Reader Redesigns
Reader Redesign: A Light In The Attic
When I was growing up and my parents would take us to open houses for fun, my little sister and I always picked the most interesting room as “ours”: the one with the secret compartment, the one with the biggest windows, etc. If we were to tour Kristin’s house, I’m sure the attic they transformed into their daughter Ella’s bedroom would take the cake by a landslide… and quickly turn into a big fight between my sister and I about who had “dibs.” Here’s Kristin’s letter all about it:
Hi guys! I’ve been torn for a while about which project to submit, but I’m going to go with my daughter Ella’s room because a) the story involves dead pigeons – and what good renovation story doesn’t? – and b) it’s not a kitchen – our kitchen still kind of stinks – and c) you seem to enjoy a good kid’s room with lots of play value and the flexibility to change things up. So here’s the story.
When we first saw our home, we were drawn to the mansard roof and the attic beyond. Undeterred by the deteriorated brick walls, the water damaged wood, or the pigeon remains, we saw the possibility in that attic for a treetop bedroom and we were sold.
Demolition began and we removed the rotted pine flooring and salvaged a single wall made of tongue and groove pine.
Then we designed wardrobes (we had them fabricated at a local millwork shop) that went in, providing storage and a hiding place for the ductwork that serves this floor and the one below. Next, we covered the exposed rafters and installed beadboard in between.
The best part? Those old pine boards were installed on the front wall, adding texture to a wall that has become an ever-changing activity and display wall for our daughter’s creativity.
See the map sitting in front of those boards on that angled wall? They’re hard to notice in the photos but are really great in real life. The view of the Gateway Arch and the summer fireworks from that dormer are just icing on the cake.
I’ll include a before and after of the mansard we rebuilt (well, mostly my husband did since I was pregnant and then we had a newborn. The mansard is an integral part of her room, but was an expensive necessity! So I always joked to Ella that she had the most expensive nursery on the block (slate and copper ain’t cheap, but our own labor is!) Enjoy! – Kristin
If you wanna read and see more of Kristin’s makeover, hit up her blog for the full scoop on what a lucky girl that little Ella is. Thanks for sharing Kristin! Now, who wants to fight me for that room?
Reader Redesign: Stenciled Seats
The soft spot we have for stencil projects has certainly grown since our office undertaking, but this one by Amy at The Casablanca Transformation would probably win over even the most skeptical stencil fans. And it actually sounds doable in well under fourteen hours! Score. Here’s her letter:
No matter how many decorating projects I do in my lifetime this one will surely go down in history as one of my all time best! I am so happy I had the idea and even happier that I dared to try! Here is the plain white leather bar stool before:
And the after!
I used a stencil from cuttingedgestencils.com and the paint is from turtlefeathers.net and is called Angelus Paint. It is made especially for painting leather (it has a bit of give to it and won’t crack). Since the chairs came unassembled I decided to leave them that way to make it a little easier to stencil. I was amazed at how easy the process was – total time was only about 4 hours.
I loved that I could pick out the exact style and colors I wanted for these chairs – a custom chair at a very cheap price! I bought the chairs 2 for $152 from overstock then add in the $80 in materials and my total cost is $384 for four bar stools ($96 each)! To have these stools custom upholstered in a fabric of my choice would have cost a lot more than that and they would have been ruined so quickly. I am hoping this painted leather alternative means they will stand the test of time and three boys! – Amy
Awesometown, right? You can check out more details over on Amy’s blog. Is anyone else’s head filling with ideas of what else they could stencil? And look at that pretty kitchen in the background. Me-ow.
Update: We just learned that there are some follow up posts about a few pitfalls with these chairs (specifically she wasn’t happy with the quality of the chairs themselves or the acrylic finisher that she used), so more details can be found here and here. Although Amy did drop in to say the actual stenciling process really works and some other chairs that have been stenciled (of better quality) are holding up great (without any acrylic finisher). Hope it helps!
Reader Redesign: Glam-a-rama
Even though we’ve been embracing a clean-lined and colorful aesthetic lately, we can definitely appreciate all sorts of styles. And we’ve still got a soft spot for the warm, layered neutrals that we filled our first house with. So when Rhoda sent over this redo of her sister Renee’s room, it was like a shot of wow to a part of our design brain that we hadn’t exercised in a while. And we kinda want to curl up in what looks like a SUPER comfortable bed. Here’s Rhoda’s letter:
Hi, Sherry & John! Just wanted to share my latest project: a redo of my sister’s master bedroom suite. It’s a big space that had not been touched since 1999, so it was in dire need of an update.
