by Wendy Scheel | Jan 26, 2017 | DIY, Home Tour
Today was a good day. I rate my days in terms of “things I need to do vs. things that got done.”
And today I checked off the removal of this mistake, which has been on the list for months.
The Merry Christmas saying was looking so festive until the season was over and it was time to move on. That is when I realized I had screwed up…big time. These jelly letters had left a stain on my wallpaper. (I hid most of it behind this wall art.)
Not happy. 🙁
I tried everything to get the stain off, and I even used some reader suggestions, but nothing worked. From this point I considered removing the wallpaper, repainting the wall or even hammering up some actual shiplap.
And then the skies opened and the angels sang. I found the leftover roll of wallpaper that I didn’t even know I had kept!
So today, I used my fabric cutting edges and a utility knife to remove the stained section of wallpaper.
Then, using the same tools, I measured and cut the new piece of wallpaper and applied it to the wall.
If you look really close, it is not a perfect match. But if I don’t tell anyone, no one will know where to look. 🙂
I hope your day was also good and stain free.
~Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Dec 4, 2016 | Home Tour
This weekend has been a very productive weekend. We went to a 4th birthday party for our family friend Logan on Saturday. I wish I had half of the energy of a four-year old. 🙂
The rest of the weekend was filled with completing orders from my Etsy shop. The hot items this year are these fabric growth charts.
It brings a smile to my face every time one of these sells and I realize that these charts will be used and enjoyed for years to come, displaying the growth of a family.
With so many orders to fill, I was happy to have completed my house decorating last week. I shared the entryway and the family room already, so let me show you the dining and kitchen area.
I whipped up a simple place setting and a simple centerpiece to match. This metal bucket is usually upstairs in my office holding scissors. I changed it up by wrapping a burlap ribbon with red writing, allowing it to be the base of my centerpiece. Outside, between our house and the neighbor’s house, are three large pine trees. I ran out in the rain and snipped off the end of a branch. Just enough that no one could tell the difference. From there I added some birch twigs I had leftover in the garage, and a couple of red berry sticks I found at an estate sale.
That same estate sale also produced these red berry sticks. I slipped them down into a glass cylinder filled with plastic diamond-shaped pieces and a few pinecones for good measure. Oh, and that wood merry sign leaning up against the cylinder? Another steal from Target in the dollar section.
The desk in the kitchen received the big clock I used to have on the mantel along with a thin wooden basket filled with some greens and beside that clock, Three Wise Men carefully watching over it all.
The last few touches in the kitchen were the hanging of Santa ornaments from the cupboard pulls and door knobs.
At first, I thought the ornaments might get in the way, but somehow they are all the right length and just dangle in cuteness.
Speaking of cuteness, did you notice that red soup pot I had on the stove?
Believe it or not, it wasn’t a prop. I actually made Beef Stroganoff soup earlier in the day and the pot looked so festive, I left it in the picture. 🙂
That completes the Christmas house tour of 2016.
Now… back to that dresser,
~Wendy
P.S. Here’s the recipe for the Beef Stroganoff soup. It was amazing!
by Wendy Scheel | Nov 30, 2016 | Home Tour
Truth: I do a lot of things in my house just so I have something to blog about.
This is an example:
The platter project was fun, don’t get me wrong, but it was made out of blogging necessity, not because I was yearning to have a chalkboard-painted platter that I could hang on the wall.
This truth got me thinking.
Do I want to decorate the house for Christmas this year?
Am I only decorating because it will give me something to blog about?
Is it really worth all of the work?
As I sit at my dining table talking to you, I look around and realize that yes, decorating is a lot of work. Yes, I can blog a couple of times showing you the pictures of our house for the holidays.
But the biggest realization for me is that I love how my house looks when it is decorated for the season. I enjoy decorating and I used pretty much everything I already had except for a few little additions.
I spend a lot of time in my home and it makes me happy to see all the items we have collected over the years.
So without further ado…here is our family room. I hope you enjoy it.
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Santa in the entryway
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The Family Room
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The other loveseat in the family room
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A decorated shelf above the loveseat
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A whimsical sign
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Three wooden Santas on the mantle
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Paper Christmas Tree on the mantel
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The sofa, mantel and coffee table
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A close-up look at the festive creation on the coffee table
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A silver Christmas ball wreath with a Season’s Greetings sign between the windows
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Our new forever tall Christmas Tree
For those of you who don’t necessarily love the holidays or decorating in general, I hope this family room tour can be an inspiration, or at least a little Holiday-spirit booster.
~Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Oct 27, 2016 | Home Tour
There is the cutest little cabin across the lake from us, that came up for sale this summer. In fact, let me show you how directly across the lake it is.
I took this picture using my long lens while standing on our beach. See the big yellow house? To the left of that is the little blue cabin I am referring to. It was built in 1948, and is a total of 620 finished square feet on a 0.14 acre lot.
Last Wednesday night, I opened the Market on Old Lake George to my neighborhood only. I went around the whole lake and placed flyers in mailboxes with info about the sale. There was a two-fold reason for doing that. One was to let neighbors know why there was going to be more traffic than usual for the next couple of days, and the other was to meet some neighbors we had never met before.
My plan worked well because we did in fact meet a couple of new people. While chatting with a couple that stopped by, they shared that they were the ones who had purchased the little cabin across the lake.
You know I was all over that!
