Category Archives: Home Decor

The #1 Tool for Breathing New Life into Your Old Home Decor

Why get rid of something, simply because the color isn’t right? Spray paint is the magical solution for this problem! It’s easy. It’s cheap. It’s fast. It has come in especially handy over the past few months, as I’ve undertaken a fairly extensive redesign project, which consists of a complete overhaul of my home’s color palette.

Everything that’s gold, red and brown needs to go. But neither my budget nor my husband will let me toss out all of my existing home decor and replace it with items that fit the new design scheme. What’s a girl to do? This girl drove to the nearest home improvement store and picked up a couple of these:

I’m not really faithful to any particular brand of paint, I’ve had consistently positive experiences with the brands you see in the above photo. When selecting your spray paint, the number one piece of advice I have is to read the instructions to ensure that the spray paint you’ve selected is meant to cover the type of surface that you’re working with.

Let me take you on a brief tour of some of the pretty transformations in my home that have been made possible by spray paint, beginning in the foyer with this entry corner. In a former life, the monogram G was silver, and as you can see, the floor vase was red. I was a little hesitant to see how the lacquer surface of the vase would take to spray paint, but I it turned out beautifully.

Next, we move into the living room. I love the lines of this table lamp, but the brown color was just not going to cut it in the redesign. It wasn’t easy finding spray paint in a navy blue gloss sheen, but on Amazon.com, you can find just about any shade of spray paint.

Spring green is another new accent color in my redesign. You can imagine my delight when I found spray paint in this color at my local Lowes. I went to town spray painting various pieces of decor in my great room with this fun color, including these over-sized mantle finials (which were formally brown):

I used that same can of navy blue paint to transform this brown vase located at the top of the media cabinet in my great room:

I could not part with this uniquely shaped wall sconce, just because of it’s now the wrong color. Paint it blue and add the cute coral candle holder for $3 and it’s like new!

This red lacquer tray works really works well in my home office, now that it sports a coat of satin nickel metallic spray paint, don’t you think?

I’ll continue to share my experience as we complete various projects in our redesign Master Plan in future blog posts. In the meantime, check out my home redesign Pinterest boards as well! In the meantime, fire up those spray paint cans and see how you can achieve some home decor transformations of your own.

Want to learn more about Natalie Gallagher or Refined Rooms? Visit www.RefinedRoomsLLC.com or connect via: Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter | LinkedIn

Heidi’s Home Renovation Project Reveal

Since my friend was kind enough to allow me to share the “in process photos” from her large home renovation project in my previous post on home renovation survival tips, it seems only fitting that I share the “after” photos with all of you as well. After all, who doesn’t appreciate a little interior design eye candy, right?

This renovation project encompassed almost the entire interior and exterior of my friend’s home, so I’m just going to focus on my favorite aspects of the project. It would have been ideal to show you a set of before and after photos for each space, but unfortunately, I did not think to take a set of before photos before the project started.

This image does give you a sense of what the kitchen looked like before…just imagine a wall right behind the sink/dishwasher area, since that was the original exterior wall of the house (the entire area behind it is an addition which almost triples the size of the existing kitchen).

Looks just a smidge different in the After photo below, eh?

The new kitchen certainly makes for an awesome entertainment space. I’m in love with the large butcher block table that extends off of the center island.

When designing her new kitchen, Heidi incorporated one of the latest kitchen design trends…a blend of contrasting cabinetry. The wood tones mixed with the painted cabinetry creates such visual interest.

As you can see in the above image as well as the image below, the new kitchen boasts a ton of display space to house all of Heidi’s collectibles. Don’t you just love glass front kitchen cabinets?

The new lighting is gorgeous, offering up just the right amount of drama for the space (note the accent lighting in the high display cabinets…sweet!)

Of course, as a professional organizer, I had no choice but to “ooh and aaah” over what is probably my favorite feature of the new kitchen…this custom-built family command center that serves as home for the family’s keys, electronics, and household papers. I love it so much, I’ll be ~~stealing~~ emulating this idea in my own kitchen redesign.

By now, you’ve probably noticed the new hand-scraped hickory flooring that was installed throughout the entire main floor of the home. Much to my delight, they carried the hardwood up the stairs, and installed these beautiful square-shaped newel posts that are totally in keeping with the new craftsman design. Did I mention that I’m also a sucker for iron spindles?

Let’s move onto the master suite…

Once again, this part of the house is a new addition, so there are no before photos to offer up. Prior to the renovation, the master suite consisted of an average size rectangular room with an average size connected bathroom located on the second story .

