our first design coaching “client” – with 3 kids under 3, a builder grade kitchen and a lot of ideas

Home Decor

Our First Design Coaching “Client” – With 3 Kids Under 3, A Builder-Grade Kitchen And A Lot Of Ideas

Drescription

Acouple of months ago we put out the call to find a reader (or apparently two, more on that later) to help coach through a remodel. It was extremely hard to choose the right family/project – I wanted to do all of them. Some were a full house “where do I start – it’s a gut job”, most were solid design challenges where I could feel the overwhelm come through the writing. I’m so sorry we couldn’t interview everyone (and in true Emily fashion I ended up choosing two – just NOT being able to choose). But like hiring a new team member, it really came down to chemistry, the potential for design, compatibility, and frankly our collective excitement level. IF this is a project that I am dedicating my team’s time to (through meetings and content creation, not design work) I wanted us all to really really enjoy it as much as possible. While this is “free” for them (we aren’t being paid by them) EHD isn’t paying for the renovation, so making sure that someone was serious about doing it and genuinely excited to do the work that it would take to do without relying on us was a key factor. After culling through them all it’s clear that there is a big hole in the market – that design coaches or consultants could be a real career for so many people who can’t afford the true luxury of hiring a designer and yet just want someone to help them through it to avoid massive pitfalls and wipe the tears. I know this is part of what The Expert is doing but it’s clear the need is really large. ANYWAY, that’s all to say that I’m excited to introduce to you our first family – Peter and Chrissy (+ their three young kiddos).

The application came from Peter on behalf of Chrissy – be prepared for this sweetness. Here is the letter he wrote:

“Emily/Gretchen/team!

Peter Cambor here. So nice to e-meet you and really excited about this post you and the potential of you assisting in our remodel! First of all, I am an actor/writer/director/producer/bit-of-everything that moved up to the Portland area a few years ago with my wife and now 3 kids (was only one kid when we moved in 2021 – we now have 3 kids under 3.. Insanity! But the best kind!) So nice to e-meet you!

Okay. Real talk. My wife, Chirssy, is an amazing human being, a full-time mom, a huge fan of your blog, and she has been doing design for, well, forever – She has done small projects for other people, but she mainly does improvements and designs to the house we are living in at any particular time. She sent me your blog post saying how cool she thought this would be, and I am totally on board, and well – I figured I would just apply before she got the chance! We have done a number of projects together on a few different houses that have had incredible transformations, and this house we just moved into has, well, a number of projects to be done (Work in progress, Emily. Work. In. Progress.)

Side note: In some strange twist of fate, I have become Chrissy’s handyman/contractor over the last few years. This from man who didn’t own a drill – and now I am not too terrible at the remodel stuff (thanks YouTube!) So we do a lot of projects together. My ability is….let’s say I, too, am a work in progress – but I have learned a ton in the past few years…

Basically, our house in needs a lot of work, and Chrissy and I are sort of torn about how/what to do with it. We have been sort of chipping away at it, small project by small project, but the thing we would be bringing to you is our KITCHEN, which is, to put it lightly, a total disaster. It is a full-on 90s nightmare. For reals. It literally keeps Chrissy up at night. There are a lot of interesting challenges with the space, and we have a few game plans in place, but just don’t know which way to go with it. From what you said in your post, this might be a good fit for you and what you are trying to do.

We want to do this on a budget (we are pretty savvy – scratch that – CHRISSY is pretty savvy at doing things on a budget – I don’t have hard numbers in front of me but we do have a pathway to doing it around 20K – no joke – and I think we have good options to do it that way. There might be a bunch of different cool angles in which this could work for your format. 1. The Kitchen remodel itself obviously, 2. The fact that Chrissy is sort of looking for mentorship/guidance in design and building confidence 3. ME looking for mentorship guidance in my JV Contracting abilities, 4. The on-camera stuff is totally cool with us and we get it – photo or video – I have done a lot of TV through the years as an actor… I do more behind-the-camera work now. Not sure how much of this is video or blog posts/photos. But all good either way.

Chrissy was really excited at the idea of this being something to do as she loves your blog/work – but also I think to build her confidence and sort of get her interior design juices going! She’s been such an amazing mother and gladly immersing herself in being a mom and just hasn’t had the time for the design stuff. But design is her happy place and she’s so good at it( I’m her biggest fan!) Anyway – she sent me this (your blog post) said she was into it, and, well I thought I’d just jump in and apply!

