First, I have to just take a minute and say thank you. I can’t tell you how much your notes and emails and comments about Marley have meant to me. I read them all, over and over, each one helping me heal a bit more. It meant so much to know that so many other […]
Archives for 2013
Marley
We weren’t even halfway home from Texas before I knew that this little sleeping bundle of floppy ears and puppy breath was mine and I was hers. Andy, my dad and I had come across the litter of half-hound and half-who-knows-what puppies while visiting family across the country, and my dad decided to bring one […]
No more blank walls: 28 creative feature wall ideas
Well hi. Did we all have a fabulous long weekend? My kids were simultaneously leaking rivers of snot and coughing on everything, so we cancelled all our plans and holed up at home with Legos, library books, piles of kleenex and a foyer table project. It’s hard leading such a glamorous life, guys. You have […]
Decorating 101: The biggest mistake that makes decorating 54% harder (Or: “Put down the paintbrush!”)
Little-known statistic: 64 percent of decorating mistakes are made because people choose a paint color first. That’s an important statistic that I just made up to illustrate my point. With five years of decorating mistakes behind me on this house, this is one thing I’ve learned the hard way: things go MUCH more smoothly when […]
New Turkish kilim rug pukes glorious color all over my foyer!
I did it. I bit the bullet and ordered up an antique Rug of Many Colors all the way from Turkey. There’s still a long way to go before I have the fun, colorful foyer we talked about, but it already feels like the happy, playful sister to my serious, safe foyer of yore. As […]
All-natural carpet cleaning solution: discovery of the century! (Maybe not.)
Guys, it is official: I am way, way too old for all-nighters. Also: eating whatever I want and never seeing the effects. And possibly shopping in the Junior’s department, but the jury’s still out. Can I get a ruling on that? Junior’s section at age 29: socially acceptable or creepy-and-inappropriate? I’m asking, but I already […]
Next project: colorful, unsafe foyer!
You know what kind of conversations we almost never have around here? Talks about what we’ll do “when the house is finished.” That’s because Andy and I have both realized that I am a psychotic mind-changing decorator who will never “be finished.” What can I say? It’s FUN! Here’s our foyer. (And our canvas letters.) […]
How to install iron balusters
Oh, friends! The day has come. The day to REVOLT against plain wooden balusters and jazz up your staircase with iron balusters. In the last post, I showed you how to stain your wooden railings… and today we talk iron balusters. Glamorous, glamorous iron. Like this. Highland Park Architects & Designers Lucy and Company I’ll […]
How to refinish your stair railings and sing like Adele!
Come on friends; it’s time to take a little journey. I wish we were going on a classic road trip, complete with car-dancing, crazy wind-blown hair and more Mike-and-Ikes than one digestive system is equipped to handle, but it’s not that kind of trip: we’re headed down memory lane, buds. (By the way, I’m fully […]
Crushing on: Pink + Gold
Something happened to me over the last few years. Something I never would’ve predicted: the combo of pink + gold decor has inexplicably wormed its way into my heart. The Every Girl You could say I’ve got a FEVAH and the only prescription is more cowbell glamour. Kelly Wearstler in Domino magazine If you’d showed […]
How People Make Blinds
Thanks to Payless Decor for sponsoring this Mr. Rogers-style field trip and post! Also brought to you by the letter R and the number 6. Once when Andy and I were newly dating, we somehow agreed to watch the babies and preschoolers in the church nursery together during vacation Bible school. We knew LESS than […]
Never buy curtains again: 27 inspiring DIY curtains you can make yourself
I’m okay with the price of domestic plane tickets in general. I know you were wondering. Not that I enjoy paying for them, but I generally feel that transporting me through the air, defying gravity, is a service that should cost something. If Delta tried to send me to California for $3.99, I might feel […]
Reader Questions: How to handle dark wood paneling?
It’s been a while since we’ve done a reader questions post, but I LOVE ’em, and here’s why: every time I post, you guys just spew brilliance and hilarity all over the comments section, so I know y’all are little decorating geniuses and these posts are my favorite way to showcase that! If you missed […]
How to completely mess up your kitchen remodel: a step-by-step tutorial
Once upon a time, a cute boy and a decor-obsessed girl bought a fixer-upper, and gutted the kitchen, giving the girl the chance to create her dream kitchen. Finally, those years of living in tiny rentals and gazing longingly at home photos and magazines would pay off! There was no reason for the new kitchen […]
House-iversary Week: Lessons Learned from Our First House
You know how last week, I was all: “It’s House-iversary week!!” And then it got to be THIS week, and I’m still going on about it? I meant “week” in the sense of: “a period of time whose length is still undecided.” I guess I had more to say about the last five years than […]
Hi, I'm Kelly. Glad you're here! This little blog is where I chronicle our efforts to fix up our beaten-down home on a tiny budget. We're not there yet, but here's a peek at the view along the way...
