Blog Banter
Our Latest Article In Do It Yourself Magazine
What’s all that stomping you hear? It’s just us doing the happy dance. We’re super excited to share the second installment of our home makeover in Do It Yourself magazine. They shot our house back in October (here’s a fun look behind the scenes) and actually asked us to write a three part series about making over our humble little brick ranch to run in their Spring, Summer, and Fall issues (available everywhere from Target to Home Depot and of course Barnes & Noble). We still can’t believe that we’re bona fide contributing editors for a national magazine (hence all the dancing).
While the last issue was all about the step-by-step transformations that we whipped up in our kitchen and living/dining room, this issue moves on to cover the sunroom, den, laundry nook and mudroom (click to read the text on DIYideas.com). Look here we are relaxing in the sunroom. The funny thing about this shot is that we were actually just sitting there (trying to stay out of the way of the cameras) when the crew decided they should snap a few photos of us enjoying our downtime. Who knew the shot would make the story?! Doesn’t Burger look like a zombie with his little arms out? It totally cracks us up.
We were lucky to have two days of great weather to capture our whole house for the story, and we really liked the cute little props that they introduced to cozy things up for the camera. Can you find the tiny touch that they added to the sunroom?
Yup, it’s a little glass dish of gummy bears on the coffee table. How freaking cute is that? And guess who got to eat them all before the end of the first day of shooting? Yup, we did. But in our defense, we had a lot of help from the crew!
We also love how they let us write about things in stages. Showing the before picture as “Stage 1″ and the midpoint photo as “Stage 2″ really helps us demonstrate that nothing was done overnight. We really learned as we went and each room slowly evolved into the finished spaces that we enjoy today (well, no room is ever really finished…).
Look, there I am with my hammer and crowbar going to town on the half wall that used to be above the laundry center that was hidden behind crusty old bi-fold doors. Oh and we have a little behind the scenes secret to share. Before anyone asks me where I got those adorable ribbon shoes in front of our bench in the mudroom, they’re actually Beth’s (the editor of Do It Yourself magazine, seen here in the left of this photo) so I can’t take the shoe-shopping credit this time. That’s also her cute little jacket on the hook (but the purse and the scarf as well as the purse on the floor are mine). Talk about a group effort!
So there you have it, part two of our little three part series in one of our favorite shelter mags (thanks again for everything Beth, Cat, Erik and Piper). We had a blast shooting with you guys back in October! Stay tuned for the third installment coming in a few months and a super exciting announcement revealing what we’ll be writing about each issue after our last house story hits the presses. It’s something that we’re unbelievably psyched about and we can’t wait to spill the beans! Stomp stomp stomp. Sorry, we just have happy feet about the whole thing.
Behind The Scenes With The Nest Magazine
We’re back to reveal more about our photoshoot for The Nest magazine (which actually took place five months ago). Back then we had to keep our lips sealed about the actual name of the magazine, but now we can finally share a few pictures from that crazy day of posing, puppy wrangling, and pure chaos!
Unlike our Do It Yourself magazine photoshoot (which you can read about here and here), this shoot was only one day long. But instead of the 9am-3pm days that we clocked with DIY, this one was 13 hours long. Yup, from 8am to 9pm. But it never felt long- on the contrary, it whizzed by. And we happily snagged a few behind the scenes photos throughout the day to document what it’s like to have a crew of ten people (a hair & make-up lady, a wardrobe stylist, an assistant to the wardrobe stylist, the photographer, his two assistants, the creative director, the prop stylist, his assistant, and a videographer) styling and shooting their way through your home.
Here are two of the three people who were in charge of making sure we look good enough to grace the cover (I know, insanity!!!). Color was the name of the game (since the mag came out just in time for spring), so they dressed us up in festive and bright clothing and piled on the accessories for a much-swankier-than-we-really-are effect.
And although we cleaned our house within an inch of its life before the crew arrived, of course all that went out the window when they started setting up. Wardrobe, hair and make-up supplies took over our bedroom (check out the yummy spread below) while every other room (not exaggerating) was stocked with everything from food for the crew to lighting and computer equipment.
Sometimes it was a pretty form of chaos, like this gorgeous stack of pillows and props that they had on hand to brighten things up and add some spring zing:
As for what they brought in beyond the pillows and platters that you see above, it seemed like no detail was too small for the prop stylist and his assistant. From laundry detergent (for the storage shelf above the dryer) to olive oil (for the kitchen counter), no item or object was overlooked. And we definitely had fun seeing our house all “dressed up” for the occasion! We’ve learned (from our Do It Yourself shoot as well as this one) that the thing about having your house professionally photographed is that it’s actually someone’s job to arrive with truckloads of pillows and accessories to restructure and refresh each room for the camera. It never bothers us because it’s always entertaining to see what tickles a pro decorator’s fancy (we love options, and seeing how punches of orange or dark green look on our couch is actually fun for us). You just have to be cool with tons of people in your house moving stuff around… and we’re happy to say that we’re totally down!
Of course there were also the monstrous machines and expensive equipment in every nook and cranny to capture each room in perfect light (while no one’s the wiser that there’s a giant umbrella flash just out of frame when they pick up the magazine). Here’s photographer David A Land checking out a few shots on his tripod-mounted-computer-contraption. And you can see everything from clamps to gaffer’s tape and even some fruit salad on the kitchen counter below. So many tools, so little time.
To continue our shots-of-the-crew-from-behind series, here’s the videographer panning around our freshly styled kitchen (a few herbs in the window and some brightly colored bowls got this room ready for action). Do you remember this video house tour over on thenest.com? That’s what he was here for. We filmed it while the photographer worked in other rooms, and occasionally stopped the video tour to pose for still shots for the magazine (which is why we ran out of time on the video tour and had to shoot the sunroom in the dark!).
And speaking of the sunroom, we were actually super shocked when we saw the cover of the magazine because everyone was talking about the sunroom being the big shot for the story the day they were here. In fact, they rearranged all of our furniture in there (the daybed got turned 180 degrees to face the sliding doors) to create a scene that could be shot from the top of a van in our driveway. The reason? To hide the fact that it was clearly autumn and not spring (which was easily accomplished by shooting into the sunroom instead of out of it). Here’s David on top of an SUV trying to get the shot!
And here’s the sample sunroom cover shot that they so graciously left behind for us to admire (they print them out with a fake header and some subtitles so they can roughly see how it’ll look on the cover).
We loved the look of our sunroom in the shot and were actually kind of bummed when we didn’t see it in the magazine. And of course we thought Burger looked adorable on the floor pillow staring up at his dad (who was actually standing on his leash to make sure he didn’t bound out of the sunroom and onto the ground below). But at least we have this photo to remember it by.
They actually ended up using one of our own photos of the sunroom for the story (with green trees in the background) so it all worked out in the end. And that instance wasn’t the only time the camera equipment escaped our home’s four walls. Oh no, it routinely popped up outside in some of the funniest places. Here’s one of the photography assistants among our azaleas placing lights and flashes just outside the den to create optimal lighting conditions inside. I bet you never think about this sort of set up when you glance at glossy home magazines, huh? We certainly didn’t until now.
A few other extremely entertaining moments occurred when we happened upon one of our living room chairs on the front porch and when we stepped into the bathroom only to be greeted by one of the cameras in the bathtub. Well hello there.
And because the shoot lasted until 9pm, the crew created faux sunlight well after the stars came out. Now when we see a sunny kitchen feature we’ll think twice about whether it was even shot during the day. Oh the tricks of the trade.
And perhaps one of our favorite memories of the shoot was when we snagged this pic of ourselves with our “butt mics” as we affectionately called them. Who knew a crew could photograph your entire house and film a video tour in 13 wild and crazy hours?
