Small and Chic in Cville

Vintage Plumes on One Kings Lane

2013-05-21T11:28:00.004-04:00

I am a huge fan of Vintage Plumes, a fabric by Robert Allen for DwellStudio. I love it so much that I used the Jade colorway in a bunch of items that I made for our wedding.

Photo by Elisa Bricker/Elisa B Photography

Today, One Kings Lane has a few pieces upholstered in the fabric for sale. It's taking a lot of will power not to put anything in my cart. I especially like the bench.

Send me some will power!

Victoria Pouncey and Beth Ann Kallen of Folly at the Charlottesville Design House

2013-05-16T10:12:00.002-04:00

Sometimes people ask me if I'm an interior designer and I'm pretty quick to say no, that I'm an interior design enthusiast. I am a big fan of people working in the field and love it when I feel like I'm learning something new from their designs and listening to them talk.

Victoria Pouncey is one of those designers who I find fascinating. In addition to creating fantastic spaces, she has an incredible background in the art world. I profiled Victoria in the past and shared her space from the very first Charlottesville Design House a few years ago.

Image by Robert Radifera

At the second Design House, Victoria took over a sunroom that was covered in shutters and turned it into a relaxing retreat.

Image by Robert Radifera

Last year, Victoria got an odd, little space in the Design House and turned it into a beautiful room that was called the "morning room." Can't you see yourself have a cup of coffee and reading the paper here?

Image by Robert Radifera

Robert Radifera's detail pictures were really lovely.

Image by Robert Radifera

This year, Victoria and her business partner Beth Ann Kallen opened a beautiful home store called Folly on West Main Street in Charlottesville. It's a gorgeous store (pictures coming soon...for now, check out their Facebook page). They've designed a library in the Charlottesville Design House together.

No sneak peeks just yet! You'll have to get to the Design House in person to see their space.

The 2013 Charlottesville Design House

May 4-19, 2013

10-4 PM through Sunday

Holly Joseph at the Charlottesville Design House

2013-05-14T14:32:00.000-04:00

I first met Holly Joseph at the 2011 Charlottesville Design House. I served on the marketing committee that year and spent hours and hours in the house, which was in the Mint Springs section of Crozet, Virginia. I loved that house and Holly's dining room was wonderful!

Image by Robert Radifera

Do you see part of Heidi and Penny's foyer, which I shared yesterday, peeking into the shot?

Image by Robert Radifera

In last year's house, Holly tackled the kitchen and breakfast area. Kitchens are notoriously difficult to work with at design houses since they are large, expensive spaces to work in and visitors often expect a showcase kitchen. I think her design was fantastic.

Image by Robert Radifera

I don't want to show the living room that Holly designed for this year's house, but here's a sneak peek from the opening party, courtesy of The Hook. You can catch a glimpse of the beautiful baby grand piano that inspired the design.

Photo by Courteney Stuart

The 2013 Charlottesville Design House

May 4-19, 2013

10-4 PM most days

Closed on Tuesday

Heidi Brooks and Penny Crandall at the 2013 Charlottesville Design House

2013-05-13T06:59:00.000-04:00

I spent Saturday morning as a room host at the Charlottesville Design House and had such a wonderful time. In addition to a steady stream of visitors from the time doors opened at 10:00 am, several designers greeted guests and explained the process of transforming their spaces. I thought I'd highlight a few of the designers this week, starting with the mother and daughter team of Heidi Brooks and Penny Crandall.

Penny Crandall is an interior designer based in Richmond and Heidi Brooks works here in Charlottesville. I profiled Heidi on the blog back in 2011, but first saw her work in the 2010 Charlottesville Design House. That first year, she did an amazing job with a massive bathroom in the house's basement.

The next year, Penny and Heidi teamed up to design the foyer, upstairs hallway (which had multiple levels), and back staircase at the 2011 Charlottesville Design House. Time and again, people were blown away by what they did. In fact, someone mentioned the pair of dogs in that 2011 space this weekend at the Design House. Clearly, their designs are very memorable!

They brought the columns into this space.

Isn't that screen amazing?

