February is the season of love and it comes at the perfect time when very little else is happening and so much of the country is stuck in cold and snow.

I’m not someone who goes crazy with decorating for Valentines but a few things here and there make for a cheery and welcomed surprise.

I love this simple heart garland on this bed from Better Homes & Garden. Isn’t it sweet?

If red is not your thing, you can always do a classic black and white accessory like this wall art. It’s a sneaky way to celebrate without being too obvious.

Last year I just had a few touches in the house for Valenine’s as you can see in this post.

Even doing something as simple as a bowl of fresh, white tulips can add a touch of romance and elegance.

Better Homes & Gardens has a collection of easy Valentine’s Day ideas, just pop over to take a look.

I have a client who is redoing her master bathroom, a powder room and a sitting room in their lower level. I was at her house last week for some brainstorming on these spaces and to see a few things she has already selected.

She showed me a chandelier she wants to use in her powder room which I just loved! It’s the Clarissa Glass Drop Chandelier from Pottery Barn.

While we both want to use this in her powder room, it’s $399.99 – Yikes! So I told her I would see if I could find it for less.

My first stop was overstock.com – do you shop there? I buy thousands of dollars in products there every year for clients and various projects. GREAT stuff!

I did a search for glass drop chandelier and within seconds I found the look for A LOT less! This is Overstock’s Cone Shape 4-light Matte Silver Crystal Chandelier. HELLO! Very, very similar and at $176.99, $2.95 shipping, and NO TAX you can’t beat the price.

Yes, there is assembly required. You have to put on all the little crystals.

However, on the Pottery Barn Clarissa light it says assembly required as well.

Overstock’s light also comes in an antique copper version which may be more similar to PB’s antique bronze finish.

I LOVE saving client’s money! Plus, she can order the overstock.com chandelier today and get it this week. The Pottery Barn version is on back order until the end of March 2012!

*Happy Dance!*

We were talking about reclaiming space in your home . . . but what about reclaiming dated pieces from your hand-me-down furniture that we all seem to acquire as the years go by?

One of the things I love about doing redesign is that I try to use all the things my clients already have when helping them to create a new space. Now, sometimes they want to chuck the old stuff but often, especially with the tight economy, we need to find a way to use what we have.

RECLAIM: Beyond Paint is the new paint line by Caromal Colours. This paint makes giving your tired, dated and worn out pieces of furniture super simple!

One of the things that keep many of us from giving an old dresser, hutch or table a face lift is that the process is dusty, messy and a LOT of work. Well RECLAIM takes the work out of the process! No more stripping, sanding or priming!! *happy dance!*

Take a look at this amazing before and after. These are metal cabinets and just look at the red formica countertop trimmed in metal. Ugh, it’s enough to send you to bed in a depression!

Now with RECLAIM, it doesn’t take a complete tear-out to get a new kitchen!

Using RECLAIM they were able to give this dated little kitchen an amazing makeover in a fraction of the time and for a fraction of the price that a new kitchen would have cost them!

As you can see in this picture, using RECLAIM, you can paint right over the metal and formica! {See RECLAIM FAQs for more information.}

As you can see in the “after” photo, RECLAIM has completely transformed this kitchen!

Another reason why I love RECLAIM is because it bonds to just about every stinkin’ surface you can imagine. (Yes, it will stick to glass, metal, plastic, Linoleum, varnish, masonry and even tile!!)

While the science is WAY over my head, RECLAIM using nanotechnology which allows the product to adhere to just about any surface without peeling or chipping! BEST OF ALL? It’s a GREEN product that’s low VOCs, NO odor, and non-toxic so it’s perfect around kids and pets!

The experts at RECLAIM have created the perfect palette of neutral colors, making it easy for you to transform your hand-me-downs into timeless treasures.RECLAIM literally makes it possible to transform your kitchen cabinets in just a weekend!

So what about the cost? RECLAIM comes in quart-size jars. Most surfaces are covered in just a coat – or maybe two which means you save money.

A quart of RECLAIM will cover:

• 9 Doors/drawers and their surrounding cabinet areas (excluding large flat surface areas)
• 1 Average Double or Queen-sized bed
• 1 Twin-sized bed and a small night table
• 1 Single to Double dresser
• 1 Single or Double Vanity and a mirror frame
• 1 Moderate desk and chair
• 1 Moderate book case
• 1 Small end table and a coffee table
• 3-4 Chairs with seats, 6 average chair frames with upholstery removed
• 1 Dining room table

One 32 ounce quart jar of RECLAIM is just $39.95 plus tax and shipping. Seriously, this is SUCH a great deal! To think I can have a “new” dining table for $50? Crazy!

If you have a bigger project, a gallon of RECLAIM costs you $119.95.

RECLAIM is available from Home Shopping Network OR, if you’d like to save money on shipping, you can call and order directly from Caromal Colours at 800-284-5757 and use Devine Devine’s discounted shipping code: DevineD.