…

With Gratitude,

Pete, Chrissy, Claire, Beau, and Birdie”

The effort put in here, the sweetness and enthusiasm were just infectious – while other people might prefer more cut-and-dry applications, getting to the point, etc, I’ve always hired or chosen projects/employees based on my excitement level (remember I’m an enneagram 7). Peter went on to show us the projects they’ve already done themselves – take a look:

What this shows is that they can execute a good design, that they understand the work that it might take, and that they appreciate good design. I was so impressed. Doing these projects with small kids means running around means they must love it. One of the things I feared with doing this “coaching” is that since I have no control over the timeline, budget, or design choices what if they don’t ever finish or it takes three years or god forbid our personalities don’t mesh then I’ve launched this thing that you guys get invested in and we don’t ever finish. So seeing what they have done before on their own, gave us hope.

So we jumped on a Zoom call and as predicted as so much fun. We found out that Peter is in the entertainment industry (I didn’t google or do any background checks, of course) and like us, they moved up from LA during COVID. So if you recognize him (I didn’t because I haven’t seen his shows but Jess did as soon as she saw the photo of them! Grace and Frankie and NCIS:LA anyone??) know that is NOT why they were chosen. Their application was just extremely compelling, their project was perfect, and our chemistry was immediate. So this is them:) We are so EXCITED and later this week we’ll show you all the ins and outs of their kitchen project. You can get a little sneak peek from the opener photos.

