Guest Blogging At: Home to Three Duncan Boys

I everyone, I was invited to guest blog today at Home to Three Duncan Boys while Lakeitha takes some time off to spend the week with her family.

I've enjoyed reading Latketka's blog from quite sometime. She's a DIY go-getter { always on the hunt for great deals } wife and mom of three cute boys. I'll be sharing two DIY projects my husband and I took on around our house { painting our house DIY style & laying sod }

Hope to see you over there!!

Best,

A Layer of Texture

I've been on the lookout for the perfect rug for our bedroom. I'm looking for a rug that will look great on over our wood floors and great after they are refinshed a dark walnut. But my main goal is adding another layer of texutre in our room. I'm a huge fan of Overstock and thier prices and shipping rates, so it was not surprise that I began my area rug search there. 

I really like the idea of using a natrual fiber rug in our bedroom. Here are some natrual fiber rugs that cought my eye.

The first one is called the Waeves Natrual rug 6x9 Sisal rug. i like the size and natrul color of the rug. I read though the reviews and almost all of them were positive. This one is $ 169.99 which is super affoarbale.

This is a banded sisal rug I do like, its 5 x 8 for a crazy low price of $ 109.88. All the reviews were positive about this rug.

I also dig this Hand woven Natrual Jute rug 5 x 8 this is an upclose look at the rug. I like the the mixed pattern on of the two colors. This rug is only $ 69.99

This Hand-woven Chapra rug is also nice, I like the color of the rug a nice tan that would work well with our bedroom colors. It's a 5 x 8 rug for $ 107.99.  

I love how the natrual fiber rugs look in the bedroom below. The bedroom below in is relaxing and femmnie and the jute rug adds a nice element of teuxutre on the wood floors. I normally don't like branded area rugs, but love the band on the rug below.

{ via decorpad }

{ via decor pad }

I plan on ordering our rug soon once on room is more complete. I still need to take some mearusrements of th area we would like the rug to cover to make sure we order the correct size. I also thought, if we didn't like the rug on in bedroom depending on the size it would work perfet in our living room.

Do any of your own a natrual fibers rug or have considered buying one? If you alredy own one do you like it?

Paint Tip

The paint cans in our garage are getting out of hand and it's getting harder for me to remember what color has been used on what. A few weeks back I had to do touch up paint in our bedroom and could not remember what color grey we paint our bedroom! I actually started doing the touch up paint with the wrong color! So I had to rummage though our ever growing paints and finally found our bedroom paint color. I decided one of the things I need to tackle of the summer is our paint paint cans.

I found a really good tip from Martha Stewart of course. Martha suggests using paint stirrings. After stirring paints, let stirrers dry, then write the color and room on each. To keep them well organized she also suggests making a whole at the end of each and using twine to secue them together. Most likely I'll use a large metal ring and keep them safely in my yet to get started on office. Wal-Mart sells paint stirrers for around thirty cents each, so I'll pick up a bunch there to get me started.

I also plan on making simple labels to place on the paint can after its been used. The labels will include the same information as the paint stirrer swatch with the addition of the paint formula. I have seen other blogs buy new paint cans to store their paints, however I want to do this as thrifty as possible. 

Do you already have a system to keep your paint cans organized and know what color you used and where? Please share you tips.

Out & About

On Saturday my husband and I decided to drive to Berkeley { its in cute little city a few miles outside San Francisco } and Emeryville for a little looking around and shopping. I was really excited about going to the Crate & Barrel Outlet hoping to find some deals.


First up we grabbed a cup of coffee, and began on walk along 4th Street checking out some great stores. We stopped in CB2, its the first time I've been in a CB2 (they only have 4 stores in California) the store did not disappoint. I love the modern fun vibe the store has.

We both really like these metal shelves to hold wine bottles and glasses. The shelves would look great above a buffet to create more of a bar vibe, or stacked on top of each other. I'm already thinking about some minor tweaks to our dining room, we like to drink wine and need a place to store it.

