Style Lush

My Fireplace and I thank you!

by Christina

On Tuesday I begged for your advice before I tackled changing my fireplace which I have hated the look of since we bought this house.

Your ideas ranged from building a bigger mantle, removing the insert, painting the insert and painting the whole thing white. I was leaning toward all white, insert and all but when I went to the big blue store on Wednesday I came home with a can of oil rubbed bronze paint.

This was such an easy job and as with most, the prep is what took the longest. I removed the insert and cleaned it, first vacuuming it and then using a damp cloth. I gave it a very light sand, taped off the glass and got to spraying.Three coats and less than an hour later it was finished.

Next came the styling which took me a full day to get right.

.

And I spent just $8 for the paint, all of the items I used to decorate I already owned.

I like ballance and a little bit of symmetry. I needed more color and more of a grouping rather than just stuff lined up which is how it looked until I brought in the butterfly shadow box I made and never did anything with. It's colors are prefect for the room and now the yellow bounces from the candle to the globe to the pillow. I'm happy with this arrangement. So much so I think I can move on and begin to embrace this fireplace and stop dreaming of its facelift.

Do you have something in your place that you've been fighting with? We can help. Submit a question at stylelushchristina at gmail dot com. I'll give you my answer as well as post it for our stylish community to weigh in.

To paint or not to paint

by Christina

This freaking heat wave, right? Oh, my word I just want to go out side and let my kids run around until they drop and leave me alone, like a normal parent in the summer. Evidently that's just too much to ask.We've been stuck indoors with the ac blasting for a while now which has me in a frenzy of off season home repair/makeovers. As much as I love to do these things I'm bitter, I really just want to go outside but with a heat index of 110+ I'll stare at my hideous fireplace instead. But look at this thing? I hate it. At some point we intend on a full kitchen remodel which has/had? me holding out on the fireplace thinking I could have mantle and surround built at that time but I've already lived here for 5 years and I'm so tired of looking at this thing. I "thought" I liked the brick. Brick is cool and urban, right? Whatever, I live in the suburbs and I'm admitting that this is not either of those things. So, do I paint it white? Just for now to make it better or do you think it would even help? Hit me, I'll take any suggestions you have to offer.

(I guess I could have taken the price tags of the lanterns before snapping these)

Home Tour: Our Candy Nook

By Megan

We moved a little over a month ago and I want to show you my current favorite corner of the house. It might be my favorite because it's currently the only "room" that's complete. I use the word room lightly because it's more like a nook. The builders called it "the launch," but let's all agree that's a little ridiculous. It's more like a mud room, light on the actual room.

Anyway, this space sits in between our garage and kitchen.

Here's the view from the kitchen.

I wanted it to be functional and cute. I also really wanted my very own candy counter in my house. Yes, that really was on my dream home wishlist. And it's easier to create than a fully stocked library with recliners, a fireplace and every book I could ever want to read.

There are four cubbies below where backpacks, work stuff and purses will go. I think a basket with sunscreen, umbrellas and other on-the-go things would work well there, but my husband thinks that's just clutter.

On top, the good stuff!

I bought penny candy jars at Target, similar to these and ordered the candy in bulk online. The trick to having a candy store in your own house and not gaining 50 pounds in a week is ordering stuff you're kind of meh about. There's a reason none of those jars are stocked with Hot Tamales.

The prints are from Etsy, of course, and can be found here and here.

It's been suggested that I might have a bit of a candy obsession given my daughter's first birthday party and now this permanent fixture in my house. What can I say, it makes me smile.

{Photo credit: Me}

 

My boring hutch update

by Christina

A few weeks ago I asked for help with styling the top of my hutch. A space that has always given me trouble. I love my hutch but damn if I could make it look good. I shared this photo and got a ton of helpful tips. But everyone agreed that the scale was off. You are all so smart!

.

The one that I went with was to use all three globes and get a bigger mirror.

