Designs By JAlex: Collecting Your Favorite Things

Welcome to my blog where you can hopefully be inspired

The design ideas in this blog are for you to get inspired to help make your home a place that will be warm and cozy. I'm not a minimalist and love to be surrounded by beautiful things that did not cost a lot of money. My husband and I went to garage sales for 7 years until we couldn't bring anything else home because it wouldn't fit. I use to take people with me to the garage sales by their request because they wanted to learn how I found so many lovely things. It was a great adventure for them and they learned how to get in and get out fast. So I hope I will be able to help you too find things that look like you spent a bundle when in reality you got it for a song.....

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Collecting Your Favorite Things

Below are some of my favorite finds that I have found over my lifetime. People are always telling you to get rid of the clutter, it's only clutter if the items you have brought into your home don't mean anything to you. I'm not a minimalist by any means. Both my husband and I love to surround ourselves with things we love. Over the years we have gotten rid of things that we no longer cared for. Make sure you keep the things you love because they somehow bring comfort. If you group like-items together it will make your designing more cohesive and will look less cluttered. Enjoy collecting things you love.....

I love to place books on a small shelf around the house in unusual locations

These are Costco Candlesticks with very fragrant round candles

This Carousel Horse was a garage find made of cast iron

This Cow Checker Board set was handmade by someone the pieces to the set are in the bell around it's neck

Ceramic primitive pieces found in a garage sale

Ceramic all-in-one clock with the books and cat attached, favorite garage sale find

This beautiful Tiffany Lamp is from Costco

Costco find that was plain white and I added gold highlights to it

Shelves to hold all the sea nautical theme items

Shelf to hold garage sale finds

Place like-items on a table to showcase them

A small table with glass balls

A collection of items that I love

I adore unusual footstools

An outdoor birdhouse from Costco in the Coastal Living Bedroom

Artificial lemons in a bowl, they look real.....

A glass tray with polished rocks and candles

Love to add balls to decorative bowls

This is our doorbell on the porch

Beaded fruit in a decorative bowl

Feathered balls in a decorative bowl

Stacked boxes found at Costco

Love colorful ceramic pieces

Lighting is so important find something unusual for your home

Outdoor yard art for used indoors

I collect everything frogs....

A cute little stack of pillows kept together with ribbon

A display of my collection of "Dinner at Eight"

I used wall sconces to display artful clowns

Roster and Hen from Big Lots

You're never too old to collect Teddy Bears....

A shelf to hold my I Love Lucy collection in our Media Room

Bookshelf from Costco holding all my designer books, etc.

Outdoor frog set....

Beautiful Vase from Costco

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FRONT-YARD LANDSCAPING BEFORE AND AFTER

Coastal Bedroom Design Former Home

Former Home Remodeled Master Bath

After living with our home for 10 years we decided to remodel instead of buying a new home. Our Master Bathroom was such a transformation from what it was. I enjoyed every moment of picking out all the materials for this design. Be did the painting and electrical but everything else we had contractors do. Each process was done by a different contractor stone/granite, plumbing, cabinets, shower install, flooring.....that's a lot of contractors. Fortunately there were very little problems through the completion. I could write a book about the process of going through a remodel the good the bad and the UGLY!

LARGE PATTERNED AREA RUGS

Below are some examples of using large patterned area rugs. As I have mentioned it takes a leap of faith to buy a large patterned area rug and place it in your home. I personally like them and use them where ever I can fit one. After you get items on top of them they seem to fade away kind of like when you use a bold paint color when it is on the wall without anything else it is over powering but once you put your items up the wall color becomes less prominent. So go for it.....there are lots to choose from.

The use of Murals

I absolutely love murals if they are done in good taste. Here in our former home I used a mural of Paris on the back wall of the kitchen dining area. There is a long bench on the back side of the table for setting of at least 4 people. My husband put in the dropped pendant lighting over the table which helped illuminate the the mural. When we moved I wanted to take the mural with me but the new owners loved it so it was left behind. If you saw this in person you would be able to get the full impact. So don't be afraid to use a mural there are high quality one's out there that are as easy to install a wall paper.

Remodeled kitchen before and after

This kitchen remodel was in our former home where we did an entire house remodel from top to bottom. The kitchen was totally gutted and everything replaced. We saved over $50,000 by the way we did this room. We did the demo, painted the walls, the electrical and chose all of the contractors our selves. The cabinetry alone was a huge savings by getting them through a family members source. The brand was Decora with soft closing drawers really I was able to get the works. The price we paid for the entire remodel cabinets throughout the house was the same as some quotes were for just what we would have paid alone for the kitchen. When it comes to remodels shop around.

Dining Room Before and After

The chandelier in our current dining room was enormous but plain. I ordered crystals online and went to work with upgrading the fixture. I purchased the lamp shades to cover the naked bulbs (not a fan of naked bulbs). I had a red dining room in our last home too. For us it is what we like and I know it's not for everyone. When you dine in there you feel like you are at a Five-Star restaurant it's so cozy. I debated on painting the ceiling red or not but after the walls were painted it just seemed the contrast was too great so the ceiling got painted too. There's a lot of light coming in from that large window so it doesn't feel like a dark hole.... Red is my favorite color so you will see plenty of it being used throughout the home.

Sitting Room Before and After

The above pictures are from our former home where we did the major remodel. In this area we took out the french doors and added a conservatory sun room. Where the sofa is was were the original dining room was located that was moved to another room after the remodel. The ceiling became lower in the area because where we added a loft on the second floor they had bump it down a foot to allow for head room in the new office area above it. There's an arch as you go into this room so you don't notice the ceiling variation at all.

Fireplace Before and After

The above pictures are of the fireplace in the family room in our current home. I made several changes to it before we ended with this version. I was fortunate to be able to find the columns online that fit the dimensions exactly from the top of the fireplace to the ceiling. I purchases some rope wood pieces to add to the top above the clocks and just below the clocks and around the center edge of the fireplace to pull it all together. We had it painted green at first but the clocks got lost in all the darkness so we painted a muted yellow to make the clocks come alive. This room is painted 3 shades of green the accent wall, ceiling and other walls. The wall that the fireplace is on is the accent wall painted a dark green the other walls are light in color.

Welcome to my blog where you can hopefully be inspired

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Collecting Your Favorite Things

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