✥ Reader Feature: Fabulous French Style Home ✥

Meet Des- she's the darling owner of Peeking thru the Sunflowers. Des blogs about her her vintage and antique finds, projects, and shares inspiring design photos. She has a beautiful home and I don't mind saying I am jealous of her gorgeous furnishings!!
I've asked her to share her living room, family room and her dining room with us today.

 

Here's a view into {what I believe} is her family room. I love the color scheme- and can you believe Des painted that gorgeous armoire herself? It turned out so beautifully!!

Notice her collection of canes in the antique galvanized container? Such a beautiful space- I love the color of this petite sofa and chair.
I looove this shot of her home! Tell me this pic isn't pin-able! SO pretty!

Here you can see into the living room. The two rooms flow beautifully! I love the sconces that you can see in the next room.

 You guys! Just look at this gorgeous space!

 Each detail Des adds is chosen thoughtfully- each piece of art and each accessory.

These pillows were made from some antique grain sacks she had grabbed awhile back. Everyone loves them some grain sacks- so I know you guys will like them as much as I do!

Beautiful architectural details...

 

The rooms flow one into the next downstairs. You can see the dining room in the corner of this pic.

The table was handmade- you can check out the details here. The chairs, however, are from Restoration Hardware.

The dining room is so beautiful and serene. The rooms all feel different and unique but also unified by similar color schemes and window treatments.

This French baker's table holds more vintage collectibles.

Des is one talented lady to compose such a beautiful space. I love all these details.

Thanks for sharing your beautiful home Des! I am humbled to share your space with my friends over here!

As a side note-

When you guys have homes this beautiful I honestly, not for the life of me, can figure out why you follow my lil' blog! It seems crazy to me that anyone would want to see how I decorate my rental condo- when they live somewhere like this!

 {You guys know who I'm talking about- my friends out there- whose homes are beyond gorgeous!} Well, thanks for following, thanks for showing an interest! I'll be back in a day or so with a new project. I hope you guys stop by, and tell Des hi for me!

xoxo

✥ Reader Feature: 3 DIY Projects {That Won't Disappoint!} ✥

My email to Shannon inviting her to share her home today read a little something like this, 

"Shannon- is there any way in the whole wide world that you would be willing to share your super duper amazing projects with my readers so that we could all swoon simultaneously at your ridiculously awesome home and crazy talented selves?- um please?"
 Fortunately for all us regular folk she was able to work this into her schedule- {thanks, Shannon!}

Shannon and Dean have a cute DIY blog where they document projects and updates on their little bungalow- check out their home tour- you won't be disappointed! I asked her to share three projects from the main room in her home- although I had tons of amazing DIY projects I could have chosen from!
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In case you don't know us, we're Dean & Shannon Acheson and we're the Canadian couple behind the blog, aka design. We love to share our thrifty design finds, organization ideas and affordable DIY projects. When dear sweet Becca asked me to share a few of our projects with you, I happily said yes! The tricky part was timing - we're both so busy! But here we finally are to bring you highlights from a few of our DIY projects.


Union Jack Coffee Table

Our coffee table has been made over twice now ñ the first makeover was painting it and adding the beadboard. You can read about that here.  Would you believe it used to look like this!?!




A bit of a change, no?

Anyway our super handy dandy storage coffee table holds all of sorts of things, which is why we redid it rather than replace it. I prefer to leave the top clear so the kids play board games whenever they like, but found that it looked odd that way before. Now, with the addition of the Union Jack, it looks just fine au natural! (Excuse the winter decor - we tackled this project in January!)




For the full Union Jack Coffee Table how-to, go here.


Restoration Hardware Inspired Shelves




I have to say writing this particular DIY was a little tricky.

Normally our project process works like this: I come up with an idea, draw a rough sketch or show Dean some concept pics; Dean draws a plan and gets to work building; I finish up with paint and styling; and then I write the DIY. The glitch with this project was that Dean built the shelves mostly at work because of the winter weather. So I didn't see how he did it. Which means I didn't know how to write the tutorial. Anyway, we finally sat down together long enough to come up with some instructions. Yay!

Want to know the BEST part? The price of ours vs. the price of the Restoration Hardware shelves:
 

For the full Restoration Hardware Inspired Shelves how-to, go here.


 Rustic Farmhouse Table



This project totally made us want to say "Never Again."

Just kidding.

Sort of.

Let's just say refinishing a dining room table and chairs IN the dining room is a tricky thing! (We donít have a basement or a garage).

Our old pine dining room set was purchased eight years ago from IDOMO in Toronto. At the time it barely fit into our apartment & it had to go up against the wall on one side. When we purchased our townhouse, the set fit into the dining room with just barely enough space to walk around it when the chairs were pushed in.

Fast forward to this house and our dining room is about half of the 300 square foot addition (which also includes our living room), which means it was time to get a bigger set or DIY something with the old one.

And that brings us to this beautiful hunk of handsome that we scored for free!



Our plan was to remove the wood boards from the pallet, build a really large tabletop and reuse the legs from our old table as well as reusing the chairs from the old set.



