Quick Fix

Want to give your kitchen, bathroom, or wherever you may have tile a face lift without breaking the bank? Enter 2 jane! This online store has the greatest "tattoos" as they call it. They are removable decals that you can place on your tile. The colors and designs are so fun to choose from, and it really adds a new look for a very nice price.

























Tattoos are just one of the items they sell, they also have winow films. If you have a window that you don't want people to see in, but you want the natural light,then you can place the film on top of it.














You can cover the entire window like above or make a pattern and only do every other glass pane in a door like below.













I don't think you can go wrong by choosing anything from this store, it's such a great way to update and stay within budget!

All images via 2 jane

Tuesdays Organizing Tip #2

There are many ways to organize the books you have on a bookshelf. You can arrange them by color, size, or genre. Some of these methods may be a little harder depending on your collection of books. For instance, you may not have enough orange books to complete the look you are trying to achieve, or the right sizes of books. Here is a before picture of what a collection of books may look like. Different sizes, colors, genre and so on.
















Now here is the after

















What I did to make the books look cohesive without trying to arrange them in an order is take the jackets off. Most people don't think of that, but the book underneath is often prettier than the jacket. The hard cover generally has a different color and more texture. I put some of the shorter books on their back and stacked them with a milk glass vase on top ( I may or may not have a slight obsession with milk glass).

It's nice to give your bookshelf an arrangement instead of having the books go straight up and down. Your eye travels in more directions, and it's another way to use more accessories in your home.

Here are some accessories that work well in a bookshelf, on top of books, or to separate a section of books.

If you were to line up a stack of dark books and place this flower votive (seen below) on top, then it would create a contrast and bring life to the shelf.













These woven balls add great texture to the smoothness of the books.













I love these sleek boxes. Place a few throughout the shelf and you have instant storage. Place your remotes, keys, manuals to the tv, etc. You can never have enough (cute) storage!
















votive candle,decorative balls, and boxes

If wishes were fishes...

...Then we'd all be swimming. I think this saying is so funny. I heard it from my dad growing up, and now I seem to be the only one to say it. My husband thinks I sound 95, but I love the phrase. So today my wish would be this amazing mirror!




















I wouldn't mind pairing it along side this room either


















mirror

Local Spotlight- emiliejayne

Another reason I wanted to start this blog, aside from sharing my ideas and finds, is to spotlight local shops in Salt Lake City. My goal is to let my readers know what kind of local shops are in the area. I will be posting my interviews once or twice a week from now on. The first store I'm starting with is emiliejayne. It's a great consignment shop located by Trolley Square. Consignment is when you take furniture and accessories in to the store for them to sell. When your items sell you get a percentage. I wanted to start here because Jayne, the owner, gave me my first job, and I worked there for almost five years. I still go in all the time to buy and consign.



















Emiliejayne does such a great job with their displays. Since everything is on consignment they don't know what they will be getting in from one day to the next. This makes it difficult to maintain displays, but they do a great job of showcasing what they have.

















I love the red, white and turquoise display for this month. Everyone uses the regular navy blue, but what a fun and modern way to bring an old classic to the next level.



















Emiliejayne has been open for 7 years now in this same location. They sell a lot of accessories, and that is what keeps people coming back. To make it easy to find what you are looking for they color coordinate all their displays. Either by one color like turquoise, orange, and pink; or they combine black and white; or pink and green.




















I love the gumballs in that jar and in the display. You can buy that cute container with the gum! What a fun gift to someone.

They have a kids section in the back and you can always seem to find those great vintage ABC blocks. She sells the cutest jewelery and fun furniture. This should be a place to come visit. There is something for everyone at a very reasonable price!

emiliejayne
801 South 800 East
Salt Lake City
801.359.3356

Stay tuned for the next local spotlight, it's literally just around the corner!

Lonny

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The online magazine Lonny never disappoints. They always up-one themselves with their next issue. I just wish I could subscribe and get a hard copy. I love to sit on the sofa and read my magazine and tear out pages, I'm still getting used to all these online magazines, but never the less still amazing! You can read the latest issue here

One thing I love about looking through blogs is finding inspiration. When I see one idea it turns into a slew of other ideas. That is how my design brain works. I see one small thing and come up with a whole new idea. Ever since I saw this room I was hooked on it. I love the personality that shows through her house. You can tell who she and her family are by the photos, the accessories, and the overall theme. It's one of those houses that seems so inviting and warm, like you could just curl up on the sofa. Make sure to check out her whole post. She included before and after pictures of the transformation! Here is the post about how she did things.













































She's incorporated some easy do-it-yourself projects to make this space all about who she is. For example, the pictures on the side wall. This is a project you can do by taking your favorite photos and having them printed on canvas. She put a map in her dining room to show all the places they have traveled, which makes the room much more personal and fun!
















This is a picture of her entry way that she posted a few weeks ago. The colors are clean and fresh. I love the silhouettes on the side wall. Yet another aspect of the space that is unique and portrays her family without words. Her design style is so effortless.

I've had this project bookmarked for about two years now. There is something so interesting about the simplicity of the pvc piping used. This is one of those projects that is like "Why didn't I think of that". One day I will do this, but smaller, and paint it maybe turquoise or green and use it for my front door.




















