Design. Home. Renovation. This is a real life blog; let's get ugly!
If you’re someone who always runs out shopping at the last minute for Christmas (I raise my own hand here!), this gift guide is for you! Everything is from Amazon which means it can ship right to your door, no effort, no planning. Perfect! I gathered up some of my favorite things I own and things I want and things I love for others. It’s a random sampling likely to have something for everyone!
Continue reading “Gift Guide For the Last Minute Shopper”
Have you bought all your holiday gifts yet? With the Cyber Monday deals knocking on my inbox I’m starting to cross people off my list! I still need to find the perfect gift for a few people who are hard to buy for and while I’ve been searching, I’ve rounded up some favorites!
Continue reading “Land of Laurel: 2019 Gift Guide”
There are a few tools that I truly cannot live without. Or at least, cannot renovate without! These are my tried and true tools that I turn to over and over. I wanted to round them up, just in case you’re doing a little pre-holiday shopping for a DIY-er in your life!
Continue reading “5 Tools I Love and Turn To Time and Time Again and 1 I Wish I Owned”
Modern houses pile on the bedrooms, one for each kid, a guest suite, and a glorious and generously sized master bedroom. Old houses — like mine — do not. Although one day I might no longer have roommates and gain a guest bedroom, until then, guests are sleeping on my hand-me-down sofa. It’s not ideal. What might make it better though, is a nice new sleeper sofa! It would be so great to be able to just pull out a bed when I need it and tuck it away when I don’t. Since I’ve been hunting for a sofa anyways, I might as well make the leap to the sleeper, right?
Continue reading “Sleeper Sofas For the Multipurpose Living Room”
The kitchen cabinets are painted and it is life-changing! So things are going to get a little hairy in this posts since some of the kitchen cabinet painting happened during the wainscotting installation and wall prep from last week! Basically, remember how my kitchen looked like this? Partially sanded cabinets? Look a little closer. See how those cabinets are all different styles? My kitchen cabinets were cobbled together over a few decades no earlier than 1930, but probably not later than 1960. It’s a mystery. There are 4 door styles. And none of them are good. The insides of the cabinets were gross and everything was a bit of a hot mess.
Continue reading “One Room Challenge – Week 3 Painting 1940s Kitchen Cabinets”
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about artwork and how well it finishes off a space. It’s the eyeliner of interiors styling. My house tends to have a rather random assortment of pieces. I’ve got a small gallery wall going in the Living Room that needs tweaking now that there’s no longer a TV in that room. The pieces in my house that I really love are the big huge ones that have more of a visual presence. I think we often buy art that’s too small without realizing the impact a larger piece might have!
Continue reading “Art From Minted I’m Loving Right Now”
Let’s talk about paper towels. Raise your hand if you know where they come from. Trees. Everyone answered trees there, right? Right?! Well… here’s something that surprises so many Americans. You don’t actually need paper towels. I know! I know! It’s gonna be okay, I promise, this is not the apocalypse!
So I actually grew up never using paper towels. We had sponges and dishtowels that cleaned up all the kitchen messes and used rags for all the other messes. As I got older I eventually realized how disturbing this was to most Americans. It wasn’t all that rare for people to say things such as, “You don’t use paper towels? Such a dirty hippie!” or “How inconvenient, you must like making your life more difficult!” This happened regularly! It was like we offended people, by having a different lifestyle choice. Isn’t it funny how people take differences as insult? We certainly weren’t trying to convince anyone to change their own ways, we just simply said, “Oh we don’t have those,” when people asked for a paper towel at our house and handed them a sponge / dishtowel / rag depending on their need.
Continue reading “How to Stop Using Paper Towels (and Be More Eco-Friendly!)”
The Entry Way at Berrybrier is small, tucked into the corner of the front house addition between the porch and dining room. Because Portland is infamous for it’s rainy season, this little entry needs to work overtime to provide plenty of storage and a place for us to remove our boots. Of course, much like the living room, the entry has evolved a bit since I first moved here.
Continue reading “How I Utilize Every Inch of My Tiny Entry”
Land of Laurel 