I recently received this cry for help:
Dear Abby (I mean Julia),
I know you’re into decorating with black and white, but can you offer any advice for those of us that are stuck with navy blue carpet - yuk- in the master bedroom?
Sincerely yours,
Stuck with the Blues
12 comments March 31, 2008
The new People magazine issue is on newsstands now, featuring Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony’s twins Max and Emme. You’ve got to check it out, if only to get a look at that nursery. Wow. It’s like Versailles in there with crystal chandeliers and everything.
10 comments March 30, 2008
You guys leave the best comments–I really love reading them. As I say on the About Me page–Hooked on Houses is 100% ad-free, so comments are the only payment I receive, and I appreciate every single one! Here are a few that were interesting or made me laugh this month:
Click “more” below to see the Top 10 Comments for March:
8 comments March 29, 2008
Click “more” below to see the photos and play along:
Add comment March 29, 2008
“I still close my eyes and go home–I can always draw from that.” -Dolly Parton
I just got home from our Spring Break vacation in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and thought you’d like to see the souvenir I brought back for you. You didn’t think I’d come back empty handed, did you?
We went to Dollywood yesterday, and one of my favorite things in the park was the replica of Dolly Parton’s childhood home constructed by her mother and brother. I was amazed to see how Dolly and her 10 brothers and sisters lived in this tiny, one-room cabin in the Smoky Mountains. She has always described her family as “dirt poor,” and that’s no exaggeration. It’s all the more remarkable when you think about how far she’s come since then.
14 comments March 28, 2008
It’s finally Spring, and I’m craving color. I thought it would be fun to look at some rooms that are bright and bold thanks to some daring paint choices.
This colorful room, for example, was inspired by a Roy Lichtenstein painting, with the colors outlined in black electrical tape to capture the effect of the artist’s 1990s “Interiors” series. Interesting how it gives the same sort of effect as crown molding with a lot less time and effort! (Paint colors: Maritime Blue and Marigold from Benjamin Moore. Via Domino magazine.)
To see more colorful rooms brought to life with paint, click “more” below:
8 comments March 27, 2008
“Beauty doesn’t lie in the expenditure of much money, but in the artistic disposition of little.” -The Mothers Magazine, 1917
Here’s an excellent example of how a little time and effort can make a big difference. I don’t have a “before” photo of this small mudroom, but it was filled with trash, covered in dirt and grime, and generally a forgotten space off the back door of a 100-year old farmhouse in Indiana. My sister-in-law had a roll of leftover red toile wallpaper, and hanging it in the mudroom was one of the first things she did after buying this place. Now it’s one of the most charming little corners of her home.
I know I said I was wary of wallpaper, but this is one of those instances where I think it was used to wonderful effect, and it’s in a small space where you won’t spend a lot of time or get tired of seeing it. If I hadn’t already painted my mudroom, I’d be tempted to steal this look and hang red toile in mine, too!
8 comments March 27, 2008
Fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger’s mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut is now on the market for $27.9 million. I found the MLS listing for it and had to share it with you. It’s always fun to look at famous peoples’ homes to see how they live.
“Stone Hill” is a 20,000 square foot estate, with 7 bedrooms, 9 baths, 8 fireplaces, and 4 garages, decorated with “an artfully eclectic mix of Georgian moldings, vintage marble/stone fireplaces, cashmere/exotic leather wall treatments and heated marble floors.”
The property boasts over 4 acres with an infinity pool and tennis court. If the weather isn’t accommodating, there’s an indoor basketball and squash court, gym, sauna, and spa treatment room. Oh, and don’t forget the “wine cellar and grotto.”
12 comments March 26, 2008
As promised, I’m now going to tell you how I used those black-and-white pillows that I found at Ikea.
I had an empty corner of my master bathroom underneath the window, so I had added a bench there with a couple of pillows. The seat of the bench opens up, adding handy storage, but the natural wood tone blended into the wall color. The off-white pillows didn’t help things, as you can see by the photo above (I wish I had a better “before” pic, but this is the only shot I could find of that room).
I’ve been meaning to do something about the neglected corner of the bathroom for months, and Ikea gave me the inspiration I needed.
12 comments March 25, 2008
I’m broadcasting from the mountains around Pigeon Forge, Tennessee this week. Take a look at our view!
When we asked our son what he wanted for his 13th birthday, he said “All I want is to take a family trip to Gatlinburg.” Now that he’s a teenager, who knows how much longer he’ll think of family togetherness as a gift? So we’re taking advantage of it while we can.
I figured since you all enjoy peeking inside houses as much as I do that you’d like to see our vacation home rental, too. Welcome to our cabin!
To see more photos of our Spring Break cabin, click “more” below:
14 comments March 24, 2008
I know all the talk about “green houses” can get boring at times, but there’s nothing dull about HGTV’s Green Home 2008 in Tradition, South Carolina. If this is what environmental responsibility looks like, then sign me up.
My only criticism is that I hope someday we can move beyond the literal interpretation of “green homes” and branch out into some other colors. But that’s a tiny quibble. The green they use here is lovely, if a bit of a cliche. Maybe they’re afraid we won’t “get” that it’s “green” without a liberal use of lime, sage, and celadon.