We also like the large art print, the colors work so well with our living room.

Next we popped over the Crate & Barrel Outlet, they had some any great kitchen finds, but we both agreed to focus on bedroom and decor finds. The outlet had so many amazing bedding deals, but they were the wrong colors. If there's not a Crate & Barrel Oulet near you, make sure you shop the outlet online.

We went into the furniture section and saw so many great deals, from dining room chairs to coffee tables and more. The main thing that caught my eye was the Meryl Floor lamp. Unfortunately I didn't find anything and the outlet, I'm sure we'll go back in a few months after summer and score some summer deals.

Next we stopped in a Restoration Hardware, and looked at Hardware! lol I've been in Restoration Hardware several times and didn't realize the sell house numbers. I love the size of their house number, they are a substantial 4 to 6 inches in height. I'd love to swap out our perfectly good house numbers for these giant ones, but they might look funny on our little rancher.

Before heading to a late lunch we made  stop in Z Gallerie. Call me odd, but its fun to shop in stores that aren't near your house, because some stores carry more more items than our local store does.

After lunch we stopped in West Elm, I checked out their clearance section but didn't find any good scores like last weekend. Sorry no pics, got lost in the "I love this store glow." I did however fall in love with the mini parson desk for our third bedroom/mini office/maybe a baby's room?? If the third bedroom evolves into a room, the mini desk could easily be moved to another spot in our house.

Well that wraps up our shopping trip, nope I didn't find any must haves - but I did buy a new maxi dress! Did you find any 'must haves' over the weekend?

Farmers Market: Cheap Blooms

I've mentioned before that my family and I love going to the farmers market, great food at great prices. But one of my main reasons I love going there is the Cheap Blooms. I'm thrifty, so most of the time I snip roses for from our bushes, or branches off trees. However when we have guests over, its the perfect excuse to buy some blooms. I bought to bouquets of blooms on Sat for $8.00 and was able to make three bouquets of fresh flowers of our home. So its around $ 2.60 per bouquet not bad. It so much more affordable to shop there, then the grocery store - most of the those bouquets are around $ 5.99 each! Plus the selection there is always skimpy and so are the blooms.


I bought poppies, the petals looked so delicate. They reminded reminded me of tissue paper. I'm planting them next year! I got some pretty, reed looking flower - they were so pretty I forgot to ask, what kind they were. Any ideas?

Have you been to your local framers market this season? Pick up any great blooms?

Trading Places

Over the weekend, my husband and I were in Z Gallerie looking for some accessories for our bedroom. I came across a pretty water colored vase. It's a pretty shape and large for the price { $ 14.99 } I was thought it would look great on our newly painted dresser or somewhere else. I got it home and it didn't feel quite right in our bedroom.

Vase on the dresser

Then placed the vase in our dining room. The light blue water looked amazing with the dark stain of our table.

Most of the time we have a branch candle holder on the table, instead of tucking the candle holder away, I placed it in our bedroom.

Whne I'm our shopping for items for our home, I try to imagaine the accessorie in more then just one place. I like doing this because it keeps our home looking fresh. Another great thing to swap along with accessories is art. Sometimes moving art around your home keeps things fresh. I've done this with art in out living room. In case you wondering why there's a pillow on the floor, its actailly Mojo's new bedding.

Do accessories and art trade places in your home?

In My Mail

Last week, I mentioned checking out Nate Nerkus's book Home Rules from our local library and that I planned to buy the book. Later that night I received an email from Fawn of Frugal Home Designs { she has great DIY projects on her blog } saying she looked at the book a lot, but now its being used as a decoration, and then asked if I wanted the book.


I took Fawn up on her offer, but only if she was she she wouldn't miss it. The book arrived in my mailbox on Monday. It feels so wonderful to connect with people all of the country though my blog and receive kindness out of the blue. I'm still floored by Fawn's thoughtfulness, and will put the book to good use!

