Project Spotlight: Barn Home Selections

February 1, 2023 Erica Deputy

We were honored to work on some special projects this past year and helping with Bathroom Selections & Design Direction for a client turning a dairy barn into a family home was one of the most unique.

Bathroom material selection can be overwhelming especially when you are working within a budget and and have 5 bathrooms to consider. We were happy to help our client make selection choices for their barn home project - choosing budget friendly materials where needed while still keeping a design forward approach. This project was one of the most unique we will ever be a part of and it was a thrill watching it all come together.

SNAPS from the almost finished bathrooms

Powder Room featuring a concrete vessel sink & barn wood floating vanity

Toile wallpaper paying homage to the home’s roots

Basket weave marble carried through the Primary Bath

Tiny hex tile and farm sinks in the kid’s shared bathroom

The compass star never goes out of style

“Building a house is only, well, completely overwhelming. Erica’s design support helped us to create bathrooms that are anything but basic and boring. She really listened to our initial thoughts and created amazing designs with unique touches that we never would have found on our own. My absolute favorite selections she made are the barn on barn wallpaper and concrete vessel sink in the powder room. We are so happy with the end product! We will definitely retain Erica to help with interior design for our new build.”

Living Room Layers

June 9, 2021 Erica Deputy

The addition of a beautiful new wallpaper to the walls of our living room kicked off some other updates and now the room feels layered, cozy and dare I categorize it as…Swedish cottage-esque?! Maybe more English cottage but I am in love with the work of the Swedish artist and wallpaper designer, Hanna Wendelbo, so let’s roll with it. Read on for all the details - the whole room is the sum of each layered part.

WALLPAPER - Pomona Green Fruit Tree Wallpaper from Brewster

Thank you to Brewster Home Fashions for gifting me this beautiful wallpaper. Brewster carries a variety of lines ranging from budget-friendly to luxury designer and their customer service is great - samples are available through their website and this particular wallpaper design is available in 4 different colorways (I had all 4 sample options taped to my LR wall for about a week before deciding on the GREEN).

As for install, this wallpaper required paste application so we hired a professional for the installation (worth every penny!).

PAINT - Our built-in shelving and window seats were painted Current Mood by Clare Paints but something always felt unfinished about this wall. So we decided to paint the wall around the TV the same color and hang a few pieces of collected art around our TV. In the future, we plan to add a piece of trim across the top of the wall to connect the 2 tall bookcases to finish the space.

Photo by: Alicia Bruce for Choux Designs

BAR CABINET - Turning a secretary desk into a bar cabinet was Greg’s project design but one I wholeheartedly supported (who doesn’t want to light up their liquor?!). Prior to the project we were storing bar related items in this desk but the addition of glass shelving - ordered custom and shipped to us from Dulles Glass and Mirror - and motion activated LED lights really helps this desk turned bar cabinet live up to its full potential!

STAIR RUNNER - It took a really nasty fall up (yes I fell up, then down) these slick, un-carpeted stairs for us to decide to add a stair runner. Greg got the proper tools needed for this type of install and we planned and worked up the courage to install this 24 foot Rejuvenation runner ourselves. Installing a quality rug pad with carpet tape first then using the proper tools (electric stapler) to staple the runner in place, were the keys to success. We did not want to staple or nail into the oak stair treads and we accomplished that goal by securing the rug with staples on the top and bottom of each riser. And huge shout out to THIS TOOL for being the unsung hero of this install.

ART - the final layer. I framed a beautiful original oil pastel painting by Bethany Cochran in a natural wood frame with an island mat from Simply Framed (need to show off those deckle edges) and added battery operated gallery lighting to showcase the piece. I view the wallpaper as large format art so hanging a small (in scale) painting over the wallpaper pattern feels like the perfect top layer.