The new master suite is downright palatial. This wall of windows provides an amazing view of their secluded wooded property, which is so splendid, they opted to omit window treatments entirely.

Among the other elements of architectural awesomeness are the gorgeous wood beams that add interest to the vaulted ceiling…

…and the barn door that separates the bedroom from the bathroom. Who wouldn’t want one of these?

Ready to take a peek inside the master bath?

The “Mrs.” vanity is on the right side:

and “Mr.” gets his own area to the left:

As if it wasn’t awesome enough, here’s the “shower that’s as big as my laundry room”! Of course it contains dual shower heads, as well as a small seating area. Of course. (Is my house envy that obvious?)

This is the point where I so wish that I had taken before photos, so that you could truly appreciate the complete transformation of the home’s exterior. This image was taken after the new vinyl siding, roof, and front porch were completed. The addition of the front porch totally transformed the look of the front elevation, making it infinitely more charming.

Let us not omit the new garage doors, stonework, and lighting.

Phase I of Heidi’s renovation is now finished and took approximately a year to complete. They are about to embark on Phase II, which consists of completing the basement renovation, as well as the exterior landscaping. Although it was challenging for the family to live amid the chaos, she assures me that it was well worth it.

I know that I would be willing to endure the challenge if I got to wake up to that view from my bed every day. Can you see why I have house envy?

Want to learn more about Natalie Gallagher or Refined Rooms? Visit www.RefinedRoomsLLC.com or connect via: Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter | LinkedIn

Clutter-Free Options for Displaying Your Holiday Cards

Leave a reply

One of the things I most look forward to each Christmas season is the daily arrival of holiday cards from friends and family. As the official household card maker for my own family, I understand firsthand the time, energy, and thought that goes into creating these cards each year. So I do my best to carve out a prominent place in my home to display the cards for everyone to enjoy throughout the holiday season.

Each year, I try to come up with a new and creative way to display holiday cards that doesn’t clutter up any of the flat surfaces in our home and that serves as a festive addition to the holiday decor. This year, I’m hanging them vertically on doors located in our foyer by attaching them to a long piece of ribbon that’s affixed to the door on the reverse side via duct tape (fancy, I know, but it works for me).

If you are looking for some creative ways to display your holiday cards in “clutter-free style” this year, I pulled together this collection of great examples from around the web in order to provide you with a little inspiration.

1. Use garland and ribbon to create a hanging card display across a window or above a door, like the pom pom garland display featured on Bob Vila’s blog.

2. Repurpose an old shutter to create a cardholder by tucking your cards in between the slats, as demonstrated by Courtney from A Diamond in the Stuff. Not only is this option fantastic for holiday cards — you can use it year-round to organize bills, coupons, invitations etc.

3. Create a card wreath (or several!), using a wreath form covered in decorative fabric. Use clothespins to attach cards to the wreath form. Genius!

4. Use cards as Christmas tree ornaments! This is what I call “killing two birds with one stone”. See the simple tutorial at Better Homes and Gardens for how to pull this off.

5. Don’t have a Christmas tree? Create a Greetings Tree, Martha Stewart-Style, using some dried winter branches, a bucket, and some ribbon.

6. Hang cards vertically on doors and cupboards using pretty holiday ribbon like this example found on the Greener Grass blog (great minds think alike!)

7. Create a Card Garland on your stairway banister ala Martha Stewart.

8. Create a Washi Tape Card Tree like the folks at the Thyme is Honey blog did. A conversation-piece indeed!

Now it’s your turn to share…got a creative way to celebrate those holiday cards? Let us in on it in the comments section below.

Want to learn more about Natalie Gallagher or Refined Rooms? Visit www.RefinedRoomsLLC.com or connect via: Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter | LinkedIn

Project “Big Girl Room” Reveal

Leave a reply

In my previous post, I focused on the organization component of my daughter Grace’s recent bedroom makeover. It basically involved overhauling her closet with the installation of a customized Elfa closet storage system. Today, I’ll reveal how the decor of the bedroom was updated in an effort to transform the room into a space she can truly enjoy throughout her teen years.

When we moved into our home 9 years ago, my daughter was almost 2 years old, and I thought it would be fun to involve her in the process of decorating her new room. I allowed her to select the paint colors of the room and celebrated her love of sea creatures by creating a homemade stamped “sea life” border around the perimeter of her room.

Room “Issues”

Although there are many aspects of the room that have stood the test of time beautifully (e.g., the furniture), there was room for improvement on several fronts. First, the bedroom was dark as a consequence of the magenta paint color and the window treatment.

