Entre Vous

Morning Blog Peeps!  Hope this new year is finding you well so far.  This post will be short and sweet - just like my entry "room".  

As I've mentioned, we live in a small house, my entry is roughly 4'x4'' - no coat closet, no spare room to place furniture, yah, bummer.  I used the one empty wall to display my skeleton key collection.  I love skeleton keys, there is something mysterious about them.  I don't have a before picture, but these babies were initially hung on nails in a random pattern.......it just wasn't working for me, too blah.  So this is what I came up with:

The frames were on clearance for 10c each at The Bargin Barn (one of my favorite stops for inexpensive frames/decor) and they were already painted the colors that match my house - BONUS!!  I took some white yarn I had on hand and just wrapped it around the top of the frame, strung some keys and Voila!  Entry Decor!  I used two nails to hang so the frames would be balanced.  Here's an up close shot:

There are so many different "things" you could showcase in this fashion and it's really easy to switch the look up using different ribbons or adding decorative paper or fabric to the back. 

Where do I hang our coats without a coat closet?  Well, the office closet is the official "coat closet", but I did hang up some cute bird hooks on the opposite wall to hang everyday items close by.  

 I have a "thing" for birds.  You will see some form of them in every room.  Don't get me mistaken, I'm not a hoarder of birds with a china cabinet full of them, but I try to put one (or two) birds in each room - they make me happy. :)  

Here's a picture of what the whole entry looks like - sorry it's blurry, I need to hone in on  my camera skills, but you don't want to see this clearly anyways.  It needs help!

  

I know, I know, the floor is awful (why did the owners use wood colored trim??), the light is awful, that door is begging to be painted!!  This will be a work in progress; changing out the tile would be a major uplift as the space is so dark, but I am waiting until I am ready to cover the other areas of the room at the same time - right now I have 5 different floorings in this open plan space:  

     Entry:  Dark marble tile with grey grout

     Living/Dining:  Wood laminate

     Kitchen:  Ivory/Pink Linoleum (the worst flooring known to man!!  And yes, it has the little pores in it!!)

     Fireplace:  White marble

     Back Entry:  Beige ceramic tile with a mosaic border with white grout

So, you see what I have to deal with here.  My plan is to cover the entries and kitchen with white tile in a diamond pattern.  That will totally make the space more cohesive and bearable.  That's on my very soon to do list.

So - how do you display your collections?  

Mirror, Mirror

Okay, so I totally should have posted a project post by now, sorry internet world!!

I'm still finishing/collecting my big projects, but I do have a little one.  This mirror:

It used to be my grandmother's and holds much sentimental value for me.  It's an old Home Interiors piece roughly about 20" x 14" that my grandma had spray painted about 20 years ago.  I didn't do a step by step picture montage on this one; the mirror just unscrews from the back so it was really easy to spray paint.  All I did was clean off the dust and used this little baby (this piece was painted flat and is textured and didn't need primer):

Rustoleum Painter's Touch Satin in Aqua

I'm going through an aqua phase so you'll notice this particular spray paint choice on several items I remake fabulous.  Here is the finished product in my office:

Sorry for the smudges; I swear I wiped the mirror down before I put it back in!!!

This room is almost finished so I will have a blog post all about it and several of the projects I did.

_________

Until Next Time - JEN

  

Hi Blog World!

Welcome, Friends & Strangers to my humble (mostly undone) home!  I have always loved reading and searching through blogs, getting ideas on DIY projects for the home, how to thrift and paint.......heck, I just recently learned you could make art out of toilet paper rolls - who knew!  In an effort to share my little (exactly 1,212 sf) piece of the world with you and to keep sort of a journal for my own purposes of the transformations my home makes, I present.........drum roll........The Undone House Project.  Follow me as I make changes, make splurges, make mistakes (plenty) in turning my house into a home.

As a brief intro, I'm Jenny, wife to one big boy and momma to two little boys (8 & 4).  We live in Texas, born and raised and wouldn't have it any other way.  My husband and I both run my family's upholstery shop started many many decades ago by my great grandfather.  Having been around interior designers my whole life and seeing completed projects that we had a hand in creating has been a big inspiration in my interest in home decorating.  I haven't taken any formal classes and I'm not certified (yet!), but I have learned from the interior designers & refinishers we work with along with reading books, mags, & the internet to have a pretty good understanding of the fundamentals of design.  Having been raised in a frugal household, I also know how to do this on a budget; the thrift store & dollar store are my best friend.  I have the wonderful advantage of having to the trade resources at my fingertips and being able to follow the current trends.  I am at heart a vintage buff and am trying to accumulate a variety of unique and antique finds to incorporate into my design schemes.

I look forward to sharing all my escapades with you as I turn my "Undone House" into a warm, inviting home!  Comments & suggestions welcome!!

XOXOXO

Jenny

PS  My next few posts will be of projects I've already completed (I just have to organize my thoughts.....and pictures) as well as a showcase of how my home looked when we purchased it 4 years ago.