Turns Out I’ve Been Blow Drying My Hair All Wrong—Here’s How To Get It Right

When trying to decide what to post on new year’s eve, we thought a good ole fashion “how-to” beauty post would do the trick. Hopefully, this will come in handy tonight so that you can ring in the new year with a perfectly blown out do (if that’s the look you’re going for;)) Turns out, I’ve been blowdrying my hair all wrong—and not only does it not look as good as it could, but I’ve been damaging it. I was recently at my friend Janine Jarman’s salon (Hairroin Los Angeles), complaining about how I can never make my hair look good on my own, and convinced that I’ll never learn, when she handed me the blow dryer and a brush and said “show me how you do it.” I did and she, horrified, said “I see…yeah. That is all wrong and now I understand why your hair is so damaged.” She was actually relieved because this is a problem that we can solve. To be fair my hair is a challenge and even she admits that. I used to have great long, natural-looking blonde hair. Then I had two kids and proceeded to bleach and chop it and it’s never been the same. It’s curly (therefore frizzy and fuzzy) and broken (so I have to be gentle with it) and it’s actually only shoulder length so while I try to grow it out, I have extensions. It’s also naturally blonde, therefore fine. All of this makes it VERY hard for me to blow it out. The extensions are long and straight, my hair is short and curly. It’s awesome. So to be clear, yes, I was doing it all wrong, but my hair is absolutely a challenge. Here’s what I was doing wrong: I was not using product, did not have the right brush or the right hairdryer (my good one broke a while ago and so Brian picked this cheap guy up at the drugstore). I was blowing the wrong direction, therefore opening up my cuticle and CREATING frizz. I was putting the dryer far too close to my hair while it was still really wet (more frizz and damage). I had no real order and started in the wrong place. I was doing it WAY too fast, creating more frizz. Emily Henderson How To Blow Dry Wrong 1 Here’s what it looked like “before” when I was done. I mean, I don’t think it looks that bad, honestly, but does it look like I just stepped out of a salon? Uh, no. It was still a little wavy, a little frizzy, not that shiny. Good enough for everyday life, but yeah, nowhere near what a pro could do. Emily Henderson How To Blow Dry Wrong 2 So yeah, the finished product, as you can see, is not great. Let’s move on to how you are SUPPOSED to do it: 1. First, towel dry as much as possible. There is no reason to damage your hair by going straight to the blow dryer with soaking wet hair. I hear that this hair towel is great and apparently reduces drying time 50%. (When Arlyn was reading through, she said she actually had that towel, and it indeed made her hair dry faster…though she said maybe by like 30% but she liked it because it was felt light and not like a big lumpy heavy towel that was always flopping around on the top of her head). 2. Next, you want to protect your hair with a product. It’s not like I haven’t tried this but I honestly didn’t know what do use for my hair, how much of it to use and at what point to put it in??? Janine gave me just a few sprays of invisible oil primer and told me to work it all throughout the hair, evenly, while it is still damp. If you have hair like mine, using something that is heat-protective is key. It will act as an SPF for your hair, and protect it from the sun and heat (and reduce frizz). I hate my hair feeling product heavy so at first, I resisted, but using this stuff really made a difference and my hair did not feel weighed down by product at all. 3. Use a gentle wet brush to brush out your hair. I was just using my other bristle brush and not being NEARLY as gentle as I should be. She recommended this one. 4. Then we added a quarter-sized amount of conditioning straightening balm and applied it evenly throughout my hair (avoiding the scalp, because it will get greasy). Emily Henderson How To Blow Dry Right 2 New 5. First big thing I learned: You HAVE to start with bangs. Why? Because they are the most important part and it’s best to do them at the beginning before your arms are tired, while you still have the patience and before they get too dry and frizzy. She recommended using this brush, then pull the bangs to one side and blow-dry pointing the blow dryer down. Repeat the same motion on the other side. 6. For my hair, Janine told me to do a flat wrap where you use the forehead to help shape and bend bangs. When bangs are almost dry, use a large metal brush, which acts as a curling tool, and pull bangs forward in a circular motion for volume. 7. Before going into sections, rake through hair using hands and blow-dry (always pointing downward) to help get rid of some more moisture so you are not spending a million years drying each section. Emily Henderson How To Blow Dry Right 3 8. Then move to the crown using a bristle brush and roll the hair under and back using SO MUCH TENSION while pointing the blow dryer downwards and towards the back of your head. HOT TIP: Tension is the key to shiny and frizz-free hair. Emily Henderson How To Blow Dry Right 4 9. As you go along, clip sections to cool. Janine told me to clip it like there is a pretend roller in there. This allows your hair to cool down in that smooth shape. To be honest this is where I started to get REALLY ready for this to be over. It’s so much work and as Janine kept telling me “it’s not a race,” but I just wanted to be done. My arms were tired. I was tired. But I get it. If I take the time, a blowout can last 3 to 4 days so that 1/2 hour to 40 minutes it takes to do it properly is WORTH IT. Emily Henderson How To Blow Dry Right 5 10. Once you give yourself a pep talk to keep going (you’ve got this), move to the side sections of your hair, making your way from front to back. We used the big boar bristle roller brush for smoothness, and then moved to the metal brush to add more style, curl, and movement. Angle the brush tool the direction you want your hair to go (if you want your hair down and smooth, the brush will need to be curled under your hair, as opposed to just lose like in the top right photo above). 11. Repeat for the rest of the sections of your hair. HOT TIP: the sections you work with should not be bigger than the tool you are using. To give my hair a little movement, my normal routine is to add some curl with a curling iron until it looks nice and voluminous (I did this even when I was doing everything else so. wrong.) so that’s what we did here at the end. The finished product is a lot shinier, smoother, and healthier looking. And look, NO FRIZZ. You may notice the exhaustion behind my eyes from the effort, but okay fine, it was worth it. In case you forgot what MY technique looks like next to Janine’s expert advice, here’s a side by side of the first finished job next to the new and improved blowout: Emilyfinalsideandback Updated I kept saying to everyone in the office “are you sure the before is bad enough?” and they all would politely just laugh and say “yeah, it’s convincing.” So, what do you guys think? Did I succeed? Have I just become a woman who knows how to blow out her hair? I think so. We just put up a video of the process, so go check it out if the photos aren’t doing it for you.

Bring The Light In! Hilton Carter Totally Transformed His Attic Into Bright, Plant-Friendly, Guestroom