I had a mirror I'd purchased for another space and it didn't work out so I propped it up. I loved it. But I was really sad, that little aqua mirror was my favorite part of the set up. It brought the blue from my living room into the space (it's an open plan) and it was quirky. But the new mirror looked better in terms of proportion. Then a few days later I got a huge bundle of hydrangeas from my neighbor and put them on the table and it hit me! Put them on top of the mirror. I was a genius! It was perfect!

I called my sister to tell her about my best idea in the history of ideas and she, a wedding floral designer, totally popped my bubble. Because putting flower arrangements on mirrors is the oldest trick in the book. So, I guess I wasn't that smart but it still made me happy. So now the whole room is making me happy. I have my hutch looking good and my funky junk store spray painted mirror also in the room. Thanks, guys!

(personal photos, clearly)

Help me readers: My boring hutch

by Christina

I have been having a time with the top of my hutch since I got it nine years ago. I've never loved the way I've styled it. It's gotten a little better over time but I'm still not feeling it. It's had candles and plants and all silver stuff and then all glass stuff and it's all been just so-so. I  have no idea what to put up there. Here how it looked yesterday.

 

Then I went shopping and found two really great globes and it looked like this.

 

And, well, I just don't know. Are either of these good? Talk to me about your displays, what can I do better here because I've hit a wall with this one.

(personal photos)

DIY: Under-cabinet Lighting

By Jessica

My kitchen has been featured here before, but what we didn't discuss in that post is one of the things that bugs me about actually cooking in my kitchen: lighting. Rather, a lack of functional lighting. The main lighting in the kitchen comes from a center mounted florescent fixture so when you are doing anything on the counters, your body serves to block that light and cast shadows, not to mention the natural shadows that occur in the corners where that one fixture is too dim to reach.

The obvious solution is under-cabinet lighting, but have you ever taken a look at the options that are out there? It's rather daunting. I don't know about y'all but sometimes, even for a couple of out of their mind DIY-ers (did you see our bathroom reno?) daunting=doing nothing. My usual solution to get out of that rut is just leap and buy something. Even if it turns out later to be a mistake, it's not like I will spend mad cash on most things and since we do installs ourselves (soon Pergo floors, eep) I figure it's worth the experience regardless.

Here are some pics of my kitchen after installing the under-cabinet lighting we selected. The pic on the far right is with all other lighting turned off, and our kit came with a dimmer so it's fantastic for early morning light while bumbling around the kitchen for the Keurig without blinding oneself.

Now, I have a friend that was going all out in really planning what sort of light she was interested in: florescent, LED, incandescent, etc...but I just bought a set that we found wandering around Home Depot.

Here are some options if you are interested in doing the same thing.

(Top Row L-R)

RiteLite LPL704 Wireless 12-LED Under Cabinet Light via Amazon (battery powered)

Hampton Bay 6-Light Black Under-Cabinet Xenon Puck Light Kit  via Home Depot (plug-in)

GE Black and Stainless Steel Under-Cabinet LED Linkable Light Fixture  via Home Depot (plug-in)

(Bottom Row L-R)

Utilitech 13-7/8" Utility Fluorescent Undercabinet Light via Lowe's (plug-in)

DIODER Light strip via Ikea (plug-in)

INREDA Spotlight via Ikea (plug-in)

 

Paint my Front Door

 by Christina

I have a cute little house. See?

(don't mess with Ohio winters)

 

An unassuming little home in the burbs. I painted the door sailor's jacket blue about three years ago and I love it. It's a great color and it complements the grey well. But see, I have an illness. One that won't let me leave good enough alone. My favorite color since I could say the words favorite and color has been yellow, much to my mothers chagrin. Yellow is my happy color, if it comes in yellow I want it. I need it. See where this is going?

If this house were an outfit I'd absolutely accent it with yellow. Grey, black and brick tones. Should I do it? Should I paint my front door yellow?

 

Or should I leave good enough alone?

