In the fall of 2011, when Mike ripped up the carpet in anticipation of installing our beautiful hardwood floors, he also sledgehammered out the entryway tile. It’s now a beautiful line of hardwood from the front door all the way back to the kitchen and master bedroom.

I painted the door a deep graphite gray in 2011. It adds great drama both inside and out.

In the corner of the entry, welcoming all guests, is a healthy palm plant and The Duke.

I’d love to squeeze a bench behind the door for taking off and putting on shoes, but I’ll have to custom build one that is slim enough. It’s on my list of projects to tackle in the future!

Entry Projects

• The Duke
• Hanging Hexapods
• Table Transformation with Fencing Planks

While we were in San Francisco we ran across a street artist near Pier 39 who was using only spray paint to create scenes of Golden Gate Bridge. With only a single straight edge and some circular items he was able to create stunningly lifelike pieces. Seeing his skill inspired me to try a spray painting of my own.

I wanted to do four separate panels depicting memorable experiences from our trip. Needless to say, I am not as skilled as the street artist we saw, so my panels involved a lot of cutting stencils and using FrogTape to create the effects I was going for.

The secret to realistic spray paint art is planning your layering before grabbing the spray can. I have a difficult time planning very far ahead, so there were a few times when I had the stencil all taped up and then realized that I really wanted to be spraying the inverse of what I had ready to go.

Golden Gate Bridge Fog. I made this color by simultaneously spraying Safety Red and Safety Orange, which ended up being a pretty close approximation of the actual color.

Stairs leading into Buena Vista Park – one of my favorite unplanned discoveries. First I sprayed in the backing green and flecked it with weakly sprayed gloss black, then I laid out the stairs using the painters tape.

Delicious Beer from Church Key. First I sprayed the glass and the stem. Afterward I added the head on the beer using a straight edge.

Mission Dolores. One stencil sprayed with brown and white paint simultaneously.

I am really happy with how the Golden Gate Bridge turned out. Next time I might paint an entire canvas with just what was in this panel.

Have you seen and great street artists lately?

I set out to sew up a new set of pillows to spruce up the piece of furniture that by far gets the most use in the house.

The fabric trio is a matte argyle, a fake fur, and a modern canvas print.

All three were sewn into pillow envelopes to make for easy cleaning care.

The pillows themselves are a mix of bought pillow forms and handstuffed homemade linen forms.

The canvas print is so modern that I couldn’t resist adding a little fun – a stitched on whale. Can you see it?

I love sewing pillow envelopes. It’s so easy and makes quick work of a new feel for the couch and living room. Click through for a great tutorial.

Though the pump was a throwaway, I still liked the crackle glass of the jar. I soaked the glass for awhile in water and then rinsed, and rinsed, and rinsed until all the residual soap was gone.

The top looks unfinished (because it is), so I decided to top the glass with gold. I pulled out my FrogTape and placed it in a band below the opening.

I applied gold craft paint using an artist brush. It was an experiment, as I didn’t know how well craft paint would stick to glass. The verdict? It sticks. I wouldn’t send the thing through the dishwasher (probably wouldn’t hand wash it either), but the paint stays on.

It took quite a few coats to get good coverage. Before the final coat was dry, I removed the tape for a crisp line.

Now all it needs is summer, and summer’s wildflowers, to take a test drive as a real vase.

Disclaimer: As a member of the FrogTape Blog Squad, I want to thank FrogTape for sponsoring this post. All opinions, projects and ideas expressed herein are my own

Becky and Alan, of casacaudill, met us at the airport and we enjoyed the the novelty of eating breakfast with blog friends. It’s not the first time, but I cherish these opportunities. I only wish we lived closer as Becky and Alan would be so fun to hang out with all the time.

We stayed with friends in the Marina, right near the Palace of Fine Arts. I loved waking up before sunrise and shooting the Palace and East Beach in the golden hour for photographers.

Mike and I are really active on vacations, often leaving before sunrise and returning well after dark. We rode cable and street cars, visited many of San Francisco’s districts, and ate incredible food.

The weather was unbelievable, warm and mostly fog free. We went for long runs and spent time relaxing on the beach.

I took an incredible amount of pictures, too many to share in a post, but here’s a gallery of some of my favorites. Click on any image to view.

Have you been to San Francisco? Which part of the city is your favorite?

I started the project with a piece of thin balsa wood that I found at my local craft store.  The thinness, 1/16″, is key here, because I planned to put it into a business side envelope.

Using a rotary cutter, I sliced my balsa wood to be just slightly shorter than my envelope. If you don’t have a rotary cutter you could use an X-Acto knife with a ruler, or scissors if you cut carefully.

To create something fun, I wanted to block out a “badge” area in the middle of the balsa wood. This led me to a great discovery – FrogTape does not stick permanently to baking parchment paper. This allowed me to custom cut the FrogTape without ruining the sticky part. I started out by drawing my shape on the matte side of the parchment paper (not the shinier side – it’s a subtle difference but it exists).

I flipped the parchment paper over to the shinier side and applied my FrogTape. The FrogTape won’t stick very well, but that’s the whole point.

I cut out the FrogTape based on my drawn shape, resulting in a custom shape tape block.

Then I got to color. I painted on a coat of white paint, let it dry, then applied FrogTape in stripes and painted them yellow (my mom’s favorite color!). While the yellow paint was still wet I sprinkled on some glitter.