Hi! Happy Tuesday. I thought it’d be nice to kick off this new week with a bright, happy, inspiring makeover from our dear friend, Hilton Carter. Shall we step inside? (Take your coat off. We’ll catch up.) Now, you might know Hilton from his series of hit books, his incredible Plant Rants, or from his fabulous Target collection…but today, we’re hanging out inside his newly-renovated attic. It’s the hit of positive energy and cheery light that we could all use on these dark fall nights – you’re going to love it. Let me catch you up to speed: with a second daughter on the way, Hilton needed to carve out space for a usable guest room. “Before this, the third floor was mainly used for storage and my Peloton,” he says. “It wasn’t insulated and of course was the hottest room in the house. Great for working out, but not for having guests stay over. Two of the dormers were used for storage and the other for HVAC.” Hilton needed to make it guest-ready as quickly as possible – “mainly [for] in-laws visiting to help with the kids at the moment,” he says” – and undertook a few key transformations. He replaced the falling plaster with new drywall; he removed the carpeting and had the floor insulated; he updated the HVAC; he chose to open the ceiling to give the room more height (such a wise call!); he removed a dormer; and he carved out space for two new skylights. “I can’t exist in space without plants, so in order to make sure any plants brought into this room could live their best life, I needed to add more daylight. So we added two skylights and let the skies in!” “For me, it was exciting seeing the roof getting cut open and seeing the light fall into the room. And then: design inspiration. “The carpet covering the floor had to go and just as you would expect, there was nice wood flooring underneath,” Hilton says. “But it would have taken a lot to restore them to look as nice as the floors and the rest of the house.” He turned to a trusted friend, Leanne Ford, who “convinced me to paint them white…like, Leanne Ford white…like, WHITE WHITE,” Hilton says. “And as she does it, ALL WHITE EVERYTHING.” He complemented the monotone look by transforming his newly-revealed beams into a design element. “I knew there would be beams there, but it was unclear if they would be right to keep exposed,” Hilton says. “I’m very happy we did – it really helps the look and feel of the room.” “The goal was to make the guest room bright and welcoming,” Hilton continues. “It felt like such a dark space and the addition of skylight filled the room with natural light. Now that they’re in, the room is just full of joy.” We’re also no stranger to skylights here – we’re Velux loyalists, having installed them in more projects than I can count! – so I was happy to see that Hilton opted for the same high-quality product that we love. (PS. ICYMI, I’d urge you to enter the Autumn Glow giveaway! You can win two solar-powered Fresh Air skylights – that’s the kind you’ve seen in our projects over the past few years – plus shades and installation. Someone has to win and I’d be so excited if it was you!) Once the room had been painted, Hilton added a bit of charm and architectural detail back to the space. “I decided on the shiplap because with making the decision to paint the entire room white, I thought having two walls with shiplap would create a nice accent but also mimic the lines of the wood flooring,” he says. “And no, it wasn’t DIY. They were purchased.” (Great news for those of us who lack the tooling and/or focus to cut our own planks for our walls!) “As someone that can stare at a blemish on a white wall until it drives them absolutely nuts, painting my floors white seemed like punishment,” Hilton says. “But after thinking about how I wanted the room to feel bright and vibrant, having the entire room white could create that instantly, especially when reflecting light from the skylights…with so much white, it’s time to add color!” And on that note…are you ready to see how he styled his space? HOW CUTE IS THIS? Do you not just want to cuddle up here, grab a book from the shelving unit, and watch the clouds pass overhead? There are so many smart, thoughtful details – let’s dive in, starting with those graphic layered rugs, which served as the jumping-off point for the color palette. “With them covering so much of the room, I knew that I could fill the room with bright vibrant colors,” Hilton says. I love how the flat weave and the plush woven rug work together here – they’re a big statement on their own, but they’re balanced here by the quiet white backdrop. Certain hues of yellow can come off as loud or overpowering, but this warm ochre base tone leaves Hilton’s room feeling luxe, cozy, and comfortable. (“I doubled up on the rugs because I love a good layered look and because I just couldn’t make up my mind,” Hilton says.”) Be sure to clock the outlets and switches that flank both sides of this king-sized bed, too – those are some of the smart, thoughtful details I mentioned! If you’re hosting guests regularly, rethinking the placement and positioning of your lighting and outlets will take your guest room experience to the next level. None of Hilton’s spaces would feel complete without a few well-chosen plants…so naturally, we had to get the lowdown on how he landed on the plants for this room. “My plant styling process always starts with the amount of light that is coming into the room,” he says. “With the addition of the skylights, I was able to place whatever plant I wanted up there because the room is full of light. With my options being endless, my next thoughts were what would fit under the vaulted ceilings perfectly.” He ended up sourcing a Schefflera, Snake Plant, Satin Pothos, Monstera Thai Constellation, Philodendron Florida Beauty, Philodendron Xanadu, and a Ficus Tineke for this room. (And I urge you to watch this clip for more plant styling tips. You can see how Hilton is training some of his vines to grow up the beams – it’s super neat, but also super helpful for those of us who struggle with trailing plants!) Guests are already returning with rave reviews. “The room has been enjoyed by my mother-in-law, brother-in-law, and a few friends. All have loved it and have overstayed their welcome,” Hilton kids. “I’m joking. We wanted to make a guest room that would make our family and friends feel at home. We’re lucky that they want to stay with us. Especially with a toddler and infant in the house.” Weary guests can open or close the skylights’ shades with the tap of a remote, so a good nap (or a restful night’s sleep) is never too far away. “Once it was completed my wife and I were very jealous that it wasn’t our bedroom. Good thing we made plans to make sure our bedroom was also going to be renovated and styled so that we wouldn’t feel too bad about it,” he jokes. (It turned out super cute, too – catch up on their primary suite here!) But wait, there’s more! “We decided to remove the wall and door into one of the dormers to open up, giving us a nice little nook,” Hilton says. You can take a peek at this secret area (and the adorable bistro set that Hilton sourced) by checking out this video tour. It looks great in the photos, but the warmth and care just shine through this clip. Thanks to our pal Hilton for the tour of his inspiring home, thanks to Velux for the tip-off on the giveaway (don’t forget – you have til 11/30 to apply!), and thanks to you for being here! I hope that this bright space can make your day a little brighter, too. Any thoughts?

