New House.... New Hope (Pennsylvania, that is!)

 When I look back at my blog posts so many of them have to do with color.  How color affects our mood, how easy it is to use color to update your home and your MOOD!

THIS POST IS NO DIFFERENT - Color affects my mindset.  For all who know me, I LOVE street art!  This is my street art... for now!

Recently moving to "our bucket list town" of New Hope, Pennsylvania part of me wanted to examine what do I want from this house...  how can it be an expression of who we are?

We have been coming to New Hope and her sister town of Lambertville for decades now; spending weekends riding our bikes along the Delaware River on the towpath, visiting galleries, meeting artists, finding great coffee and food; we have always felt a "pull" to this area.  The art and culture here envelopes the every breath!  

So, how did I want to start my next chapter here?  

I wanted to drive up to my new home and feel like, wow, I LIVE HERE!

I want to show you how easy it is to add color to the outside of your house, giving it a personality of it's own!  I work from home (since Dec. 2019) my office is situated in the front room, window facing the street.  This allows me to see my new neighbors walking by with their dogs, or friends. 

I am kind of thrilled at how many of their heads I have turned with this update!  

Here are the BEFORE images... beautiful stone front, landscaping needs some loving care...

Here are the AFTER images!

A strong pop of navy blue... classic yet artistic

We tried a few colors, starting with the Historic colors offered by Ben Moore - I need to follow my own advise that I offer friends and clients... paint a sample on the area you will be painting to look at the color at all times of the day; morning, noon and night to be sure you "like" it.

We ended up with 2061-10 Deep Royal - described by Ben Moore as : A dark, distinguished navy that verges on black

We took out the center boxwood in front of my office window and purchased a beautiful ceramic planter.  With the help of Donna @Gaspers she was able to guide us to the right plants to put in here... perennials and deer resistant with "pops of color" . Donna told us to put crushed water bottles in the bottom, cover with landscape fabric and then special gold potting soil to give the plants the best chance to make it thru the Fall and Winter... the bottles in the bottom help so the planter will drain and not fill with water and crack in the cold of the season.

  

Don't be afraid to try something new!  A new color, add a planter, flowers.. anything and everything that will make you feel good!  You have nothing to loose! Like a good friend of mine would say "WHY NOT"  (thanks amanda  - @indoorfangs  best spin instructor; kept me sane during Covid and still does!)

Re-Purpose Functional Furniture

 Did you ever have a piece of furniture that "works" for you, but over time starts to look old and worn out?  Yet you cannot bear to toss it.... This was the case for these folding tables that we use in our family room.  We love to relax and watch a movie and have dinner at times.  

Most people call these TV Tables!  LOL - which they are in every sense of the word, except they do not hold the TV, they hold the food you eat while watching TV....

I remember growing up they were metal, some with floral prints, an edge all around.  If you were fancy you had a stand that housed them!

Mine were simple, just wood - but over time got scratched and stained.  When we were updating our family room I added a new coffee and side table, however I could not stand the thought of just throwing these away.  

Repurpose, rejuvenate, restore!!!  My favorite things to do!

All you need .....  spray paint, painting gloves, a tarp and a little bit of time. It is also helpful to use this special nozzle head/handle to spare your hand of paint and getting cramped from holding down the sprayhead.

Here is the before and after.....  

I painted them black to match the buffet/TV stand in the room and the accents of the new coffee and side table wrought iron legs. 

Simple Updates... Bringing more light and life into a room!

As I look around my home I have been on a mission to make big changes that do not break the bank. Updating rooms by painting, or re-arranging furniture... things that do not take a ton of time or money but make a huge visual difference can be challenging and fun . 

I know I have suggested this in past posts ....

Did you ever try taking down all the art in a few of your rooms and moving them around? Creating new groups, maybe changing the frames? You would not believe what a difference this could make!

I did this with furniture...  the room settings and arrangement of the pieces I own.  

As we go through the process of thinking and re-thinking downsizing and what that would look like, we have taken multiple trips to furniture stores to try to get inspired.  The argument of "well if we are moving, we need to think about the new space, and not knowing how big it will be, we should hold off".  

This can paralyze you!!!

I love my family room, the size and layout work - but the furniture and carpet?  I was just tired of it all!  In light of the unknown space we might find, we decided to move the sectional sofa around and follow some of the "set up" trends we are seeing in stores; one being using the ottoman as a "backless" sitting area, not as a foot rest or coffee table!

Here is the room before...  you can see this beautiful wool rug (a big investment at the time).  As much as we loved it when we purchased it, we are "bored"... 

I wanted to re-arrange the furniture and add a new carpet that was lighter and would lift the feeling of the room.  The folding tables too, as functional as they might be, and we use them often just looked worn and old.  

** this will be another quick post next.. stay tuned!

Here is the rug we chose to replace this - a foot smaller in each direction; a larger scale pattern, with taupe, grey and touch of teal - matching perfectly to the room!

             Next we were in search for a coffee table and some other items to add to the room to "update" the look.  

When you spend so much time in a room you want a place that feels conversational and comfortable.

Re-arranging the furniture and purchasing the tables was the first step, while we waited the delivery of the new rug. 

• You can see how we inserted the ottoman as a bench seating between the chaise and sofa; purchased a few new pillows, a coffee table, side table (not shown here) and then the swatch of the new rug there to show how much different and lighter it will be!

We did not want to paint the room and we were not prepared to replace the sofa or furniture yet.    I looked in so many stores for the perfect coffee table and found this at a local Home Goods!  Loved the recycled wood look, and the fact that it was round, was so perfect for so many reasons!  It gives space to walk around without crowding the room, no corners to hit your knees/ shins and with our first grandchild on the way, we will have less corners to cover!      In addition, the legs for both new tables match the black accents in the room, including the furniture you cannot see in this photo, that the TV sits on top of...  it is important to look for pieces that "work together" when adding these small changes to a room.

I will spare you the multiple photos each time we added something... here is the final image below!

In the end, I updated the room with the following steps: