Family Friendly Makeover

This hip couple with three young boys wanted to update their home to reflect their modern taste and sensibilities.

 

 

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To read more about this project and see the “before” pics, click here.

Stacey’s Snappy Sunroom

Stacey’s was stumped on what to do with her sunroom. We saw it as fabulous blank slate. Here’s her letter.

Dear Lisa and Cameron: Our family is wrapping up a big home renovation. Now we are stumped on what to do with our sunroom. It’s a long and narrow room that is accessed off the kitchen and houses our pantry/storage closet. We walk through it to get to the master bedroom on the right and our outdoor patio on the left. We need this room to function as a home office for me, as well as a place for our two kids to do crafts and homework. Also, we have two dogs who regularly use the patio door, so we’re dealing with a lot of family foot traffic. Since the room is open to our kitchen we’d like to tie it in with the colors we have used in there (Benjamin Moore Coastal Fog on the walls and red and blue accents).  We want this to be a creative space with some style instead of white oversized hallway. Thanks for your help! Stacey

This room was ripe for a colorful reinvention.

For the full mood board breakdown on Stacey’s project, click here.

Jen’s Master Bedroom Gets Style & Symmetry

After ten happy years of marriage, Jennifer was ready to treat herself to the master bedroom she and her husband deserved. Here’s her letter:

Dear Cameron & Lisa, My husband and I just celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary, yet we are still living with relics from our single days in our master bedroom. My husband’s bedside table is leftover from his service in the military. My bedside table and our dresser are part of a set I bought right after college. We are ready to “reinvent” our master bedroom to create a more pulled together look, but with one caveat: the paint color must stay. We just hate to paint, and it’s the same color I’ve used in our master bathroom addition, so hopefully you can work with it. Also, I’ve already picked out a few things I’d like for you to incorporate. I love this Marimekko bedding and also the headboard, and perhaps, a dresser from this set. Otherwise, we’re open to new window treatments, furniture, accessories, lighting, and any other ideas you have. Thanks, Jennifer

Ten years is definitely cause for celebration, and what better way to toast the one you love than to recreate your master bedroom retreat. Like a good marriage, a master bedroom needs balance and compromise, so we’re going to infuse this space with complementary textures, colors and finishes to achieve symmetry and style. Here we go!

Click here for Jen’s mood board breakdown and to read more about her project.

Colin’s Cool New Crib

For a recent school auction, we donated some time to help reinvent a student’s bedroom. Along with our design consult, the auction package also included a muralist, a seamstress and paint and painting services. Colin, a rising sixth grader, was the lucky winner of these services, thanks to his parents’ winning bid.  He loves baseball and basketball. On the color spectrum, his preferences lean toward light blues and reds. To that end, his parents recently splurged on a bedroom set for Colin which includes a bed with storage underneath, a desk, a nightstand, and a bookshelf.

Here are a few before pics of Colin’s room …

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Colin’s room was ripe for a transformation of impending teenage proportions. The challenge for us was to use the resources won in the auction to give Colin a new room that will grow with him over the next several years.

Click here to see Colin’s mood board breakdown and to read more about this project.

Susie’s Pretty and Pleasant Parlor

Susie is the winner of our “first one hundred subscribers” contest Room Reinvention. She decided her living room could use a more pulled together look with a blend of her favorite French Country and traditional styles. Here’s her letter…

Dear Cameron & Lisa,

I’d LOVE some help with my living room. This is probably the least used room in our house. We mainly use it for holidays or for when I host Bunco or book club. Sometimes the kids or I will read in the green chair. I really like the loveseat and the yellow floral table. For new items, I’d like some new window treatments, but the room gets pretty dark, which is why I went with such a light color on the walls. I’d love some new accessories and stuff for the walls. For style, I really like French Country with some cottage style mixed in.  I like florals and lean more toward traditional taste. I think this room is considered more formal because it is connected to the dining room, but I don’t know that it has to feel that way. My dining room has a few nice pieces and nice drapes but the table is still casual and overall it doesn’t feel super elegant, which is fine. My life isn’t really like that—my kids are messy, they can’t remember to take off their shoes, my dog sheds everywhere and chews things under the dining room table!!!  Fancy doesn’t really go with me these days, and I’m good with that. I would like the room to feel comfortable, pretty and pleasant. Thanks for your help.  Susie

Susie needed a relaxing space to unwind that doubles as a grown up space to entertain friends. Here are a few touches to pull this room together, making it the pretty and pleasant parlor a busy mom like Susie deserves.

Click here for Susie’s mood board breakdown and to read more about her project.

Liz’s Family Room Catches a Wave of Beachy Chic

When Liz told us 65 Canadians were coming this summer for a reunion, we just had to help her update the family room, eh? Here’s her letter…

Dear Lisa and Cameron, Help! We annually gather in Toronto with a group totaling 65. This year, WE are hosting (along with my parents at their house). Guests will stay in a hotel, but we’ll be gathering here and at my parents’ house throughout the visit. This is motivating us to do some home spruce ups before the big weekend. Our family room could use some help. We need to keep the sofa, chair and TV stand, and like the arrangement (a stager helped us with that). Our style is relaxed traditional, and I’m pretty conservative with colors. We use the room for overflow entertaining from upstairs and for playdates. The room opens to our boys’ (5 & 3) playroom and this is definitely a “hands on” room for them, so nothing too fussy, please. We could use more storage, paint, window treatments (it’s dark!), lighting, accessory ideas. I’ve got lots of family photos framed in black with white mats that I’d like to hang. I always envisioned a beachy look, but never executed my vision! Thanks, Liz

Surf’s up, Liz. Tell your friends to come on over, because this beachy chic mood board will get your family room ready for relaxation and fun!

