Archive for March, 2012

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Tour of the New House

We are now closed on the new house in Austin, after relocating from Phoenix!  Yay.  Bear with me as these are just taken with my phone.  I snapped them quickly for family.  I doubt I’ll take any new ones with proper lighting and such before move-in day.

Despite the quality, I wanted to show you all because I hate when a blogger talks about buying a new house, but they never show a tour.  Instead I have to wait until he or she gets around to decorating each room.  (There are a couple that I’ve been waiting on for a while now… obviously.)  I like a good old fashioned tour.  Are you like that, too?

So here ya go!  I’m leaving out exterior photos just for safety’s sake.

The first couple of photos are the entry area.  It’s a 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath home with an office, game room and media room.  Althought it’s a brand new home, we bought it after it was built, so we didn’t get to choose any of the finishes.

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Coffered ceiling in the dining room.

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The kitchen.  I love the large stove top and pot filler.  The backsplash is nice, too.

There is a large pantry that is not pictured.  I will be changing out those pendant lights.

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The wooden beams are in the office.  Wood floors are throughout the main areas except the kitchen.  The fireplace in the family room is angled which is a challenge for furniture placement, but I had no choice.  At least it’s not a bad fireplace.

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First photo is the master.  Second is master bath.  All baths have framed mirrors and granite countertops.  Desk at the top of the stairs.

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Next photo below – lots of niches.  I’m not a huge fan of the niches.  But, I do like that they have a sill on them.  The next is the media room.

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In the first pic on the following row, do you see that angled ceiling above the windows?  That is the game room.  That is going to be a challenge with curtains!  I’m open to links and suggestions.  And, last, a hint of the backyard.

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Hope you enjoyed the tour!   Whatcha think?  We are set to move this weekend!  Do you also hate it when bloggers never show the tour?

kristysig

Posted by Kristy at 1:04 AM 35 Comments
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Monday, March 19, 2012

Planning for the New House

We close today!  Here is a sneak peek of some of the items we’ve been gathering for the new family room/ kitchen/ breakfast room areas.

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We’ve eliminated some of the darker colors and tried to replace them with lighter colors for an overall lighter feel.  These photos were taken in our rental.

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Of course, the real test is always seeing it in the space. The challenge this time has been that we don’t have any exact measurements and haven’t had time to go out just to take them. So, I have not been able to do a 3d design. So, it’s a little less exact, but we’re planning to do something roughly like this.

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I should be sharing photos of the new house soon (once it’s officially ours)!  So far, I’ve just shared the kitchen photo that you see above.

kristysig

Posted by Kristy at 1:47 AM 8 Comments
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Friday, March 16, 2012

Thelma And Louize – Antique Store

I discovered Wendi’s shop when I bought a dresser from her off of Craigslist.  As soon as I went into her home, I knew she must have more elsewhere – this was clearly a passion.  Her home was filled with eye candy.  I had a hard time focusing on what I went for…  So, of course, I had to find out more about the shop she mentioned that she has at a local antique mall.

It’s a lot like Uncommon Objects, if you recall that mention in a recent post.  It has lots of quirky, interesting things with history.  Check out some of the images from the shop.  I have not been there yet, but plan to go soon!

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Be sure to check her shop out!  Do you love shops like this?  They give a great way to add a sense of history and personality to your home.

What do you have your eye on from these pics?

kristysig

Posted by Kristy at 1:56 AM 10 Comments
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Thursday, March 15, 2012

Two More Craigslist Finds

We sold our entertainment center and have our TV stand up for sale.  Instead, we are switching to dressers.  One day, in the family room, we’ll have built-ins and the dresser will retire to another room.  But, for now, here is what we found.

Both are french provincial style.

The first is a Thomasville piece that is repainted with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  And, waxed to finish it off.  The top is just stained wood.  Original hardware.  Very heavy.  The seller is very sweet and has an etsy shop called Nod to the Past.  Check it out.  She will ship things!

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The second is also painted with Annie Sloan paint and is a little more distressed, and a little more detailed.  And, a little larger…  It’s a Bassett Furniture piece.  Also very heavy (solid wood).  Original hardware.

