caitlin wilson design!

i apologize for my recent absence! i've been a very bad blogger, but i promise y'all, it's been for good reason! you're looking at the newest member of caitlin wilson design and textiles. after over five exciting years as the in-house interior designer at usona, i made the executive decision that it was time for me to spread my design wings.  having admired caitlin's designs for years, used her fabric in upholstery projects, and kept in touch via email and instagram, the stars aligned allowing for us to reconnect and start a working relationship together! i'll be designing up a storm for caitlin wilson design, and working to grow her phenomenal fabric line, caitlin wilson textiles. i'll also continue to write bi-weekly for houzz and post transformations on raenovate, so keep the before and afters coming!

the above photos of my new office were captured by the talented courtney apple.

our driveway inspriation

waaaaay back in march i shared the plans and inspiration for our garage spiff up. the jazzification went down, but i’ve waited for the big reveal because since then we’ve been working on our redoing our driveway and garden.
our existing driveway was mostly grass with random stretches of sidewalk and a parking pad at the front of our house. it wasn’t practical and parking on our lawn wasn’t really screaming curb appeal. because of impervious coverage limitations in our township and our goal to create a historically accurate bungalow, we’ve chosen to install a ribbon driveway. this classic driveway design features green grass running between two parallel strips of pavement. we’re also adding a pad in front of our brandy new garage for projects and parking.
below you’ll find photos of driveways that have inspired our design, but first a snapshot of our existing grass driveway (with a sneak peek of our new carriage doors!). the concrete comes on saturday!

[inspirational photo sources, from top to bottom: obeo.com, good home construction, home patterns, and home shoot home]

rock paper hammer kitchen

i love when a renovation story illustrates that you can maximize the potential of your home’s square footage without putting on an addition. quite frankly, additions scare me, but old-fashioned interior rearranging doesn’t. rock paper hammer recently majorly reworked their client’s existing kitchen space. the original small cookery and breakfast area had been separated from the rarely used dining room so they opened up the wall to the dining room to create one large open cooking and dining space . the result is a spacious and open plan that works within the existing walls of the house and did not require an addition.

i’d especially like to thank emily fisher at rock paper hammer for taking the time to send me photos of their designs. not only does rock paper hammer have a stellar website but they're also featured on houzz!

dempsey's nursery!

i’ve had the great pleasure of falling in love with two brand new babies in the last month! my niece adaline and my style soul mate’s son dempsey were born only four days apart. my arms are tired from all the newborn cradling i’ve been doing! in june we threw dempsey a whale of a baby shower and his mama jen continued the theme into his nursery. jen and her husband matt converted their unused peach guest room into dempsey’s quarters. with the help of their handy family, they added wainscoting and painted the walls in a cool mint. a white jenny lind crib, rockabye glider, and doily rug anchor the room, but what really makes it are the accessories dempsey’s proud parents have chosen. they truly display their unbounding love for him.

jen snapped the before photos in early spring when dempsey was just a tiny baby bump. the wildly talented kate connolly captured the afters.