The back staircase wasn't being used for traffic during the 2011 Charlottesville Design House, but Penny and Heidi tackled it anyway. Isn't the mural lovely?

Visitors loved the rope railings.

I'm not going to show you the space Penny and Heidi designed in this year's house until after the Design House closes, but here's a teaser shot by Robert Radifera.

When the house closes for the year, I'll have images from Robert Radifera to share. Robert photographs the house every year and all of the images above are his.

The 2013 Charlottesville Design House

May 4-19, 2013

10-4 PM most days

Closed on Tuesday

By the way, I'll be back at the house Thursday evening for "Meet the Designers" night.

Come see the house, meet the designers, and sample some wine from Trump Vineyards!

Inside the Charlottesville Design House

2013-05-06T06:22:00.000-04:00

Charlottesville photographer Robert Radifera is documenting the Charlottesville Design House for another year (he shoots the house in DC was well) and I have a few of his images to share.

I'll be one of the room hosts at the house next weekend and I hope to see some familiar faces coming through!

The 2013 Charlottesville Design House

May 4-19, 2013

10-4 PM most days

Closed on Tuesday

Design House Week: The Southern Living Showcase Home

2013-05-03T06:17:00.000-04:00

Southern Living Magazine has had house plans for years. In recent years, they've established a network of builders who specialize in building and customizing the homes in the Southern Living portfolio. They call it their Custom Builder Program.

Companies in the network have been building "showcase homes" in different areas to introduce the public to the concept. If you're big into design blogs, you might remember Erin from House of Turquoise sharing pictures of a showcase house in Texas a few months ago.

This year, Charlottesville builder Summit Custom Homes is building a Southern Living Showcase Home on Ragged Mountain Farm in Ivy.

Tickets to tour the house are already on sale and they benefit two national charities, Operation Finally Home and Alex's Lemonade Stand.

The names on the sponsor list are great and many local suppliers are involved. Inside, Moyanne Harding, Stedman House, and Gibson Design Group will be working. I haven't seen any hints on Instagram or Twitter about what they are up to, but I guess we will all be surprised when we get to tour the house.

The showcase house's Facebook page has a few teaser images...

Southern Living Showcase House

4318 Ragged Mountain Farm Court

Charlottesville, VA 22903

Friday, May 17 - Sunday, June 2

10:00 AM - 4:00 PM Fridays and Saturdays

10:00 AM - 2:00 PM Sundays

Design House Week: The Richmond Symphony Orchestra League Designer's House

2013-05-02T06:10:00.000-04:00

The best laid plans don't always work out. I set up this week of posts thinking I'd profile this always-wonderful show house in Richmond. The only problem is that I can't find any mention of the 2013 house online because the have their design house every other year. The RSOL's website doesn't mention upcoming plans and the Facebook page is still for the 2012 house. My email to the RSOL asking for a hint about a future location went unanswered.

The RSOL Designer's House has been happening for years, so I think it's safe to say it will be back in 2014. I just can't tell you where it will be or any real details.

I thought I'd share some pictures and video from last year's house in Midlothian, a suburb a bit south of Richmond.

The neighborhood was called Pinifer Park.The home used is historic and the area around it has been developed. We've seen that a few times in this area. It's an interesting idea.

Here's some background on the house:

During the Bare Bones Tour, you could see what the designers had to work with:

Family/Media Room by David Barden

Lounge (?) by Ruth and Ollie

Porch by Sunny Goode

Design House Week: The DC Design House

2013-05-01T07:15:00.002-04:00

The DC Design House is probably my favorite show house in the region. Year after year, there's something that surprises and delights at whatever house the committee from the Children's National Medical Center picks. Back in 2009, I saw the original painting of Olivia the sheep by John Matthew Moore, which led to the purchase of my print of both Olivia and Bell, the cow.

This year's DC Design House got a little early press thanks to David Gregory, but since opening, blogs and newspapers have been giving the event extensive coverage.

Lower Level Lounge by Lorna Gross

I love that the people doing social media for the house always post pictures of designer sketches and mood boards on their Facebook page. They often share images of work going on in the house and will even post a few teaser shots from the finished spaces to get you excited to get to DC to see the house yourself.