How We Made Our Old House Charming Again – A Front Of House Tour

The other day I realized I’ve never shown you the full front of the house – nor did you get the play-by-play of the 10 million decisions we made to get here (a huge shout-out to ARCIFORM – my goodness, do they know how to nail classic design so well). Every time I drive up, or anyone does, really, it’s hard not to be impressed with how truly pretty this view is (far more of a grownup house than I ever imagined I’d own). But it wasn’t always beautiful or charming. Like many 100-year-old houses, it started simple/basic, then over the years people made repairs and judgment calls – both good and bad. So today I’m very excited to walk you through what it looked like when we bought it, what we did to it to make it this classic, charming home we have now (PLUS, what two things I have yet to add to it when the budget magically arrives, lol). These were all of the things we knew needed some help with the house and curb appeal… …and these were all of the things we did to achieve that:) Now, come read alllll about it! The Addition – A New Sunroom First things first, ARCIFORM designed my beloved sunroom to help the house look like it had a wraparound covered porch. It looks incredibly original. Thank you, Anne! The house was totally fine, a classic 4-square (where the main living areas are on the first floor, all bedrooms above). Of course, they had added a wing in the 60s, so already that style had changed, but the addition of the sunroom created the sense of this wraparound porch, which just added so much charm. I designed the sunroom windows to marry the original diamond windows (upstairs) with the newer classic grid. The only reason we didn’t do all the new windows like this was due to design and budget constraints. The sunroom windows are absolutely gorgeous, IMHO, and so having these and the entry window be custom-made felt like the right move. The Hefty Porch Railing We went round and round about the porch railings. Classic white wood railings felt basic and, dare I say, boring to me, but I couldn’t find an alternative that made sense (that wasn’t going to be custom welding metal work, which is crazy expensive). Ultimately, I trusted ARCIFORM that this was the appropriate thing to do for the age and style of the home. As far as the size, we wanted them to be a height that people could rest their butts on (we landed at 28″ high), but I thought that these were going to be too chunky, thick, bulky. I was so wrong. ARCIFORM kept telling me that with the scale of the house, we’d need big posts and big railings. They were right!! I love how they look. Our railings are 6″ wide on top with 3″ vertical square railings and 7″ square posts. Ceiling Beams And Rafter Tails I learned a ton about classic porches thanks to ARCIFORM. We chose a tongue and groove ceiling with beams that were 18″ apart, with custom rafter tails to match the original roofline rafter tails (which we tried to replicate on the gazebo but were floored by the pricing – $$$$$$). The pretty carved detail at the end is, of course, gorgeous, but very expensive. Here, you’d have to do it to match. Now I thought we were leaving these rafter tails exposed (so you could see them from the front of the house, with the gutters going on top of them) but they were covered with a piece of wood (is that called skirting when it’s up there, too?) that covered them and then they attached the gutter to that piece of wood. Ultimately, I didn’t have them redo it, but it was something that bummed me out at first. They said that the gutters worked much better this way, and with the rain in Portland, I respected that as we want the best water management here. Now I’ve gotten used to it and heck, maybe all the exposed rafter tails would have been too busy throughout the entire property? Just Google “exposed rafter tails” if you want to see what I’m talking about – it’s a different look. Cement Stairs And Black Metal Handrails Another two details that I sweated over were the cement stairs and the black handrails. We were told over and over that we can’t have wood railings or wood stairs exposed to the rain – they are sure to rot (maybe not for 10-15 years, but still!). So I looked on Pinterest for hours/days/weeks of what we could use that wasn’t wood, and I either found crazy decorative custom stuff (too $$$) or just simple/boring. I was both overwhelmed and underwhelmed, so I designed them to be thin and wide and hoped that they would just go away. I hoped that the house was so pretty that these didn’t need to be anything special. Thank god, I was right about this because even though they were simple, they still cost thousands of dollars since we needed 10 of them around the house at every entrance/exit (by code). Same with the cement stairs – cement is so boring! But because we had so many entrances (front door, mudroom, our bedroom, and the kitchen), we couldn’t really do brick or anything special due to budget. Just the cement was $10k, so imagine had we chosen to do real masonry…ANYWAY, that’s all to say in retrospect. These are