Pepper Design Blog

A Little of This & That... Renovating, Decorating, DIY Projects & Family

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Building a Bathroom: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

March 5, 2012 by Morgan

Hope you had a great weekend! We had family in town so we played and enjoyed good food while also sneaking in a few house projects. Thanks for helping out, Mom and Dad!

I have such a neat find to share. I’m so thrilled with this random thrift store discovery that I still can’t believe my luck.

I was perusing a local shop that was on its way out of business (very sad, it was a spot that carried some great gems) when I came across a beautiful, arched mirror high on a wall at the very back of the store. When a clerk came to help me get this guy down, I was so happy to discover that it was heavy and really well built. So heavy that I was at first wary it might not mount right and actually passed on it. But its unique shape and quality taunted me all day and eventually I went back to pick it up.

So happy that I did!

I love love how our bathroom is coming out but it is in need of a few unique pieces to balance out our new modern updates. Our home is a juxtaposition of old meets new. She’s a 1930’s bungalow with high, arched ceilings and lathe & plaster walls, but she’s also expected to be fresh, modern and functional for a family living in the 21st century. It has been one of our main goals all along to pair that vintage-meets-contemporary design aesthetic throughout, and when a room begins to feel too much one way or the other, it’s a clear sign that it’s time to inject the opposite into the space.

Enter the guest bathroom with its brand new glass tiled shower, crisp blue walls, brushed nickel fixtures and stone grey floor – now it’s time to inject some of that old-world bungalow charm to compliment the subway tiled chair rail (a more permanent nod to the original style of 1930s baths). A feature of the mirror that I love best is that the unique shape actually kind of reminds me of the arches in our living room, dining room and guest room, a key feature of Spanish-style homes.

(A few have asked about the grey grout and yes, we took the unconventional route of grouting the entire shower in the same grey as the stone floor. It was Kev who had to get me on board with this one but I’m super thrilled with the result – and lack of any grout stains that may show up in the future).

A cool shape, right?

Kevin was skeptical when I brought it home but humored me enough to give the mirror a shot for a little while. And now he sees why I dig it so much.

Please ignore that manilla colored door in the background… it is screaming for a coat of glossy white paint. (Manilla must have been the white of the 70’s because this home has fully embraced that cream trim look.)

I don’t often get to sneak away to go thrift store shopping these days with how busy work has been and how difficult it can be to shop with the little one, so when I pop into a store here and there I am often bemused at my lack of good fortune. I rarely find what I’m looking for. But in my book, this mirror spotting could be my one find for a long time and I’d be a-okay with that. :)

Now it’s time to add a little art, a few additional fixtures (like this one):

Some paint touch-ups, shower door and baseboard additions, and soon our bath built from scratch will be ready for its big reveal. Thanks for your huge amount of patience :).

More building a bathroom posts: installation time, vanity wars, subway tile installation,  floor tiles and toe warmers, a quick catch-up on our work on the bathroom in 2011, tiling with recycled glass, choosing and installing a bathtub, demo time!, a peak at the layout, initial inspiration, partnering with Lowe’s

We partnered with Lowe’s on our bathroom remodel and had the opportunity to try out some of their product at no cost and some product at a discount. The ideas and stories shared in this post are entirely our own, promise.

- posted on March 5, 2012 Filed Under: Construction, Home, Our Guest Bathroom, Project Lowe's, Renovating Adventures

Friday Guest Interview: The Busy Budgeting Mama

March 2, 2012 by Morgan

Happy Friday! Oh I love me a good Friday. It’s the close of the work week… a chance to wrap up unfinished projects, cross off items from the ever daunting list, reprioritize tasks that didn’t meet their Friday deadline. I also take an early lunch on Fridays for a story time at our local library with Liv. It’s the best.

Weekends usually mean a new kind of project – one that involves a hammer or paint brush or some mod podge. Weekends also mean par 3 golf courses, BBQs with friends and morning Church on Sunday. Sunday rituals are sacred in our house, it’s a morning to look forward to all week. After Mass we swing by the most delicious bakery for an almond danish and vanilla latte (always the same order. always), that’s followed by our favorite Farmer’s Market where we stock up on goods from farmers we’re beginning to get to know. Oh man those homemade almond danishes… I’m thinking about it already.

