As Seen On the Fixer Upper {The Raggedy Ranch}

I'm already a week behind on this.........

LAST WEEK on the show.....Chip & Jo "fixed up" this "Raggedy Ranch" into a gorgeous modern ranch for a single mom.  I have noticed Joanna stepping outside her comfort zone more and more and diversifying her style and decor a bit.  I like to see that.  It hasn't all been her typical "overly country, shabby-chic" style.  Which I also LOVE and ADORE!!!  But it is nice to see her create a variety of spaces.  So, anyway, I love this weeks (last week's) transformation because it is a little more modern for them.

The kitchen turned out gorgeous.  It looks like they used some type of quartz for the countertops, which is different than their typical carrara marble or concrete.  I love quartz countertops.  They would definitely be my #1 choice for kitchen countertops, but are also towards the top end of the price spectrum.

You can find similar barstools as Joanna used in the kitchen at Target.  A set of two of these barstools are only $90.  The hole at the top that you always see in these type of seats, are so you can put your hand in there and easily carry the barstool with one hand.  :)  You can also find them on Overstock.com in a variety of colors.

Carlisle Metal Barstool

The wall clock collage was a fun little twist on wall decor.  It's nice to create interesting artwork out of something besides pictures and posters all the time.  The KEY to making this work, is that all of the clocks are of similar style -- retro, modern.  This way, they coordinate and go together, yet each is unique to one another. 

You can find similar wall clocks to these at places like West Elm, IKEA, and Target.  

Modern Wall Clock Red - West Elm

IKEA Pugg Walk Clock

Geneva Plastic Wall Clock - Target

Moving on to the Family Room......

Gray and yellow is such a classic color combo these days!  It's definitely going to be here to stay.  Yellow can go a looooong way, so just a couple pops of yellow in a space can easily brighten a neutral room.

All 4 yellow pillows shown above in the family room are from West Elm.  

Crewel Circlet Pillow Cover in Horseradish

Scalloped Crewel Pillow in Horseradish

Fake plants are my #1 decor item that I buy all the time and use in every single decorating project I do.  I think each room in your home deserves either a real plants or a fake plant.  Thinking about it now.....every room of my house has a plant -- even the bathrooms!  You can never have too many.

However, with that said, I also find them to be very hard to find for a reasonable price.  I will always have my beloved IKEA plants!! :)  I just picked up 10 last week on a random trip to IKEA. But IKEA is 2 hours away for me.  I can't run there every time I need a plant for a client project.

So, I have found a few alternatives that I am enjoying as close runner-ups.

Artificial Grass Wood Planter Box

You may have seen this one on my Instagram page this week!  I really like the rustic feel with the wood planter box.  And if you have never seen this site, beware, I got sucked in and was looking at everything!!!

Hobby Lobby has a good selection of fake potted plants, but this is my favorite that I use a lot!

Plastic Boxwood in White Ceramic Pot

Fun fact of the day:  Are you familiar with the designer Holly Mathis?  You may know her blog or follow her on Instagram like I do.   Well, I found out her brother is Jimmy Don (I love that name) that makes all of the iron work on The Fixer Upper!  What a creative family!   I thought that was an interesting tid-bit!!! :)

You can see all of the photos and more products used in the Raggedy Ranch from the Magnolia shop on Joanna's blog.    Did you watch THIS week's episode yet?!?  I haven't watched it yet, so no spoiler's!  But I plan to blog about it later this week!!

A Fun Black & White Playroom

What little kid doesn't dream of a playroom like this?!?  My niece is one lucky little lady to call this playroom hers!  Where she can get lost in a book while curled up on her shag rug under the tepee!  Let her creative juices flow on the hand painted chalkboard wall.  Or dance around in circles as she loves to do on her chic black & white rug!  I know my sister and her family will be creating a lot of memories in this cozy spot of their house!  

My sister's goal for her daughter's play room was to start with a neutral black & white color palette.  From there, she introduced color into the room with artwork, fabric, pillows, and her daughter's artwork!  Anyone can achieve a playroom like this!  It doesn't have to take a lot money.  All of the big pieces are from Ikea, except the tepee which was ordered online at Etsy and the sofa.

What really makes this space work was the planning my sister did ahead of time.  There is absolutely no wasted space.  Each little corner has a purpose -- reading corner, art center, storage for toys, and a place to watch cartoons!

How fun is this DIY mounted deer head made out of paper-mache?!?!

I bought the paper mache deer head at Michael's and it comes as an unfinished brown paper color.  So I spray painted it gold.  