Whatever. It’s a small house done right. I finally think I’ve gotten over the fact that I didn’t win the Dream Home in the Florida Keys because I’ve realized that this is the one I was supposed to win instead! So, you see, it all works out for the best in the end. I guess I can forgive Stephanie Dee of Iowa for snatching it out from under me.
If you don’t believe me that I’ve got this one wrapped up, you can enter to win it yourself once a day between now and May 9. But don’t get your hopes up! I’ve got a good feeling about this one.
To take a tour of HGTV’s Green Home 2008, click “more” below:
17 comments March 23, 2008
I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend with your friends and family. But first, before you start hunting for Easter eggs and eating those chocolate bunnies, I want to announce the winner of our Book Giveaway.
Drumroll, please. The person who is getting her very own copy of Marni Jameson’s book The House Always Wins is . . .
Melissa of The Inspired Room (I love her blog–check it out!)
Congratulations, Melissa! I wish I had a copy to give all of my fabulous readers. Thanks for entering!
I’m taking Easter off and won’t be posting again until Monday. In the meantime, check out the Top Ten Posts for the week of March 16-22. Are there any you missed? Now’s the time to catch up because we’ve got a lot more fun stuff to look at and talk about next week! (Click on the headlines below to go to the articles you want to see.)
Thanks to all of my new readers who helped Hooked on Houses break records this week for number of visitors in a day. I’m continually amazed that so many of you take the time to stop by and say hello. And I don’t take a single one of you for granted.
Happy Easter, everybody!
(Photo credit: Martha Stewart.)
6 comments March 22, 2008
Well, I guess you all heard the bad news by now, but for those who didn’t–brace yourselves–contrary to expectations (mine), I did not win the HGTV Dream Home Giveaway. Shocking, I know. But at least someone who could really, really appreciate it did, right?
Well, the jury’s still out on that.
If you didn’t see the reaction of the winner, you have to watch this. I just wanted to shout, “Calm down! You’re getting yourself too worked up, Honey! Just take a deep breath!” To the host, that is. I thought she might hyperventilate. But the winner was already calm enough.
You have to wonder what winner Stephanie Dee thought Lauren Lake (host of “Spice Up My Kitchen“) was giving her. A knock in the head? The HGTV message boards have been lighting up with crazy speculation.
I’ve read that she was drunk, had been fighting with her husband, hadn’t really entered the contest and knew nothing about it, and–my favorite–had already been told what was going on but was expecting Joan Steffend from Decorating Cents to come through the door. She was so disappointed to see Lauren Lake burst into the house instead that she couldn’t muster up any enthusiasm (like you would care who gave you the keys to that house?).
Whatever the reason–she was camera shy, in shock, or already too rich to care about winning–this is the most awkward moment I think I can remember seeing on live TV in a long time.
If You’re Hooked on Home-Improvement Television:
If You’re New Here: Hooked on Houses features decorating inspiration, celebrity house tours, fabulous before and afters, real estate news, fantasy open houses and more fun stuff. It is always 100% ad free. Comments from my readers are the only payment I receive, so I hope you’ll leave one! To see what we’re talking about today, click here.
18 comments March 21, 2008
Supermodel Cindy Crawford famously admitted, “Even I don’t wake up looking like Cindy Crawford. I have fat days, ugly days, blimp days, days that I just feel terrible about myself. I don’t want to have to be beautiful all the time.”
The same goes for our houses. If there are real people living in them–with dogs, cats, and kids–our homes are going to have fat days, ugly days, and days when we feel pretty terrible about them. That’s just life.
Click “more” below to read why our houses can never stack up:
10 comments March 21, 2008
One of the biggest problems with houses today is that so few of them have any real character. If you read my post about our family-room makeover, or saw the photos from my writing-room makeover, you know we started with a big, blank slate of white boxy rooms when we moved into our house.
Our solution? A lot of crown molding and trim. Adding hardwood floors to rooms that originally had carpet. And replacing the standard cheapo brass light fixtures that the builder left us with chandeliers in unexpected places, like my writing room and our daughter’s room (shown next page, from Land of Nod).
We also had the builder add a few things that weren’t in the original plans, like a round window in the powder room instead of a regular rectangular one, and two square windows on either side of the fireplace. The windows didn’t cost much more, but they made those rooms a little more interesting than they would’ve been without them. We also had them reconfigure the front elevation to add a front porch, which is rare in our neighborhood.
There’s no question that it’s a challenge to give character and interest to a newer home like ours, built in a suburb where every third house has the same floorplan and a similar exterior. There are so many neighborhoods like ours out there that I know I’m not the only one who has this problem!
Click “more” below to hear Marni Jameson’s advice on how to build character:
1 comment March 20, 2008
Sometimes it’s hard to know when it’s time to move on, and when you’re better off staying put. Especially in this real estate market, things are trickier than ever.