ORC Fall 2020: Week 6 (The Final Tween Bedroom Reveal)

November 24, 2020 Erica Deputy

And just like that, 6 weeks of planning, designing, building and styling ‘A Bedroom Fit for a Tween’ has come to an end. What fun we’ve had and I am excited to share it all in this wrap-up post. If you’ve been following along, thank you! If you haven’t, see below for a summary and links to weekly project progress:

Mood

Design Board and Plans

Sourcing & Ordering

Painting a border

Installing Picture Rail Molding

Building a platform bed

My little client for this project (soon-to-be 10 year old daughter) played a huge role in her room design. She picked out most of the design elements, was eager to help with all the build projects, and was generally just so excited throughout the process aka the best client ever! And she has a favorite color - can you guess what it is?! Pops of yellow played a big role in the design and it’s all just so cheery and bright. She wanted a loft bed/reading nook - we found hers at Crate & Kids - but we also thought it important to keep her queen bed because let’s be honest, sleeping on a loft bed is not always the most comfy option. So now she has a lounge bed, sleeping bed AND can invite little sister to her room for sleepover anytime she wants.

The beautiful yellow patterned drapes are from a small startup company called Wovn Home and I must say they were a breeze to work with. From measuring help to sourcing hardware, they delivered a beautiful custom product in 5 weeks. This room gets so much natural light which can be a challenge in a kid’s bedroom situation. We had off-the-shelf blackout curtains in this room before but they never really blocked enough light and my daughter was always up with the sun. BUT these blackout curtains actually work and the room is now cavern-like when they are closed, which has made for some good sleeping-in mornings for Blake. Custom drapes are an investment but one I feel totally worth it to make a room feel special.

The pop of yellow is carried through to the patterned duvet. Both my daughter and I instantly loved this pattern by Carly Home. The green color on the duvet complements the blue green Clare Paint on the ceiling and using it as a bed topper really pulled all the design elements together.

Special thanks to Clare for gifting me the border and molding paint and to Wovn Home & Carly Home for treating my ORC project as client work. All three are wonderful small businesses that you (and I) can feel so good about supporting.

Wovn Home Drapes // Clare Border and Picture Rail Paint // Carly Home Duvet Cover

The painting is from Wink Wink Studio and fits so perfectly with the other design elements. I am a huge fan of Suzy’s work which is evident when you tour our home. I love the combination of abstract modern art, with a traditional piece of furniture and a sentimental object - a quilt made by my Grandma on display, sitting pretty, on top of the bookcase.

This bookcase was made by Greg (the little client’s Dad and my hubs) and it is so beautiful and even includes a built-in treasure drawer. He designed it to fit the space (narrow width and front legs only so we didn’t have to cut the baseboard or notch the furniture piece). With his help, I plan to write a future blog post with the materials list and build plan + modifications.

I think it’s important to add wood elements to modern spaces so the room doesn’t read so one dimensional. Each wall of this room now showcases a wood element - a bookcase, desk, bedside ledge (all made by Greg) and a printer drawer turned trinket display shelf - like a natural wood hug around the room.

BATTERY OPERATED SCONCE LIGHTS

A quick DIY project we added during this final week was the black reading light sconces. Instead of getting a plug-in option, we used remote controlled battery powered puck lights and simply mounted the sconce base to the wall without any wiring.

To make the ‘Battery Operated Puck Light Bulb’, we superglued the back of the puck light to a PVC Plug, screwed the PVC Pipe Adapter into the sconce, then secured the plug into the adapter. To change the batteries, all we need to do is unscrew the top part of the Puck Light and replace the batteries when needed.

SCONCE DIY MATERIALS LIST (click photo for source link:)

I also decided to add Brass Corner Bracket hardware to the cork board we painted earlier in the project with Jolie Paint in Legacy (gifted by Stylish Patina). This was an easy way to add some zhush to a boring cork board.

Corner Bracket Hardware - click photo for source link.

Finally, I’d like to report that the picture rail molding is just as functional as it is pretty. The hooks and copper wire are doing a great job of holding even a heavy printers tray.

Phew…this ended up being a long post but we did accomplish a lot during the final week of this project. But really, the most important part of the reveal is that our little client is just thrilled with her refreshed room! For the next month, you can find me curled up in the corner coming to terms with her turning 10 at the end of December.

