Transform Your Office

THE HEADLINES:


Find your STAR

Follow it.

Change what's bugging you.

Today. 



Sometimes you look up and find a guiding light... it will shine brighter than you knew possible.  And make a simple dream become reality.  This is true with anything... even a room!

An office is a big deal.  This, may not occur to you since most people think about kitchens and bathrooms first.   Or if you go to someone else's building and do work this will not pertain to you.  This is for the person with the home office.  Because if you have one and use one, there's a good chance you spend most of your days in it.

Therefore, an office needs to be 2 things:  functional AND cool looking.  Promise, you'll work better in here.

Let's take the 3-2-1 approach.

Like you're blasting off, into greatness.  Below was what I had to work with.  Not much.  We had already painted this room and put in new wood floors.  So at least there was that.  Everything else was... bad.  This desk was my husbands old work desk from when he first put his home office together in let's say the ripe old year of 1998.  It had to go.  We also had the chair that we rocked our kids in for like 4 -5 years, maybe more, I'm not sure.  So... we had a clean slate.

Countdown begins...
THREE - Define It.  As I always say when decorating.. first you have to Define Your Style.  See that full explanation by clicking HERE.  Basically, you just decide: What's your style?  What do you want your home to be?  Modern-Minimalist?  Rustic-Romance?  Desert-Farm-Cottage?  Beach-Casual-Chic?  You need at least 2 to 3 words to describe what you're aiming for.  Typically this is done for an entire house but sometimes... it's just one room.  As in my case.  My house is very light and white - for which I have coined the term - Desert Cottage.  But for my office I changed it up a bit.  It's the only room painted an, obviously, different color. I wanted it to be warmer, more masculine and highly functional.

Therefore, my Defined Style here became Rustic Ranch (w/ color).  Now that I've got "Defined Style" it's time to get moving!

TWO -  Gather it.  Clear out your current room and shop for your new one.  On-line, in stores, look for what will fit your above plan.  Gather all of it up, sell it, buy it, give it away... whatever means you need.

***TIP  Get especially friendly with your tape measure - bring it everywhere with you!

I bought two desks so I could wrap around the room.  I contemplated making desks (which shouldn't be that hard) but knew my husband would never get around to that...  the key here though was making another work space and opening up the room.  The way the desks hugged the wall accomplished that as opposed to the old huge desk that took up the whole space.

What else did I gather?   I found a comfy leather (leather always screams office to me) chair to watch some TV if someone needed a break!

I looked for fun accessories like in the form of this side table.  I just love the (fake) cowhide look.  It works in so many "defined styles"!!! 

I also housed all my office pens and paperclips in jars to bring some flair while adding practicality.  I'll need those things often and they'll be easy to find now!

We put up some wood shelves (found on Etsy) held up with pipes and added a lot of boxes (Ikea).

I run my household and business out of this room.  I practically live here.  So lots has to be stored.  All those Boxes allow me to do that,  But I also wanted some extra pendants to shine, well, more light on the writing spaces.  Plus, add to the look...

 ***TIP set up pendants in already existing canned light spaces to make install easier!

Now, the super fun part...
THREE -  Set it.  Sometimes this takes a day, sometimes 4 weeks.  Depending upon how efficient your planning is... this is also where some mistakes can be made.  Like... something might not fit.  Or doesn't sit well with you.  Then it goes back.

***TIP Check the return policy before you buy,  sometimes there's a re-stocking fee or no returns at all.

If you don't take it back... it gets re-purposed.  That's what happened here...

I love this rug.  But it just didn't work at all with this room.  The room needed more texture and warmth.  And the return policy on the rug stunk.  Therefore, I had to Plan B it.  In this case, I knew if I couldn't use this rug here I could use it outside or where it ended up...

in the dining room.  This is where it belongs.  And when I'm done with it... it can head to the patio!

P.S.  Note the new large light fixture over the dining table - I happen to love that new addition too.