Second, the green wall color choice was less than optimal (remember, it was chosen by a 2-year old after all). It’s difficult to appreciate how jarring the neon green walls were by merely viewing these photos. Although Grace really enjoyed it, the color was headache-inducing for me to say the least. And after 8 years, it was time to bid adieu to the sea life border.

In addition, it was becoming increasingly apparent that my little trinket collector would require more display space than this mere 12″ x 12″ bulletin board would accommodate.

Finally, we needed to address a few furniture placement issues and replace the bedding, since (although cute), her 5-year quilt had seen better days.

Redesign Objectives

So in a nutshell, the design objectives for this room were to:

1. Lighten and brighten

2. Tone down the neon

3. Create additional display space

4. Improve room Flow

5. Remove “Little Kid” elements

6. Freshen up bedding

7. Add fun pops of color

May I present the new and improved “Big Girl” Room…

Objectives 1, 2, and 5 were achieved via painting the walls and replacing the old valence with a new one that’s narrower and mounted close to the ceiling line. I chose to paint over the magenta using the white trim color in order to unify the chair rail and the bottom portion of the wall. We vanquished the neon green by painting over it with a softer, fresher shade of green.

In order to achieve Objective 3, I created a display wall by covering several cork bulletin boards with magenta-colored fabric that I scored from the remnant bin at Joann’s. My daughter wanted to add cork to the entire wall, but I thought that this would be more than sufficient. We relocated her original bulletin board to the interior of her closet.

The room flow was improved by switching the original position of the vanity and bookcase. In the original configuration, it was difficult for my daughter to access the far side of her room because there was insufficient clearance between the bed and the vanity. With this simple repositioning,Objective 4 was met.

Now for the fun part! After an extensive search for bedding, my daughter and I fell in love with this funky duvet/sham set I found in the clearance bin for a grand total of $38! Can you tell I’m a sucker for the clearance bins yet?!? The bed skirt was yet another clearance find at Tuesday Morning. I love love love it! Objective 6…CHECK!

Of course, the addition of the colorful bedding helps to achieve Objective 7, but we took it to the next level with the addition of the fun paper lanterns and ribbon in a variety of festive patterns and colors. We couldn’t resist these cute vinyl picture frames that offered a perfect dose of magenta “pop” on the bookcase wall.

And for the grand finale, we spray painted the letters to match her funky new duvet cover. There you have it!

I’m hoping that this will be the last time we will need to decorate this space until it’s time to transform it into my craft room once Gracie goes off to college!

Want to learn more about Natalie Gallagher or Refined Rooms? Visit www.RefinedRoomsLLC.com or connect via: Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter | LinkedIn

Update Your Outdated Light Fixtures: No Electrician Necessary!

As an Akron/Canton home stager, one of the most common recommendations that I find myself making during the staging consultation process is to replace outdated light fixtures. Outdated builder-grade light fixtures do nothing to enhance the appeal of a property.

Homeowners are sometimes reluctant to follow through on this recommendation because they don’t want to incur the cost of an electrician to install new fixtures, or deal with drywall patching and other minor repairs that often go along with the process of replacing a fixture.

Fortunately, there are a variety of relatively pain-free options for dealing with this home staging challenge. Today, I will highlight four of these options:

1. Spray paint your existing fixture

If your lighting fixture is of the dated brass finish variety, but has “good bones” so to speak, then spray painting it may be your best option. All you have to do is head on over to Pinterest and do a quick search for light fixture painting tutorials, and you will have all of the information that you need to pull off this easy D.I.Y. project. For instance, check out this step-by-step guide at Folk Lifestyle.

Room “Issues”

Redesign Objectives

1. Lighten and brighten

2. Tone down the neon

3. Create additional display space

4. Improve room Flow

5. Remove “Little Kid” elements

6. Freshen up bedding

7. Add fun pops of color

1. Spray paint your existing fixture

2. Change out the shades

3. Use a conversion kit

4. Install a wireless LED light

Bed Risers

Captain’s Bed

Murphy Bed

Storage Bed

Want to learn more about Natalie Gallagher and Refined Rooms?

Visit RefinedRoomsLLC.com

1. Mixed Photos and Accessories Wall

2. Wire and Clips Display

3. Plank-Mounted Frames

4. Photo Collage Wallpaper

5. Wrap-Around-The Corner Photo Display

6. Heart-Shaped Collage

CREATE A DECORATING “CHEAT SHEET”

IMPLEMENT A STORAGE GAME PLAN

1. IDENTIFY & LABEL HOLIDAY BINS

2. SELECT A STRATEGY FOR GROUPING DECOR

3. CHOOSE CONTAINERS WISELY