Dining room by Sam Cooke

Terrace by American Eye

The 2013 DC Design House

2507 Foxhall Road, NW

Washington, DC 20007

Through May 12th

Saturdays-Sundays 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Tuesdays-Fridays 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Design House Week: The Charlottesville Design House

2013-04-30T07:31:00.003-04:00

It's design house season in our region and I thought I'd profile a few of my favorite houses around the region.

In many cities around the country, design or show houses are used to raise money for charity. Designers sign on to decorate one room in a large home and the public buys tickets to see the results. Without clients to please, the designers are often free to take risks and let their creativity come out and play a little bit.

When I lived up north, show houses were often put on by the local Junior League. When I moved here, I was surprised that ours didn't have one and missed having one in my backyard. So, I wound up driving to DC or Richmond to see them (hence a week of profile my favorite design houses...there are lots of them!).

In 2010, I saw a poster for a Charlottesville design house and was so excited. I emailed the coordinating charity, the Shelter for Help in Emergency to volunteer at the house right away. By the end of my stint at the house, I had signed on to be part of the marketing committee the next year and a friend had bought the house (I probably spent more time in her house before she bought it than she did!). The next year, I juggled my busy season at work with preparing for the 2011 design house. It was extremely rewarding, but I knew I couldn't be as heavily involved in the future. So, I've been a spectator instead of a volunteer since then.

The 2013 Charlottesville Design House is right around the corner and I can't wait to see it! This year's home is in the lovely Farmington neighborhood. The house opens on May 4th. There are several talks scheduled that are free to attend.

In past years, I was able to get some good sneak peek pictures out of the house...I'll see what I can do this year. As in past years, photographer Robert Radifera will take photos of the finished project.

Bonus: you can see how U-Fab's space in the 2013 Charlottesville Design House has come together on their blog!

Runway to Real Way, the Home Edition

2013-04-29T07:27:00.000-04:00

My friend Senem sent this picture to me by text one day saying "what do you think?"

I thought she wanted me to fawn over the cute dog on the steps, but she was actually thinking of painting the risers on the stairs at her house and was looking for inspiration. The picture above is from Real Simple magazine.

The stairs at Senem's house are a little dark and she thought they could use some cheerful paint. I thought painting the risers was a solid idea, but I wasn't sure teal was the right hue for the space.

After poring over sample strips at the paint store, Senem narrowed the color options down to three: pink, kelly green, and purple. Ultimately, she selected five shades of pink to use so that there'd be a color change on every fourth step. She just picked a paint strip that she liked and eliminated the second deepest shade from the group.

A day later, she sent another picture by text, this one including her papillon, Lucky.

Senem's three girls love the colors and she's thrilled that the quick project adds a little cheer to a space that was a little dark before.

Not Today

2013-04-16T14:41:00.003-04:00

I have some things to share, but haven't felt like the timing was right. After the events in Boston yesterday, it seems so silly and frivolous to post about furniture and paint colors.

To be honest, I found myself a bit ticked off that my blog reader was full of posts about stuff that just doesn't matter today. Maybe those bloggers are trying to provide a distraction. Maybe they are from far away and don't feel affected by what happened. I've let go of that ticked off feeling and am trying to be a little understanding.

For Boston, for Boston,
For Thee and Thine alone.

A Home Buyer's Take on Real Estate Photography

2013-04-12T10:27:00.002-04:00

I'll be the first to say that my photography skills are lacking. I have a nice camera, but need to spend a lot more time with it before I can confidently produce consistently good photos. For now, I click, peer at the image on the screen, tweak settings, and click again. I'm not a photography genius, but I know what works and doesn't work when looking at a home listed on the MLS.

Throughout our home search, I encountered listing after listing full of cartoon-like pictures. When I asked a local real estate photographer, Stephen Barling of Barling Photography, what the deal with those images was, he told me that the photographers were being heavy handed with a technique called high-dynamic-range imaging, or HDR.

When I googled HDR, I found some cool looking pictures with interesting contrasts in the sky, but a few looked a bit like Thomas Kincaid paintings. Which is great if you like Thomas Kincaid paintings. I do not like Thomas Kincaid paintings.

Photo from Flickr via DTWPuck

Photo from Flickr via Jez Page

In my area, I've noticed that some of the most beautiful homes on the market have gotten the HDR treatment. These are places that don't need any "help" looking beautiful in a real estate listing, so I wonder why it's being used.

Here are a few images from the listing for a $1.7 million dollar home in my area. The home is stunning and it would have looked absolutely gorgeous without the enhancing. The treatment is almost distracting, don't you think?

To contrast, here are a few images taken by that real estate photographer I mentioned above, Stephen Barling.

I love this last image because it shows a bathroom that isn't the fanciest in the world still looking great without cartoon-like photoshopping.

Aren't those much better than the HDR images?

Even Barbara Corcoran couldn't resist a jab at the overuse of HDR in this clip from The Today Show (Stephen shot the Charlottesville house that shows up in this clip at the end).

Habits of an Effective House Seller

2013-03-28T07:51:00.002-04:00

When we had an open house at our condo recently, we had to clear out of the place for an entire Sunday. We packed Baxter up in the car and decided to go to some open houses ourselves. As we wandered around one house after another, we started to realize that our place was looking damn good.

Of course, we have the benefit of just having to clean up after a dog and two adults in our place. Some of the homes we visited clearly had children in them. Putting our place on the market required a lot of organizing and deep cleaning. Putting a home with children in it on the market must take another level of organization and cleaning.

When we leave in the morning, we put Baxter's things away and run the vacuum since golden retrievers are very talented when it comes to shedding. We then do a quick clean up in the bathroom so the only thing out is a soap dispenser.

BTW, do you love foaming hand soap? It's easy to make your own with dish detergent and water!

We also throw all of our laundry right into the washing machine. I thought I'd regret getting rid of our laundry basket, but I actually like this. When the machine is really full, we sort what's in there, grab our towels from the bathroom, and usually have one or two loads.

Remember when I said that home selling was hell? I really meant that preparing to put your house on the market is hell. Once you have a look established and a routine for your mornings to achieve that look, home selling is kind of nice. I love coming home to our clean, organized home.

This experience has always shown us that we can live without a lot of the things we sent to Marc's storage space. I think we'll be pretty picky about how much "stuff" we bring into our next home.

Home Staging and Selling for Pet Owners

2013-03-19T17:53:00.001-04:00

We are animal lovers. We don't just love our dog, we really, really love him. We only stay at Kimpton Hotels so he can travel with us. We are more picky about his food that about ours. He is a factor is many of the decisions we make. I guess we take the responsibilities that come with pet ownership really seriously. So it might come as a surprise that we considered completely hiding all evidence of him when we put our condo on the market.

I originally thought that any signs of a pet in our home would upset buyers. My plan was to put all of Baxter's things (toy basket, lead/collar collection, bowls, etc.) in my car for every showing. I even considered taking the bells he rings to go outside off the wall (they hang on a hook that has a paw print on it).

Have you ever seen these bells? I taught Baxter to use them when he was 15 weeks old and he's been ringing them ever since to go outside.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that we didn't need to hide the fact that we had a dog. We just needed to make sure our pet items didn't distract visitors or impede their ability to see our space.

Lucky, Baxter's bed is already in a corner because he likes to nap hidden behind a chair. His toy box is also in the same corner. We decided not to do anything special in the living room. That decision was validated when an agent told us she didn't notice the bed or toy box until someone else pointed them out.

In the bedroom, we have been tucking Baxter's stairs under the bed every morning. We usually only do this if we have company coming over.

I never mentioned buying these stairs before. There are plenty of pet stairs around, but I found these at a pet boutique a couple years ago and was impressed that they were made of wood and not too terrible looking. I've contemplated putting different carpet on the steps since the stuff on there is pink.

Anyway, the steps fold up nicely and slide right under the bed so the bedroom feels nice and roomy.

In the kitchen, we've been putting Baxter's food bowl inside the food bin every morning. The bin has always been tucked away in the laundry room. On days when showings have been prearranged, I take Baxter to the office. We'll leave his water bowl on top of the food bin in those cases. If an agent calls during the day and asks to bring a client by, one of us runs home to take Baxter out and put the water bowl in the laundry room.