Finally tonight,
Getting rid of that rug made me look for what became the clear STAR of the show.  You know, whether you're choreographing a dance, putting together a company or decorating a room you have to have one STAR - to shine!  This often happens when you start a project.  An old heirloom, a special piece of art, something that just makes the place.  Then, all decorating centers around that one STAR! But sometimes, like in this case, it comes later.

When I got rid of the striped rug I found the one that belonged...  it brought everything together.  It was the STAR and it made the room sing.  The new rug also gave me some colors to play off of and add to the room... which is why I brought in the flowers and candies.

It was a perfectly well priced, colorful, low pile, large piece that my chairs rolled over while my heart "swooned"...

And the STAR takes a bow... Now blast off!





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Do You have "Vision" (When You're Buying A Home)?

The Headlines:


There are 2 kinds of buyers. 

Which one are you? 




In the market to buy a house this year?  To me, there's never a time you shouldn't be looking.  Why?  Yes, because I"m a Realtor but also because you never know when the right one will hit you.  The house you never expected pops up and you can't say no.

That's happened to me personally.  And when I don't move on it... (years later) the husband and I complain: "if we would have bought that..."?

So always keep an eye out.  But for what exactly?  That depends on you.  Pay attention to what matters to your lifestyle.  Yes, that can be limiting.   So here's a way to open up the possibilities.  Ask yourself one question:

DO YOU HAVE VISION?

If you do, sky's the limit.  It may not have the exact amount of bedrooms but you can change that.  No white cabinets?  There's paint.  No need for a dining room?  Demo it.  If you have vision, as long as the "bones" are there your options for reno work are endless.

Here's what you cannot change:  1) location and 2) size of lot (usually).  Everything else is up for grabs.

Have you seen Fixer Upper?  Then you know what I'm talking about.

If you buy a home that needs some"TLC" you are, most likely, going to get a better deal.  Because more needs to be spent after you move in.  Here's an example.

I worked with some buyers who knew exactly where they wanted to live.  It was a small neighborhood without a lot of inventory so they kept a close eye on it.  When a house came up... they pounced.  Once inside, they saw it was far from their dream home.  But they knew it had the 2 things that couldn't be changed.  The rest they could work around.  They bought it.

While going through the buying process they brought in a contractor to see if their plan had legs.  It did.  And work began as soon as the papers were signed.

After a few months their home was ready to roll!

Here are the pictures:

Above is the living room. They added one huge sliding glass door that fully opens to the patio (a trend we're seeing a lot right now) - we live in Arizona after all.   They also spruced up the living room by adding industrial shelving, a mantel and busting out a wall to make for one big "great room". 

Here's the dining room they demo'ed.  They moved more walls and small cabinetry.  However, they also enclosed one area (with french doors) so they could have a formal office space.  

But the crowning glory, as with almost any house, is the kitchen.  You know, the place where we ALL spend time.   The kitchen, before, was nothing special.  Just a galley kitchen that felt super cramped.  This busy house needed some major space.  So they turned the island around, made it way bigger and used the breakfast "nook" to make for ONE big open area.  It absolutely works.

They're not completely finished.  They want to do a few more tweaks in the bathrooms.  But, to everyone who visits it looks like a whole new house.   In fact, the former owners came by and I hear it brought them to tears... happy tears.

It is now the new owners dream home.  Because they had vision.  They bought a house that was less expensive than most in their target neighborhood and then turned it into exactly what they wanted.

THEY had VISION.  The question now is... do you?

Finally tonight, if you're in the market to buy a new home ask yourself the vision question.  It's okay of you don't have it.  There are lots of "turn key" homes out there.  It certainly will take less time and effort to purchase one of those.  But know there are also lots of people who can help you with "finding your vision".  Realtors, interior designers and contractors can all lend a hand.  The homeowners above used George Construction in Phoenix and myself as a Real Estate Agent.