One of our neighbors argues that we should all sell now because the market might get worse before it gets better. Another wants to sell but is putting it off until the market recovers some of its mojo so he gets the money out that he put into it. It’s a gamble either way. No one knows for sure what’s going to happen in the coming year (if you’re the exception, please let me know).
To read author Marni Jameson’s advice about moving, click “more” below:
5 comments March 19, 2008
In the interest of full disclosure, since we’re talking about wallpaper today, I have to admit that I used to sell it. I not only worked for a year at Wallpapers to Go, but I sold more rolls than I can count as a designer’s assistant in the 1990s.
Maybe this explains my aversion to it now. When working for a successful interior designer, I made the mistake of suggesting that one of our clients would prefer paint over wallpaper in her contemporary home, and boy did I get chewed out for it. He explained that it was my job to sell the clients wallpaper for every single room in their homes whether they really wanted it or not. The markup on it was how we made most of our money. Did I want to get paid? Then I’d better lug some wallpaper books over to the client’s house, pronto.
I felt so dirty.
I have also had the experience of having to remove old, dated wallpaper, so that is no doubt contributing to my dislike of it. But I do appreciate it when it’s in professionally styled rooms like the one above (via The Inspired Room). And Marni Jameson, author of The House Always Wins, argues that wallpaper is back with a vengeance, and “it’s not your grandmother’s.” I’m trying hard to believe her, but I admit I’m a skeptic. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to return to the halcyon days of wallpaper and matching borders again.
Regardless–let’s suspend our disbelief for a moment and hear what she has to say. Maybe she’ll convince us to give it another try.
To learn how to choose wallpaper that (hopefully) won’t lower your home’s resale value, click “more” below:
5 comments March 18, 2008
I’ll admit it. I have a history of picking the wrong paint colors. There was the Craftsman White, which looked completely neutral on the chip but turned a pale yellow in our foyer. The Irish Spurge, which turned our upstairs hallway into a dark, depressing cave. And let’s not forget Compatible Cream, which was a decidedly incompatible yellow-gold in my living room.
One of my most memorable paint mistakes was choosing Green Apple for my mudroom. Just as I finished painting it and stood back to admire my work, my son came in and said, “Cool! It’s the same color as Shrek!” Believe it or not, ”ogre” had not been the look I was going for. (It is now a mellow Tawny Green.)
Time after time, I have fallen in love with “the perfect color” on a paint chip, only to be stunned by the results on the wall. And even when I try those test quarts, I’ll like it enough on one wall to go back and buy a gallon, only to realize I really hate it when it’s everywhere.
As a result of all this trial and error, I have a “paint graveyard” in my basement where all of the unused gallons go. Neighbors will actually stop by to pick up paint for their weekend projects. I tell you all of this because I need Marni Jameson’s advice on how to pick wall colors more than anyone. If it stumps you, too, read on.
Click “more” below to read an excerpt from The House Always Wins:
11 comments March 17, 2008
I just discovered a fun new book called The House Always Wins by Marni Jameson. Not only is it filled with helpful advice for the do-it-yourself decorator, but it’s laugh-out-loud funny, too. My favorite combination!
Some of the topics the book covers:
I especially recommend the book to anyone who is moving, building, or struggling to pull together a cohesive look in their own home.
I’ve been trying to figure out how to review it for you, or share some of the things I’ve learned, but I hardly know where to begin. There’s just so much good stuff in here! So here’s what I decided to do. Ready?
Click “more” below for details about the book giveaway:
22 comments March 16, 2008
Your favorite posts for the past week here at Hooked on Houses kind of surprised me. First of all, so many people stopped by to see A House as Big as Utah that my blog broke all records for most-visitors-in-one-day.
The second most popular post was one I wrote over a month ago that had never seemed to garner much interest, even though it was one of my personal favorites. I have no idea why so many of you suddenly showed up to read about The Futuro: A House That’s Out of This World, this week, but I’m glad you did. Don’t you just love the photos of that mod family living in the 1960s “UFO house”? And the groovy purple fireplace can’t be beat. If anyone has any idea where all these Futuro fans are coming from, please let me know. I’m so curious! (Photo above featured on Futuro Man’s Blog.)
Also getting a lot of blog love this week was Decorating Inspiration: Black & White. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one having a love affair with black and white rooms. I’ve got a mini-makeover from my black and white bathroom that I’m going to show you soon, so check back for that. It was inspired by the pillows I picked up yesterday at Ikea.
If you missed any of these popular posts, now’s your chance. Don’t miss out! Here are the Top 10 for March 9-15:
Coming up next week on Hooked on Houses: a book review and giveaway! You won’t want to miss it.
Here’s my own favorite link of the week: Check out the restoration blog of this amazing Victorian home (shown above). It’s the Benjamin Stanley Freeman home built in 1830 in North Attleboro, Massachusetts. If you live in the area, be sure to take advantage of the offered home tours in April. Or, better yet, buy it! It’s on the market (Open House April 12-13).
Thanks to Janet at Housepeepers for forwarding this to me. I would love to see it in person, but the photos on the blog are the next-best thing to being there.
2 comments March 15, 2008
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