We didn't take Baxter's bells away and we didn't hide his leash/collar rack in the front closet. We didn't see those as being major obstacles to seeing the place.

Closet Staging for Real Estate Photos and Our Open House

2013-03-15T10:40:00.001-04:00

Having looked at the local MLS listings every morning for years (I love that peek into people's homes!), I've noticed that few listings include pictures of closets. It makes sense. I imagine a lot of people throw things behind closed doors when preparing for listing photos. What's more, the average person's closet probably isn't photo ready.

We have great closets in the condo. There's a walk-in closet by the front door, a laundry room/pantry closet in the kitchen, and two large closets in the bedroom. When I lived were alone, I only used one of the closets in the bedroom and put some random things like the laundry basket in the other one. With Marc here now, we still have plenty of space since he was able to take over that second closet and the others had room for more things.

For our listing photos, I decided to really show off all the great storage here. The closets came with a few racks in them, but there was room to add shelves to the front closet, the laundry room, and my bedroom.

Here's how the bedroom closets looked in our MLS listing:

I started with Marc's closet and as you probably tell by the different lighting, I wasn't able to take pictures of my closet until the evening. This was a big job.

First, I took almost everything out of Marc's closet and added back his duffel bag and a pair of boots. Most of his darker clothes were laying on the bed while I took pictures.

Getting my closet ready for photos took considerably more time. The entire bedroom was full of shoes and clothes. I decided to stick to a color theme for the clothes that would be in the pictures. I picked some blue, pink, and red items to put back in the closet and added a few accessories.

Marc came home at one point and was in shock. He had no idea my closet held so much. After a while, I was able to take some photos and started putting everything back into place.

For showings and our open house, we decided to put at least half of our clothes in storage along with some other items (Christmas ornaments, Marc's bikes, a chair that used to be in the bedroom). We wound up filling our suitcases and 2-3 storage bins with clothes. I also organized all my folded items by color. I didn't board fold like I learned while working at Banana Republic in grad school, though.

Our closets now look like this:

I wish I had thought to take pictures of them before we sent things to storage, so there were before and after photos.

If you've sold a home, did you stage your closets? Do you think it's important to show closet spaces in MLS listing photos?

Preparing for Open Houses and Visits from Buyers

2013-03-14T15:00:00.001-04:00

Almost immedidately after posting the pictures I took for our MLS listing on Facebook, a friend asked if our condo looked the same all of the time. I'd love to say everything is always put away and things are nearly organized every time we walk out the door, but the truth is we're normal people who do normal things. The mail sometimes gets left on the counter. Clothes don't always get put away. Dishes get left in the sink.

There are a few practices we've worked into our morning and evening routines so that our little home is always ready or nearly ready for a visit from a real estate agent and their clients. I thought I'd start a "Preparing for Open Houses" series to share what we've done and maybe a few more ideas will come out in the comments.

First of all, we've started adding flowers to our grocery lists. We usually get flowers as a treat. Marc brings them home as a surprise sometimes and I'll pick up some hydrangea or tulips now and then. During tulip season, I have a hard time staying away from the flower section at Whole Foods. The tulips they sell come from Stevensburg, which isn't too far up the highway from Charlottesville (the tulip producer up there, Fresh Tulips USA, got profiled in the Washington Post a while back).

The condo has only been on the market for one Friday, but our flower sprees started when I took photos, so it'd been a few weeks.

I've been buying a few inexpensive mixed bouquets along with tulips and distributing them around the condo. The mixed bouquets often have a few hardy flowers along with a couple that might fade quickly. I keep recombining to keep everything looking nice.

On the bar, I put a little vase with our basket of cookies, the marketing piece, and our agent's cards in a little tray.

I'll be making another batch of cookies for the open house this weekend. If you know someone in Charlottesville looking for a condo in a great location, convenient to the University (especially the hospital) and downtown, send them our way!

We're Having an Open House!