Let us know if we can help you this year!



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Kitchen Brick Wall

The Headlines:




Want to do something special in your home?

Try this...



Everyone wants to be noticed for something.  Singles want to show off their shoes, girls want to wear their Ivivva shorts, boys want to be good in sports, Dad wants to have a great car and Mom - well she wants a fabulous purse - and - great kids of course!

Homes also want to get noticed.  They want, at least one thing, that people stand up and applaud.  Is it a great kitchen island?   A fab back yard?  An amazing office?   Maybe even a light fixture that catches everyone's eye...

Or your home can have a stand-out wall.  Like this one:

Often... the story starts like this: sell or remodel, remodel or sell?  That's how it started for this client - who in the end - decided not to sell and move but instead give her place a facelift.  She had lots of plans.  Including paint the cabinets, paint the walls, re-do her shower, take down a "wall," get new counter-tops, sinks & faucets, put in a barn door and finally add some "texture" to her kitchen wall.

Now, there are a few ways you can do that.  Wallpaper, paint, tile or wood.  She was leaning towards the reclaimed wood paneling look.  It's clearly all the rage.  I'd even go as far as to say it's a little "trendy" right now!   This girl... not trendy.  She's got great style but an Antique/ Traditional/Classic  DEFINED STYLE  is a more accurate description for her.

So we came to an agreement that brick would work best.  Now, when you say brick many people start to panic.  It seems heavy and scary.  Not when you do brick veneer.  I hear the screeching brakes now.  VENEER people say?  Absolutely not they reply.  That is, until they see it.

This ain't your Grandma's veneer people.  It really does look like the real thing... and it's actually still fairly heavy.  Just about a quarter of what a full brick would be.  So for cases like this or a fireplace.  Heck, in a almost every case... it's absolutely what you want to use! And we did.  

**Sidenote, I also used veneer on my own fireplace (years ago).  Turned out great too... click HERE to see it.

She had thoughts about applying it to her island as well.  But I reminded her too much of a good thing... is never a good thing.   So we painted the island a different color instead.  That too... home run.

Of course, we didn't stop there.  We did all of those things above that we mentioned too.  The place looks like a million bucks.  Here's some before and after shots.

In Bath 1, we painted the cabinets, walls, added a new mirror, new counter and sink.  Plus a brand new shower, top to bottom (excuse my bad photography).

In the kitchen, we removed a wall, and then same drill... new counters, painted the cabinets and walls, added new hardware and a new sink/faucet.

She chose these 3 counter surfaces for Bath 1, Bath 2 and Kitchen.  Highly recommend New Carrerra Quartz.  If you want Quartz... looks great installed.

She also desperately wanted a barn door, which she loves:

But in the end, as I said, the showstopper is certainly that brick wall.  It's classic, not too costly and cool... everything a house wants to be!


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How to make a Small Bathroom - LOOK BIGGER

The Headlines:


Make a small Bathroom...

Large with Life!

Here are some ideas.




A small bathroom can be a really big deal.  Especially if it's an en suite.  You want it to gleam with pride.  It can make or break the whole room.

So, when it was time to re-do my daughter's bathroom I knew there was some pressure.  Maybe there always is...  It needed to be fantastic yet not too glam, not too sweet.  Just right.  And bigger.

So let's get to it.  A small bathroom can look even smaller if you choose the wrong way to remodel it.  Here's how to make your small bathroom look larger than life!

Tip #1
When you do ANY room - start with something you're positive you want.
In this case it was that penny tile.

Penny Tile is so cute and so not overdone.  Now I had a jumping off board for all of the other things I had to pick.  Which led to this...

Tip #2
Use the same tile (and same grout) in the shower as your bathroom floor 
Simply because it can make the small space seem a little bigger.  It keeps the eye moving and almost creates an optical illusion the area is larger.  Maybe not much, but when you're not working with a ton of space, take what you can get.

