It all started when I decided I did not like the flow of this bedroom at our river house.  Even though I had drawn the furniture and lighting plan  on paper during construction,  once I got everything in the room it just felt off.  So I physically moved things around until it felt right.  Which totally screwed up my well thought out electrical plan, but at least the room felt more balanced now.

But that meant that I now had this big blank wall with these random octagon things that I had put above the tv cabinet before I moved the furniture around.  {yeah, that is what I am going to call them, octagon things since I can’t remember where I got them, but I do remember they were not cheap!}

No biggie right?  Just take them down and put something else up there.  Uh, not so easy, so I found out.  What the heck was this company thinking when they came up with their “cool” idea of this wall art.  Hello! Double sided tape is permanent on drywall, did anyone think of that? It is  PERMANENT!  {course I am the idiot who put it up on the wall without thinking it may not ever come off so I don’t have room to talk}

Once I realized they were probably going to pull the paint and most likely the drywall off, which would mean patching and painting, I just left them.   Every time I walked into this room I was embarrassed.  They looked so odd clustered in one spot on the wall above nothing. Especially when the other side of the room is so much more put together with the groupings of the star burst mirrors

A couple of weekends ago, I told myself THIS was the weekend to finally get it down.  I made it my mission to take them down.  But I had a plan.

I wanted to bring out this piece of art work that I got years ago.   I thought I was going to use in my house but I could never find the perfect place for it.

It is by Aaron Foster.

He used to have a show on HGTV called Freestyle back in 2006.  It was back then when I was at the Las Vegas Design Center and he was showing his art work.  I didn’t know at the time that he had a show,  I just fell in love with his work and especially the Hollywood sign.  I thought the whole concept of using licenses plates as art was genius and I had to have one. So I bought the original Hollywood sign.

Since I didn’t end up using it  in our house, it sat in storage for years.  Then it dawned on me, this sign is pretty big, about 60″ by 36″,  I thought it just might work in the river house bedroom.  So that was my plan, to take the octagon things off the wall, and cover up the mess it might leave with the Hollywood sign.  This piece of art work is not light by any means.  70 pounds maybe?  So once I lugged it up the stairs at the river house {with the help of my sister}, I made the decision it wasn’t coming back home with me.

It fit perfectly over the sleeper loveseat in the bedroom {thank goodness}  I made sure I anchored it to the studs on the wall due to it’s weight

It really is the statement piece that I needed for that wall

But there is a couple of problems.  Those octagon things did take off the paint when I so painstakingly pulled them off, as you can see in this picture

Which wasn’t so bad, until I couldn’t get the last one off.  I had to pry and pull so hard, off came the drywall with it!  The last one!   Just my luck. I forgot to take a picture before I put the sign up, but you can kind of see the missing chunk behind the picture.  Luckily the sign is hiding it for now. {well, when you are standing in front of it that is}

I wish that the drywall and paint issue was the only problem I had once I got those octagon things off….

Because once I got the sign hung on the wall I noticed this

The sign is warped.  Why I don’t know.  I have had this sign since probably 2006,  and I never really inspected the art too close, so it might of been like this since I got it.  Or it might of just gotten this way from being in storage.  Either way, I need to figure out how to make it straight.  I am thinking I might try to email Aaron on his site and see what he thinks I should do.  The license plates are nailed onto boards, and I was thinking that if I got the back of boards a little wet, and then put heavy bricks or something on top of it, it might straighten itself out.  But I don’t want to ruin it, so there it sits until I can find out the best way to straighten it.  I love it in it’s new spot, especially since that random octagon design is now gone.

A Hollywood sign finds a home is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

But the truth is, it isn’t really real.  I mean real as in real life.  There are no toys laying around, dishes in the sink, clothes on the floor, mailed piled up on the counter, you know, how life really is?

Everything we see is styled, put away and designed with a budget most people can’t afford.  That is why we love looking at them right?  To dream of how we would love our home to look if only we had the money, the time and the talent to pull it all together.

I have had numerous readers e-mail me and ask if I could just give them some suggestion on what they could do with their space to spruce it up.  They are on a budget, and pretty much have to work with what they have.   So, being the fanatic obsessed design person that I am,  I have them send me pictures and I  email them my suggestions.

Recently I have been helping  one of my readers, her name is Emily.  She just felt like her house wasn’t put together and wanted to know if I could give her some suggestions how to spruce it up.    We started with her entryway

Her home was recently built and painting the walls was out of the question since they had just painted them.  And the other problem was that her son was asthmatic and she was told by her doctor to help with the asthma, it would be best not to have drapes, and carpet in her house.  That makes it challenging for sure!

I had her send me pictures of every room in her house.  I asked her to do that so that I could see what pieces of furniture and or accessories she might have that we could re-purpose for this space.

The first thing I suggested to Emily was to make her entryway more welcoming and styled.  It is the first impression people have when they come through your door.

I had her pull 2 lamps that were in her bedroom that I thought would work better in the entryway, and suggested she take out some of the items she had in the shelves and add more decorative items and baskets to hide the real stuff. Using  a larger more colorful outdoor rug for the floor would also add some warmth.  I found out that outdoor rugs can be used for people with asthma rather than a cotton or wool rugs. and with the variety of outdoor rugs out there now, it won’t limit Emily’s choices, which is great.

I love that sign!  I think she did a beautiful job with my suggestions.

On the other side of the entryway, I suggested that she take the bookcase she had in her guest room and put it in the spot where she had the tall bookcase.

Looks pretty darn good doesn’t it?  She could always paint the bookcase white to match the other one, and she is planning on getting a large piece of artwork to replace the one she has there now.  It really is so much more welcoming now don’t you think?

