In this week’s design ramblings, Kriste and I talk about the bathrooms of two of our viewers who sent in pictures. The first space, belonging to Brooke, is lovely!  Both Kriste and I gasped over the claw foot tub.  It’s a beautiful space, but the tub, that should be the feature, gets a little lost against the white walls. The second space, Katy’s, is a pretty typical builder-grade bathroom with a garden tub and separate shower.  Katy really wants to take the tub and shower out, install a shower/tub combo and add some built-ins to make the space more efficient for how they use it. And now, we ramble. I had some serious giggles before we started shooting this one, but I managed to pull it together. In case you want a closer look at them, here are the inspiration pictures I shared.  These two are from my master bathroom…

For those of us who love collecting pretty things, there is a problem.  When is enough, enough?  When do the amazing things we own prevent our style from even being visible?  Our style is buried under the clutter.  Too much furniture and collectibles wedged into a room not big enough for it all.  But we love it all, so how can we get rid of any of it? I went through this in my living room, especially.  It’s a really small space, but I wanted to fill it! While I loved everything in the room, I realized it wasn’t really the look I was going for.  It felt too busy and crowded.  I wanted it to feel light and airy, so I started rearranging and editing.  I remember having a moment when I stepped back, took in the space, and thought, “There it is!  There’s my style.” (Sorry, I need

Happy Friday!  Kriste and I are back with another episode of Design Ramblings.   In our 10th episode (woohoo) we talk about investment pieces for the home.  It took me many years of decorating and redecorating to learn that some things are worth a splurge…   Yep, I’m a little bit passionate about bed frames, in case you didn’t notice!  The bed frame I mention in the video is the Vienne bed from Restoration Hardware… The sofa I have is the Brooklyn leather sofa in Toffee from Pottery Barn… And the “cow paintings” we talk about are by Cindy Austin, who sells prints of the originals in her Etsy shop. What are your favorite investment pieces?  What are you saving your pennies (or gift cards and credit card points) for?

It seems like, for most people, a stepping stone to home ownership is renting.  It’s probably safe to say that most of us started out our adult lives as renters and many are still renters for various reasons.  Living in a rented space was the norm for me as I was growing up, since my dad was in the military.  I also experienced renting for the first six years of our marriage and now I’m experiencing it again as I’m renting the studio space for my business. For those of us who love decorating, renting can be frustrating.  We want the option to customize our space, but usually we’re not allowed or it’s not worth the time and money to make improvements to a space that isn’t ours.  There is a lot you can do in a rented space, though…everything from peel & stick wall paper to starching fabric on

Ceiling fans can be a hot topic, believe it or not.  There are folks who are all about function.  They want air moved in a room and it doesn’t matter how ugly or obtrusive the air-moving-device is as long as it’s doing the job.  Then, there are people who will remove a fan from the hottest, stalest room and replace it with a chandelier…all for the sake of form.  More often than not, males are the former and females are the latter and thus the war rages. I do think that fans have come a long way and there are a lot more out there that can help bridge the gap, straddle the fence and make peace in the form vs. function debate. And that is what Kriste & I are rambling about in this episode… And, for a little fun, I took the snippets from the digital “cutting room floor”

Today was a big day.  We hosted our very first workshop in the Mustard Seed Studio!  Twelve delightful ladies attended and I think it’s safe to say that we all had an amazing time.  Here are a few pictures as a preview, but I’ll be sharing more, of course.  For Design Ramblings this week, we decided to chat about another trend prominent on blogs, Pinterest and in magazines – Farmhouse style. Why do we think this is so popular and what are some ways you can bring that look to your house…

Kriste and I thought we’d mix up the ramblings a bit and talk about contentment and how it relates to our homes.  I’ve written about contentment before and it’s something I’ve struggled with off and on.  I’m sure it’s something we all struggle with, especially in the day of blogs, magazines, Pinterest, HGTV…there are so many sources of inspiration, but they can also make you feel like what you have isn’t good enough.  It’s easy to stir up feelings of discontentment when taking in so much eye candy! As we’re working in the studio, Kriste and I often talk about heart issues, so we figured we’d carry that over into our ramblings…