Here’s the new view walking into the room now. That stenciled wall just makes it, I think! My sister and I worked on it together.
She has great taste and had already decided on the colors she wanted for the room, as well as the start to the fabrics. She just asked me for some help picking out the rest of the fabrics, rugs, artwork, accessories, lamps, and drapes. It was really fun to put our heads together.
She already had these nice wingback chairs, so instead of buying new, we opted to have them recovered by a local upholsterer and he did a great job.
We had so much fun putting this room together and I hope you love it as much as we do. My sister feels like she’s in a brand new place now. Thanks for the look! – xoxo, Rhoda
Isn’t it crazy to scroll up to that first shot and see how much it has changed? Rhoda’s got a ton of extra photos and info about the makeover on her blog, so head on over if you want to soak up some more. She even has a peek into the equally swanked up bathroom and sitting room over there. But while you’re here, let’s play the what’s-your-favorite-part game. I’m really digging the recovered chairs and Sherry’s all sorts of in love with that plush striped rug.
Reader Redesign: A Monstrous Duvet
Okay, okay – so we’re taking a breather from our usual kitchen-related reader redesigns to share a super cool project on a smaller scale. Well, if you call a project that involves 120 hand-drawn monsters a “small” undertaking. Now I’ve got your curiosity piqued, eh? I’ll let Jen explain:
My son Daniel is a prolific artist and I wanted to showcase some of his sketches and decided that I would do so on a duvet cover. He designs his own Pokemon, complete wtih names, types, and evolutions and he chose those for the project. Here are his design sheets:
I photographed each chosen design. Then in Photoshop I erased all extra marks around the edge, used the Hue / Saturation tool to effectively bleach out all colour, converted it to grayscale and increased brightness and contrast to get a nice, pure black & white image to trace. Then I resized each chosen character to fit on a sheet of paper and printed them out.
I chose the first image to trace, put it on a piece of cardboard and slid it into the top left corner of the duvet cover. Then I began tracing it with the fabric marker.
This is after about four and half hours of tracing:
Preparing the images took around 2-3 hours (I didn’t take note of the time) and the actual tracing took around 8 hours. I didn’t do it all in one go but worked on it as and when I had time, packing it away in between tracing sessions. And here is the final product, which I am so happy about – and thankfully Daniel likes it too! – Jen
Now c’mon, how cool is that? Daniel not only gets to sleep among his (very inventive!) creations every night, but also gets this daily reminder of how dedicated his mom is to celebrating his imagination. You can check out Jen’s blog for more pics and info on the process, like whether or not it survived the wash (spoiler alert: it did!). Maybe we’ll make Clara one of these someday. And even if kid doodles aren’t your design of choice, I can see this method working to transfer a large handwritten love letter or something. So cool.
Psst- We announced this week’s giveaway winner. Click here to see if it’s you.
Reader Redesign: Open Up
Since we’re clearly in a kitchen state of mind, we had to share Kacie and her husband Kyle’s makeover. With the help of their parents, they took advantage of their home’s open floor plan and created a sweet and much-more-functional spot to fry up some eggs in the morning. Here’s Kacie’s email:
My husband and I just finished our first remodel! When we moved into our house one year ago we knew we were going to redo the kitchen and the flooring. The kitchen was completely closed in and all of the cabinets were poorly placed – there was only one usable drawer! I absolutely love to cook and this was not a cook’s kitchen:
The goal was to really open the kitchen up and make it the first thing you see when you walk in the front door. With our in-laws’ help we spent a month and half remodeling:
We got all of our cabinets, our countertop, the island, our sink, the floating shelves, and our hardware from Ikea.
The new flooring is from Lumber Liquidators (Westminister Rosewood Laminate) and we found our Kenmore appliances at Sears.
Our faucet is from Costco and the paint that we used is Benjamin Moore Providence Olive and Richmond Gray from Home Depot. Our chandelier was from Anthropologie (we got the bulbs for it on Amazon).
We’re beyond thrilled with how it turned out. We can’t wait to really get cooking in here. You guys were a huge inspiration for us. I hope you enjoy the photos! – Kacie & Kyle
Well, the whole “huge inspiration” thing is mutual, guys. You have no idea how encouraging pretty finished kitchens like yours can be as we head into our adventures in backsplash tile! And how awesome is that chandelier over the island? You can check out more of Kacie & Kyle’s transformation on Kacie’s blog. And if you have a makeover of your own to share, you can submit it to submission@younghouselove.com. You know we like snooping around other people’s houses…
