New T-Shirts! Rep the DIY life!

In an effort to not turn my entire wardrobe into paint splattered, sawdust encrusted DIYing clothes, I decided to make some cute (and, okay, a little kitschy) DIYing shirts for me and you! If you need a little somethin to throw on for your weekly— or if you’re like me, daily— Home Depot run, this is it right here.

Scroll down to check out all the new designs!

Elevating interiors using the senses

Thank you WoodWick Candles for sponsoring this post.

Finding inspiration for the design of a space is all about creating a mood.

Taking your design to the next level means creating a space that makes you feel a certain way when you enter that space, not just putting together pretty things. It's that design je ne sais quoi, you know?

Including WoodWick Candles in my home has elevated the spaces I've worked hard to build and style, it's like the cherry on top of all the other design elements. I love the scents, but also the soothing crackle of the wooden wick. It's such a lovely added ambiance that helps my house feel like a home.

Something that I like to think about when I'm designing is focusing on the senses. How does the space look, yes, but also: how does is sound? How does it smell? What do the materials feel like when I touch them? What quality of light is there?

When you design from that perspective it informs how you choose your materials, your finishes, your styling. You don't put fluorescent lighting in a cozy bedroom. You don't buy a firm couch for a room where you're going to curl up and read a book for a couple hours.

One of the things that helps me create a solid vision for a space’s design, whether I’m doing a remodel or simply the decor, is creating a mood board. You can do this digitally, or IRL by gathering swatches and elements of your design. This way you can see how all the different elements interact with one another before you commit to them. How does that tile look against the cabinet finish? How do the paint colors compliment the textiles? Does anything clash? Is there too much of one texture that it’s feeling unbalanced? Mood boards are a great way to give you the confidence to fully realize a design.

Great interior design incorporates all the senses, and scent is a particularly strong element for us psychologically so I try to incorporate some element of fragrance into each room I create. These WoodWick Candles not only have amazing scents, but they have a wooden wick, which crackles softly as it burns, creating an added element of ambiance, which I love.

I chose the Seaside Neroli candle for our bathroom, which elevates the space so beautifully and gives it a subtle spa-like vibe which is exactly the feeling a bathroom should have, and the Melon Blossom candle has such a bright, fruity scent that has been perfect for the kitchen in these spring months.

For this WoodWick Shoreline Trilogy Candle, I wanted to create a mood board based on the candle, taking inspiration from each of the three scents. This mood board is definitely very organic and natural, with a bright and fresh feel. It’s got the pink and peachy colors inspired by the Melon Blossom scent. Then, there are some more beachy vibes, like the wood tones, shaker cabinet door, and textiles, inspired by the Coastal Sunset scent. Then I brought in some bohemian elements inspired by the Palo Santo scent, with the rose quartz and macrame elements.

Having a mood board like this lets me have an anchor when I’m choosing things like tile, throw pillows, rugs, linens, etc. It’s kind of like a design litmus test: does this element fit in with my mood board? If yes? Go for it!

DIY Painted Faux Tile Backsplash

My ultimate plan for our kitchen backsplash involves a gorgeous black zellige tile, but I knew that it would be a while until we got that tile project underway. In the meantime, I decided to have fun with a hand-painted backsplash that gave the effect of a faux tile look. I absolutely love how much depth the dark backsplash adds to the space!

Hand painting isn’t for everyone and there are other affordable but less tedious and time-consuming ways to upgrade your backsplash, like stick-on tiles, removable wallpaper, and paint stencils. You can even get a stencil that mimics this hexagon design!

For my process, I used chalk to trace the hexagon shape onto the wall, then used a straightedge to draw the lines inside the hexagons with chalk. Once that template was on the wall, I used a small craft paintbrush to paint interior latex paint along those lines. Definitely tedious! But I did this in the midst of the post-election madness and a tedious project that needed a lot of focus what a pleasant distraction, haha.

How to make edible paint with Everclear

Let’s be honest, parties are all about being a little EXTRA.
There are tons of occasions for making pretty desserts so I wanted to figure out a way to make something super fun that would stand out from the crowd when it’s sitting on the table, so I decided to make a brushstroke cake! Did you know you can make edible PAINT with Everclear and food coloring? Amazing right?

To make edible paint that you can brush on with a regular paintbrush, all you need to do is put a few drops of food coloring into a small bowl, and then pour in a bit of Everclear (use more for a more “watercolor-y” look, then dip your brush into your mixture and paint directly onto your frosting (in my case I used fondant icing).

The Everclear evaporates, leaving the food coloring behind! Since Everclear doesn’t leave behind any odor, color, or flavor, it’s the perfect medium to make your edible paint. It was a perfect technique for my brushstroke painted cake.

I love how many different ways you could utilize this technique: making a watercolor cake, an ombre cake, painting iced sugar cookies, or even painting a scene! Please enjoy responsibly.

Eclectic Modern Bathroom Remodel

This before and after still rocks my world a little bit. Truth be told it’s not a true after, there are still projects to be done in here. but, I mean, come on. Are these two rooms even the same?! It’s wild. The layout for this room is strange. I’m really not entirely sure what the person who laid out this space was thinking, but gutting it and rearranging just wasn’t in the budget.

We kept pretty much everything and just reworked it. The vanity is the same, but I put new slab doors on, sanded down the original vanity to its natural oak and then whitewashed it to keep the modern light look that the raw wood had (putting poly over the raw wood would have turned it back into the ugly orangey color of the original bathroom— no thanks!).

For whatever reason, the old vanity had a strange vacant cavity next to the cabinet under the counter. What went there? Who knows. Probably just cobwebs and grime. I added some open shelves there which are perfect for holding baskets with hair product (curly girls represent!), and the bottom shelf is the perfect spot for extra TP rolls.

The large linen closet storage on the left side of the vanity got a slatted upgrade, I just refinished the existing door and trim the same way I did the vanity cabinet, and then added oak slats.

This bathroom is not hurting for storage so the massive medicine cabinet mirror was absolutely not necessary. a streamlined simple brass mirror took it’s place, and the sorely dated vanity lighting got a midcentury modern upgrade.

Dingy white walls be gone! I did a textured wall treatment, giving the walls a plaster-y look to remove the dated orange peel texture, and then painted a moody blue-ish green-ish teal, Valspar’s Everglade Deck.

Obviously the showstopper of the space is the stunning cement hex tile from Riad Tile. I’ve eyed so many styles from Riad for years and this large wall behind the vanity basically begged for a statement wall. I’m absolutely obsessed with how this tile completely transforms the room.

And to replace the old formica counter, we did a poured concrete counter! This whole space was a DIY update, and we did everything we could to do budget friendly updates, use what existing elements we could, and worked around the layout so we could create the maximum update for minimum cost. I did pretty much everything myself, except the poured concrete counter and the floor tile, which my husband took on (though I did cut the floor tile, so we’ll call that one a joint effort).

If you want to see the before images, scroll down!

We’ve got some other big projects in the works so this space is basically on hold for now. It has an ugly ivory fiberglass tub/surround which desperately needs to be replaced, but it works fine and I can hide it behind a pretty shower curtain, so for the time being it stays. A pretty white tub and tiled surround will happen someday! In the meantime, I just bask in the glow of the tile wall.

tile c/o Riad Tile