Glazing Technique & Faux Finishes

Once you have taken the step to adding color to your walls, why not take the next step and do a faux finish over it? I have posted a few different faux finishes that you could try in your house. All of the pictures don't do any of these techniques justice.

I posted this picture earlier but I wanted to explain how we did it. It is really hard to tell from the picture, but it really is cool in person.

-First we painted the wall with a few coats in red.

-Second, we took a sponge, textured roller and rolled yellow over the wall in straight lines down the wall.

-Third, we put latex gloves on and smeared an orange color around on the wall very speratic.

-Then lastly, we rolled back over everything with the red paint once again. The red doesn't cover completely so the yellow and orange just barely show through and creat this effect.

These next 2 pictures are of my sister's house. She did this Leather technique in her basement and it turned out awesome.

-First she painted the wall a burnt orange color.

- Next, she took some wood stain and painted an 18"x18" square with the stain and then pressed a plastic bag flat against it and then pulled it off. You need to blot the bag where the squares meet so that it doesn't look like a patchwork quilt.

I have had a lot of people wanting to know how I glazed or stained my walls, so I decided to make a video clip of me doing it in my house to show you how. This technique is such a cheap way to make your house look FABULOUS! All it costs is a quart of stain which costs about $7, some painter's tape and cotton rags. One quart of stain can do a whole house or more! It goes a long way so it is definitely worth the little bit of money and elbow grease :)

The video was to large to post straight on the blog, so here is the link to watch it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYe1H-kI_ys

Fear of Color!

A common thing that I run into as a designer is that people are afraid of color or making a color choice for their walls! Nothing can change the look of your room for a better price than paint. I am a HUGE advocate of painted walls. We don't do plain walls in this household. My advice to everyone is Be Daring! I have never been afraid to paint a wall. Have I always liked the color afterwards... No. But do not judge a color while you are painting it on or even a day or two after. Give it time to sit. Go sit in the room and see how it makes you feel. I am HUGE on having a room make you feel good. Which brings me to the next point I want to talk about:

Please paint your walls a color that makes you feel the very best. So many people paint there walls what the trend is and afterwards they don't feel real great with their decision. For example- I love the look of the Blue and Brown trend we have recently seen. I think it is a very elegant look, but I could never have it in my house. For some reason, the color blue gives me a yucky feeling! I don't know why, it just does. My whole house is warm colors: reds, oranges, greens, golds, etc. I like the feeling of my room being a blanket for me, warm and cozy. You need to feel safe and comfortable in your own home and painting your walls the colors that you love is a great way to do that. A gallon of paint on average costs about $20 - $25. Some colors will take 2 gallons, but in my experience, you can do alot with just 1 gallon.

The picture above is of my old house. As you can see, I am not afraid of color. I absolutely love this color. I love it so much that I have painted my current house in the same color (pictures will come later). I get so many compliments in my house now of how it makes people feel and how it is so cozy and such a fun color. My husband was very afraid to have me paint the walls this color, but I convinced him to at least do these 2 walls. After he lived with it for a while, he loved it. He didn't want me to paint the back kitchen wall that color, so I did it while he was work one day :) He ended up loving it and wanted it done in our current house also. People are afraid at first and they pretty much always warm up to it and fall in love with color on the walls.
This picture is of my parent's cabin. We did a faux texture on this wall and it completely warms up the space. The rest of the walls are the pure white walls, this color just warms up the whole space and it doesn't feel like this large empty room. When they bought the cabin, every wall was white and it felt so cold and sparce in there, even though it was completely full of furniture.
Some people may be afraid of a really bold color, why not try a darker neutral color? This chocolatey color is so warm feeling and it doesn't make the room look dark at all, you just have to pair it with some lighter items in the room. My baby's nursery is a SUPER DARK brown and it doesn't make her room feel closed in at all because of what I have paired with it (those pictures will come very soon).
Now I hope the Berdan's don't mind me using their picture. They are selling (or did sale) their house and I took some pictures of it. I absolutely loved what they did in their bedroom. They did a 2 tone painted wall and I think it turned out fabulous. Another great example of using fairly neutral colors but creating a bold look.

Honestly and truly, painting your walls is the best way to add color to a room for the least amount of money. If you don't like it, you are only out about $25 and you can find a new color. Home Depot now offers some paint samples that you can purchase for a few dollars to paint a small section of your wall if you are concerned about how a color will look. Take the steps necessary for you, but please take the steps to creating a dynamic room with color and paint.

My House

I just wanted to start my design blogging off with showing people my house. I live in a very ordinary home, really no extra bells and whistles. We started from scratch when we moved in, it was an empty slate on the outside and inside. I have started on it and will show in posts what I have done so far and I will record what I am working on as time goes by. It is a 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath home. We have a living room in addition to our open family/kitchen area and an open office when you walk up the stairs to the second floor. The 4 bedrooms are the master, spare bedroom for company, my daughter Brooklyn's nursery who will be 1 in 2 days and our baby on the way's nursery. Like I said earlier, a few rooms are pretty much done: family/kitchen area, Brooklyn's room and partially the spare bedroom. I have lots of things to post about and I will use pictures from these rooms as examples. I will also use other people's homes like family or neighbor's to show examples that maybe I don't have in my home. I look forward to sharing my design adventure with others, it truly is a passion of mine, and I will definitely give advice or design tips along the way..... maybe address some common design don'ts that people often do :)

I have a confession to make.....

I have a SERIOUS addiction to KSL. If you aren't familiar with it, here in Utah we have a news website that has a classifieds section. You can post anything you want on there to sell... it is awesome. I have sold some things here from my house and then took the money I got from that and bought some new things that I would use instead. I have a lot of things that I am wanting to do or get for my house so I am always looking to see what new has been posted.

I got thinking today. Pretty much everyone out there is trying to save where they can, and the home is no exception. As most of you know, I have my degree in Interior Design and worked in it for a couple of years as well as painting Murals before I started having babies. Through my schooling, my director of the design program would preach high end design all the time. She had her own army of I HATE RC WILLEY clan going on pretty much and I really did come out of school thinking that really expensive design was the only way to go. WELL..... I have lived in the real world as a married woman and a mom for the past 7 years since school I can tell you that I don't think that way anymore!!! More Power to the ones who can make great design on a BUDGET!!!! I PRIDE myself on finding great deals for both clothing and home items. I have recently moved into my new home and so I have lots that needs to be done. I am going to post deals and ideas that I have on this blog to share with others. I have lots that I am working on here in my house and I don't spend lots of money at all on it. So many people are in the same boat and they just want a nice environment to live in without breaking the bank. I have always felt pressure to have my house all put together because people expect my house to be "perfect" with being an Interior Designer.... but we have price limitations just like everyone else and we are trying to make the most of what we have just like everyone else.

I will post pictures of things that I have done or am doing. I will post prices and where I got them to help give you an idea that things don't have to be expensive or brand new to be great in your home. I will show projects of things I have made and how to do them (the best I can). And if you have ideas or questions, please share them! I definitely don't have all the answers and I look for ideas from other people also. Please leave comments also.... If I know people are looking at this and it is useful to people, I will do it, but if I don't think that anyone is interested in it, I will stop posting. Thanks!!