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She also sent a before photo of the piece.

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This lady is a nurse by day, but also has a shop called Thelma and Louize.  Her physical shop is located at the Austin Antique Mall, but she also has a FB page.   I’ll talk more about her shop tomorrow!

A quick update on what we’ve sold from our home.  We have now sold our large entertainment center, desk and hutch from the craft room, leather sofa set, master bed, master night stands, and a few other pieces.  We still have a few things left such as saddle style stools, two fabric sofas, chandeliers, coffee table, end table, lounge chairs, etc.  And, I’m sure once we get moved in and arrange everything, we’ll have a bunch of accessories that need to go.   Touch base with me if you are interested in any of these items.

Things are going well and we are still supposed to close on the new house next week!

Back to the topic of Craigslist.  I put a link on my FB to this fabulous post by Kelly at A View Along the Way.  You’ll want to check it out.  It has lots of search tips on it.  I also read somewhere (can’t remember now) about Craigseasy.com.  It’s fabulous if you are using your computer to search.  You drag an easy button to your bookmark bar.  Then, when you run your searches, you click the easy button and it shows you the results in large pictures only!

Share any other tips you have, any time!

We can’t wait to see exactly where these pieces land in the new house – I have an idea, but sometimes you just have to see it before you know for sure.

kristysig

Posted by Kristy at 7:23 AM 6 Comments
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Monday, March 12, 2012

Craigslist Search Tips and My New Secret Weapon

I recently found some pretty fun things (chairs and coffee table) on Craigslist for the new house.  I also featured some other finds in a post on making your decorating dollar stretch.

In the past, I purchased most of my stuff brand new, but I’m learning more and more to be patient and try Craigslist first.  I usually give it a few weeks before pulling the trigger on something new, depending on how urgent I feel about it.

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A few people have commented or emailed to ask for tips on finding great stuff and weeding through the junk.

Here are my tips:

1.  Consider misspellings.  How many times do we mistype.  Most messages sent from iphones even warn of typos.  So, consider that when searching.  For instance, if you are looking for area rug, try arae rug.  You’d be surprised!

2.  Consider synonyms.  How else can you say Chinese Chippendale chairs?  Chinoiserie, asian, fretwork, chippendale, etc all would work.  There are lots of ways of saying the same thing, depending on where you are from originally.  Same with colors.  Don’t just type teal, but maybe blue, turquoise, blue-green, green, etc.

3.  Be less specific.  If you want the Chinese Chippendale chairs like you see above, just type in chairs.  The yellow chairs above were just listed as aluminum chairs.  Vague.  Most sellers do not know all the proper terms to use.  But, you will need to patiently weed through things. However, I’m going to show you a short cut in a bit.

4.  Be willing to paint things.  This opens up the possibilities.

How to get started:

1.  Start with an extensive search.  Try all the tips above when searching and search as far back as you can.  This may take hours to do.  However, I will give you a tip in a bit that will help!

2.  Once you have done the extensive search, just keep up with the new listings under those searches.

Ready for the short cuts I keep talking about?!

It’s a smartphone app! I just got this on my iphone.  It’s called “Craigslist Ultimate.”  The icon is a purple peace sign.  For $1.99, I promise, it will change your Craigslist life!

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Above are screen shots from the app.  So, you put in the city, price range and search string just like on the website.  However, the cool part is that you see the images along with the blurb on the search results!  No more clicking on each link to see images.  Only click on the link if that initial image seems interesting and like what you are looking for!

You can also save searches.  But, even better, you can set alerts.  So, it will constantly run your searches and alert you when things are listed that fit that criteria!  No more manually searching!

And… You can favorite things you like.  I favorited some night stands, for example, because I first want to get a new master bed before I know what sort of night stands I want.

How awesome is this?!  (Thanks to Ryan Wooley for telling me which CL app is good.)

There’s one more perk.  Do you ever take a photo of something on your phone for a listing?   If so, you can take the pic and you can then post it on Craigslist right then and there from your phone.

