Fall Is In The Air!

I know I'm being pretty optimistic when I say fall is in the air. It's still close to 100 where I live, but we had our first "cold front" of the year--the low was in the 60's!!! That got me thinking about fall. I don't go crazy decorating for holidays (remind me I said that when Christmas rolls around...), but I do like to make a few seasonal changes to spruce things up a bit. Really simple stuff like a new wreath on the door and different cushions outside.

It's easy to bring the seasons inside too. A quick trip to the store to buy gourds and candy corn and I'm ready to go. First, I filled a glass dome I have with gourds for a table in the den. That's all that room needs for now. A new centerpiece on the dining room table and some grapevine for the chandelier and the room feels ready for fall.

Another favorite trick is to swap out pillows on sofas and chairs. What I have learned to do over the years is to buy some really nice pillow forms in the sizes I need, then make interchangeable covers for them. It makes storage easy since you just fold the covers and put them away, and I can switch them out whenever I want a new look. I changed the floral pillows in my sunporch to these darker, more fall-like colors. In the den, I changed my blue and white summer pillows for theses rust and cream Ikat pillows. Small change but big impact!

Not a lot of effort for a lot of change, right? If this seems like too much to tackle all at once, start watching for sales on decorative items. Right now you can find all kinds of really inexpensive summer accents marked down to a fraction of their original cost. Buy them now and save them for next summer. You may not have the instant gratification, but you'll be excited when you get to take them out next year. Soon the fall accessories will be on sale and you'll still have plenty of time to get some use out of them before you have to put them away.  Be creative, but don't go overboard. A few accents here and there will be all you need to welcome in the fall. Over the next couple of months I'll be making some more changes, but easing into it feels right to me.

I'll keep you posted...

Lynn

Use What You've Got OR Cabinet Repurpose

There was this really nice custom made cabinet in my living room and a really awful cabinet in my den. The problem I had was twofold. First, I didn't like the placement of the living room cabinet and second, the den cabinet was awful. Did I mention that already? Take a look.

I'm not sure how well you can see it, but the built in cabinet in the den looked like something you would see in a hunting store. Behind those sliding glass doors there were racks to store guns. It was also recessed into the wall. That was not what I wanted in my den. While the living room cabinet was nice, it's placement just made no sense in the room. So now what am I going to do? I sure wish the living room cabinet could just be moved down to the den...  

 Wait---I think it will fit down there with just a few adjustments!  

Believe me, this was not something I could do myself, so I called my contractor and told him what I had in mind. He was skeptical to say the least, but when I get something in my head that I want to do, I'm hard to distract. He eventually said he would give it a try as long as I didn't hold him responsible for any possible disaster. I quickly agreed and we were off! I removed the glass doors and shelving from the gun case and the guys started detaching the living room cabinet from the wall. Then it was time to move it. Did I mention that it had to be lowered over the balcony? That's why my contractor didn't want to be held responsible...

​this is the balcony that the living room cabinet was lowered over-- it took 6 strong men!

Now all they had to do was add some shelves to each end and paint. Well, maybe they did a little more than that, but you get the idea. We had it wired for the TV and some lights and then I got busy accessorizing. It turned out even better than i expected!

the living room​ cabinet (minus the glass doors) in it's new home in the den

So, how do you decide if something is worth salvaging or repurposing rather than just starting over? In this case it was easy because the cabinet I was saving was very well made. All I had to pay for was the labor to move it and retrofit it into the downstairs opening. It would have cost considerably more to start from scratch and build the cabinet. If you have a contractor you trust, just have him price it both ways. 

My best advice is to go for it when it comes to your home. Just because something is in one place when you move in, doesn't mean it has to stay there. The way to make a house your home is to make it work for the way you live. If you can do that, I promise you'll love living there.

I'll keep you posted...

Lynn

Banquette

I love banquettes! They are cozy and comfortable which are 2 of my favorite things. When I moved into this home, there were more things about it that I didn't like than I liked, so I set about making changes. The breakfast area was very strange. It had a set of low cabinets on one side which meant the table had to float in the middle of the room. Ordinarily that wouldn't bother me, but that meant you had to walk around the table to get into the playroom. It interrupted the flow. I really didn't need the cabinets because my kitchen is loaded with them, so I decided to take them out and make a banquette. Here's how I did it:

original cabinet area​

The first step was to take off the countertop and save it because it was going to be the seat. Next, the cabinets were removed but the drawers stayed because they are perfect for linen storage. The tile was removed and the countertop was put back on top of the drawers. I painted the edge of the countertop dark so that the old formica wouldn't show under the cushion.

Now for the fun stuff. I had a seat cushion made for the bottom and I made some pillows for the back. added a few accessories and a table and chairs and it's just right!

By moving the table to the banquette, I was able to add a seating area to the room and the traffic flow is uninterrupted. The lesson here is you don't have to keep the things you don't like about your home. There was no major construction with this job and it made the room so much more useful and comfortable, not to mention cute!

I'll keep you posted...

Lynn