the things you don’t notice – the house is so pretty, and these simple and classic elements just disappear in a good way. Vertical Wood Skirting + Horizontal Siding We chose real lap siding (not hardy board), which I think we did because it was a more authentic thing to do, but we did our garages in hardy board and you can barely tell the difference, TBH. Our siding is a 5″ reveal (so I’m assuming it’s 6″ lap siding, where the top of the first inch is covered by the next board). Super classic. Now, the vertical skirting underneath the porch threw me at first, but it makes sense as it contrasts with the horizontal siding nicely. What About Copper Gutters? Oh, you bet we thought about copper gutters, but the price difference was pretty nuts. Now I don’t remember for sure, but I think our white vinyl gutters were around $5k and the copper ones would have been $30k (or something like that – a CRAZY Difference). And the more we thought about it, the more we actually felt that our bright white house didn’t want copper gutters – that they’d get too much attention. I love seeing them on Chris Loves Julia’s house (and they broke down the process so well) as their house is so classic and moody and their patinated gutters look so good. But for our white house, having you not notice the gutters really works. Of course, the copper sconces really pop in a way that I love (and I love how they work so well with the brick landing pad, which is an architectural call back to the kitchen patio). On Mixing Stone And Brick Hardscape The hardscape gets complicated, but the reason we did a herringbone brick anywhere on the property in the first place was because of the covered walkway on the north side of the house, which was long and skinny. It felt like it needed to be a linear pattern (not organic like flagstone). And doing a rectangular flagstone didn’t sound pretty enough to me. The reason we didn’t do herringbone brick everywhere was due to the extreme cost of both the material and the install (which is saying a lot because the stone is also shockingly expensive). So we decided to mix the finishes – a more formal herringbone brick and casual/rustic bluestone. My philosophy was and remains that with older houses like ours, there is something charming about not having all the finishes match or be the same. My feeling is that over time, people in different eras added on different style choices, and that as long as they are all high quality and well executed, the hodge-podgeness of it is actually charming and feels collected over time. I think I’m right for this house, but I wouldn’t do this for a contemporary house – I would likely curate all hard finishes, with some custom details, but I wouldn’t do organic flagstone next to herringbone brick just anywhere. The Landscaping While the house is gorgeous, it’s still simple (white on white, pops of copper/brick but nothing too whimsical). At times, I was so worried that it would be boring (should the windows have been a color? The trim a color? The whole house a color?), but I kept reminding myself that once the landscaping grew in, it would be surrounded by different tones of green and darker aubergine/pinks. Cali (Studio Campo) originally selected the plants/trees for here and they have already changed a lot since install (those amarlylis just showed up this year and I should probably get rid of them before they take over). I added the hydrangeas from Dennis’ 7 Dees), but that statement cherry tree (thanks to Big Trees Today in Oregon) and all the plants really added a ton of color. Two Things I Want To Add (Eventually) I truly love our home, so much. But if I could snap my fingers and add two things, I’d add blue shutters on the bedroom second floor and custom corbels (like we did on the gazebo). I know we went round and round about shutters, here, and it was very polarizing, but I really think that this house can handle real shutters (NOT these renders, they would be the right size and REAL), with pretty black hardware in the same blue as the garage doors (Sherwin-Williams Dutch Tile Blue). And it’s not abnormal to have them only on the second/bedroom floor (since they wouldn’t work on hardly any of the first floor windows). When I had them quoted before, they were $25k (!!!), and I was on the fence, so we didn’t do it. But I do wish we had them, and I might play the lottery and go for it :) And then re the corbels, Purl made the most beautiful corbels for our gazebo, so I’m going to hire him to add some to our porches ($400 each + install, so not nothing but architecturally worth it to me). Anyway, we’ll see if I get around to either of these things (both financially and time-wise). The corbels feel easier to execute (and I love supporting Purl and his artwork), but the shutters feel like a lot. I’ve got other fish to fry (i.e., a carriage house to restore). Thanks, ARCIFORM, for helping us make such classic decisions on the architecture of our home. Everyone thinks that the front was original, and they can’t believe that we didn’t have a porch or the sunroom. Ask me questions in the comments!!