Amazing!!  But, there is one pretty major downfall to this app.  Since it runs searches constantly in the background, it will eat through your battery power.  So, you may find that it’s best not to do the alert system and instead just save searches and run them manually every once in a while.  Unless there is something you are urgently looking for!

Hope that helps with your Craigslist searching!  What are your Craigslist search tips?

kristysig

Posted by Kristy at 1:40 AM 15 Comments
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Thursday, March 8, 2012

Partnering on Printable with Blue Soul Designs

I partnered with my friend Sarah from Blue Soul Designs and we created this printable to be sold in her Etsy shop.

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Also comes in these colors plus a couple of others.

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If you are wondering what in the world it means, it’s a reference to Portlandia.

This video helps to explain it.  They go around putting bird cut outs on everything to make it “better.”

And, if you haven’t checked out the Blue Soul Designs Etsy shop in a while, you should.  She has lots of new inventory.

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To buy one of these prints, click here.    As I shared a while back on the giveaway she did, Sarah started her shop as a way to try to raise money for her medical treatment.  So, the profit is going to a good cause.

kristysig

Posted by Kristy at 6:19 PM 6 Comments
Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Guest Room in Rental and Huge Furniture Sale!

We are living in a rental in Austin between selling our Phoenix home and buying a home in Austin.  So, as we did with all other rooms in our temporary rental, we decorated the guest room with what we had on hand.  Here is a glimpse of how it turned out.

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We used the sunburst and rug from the master and the chair from the office.  The rest was from the guest room in the last house.

It’s now on the home tour page. I also added the media room from our last home.

When I showed the family room in the rental just weeks after moving in, some of you were impressed with the speed of unpacking and decorating, but I promised there were boxes around.  So, as promised, here is a photo of the bedroom that we fondly call “the box room” or “the warehouse.”  We also have half the garage filled.  We’re ready to go back to a bigger house so we can put all of this to good use!

We are currently selling the majority of furniture items in our home!

If you are local and may be interested, please check out our home tour and if interested in anything, email me for details!  Everything is fairly new and in great shape!

What’s for sure NOT for sale:
Sectional, area rugs, blue chairs

Not shown in photos on blog:
TV stand from Pier 1, solid wood black entertainment center, camel colored sofa from Pier 1, patio lounge chairs (though it is pictured on our pics of our yard which is linked from the tour), black sofa table…

What IS for sure for sale:
King sized beds, coffee table in media room, end table in media room, leather sofas, desk and hutch from craft room, bookshelf from craft room, dining table, dining chairs (two sets of four), chandeliers (drum ones from master and dining and colorful one in craft room), camel colored sofa, patio lounge chairs, sofa table, leather recliner in guest room, bedding, maybe some throw pillows, bar stools, and night stands…

I THINK the beds may be sold… pending pickup.  So, feel free to start suggesting headboards/ king beds!

Email and I’ll give you some details and a price, if you are interested in anything.
kristy@hypheninteriors.com

Feel free to ask about anything!

kristysig

Posted by Kristy at 1:41 AM 4 Comments
Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Navy and Green?

I am working on the basic design plan for the main rooms (breakfast, kitchen, family) in our new home so I know what to buy as I see it!

I love the color combo of navy and green.  A reader suggested navy curtains.  Though I am not sure where I can buy striped navy without them being custom, here’s a quick look at the design boards with navy in them.

(Click on images to see them larger.)

1)  Navy curtains (needs to be solid in breakfast room due to different heights on ceilings and stripes not lining up).

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2) With a gray herringbone breakfast room rug and industrial stools.

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3) Industrial lighting in breakfast, floral gray rug, chair stools in the kitchen, gray dresser for the tv in the family room, different pillows, wider stripes on the curtains, etc.

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4) With garden stools, silver barn lights over island, etc.

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And, to remind you,  here it is with gray curtains.

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Whatcha think?

By the way, I’ll be deleting the gray wingback that appeared in the first iterations as there isn’t adequate space in the family room.  We may revisit it for another room one day…

Do you prefer the navy and green or the gray and green?   If you like the navy, which one?  Which pillows, lighting, rug?

kristysig

Posted by Kristy at 1:21 AM 10 Comments
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