For the rest of the Rustic Farmhouse Table how-to, go here. 

Thank you, Becca, for having us!

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They are so talented, huh? I love how Shannon comes up with these awesome ideas- then Dean has the know-how to make'em happen. Of course their knock offs will forever be close to my heart! ;-) I wish I had the skillz to make those shelves- maybe one day....

 Here you can see their dining portion of their living/dining room combo- I just die for the stenciled wall on the back. I think I need one in my bedroom! Of course we love the dining table- but check out the hutch! It was a super incredible makeover- check out this post for the details!

 I am ready to move right into Dean and Shannon's master bedroom. I think their headboard is slightly famous in Blogland- and for good reason! I've seen a lot like this- but there's is absolutely perfect!!

There are so many beautiful spaces in their home- not to mention a zillion great DIY projects! I hope you guys will stop by and show them some love!

✥ Reader Feature: Fab-U-Lous Home {aTour} ✥

  I stinkin love this dining room- I mean, looove! The Restoration Hardware table, the lighting, the colors int he rug, the stenciled walls, the wainscotting- it basically rocks my world. I may or may not have pinned it to 2 categories in Pinterest!!
That's why I asked Amy from Casablanca to let me share her home tour with you all.




Amy lives in UT- like me! She has a new construction home- her "white house" and her blog documnets her journey to add personality to a blank slate.
It has already come a long way- and Amy has fantastic taste.

Here's a pic of her kitchen-I adore the colors in Amy's home. She's practically famous for these painted leather barstools. She has a great tutorial- and they looked amazing.

This pic was after Amy and her hubby trimmed out the soffit. Now scroll back up- and compare the two. It looks ridiculously awesome, right? It makes the kitchen look like a million mucks!

We're back in my favorite room. I know it's hard to top that kitchen- but there's just something about this dining room that is so super amazing!! Her's the post detailing all the hard work- the stenciling, the wainscotting, etc. Wait a minute- did a mention the coffered ceiling? You have to check it out- fo real!

Here's the post detailing the fun decor decisions for the room. I would totally copy it be inspired by it if I had the large room...or any dining room, at all! ;-)

Here's her beautiful living room. I love that fireplace and she did that abstract canvas art herself! I super love it!

Here's a couple of posts about her room- the paint color, Restoration Hardware sofa table knock off, lighting.

Here's a shot of her kitchenette makeover. It's a part of her newly finished basement {here and here and here}- Take a look at those awesome floors!! I love the herringbone design and that super saturated blue on the walls!

There's so many great spaces to chose from- so last but no least, I thought I'd throw in a few shots from Amy's master bath reveal. How much do you love that woodwork? The wood chandy over the tub was an INCREDIBLE lighting before and after!!

Is was Amy's special touch to do these plain front shutters. They can be opened top, bottom, or all the way. She also has a fun design in this master toilet reveal.

Wasn't Amy's home so fantastic!?! It is so gorgeous- and I love the colors! I've bookmarked a lot of the paint colors- I think they're totally perfect! There is plenty more home I didn't share with you today- and plenty more projects to check out- so stop by and tell her I sent you.

 Thanks Amy for letting us explore your home today! Thanks to the rest of you, for reading. What did you all think?

✥ Reader Feature: Complete Bedroom Makeover ✥

Dustin and Whitney run a fun blog, The Rooster and The Hen-it's filled to the brim with ideas about home and decor DIY projects. They've agreed to share their master bedroom transformation  today- and even share how they made money on the project and got a new looking room along the way!

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As much as we’ve enjoyed the master bedroom makeover ride, I think it’s safe to say that we’re glad to have it finally done. I guess I shouldn’t use the word done knowing my wife, since she’ll continually tweak and improve on the design - but I’m guessing the current layout will be set at least for a while since we both really like the bright beachy feel. In fact, if you’ll remember our original mood board, airy and relaxed was our goal. Let’s take a walk down memory lane to point out all the projects that made this room come together, complete with costs and maybe a thing or two we learned along the way. Psst, hover over some of the pictures to see the before shot.

Down to Business We started out by gutting the room so we could paint. We actually sold the bed frame, night stands, and the dresser online since we didn’t have another place to put them and we’d be able to use the cash from the sale for our makeover.

Cost: We made $425 Whoot!

Beachy Blue Our next project had Whitney mixing up our own paint - originally trying for Martha Stewart’s Spring Melt, we ended up going for a slightly different version of the color. We didn’t worry so much about taping off the room since we planned on taking care of baseboards in the next step. Cost: Roughly $5 in paint and supplies since we used what we had on hand. This project would probably set you back $25 if you were to head to the store to purchase the paint.

Trimmin’ it Up Since we had purchased new moulding and baseboards for the rest of the house when we moved in, we figured that now would be the best time to finally change out the trim in the master bedroom. We came up with an interesting way to get that finished contractor look, and minimize having to use a lot of tape to get clean lines.

Cost: The baseboard cost $36 and the door and window trim set us back $20. We already had this on hand from a previous project so it didn’t feel like we had spent anything here, but we’re counting the cost anyway.

