and when you are off you can barely function because you just worked 5 12-14 hour days. We are both crazy energetic and love our careers plus adore restoring our home. This is why we are in the 3rd year of this process, not a lot of time. We only hired out the plumbing and have done all the work ourselves. 

I had grown up with helping my Dad, who was a Master carpenter and my Mom who was obsessed with DIY projects non stop. The two of them built the house I grew up in with only the help of my Grandfather who did all the plastering, old school no sheet rock back then!

 
Ken on the other hand has never in his life done anything like this. He is self taught I guess by trial and error and he defiantly has talent. Even my picky Mom was impressed.

I get a kick out of the picture above. Ken is sitting, looks like he is fiddling with something electrical,  where we tore down the wall between the old kitchen and the dining room. I especially love that he has his head lamp on, nerd, and the coffee maker is sitting on a chainsaw box. We had to cut down a tree in our front yard that lighting struck, another skill we learned along with one more tool added to the growing collection.
Also if you notice the doorway that leads to the staircase we closed that up to make more wall space. At this stage had decided on a galley style white kitchen with a vintage cottage modern feel.

                                                                         2010

 Scary

This is the original kitchen. We had just installed the new insulated door that we love. All the windows and doors would steam up when you did any type of cooking. We have replaced all the windows in the house except for 3!

The sink will be moved to the other side and bigger windows installed making a new home for a L shaped window seat eating area. I purchased the white chimney cabinet years ago in Philadelphia which we have restored and made into our pantry, pictures later.

                                                                     2010

 

Don't you love that we just kept the protective covering on the refrigerator for 2 years. Everyone thought we bought a blue one, hahaha!

 

I had decided to keep this renovation on a strict budget. I bought the appliances not when we where ready but when they where on sale. We would just move the boxes to different spots around the house so we could work, cray cray!

 

We had gutted the kitchen down to the studs and replaced the wiring and insulation. We where now getting ready to attempt to install a smaller window in place of a larger and it was freezing outside. Somehow we did it! The staircase doorway has been sealed and the walls are ready for sheet rock. Hey see our TV trays, we had dinner on those for 3 years!!!! Oliver is always with Ken, so cute. Hey does anyone want a chandelier?
                                           New project! Ken, please build us a porch.

                                                                  2011

    

Poor Ken, because I had the bright idea to buy the entire kitchen on sale even if we where not ready, big problem..... storage. First the cabinets where in and had to be delivered. In the living room we had sheet rock, tools, dishwasher etc. ugh.

Now he has to figure out how to build a screened in porch to solve the storage problem and have some extra space.

We both took a week off from work thinking this will be so easy, shoot the house already has a deck so we'll just tear off the railings and use the deck part for the floor, build a roof, add walls and screens. 
We then said, hey might as well get 3 ton of rock delivered and make a patio area. I found out fast that wheel barreling rock is a back breaking job and building a porch takes longer than a week. But we did it!
All the aches, pain and misery was well worth it. We enjoy our porch and patio everyday.
back to kitchen:
                                                                        2012

 

 

 

Moving along, we decided to do half of the kitchen at a time so we would have space to move around and work. The sheet rock is going up and we are getting ready to mud, yuck..... that means sanding which leads to massive amounts of dust everywhere!!!!

 

 

Wow, windows in & tape/mud on. We have taken some of the cabinets out to see how it is all going to work. Few minor problems but we have a plan. We have been cooking on the stove where ever we move it, it's all good. 

                                                               Ken thinks I can't see him!

 Don't you love these tall cabinets?

 

Yes, walls are getting painted and the layout is working. I bought the cabinets on sale at Home Depot, Martha Stewart Collection. We chose to go with simple and white. Next the counter tops will be installed soon. We are feeling it! The ceiling we are going to put up white wainscoting and beams, a cottage feel.

 

A beautiful thing. Silestone counter tops from Home Depot. Looks like marble but a fraction of the cost. I really really love them. You can't tell but we have sanded the floors. Which we have decided to paint white much cheaper than new bamboo flooring and I think it will look grand! Running water soon, just waiting for the plumber.
                                                               Phase 2

Same as the other side, ripped everything out to the studs, new wiring and insulation. We also put new larger windows in. This will be where the window seat is. The view is so pretty!