 

I think we all look for unused or underused space in our homes that we can reclaim.

It may be under-bed space for storage or getting creative and using space between the wall studs, like this sanitary storage cabinet that holds your trusty toilet plunger and brush.

We just finished a project at our house where we reclaimed some underutilized attic space. When we first moved into our home, we had two unfinished attic spaces and one was a narrow area with a pitched ceiling.

You can’t really see if in this picture but there is a dormer window in this space. Believe it or not, the builder just ran the rafters right through the space. Why they didn’t header it off is beyond me!

Anyway, we finished this space {which goes into a larger, more usable room} and it was where I stored a lot of the smaller accessories that I use {or don’t} for my design business.

Last year my hubby was wishing he had a place other than the basement for his keyboard. He had also bought a guitar and was looking for a place he could watch the DVD tutorials that came with it.

I also have a water rower machine that we have never had a great place to put.

As I thought about all those different needs, it came to me that we have two attic spaces that we could possibly use to address the music/water rower issues. We need to have accessible attic space to use for storage, but this weird, angled ceiling area seemed to be great square footage to commandeer as a new loft space.

The left wall of this space was shared with our catwalk area and you can see what it looked like when we bought the house in this photo.

{Yes, isn’t the oak stair railing, ceiling fan and door casing trim just beautiful? Ugh.}

I could just imagine a usable loft in that space {and a new stair railing!, new fan, trim, wall color, etc.}

Over the years we have changed out all our interior doors in the house. You can see that they were your standard, 6-panel hollow core doors. {The door at the end of the upstairs catwalk goes into the storage space.}

Here’s what it looks like now, after finishing the new loft project. We redid the railing while we worked on this project (and changed out the trim kits of the pot lights from black to white).

Stay tuned for a tour of this new loft space and a post about the barn doors we installed!

I snapped this photo with my iphone, so I apologize for the poor quality.

It’s been a while since I have had a Fantasy Friday and it’s because I have not found anything worthy of the name. Well . . . it has been worth the wait as today’s tour is absolutely breathtaking!

Welcome to this breathtaking contemporary home in Laguna Beach, California. {Feel free to click on any of these pictures to see a larger version!}

This amazing home is on the market for just under $6 million.

This home is contemporary in style and I love that the furnishings complement that design style as seen in this picture of the living room.

While I personally like more of a transitional look, I can completely appreciate the recent remodeling that has been done on this home.

They created a more transparent plan, opening the living areas of the home to the views which is perfectly showcased in this panoramic picture. Bravo! The architecture blends beautifully, never detracting from the amazing view.

Have you seen the movie “The Holiday” that came out a few years ago? It stars Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Jack Black and Kate Winslet.

It’s a charming movie but I fell in love with a couple of things in the movie which makes it one I could watch over and over.

I love the little English “Rose Hill Cottage” where the Cameron Diaz character stays over the Christmas/New Year’s holiday. I was so sad the learn that the cottage was built by Hollywood in just four days so it wasn’t a “real” house.

Beyond that little cottage, my favorite thing in the movie was the tent in the little girls’ room. Do you remember it? It was so enchanting!

I took these photos with my iphone camera as we watched the movie. Mr. DH had to pause perfectly so I could get the shot.

This tent is a little girl’s fantasy (and the little girl in me would LOVE to have it! *sigh*)

Drum roll please! Benjamin Moore has announced their “color of the year” and it’s Wythe Blue, HC-143.

This is a classic color from their Historic Collection (HC). It’s a great color – I used it in my cousin’s house when they bought it several years ago. We did their foyer and guest bathroom in this soft hue.

The color could be a close relation to Tiffany Blue which every girl loves – Wythe is just a calmer version of it.

Benjamin Moore says of this color, “It’s a beautiful, calming hue that has an element of heritage and offers grounding rootedness, providing comfort and stability.” Hmmm, grounding “rootedness” huh? Well, whatever that means – not quite sure

The pros at Benjamin Moore say that blue is, “much more versatile than you may think, blue is truly a classic color. It has universal appeal, never goes out of style, and is overwhelmingly chosen as a color favorite across North America. It evokes the sea and sky, physically calms us, and symbolizes trust and commitment.”

They selected this color “because of the influence that blue has in our world today.” Well, it certainly is a far cry from Pantone’s 2012 Color of the Year, huh?

Just wondering, which color do you like best?

I hope you had a Merry Christmas! With the start of the new year just a day or two away, are you thinking about the changes you want to make for 2012? .

This past week I was out furniture shopping with clients. Typically it can be a stressful process but I was happy to hear them say that “this is so fun” because they had my help.

I was interviewed for this article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and was asked to give strategies and ideas to consider when bringing in a few new pieces of furniture. Hopefully you’ll find it helpful if you’ve got new furniture coming in 2012.