DIY Pallet Headboard We channeled our inner woodsman by dicing and splicing up pallets for the pallet headboard. We feel pretty cool that so many sites including Miss Mustard Seed gushed over it - but even had that not happened, we still love it.

Cost: While the pallets were free, I did have to buy new blades for the sawzall for about $5 and used about $3 in finishing nails.

Seashell Art Fresh off a trip to sunny San Diego had us missing the beach. Whitney put the shells and sand dollars to good use by finding a creative way to display them.

Cost: We re-purposed an old frame and dressed up some seashells with just a bit of paint and rope, so we’re gonna call this one pretty much a freebie.

Ballard Designs Knockoff Chair We were able to get a $500 look in the room for a fraction of the cost with this furniture paint and re-upholstery job. We used the fabric inspired by Ballard Designs and a bit of trim from Hobby Lobby to make it all happen. Check out all of that action here.

Cost: Chairs came out to be $10 for the pair at a yard sale. We couldn’t have used more than $1 in paint and primer we already had. The biggest expense was the $15 in fabric and the $5 in trim. At $31 we thought it was fantastic deal.

Pallet Mirror With some pallets left over from the pallet headboard and a mirror that came as part of a new dresser we picked up at one of the last garage sales of the season, we created a pallet mirror to hang over the faux fireplace which we had moved from downstairs to the master bedroom.

Cost: Once again the pallets came free thanks to Whitney making a plea to a couple local merchants and we’ll allocate $2 out of the $20 we spent on the dresser toward the cost of the mirror. The contractor’s glue from Home Depot was $3.

A Duvet Cover...Again We changed up the old duvet cover with goldish-green light weight faux suede fabric. It added the punch of color we needed. Whitney added a dark grey bed-skirt she found at Target to help complete the look. Costs: The bed turned out to be the most expensive project of the room with the fabric costing $30 and the grey bed-skirt $27.

Canvas Art Makeover One of my favorite projects was Whitney’s transformation of the outdated canvas art we picked up and turned them into pieces inspired by Ballard Designs. Costs: The canvas art pieces totaled $.10 and since she used good -ole house paint ($.50 worth), this art was nearly free too.

DIY Drapes, Finials, and Rope Tiebacks We still laugh about the lady serving mimosas at a yard sale, but nothing makes us more happy then saving money, which is exactly what we did by making our own drapes, finials, and rope tiebacks. I just know we’ll be painting these curtains in the future, stay tuned.

Costs: The curtain fabric was only $2, but the rod we picked up at Hobby Lobby was $22 after a 40% off coupon. The finials were free since we re-puprosed them, and the rope tiebacks were made from the largest natural rope one can buy from Lowe’s at $.69/ft ($6.00).

That Gold Stuff Not everyone has jumped on the gold train, but it fits in so well with the new master room that we just had to have it as an accent. Our main gold piece is this old gold pendant ball light that dresses up the corner. Costs: Once of the best garage sell finds of the summer at only $4 and a smidge of gold spray paint to cover the cord.

Pillow Talk Whitney’s obsession with pillows paid off in a big way with our DIY pillows. We saved on the pillows themselves by reusing ones that we had around. Costs: We’re not counting the pillows themselves since we got them so long ago, but we did end up using about $20 in fabric from our favorite stores.

Smelly Night Stands My sacrifice for not breathing from San Diego until we got back home was worth the resuscitation efforts with our gold and cream night stands. We definitely learned that painting in cold weather is not advised, but we were able to fix them up and transform them into just the thing to go next to the headboard. Costs: We bargained with the seller of these tables getting her down to $8 for the set on account of the broken handle which we easily fixed. We won’t bother to count the paint on this one since it was minimal.

DIY Drum Shades and Carboy Lamps We delved into the world of lamp making by not only figuring our how to wire a carboy jar, but also how to turn some very ugly crafting hoops into a drum shade that would have cost us a chunk of change at the store. We’re still a little impressed with ourselves. Costs: The carboys and craft hoops were a total of $1, while the combination of burlap and interfacing came to $8.

We originally had a budget of $50, but later increased it to $100. We’re pretty cheap, but I think we shot way too low on this one. Once we passed that mark, we figured the extra cost would be worth getting the right look, and we’re glad we did. All in all, here’s how we came out on the master bedroom makeover:

Paint and Supplies: $17 Furniture: $18 Trim work: $56 Accessories: $61.10 Fabric: $80

Total cost: $232.10 Total cost after furniture sale: We made $192.90! Wow, what an upgrade, especially to find out we actually made money on redesigning our entire room. We both agree that the new room is so much better than what it was before, but what do YOU think?

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Oh maaaan! Do I ever want that faux fireplace!! From the moment I saw Dustin and Whit's I knew I needed my own! It's one of the main items I search the garage sales for!  I super adore the stacked wood inside, too! I know all of you are crushing on the floor to ceiling pallet headboard! Drama- with a rustic vibe- I love the stain variations, too cool!

While you over at the Rooster and the Hen saying hi- make sure you check out their awesome kitchen reno, too!! I want to paint my cabinets so badly- *jealous!!