You can find all the instructions on how to do it here

bulls i

Image from the wonderful Oodeedoh

Grey and yellow seems to be the new black and white these days. This color combination is turning up in bedrooms like this gorgeous one below, and even little boys rooms. It can go from stunning to playful. To make it more playful the yellow would be a little more creamy and they grey would lighten up a few shades as in the nursery above.













Image here

This designer could not have nailed it better with her bedroom makeover. The transformation is incredible. I love every aspect of this room. It is tailored and adventurous. Most people are scared to paint walls a dark, almost black color, but this works on so many levels. By adding the right furniture and accessories you can lighten it up and add contrast.

Here is her before:
















And another after photo:

Tuesdays Organizing Tip

Every Tuesday I will be doing an organizing tip to bring ideas that maybe you haven't thought of or just needing a new idea. Today's tip is using an over the door shoe organizer. Most people use them in their bedroom closets to keep their shoes together but it has many more purposes.


















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Kitchen: Hang this in your pantry closet to store spices that aren't used as much. Snacks for the kids, seasoning packets and much more

Coat closet: Have it house your mittens, scarfs, hats, and small umbrellas. If you have more than one child they each could have a row and they can store their small belongings in there

Bathroom: Have it in here to put your hair dryer, straightener, curling iron, hair accessories, extra lotion or whatever you have laying around

Outdoor: Hang this in your garage or on the back part of your fence. You can put water toys in there, sunscreen, water guns. Just poke a little hole in the bottom of each one so that water can leak out

Craft Room: This is such a handy tool for all those scissors or markers, or any extra craft supplies you may need to get quickly. It would be perfect for kid's art supplies. This way the kids can easliy access their paints, brushes and crayons.

You can find these organizers all around now. They even have cute looking ones, so if you had them show they wouldn't ruin your design

Outdoor Living

Outdoor living spaces have become more popular. They really extend the square footage of your house. An idea to spruce up a front porch while staying in budget but adding a huge statemnet would be to paint on a rug.














Making it Lovely

This rug is so darling and what a difference it makes. It completely pulls the porch together into a finished look. The link above takes you to the post of her showing how she did it. It's a great step by step. Plus her blog is fun to read.

Here is another painted on rug. They painted a base coat and then taped off their design with painters tape and added the white.












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Another way to do the rug that is probably the easiest is by using a stencil.


















via Sunny's Goodtime Paints

You could use a base coat of turquoise and add the stencil on with lime green. The color combination is endless.
















Here's a mood board showing one color combination you could use. The turquoise and green pop together and make for a fun setting.

Better Homes

A few days ago I got the July issue of Better Homes and Gardens. About 50 pages in is such a great article about sprucing up for not a lot of money. He gives some tips and tricks on how to make a statement in the room while not breaking the bank.

The before

















The after
















1. Use pattern. This besides paint I feel really takes a room to the next level. Paint is the cheapest thing you can do to change the way a room feels, and you can do the same with pattern.

2. Corral It. In his design he used a bright yellow tray on the coffee table to store things in an orderly fashion. If you have a collection of things, like figurines or small vases it makes a much bigger impact if you group them all together than having them all over the place, and one way of showing them off is putting them in a tray.


















Trays from CB2


3. Think Big. He took the small picture on the table and enlarged it to make a bigger statement. Another thing you can do with pictures and enlarging is take one of your favorite pictures or art pieces and section it off. Enlarge only that section and you have a very unique piece of art. By enlarging one section of the picture you have a different image of something that you already like. This picture makes a huge difference in the room. In small spaces people tend to buy small things, small nick nacks, small pictures, small furniture. It will actually make your place seem larger if you buy bigger pieces. This really grounds the room.














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4. Go lighter. If you have a bulky piece of furniture in the middle of the room it takes all the focus away and draws your eye to the lump in the middle of the floor. He used an open glass coffee table to allow your eye to see the rug and to see the other side of the sofa. Being able to see through the coffee table will make your room that much bigger.
















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5. Shop at Home. He used the same lamp that was in the room before, but switched the shade to a softer linen shade, then a bright white one that was on there. It's interesting when you "shop at home" to see the things that can work one place better than it was before. If you need a change in one of your rooms, instead of going out to purchase something first take a walk through of your home and see if there isn't a chair that would fit better in the living room than in a bedroom.



















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6.Cover Up. He covered a table in the corner with an attractive table cloth. This not only makes a drab corner perk up, but bonus you can hide that non attractive table you've had forever. This piece of furniture now functions on so many levels. Daybeds are a perfect example as functional furniture. It has two uses, an over sized sofa or as a bed when guests come over.





















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Another thing the designer did to add a punch was use ribbon around the existing pillows to create a square within a square. This is such an easy idea everyone can have "new pillows" in minutes. From this you can expand to even ironing on a motif, or cutting out a shape from a fabric and sewing that piece on in the middle or on the side to create a asymmetrical look.

What is the right price?

There is an interesting discussion going on over here. She brought up an article from the New York times about a designer who would have charged $10,000 for this room makeover. The comments give an idea of what really happens behind the scenes of designers.















Picture from Little Green Notebook