Tip #3
Small spaces look bigger when covered in light colors.  
We went white.  For many reasons. You can read why I often choose white HERE but when it came to this bathroom... there were 3 reasons it HAD to be done.  One it was small.  Two it was dark (not a window in sight).  Three, I needed it to stand the test of teenager.  White would accomplish all of these things.

Tip #4
Use a glass shower door.
So you can see through it.  Shower curtains, for obvious reasons, shortens the room.  Glass doors make the room more spacious.  Not that it is...

Plus, obviously you can see the details that you undoubtedly added to that fabulous shower of yours!  And that deserves some attention.

Tip #5
Add flair with lights, pulls and backsplash 
We did not use flashy backsplash on purpose... but if you're going to go crazy do it here.  It's fairly easy and inexpensive to change out.

Lights aren't too bad either but pulls/handles are the easiest and cheapest to re-fresh - so go crazy!
Now, have some fun making that small bathroom a big hit!

Fore more info:  nicole@onepickychick.com




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Window Screen Art

The Headlines:

Want some art for your wall?

Buy a painting.

Or do something different.

When I was a kid, yea a long time ago, I would bring a friend home from school.  They'd come in... and chuckle.  There were always odd little scenarios everywhere you looked.  Our beach house was far from the norm.  There weren't cool, new furnishings.  There were old, odd things placed in nooks and crannies.  My mom.  Her decor... was unusual.  There was an old bird cage - with no bird in it.  A torn up mannequin (better known as a dress form) but no seamstress.  A peeling Coca Cola cooler, with no soda in sight.  My personal favorite(s)?  The school desk she found on the side of the road, the huge radio she got in her crazy Aunt's attic or maybe it was the bench she took (with permission of course) from an old, abandoned church while we were on vacation in the midwest.

Thank you Jesus.  

Turns out Mom was before her time.  She was Shabby when it wasn't Chic.  She was distressed when that was just stressful.  She like ripped when it was rare.  Her taste was true to her own self.  Trendy she was not.  But her unique style was classic with a twist of her kind of cool.  

Am I like her?  No.  BUT do I take some cues from her never written rule book?  Sure do.  

Like this...

I recently did this for someone else after she was inspired by what she saw at my own house.  I put up a window screen "frame" in my living room.  It's one of the first blogs I did years ago because it was one of the quickest, cheapest and easiest updates I ever did!  Excuse the XOXO from the picture below... it's Valentines Day soon.

You can see the full blog HERE 

Now, the room below needed something bigger.  As you can see... this lonely little art piece looked a little out of place and just couldn't carry this large of an open space.  Screens were perfect.  Mixed with this homeowners Rugged/Rough/Glam "Defined Style" it totally works!  Read more about "Defining Your Style"  HERE

So how do you pull off this unique look?  It's clearly not that hard.

Find Your Window Screen 

This won't take much effort because old screens are kinda everywhere.  For now.  They're often overlooked in antique shops or at salvage yards because I'm not sure people know what to do with them.  Until now.  Due to that,  the cost is significantly lower than windows.  I chose one large screen for my house.  For the other house, we went with three big screens.  She wanted to make a statement and the room is very large.  It completely holds your attention.

Decide What to Feature

I like pictures or fabric.  My client went with fabric because she has lots of pictures on the walls.  I went with pictures because I have no pictures around.  Beware, some fabrics won't be very prominent behind a screen.  These fabrics were bold and sparkly so they could be seen.  You need to test swatches.  What you like in the store might not work in your house (behind a screen)!  You can easily staple fabric.  Or mount your pictures to the wall.

Hang Them UP

This step is easy, screens are light.  Project is done.

Well that was difficult, not difficult.  But it certainly is hard to ignore how fabulous the place looks because of something someone might have otherwise thrown away.  

Yea, long ago my Mom was ahead of her time.  Today... I'm just trying to catch up.   Aren't we all?

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