The wood mount was also purchased at Michael's unfinished and then stained brown.  These wood plaques come in lots of different sizes and shapes for projects.  The deer head already came with a little hook on the back so we could easily just hang it on the plaque!  

One of my favorite things in the room! 

Got me thinking about some holiday decorating!!  This is an image of the same paper-mache deer head used for holiday decorating, from Micheal's website.  

Find more pictures and more details about this sweet black & white playroom on my sister's blog including my adorable niece playing in her new room!

JLM Moments

Styling Bookcases

Styling Bookcases are one of my favorite things to do!  However, I've found it is one of the hardest things for my clients.  It's all in the details, the personal touches, and sticking to the design basics. 

For this client, I really needed to pull out all the stops to stretch the dollar as far as possible.  There was a lot to conquer on a small budget.  So for the bookcases, I kept it really simple and easy.  Using the basics, plants, books, pictures, vases, and baskets.  Typically, I would gather a bunch of accessories from lots of different stores to give the shelves a collected, gathered look.  But here, I kept it simple with basic items from Target and Ikea. 

 

 

1.  Start with a basic bookcase!! 

For this client, I decided to start with a basic black Oxford Bookcase from Home Decorators Collection.  I was looking for something sturdy and solid, yet low priced to fit in our budget since we had to purchase two of these.  These were the perfect fit because they were wide, tall, and came with adjustable shelves.  Check the height!  Measure them out in your space and make sure they are the correct scale for the wall.  Bookcases come in lots of different sizes, so make sure they are right for your space.  This bookcase was originally a six-shelf bookcase, but I removed one of the shelves to have more space for the baskets. 

Oxford Bookcase from Home Decorators Collection

2.  Add in Books from Goodwill.

I always start the styling with a stack of books.  Any and every bookshelf needs books.  Don't have any?  Even better.  I like to use decorative books when styling a bookcase.  I start by shopping at my local Goodwill store.  If you can pick up some books at Goodwill the first Saturday of the month, then you can get them half price!  Even better!! When buying the books at Goodwill, look behind the paper sleeve and see the color of the book binding.  This is what you are looking for.  I pick all of the books based on the color of the binding that matches the room decor.  For this space I chose books with a bright turquoise and blue colored binding for a pop of color against the black bookcases.  Buy more than you think.  Unless you plan it out exactly for each shelf, I always seem to use more books than I originally think I will.   

 

3.  Faux plants are the perfect accessory.

These faux plants from Ikea are my go-to item for decorating bookshelves.  You can pick any container to put the plants in to coordinate with your decor and they come in lots of different shapes and sizes.  They are really inexpensive too, so they make for a great accessory for any bookshelf.

4.  The "Power of Three"

For a really easy rule of thumb when styling a shelf in a bookcase, just remember the "Power of Three" when placing items.  Use only 3 books as a stack, with a small object set on top of the books.  Arrange items in groups of 3.  For a simple, clean look, keep it to 3 items per shelf.  As you can see below, I used the "Power of Three" when decorating each shelf.  The top shelf has a plant, a large picture frame, and 3 books stacked with a small vase on top.  The middle shelf is simple with just 3 larger items.  The bottom shelf is basically a flipped version of the top shelf moving the plant to the center so that none of the plants are directly lined up within the bookcase.

5.  Storage

A bookcase is a great place for added storage.  It doesn't have to be just for pretty objects or displaying accessories.  Bookcases can be functional as well.  With two small kids, this client needed some extra storage in their family room for toys, games, diapers, whatever....So I added 4 black woven baskets from Ikea to each bookcase.  Now they have lots of storage for a quick clean-up!

6.  Coordinate Accessories

Other than books, plants, picture frames, and baskets, the styling of these bookcases are really pretty simple.  So to keep it simple, yet still all coordinating, I bought all of the vases from the same place.  By purchasing all of the same vase, just different sizes and colors, it keeps the styling very simple and stylized. 

Styling bookcases doesn't have to be that difficult if you stick to the simple design rules and just have fun with it!!

Other design projects I've done with bookcase styling.  A Home Office Makeover with custom bookcases styled with vintage pieces in navy and golds.  And a Home Office decorated in a yellow and gray color scheme. 

DIY: Cardboard Letters for Home Office {My Home}

I am in the midst of organizing and re-designing my home office.  I think at this point, it will be a never-ending project.  It seems there is always something to be organized or rearranged.  And then as soon as I think I have it the way I want, I do some kind of craft project in my office and it is a crazy mess again!  Oh well!  That is what the space is supposed to be for!

You can see more of how I started organizing my office here!

I showed you a sneak peek of how I added signage to my office to claim my space in this post.  I just thought it would be really fun to add my brand to my space and to have my company name posted in my office. 

There are SO many amazing home office design ideas I have seen.  See my JSD Office Pinterest Board for more inspiration.  Some people have some crazy awesome craft rooms that I will probably never have, but they are really fun to look at!  I have always loved this home office design from JDS Designs out of Texas.  Jenna transformed a spare bedroom of her home into a home office.  Perfection!  

via Houzz.com

 

I purchased these cardboard letters "JSD" for Jessica Stout Design from Hobby Lobby.  They are about 9" in height.  They were about $2 a piece full price or you could wait until they are 50% off because we all know Hobby Lobby has 50% off sales ALL the time.  I used these same cardboard letters for my niece's 1st Birthday Party too!  They are awesome for lots of different craft and decorating projects. 

I knew I wanted to hang these on the wall above my window.  They come as a basic brown cardboard color, so I really wanted to decorate them and make them look a little prettier.  I like the plain brown look for a more rustic, natural space, but that's not the look I was going for.  I thought about just spray painting them black, but I needed a little pizzazz than that.  So I decided to cover them with 3 different scrapbook papers to give each a unique look.  

But first I need to spray paint them!  The scrapbook paper only gets glued to the front side.  Which means the sides are still visible.  A quick shot of spray paint would fix that.   So what are the push pins for?!?!

The push pins are a trick I learned on Pinterest that actually works really well! The push pins lift the letters off of the ground just enough to be able to get all sides of the letters sprayed with paint and they won't end up sticking to the ground or whatever you are spraying on.  

Since the tops would be covered with scrapbook paper, I wasn't too worried about getting a nice even coat of spray paint on that area, just the sides. 

Luckily the weather was really nice this week when I spray painted, so it literally dried in like 10 minutes!  I think my neighbors think I'm crazy because I am always outside spray painting in my not-so-big "driveway."

Next is covering the tops with scrapbook paper!  These are the three I chose for my design. 

Just trace the letter onto the right-side of the scrapbook paper with a pencil.  If you have a straight edge on your letter, put that end right on the edge of the paper.  Just one less edge to have to cut!

Once all of the letters are cut out of the scrapbook paper, it is time to glue!

I used a homemade Modge Podge to glue the paper on the letters because it is easy to just spread over the letter and you want to be sure all of the corners and edges get enough glue for the paper to stick to.  You don't want the corners peeling up.  My Modge Podge is equal parts Elmer's glue and water.  Just half and half and poured into a recycled glass salad dressing container actually.  Yes, just watered down glue, basically!  I have been using it for almost a year now and it still stays mixed and gluey!!

I spread the glue on with a mini sponge brush.  Most Modge Podge crafts have you paint the top with glue as well.  But for this project I didn't do that.  I have found that doing that with black and white scrapbook paper sometimes makes the black areas smear.  And I really didn't want that glossy look that Modge Podge gives.

I used a super heavy double-sided adhesive to hang the letters on the wall.  I will probably regret that decision the day we are moving and I peel down the entire wall with the letters, but for now, it was just so much easier that way! 

It was a super easy project.  And if I ever get tired of the black and white scrapbook paper patterns, I could easily just remove it or even put another piece of scrapbook paper over it for an entirely new look.  I love this idea for lots of rooms -- bathroom spelling out "BATH", guest room spelling out "GUEST", or a nursery spelling out babies name! 

UPDATE!! 

In this post, as I mentioned before, I talked about some products I use to organize items in my office.  I mentioned how I ordered new baskets and new hangers for the closet.  Well they arrived much quicker than I expected!  And these wire baskets -- OMG! 

 

Yes, that's right, ONLY $10 from Wal*Mart.  I'm not one to usually shop at Wal*Mart.  But when I came across these from another blogger on Pinterest, I HAD to buy these!  I actually bought these online, just so I didn't have to go into a Wal*Mart! 

 

These wire baskets are pretty amazing for a couple of reasons.  They fit in my IKEA bookcases perfectly!  They come with this snap on canvas tote inside to hold all your goodies! AND, it comes with this little black label on the front of the basket to label the bin with chalk.  It is really just a piece of metal painted black than a chalkboard, but chalk writes just fine on it.  And it wiped off easily! Such a good find!

Something about matching hangers in a closet just makes it look so much more tidy and organized.  I also ordered these from Wal*Mart so that I could get free shipping on the wire baskets!

 
My office is slowly but surely coming together to look like a designed space, that is functional and beautiful at the same time!! 

This was my VERY FIRST INSPIRATION IMAGE for my office that I came across back in Better Homes & Gardens January 2011 issue.  I always loved this office and wanted one just like it!