2013-03-12T06:44:00.000-04:00

I didn't know if people had open houses in condos, but I guess they do! Our realtor had scheduled an open house at our place this weekend. I'm pretty excited. We've had 2-3 showings every day since the brokers' open house last week. I imagine there are some people who don't have agents yet who might want to come check the place out.

If you are someone you know are in the market for a great condo in Charlottesville within walking distance of the University and downtown, send them my way. I'm not going to post my complete address, but I'm happy to share it by email.

On the Market, Week 1

2013-03-08T07:51:00.001-05:00

The condo's been on the market for a week, but the snow storm that hit the mid-Atlantic took a lot of people off-line Wednesday and Thursday. So, this has been a pretty easy week. Since the brokers' open house on Tuesday, we've enjoyed our squeaky clean home without much interruption.

My thoughts might change after a while, but I've decided that living in a home on the market is a little bit like living in a store. I don't mind it at all...yet.

I've taken to checking out the MLS daily now and I'm amazed by the pictures on some listings. There are two other condos in my area on the market. The listing for one only shows pictures of our clubhouse, pool, and two closeup pictures of counters in the model unit that was here in 2005. The other listing, for a smaller unit, only has one, exterior photo.

When I took the photos for our listing, I took pictures of what I'd want to see - a walk through the condo, with images taken from multiple angles, and all closets shown. I'm always trying to imagine how my things would fit in a house I see on the MLS and it's amazing that many listings don't let you do that because they only show bits and pieces of rooms.

Any thoughts on what it's like to live in a home that's on the market? How about your take on MLS photos?

Treats for the Brokers' Open House

2013-03-05T06:17:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I mentioned that you could probably see several brokers' open houses on Bravo or HGTV every weekend. It's clear that those vary from place to place. The agents on Bravo's real estate shows are usually selling multi-million dollar properties and their brokers' opens look like swanky parties. I think Charlottesville open houses tend to be a little more modest. Still, I wanted to do something special and a little unexpected to make our condo memorable.

I purchased cookie cutters from Williams Sonoma a while back with plans to use them on table numbers for our wedding. The table numbers were fun to make, but we wound up doing something else. I felt a little silly having the cookie cutters and I'm glad I found a way to finally put them to use.

I originally wanted to put our address on the cookies, but the cutters only come with letters. W-S let me down. I played with a few different messages, then bounced ideas off Marc and our agent. We arrived at simply putting the name of our neighborhood on the cookies.

The name of the neighborhood itself wasn't too specific, so I decided to put the cookies in bags and add a tag with specific information about our unit. I used an Avery product that was pretty infuriating to manipulate, but around 1 AM on the night before the open house, I got the labels printed. I'm blocking out some info in the pictures below. The front has a picture of our living room with the address and the back of each tag has our MLS number, the real estate agency's logo, and our agent's contact info.

I'm really happy with the finished product!

Since those cookies were a favor for agents to take home, I also made a batch of cookies for everyone to eat while visiting. Our realtor seems pleased!

Is this a little over the top? Sure. But I had fun with it.

Home Selling is Hell

2013-03-04T06:12:00.000-05:00

We've all watched real estate TV and think we know what selling a house is like. Between Bravo and HGTV, we can probably see half a dozen brokers' open houses and general open houses each weekend.

None of those really prepared me for what it has been like selling a house. Perhaps it's because I'm a blogger and a bit of a perfectionist, but I wrote a solid page of projects that had to get done by the time the condo hit the MLS. We've organized, we've patched nail holes, planted boxwoods outside, cleaned the patio, freshened up the paint, and we've organized cabinets and closets. It's exhausting! Thank goodness we only had to organize and make things pretty.

I'm thankful that I staged and took pictures two weeks ago so we don't have the added pressure of a photographer showing up. It's also nice to have a "goal" picture to get back to.

This weekend, this is what the dining area looked like as we tackled all of those little projects:

By tomorrow morning, everything will be back to staged. It might mean another night of very little sleep, but it'll be worth it knowing that people will be able to see how much we love our little home and how carefully we've taken care of it over the last seven years.

Have you sold a house before? What were the best and worst parts of the experience?

