✥ Reader Feature: Bay Area HOME TOUR ✥

Ohmygoodness, you guys! I have such a treat lined up for you today! I am practically bouncing out of my seat as I write this! We are ever so fortunate to get Jessica from Stay at Home-istsa to walk us through her custom built dream home! One room after another will literally WoW you! 

If it's not the view, then it's the 2 fireplaces, or the marble heaven, I mean kitchen! Wait until you see the bath- she has the marble basket weave tile flooring I {and Centsational Girl} have been dreaming about!

 When I saw this picture I knew Jessica and I were meant to be design soul mates and I couldn't follow her blog fast enough. I can't get enough of that fireplace, chaise, dear head, rainbow of books and a telescope!! Love. It. 

Well, enough about me- let's hear what she has to say about it!

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Hi, I'm Jessica from Stay at Home-ista. I blog about life as a stay at home mom, which can cover a lot of bases! Mostly I focus on home design (you'll get to see the house below), food, and parenting tips like how to survive long car rides:)

When Becca asked me if I would be interested in guest posting, I jumped for joy! It has been a labor of love designing, building and now decorating this house, and I absolutely love to show it off.

My husband and I met in architecture school at Harvard, so when the opportunity presented itself to build a house of our own we jumped at the chance. Of course, that "jump" lasted 4 years from start to finish, but now that it is done, I know every detail of the house and love every bit of it. Come on in.

That's the view from our deck. The view was the main reason we bought this property, it's just stunning to wake up everyday to see the San Francisco Bay, and sunsets over the Golden Gate bridge are beyond words. Also, part of the deal of my husband agreeing to live super-close to my family was that we could have a view. There you go.

                               

Looking down the gallery towards the kitchen.

Snapshot of the kitchen.

The Living Room with my favorite fireplace and mantle. Plus the TV hangs off the wall without wires, so cool.

The Dining Room is between the living room and the kitchen (the kitchen is on the other side of those pocket doors). I love how it's in the middle of the house, so when we host a dinner party and the kids excuse themselves early, we can still keep and eye and an ear on them.

The library is right off of the kitchen and play area, very convenient for mediating any disputes that may occur. And when I need to change a diaper, I just head to the Powder Room.

You need something to make that room smell nice:)

Then upstairs...

The nursery which opens off of the upstairs loft sitting area:

                         

I made the heart art with my daughter to brighten up the space. To the right of the awesome decal, is the master bedroom.

We finally brought a little color in with some art prints above the bed.

Oh, I could just live in the master bath. There is marble everywhere, which gives it great texture, and the three windows bring in a ton of light. Quite the way to wake up in the mornings!

Thanks for stopping by! Please come visit me at Stay at Home-ista for more!

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Didn't you love it!

 Jessica is a relatively new blogger, but don't let that stop you from following her- I mean she designed that home- she is so talented!! She's in the ridiculously fun stage of decorating and I cannot wait to see what else she can come up with!

Looking for places to link up your projects? Check out my Party page.

I'm also linked up here.

3 Chalkboard Projects {DIY Chalkboard Paint Recipe, too}

Holy chalkboards, Batman! These are all projects I did in a mad rush to get my guest room and bathroom ready for my super rad Grandma to visit. Cause, heaven forbid, she sleep in my hoarders paradise I mean project storage room/slash spare bedroom without a major overhaul! ;-)

Chalkboards aren't anything new in blog world- so I bundled a few of them in this post. They're all chalkboard projects, but they're all different!

First up- I had this a wood frame, but no backing. I thought it would make a great chalkboard for my bathroom. Cause every great bathroom design includes a chalkboard!? lol   I cut a piece of hardboard/masonite to fit the back of the frame and used E600 glue to affix it to the back. 

I wanted a place to keep the chalk so I cut the hardboard the size of the whole frame- NOT the frame's inset opening where the picture would go. That way there's a little ledge to keep chalk! See {^}?    

I wanted a chalkboard paint that matched the gray on the room, so I made my own. I used the same flat paint base color {Blind Date by Allen + Roth for Valspar} that I used on my DIY chalk paint headboard. I looked up recipes for chalkboard paint- and they all looked super easy...

But I already had Plaster of Paris from the headboard, and I didn't have unsanded tile grout- which the recipe called for. Soooo, I winged it and MADE MY OWN RECIPE!

But it turned out great, like, it's a chalkboard- so here's my recipe! 

You need 1 cup flat latex paint, 2 tbsp Plaster of Paris- and a few drops of water- only if paint is too thick. I painted several thin coats, maybe 5-6 of them. It only took about 10 minutes to dry in between coats, if that.

Next one- I got this frame many moons ago at the same yard sale that I got the headboard and the materials for my framed faux grain sack bulletin board and the painting I used for my over-the-couch ombre art and a bunch of other crap amazing finds! The frame was ridiculously bad! It had a cheetah print, with a cheetah print mat and the FRAME had little cheetah holes in it! Like holes all over the frame! I got it for free so I figured they might be fill-able and brought it home. In the end, and I do mean in the end cause I tried to painstakingly fill them with wall Spackle first, the electric sander, thankfully, took care of it.

I used DIY chalk paint to paint the frame- then waxed the heck out of it with Johnson's furniture wax. Remember you need ventilation with that stuff cause it smells fierce!

There was still a bit of texture left over from the cheetah spots- but I think it just looks vintagey-old, so whatevs at this point. I never want to see cheetah spots again. Ever.

 

I used the chalkboard spray paint for this one. I did several light coats of spray paint, building slowly- probably 5-6 total. I sprayed right on top of the glass. I love how you can do that cause otherwise it would have been cost me 15 bucks to have a large piece of masonite cut down to size. The glass also provides a perfectly smooth surface.

Lastly-I  had these {^} two frames hanging in the guest bathroom before I did my little makeover.  

The frames had gold speckles on them {I know what you're thinking, but I promise they were in style when I bought them!} and the mats were tan and beige.

This last project was sort of a throw away. Meaning, if it didn't work I would have thrown it away! ;-)
When all this chalkboard painting madness was happening I threw the frames AND the MATS in the pile and painted them too. 

{PS. Pics in these frames are by my super, duper talented friend, Emilie Johnson- check her out!}

Surprisingly, the mats weren't ruined! Crazy, right? I had to do SUPER light coats of spray paint to make sure the paint couldn't puddle on the porous paper. I think it adds a little bit of punch to an otherwise very calm guest space. So now you {and I} know, you can paint outdated or not your style picture mats! Yay!

These were my first chalkboard paint projects ever. I pretty much dove in head first!! I loved the DIY version- it's pretty fantastic to be able to make your own chalkboard paint in any color.
Have you guys tried it already? Do you have any tips for me?


Looking for places to link up your projects? Check out my Party page.

I'm also linked up here.