Chinese Garden Stool Gets A Make Over!

Good morning,

I wanted to share with you a quick project that I did this weekend in less than 20 minutes! Remember the post that I just did on the new master bedroom scheme here ? Well, that project is in full effect and coming along nicely. Sadly I find that my home is neglected and out on the back burner of my other projects AKA my job! So I am doing things little by little and one project at a time.

I have this thing for Chinese garden stools. I love them and find it hard to resist them when ever I see them. Here are a few pics of my house where you have already seen them.

Above, in our backyard as extra seating.

Above, in our old living room as a space filler under the console.

Or above, in my daughter's room.

I love these little suckers. They are easy to move and can be tucked in and out of so many spaces. They can serve as a table, as extra seating, or simply as a decoration to add to your space.

For our room, I am using them as a side table in front of our night stands because there just isn't great access to the nightstands while laying in bed. These stools serve as a very stylish solution and are the perfect height, they are also easily movable. I found a really cute silver one this weekend at Home Goods for only $50 bucks and needed one for the other side. Since our Ikea RAST night stands are about to get a pretty face lift this week (details coming soon) I decided that it would be another place to add a black element.

I had this white one that I bought on clearance at Target for only $30!

I then painted it with Rust-Oleum Professional Brand High Performance Enamel Spray Paint in High Gloss Black to keep it shiny and perty!

I gave it 2-3 coats. Remember, the trick to spray painting is not to lay it on too close or too thick and let it dry in between coats. This will prevent a goopey dripping look.

Here are the results.

That's just a sneak peak of this little painted garden stool project. It will look even better when paired with the "coming soon" black Ikea RAST night stands below.

I'm also in the middle of gold leafing a black drum shade chandelier, which for the record was MUCH more difficult that it looked! I'll share more with you soon. In the mean time, feast your eyes on some more uses for Chinese garden stools. As a quick FYI, I have found that Home Goods is an excellent source for finding them at great prices and they always have different styles.

Would love to hear your thoughts and comments~

Weekend Inspiration, All White House With Punches Of Color

Good morning,

I'm off to work this morning finishing a project for a client, which means I'm up and going! I wanted to share with you what I wish I were doing which is laying around all day and enjoying my amazing house (after it was freshly cleaned that is).

For those of of us who can't enjoy our abodes right now, let's feast our eyes on this amazing white home with colorful accents. It's done very tastefully and the color doesn't bother me one bit!

I love the mix of neutrals and casual whites mixed with the vibrant hues that don't disappoint. Oh, and how about those amazing views?!!! It reminds me of a vacation house gone wild.......in a good way.

Enjoy your weekend~

Easy Modern Christmas Table Decor, And Keeping It Affordable

Good morning,

I wanted to share with you the table scape that I quickly pulled together for our party that we recently had. I was looking for a quick and easy way to dress up our dining table, but didn't want it to be too much and wanted to still keep the nice modern look of our dining area.

I decided to go with simple orchids since they produce many flowers at a minimal cost.

 I took some fish bowl style glass vases that I had from Michael's and added a small amount of sand to each one along with a small amount of nice green moss also found at Michael's. Then I clipped just the flowers off of each orchid and placed one in to each bowl. I then took all the various candle holders that I have and spread them across the table amongst the flowers. Lastly I mixed in just a few silvery disco ball-esq ornaments that I had on hand from Home Goods. The result is simple, and stunning. I have a total of 15 vases with moss and orchids, and an additional 35 small candles. I find these and pick them up constantly as I go since you can NEVER have enough candles when entertaining, but I find a good source to be Wal Mart at $.59 ea and Target for the mercury glass ones which were $.99 ea.

Here are quite a few different angles and lighting of our lovely modern Christmas table decor:

I hope you have found a way to make your table sparkle as well for this holiday season. We would love to see what you've done!

Modern Concrete Terrace, Working With What You've Got Baby

Good morning,

Today I wanted to share an update with you on our modern concrete terrace. Though it isn't 100% finished or staged in our backyard, the terrace is complete at this point. Robert also came up with a really creative and cool solution to get from the deck to the tiki hut deck which is where the bar is and therefore needed to be addressed.

We started with the old terrace and old backyard here:

Then we chipped out the old tile and lived with a f-ugly terrace for what seemed like F-O-R-E-V-E-R!

From there Robert took over, and since I trust his concrete work AND his artistic ideas and talent I let him run. First he formed the mid section of two parts of the terrace and poured a 4" topping slab with slag (for added lightness to the concrete) to create two distinctive areas on the terrace:

Once the slabs were poured we drilled holes along the facing of the slab so that there is drainage for water since this raised our deck elevation.

The next step here was to insert wood between the concrete boarders. To save money on this Robert chose 2x6x8 pressure treated yellow pine, which was then stained, sealed, and cut in place. Afterwards it was pressure cleaned, stained again and sealed another time (which I understand will need to be done going forward to prevent the wood from weathering beyond repair).

Oh, the last step was the new deck addition/walk way that Robert created to take you from the terrace to the bar. It is so fun to light with lanterns in the evening with the Christmas lights. It reminds me of going down a boat dock or on some adventure. I know, cheesy right? Well, when you haven't had anything nice in your yard for this long it's the little teeny tiny things that make you sooooooo happy!!!

Here are the finished results:

 It's not a bad start for a couple of entertainers like ourselves;) We already threw one party under the tiki hut and had the perfect spot for the bartender as well as a perfect walk for our guests to get there. Let no detail remain under looked when creating a back yard oasis!

Clearly the landscaping isn't finished, but it is a great start to something beautiful! What do you think so far???