the nitty gritty

I absolutely LOVE decorating and organizing for clients and I really love posting the Before and After photos of projects.  What I don't usually show is the work I do that no one ever sees.  It's the work that helps the room actually function well but it's the part that is never photographed.

I'm not posting the After pictures yet because I'm not quite finished with the office yet but here are the Before and During pictures.

This is the closet before I started sorting and organizing.  I have to admit that even I feel a little bit overwhelmed the first time I see a mess.  Thankfully, my brain quickly formulates a plan and my smile is soon genuine.  :-)

Instead of spending hours and hours at my client's house sorting through all the cords, cables and wires that had taken over the office closet, I dragged it all home.  I did this so I could watch tv while I worked and also so I could ask my husband what the heck everything was!  (He's a pretty stellar guy)

After hours of holding up a cable and asking, "What's this?" I might be able to identify a power supply cable, a usb cable, an audio cable and a bunch of other stuff.  Maybe.

Everything is labeled, bagged and stored for easy access.  The closet looks great and I can't wait to show you pictures of the finished product!!

To see the completed project, click HERE

Need organizing or decorating help?  Contact me to schedule a consultation!  

My Green Door

I posted a while back about trying to decide on a color for my shutters and front door.  You can see that post Here.  I really wanted to use green but the color green I was drawn to just didn't seem right for the shutters.  SO, I painted the shutters black (paint I already had in the garage) and painted the door green.  This way, I can change the door color as the mood strikes me and the shutters stay their crisp, practical black.  
Here is a quick reminder of the Before-

Faded burgundy shutters and door, dirty gutters and windows.  The place was depressing!

I used the color Grassland from Lowe's.  Once we got up on the ladder to take the shutters down we washed the windows and gutters so the house looks squeaky clean now, which definitely needed to happen!

Now to finish off the landscaping on the left side of the house and it'll be my perfect little cottage.... until I decide to change something else!  Total cost for this makeover was $15.  

Need to make some changes but don't have much budget?  I absolutely love those kinds of projects!  Let the creativity begin.... 

Feeling crafty

Can I do a whole blog post about glitter?  Yes, yes I can.  :-)  Last YEAR my sister-in-law, who's craftiness you can see here, gave me a glitter craft by Martha Stewart and I never even opened it.  Then, last week, in a desperate attempt to avoid falling sleep AND to avoid housework I pulled it out of the closet and felt like a kid.  A very sparkly kid.

These colors are puuurhfect for my house!

It was Glitter by Number!  Super easy but I did have to use my handy dandy Swiss Army Knife to pull the minuscule stickers off.   As I was squinting at the tiny numbers and feeling very clumsy I thought  of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry says, "She's got Man Hands!"  Yep, that's how tiny the stickers were.

1 number peeled off at a time, glitter added, and voila!

Almost dooone...

 As you can see, each glitter was numbered so it was a craft that even children could understand and enjoy!  

I'm pretty sure Michael's has glass frames that I can slide these into and hang up on the wall.  I'll post a picture of that when I get it done!  

Want to make your home a better reflection of you?  Contact me and we can make it happen!