They kindly agreed to let me document the entire renovation process. So yesterday, I drove around the lake, not because I’m lazy but because it was raining, 🙂 to take some pictures of the property and the inside as it looks now.
I have the blueprint for the inside renovations of the house but first let me give you some references as to how the house is positioned on the property.
This is the street side of the house. Keep in mind the front door location. When you walk up the rickety cement steps it is directly to the left.
Now let me take you around the back of the house, which is the lake side of the house. From this picture the sliding glass door and the bay window are the two things that you will be able to reference in the blueprint.
Now here’s the blueprint:
The left side of the blueprint is the street side and the right side of the blueprint is the lake side.
Let’s get to the fun part. We walk in through the front door and the bathroom is basically right in front of you.
Then without moving but turning to your right, you see the doorway to the kitchen.
If you walk through the kitchen, directly ahead you will see the sliding glass doors.
In the next two pictures, I have my back to the sliding glass door to get a shot of the living space. That (temporary) bright blue wall highlights the kitchen doorway on the right and the door to the bedroom on the left side of the wall.
It is a small space, and looks even smaller because of the renovation process, but I know a lot of great things will be done with it. As more renovations happen I will be sharing them here. I am so excited to see everything come together.
What a great way to get to know our neighbors!
~Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Sep 22, 2016 | Guest Posts, Home Tour
After last weekend’s family gathering I asked my Mom to come home with us for the week. I was excited for her visit, but I had ulterior motives. She is a very talented quilter and has a great eye for decorating. So I hoped she would be willing to help me sew for the upcoming Market on Old Lake George. I also thought it would be fun to ask her to help me decorate the mantel for Fall.
Bright and early Monday morning, Mom and I headed out for a big shopping day. First we went to an estate sale south of the cities. We went to this estate sale specifically because of all the wedding decorations for sale. Turns out the lady having the sale was retiring from the wedding decorating business.
SCORE!
We got a ton of stuff for Sam’s wedding and it just so happened the sale was on the way to Ikea. We obviously had to stop by. We picked up a few things there and by the time it was all said and done, my checkbook was on fire. That meant that Fall decorating had to be done with what we already had.
“What we had” consisted of decorations I had in storage, some I had hanging on the walls, and some that were already on the mantel. My Mom went right to work and created these looks.
How creative is she, right?! I think the mantel just wants you to sit, look at it, soak it all in, grab a blanket and have a cup of hot chocolate to look at it some more.
And the next morning as I was doing just that, except with a Mt. Dew, not a hot chocolate. I decided to see if I could use all of the same items and come up with more Fall Mantel options.
Same items, different combinations.
I guess we can tell where I get all of my decorating skills from. 🙂
To see even more Fall mantel decorating jump over to my friend Jodi’s blog, Lyndale Drive, and see what she has created in her home. She is amazing. I met Jodi at the Haven Conference in August and we became fast friends.
I hope I have inspired you to decorate your own Fall mantel, I would love to see pictures of your creations 🙂
~Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Jun 8, 2016 | Home Tour
The best part about entertaining at our house is that it motivates me to get a lot of little projects done in a short amount of time.
Having Jack’s high school graduation party last weekend was the push I needed to get the wine cabinet updated and also rearrange the TV wall of our bedroom.
Many of the 70 plus guests we invited had not been to this house so a lot of house tours were given.
Thank you to all of our guests for the wonderful compliments about my decorating. Many of you suggested that I blog about how I “know” how to decorate.
I love suggestions to blog about, so here it goes.
First and foremost, I do not have a degree in interior design. In fact, I have never taken an interior design class.
So what’s my secret? How do I “know” how to decorate?
The answer is that I select things that I like. It’s really that simple.
Let me show you.
This is the view of our bedroom, looking from the footboard of the bed towards the headboard.
Turning around in that same spot, the wall started out like this.
I would love to get rid of the big dresser, but Wade does not want to get rid of it. So for now it will remain. And besides, where would I put all of my cute workout clothes that are collecting dust because my workout routine is suffering. 🙂
The first item I added was the clock I had upstairs where the large cupboard is now.
I don’t remember where I bought this clock, maybe World Market? I have had it for several years and it has been above our fireplace in our living room and on the wall of our dining nook of our previous house. In this house it has found a place in the upstairs loft area and now a new spot in our bedroom.
Placing this large of a piece on the right side of the wall meant I needed some strength on the left side.
I had this blanket ladder in the family room and now it works well to balance the wall.
There was still something missing.
There was too much room above the television. The blank space didn’t need a lot, just a piece that pulled the two sides together.
Thoughout our home I have several iron/metal/ industrial pieces.
In my mind I needed a squiggly metal décor piece that would draw your eye from the left to the right, making everything cohesive.
Enter a sale at Kirkland’s. Metal squiggly $14.99!
Adding some metal candle sticks to the dresser to soften the obvious large electronic device completes the wall.
To summarize the steps I take to decorate:
1) Buy or invest in pieces you love.
2) If you are on a budget, buy pieces that can be used in multiple areas of your home but be careful with trendy expensive items. You don’t want to be stuck with an expensive item that will be dated in 6 months or so.
3) Decorating with your favorite color is a good idea, but use the color as your accent, not over using it in the entire room.
4) Add various heights of items but have them balance from left to right.
5) Have fun! If you love it, that is all that matters. It’s your house and your personality shining through.
What do you think? Better?
Have a great Wednesday,
Wendy
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