mountain style

This past weekend, we were out in Colorado, and something cool happened: I graduated.  It still hasn't sunk in that after 20 years of straight school, I never have to set foot in a classroom again...but I'm really excited to be done.

Image via kdanielledesign on Instagram

After the ceremony, we headed up to the mountains to do a little hiking.  For those of you who have never been to Colorado before, there is one thing you need to know: the mountains hold some AMAZING houses.  I basically drool the entire time I drive in the mountains, because you're constantly surrounded by gorgeous scenery and phenomenal houses.

While I tend to have more of a modern design aesthetic, I hold a special place in my heart for the rustic/cabin/mountain lodge style (I blame it on growing up in the northwoods), so this week, I thought I'd share some beautiful mountain homes with you.

This first home has is a mix of the mountain & modern styles, and I think the house is just breathtaking.

Um...wow.  Need I say more?

My favorite thing about this living room are the large timber beams.  Seriously, timber construction gets me every time.

This last picture makes me so happy.  It just feels warm & cozy.  Doesn't it make you just want to snuggle up by a fire with a cup of hot chocolate?

1 // 2 // 3 // 4

online design: bachelor edition

Last week, I was contacted by a new client who lives in Florida, asking me to help him give his master bedroom and bathroom a little makeover.  He had great furniture to start with, so we just wanted to make the room feel a little more pulled together.  With a fresh coat of warm gray paint, some deep blue hues, and some graphic art, we are going to make a space that is true to both his style and personality.   Below you can see a picture of his room as it currently sits, as well as the inspiration board I put together for him.

Before:

Inspiration Board:

our home: sneak peek

Yesterday, the oh-so talented Katie of Katie Mueller Photography was over photographing our house.  It's amazing the amount of work that goes into getting your home photo-ready.  Generally, I like to think of myself as a pretty clean person (although our house has been a serious mess with all the construction going on recently), but even when it's "clean," you'd be amazing at how much stashing of stuff goes on before pictures.

All those appliances that you use daily that are on your countertops?  Stashed those in the pantry.  Trash cans, toilet bowl cleaners, and toilet extra toilet paper?  Stashed that in our stairway to the garage.  Jackets, dog leashes, the list goes on.  While you wouldn't think these things would make that much of a difference, it's amazing how distracting they can actually be in a photo.

After the shoot, I was crazy anxious to see how the pictures turned out, and lucky for me, Katie is a photo-whiz and already sent me them today, not even 24 hours later.  So, even though I'm not going to unveil our whole home tour until the new site is up and running, I thought I'd give you a little peek.

toilet talk

When we were kids, we were told that "toilet talk" was not allowed, but today, I'm devoting an entire post to it, because yesterday, one of the funniest things ever happened.  Alright, it may not have been the funniest thing EVER, but it was quite hilarious.  You see, we've now gone ahead and replaced the flooring in all three of our bathrooms, which means we had to remove the toilet each time.

Before we removed the toilet the first time, we were super cautious, read a bunch of tutorials, and took our sweet time, because, well, we didn't want a mega mess on our hands.  Everything went swimmingly, and when it came time to reinstall the toilet, let's just say Noel was overly cautious.  After it was installed, we flushed it, crossed our fingers, and said a silent prayer we wouldn't see water leaking out from below.  Everything went as planned, the toilet flushed, there were no leaks, all was good in our world.  Well, all was good in my world, Noel on the other hand flushed the toilet obsessively and refused to use it for a solid 3 days.  I really don't know what's so magical about 3 days, but apparently that does the trick for him.

When it came time to do the second toilet, I had no worries in the world.  We were able to replace the first toilet without any problems, so I had the utmost confidence in us.  Again, all went as planned, it flushed, no leaks, Noel flushed it 300 times and refused to use it for 3 days. 

So yesterday, when it came time to reinstall our last and final toilet, I said just slap it on there - we were pros.  Still, Noel was ever so cautious, being the worry wart that he is, and after checking things what felt like 50 times, he looked at me and said, alright, are you ready?  Should I turn the water back on?  I looked at him, clearly annoyed that it had taken this long to inspect everything, rolled my eyes, and gave him a sarcastic yes. 

He reached down for the valve, pulled it to turn the water on, and the water exploded everywhere, turning our bathroom into a swimming pool.  It was like someone unleashed a fire hose on our bathroom.  Turns out Mr. Cautious, despite his best efforts to make sure everything was tight, never actually reconnected the hose to the toilet.

Luckily for him, it was just the supply water to the toilet that sprayed everywhere, so it really wasn't gross water.  Because let's be real, that would have been all kinds of nasty if it was the other water.  Especially considering the fact that he (and our bathroom) was drenched.

Seeing as I didn't get wet in this process, I immediately started laughing my behind off, instantly grabbed my phone, and started snapping pics.  I believe the phrase "you better not instagram this!" came out of someone's mouth....but I never said I wouldn't blog about it :) 

After we cleaned everything up, Noel connected the hose, triple checked everything, and gave it another go.  Success!  All is well in toilet land.  

mirror mirror on the wall

I've been struggling with this little bathroom ever since we moved in.  At first it was super boring, with a plain old mirror, white everything, and a rather awkward amount of unusable space between the toilet and the sink.

I've never been a fan of the pedestal sink, but it just wasn't worth the investment to us at this point to change it out.  So, I tried to make it feel not so builder boring by changing up the mirror.

The mirror you see below I actually spray painted white to help it tie in to the rest of the bathroom and to make it pop, so it looked like the picture on the right, not the left.  However, even with the mirror painted white, it still wasn't working.  Because it was wider than the sink, it felt off balance.

I also came to my senses and finally repainted the bathroom.  I was going for more of a dark, gray/slate blue, but the color selection was totally off, making the space feel like a giant blueberry.  I ended up repainting it the same color as our living room, which feels a lot more natural in the space.  

Even after painting I still wasn't satisfied with this bathroom...that is, until I had an epiphany.  I decided to change out the mirror once again with the mirror currently over our buffet, and once I hung it, it was love at first sight.  All of a sudden, everything felt balanced.  The scale of the mirror was right for the space, the curves spoke to the lines of the sink, and the white frame gave the space a contemporary touch while pulling in the rest of the white in the room.

Crazy how one little mirror and a gallon of paint can make such a difference.