Of course this was taken on hour 13, so that’s relief that you see in our eyes (the house didn’t burn down, the shots seemed great, and we were somehow able to string together full sentences for the video- whew). Thanks so much to our friends over at The Nest for the glossy feature (we’re actually on their home page today!) and the fun video tour. We always love showing people around our house, and their crew was no exception! And now we’ll wrap things up with a JPEG of each page of the article at a readable size as promised (here’s spread 1, spread 2, spread 3, and spread 4 – just click on each one to zoom in). In the meantime, we’ll just go back to pinching ourselves…
To learn more about the behind the scenes tricks of the trade, click here for some other juicy photoshoot details. And to check out a reader’s awesome bathroom makeover (also pictured in the same issue of The Nest magazine) click here for a pic.
Our Nest Made The Nest Magazine!
And not only did we make the mag, we actually made the cover. I know! There may or may not have been some excited screaming for a few hours after we found out.
Needless to say we’ve been beyond excited about this little write up (which was shot back in November when they also filmed our video house tour). It was a pretty busy day… and Burger got to meet a crew of ten people for the occasion (a hair & make-up lady, a wardrobe stylist, an assistant to the wardrobe stylist, the photographer of course, his two assistants, the creative director, the prop stylist, his assistant, and a videographer).
Yeah, that’s right. They dressed us up (no those aren’t our clothes, but it is our dog!), powdered our faces (well, not Burger’s) and told us to smile pretty for the camera. We were both super self conscious (so many eyes- and lenses- on us) but we tried to keep our cool and act like it was just another ordinary day at Casa Petersik.
A bunch of you guys have actually seen the spread already since you opened your mailboxes and saw our smiling faces! The hilarious part of the story is that we actually never got a copy of our own (they said it would arrive around March 30th but it has yet to find its way to our house) so we finally got to see the story this weekend thanks to a friend who got the mag and met up with us to pass it along! The Nest magazine is a subscription only publication (they send it out to over 200,000 newlyweds, but it can’t be picked up in stores), so of course we were beyond thrilled when our friend called us to say that she had a copy in her hot little hands.
And now that we’ve seen it, we couldn’t be more enamored (and relieved- our nerdy self-consciousness isn’t nearly as obvious in the pictures as we thought it was). Of course the photographer, David A. Land, captured our house beautifully, and the staff over at The Nest did such an amazing job putting it all together. Oh and could our little fur baby have looked any cuter? Did you see that pooch eye contact on the cover? Is Burger not destined to be a star?!
Now we’ll wrap things up with a JPEG of each page of the article at a readable size (here’s spread 1, spread 2, spread 3, and spread 4 – just click on each one to zoom in). And we’ll be back with another post full of behind the scenes details later in the week. So… as we say so often around here… stay tuned!
Psst: here’s that post full of behind the scenes details so you can see how a national magazine really captures all those glossy shots.
We Do Love A Challenge…
We’re super excited to be a part of the 48-Hour Challenge with Better Homes & Gardens and Home Depot. Here’s the deal, Home Depot and BHG selected five of their “favorite home and garden bloggers” (we’re blushing) “to create clever weekend projects for outdoor living using $500 in materials from The Home Depot.” I know! We’re still pinching ourselves. Feel free to pop over to BHG.com and read more about the challenge, oh and you’ll see that our lovely friend Nicole over at Making It Lovely is also in on the action. Fun, fun, fun! We’re actually both sprucing up our front porches so of course we can’t wait to see what she has in store for her gorgeous home.
Speaking of in store, we’ve already done a quick run-through of Home Depot (a la Supermarket Sweep) and picked up some fun little starting point pieces. Although we recently tried to spruce up our porch on a dime with old spray painted chairs and new painted wood planters, we’re about to take porch pimping to a whole new level. Here’s just a sampling of the stuff that we’ve already grabbed and stashed in our sunroom (of course there will also be penny pinching building and painting projects so stay tuned…)
And because we love a good hint (or four), it’s safe to say that our new porch plan includes: some rockin’ new seating, painting between the lines, a bit of a Burger zone, and a 2 minute make-your-own-side-table tutorial.
We can’t wait for our big two day transformation that’s sure to be full of sweat and maybe even some tears of joy (hopefully no blood if we can help it). Throughout April we’ll be blogging on BHG.com about our project preparation and our plan of attack, and then in early May comes the big reveal! Stick around for weekly updates and all the dirty DIY details.