Finally, I am extremely grateful to Linda and the whole ORC Team for organizing another fun season of the One Room Challenge! What a great way to keep us accountable to finishing a home project while providing encouragement along the way. Click on the logo above to get a dose of serious inspiration from all the other Guest Participant reveal posts.

DISCLOSURE: Some Of The Links Above Are Affiliate Links, Meaning, At No Additional Cost To You, I Will Earn A Commission If You Click Through And Make A Purchase.

ORC Fall 2020: Week 5 (Loft + Platform Bed)

November 8, 2020 Erica Deputy

Are you following along? You should be! So many awesome projects this season - click the logo to see.

We have almost reached the end of the ‘Bedroom Built for a Tween’ project! This is the last post before the final reveal. This week we focused on the bed project and luckily the loft part of the bed (the part we didn’t build) arrived just in time. Originally it was supposed to arrive a few weeks ago but, as all Covid furniture order sagas, it was backordered multiple times. We considered a whole built-in loft and bed project but honestly weren’t super thrilled with the idea of something so permanent being installed in the bedroom.

I found this lovely modern loft bed and knew it would be the perfect starting point to customize for a semi built-in. loft + bed combo. We plan to add pegs, a pin board and a bedside book ledge (can you see it?!)

But first, let’s build a platform bed…

Build the platform frame with 2x6" boards

Find a little helper and lay it all out

Measure that mattress before assembly

Screw the 2x6" boards together to create a sturdy frame (no box spring)

Test the sturdiness

Mitre the corners of 1x12" boards and wrap around the frame

Don't stop there, attach 1x6" boards to the 1x12" boards to finish it all off

Ready for paint

After the platform bed frame was built, we filled the brad nail holes with wood putty, sanded them down and are ready to give the whole think a coat of white paint. We also had some fun design elements arrive this week. Those will stay boxed a little while longer until we finish the bookcase build, do some touch up painting and add additional customization to the loft. I hope to have the final reveal posted on November 22nd (2 weeks from now) so stay tuned for that!

ORC Fall 2020: Week 4 (Picture Rail Molding)

November 1, 2020 Erica Deputy

Let’s install some picture rail molding during Week 4! Last week I painted the pieces of molding with the ceiling and border paint color, Headspace by Clare Paint. The molding pieces we are using are already primed so after the two coats of paint dried, we were ready to install.

I found an inspiration photo on Pinterest and, quite literally, flipped the their concept around. Paint above the molding, white wall below. And with the ceiling already painted, it’s going to create this really cool blue sky effect when lounging in reading nook or bed.

Inspiration from A Beautiful Mess Blog by contributor Mandi Johnson

Our Picture Rail Molding Install…

MEASURE then cut your lengths of molding. Corner joining pieces will need mitered edges. This can be tricky and you might need to adjust if your corner isn’t a perfect 90 degree angle.
Two of the room’s walls have windows and the other two have doors. Err on the side of extra length. This will ultimately save you time because even though you might need to make more cuts, at least you aren’t running back to the hardware store or patching because your pieces are too short!
Mark your STUDS so you know where you will attach the molding to the wall.
Use a LEVEL and don’t rely on your paint lines as a guide then NAIL (GUN preferably) those pieces to the wall

Find the studs and mark with painters tape.

DO NOT forget to use your level while attaching to wall - and get yourself a little helper friend.

make the room…look at that mitered corner!

sources:

HEADSPACE CLARE PAINT // PICTURE RAIL MOULDING // HOOKS

If you’ve been following along, you will see we still have a lot to accomplish on our to-do list. But things are moving a long and I feel good about our progress. Two big building projects are in the works - a bookcase and platform bed - and all the fun details of those builds will be shared in the coming weeks.

DISCLOSURE: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Click above to see what the other ORC Guest Participants completed this week!

But first, let’s build a platform bed…

Our Picture Rail Molding Install…

sources:

HEADSPACE CLARE PAINT // PICTURE RAIL MOULDING // HOOKS

DISCLOSURE: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

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