But! It’s still Friday, and with that I introduce to you a blog that I think you’ll very much enjoy checking out. The Busy Budgeting Mama was introduced to me by a friend and I was immediately smitten with Natalie’s creativity.

Be it a cardboard castle of all castles for her kiddos, the most wonderful crocheted animal patterns, her awesome dessert tables (because her graphic design skills are through the roof) or a dollhouse complete with wallpaper and DIY designer furniture, this girl is crafty and quite good at it. How cute is this idea? And here’s that awesome castle that cost a whopping $4 to create:

If you enjoy following along with families (and super savvy creative ones, at that) then I think you’ll really enjoy Natalie’s blog. More pictures of her adorable family and crafty style (plus answers to the usual four interview questions) after the jump.

…

Read More »

- posted on March 2, 2012 Filed Under: Crafty Solutions, Guest Blog, Home, Interview Tagged With: Crafty Solutions, Guest Blog, Guest Interview, Kid's Party

Renovating Adventures: Our Floor Plan

March 1, 2012 by Morgan

I thought a nice bird’s eye visual of how our home is laid out might be helpful when keeping up with our renovating adventure.

Floor Plan - House, Garage, Granny Flat

When it comes to titling posts over here at PDB, I try and label different home renovating topics by the room that we’re tackling (Building a Bathroom, Project Nursery, etc). All of those remodeling posts fit under the larger category of Renovating Adventures (you can always filter posts here by just our Renovating Adventures by clicking on the pink button in the right sidebar titled ‘Home Makeover Project’. Hmmmm…. perhaps I should rename it so they match).

But, I realize that even with all of the labeling, tagging and categorizing it can get a little confusing to navigate our house, so I thought that maybe a floor plan would help. Here’s a closer look at just the house:

House Floor Plan

That’s our current floor plan above. PS did you know we have a granny flat in the backyard? (see top floor plan) It’s a little studio that we rent out to a friend and that little supplement was one of the main reasons we were able to buy into the neighborhood we’re in. That, plus buying a home highly in need of gutting. (We tried to buy into the best neighborhood we could afford, even if it meant buying a home in need of a lot of TLC and sweat equity.)

PSS I filled it in so that the colors are kinda, sort of similar to the color scheme in that room. A lot more blue than I had thought – all blue bathrooms now that I think about it.

Just for comparison’s sake, here’s the floor plan of the house when we moved in in 2008:

Do you see all of those closets? Don’t get me wrong – storage is awesome. But that’s a lot of closets.

When it comes to walls moved, here’s what we bumped around over the last three and a half years:

Old floor plan

And here’s our current floor plan one more time just to clarify all of those arrows above:

The den became the new kitchen, the kitchen and office were combined to create one large bedroom and three closet spaces in the hallway became a 3rd bathroom for the house.

And just for fun, here’s a sketch of what we have in mind for this and next year:

It primarily involves creating a master suite out of one of the bathrooms, part of the hallway and the current back bedroom. I’d also love to bring the washer and dryer indoors (out of the garage) in a stackable format in a new closet in the hallway.

As far as outside goes, we’d like to expand on our current outdoor fireplace and grilling area (that Kevin built three years ago) with a deck, pergola and extended block wall in the side yard, as well as a stone path and lawn area in the back.

I’ve been meaning to put one of these guys together for a while (finally updated a version Kev had made for an architecture class) and I hope it’s a helpful visual as you see our before and after photos and read our renovating posts! I’m a map person and sometimes I have to get my bearings by getting a bird’s eye view on things, then it all makes sense. I’ll keep this guy easily accessible just in case you need to find your bearings around here in the future.

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- posted on March 1, 2012 Filed Under: Home, Our Guest Bathroom, Our Guestroom/Office, Our Hallway, Our Kitchen Remodel, Our Living Room, Our Master Bathroom, Our Master Bedroom, Renovating Adventures

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Welcome to my little slice of the web where I practice finding family, career, homemade & inspired balance on a daily basis. This is where I capture my happy moments, and I'm honored that you're here to join us. Home + creativity + good eats + journaling + life as a working mom. Read more...

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