Designs By JAlex

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.....

Friday, May 2, 2014

designsbyjalex.net Website is having a 20% OFF MOTHER'S DAY SALE!

designsbyjalex.net is having our MOTHER'S DAY SALE through May with 20% YOUR PURCHASE, plus FREE SHIPPING (continental USA). Please visit and shop to find that very special gift. When your there you can also like us on facebook at the bottom of the page...Thank you for your support

Friday, April 11, 2014

Spring Special at my Website designsbyjalex.net

On my Website we are running a Spring Special FREE SHIPPING on all purchases. There's some fabulous original and one of a kind items there. Please take a look and share the site with your friends and family. http://www.designsbyjalex.net

Saturday, April 5, 2014

My new Website is finally here up and running: http://www.designsbyjalex.net

Hi Everyone

My new Website is finally here up and running: http://www.designsbyjalex.net . Please take a look and see all the goodies I have to offer you. I have also joined in on Facebook...long time coming. I hope you enjoy my new Website and will return to it often and see all the new original one of a kind items I will be offering in the future. Any questions or comments are always welcomed.... Here's to a successful venture. Here are just a few pictures from the Website so you can see what's being offered.

Stunning Necklaces

Flurtly Bracelets

Tablet/Novel/Bible Cases

Monday, February 24, 2014

Coming Soon....Designs By J Alex Website

Update: I'm working very hard trying to get every item inventoried in the new Website we're getting ready to launch. I have made so many new items recently that they all have to be enter into the system. I'm very excited about the new website and what it will offer you. This past year has been nothing but creating new original and exciting merchandise. I'm currently working on a new line that should be desirable for anyone carrying a tablet. I will post the website as soon as we launch it. Please visit it, I know you will find it fun and loaded with exciting one-of-a-kind things to buy.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

New Design Ideas From Our New Home

I have a few pictures from the designing of our new home. We lost over 1000 sq. ft. when we moved here so the house has a lot of furniture in it. We really like our stuff so whenever we move into a new home we try and make it all fit in. In our garage we have made a studio and family room with the additional furnishings that would not fit inside. It's a challenge, but lots of fun. Here are the pictures:

Dining Room

Here we took the chandelier from our former house and placed it over the dining room table. As I mentioned we have used very bright colors in this house, this color is Sunflower Yellow. For resale you have to be careful what colors you select, but this time around I wanted to use paint colors that I love....remember it's only paint. This yellow makes me very happy and I used it through out the house except a few other rooms.

Living Room Wall

We had several clocks that in a larger home would be disbursed through out the house, but here we made a feature wall with all of them over the archway going into the kitchen.

Front Entrance Vignette

Trying to fit all of our furnishings into this house was a challenge, but here we added a vignette behind the living room chairs. When it came to selecting stuff, it was like having your own furniture store to pick from. You have to get creative sometime.

Dressing Up Your Bathroom

Gone are the days with blah-sey bathrooms. You can add additional decorating to your rooms that will make them into rooms you enjoy spending time in. This bathroom had room for a large dresser.

Decorating a Window

In our master bathroom we had an ice block window next to the bathtub, not very exciting, so we dressed it up with curtains, a nice rod and hung a pretty stain glass picture in it.

Master Bedroom

In our master bedroom we decided to bring in one of our bombay chests to use as a nightstand. The room is large enough to take the size of this piece.

Fireplace Mantle

There was a built-in fireplace in the master bedroom wall, but it didn't have a mantle, so we used one of our shelves over it to place some of our decorative items. We flanked two torch lamps on either side to further define the space.

Decorative Wall Art Used For A Security Screen

We had this metal wall art used on the walls in prior homes, but here because we are now in a single story house we needed some security in our master bedroom on the sliding door, so we can leave the door open at night for air, we mounted this wall art on a railing system, along with a lock, and we had our pretty security door. When you need to leave from this door you just slide it to the right.

The Nautical Bedroom

If you have followed me, you will see that I always have to have a Nautical Bedroom. It is my way of living with a beach inspired room, even though we are miles from the beach itself. Each time I change the wall colors to a different blue and of course the furniture and wall art arrangement has to change in the new surroundings. It is completely different from the rest of our home and we love that. As a designer, I believe you don't have to have every room in your house in the same decor, but be careful that you still maintain a certain style. Have fun with decorating.....

Shell Decorated Mirror

Add Seashells to Decorate Corner

Fencing Used in Decorating

One of my signature design features is using store bought fencing to decorate around the walls in a Nautical Room.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Designs By J Alex Update

It has been a very long time since I've posted on my Blog. My husband and I have relocated to Southern California again, and for the past 2 years I have been working on decorating the new house and starting a new business. Designs By J Alex is the name of my company and the new website for the items I will be selling will soon be available. There will be a Jewelry line, Totes/Bags, Tablet Covers, Photography Art, and other misc. items. Everything is uniquely designed and made by me.

My husband and I are working on getting the website setup and we're looking forward to launching it in the near future. I have wanted to do this for years and now it's finally here. When it is ready I will post the website address and maybe you will take the time to visit it and like what you see and send the link to your friends.

I will hopefully soon post some pictures of what I have done to our new home. Every time we move I get the chance to start all over and play with new colors and arranging our furnishings in a new way. Because this is a house we hope to live in for many years to come, I have chosen some very bright wall colors....some might say daring.....

Thank you for visiting my blog and I will try to bring some new and exciting design ideas to share with you.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Design Tropical Beach Landscaping in your Home

For most of my life I have longed to live on a waterfront property like a lake, stream, beach or pond. Not all of us are fortunate enough to live with a waterfront property so I thought we should be able to bring it to our homes anyway. To capture a waterfront look on dry land, I came up with a few pictures I located on the internet that can be used to inspire you:

Refurbish an unused Pool into a pond with plant life, boulders, grasses, repaint it, etc.

This Pool could be transformed into a pond if not being used for swimming

Paint the pool a dark color to give a pond look

Add a path with used timber i

Light up your yard with plenty of lights in trees, torches and on patio cover

Add brightly colored accessories like pillows, rugs, artwork

Add a daybed with large over-sized pillows

If you have room in your backyard build a "Bunkie" or "Beach Hut" (10x10 shed made into an extra room)

Put up curtains that will create a romantic cozy feeling

Paint your walls with Caribbean colors and don't forget your planter boxes

Stain your concrete patio slabs

Bring in the Sand and Plants

We can all enjoy having an oasis of our own. Don't be afraid to find the theme you love and bring it to your home. The Caribbean theme is what I want for me at this time of my life, lots of bright colors inside and out.

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.