Merry Christmas!

I've been busy soaking in every moment of the Holidays with my family, but I did want to take a minute to wish each of you a very Merry Christmas. I hope your day is filled with joy and love and a remembrance of why we celebrate this glorious holiday.

A big hug and thank you to each of you for spending some of your precious time here, with me. I appreciate you so much and thank you for your continued support! Happy Holidays!

With a Heavy Heart

It has been a coupled of days since the tragedy in Connecticut. My heart is still heavy and broken. Today I will continue to pray. Pray for the sweet, innocent children and selfless adults who lost their lives. Pray for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones. Pray for the residents of Newtown, that through God's grace, they can begin to heal. I will pray for the leaders of our country, that they may come together and put policies in place which will prevent these types of tragedies from being commonplace in our country. In my time of sorrow, I will pray. If you believe in prayer's power, I invite you to do the same.

My Holiday Home Tour 2012

Hello Friends! I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I can't believe that Christmas is only 2 weeks away! My family is coming to our home and will be staying with us for the Christmas holiday. I am so happy about that. The holiday parties are in full swing around here and we still have a handful more to attend over the next couple of weeks. 

Here are some pictures of my home all gussied up for the Holidays. It was fun trying to figure out how to decorate our new home with all of the Holiday decor that adorned our previous house. I added a few new items here and there, but mostly reused the things I already had on hand. I hope you enjoy my little tour!

Joining Jennifer Rizzo's Holiday Housewalk

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The Nester's Holiday Home Tour Party

My Holiday Home 2012: The Mantle

I'm starting off this year's Holiday Home Tour with my mantel. I kept my turquoise and green theme from last year and reused most of my decor as well. I changed things up a bit though and added a few items here and there, like this evergreen "M" wreath from Ballard Designs.

I'm still in love with my Prince of Peace print! You can download one for yourself from Jones Design Company.

Linking up Here

More of my Holiday Home coming soon! 

Local Client Update: Entryway Project

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend. I spent most of my weekend finishing up my Christmas shopping and I am happy to report that I'm pretty much done! Just a few more small things to pick up and then I can start wrapping!

Today I am sharing with you the entryway of one of my local clients. I've said before that I have the world's best clients, and I truly believe I do. When I met the owner of this home, I knew instantly that she and I were cut from the same cloth. I love it when clients become good friends, and she has definitely become one! My client wanted a fun and inviting entryway to greet her friends and family as they came to visit. She knew she wanted to include navy and yellow in the color scheme and also wanted to stay true to her updated traditional style. Here is what the entry looked like when I saw it for the first time...

She had already purchased a beautiful white and mirrored cabinet, but as soon as I saw it I knew it was too deep for the space. The space between the entry wall and stairway railing isn't very wide, so I knew we would have to replace it with a console that was shallow. 

Here is her entry now...

We opted for a traditional console table but kept the area fresh and updated with the choice of lamps, artwork, rug and accessories.  I also got to include one of my all time favorite mirrors in the entryway hall. We are still waiting on a yellow footed pedestal bowl for the bottom shelf, and my cute client needs to pick a picture for the picture frame, but we are both thrilled with the way it turned out.

I think we achieved the fresh and inviting feel she was hoping for! I now get to move on to her family room. The plans for that room are starting to come together. I'll keep you posted on the progress!

PS- I'll be sharing my Holiday home with you over the next several days in a few separate posts! I'm excited!

Master Bedroom Fireplace Makeover Reveal

Finally! Here are a few pictures of my newly made over Master Bedroom fireplace...

It is amazing what 6 pieces of wood and a little paint can do!

Here is a look at what the fireplace looked like before its' little makeover...

And now...

I love it! What do you think?

iVillage Christmas Tree Feature

A few weeks ago I was contacted by a writer for iVillage who asked me if she could feature my 2011 Christmas tree in a slideshow she was putting together which would highlight trees designed by Interior Designers and Bloggers. I, of course, replied with a "Yes!" I am happy to have my tree included with those from many of my favorite designers and bloggers including, Emily Clark from Emily A. Clark, Kate Riley from Centsational Girl, Traci Zeller from Traci Zeller Designs and more. Thanks iVillage! You can check out the "Beautiful Christmas Trees" slideshow here and see more pictures of my 2011 Christmas tree, here.

PS - Pictures of my Master Bedroom Fireplace are coming. I just need to get them off my camera and onto my computer!

Family Room Wall Reveal

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and weekend. My Thanksgiving was lovely. My mother-in-law hosted this year and we had a wonderful time eating delicious food and visiting with our loved ones. I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy stuffing my face and chatting away!  To make up for it, I'm happy to share a couple of pictures of my completed family room/kitchen wall! As I mentioned in my last post, I have always felt like this wall needed a little something to add interest to it. I finally settled on wrapping it in the same board and batten mill work that I had my carpenter do on this wall, which is located across the room from it.

Here is what the wall looked like before...

And now...

I am so pleased with the way it turned out. My carpenter had to work around light switches, outlets, and our intercom and iPod docking station. He did a great job and my fabulous painter did an equally wonderful job prepping and painting the wall. This small change has tremendous impact in the space. You'll get to see just how much impact, when I post my 2012 Holiday Home for all of you to see! :)

Tomorrow I'll be sharing my Master Bedroom Fireplace reveal with you!

I hope you are all off to a great start of your week!

Around Here...

There is pretty much no excuse for not publishing a new post for you all in almost two weeks, so I wont try to give you one. All I can say is that, like many other people, I am trying to put as many professional and personal projects to bed as possible in the next week. Speaking of personal projects...I'm at it again...adding more mill work to my home. You all know I can't get enough of it. :)
Here's a peak for you, with pictures taken using my iPhone...

I mentioned my plans for my Master Bedroom fireplace in this post. I'm so excited to finally be having it done!

This angled wall is part of my family room/kitchen. I just felt it needed a bit more oomph! I toyed around with wallpapering it, but for me, adding mill work and painting it white was the sure way to go.

As you can see everything is prepped and ready to be painted. My painter will be here later today to get it all painted. Pictures of the finished products to come! 

By the way, if you live in the Salt Lake City area, my tradesmen for mill work and painting are second to none. They do all of my client projects for me and they have never disappointed me or my clients. If you would like their information, feel free to send me an email. They are awesome!

My New Home Office Progress and an Ikea Hack

When we moved into our new home, we gained a space for a dedicated home office. Since I spend the most in our home office, my hubs has given me free reign to design it. I have some really big plans for the office, which include some custom white built in bookcases as well a fabulous new desk. Maybe something like this one...

Unfortunately, bringing my vision for the office to life requires quite a bit of $$$. Since we don't have that kind of cash to spend right now, I've taken on the challenge of making the home office a place that I love to spend time in without spending a lot of money on it. 

After seeing all of the fabulous IKEA Vittsjo hacks out there in Blogland, I knew that doing a Vittsjo hack of my own would be the perfect way to add some storage and pizzaz to the office. 

So off to IKEA we went to pick one up. Once we got it home, I lovingly asked my hubby to assemble it. Here is a picture of him putting it together. He is such a good sport to help me with all of my projects. I am a lucky girl!

 After the assembly was complete, I took it outside to spray it with a coat of white primer. 

 After the primer dried, I finished my Vittsjo hack off with a couple of coats of silver metallic spray paint. 

Here is the finished product...

 I love the way it turned out. It looks great in my office and is completely functional at the same time.

Here are few shots of my office as it currently looks...

I am loving how my budget office has turned out so far. Not bad for an office that houses an inexpensive World Market desk, an IKEA hack and an old filing cabinet that has been made over with some O'verlays!