Guest Bathroom Budget Reno... In Progress

Hey there!

I'm still on vacation but wanted to do a quick post about the progress in my guest bathroom. We made it on ikea hackers again for the amazing drift wood mirror. Make sure you go check it out on Ikeahackers here. You might remember the original post and tutorial that I previously posted on my blog here.

We are still in the middle of hacking the Ikea Birkland dresser as seen here:

and the goal was to mix it with this chandelier that we found on Overstock.com for only $119.99:

and a drift wood mirror that I decided to DIY since all the really good ones I found came with realllly big price tags and weren't exactly what i was looking for in size or shape. Here was my original inspirational photo :

and an extra long white shower curtain from Target that looks something like this:

Well so far so good. The only hold up to make this mini bathroom reno finished is finding a vanity top in marble cut to fit my vanity. It turns out that most companies sell the whole marble slab for kitchens etc so my teeny tiny piece is like the needle in the hay stack and basically will come by chance. I'm still looking but if anyone can suggest to me where I can find this baby PLEASE HELP!!!!!

Here's how my bathroom is looking currently:

We also put in new travertine floors with the rest of the house and a new toilette. I'll show you the tutorial for the bathroom vanilty once finished, and will need some art and accessories to spoof this baby up but so far so good.

Not too bad for a bathroom that went from this:

To this:

What do you think????

On Vacation Baby!!!

Hey everyone, I'm so sorry I haven't posted. I'm on vacation and won't be back basically until next week. I will try to do a post here and there if I can and will fill you in on all sorts of goodies soon. Thanks for your new comments and I hope you also get to have a summer vacation~

Frosted Doors And Window Film

Good morning,

We have been toying with ideas on what to do with our front door. We love our front door with all the light it lets in to our house, and the modern black framing around it. What we don't love is that you can see right in our house, you can't ignore or even check who's at your door, and little Lola in all her yorkie dog glory can't resist barking at each and every single thing she sees- EVERY SINGLE THING.

We ar trying to make it work. One idea is to smoke the door and then have a custom gate of sorts made to attach to the front of it for an artistic element. The other idea was presented to me in the form of window films. These are basically heavy duty stickers that go right on the glass to give you both style and privacy.

Here is the door as it stands now:

Wouldn't you just want to walk up and stick your face right up to it and look inside? Well everyone else wants to.

Here are some picture of  frosted doors done very right:

 I love how they painted the frame of this door. I can see that happening at my house. I also love the modern house number that I can kind of see. That is a must!

Here is a picture of a Kelly Hoppen screen which is the inspiration for what we would have made to fit over the window part of our door:

You can see how playing with the shapes, in this case circles would protect the window smoke, provide privacy and would give you something unique and beautiful to look at.

Finally, here are pictures of some window films. They are pretty thick and seem durable. They are easy to apply and can be ordered in custom sizes and styles. I am toying with a plain smoke one or with the rice paper one:

What do you think? What would you do if you loved something but needed the privacy? Are any of these a favorite?

Modern Backyard Terrace

Good morning,

Since we live in Florida much attention and time are spent outdoors year round. Right now our back yard is really sad and scary but the goal is to make it a very nice retreat with clean modern lines. I already showed you pictures of some pool designs that we would like one day in the future but for now we need to take care of the immediate.

We already started by pouring a concrete slab over the existing slab where our tiki bar is in the same color as the floors in the garage. We also plan to re-do the bar counter tops with concrete as well. The terrace is currently a terra cotta paver that doesn't go with anything we have both inside and out. We plan to chip that out and do something with wood and concrete together which will eventually also extend accross the pool deck.

Here are some pictures of some modern backyards and terraces that have what we're looking for:

 Above is a picture of polished concrete floors on a terrace.

 Above is a  picture of what can be done with concrete poured at different elevations

Above is a  picture of concrete poured outside the house that leads in to the wood deck.

 Above is a nice seamless transition between the concrete and the wood which is what I want

 Above is a terrace with concrete and the lower elevation or pool deck in our case is all wood

 Above is a modern yard with a wood inset which is visually interesting and artistic

 Above is a pool deck with a concrete face, which is probably closest to what will happen with ours

 Here is another raised elevation which is similar to what we will have once the pool deck is done

 I posted this one before, but it's a personal favorite. I think you can see why

Above is an amazing deck with specific detail to the columns.I have a column. I heart column.

Above is a long simple deck with both wood and concrete.

Below are pictures of our tiki hut with the concrete slab. I am aware that a tiki hut is not a typical contemporary feature, but it was already here and has a built in kitchen so we are working with what we've got and making it work!

Above is the slab in process with the new concrete floors before it dried and cured.

Finally, above is our terrace as it stands with the terra cotta floors. It is a sad sight for now, but I see a major transformation in its near future. I hope to one day take my sad pictures and show you the "afters" and have them be something, or anything like the inspirations from above~

Wood Feature Wall

Good morning, I am waiting to hear back on some exciting news that I hope to be able to share with you soon....or as soon as I know. Since it is a really big deal it puts some of my home projects on hold (hint, it involves a make over in a really big way) Can't wait to find out myself and will be giddy like a school girl to tell you.

One of the projects that I will do as soon as I get the green light is to add some kind of a feature wall in either my dinning room or my family room i.e. the tv unit. What I am leaning towards is a floor to ceiling wood feature wall. I want to bring in more custom elements that take my builders model home and make it custom. I also want to bring in more contemporary elements little by little. All of this was spawned by the hint from above and has these wheels a turning. Of coarse it will have to be done on a budget, but the lucky thing is that I have an amazing craftsman who works wonders with wood.

If I end up doing this in my family room it would give me some vertical height and would take the room from this:

To something like this:

I really like the bottom picture with its color and contemporary feel. It would blend well with my dark cabinets. My thoughts are that this would start in the family room and could then spread to the dinning room assuming it goes smoothly and doesn't cost a fortune for me to do. I would like it in both spaces because it would bring that vertical element across the house and would really emphasize the height which is what you want in a smaller space, the illusion of space. My thoughts are that instead of doing it across the span of an entire wall, I would do it in a wide stripe. For example in the photo of my family room above I would have it go from the inside of the first window to the inside of the other window from the ceiling to the floor.

Quick update, my husband loves the idea of the black doors. He wasn't happy about yet another project but agreed to it. I love that man!