Selling our Charlottesville Condo

2013-03-01T06:31:00.000-05:00

In case you haven't figured it out yet, we're putting the condo on the market. I adore this place. I originally picked our community, Walker Square, because it was within walking distance of everything - my work, downtown, and entertainment (Starr Hill Music Hall used to be across the street and has since been replaced by restaurants). When I got a dog a few years after living here, I realized how pet-friendly the community is and became close with my dog owning neighbors. This is a wonderful home.

There are times, though, that I wish we had a little more outdoor space (we have a patio and I garden in containers). Though we could technically get a second dog (plenty of neighbors have two), I'm not sure it would be fair to have two goldens in our space. The idea of getting another big dog isn't driving us to sell, but having just a little bit more space would make for a better situation for all involved.

I love living in the city of Charlottesville, but we think it might be time to move on. I'm sad, but also excited about what could be around the bend. I only hope someone will love this place and all of the improvements we've made over the years as much as we do.

For the first time, here's a walk through our entire home. I show bits and pieces on the blog all the time, but I've never shown it all, even on the House Tour page.

The trim on the kitchen cabinets isn't permanent, so if someone wanted that space to display or store things, they could take it down. I have a few things hiding up there. I also put some puck lights in on the left side, but never use them, so I forgot to turn them on for this picture!

Before and After in the Living Room

2013-02-28T09:07:00.001-05:00

I have one more before and after series for you! When I moved in, I knew the living room was a good size, but I didn't know how to use the space. It took a few years to figure out the furniture arrangement that worked for us.

Before:

After:

What you can't see is Baxter laying on his mat in the corner of that first photo and me standing on the mat in the second.

I took Cookie Doe off the wall for these photos. If you haven't figured out why I might do that, I'll share the reason soon.

Before and After in the Kitchen

2013-02-27T07:44:00.001-05:00

I love looking at "before" pictures of our condo. The entire place was full of builder-grade finishes and beige. Beige was on every surface and wall. In those days, this community was all rental units, so I did my best to live in the bland space. A year or so later, the community converted to condos and I couldn't wait to start making changes.

Tackling the kitchen was a big project, but after a lot of research, I worked on making the space feel more bright and open.

Before:

After:

The view from the kitchen to to the dining space, which I shared yesterday:

Doesn't the space feel bigger?

Before, After, and After in the Dining Room

2013-02-26T06:58:00.000-05:00

Our dining table is in a nook-like space. I hesitate to say I have a dining room or even an alcove. It's a space or an area.

The view from the front door originally looked like this:

After an upstairs neighbor had a leak that ruined our floors, we installed eco-friendly, FSC Certified flooring from the green builder supply in Charlottesville. I loved the deep, chocolate color.

I can finally share a few wide-angle pictures that give a better view of the space.

I'm having so much fun with this wide-angle lens!

Weekend Makeover for the Bedroom

2013-02-25T06:49:00.000-05:00

In preparing to post new pictures of our bedroom taken with that wide-angle lens I borrowed, I realized that I never shared a quick weekend project I did in the fall. I used to blog every thought and step of a project, but this last year has been hectic. Sometimes, decisions just have to be made and projects need to be completed.

I've been meaning to repaint the bedroom to make it more neutral for a while. Last fall, Marc was headed away for a few days on a business trip and I decided that it was the perfect opportunity to get the painting done. Even before he was out the door, I was looking at my paint fan decks. I'm not usually a fan of beige paint and I had a lot of trouble narrowing the options down to a few that I liked.

I'll post the details soon, but let's just get to the eye candy, shall we?

Here's the super before, from when I first moved in:

Here's the middle phase, when the room was painted in Sherwin Williams' Compatible Cream:

Here's the after, with Benjamin Moore's Maritime White on the walls:

I think the bed looks much better with the more neutral color on the walls. I don't love the colors anymore and have been thinking of switching to blue and white linens, but haven't made a final decision yet.

Using that wide-angle lens, I can finally give a little perspective on our layout. The bathroom is to the right in the little hallway. The dining room and kitchen were to my back, with the dining area and front door to my right and the kitchen to the left. You can see Baxter laying in the living room and Cookie Doe's antlers (with their Valentine's Day flowers on them) peeking out from the wall.

What do you think?