The Assignment Should You Choose To Accept It...

... is to stick to the statement I made a couple of weeks ago:

I said, out loud, where people could hear it,

 " I'm not buying anything for Christmas decorating this year except lights

 and the live tree and/or greenery."

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(And an unrelated thought, "Oh how I wish I could whitewash my brick!)

I said it. And I mean it. 

(probably won't need quite this many lights!)

 #oythepowerbill 

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I've been simplifying Christmas for the last couple of years but this year we are using what we have or our noodles to come up with something that doesn't require a trip to the store.

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I have donated a lot of Christmas decor the last few years but I still have too. much. stuff.

I'm not being Scrooge-y. 

I love the season but I want to focus on that 

and not get to wrapped up in overdoing the decor. 

Tall orders for me.

 I have been known to repaint a whole room in a day or two 

at the beginning of December in order to decorate it for Christmas. 

So I guess after making that  bold statement above

 I'm going to have to DIY some of these:

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I also have not started decorating one. single. thing!

I know ... #gasp

I went to the beach for Thanksgiving 

and I've still got to refocus after all the seafood and glorious sunshine.

Some of us are having a hard time getting back to reality....

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Junior League Christmas House!

In the midst of the One Room Challenge hoop la

 I was invited to be part of the design team at a house on the

 

2015 Junior League of Woodstock Christmas Tour of Homes

.

That's a mouthful.

And pretty "big league' for me.

 

The lead designer at this home invited me to help and I chose two small areas.

Let me preface by saying that this was a model home. 

 The only nonresidential home on the tour and it was drop dead gorgeous

 from top to bottom.

It's very industrial chic and lots of moody colors and textures.

 To die for painted brick in the interiors in some spots.

 Really amazing.

I want to move in.

 

 

 

I chose a desk/study area in a small landing at the top of the stairs.

It's the hallway between the master and the other bedrooms. In many floor plans it's open in this area like a catwalk but this is a great use of space.

 I knew I wantd to do a gift wrap station.

And I wanted it to look like it was in use right now!!

 

We covered existing framed art that we couldn't move with pictures of the Big Guy in Red that I printed off of the internet.

We typed notes to Santa to go in the antique typewriter and left lists of naughty  and nice people laying around on the desk!

This cart was very popular. It's a hand me down .

It is really used to store floor plans in a drafting office but I like gift wrap better :)

 

 

 

It was a ton of fun and the hit of the whole deal was my tomato cage tree in a galvanized bucket.

 It's so simple and easy but sometimes that's the best.

We have a couple and I use them on our screened porch at Christmas. They have pebbles in the bottom so they don't blow over and I use plastic ornaments.

 

 

My other spot was in th kitchen on the main level.

 It was a huge bakers rack in between the kitchen and eating area.

 I knew what had to happen there the minute I saw it ... cookies for Santa!

 

This popular guy made an appearance at the Christmas Tour of Homes

 and, once again, was a big hit!!

 



 

I made stacks of air dry clay gingerbread men (I use Crayola Model Magic), painted them  and glued them to cookie sheets, spatulas and drying racks from the Dollar Store.

 

 

The "Fresh Milk" sign was a last minute, night before the tour project.

Someone asked how old the sign was and we said, "24 hours :)))))"

 

   Mollie helped me swirl white paint in milk bottles and add cute straws.

what did we do before you could buy cute straws in every color??

 

It put us all in the mood to decorate at home after Thanksgiving.

And that may be all the cookies that get "baked" this year.

 

Think I can get away with it??? 



#motherdaughter One Room Challenge - the Details!

After the crazy pace of the ORC you would think we had settled down.

Not really. 

There's more excitement to come.

But first, a few deets on the Chinoiserie meets Boho bathroom. 

A few tips and comments on our part and confessing what didn't get done. 

( I have openly admitted that sometimes we get stalled at 85 to 90% finished and,

 well... there it sits!)

Again with the elephant in the room, The ORC room, that is.

This guy steals the show. We can't stop looking at him :)

 He was white before we took a can of our

 favorite gold spray paint and jazzed him up. 

I was cruising through TJMaxx on the way to the Ladies and spied him.

 I grabbed him and just stood there waiting for Mollie to see him!!! 

It was love at first sight- she immediately said, "Sprayed gold!!!! OMG!"

He was under $30.00. We had to have him!

I've had this garden stool since practically before Mollie was born.

 I remember snagging it at a yard sale for $5.00.

It got a coat of our favorite gold spray paint, too.

Which pulled the gold into the WC.

It's handy for books and refreshments during a long soak!!

Don't judge- she's over 21 and recently graduated!!

It's time for non-required reading!!

Both of the shelves in the room are painted lavender! Where did that color come from??

(The cornice boards were constructed form luan paneling. Very simple and easy to make.)

 

If you look closely at the Neo Toile on the cornice boards over both windows 

you will notice there is, in fact, lavender in this colorway. 

Mollie spotted it and wanted to pull it out.

