Kitchen Buffet ReVamP!

I love my kitchen nook and I love that it has a built in glass buffet where I can display all my white dining collection. Since moving in, I had been shoving my favorite pieces in the buffet, however, the white dishes, vases, cups etc. did not stand out as much as I liked. 

Today while tackling my daily chores I found my self bothered by the way things looked in this buffet. It took my "New Year brain" a few minutes to come up with a brilliant idea, what if I used the remaining seagrass wall paper from my recent powder room revamp . I soon said to "H_E double hockey sticks" with my daily chores and got to work with this project. 

Here is how Miss.Buffet looked before.

Here she is in progress. The process was quiet simple in fact. I used a hot glue gun, scissors and wall paper. I made the process simple for my own sake and for the sake that I might not like it next year or next month or even in the next hour........ With only a few squirts of hot glue it would be easy to rip out in the long run but is also nice and secure for the time being.  

Tadaaaaa..... my white dishes look better already!

To stick with the natural element of the sea grass, I displayed my vines purchased from ZGallerie along with a wicker basket filled with the fabulous Pellegrino. The two balls are also wicker.

Dishes are from Crate and Barrel and Home Goods. Plane white dishes make me so happy.

I have more white dishes sitting in the dish washer (if only the dishwasher would empty its self) I am also out to shop tomorrow for some more. Yay!

Some small details around La Casa De S

Just thought I would share a few of the details around my house. As my blog is new and upcoming, I have slowly but surely gotten my feet wet with the blog world. The pictures below are just a glimpse of what you can expect to see soon. Lets just hope I keep my New Years resolution of blogging often (not just peeping into others blogs and not contributing). 

It has been a year and a few months since we have bought our beach house and a lot has changed and progressed around here. I can not wait to share our projects, ideas, designs, successes and failures with this O so welcoming blog world. 

Happy 2011 everyone! 

Ya....I did a chalk board wall too!

I love the idea of being able to scribble whatever I want on my wall. Sometimes its a sweet notes to the hubby, sometimes its a to do list and sometimes its a "you better do this or else" note to the hubs. Whatever it is it seems to bring out the child in me.

My chalk board wall is in our kitchen nook. It is hidden where everything still looks neat when you walk into the kitchen, but with a turn of the head its there and fabulous.

I actually free handed the design. I made it narrow in order to allow the wall color to frame the dark chalk board black. On the top of the board I painted our initials. On the bottom of the board I painted the year we got married.

My nieces and nephews think I am the coolest aunty ever. 

Master Bedroom Progress

         This past weekend the Hubby and I made some progress on our rather naked master bedroom.
                                     We purchased two items from my second home ZGallerie.

      

    We Went with the Victoria Bed. I have been eyeing this beauty for quite some while. I ordered her in a custom fabric called Snow. The fabric has a soft sheen to it and looks more luxuries as compared to the standard fabric the bed already comes in.

The Pauline Chaise has been my Hubby's fav for some while. Since he has a thing for chairs (I know right?) I let him pick the chair. I love everything about it. From the comfy texture to the nail heads. We picked a grey fabric called Storm.

I plan to purchase the below nightstand for our bedroom, however, I could not give in to the $450 each price tag. I saw the same ones at HomeGoods a few months ago for $250 a pop! Im going to be a HomeGoods stalker untill I find them again! 

Although I am really excited for our new items and the progress of our bedroom design I just learned that we have to wait SIX WEEKS for items to be ready for delivery. Which means I just have to dream about them till then. Like the Hubby said, waiting will make us more excited for their arrival, got to love his optimism!

Living Room Mantle

My living room is still in progress, things are always changing. However, for my mantle I think I found a keeper! My living room has very high ceilings, to accentuate that we found a really huge mirror. We plan to paint our walls a soft grey, I think it will really bring out the teal accent color around our house. For window treatment, we plan to start them from the top of the ceiling to again accentuated the height of the ceilings. We plan for the drapes to be a shade darker grey than the walls. Wow, we PLAN a lot! Lets just hope it gets done soon!

Back to the mantle.......