Thanks again Fawn.

Craigslist Dresser Goes Chic

Way back in December I found a dresser on Craigslist for only $ 45.00. My Craigslist search for a dresser took forever to find this gem. I love it's detail and craftsmanship and its dovetail drawers. They don't make'em like that anymore! Not only was the dresser the perfect size for our room, it reminded me of the pricier Pottery Barn version for around $1100! But I like our dresser more.


Here's the before, images via Craigslist.

The dresser had some pretty detail, on the side panels, I also liked its feet - perfect mix of masculine and feminine.

Since our new dresser is large, I knew a its current dark shade would overwhelm our small bedroom. So I painted it a Delicate White Satin finish by Olympic Paint. I also added new hardware to up its pretty factor. I found some simple shiny knobs for the top drawers and the wow knobs for the bottom drawers. I usually prefer black or brushed nickel for pulls, but I was drawn to the shape of the pulls. I guess you could say they pulled me in (lame pun intended) The shiny pulls also match our newly hung chandelier.

Here's our dresser now { in our bedroom } I love how it looks against of grey walls.

Here's what I did.

I sanded the dressing using a sanding block to help remove the old finish. I applied three coats of primer (Zinsser Primer). I allowed each coat of primer to dry six hours and then lightly sanded between coats.

The dresser during the priming phase.

The new pulls were larger than the ones originally on the dresser. I filled the old holes in with wood filler after I primed the dresser. Then sanded the wood filler away with a fine grit sanding block. We measured the new pulls and then measured the middle of the dresser and found its center then drilled new holes for the pulls.

Old dresser holes.

Sanding down the wood filler

Next, I painted the dresser using a combination of a sponge roller and paint brush (the brush helps for odd angles and drips) . I applied four coats of paint, I allowed each coat of paint to dry 24 hours before applying the next coat. Between each coat I lightly sanded, this time using a fine grit sanding block.

I applied two coats of Rustoleum Painters Coat clear gloss, it worked perfectly. It gave my dresser a nice glossy yet hard finish. The product also promises not to yellow over time, which is very important on a white dresser. Our bedroom is slowing coming along, it feels great to have the dresser and chandelier checked off my to do list. Next up, is making our bed with all the bedding I've been hording.

Budget breakdown:

$ 45.00 dresser
$ 11.88 for the pulls ( $ 2.97 each )
$ 11.96 for the knobs ( 2.99 each )
$ 11.99 Rustoleum Clear coat
$ 12.99 1 quart of Olympic paint

Total: $ 93.82

I love how our dresser turned out, what do you think? What current painting project are you working on?

Beyond the Basics

Last week I was reading a great post from Jenny from Anything Pretty. She was talking about how she upgraded her dogs bedding, with cute fabric. She did a wonderful job, and got me thinking. Mojo's { our dog } current bedding it's lumpy and let's be honest ugly. I took my inspiration from Jenny and decided to upgrade Mojo's bed. I was going to look for some fun fabric at Ikea next time I stopped in there { Ikea has great modern funky printed fabric }

Over the weekend in Mr CLH and I stopped in West Elm - love that store! I was looking for two things: great stuff for our bedroom and inspiration. I popped in the clearance section, and found a great Euro pillow cover with grey links. I thought cool, it will work in our room and it was only $ $3.97- yup a crazy good deal. Remember spend a few extra minutes in the clearance section of stores, you never know what you'll find.

Only one problem with the Euro sham, they only had one. Then it dawned on me, it would be perfect for Mojo! I used an extra Euro pillow we already had, and viola new doggies bed. As I said his current bed is lumpy and a pain to wash and dry, I'm always afraid it will fall apart.

Isn't his new bed cute? Not only does it match our room, it looks like a stylish element on the floor and does double duty as Mojo's bed.

I still plan on making one more bed for our living room, of course I want a bright yellow and my husband is like no more yellow!