IKEA 2012

08/18/2011

Have you looked through the IKEA 2012 catalog yet? I’ve skimmed but I haven’t had a chance to give it a thorough inspection yet. (I do that when I get the paper copy.) If you have, are you excited about any of the new products? I was intrigued and challenged by the Small Spaces video series.

I noticed that our SOMNAT crib went down $20 in price.

I’d love to have this poster…

Other than that nothing jumped out at me but I really enjoy browsing through the catalog every year. In several places IKEA succeeded in making these spaces look real and lived in. I love this. It’s a nice change from staged, perfect catalog images.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Bathroom Renovation Stage 14: FINISHED!

09/01/2010

I just looked up my first post about our bathroom renovation and was shocked that it was almost exactly 1 year ago! Wow! I doesn’t feel like it’s been a year. I guess that’s partly because we had a usable toilet almost the whole time, a usable shower after 5 months (the most labor intensive part of the project) and a usable sink and vanity after 8 months.

Before I go on to show pictures of the finished bathroom, I need to reminisce a little. Here’s a look at where we started:

Remember that this room was originally a bedroom and was turned into a master bathroom and laundry room at last minute and when the house flippers ran out of money. (We’re assuming anyway.) Before layout and our plans for the renovation:

We pretty much stuck to that plan except some of the scale seems to be off here. The shower is 4′ x 5′ as it says but we decided not to do a door or a built in bench. Also, we decided we only wanted one sink on the vanity. (Marriage Advice: Have 1 sink in the bathroom. Learn to take turns!)

OK, HERE ARE THE PICTURES OF THE FINISHED BATHROOM!! (Yes, I’m yelling!)

New door installed between the bathroom and laundry room.

Baseboards on, caulked and painted.

Our hope for this room was that it would be a totally relaxing spa-like space.

See all of my bathroom renovation posts here.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Bathroom Renovation Stage 11

04/06/2010

I believe I owe you a bathroom update! Sorry it’s been a while. Things have been slowly and steadily moving along in our master bathroom renovation.

Let’s see … we have walls painted and outlet and light switch covers on. (We decided on SW Contented.)

We have a light above the vanity.

We have tile backer on the floors.

We have a towel rack on the wall.

We have robes, toilet paper and art hanging on the walls.

We have a second shower head (half) installed. It’s not actually attached to the plumbing yet. But it looks pretty doesn’t it?

Here’s our history:

Bathroom Renovation Stage 1

Bathroom Renovation Stage 2

Bathroom Renovation Stage 3

Bathroom Renovation Stage 4

Bathroom Renovation: Tiling!

Bathroom Renovation Stage 5

Bathroom Renovation Stage 6

Bathroom Renovation Stage 7

Bathroom Renovation Stage 8

Concrete Shower Pan Goes Down Smooth

Bathroom Renovation Stage 9

Bathroom Renovation Stage 10

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Forsythia in a Boylan Bottle

04/05/2010

Our forsythia bush is too small to spare a few sprigs for a vase. While walking Lucy around the block the other night my heroic husband snapped a few off branches of a huge bush in front of an abandoned house. Back home, I stuck them in an empty glass Boylan soda bottle. I love how the yellow matches our throw pillows.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Wise Words

01/25/2010

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” — William Morris

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Our Home & Garden in November

11/30/2009

These photos were taken November 21, 2009.

We haven’t/hadn’t yet had a frost so our banana tree is still alive and at least 12 feet tall.

All the rain has caused some beautiful moss to grow in one of our bamboo plants.

Our fire pit has seen some good use this year.

The giant pine tree in our front year provides an endless amount of pine cones, pine mulch and shade. The lavender is still going strong. Although I’ve seen a few birds go in and out of our birdhouse, no one has made a permanent home there.

I love this frosty blue-green sage. Lucy, our chocolate cocker spaniel, just turned 5 and has been scaring us a bit with some strange health episode.

We are so crazy about her. Isn’t she just adorable? She’s as sweet and as soft as she looks. (She found a new “bed” in the throw blanket storage box behind the couch.)

The heavenly bamboo out front is producing lots of pretty red berries.

1 Comment | Art, Art: God's creation, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design, Family: Lucy | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Bathroom Renovation Stage 3

10/29/2009

Demo has begun! This week Jason started tearing down the wall and door frame around the toilet closet and the wall behind the former sink. It’s a dusty mess—which makes doing laundry interesting—but it’s so nice to see major progress!

100_6799

100_6810

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What’s next: clean up the debris, move the air vent in the floor (over about a foot) and then build the new walls!

In case you missed it:
Bathroom Renovation Stage 1
Bathroom Renovation Stage 2

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Bathroom Renovation Stage 2

09/03/2009

If you missed the before pictures, check out Bathroom Renovation Stage 1.

Recently, hubby and I (ok, I just supervised) took out the pedestal sink and light fixture above it and sold them. (Yay craigslist!)

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Then we decided to start our reno by tearing out the tiny, poorly-installed corner shower. I hope we can sell the salvageable parts of it, as well. Here’s the hole where it was:

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Next step in our mid-century bathroom renovation is taking out the walls around the toilet closet and moving the HVAC duct in the floor.

3 Comments | Art, Art: bathroom renovation, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Bathroom Renovation Stage 1 of 10

08/27/2009

Master bathroom renovations have begun! I forgot to take a true before picture and because our master bath is our least favorite room in our house … we don’t have many pictures of it in the before state. Here’s what I do have:

bathroombefore

(Notice the builders’ beige? The only place it’s left in the house.) I created this floor plan a few months ago, which shows how getting rid of the wall around the toilet will create more room for a vanity and building in a large shower will create a separated laundry room (not to scale):

floorplansw-notes

The picture below shows the french door into the master bedroom, the door to the toilet closet and the toilet closet. (Why are bathrooms so hard to photograph?)

towardsmasterbefore

We plan to do the walls of the shower and the laundry room and bathroom floors in large gray slate-like tiles. The shower floor and vanity counter-top will be some kind of pretty small tiles. Mid-century 1″ square tiles if we can find some at a salvage yard or online. Any supplier suggestions? Also, we’re hunting for the perfect mid-century vanity/credenza/cabinet/dresser to use as a sink vanity.

By the way, I don’t know if the reno will be 10 stages but we’re definitely taking our time, doing one thing at a time.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

What my nightstand says about me

08/24/2009

What’s on my nightstand?

an IKEA lamp
an copy of Alice in Wonderland from the 1940’s (on loan from my sister-in-law … it belonged to her grandmother)
Paper Source catalog
Vaseline
Geriatric size digital alarm clock
Dust

nightstand

What does this say about me?

I love cheap and modern home decor. I like to read before falling asleep or graze through creative stationery catalogs. I have a very sweet, trusting sister-in-law. My lips are soft in the morning. I can’t see anything more than 18″ from my face without my glasses on. Cleaning is not a priority for me, much to my sweet husband’s perturbation.

* * * * *

That all sounds about right. 🙂 Got this idea from Joy the Baker. She has lots of delicious dessert recipes on her blog. This nightstand reveal idea was actually an intro to a Lemon Rosemary Palmier cookie recipe but I thought it would be fun to do my own.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

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