Note: the balsa wood is so thin that it will warp when the paint is wet. Don’t freak out. Once all the moisture leaves the wood, it will flatten back out.

My badge was destined to hold what the holiday is all about, “Mom.” I drew my letters on parchment paper then overlaid them in the badge area. Using a dull pencil, I pressed down over my letters again on the balsa wood. Balsa wood is so soft that you don’t need to press down hard.

Using a small paintbrush, I filled in the letters with a beautiful blue.

Lastly, I pulled the blue into a fat stripe on the back of the card.

Once it was dry, I wrote right onto the back of my card. Use a nice ink or felt pen for the best results.

Write out the address on the front of your envelope before slipping in your wooden card. Be sure to write “do not bend” on the front. Because the card is rigid, it requires extra postage for being non-machinable. Mine was 66 cents to mail.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers – human mamas, dog mamas, cat mamas – out there. I hope you get spoiled rotten!

Disclaimer: As a member of the FrogTape Blog Squad, I want to thank FrogTape for sponsoring this post. All opinions, projects and ideas expressed herein are my own.

In the last official house tour, the grid wall was newly painted and there was carpet on the floor.

My how things have changed.

The biggest change is the hardwood floor that we put in last winter. The other big change is the fireplace surround.

The living room is part of the “great room.” The great room encompasses the living room, dining room, and flows into the kitchen. It begins in the entry.

We bought our red couch right after buying the house. It can be a hard color to work with, but it adds a great pop to the living room.

The living room leaps across the great room to claim the far wall for a flatscreen TV and mid century media center.

The living room is the nucleus of our lives in House Bella. It’s not only the physical center of the house, but the room where we spend the most time. It took many iterations to get the layout to a spot that works best for us.

Select Living Room Projects

• Grid Wall
• Wood Slat Art
• Campaign Dresser
• DIY Cube Side Table
• Fireplace Surround
• Midcentury Media Center
• French and Burlap Pillow

Select Source List

• Floor: Max Windsor Old Hickory
  
• Chairs: Avington Armless
• Couch: Ashley Zia Salsa
• Rug: Target Wool Popcorn Tufted (no longer available)
• Coffee Table: CB2 (no longer available)

Check out the full house tour, which I update with each new installment of the State of the House. Next up, the entry!

The day was cool and overcast. While most mud races are distance races, this was a criterium type short track. There were hurdles, tires, webbing, two enormous plywood walls to scale, a sand pit and a mud pit.

The crowd favorite was the mud pit. About halfway through our race a nearby firetruck started raining down water with an enormous fire house.

The hardest part was the seven foot plywood walls – two in a row on each lap. I had good mobility in my skirt but other ladies on my team had a harder time.

We raced our last lap together as team, going whole hog into the mud pit. Mike took a video:

Arborfest Mud Run Derby Ladies from House Bella on Vimeo.

We ended the race much filthier than when we started it. I may have jumped into my shower fully clothed when I got home.

Have you ever done a mud race, or a mudder? 

Unfortunately, over the past year, it’s gotten filthy. The shag holds dirt like nobody’s business, and can’t be cleaned beyond a vacuum. The dog door is a mere 10 feet away, and the dogs immediately rush to lounge on the rug regardless of the state of their toes. It’s a recipe for a filth.

I’ve been thinking of replacing the rug for a few months, but rug shopping is one of my least favorite things to do. There are scant options for rug shopping within a 4 hour drive of House Bella, and shopping for rugs online is risky business. Not only is it hard to tell quality or color, but the cost of shipping to return a rug is exorbitant.

Then, luck struck. On a quick trip to Target after our race I came across a beautiful 5×7 wool tufted popcorn rug in graphite gray. The pile is thick and the wool is beautifully soft. Even better? It was on clearance.

It was quickly dog approved, so much so that I couldn’t get Lemhi off it to take a picture.

It changes the look of the room but it’s a welcome change.

I am hopeful the dark color will mask dirt better than the cream shag, and I love how soft it is under my feet. Lemhi looks pretty handsome on it too, don’t you think?

Yeah, that’s not exactly what I was going for. This is four coats. Turns out I didn’t really like the color, either. Fail all around. You may be wondering why I put the bathroom back together in this state – it’s because I painted it right before a two week work trip and wanted the bathroom to still function.

So then I started pondering color options. I put a poll up on House Bella’s Facebook page, and the internet went crazy. 68 people gave me their opinion, and it turned out they were split right down the middle between the beige and the green. These were Sandy Ridge (left) and Inland (right), both by Sherwin Williams.

It was about this time that I started to wonder about the sheer number of colors that I’ve put into my house. Reds, blues, grays, greens… I have a lot. So I decided to go with the more neutral of the two. But the more I looked at it, the more I thought it looked a lot like a color I already have in my house (and had an extra gallon of) – Tornado Watch.

So I dug in. I taped off my edges to do my fake crown treatment, using FrogTape. For a full tutorial on fake crown, check out this post.

This time I also taped off around my door frame and baseboards to give a crisp line around all the trim.

Once the FrogTape was peeled off and the paint was dry, I stepped back and fell in the love. The color looks calming yet bold in this small room.

I put most of my wall decor back up, though left a few things out that I’ll be replacing.

Thank you to everyone who gave me an opinion on how to paint my guest bathroom! I hope you aren’t too disappointed that I didn’t choose the green.

Disclaimer: As a member of the FrogTape Blog Squad, I want to thank FrogTape for sponsoring this post. All opinions, projects and ideas expressed herein are my own.