                              Found this adorable kitchen table at West Elm, got it for a steal!

Ken will flip if he finds out I posted this but how cute is he with Oliver. We are enjoying Christmas breakfast relaxing at our table in our kitchen. This is a first!! And yes we wear matching Christmas PJ's, total nerds!!!!

                                                                          2013

I can picture the window seat. I have a feeling this will be my favorite spot in the house. Oliver will go nuts squirrel watching. I am starting my search for the perfect fabric to have the cushions made. I think a trip to Calico Corner is approaching. 

More dust and hard work we conquered the walls, trim is up and sanded the floor. Ken is applying the first coast of paint. This paint rocks. We highly recomend it. I read about it on a DIY blog. You can find it online.

The last picture is our super tiny powder room. During the kitchen renovation we had to gut it. It turned out amazing. This is another story, kind of a horror story which I will tell later along with pictures. 
 
Here is our current To Do list:

finish painting and sealing the floor
finish the door trim and paint
wainscoting on ceiling with beams
tile sink and stove walls, white subway tile
install ceiling lights, check out www.schoolhouseelectric.com
window seat and cushions
FINITO!

Next weekend we are going to start the window seat. Will update soon!

XOXO  

Cher

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What's new this week in store & online!

The summer is a time to wind down a little bit -- the Design House is closed until August, we are concentrating on refilling our spaces and getting reengergized. 

This week, we have a few favorites back in our online store and the shop is full of some great pieces this week.

Here are our new finds for the week...


Our favorite metal sign is back in our online store in a big way!  This reproduction of a gas station sign is one of our favorite words!   Check it out {here}

Our wood beaded chandelier is $249 and a customer favorite.  It's been tough getting them back in, but they are here now online!

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Now for what just came in to the shop!

We also are welcoming a new dealer in one of our pavilions, Dale.  Dale is passionate about welding together found objects and making them in to something new.  He sees beauty in everything, from an old rusty fence piece to a car part.  Here is one of his sculptures!

For more information about the finds pictured here or more pics of new items this week, please check out our Fresh Off the Wagon page, which is updated with pictures and prices weekly.

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Interior Decoration Competing Philosophies

Interior Decoration .I've always had an interest in philosophy, but lately I'm passionate about it. I tend to spend any free time I have studying the words and thoughts that are the foundation of our culture. (This is part of the reason why I haven't been blogging as much). Unfortunately, I find "philosophy" isn't a great conversation starter with most people. So, I was glad to find this today.

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Oooohhhh Atlanta!

January and July…January and July.

January is the month we purchase next years Christmas items…(see blog post about the Christmas buying), and July is back to Atlanta to find all of our art, accessories, and gift items, to carry us through the fall at the Design House.

It's always fun and exciting to see what new colors are trending and whats new in the marketplace. 
The best news is Amy and I have a blast shopping and couldn't compliment each other more in our purchasing styles… Amy is a little more decoratory..high design, (oh and anything that has a horse on it….hence our great horse art collection) and me, I’m a bit more funky, and yet oddly practical.

Mix that all together, and you have the Design House.

Amazingly enough, we really do just run around and buy everything we love, and it always seems to fall together as if we had some sort of a master plan.

So off we go…. We’ll send back pics of our favorites so you can see what awesome new stuff is coming in!

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Trending.....

We are seeing wall stencils everywhere.  Who wouldn't love them? If you mess up, you paint over.  It's less expensive than wall paper.  And if you hate it five years down the road, it is an easy fix.  Some wall stencils that we love:

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Interior Decoration Personal Memorial

Interior Decoration  (photo via Happy Chic)This week I find myself asking, what is the appropriate response to the passing of an ingenious artist? I was sad to read of the passing of Cy Twombly on Tuesday. Strange that I wrote about him just recently and discovered that I was introducing his work to many of you. Well, yesterday I felt called to visit the Twombly museum here in Houston, as a

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