{source of the yellow door photo is unknown but I sure do love it}

Style Lush Crib: Star Light, Star Bright

By Elisabeth

So, I've finished the baby's room with 2 weeks to spare!

Well, sort of. It's finished. It's just not ONLY a baby's room.

To give a place for my husband to work from home, (since we moved kid #2 into his old office) the nursery and office are now in the same room. (just a desk, really.)

It works for now.

Back in LA, 7 years ago, baby #1 and my husband shared a room/workspace. It's not ideal, but it's doable.

For now anyway....

So, on to the stars!

As I mentioned before, I adored the wall decor Pottery Barn Kids had on display online with the bedding I purchased. I looked and looked online unable to find anything comparable. So, I found some wooden and paper mache stars at Michael's, some acrylic paint and off to the races I went. It was relatively easy. It was therapeutic. (Who knows, something about painting really zens me out.) I'd do it all over again if I had 10 more stars to paint. Who needs stars??

Here is the finished crib bedding. If you'll notice, the first time we will have to lower the crib that dust ruffle is going to doing some major dusting. Oh well. It looks fantastic now. Worth the 5 or 6 months we'll get out of that puppy. Right?

I have acquired a plethora of tiny boy shoes (from my mother-in-law I gander) over the past 7 years only to never use them on my boys since they are April babies. Heck, with the first kid, it was a good day if he had on more than a onsie. So, I took all the shoes I did have and placed them on the shelves. Thought it added a nice simple touch to an already busy room.

All in all, I am pleased with my efforts. It was super cool to make my own decor and I'm looking forward to finding something else to work on for the other kids' rooms.

 

{photo credit: me}

Style Lush Cribs: Hillary's Turquoise Accent Wall

By Hillary

Three years ago my husband and I bought a newly constructed condo. I was so excited when we moved in because every single wall was stark white - perfect for putting my personal mark on the place using brightly-coloured paint. Unfortunately, my husband was equally excited about living in a condo with clean, white walls after living in the depths of "landlord beige" for many years. It was a bit of a shock when we realized our paint dilemma. 

The reality of clean white walls is that they stay neither clean nor perfectly white for long and my husband soon agreed that painting was a good decision. Unfortunately, we soon discovered that I gravitate towards deep, rich colours while he tends to stick to safe, mid-tone neutrals. Fortunately (for me) my husband hates painting so he agreed that if I did all the painting myself, I could have full artistic control over the colour choices. Which is how I ended up with my gorgeous turquoise accent wall.

{Photo credits: Richard at rtomstudios.com}

Style Lush Cribs: Orange-striped bedroom

By Sarah

Just about forever ago, I posted a call for help and asked for your recommendations as to what color I should paint my bedroom. Fast forward 6 (okay okay, 8) months and it's finally done! I love what everyone recommended (lots of bright colors!) but in the end, I was totally swayed by this demo video I saw on DIY Network. Once I saw the orange stripes there was no going back -- I knew it's what I had to do.

If you recall, here's what the room looked like before:

Splotchy brown and blue, ick

And here's the room now!

Orange! Stripes!

The stripes were actually surprisingly easy to achieve (with the use of a laser level and someone with a steady hand to hold the laser level, of course.) The hardest part was figuring out where I wanted the stripes to start and how thick I wanted them to be. Once everything was primered and the base color was down, it was pretty quick and painless to paint the stripes.

To make it easy on my un-savvy self, I decided to pick four colors that were all from the same swatch. The colors I chose (from lightest to darkest) are Pale Ecru (this covers most of the walls), Crab Bisque (smallest stripe), Indiana Clay (middle stripe) and Field Poppy (biggest chunk of orange at the bottom.) All the colors are by Olympic.

So there you go! I am really pleased with how it turned out and like that it's something unique, while not being overly busy-looking. (Although now I'm basically obsessed with stripes and it's all I can do to stop myself from striping the entire house!)

For more pictures, check out the Style Lush Cribs Flickr pool and add your home decor pictures to the mix if you want!

{Photo credits: Me}