The fishes fit perfectly in our beach house. They belonged to my parents and I always had my eye on them. They did not really fit into my parents rustic style so they were gifted to me : ) 

Putting my DIY skills to the works, I gave the vintage book look a try. I took a trip to my local Library and purchased some used books. Each book was around 25 cents! I brought them home ripped off the cover, dipped them in coffee, let them dry, stacked them and wrapped them with twine! 

I stuck some sea shells and sea stars in the twine to give them an extra touch. 

I scattered the fish and the books on the mantle. The scattered look gave an interesting yet cohesive look.

There you have it, my Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer mantle. 

BAKE THIS!

My little brother is having a bake sale at school today. I wanted to bake something yummy yet fun. I thought these would be fun for a bunch of young ones.

Using a white cake batter I simply divided the batter up into four bowls. In each bowl, I added a different color. I found some super cool neon food coloring at Ralph's. Purple, Pink, Green and blue. The hard part or shall I say tiring part was spooning each layer into the cupcake foil (your hand gets tired after a while). 

They do not only look scrumptious but they taste so! I am sure these will be a hit tonight. The teacher suggests we sell these for $1 a pop. That maybe be pricey for young ones but I think they can manage since they all attend a private school! 

Powder Room

Our powder rooms was dead. It looked plain. It looked like a hospital bathroom. It needed to be resuscitated with LIFE! Here she is all pale:

Using a defibrillator we resuscitated her. Sticking to our beach house naturals I went with sea grass wallpaper. The powder room took 3 double rolls. 3 x 2=6 good job!

Here is the big reveal:

This is what you see from the little hallway.

Walking in you are greeted with the original pedestal sink and toilet.

I had this mirror in our home in Portland. The frame was gold so I decided to tone it down a bit with a soft white. I added a little mantle which provides room for fun decor.

I purchased these Anthropology spice jars and made a couple of sea arrangements out of them. I got the jars when they were on sale so the numbers were limited. They were sold out of #1. I could not resist, I needed my 1 2 3 4. So I bough two #4's, came home pulled out my number stamps and stamped #1 on the opposite site of the extra #4.  I love when I come up with brilliant ideas : )

                                                      Nightlight shine bright!

For extra dimension and texture I added six Ikea plates to help emphasize the corner on top of the toilet.  

Since we lack storage in this powder room, I grabbed a fabulous idea from the amazingly talented Sherry and John (Don't forget Clara and Burger) at http://www.younghouselove.com/. I found a wide mouth glass vase and stack the spare toilet paper. Brilliant!  

On the opposite wall is where the towels spend their life! We wanted to get a bit silly and added a vintage aluminum sign. To make the sign pop, I added an empty frame.

Lets Just hope the toilet doesn't get clogged.

Fresh flowers!

So whatchya think? 

The Do Not Touch Room

Or shall we call it the Living Room. This is the room you see when you first enter our house. It is the room that is rarely used, yet the most expensive. It is the room only special people are allowed to sit in. A room where children are allowed, however, they must be closely monitored. It is my show room and still a "work in progress"!

I will be back with details! 

My own ART

Along my stairs I have a family wall. Every time we go up and down the satires we are able to smile and remember some great memories (and some pretty faces ; ))

I wanted to mix the photo wall up a bit and add some art, or words of inspiration.

Since this art piece will be displayed on our stair landing, I wanted to use some words of inspiration. I have seen the saying "Make your own path" and it struck me a few times. Now every time I walk down the stairs to start my day these words will inspire me. 

To make my art I went to Aaron Brothers Framing with my 40% off coupon in hand. I bought a basic black frame which set me back only $14! Great price for such a big frame!

Next I cut up some old maps to make my background. I glued the map pieces on the cardboard provided with the frame. 

I then typed up my saying in large letters and black font. Next, I cut my letters out using an X-acto knife. I simply glued the letters on after measuring precisely. 

And wallllla...... My art is done! It sits nicely on the landing of my stairs and inspires my dear Hubby and I daily! 

                                                  All images from Surf at the S's

Grammy

(Source unknown because I am horrible with names)

Unlike that fabulous sparkle that sits on the coffee table, the only Grammy sitting in my living room would be my G-Ma or my Mom who is now a G-Ma! Putting the Grammy envy to the side, this photo really does inspire me to use some cow hide in my house. Maybe I can incorporate it through pillows, a bench or a rug!