How To Design Your Room

Before as well as after My one-year-old rarely naps, thus when she does, I acquire ambitious—and past times ambitious, I hateful destructive. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 few weeks ago, during ane of her rare two-hour snoozes, I decided to build clean out a hall cupboard that had solely lately registered to me every bit disgusting, when my sister-in-law opened it looking for the bathroom. That’s when I saw it through an outsider’s eyes: blue-and-white checkered contact paper on the floor, peeling wallpaper, as well as stacks of miscellaneous babe gear. In other words, sort of gross.  After I started peeling the blueish wallpaper. Notice the lovely contact-paper "flooring," stuck to a slice of plywood. I actually intended to merely build clean the cupboard out. But ane time I got started, I noticed the peeling wallpaper was to a greater extent than similar falling-off wallpaper. So I started ripping it off inwards sheets—and solely thus did I realize that dire

Oh, almond windows, how I detest thee.  I suppose it was natural springtime to happen.  For weeks, I’ve been obsessively pondering every foursquare inch of our novel abode (while "watching"  Beauty together with the Beast, I was truly mulling over my vestibule flooring). But it wasn’t until this weekend that I noticed a unmarried word, buried inwards the contract, that sent me reeling: almond. I was flipping through the thick document, trying to discovery the dimensions of the living room windows together with therefore I could firstly thinking nearly curtains, when I spotted it. Somehow, I'd missed it before: Our windows are non white, but rather almond (or, equally the builder calls it, “sandstone”). Panic chop-chop ensued.  Our pigment color on the left, window frame on the right. (The pigment color is grayer inwards reality than it looks here.) One room inwards our electrical flow house, the sunroom, has cream-colored window frames, together with

One of the privileges of assist a large academy was a 24/7 Starbucks inward the library. I frequented the java store non for Venti Americanos but for the Iced Lemon Pound Cake. Between classes, I’d indulge inward a piece of the tangy yellowish cake (well, until I read the nutrition facts)—and e'er since then, I’ve possessed a for sure nostalgia for the treat.  Which is why, for the lastly year, my phone’s photograph album has included shroud shots of a recipe claiming to live a near-perfect replica of Starbucks’ Lemon Loaf (as it used to live called). Of course, I took this shroud shot when I was inward the midst of what I telephone phone the Couch Era, those weeks after Asa’s nascency when I barely left my living room. She was a infant who liked to live held equally ofttimes equally my college’s Starbucks was open, which meant I spent lots of fourth dimension surfing the web—and lots of fourth dimension imagining the desserts I’d someday bake, if I e'er had to a g

The yellowish areas are the spaces covered inwards this post! Our builder’s blueprint middle was a Pinterest dream come upwards true. H5N1 model domicile amongst a beautiful kitchen together with gorgeous furnishings, it besides had a run infinite sum of every tile together with countertop imaginable. I met amongst the in-house designer, who, every bit much every bit I’d similar to intend I could create this affair on my own, was a valuable sounding board every bit I brought my visions to life in, oh, most 4 hours. (Normally, clients receive got 2 trips to the blueprint center, but because of our schedule, I had to settle for one.)  One of the builder's blueprint centers Even though I had less than 24 hours to programme for my appointment—I spent pretty much the entire nighttime earlier lying inwards bed visualizing my designs—I already had a rigid feel of the expect I wanted: gray, glam (but non gaudy), with, of course, a white kitchen (think Hollywood Regency meets

Growing up, my delineate of piece of job solid had 2 staircases, together with my parents loved it: My sis together with I could access our bedrooms without having to traipse upwards the front end stairs (and brand dissonance that could hold upwards heard inwards the downstairs primary bedroom). So when I saw the dorsum staircase inwards my novel house, I was straight off excited, particularly since it leads to the kitchen, giving me a straight road to the refrigerator when the ask for a late-night snack strikes (hey, I'm breastfeeding!).  One problem: It's a tight squeeze, since my delineate of piece of job solid was built inwards the early on 1900s, together with there's no overhead light. These 2 factors conspire to brand the infinite experience black together with cramped. In other words, these stairs seemed strictly utilitarian. Definitely non a pattern destination.  But I loved the see of having a house for Asa to sit down spell I cook, in ane trial she's

A rancher shouldn't live that pricey, right? Nope: This white-brick Dallas beauty was $750K. Talk well-nigh a real-estate wake-up call. I never stance I’d live a Texan—I don’t similar crazy-hot weather, apartment land,   or McMansions, which were pretty much the solely things I knew well-nigh Texas a few months ago. I don't fifty-fifty peculiarly tending for shiplap. But in addition to therefore Frank got offered a project nosotros just couldn’t transcend up, therefore hither nosotros are, on our means to the Lone Star state. Beautiful Fort Worth bungalow, amongst a not-so-stunning neighborhood. His purpose is just exterior of Dallas, therefore I initially focused my search on historic homes inward Dallas or Fort Worth. After living inward a 100-year-old domicile amongst unopen proximity to a downtown—albeit a one-street downtown—I was determined to replicate the lifestyle I honey inward the big city. But on our commencement house-hunting trip, I came dorsum to Mar

What's left of my ring. Before my hubby too I were fifty-fifty considering marriage, I’d chosen the band I hoped to someday wear: a Tiffany yellowish diamond. Still, when he proposed, on a chilly Oct eve inwards 2012, I was shocked to run across my fantasy band nestled inwards the piddling velveteen box he held inwards his palm. The engagement, the shimmering diamond—it all felt similar an illusion, likewise skillful to live true. I felt privileged to apparel such a beautiful diamond—and that luster never wore away. As late equally this fall, I told my hubby how lucky I felt to convey the ring. This was no starter ring. This was my forever ring. But then, this November, I was volunteering for Operation Christmas Child, the charity that sends shoeboxes of toys to children exactly about the world. My project was simple: practise bins of extra toys—coloring books, plastic rings, Beanie Babies—that could live added to whatsoever skimpily filled boxes. Halfway through my th

President Obama's component on the left, President Trump's on the right. (Photo: Getty/Facebook) Donald Trump is breaking pretty much every Presidential  precedent,  but inward 1 way, at least, he's similar (almost) all the others: He's owning the Oval Office, redecorating it inside days of moving into the White House.  But for a human being who never does anything modestly, his Oval House makeover is, together with thence far, surprisingly l0w-key: Trump has kept President Obama's striped wallpaper (it's gold, together with thence that may explicate why he's allowed it to stay), together with just swapped out the slice of furniture together with curtains (he ditched Obama's crimson ones for, hold off for it, golden ones). He did select a flashier rug, amongst a sunburst-like blueprint to a greater extent than or less the Presidential seal, but it's non genuinely new: It was originally used during the Reagan era (and briefly inward the Bush O