Crash! A NEW Era

It's been quite a while since I posted a "Crash!" feature- almost a year actually!  Let's not do that again.  This time, I was a house crash-er at my parent's new (ish) house. About 3 years ago, I shared a mini home tour (which was looking back was mostly vignettes) with you just before my parents moved out of the home I grew up in.

For some silly reason, they wanted to live closer to their children and grandchildren.  So they sorted through 30 years of living in one home, held a huge tag sale, packed up the rest, and moved about 2 hours away.

Flashing to the present, Mom is just about as addicted to blogs as I am.  She decided to take the new house as an opportunity to reinvent her style, and reinvent she did!  She used to gravitate toward antique and Americana and now, while the antiques are still present, the home has a fresh, airy feel.

I am definitely a product of both my parents.  Example: the white bookcase above.  The base of the bookcase showed up in the last tour, but looking a bit differently:

My dad built the hutch top/bookshelf and my mom refinished and painted the whole thing.  I kind of love it.  Like the true librarian she is, Mom uses stacked books throughout the house to tell a story with the titles. Notice: Homes, Not so Big House, Living in New England, and House of Dreams

Mom's most recent furniture refinishing project shows up in the dining room.  The antique table that I grew up abusing using, got a fresh coat of paint on the base with some light distressing.  It looks like it was meant to be this way all along!

Mr. Fiddle Leaf Fig there is the sibling to my dying IKEA one.  Clearly Mom's doing something right because he's more than doubled in height!

Mom's styling stamp is all throughout the house (with Dad's approval of course), but his styling is evident on his dresser: vintage toy car, cut book "P" that he and Mom made a la Anthro, and a vintage cast iron mailbox bank.  Mom might have had her hand in the pile of books, though.  I believe one of the books is titled Man of my Dreams.  How delightfully cheesy are they?? (xoxo)

Even the outside has their touches all over it.  A pop of color door with new, beefier trim around it, neutral shutter, a bountiful garden and a sweet house number sign off etsy (if my mind serves me right).

While they had 30 years to personalize their last home, I think my parents have done quite nicely in the relatively short amount of time they've been in this house- isn't it beautiful??

If you live in the central MA or Boston area and want to see your home Crash!ed on the blog, e-mail me (karen@yearofserendipity.com) a few pics and a bit of the story of your home.  I'd love to make this a regular feature! 

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Dori the Flip House: week 8

I hope you enjoy these weekly updates as I learn to navigate through the business of flipping houses.  My latest flip house, Dori sports the 3 L’s in real estate, but will need more than a bit of creativity to make the house sellable. You can find more about this house and about my 4 previous flip houses here. I feel like a broken record here: this week, while stuff happened, it's not very drastic, BUT next week will be spectacular!!!

This week:

all the new drywall got taped, mudded, and sanded.  She's all ready for paint!!

Outside got sexified with a new patio

only a few notches better than the old patio..... I had honestly blocked from my mind how horrific it was

and lots of grass got planted

AND is already starting to grow!

My main job this week was to make sure to keep the grass seed damp and to stay out of the way of the drywallers.  Gave me a good opportunity to focus on some design clients and get started on wedding planning for my sister in law!

Like I mentioned already, next week will be BIG.  You'll start seeing trim, paint, tile, and all the things that will start to make this look like a livable house once again.  I hope you're as excited as I am!!

Happy Weekend!

Let’s Get Catty- part 2

I established yesterday that my office wouldn't be complete without a DIY cat perch.  But what kind of crazy cat lady would I be if I didn't also provide a cat perch cushion??

I wanted to add a little bit of padding, that could also be cleanable.  I had fabric waiting in the wings for an upholstery project in another room that I had extra of that I thought would be just perfect.  Enough pattern to be interesting, but subtle enough to become more of a texture.  It has a nice little metallic gold fleck in it without being annoyingly glitzy.  I'm planning some bold shades in here so I don't want the fabrics to compete.

(fabric and image via Tonic Living)

I started by tracing the cat perch onto several layers of quilt batting, then using that as a template to cut my fabric.

In order to end up with the batting in the middle of the 2 pieces of fabric, you need to layer them into a weird sandwich before pinning it all together: fabric face up, fabric face down, and the batting on top.

Pin all 3 layers together before sewing.  (please excuse the cutting board- it's been with me since college and we've bonded, but he's seen better days...)

Be sure to leave an almost 6" gap unsewn on one side to allow you to flip it right side out.  I left my gap on the long straight side, since that would be facing the window.  After sewing, pull your corners through the gap until your cushion is starting to look more like, well, a cushion.

Once your cushion is all right side out and straightened out, it's time to sew up the gap.  I use a hand sewing blind stitch that my mom taught me when I was a wee lass, but instead of trying to explain it myself, YouTube exists.  How to sew a blind stitch.

I could have just left the cushion here, but I wanted to add one more level of interest.

I sewed a simple stitch with my machine a few inches in on all sides to create a border.

But the real test here was the kitten test.  After bringing Daisy in to give the cushion a try, she debated a moment then made herself right at home.

Then completely melted.

I'd consider that a win.

It's a pretty good bet that one of the cat's is hanging out here- we call it Master Kitty Theater.  Looking out the window is like tv for cats.  Those birds out there provide lots of drama.

Even the ladybug that's been flying around my office for the past week is making herself at home on the new cushion.

And that my dears is proof that cat furniture doesn't have to hurt your retinas.  For another pleasingly stylish cat accessory, check out Designlovefest's DIY cat bed.  So adorable!  We're on a mission to eradicate ugly cat furniture once and for all!