Click here for the mood board breakdown. After pics should be posted SOON!

Jenny Gets a Corner Office

Jenny needed a fun and spunky home office to add some fresh style to her mundane home office tasks. We love fun and spunk, but now it’s time to get to work!

Dear Lisa and Cameron, My husband and I just bought a new house, and we’ve got a great sunny room that we’d like to designate as the home office. Neither of us works from home, but we want an inspiring room that will keep us (kind of) organized, and (just as important) look good. We’ve got a leaning bookshelf that we’d like to use, and the floor is a neutral ceramic tile that will remain. We would love your suggestions on paint, furniture and storage ideas. We’ll need a desk for our laptops and a place for files. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Thanks, Jenny

Jenny we’ve promoted you to corner office! You’ll never want to go to your real job now.

Click here for Jenny’s office before pics and the mood board breakdown. For the snazzy after pics, scroll on!

Tera’s Living Room Goes Global Eclectic

Tera and her husband traveled the world after they married and are now ready to settle down and pull their place together. We were happy to lend them a hand.

Dear Cameron and Lisa,  My husband and I bought our first home together, and it’s a hodge podge with many relics from our single days. We traveled for 18 months after we were married, so we also have many things we’ve collected from our travels. My husband, Jim, is a huge movie buff, so I have convinced him to pare down to just two movie posters which must stay in the room. Also, the sofa is something that we’d like to keep.  We’re definitely interested in new paint. I like warm, cozy colors, but I tend to overdo color when I paint and it feels either claustrophobic or trendy. We would love new window treatments but nothing frilly or heavy. I’m currently obsessed with Etsy.com and love their unique handmade items. I feel like I know what I like, but I’m stuck on how to pull it together.  I hope you two can help!  Tera

Okay, Tera, we’ve got your room reinvented with a global eclectic theme fit for two world travelers (and one movie buff!).

Click here for Tera’s Living Room before pics and mood board breakdown.

Heather’s Daughter Needs a New Nest

It’s a big event when one of our little darlings makes the lofty jump out of the crib and into a big kid bed.  But all of a sudden, we’re faced with a decorating dilemma:  How do we make the visual leap from a sweet baby’s room to a fun toddler’s lair, without starting from square one? It’s a question Heather had for us, and we were only to happy to help her feather her sweet daughter’s new nest.

Dear Cameron and Lisa,  My daughter, Paige, has just graduated from her crib into a big girl’s bed.  My husband and I are over the baby’s room look and want something with a retro vibe. We really like orange (although our daughter loves pink) and want to keep the room on the gender neutral side.  We bought a cool comforter set that we definitely want to use for her bedding.  The dresser we’d like to keep, but could paint. We’re game for new lighting, and have a white chair (a dumpster dive find from our back alley), that we’d like to incorporate into the room.  Oh, and she loves butterflies. Thanks for your help!  Heather

Heather, we think Paige’s room will be the coolest on the block.  Take a peek at this mood board…

Click here for Heather’s before pics and mood board breakdown, and for the fabulous “after” shot, scroll on.

Neutral Nursery Conundrum

Who doesn’t find out the sex of their baby these days?Sure, all the baby bedding and nursery boutiques out there claim to have “unisex” products available, but it sure is tough to find something cute and unique for your precious little one that doesn’t scream BOY or GIRL! Liz is a mom-to-be that wanted to wait for the big surprise when the baby was born and we were thrilled to help (as two fellow moms who waited for the big day to hear the news).

Dear Cameron & Lisa,I have been scouring the internet and the usual baby stores and boutiques for cute nursery ideas, but am having a really hard time finding items that I like that are not too boyish or girlish because I’m waiting to find out what I’m having. I can’t go white neutral because my two dogs, and frankly, my husband, would make the room look a nice dirty beige before the baby even arrives.I also want to avoid the traditional yellow neutrals, although I am okay with some green.I need to find bedding, a chair, rug and some accent pieces to go along with the white crib, daybed and dresser I already have. I’m okay with a couple of “splurge” items, but would love it if they could make the jump to a toddler or guest room. I also need some paint color options for the room.Look forward to seeing what you come up with! Liz

Liz, we love this neutral, but colorful mood board…

Click here for Liz’s mood board breakdown. Scroll down for the fabulous after shot.

Two World Travelers Desire Dramatic Dining Digs

Tera was so happy with the results of her Living Room reinvention, that she contacted us right away to get started on her dining room.  Here’s her letter:

Dear Cameron and Lisa,  Hooray, not only do I love the ideas you presented for my living room, but you won over my husband, Jim, with the vintage movie reels.  Now that we’re ready to start buying for that project, we need you to get started on our dining room because the living room opens right to it. Since we’ve traveled so much together, Jim and I really love pieces that have a story. Our dining room table is actually a door from Mexico that was mounted on a wooden plow. The buffet is something we bought together, so that’s definitely a keeper. We would like to work with similar colors that you suggested for our living room since they are connected.  Also, we could use a rug, window treatments, and I’m always finding that we use our dining room as a dumping ground, so a way to organize papers, bottles, and “stuff” to make the room function better would be really helpful. Thanks, and we can’t wait to see what you come up with.  Tera

Tera, it was our pleasure to come up with some fun and affordable ways to elevate the drama in your dining room, and we’re not talking spilled milk!

To see Tera’s mood board break down and before pictures of her dining room, click here.

If you’re ready to start your own Room Reinvention click here.