Idaho Falls Parade of Homes 2014

My husband is a partner in a construction company here in Idaho Falls, ID called Guardian Homes. They do amazing customs homes! You should definitely check out their website. I had a lot of fun designing their home for the 2014 Idaho Falls Parade of Homes. My husband pretty much gave me free reign (within budget of course) for the home, and I was able to select every finish and color. And like pretty much every parade home we have done, there was a last minute scramble from everyone involved to get the house completed on time. My scramble started six days before it had to be done, when the furniture company that we had previously arranged to use their furniture and accessories to stage our home backed out on us because of conflicts with their delivery trucks. Of course I immediately went into panic mode, but with help from friends and family and other businesses in town I was able to pull the house together. I think it turned out pretty great.

So with all the scramble and the parade going on, I never got a great picture of the exterior. I will get one eventually but for now this one will have to work.

It wasn't finished being painted yet, but I really wanted to show you the balcony railing. We had it custom made and it turned out beautiful! The exterior paint color is Sherwin Williams Dark Night.

Now to the entry.

The interior paint color throughout the house is Sherwin Williams Repose Gray.

I DIYed the octopus art from a free printable I found here. I used Photoshop to make it 36x36 and changed the color to blue. Then I had it printed at Staples. It was around $17 for a colored engineer print. Then I cut it up and framed it in three 12X36 frames I found at a local craft store.

The light in the entry is from Lowes. The mirror is from Design and Home Décor Outlet in Idaho Falls. The engineered wood floors are this.

The custom designed fretwork staircase is probably my favorite thing in the house (made to match the exterior, obviously). It turned out beyond amazing! I also love the dark gray carpet with a subtle tan stripe.

The half bath is painted Rainstorm by Sherwin Williams, and the mirror is from Cost Plus World Market.

Moving on into the living room.

I always love a beautiful coffered ceiling. The orb light is from Cost Plus World Market.  The sofa is from Downeast Home about 4 years ago. The coffee table is from Pier One. The awesome book shelf and end tables are from Design and Home Décor Outlet in Idaho Falls.  

These amazing chairs are also from Cost Plus World Market. Love that place!

All the pillows in the room are custom made. I purchased the fabric from Home Fabrics. then recovered some old staging pillows in the new fabric.

The kitchen is also one of my favorite things about the house. When designing the kitchen I had this vision in my head of using three different finishes on the cabinetry. In my head it looked amazing, but throughout the whole building process I still worried that it wasn't going to be as great in real life.

 I should have just trusted my instincts. :)

My heart skipped a beat after I saw it all installed! I love how it turned out.
The base cabinets are Sherwin Williams Porpoise. The white uppers are Sherwin Williams Pure White, and the island and hood are natural walnut with a clear finish.

And of course the subway tile backsplash in a herringbone pattern just tops it all off.

Now moving on to the second floor family room. A double tray ceiling adds a nice architectural element.

For the "boy room" I thought that vinyl stars on the wall would be an easy and inexpensive focal point to the room. I got the vinyl from Expressions Vinyl.

The striped curtains are ones that I made a few years ago for my first model home I designed. The tutorial of how I made them can be found here.

The art above the dresser is from Caravan Shoppe. If you haven't been to their website, do it! It is a great place for inexpensive art.

My inspiration for the nursery started from my daughters old crib bedding that I made. I only had six days to plan and stage the whole house so I had to improvise with what I already had.

I made the tassel garland from tissue paper.

A friend of mine that refinishes furniture let me borrow the adorable pink dresser. You can see her amazing stuff at Downtown Shabby in Idaho Falls.

I wanted to keep the master bedroom neutral.

The fun architectural feature in this room is the unique tray ceiling and corner wall detail.

The neutral colors move on into the master bathroom. The vanity is natural walnut.

We added a barn door for function and character.

The tile in the shower turned out amazing.

I'm kind of in love.

Now on to the third floor. I staged this room as an office/play room.

The desk  and adorable kids table was refinished by my friend (Downtown Shabby). She also made the chalkboards and magnetic board. The cream linen chair I purchased four years ago from TJ Maxx. The small mirrors on the wall are from Design and Home Décor Outlet. 

Aww...beautiful staircase. :) The light fixture is from Shades of Light.

 And that's it! I don't know about you, but I'm ready to move in!

A New Big Girl Room

So, again it has been awhile :) But here is my daughter's new room! I think she really loves it. I was worried when we moved into the new house that it was going to mess with her sleeping habits, not that they were that great to begin with. :) But since we moved into the new house she has probably been sleeping better than ever! She was really excited to get a "big" bed. Which was actually mine when I was little. Isn't it perfection!

I was really hoping these pictures would turn out better. I tried taking pictures three different times with three different types of lighting, but this was the best I got. Anyway, I had my husband build the cornice above her window. I really wanted the window to be the focal point in the room. I loved how it turned out! We are still planning on building a window seat below with toy storage.

 

The hearts on the wall are just vinyl stickers. I got the vinyl from here. Super easy! I made all the bedding. Everything except the sheets and the bed skirt. I love being able to sew and create (almost) exactly what is in my head!

The dresser was my great grandmas. I love that there are old furniture pieces in the room, but I think I gave it a modern twist by adding bright colors.

 

I finally framed my daughters blessing dress. I bought the shadow box a couple years ago, but never got around to painting it and hanging the dress. I really love how it turned out though.

I have way too much fun designing my kids bedrooms, but they always make me happy when I go in them and I hope they do the same for my kids!

Our Floor Plan

For a while now I have been dreaming of building a house. As an interior designer and someone who drafts house plans I see a lot of houses and floor plans. Over the past year or so I had been putting together a list in my mind of the things I would include in my house if we were ever to build one. I knew I wanted a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom ranch style home with an unfinished basement, and I wanted to stay around 1600 square feet. Some of the more specific things I wanted was I didn't want the master bedroom on the opposite side of the house as the kid's bedrooms. Someday, when my kids are older, that might be nice, but with my babies I don't want to have to walk across the house 3 times a night. Another specific thing I wanted was a nice master bathroom with a separate shower, tub, and a separate toilet. I think living in a house for 5 years with one tiny bathroom made me a little greedy for a nice master bathroom. :) So with all those things in mind I started looking online at floor plans. My favorite floor plan was from Eplans. It was this almost 1600 sq.ft beauty.

 

 

So I took that floor plan and started drafting it up. I changed a few things though. I took out the formal dining area and added stairs to the basement and a pocket office off of the family room. I also changed the kitchen and laundry room layout a little.

 

After that the plan sort of just sat for a while until we sold our house and knew we were ready to build! Then, we started to make more changes. My husband changed jobs so we needed an actual office for him to work from. So we moved some more stuff around and ended up with this.

Not much of a change, just the office and stairs moved a little. After we had that we thought about it for a while and decided we didn't like how much the garage stuck out in front of the house so much, so we moved it to the side of the house. We also decided for resale value we wanted a third car garage. So I rearranged a few things again and after a month of changes we ended up with the final product!!

This is the front elevation.

The back elevation. We have a walk-out basement.

SO, I guess my point of all this is sometimes finding the perfect floor plan involves a long process. Our builder, Guardian Homes in Idaho Falls, builds custom homes. They can start with any floor plan you find, and their in-house draftsman can make any and all the changes you want. It's really a great way to go!
And here is where our house is being built.

I can't wait!