A Vintage Halloween Inside Our Farmhouse – Creepy Portraits Of Dead Strangers And Googly Eyes Included (Per Usual)

Ididn’t really have any intention of doing much inside our home for Halloween until Brian was watching football all Saturday a couple of weeks ago and I didn’t have much to do so I put on a podcast, started shopping from my prop garage, and went to Halloween TOWN. I had enough leftover from outside decorations to fully deck it out and within a few hours had four fun areas with ample spook. The black creepy cloth was leftover from the covered walkway (I originally wanted to mix black and white cloths but it didn’t look good.)This one is from Target and $10 and wow, quite the impact. The mirror was leftover from the Crate & Barrel kitchen shoot and it’s so pretty (and has that slightly Victorian vibe which fits this vibe). I found the creepy dolls during my mimosa-infused birthday vintage shopping trip with Kaitlin (shout out to Monticello Antique Marketplace and adjoining cafe). The candles are a mix of vintage ones I had and this trio from Target. When it comes to portraits of dead people it’s the almost unanimous feeling by all family members that these are “creepy” and “weird”. And they are very vocal about it. FINE. So one month a year they will make their debut inside. This year Birdie and her friends helped don them with googly eyes (they put different sizes on each eye which I think is a GREAT styling touch). I also want to point out that we are not going to light the candles on the mantel and I plan on replacing them with battery-operated ones (much to Orlando’s total disgust:)). Brian came in and schooled me for open flames near the cloth and the, you know, feathers… Don’t do this at home, obviously, and was just for the shoot. The stairway wasn’t a normal place to decorate for Halloween, but I had that large antique portrait so I popped it there, found this floor candelabra (shout out to Jess for her well-timed post last week), and bought these $8 twisted candles from Target (I like how they catch the light in a pretty way). I had bought two boxes of bat trios but only used one on the front porch so hung these here and threw some spiderwebs on the whole thing. Another creepy cloth + dead doll + orange lights moment. This time without the googly eyes because it’s an actual painting (and was splurgy from an antique mall, she is from the 1700s!!!). Still perfect for Halloween, but she stays there year-round. The “vintage” radio is from Target, again like eight years ago and it plays spooky static with voices that the kids love. Inside we hung this hanging headless lady that I thought I was going to put in entry but it didn’t have any power there (white dress against white house and already had black bats and spiderweb). She is PERFECT here. We’ve had that black plastic cat from Target for seven years and it still terrifies me (if you walk by it will move its head and screech at you with red eyes). It also terrorizes the pups. Likely my favorite of them all is the entry. We took down the art (thank goodness for that gallery rail) so Mom and Dad could go here. There is definitely a dead bride vibe with the white spooky cloth. I got them both together from an antique store in Sellwood. I loved their blue color palette (shocker). There you go – Halloween inside and out (check out the front porch and covered walkway if you missed it). Birdie helped with most of it because she is my little styling buddy (truly some of the most joyful seconds of my life are doing this with her). Thanks to you all for giving us an excuse to go for it :)