My House Reveal: Dining Room

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” 

Virginia Woolf

The open floor plan combines the dining and adjacent living area into a single, large gathering space where family members and guests can interact during the entire course of a visit, not just during the sit-down meal. 

Admittedly I am not the best cook on the planet. I can make a mean tater tot hot dish (as we call it in Minnesota) or a respectable pot of use-what-you-have-in-the-pantry soup. But when these culinary delights are shared in the ambience of a beautiful dining room, somehow they just seem to taste better.

The biggest challenge I had in decorating this space was finding a table the seated six while comfortably filling the space in front of the floor to ceiling windows. After a frustrating game of this table is too big, that table is too small, I found an old, inexpensive trestle table that was ahhh, just right. 

My husband and I spent a Saturday afternoon stripping, sanding and staining it to its natural perfection.

Keeping with the light, monochromatic palette, I also found an open shelved hutch (with a cute ladder!), perfect for displaying dishes, baskets full of linens and assorted vases and jars.

 I have a few more rooms to reveal, so as always, stay tuned...

{photos by Sara Boulter}

The White House

"So white is the mother of all colors
The churning of all yellow, blue, green
Colors sacrifice their egos
To the eternal white."

John Matthew

Strangely, I've had an obsession with white for the past few years. For those of you who know my tendency to use color everywhere, it's been an interesting personal evolution in design style.

White serves as a blank slate, an empty canvas when used in design. White is timeless, and works with all styles from tropical to traditional, classical to contemporary. White provides contrast to the world around us.

So during our quest for an exterior house color, we decided on white. 

Here are a few of my inspiration images:

This week, our house is gonna get its white on. Oh yah.

As always, stay tuned...

My Own Backyard

"I believe in God, only I spell it Nature."
Frank Lloyd Wright

Look what I found today... I hiked down to the bottom of our property line! Much better than finding a bag of money behind one of the walls!

Change of Plans

"Trust that little voice in your head that says,'Wouldn't it be interesting if...' Then do it."

Duane Michals

At the time of my last post, nearly one year ago, we were in the process of building a new home. We had beautiful, custom designed plans created and even had gone as far as engineering them for our building lot.

Well, as my husband and children have come to accept, my "plans" often change. Drastically. Spontaneously. Without warning.

To make a long story short (more on this later), we've purchased an existing home and are going to renovate rather than build.

Introducing our new home!

It might not look like much from the front, but here's a view from the back:

Can't see the appeal or the potential? Remember, it's often what we can't see that's more important than what we can see.
I'm thrilled beyond words to take on this project. Join me on this exciting journey of transformation as we renovate, restore and revitalize!