We tried a step down on the color strip and it made our crisp, white walls look dingy. 

Color can be weird in certain lighting so we amped it up a bit and she loves it!!

I think it gives a young, vibrant edge to the room. 

 

It rained non-stop so Mollie had to paint the new color with a brush!! Not the easiest.

 

The cornice boards were constructed form luan paneling. Very simple and easy to make.

We either thrifted or shopped the house for 90% of the accessories we styled the room with.

 She is using the white cookie jar for cotton balls and all the blue and white 

for other bathroom needs like q-tips, etc. 

#stylishstorage

The elephant on the top shelf is a Christmas ornament from Target that we snipped the hanger off of and the gold ring dish on the bottom shelf came form Target as well. 

The wooden owl is a souvenir from her travels.

And a friend of mine let me go to the back room of their commercial greenhouse 

and get a Christmas cactus because they weren't out quite yet.
 Thank you Kelli Green.

Now they are in every grocery and home improvement store in town.

I've already told you about  the capiz shell chandeliers but the drum shade on the fan in the WC was a late night project the night before the reveal. It was on the design board from
 Day 1 but it kept losing its place in line. 
I used an IKEA lampshade and it was super simple!
Cause it's flat!!!! And then it snaps on the rings!!

And I made it work on the fan housing using my new trick. It's amazing.

The jewelry chest was an absolute steal at Goodwill for $20.00

Mollie had been worrying about organizing her jewelry at home 

and this is a favorite element in the room. 

It's missing one knob. And we still haven't fixed that. We will. #oops

The bamboo blinds are by Bali. 

And holy smokes bamboo blinds have gotten pricey. 

We had them in our first two homes ( and I loved them) because they were a cheap way to cover a lot of windows.

 No more. 

But I found the exact size we needed at a place called Ollie's. 

I had never heard of them but they came through for under $10.00!!

Score!!

The rugs are Mollie's. 

She kind of collects them. 

And buy that I mean she buys them excessively when she finds them for a good price :)

They are called Chindi Rugs.

I must confess I have several too.

 They are colorful rag rugs and they add an edgy touch to the room. And great texture.

And I didn't quite finish the shower curtain. 

It is hemmed top and bottom but the sides are just tucked under for the reveal photos :(

I have never sewn so much fabric in my life. Ever.

 It was like that scene from the movie Wind with Jennifer Grey (remember the Whomper?)

Anyway. I wasn't sure if we were going to leave it that full because it was so heavy and has a mind of it's own but Mollie loves it as is. 

I just need to hem the sides and then get a new hanging sitch figured out.

 It is waaaaaay too heavy for the common tension shower curtain rod. 

It was only up for pictures.

The gallery wall will continue to evolve I'm sure.

 We hung that Paris map just a day or two before all the sad events there. 

It's a souvenir of our trip to France last year.

The metal art is from Haiti and the photo is of Mollie and her little favorites in Honduras.
 

And another thing that didn't happen was monogrammed towels. 

I wanted to have towels monogrammed in a bamboo font as a surprise.

 Instead, our sweet Chloe ran up some maj vet bills. Christmas maybe?

I threw a monogram up on the gallery wall to make me feel better :)

The lino print is from a favorite SC artist, Stacy Bradley of PerlaAnne.

I also had planned to change her faucets out. They are the original "builder" issue. Neither Craigslist or Restore offered up any new/overstock fixtures so we are waiting. We aren't looking for anything fancy but,  again, vet bills.

Our white wall, trim and floor paint is the same white from Sherwin Williams.

The lavender paint is Sherwin Williams Awesome Violet. It's awesome.
I've already mentioned the cabinet paint. 

That's about it. 

We painted, thrifted, found some crazy good bargains and used pretty fabulous fabrics.

And Mollie loves it. 

We definitely got this ORC more pulled together than my first one,
but I still love it and hope to put some finishing touches on it someday.

What room shall we do for our third ORC???
Hmmmm....

#motherdaughterorc Final Reveal!!!!

Ta-Da!!!

After 5 crazy weeks and 6 Thursday morning progress posts all Mollie can say is 

"Ta-Da!!"

The #motherdaughterorc Boho meets Chinoiserie bathroom redecorate is completed...

or pretty darn close anyway. 

We absolutely love it.

We are going with "a picture is worth a thousand words" and 

not much commentary for this reveal.

Mollie loves everything about her "new" bathroom, we had a great time working together and we can't choose a " favorite" thing about it.

It's full of color and texture yet all the white and the fabulous eucalyptus candle and fresh eucalyptus in the blue and white wall pocket give it a spa like quality.

And those chandeliers make it so relaxing at night!!

I'll be back in a day or two to talk about what we changed from the first inspiration post, what went well - including the easiest fabric covered drum shade ever, what didn't happen and why, where the lavender paint color came from and where we found some of our awesome items that we styled the room with!!

And thank you to Linda at Calling It Home Blog for creating such an amazing, motivating adventure. 
I can't wait to see all the One Room Challenge posts!!