Sprucing up Emily’s house wont be done over night and ready for a magazine spread.  But this is what I feel what most people deal with,  real life, real design in a real space.   Through various emails,  I have given Emily the tools she needs to continue with on with sprucing up the rest of her house and making it feel more put together.    It has been fun helping Emily out, she is supper excited now to decorate the rest of her house, and feels like she has the confidence to do on her own.

Sources (1) (2)

Real Life, Real Design, Real Spaces is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

For the space behind the toilet I envisioned hanging 3 round mirrors.   I stopped at HomeGoods to see what they had and I got lucky and found just what I was looking for.   I took them over to my sister’s house, and even though my brother-n-law wasn’t there, we decided to go for it and hang the mirrors ourselves.  It turned out just like I had envisioned, I was very pleased with my choices. The light reflecting off the mirrors gives the little dark alcove area some life and adds depth to the wall without being too over done.

But there is a problem….something that I didn’t even think of!  Maybe because I have raised three girls.

Can you guess what it is?  It is the placement of the bottom mirror.  Yeah, I totally forgot about the men in the house, they stand in front of the toilet, unlike us girls who sit.  My brother-n-law has had a hay day coming up with jokes about using the bathroom.   You know how guys can be with that sort of stuff that relates to certain body parts, they think they are so funny!  And to top it off, my sister and has 16 year old son who has a lot of guy friends come over, and they use this bathroom, so she has been taking the mirror down when they are over.  We have had some good laughs over this, but I need to come up with a plan “b” for the bottom mirror.  Back to the drawing board to come up with a solution.

Mirrors on the wall is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

I never thought I would like anything design wise that has the word “industrial” attached to it.  But as the saying goes,  never say never right?  I saw this side table at Anthropologie online and just wanted one so bad, but dang it, I didn’t have a place for it. As luck would have it, I then fell in LOVE with this floor lamp at a local store in Solana Beach called Bon Bons.  Industrial was calling me bad!  Again, I had no place for it, so I just filed it away in my mind for a someday. {but also thinking,  it would look soooo good with that table in the same room if only I had a space to use them in}

Then the idea hit me.  Since my daughter and her husband have no furniture for their guest bedroom, I could use this as an excuse to buy these pieces!  Woohoo.  Did I ask my daughter if she liked them before I bought them?  Ummm…No.  I figured something is better than nothing for now and hopefully someday {soon} they will be having babies and they would need to change the whole room to a nursery anyways.  So in the mean time, I figured I could “store” my pieces in there until then.  So I continued on to my next purchase for the guest room.  These beautiful drapes…

Just the touch this room was needing to soften that industrial look I was hoping to bring in.   Now that I have bought the side table,  floor lamp and the draperies for the room,  I figured I need to start looking for some bedding.  I was drooling over Laylagrace’s web site with all their gorgeous bedding…especially the Pom Pom collection.  But then I saw the prices…dang I have expensive taste.

I think the soft linen casual look is just what the room needs to counter the industrial pieces.  I have come up with a couple of other choices.  This one here  from Restoration Hardware

And this one from Target, the Simply Shabby Collection.

But the problem I am having with this whole design is this,  I am the only one who loves the floor lamp in our family.  {ok, maybe even the industrial look, I might be the only one loving that too} Even with the understanding “free to use as long as you like”,  my daughter and her husband are kindly saying no to it in this room.  Oh and my husband HATES it.  Now, I have already purchased the lamp and I can’t return it. So I either have to make it work somewhere else in my daughter’s house or find a spot in my own home in a place far away my husband won’t see.  He really hates it.  Here it is again with the Morning Fog paint on the walls, without any furniture or drapery {oh and underneath the paper on the floors are some beautiful hardwood floors}.

So I might be re-thinking my design concept on this room.  Or at least the floor lamp idea, but keep the side table, what do you think?  Have I gone too far with the industrial look for one room?  I would love to hear your input.

Industrial Guest Room Design is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

As you can see these pictures are not taken of the settee sitting outside.  Once I showed my husband the settee, he absolutely said no to putting it outside, that it was too beautiful to have the outside elements ruin it.  I knew he was right, but darn it, now where was I going to put it?  I moved this puppy around so many different spots in my house.  I have really, really tall ceilings in my house and small scale furniture like this ends up looking like doll furniture in the rooms.  But I think I found it a home.

I never thought this dining room really needed any more furniture in it, but once I moved that round table out of the corner and put the settee there it just worked!

The bummer part is that no one gets to see the cool backside of the couch with the coordinating black ticking fabric, oh well.  I shopped my house and found this tea table to put in front of the settee.  Now that I know it looks good there,  I have decided to paint the table black and add some silver leaf to it.  I want to find a really cool vintage tea set to put on the table and have a friend over for high tea.

Linking up to

Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap Up Party

Damask Settee is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

So here is my decorating dilemma.

This bedroom.  The lighting, electrical and furniture plan I drew up when we built this room was all based on this layout of the furniture.

The chair and half against this window wall

And the tv and console on  this wall

Well even the best laid out plans don’t always work.  It just wasn’t flowing once I got everything in the room.  So I switched the two and it flowed so much better.  But this is the problem…

I put up those white decorative pieces which looked really cool above the tv.  But once I moved the two pieces of furniture, they were off centered and out of place.  No big deal right?  NOT!  They are stuck so good, I can’t get them off without taking off the paint and part of the drywall.  So I thought I would just add more to the wall instead, but those little puppies are not cheap, and it would of cost me a fortune to do the whole space. So this is my plan.  I bought these at target, (hard to see from this picture though) they are white metal butterflies and I was thinking of scattering them on the big blank space somehow making them look like they connect to the white octogan thingys, but it is a long shot.

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Here is the rest of the room, I like how everything turned out as long as you don’t look at the wall above the couch.  Any suggestions?

Decorating Dilemma @ Serenity Now is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.