Living Room Makeover – The Great Wall Edition

Stikwood Feature Wall

A reminder: I’m participating in the ‘One Room Challenge’ (ORC), hosted by Linda from Calling It Home, that challenges home and design bloggers to make over a room in their house from start to finish in 6 weeks. We have decided to tackle our living room. Here’s what you missed: The Before and Vision , The Design Plans, and Tile and Personalization

I’ve been dreaming of a white wood feature wall for about a year, and it’s finally here!White Wood Feature Wall with Stikwood | Five Marigolds

Continue reading

Living Room Makeover Progress

One Room Challenge – Week 4

Welcome to the week 4 of the One Room Challenge – which, as I shared last week, is really just week 2 for me.

It was bad enough that I started my living room makeover halfway through the challenge, but this week was met by design paralysis. I am such an indecisive decorator and am often left questioning every move I make. It’s why I normally decorate very slowly, but in his case the speed needed to complete my vision scared me straight!

The first project I really need to get squared away is the white wood feature wall I’ve planned. I contacted Stikwood to get some wood samples to help me feel more confident swatching the project out. I’d been eyeing this solution for a long time, as my husband has had little to no interest in completely DIYing a wood wall for me. This easy peel-and-stick real wood treatment seemed like the perfect solution to get him on board (<< see what I did there?).Living Room Makeover One Room Challenge featuring Stikwood Feature Wall | Five Marigolds

Continue reading

The Great Living Room Makeover

The One Room Challenge

Hi Friends! So, I’m doing something a little  a lot crazy. I’ve always wanted to take part in Calling It Home’s One Room Challenge – a design challenge for bloggers to make over a room within six weeks. However, I’m jumping in right in the middle, which means I want to try to complete it in just three weeks!. Can I pull off a feature wall and redesign in 3 weeks? We shall see!One Room Challenge - Neutral Living Room with Bold Color | Five Marigolds

Continue reading

Big Boy Room Reveal

Colorful, eclectic Boy Bedroom

When we moved into this home two years ago, one of the first rooms I decorated was my son’s.  It’s where inspiration struck first, and I had so much fun creating custom framed engineer prints, pallet art, and industrial pendant lighting. I loved everything about it, and declared his room, “done.”

However, he has since graduated to a bigger bed…which required new bedding…and while I was at it, I decided his room was missing color, and elements that better reflect his personality. Since he’s a little bigger now, he deserves to have a new big boy room to go with it!

My design style, if I had to describe it,  is an eclectic mix of colorful, vintage and updated traditional. Today I’m going to reveal his colorful / preppy / rustic /  vintage big boy room. Hopefully, this will give you some inspiration on decorating your son’s bedroom and try some of the same things too!

Big Boy Room Reveal: Decor for the Book Worm. | Five Marigolds #birchlanekids

Continue reading

Our DIY Fixer Upper Reveal

Part II: SHIPLAP, BARN WOOD and beams…OH MY!

I’m so excited to have my friend, Alicia Bertram of Berties Build on a Budget, guest posting today to share Part II: Our DIY Fixer Upper Reveal – her family’s incredible story of building their dream house, and turning it into a custom home using creativity, inexpensive resources, and lots of elbow grease. To hear how they built their own home, and the crazy sacrifices they made to get out of consumer debt while they did it, please hop over to read Part I of their story!

Last week, I shared how our family built our own home, nail by nail, all while making some incredible sacrifices to get out of consumer debt. This week, I’m excited to share with you the pretty part of our journey – that is, our DIY Fixer Upper reveal!

Pinterest is a girl’s best friend.  Am I right!?  I knew I wanted to put special touches in most of the rooms but also knew I had to keep our budget in mind at all times.  The most important thing I could do in the planning of our house was to first decide how I wanted the house to FEEL.  Our last house was dark, choppy but cozy.  The dream I had for this space was bright, open and airy.  A space that you walk in and just take a deep breath.  Cool tones, light wood floors, clean crisp lines and simple.    

So here’s what we did:

Entryway:  Summer of 2015 we went out to my parents farm where we pulled approximately 500 square feet of barn wood off the barn.  It now covers the ceiling of our exterior entryway and also our range hood.  We also turned an inexpensive antiqued decoration into a light fixture!  

Fixer Upper Reveal: Shiplap and Barn Wood, Oh My! | Five Marigolds

All Photos by Licia Marie Photography

  • Barnwood: FREE
  • Decoration: Purchased 5 years ago and I think it was $10 on sale!

Continue reading

Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookies

The best ever Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookies

Moms who want to get in and out of the kitchen quickly, you’re going to love these vanilla almond sugar cookies! The texture of soft almond sugar cookies just can’t be beat and they are so simple to make.

As you may or may not know, I am not the girl who will make a recipe twice if it’s complicated. Not only that, but I tend to ruin sugar cookies. Yes, it’s true. They came out dry, thin, and don’t even get me started on the way my cut out cookies would look when they didn’t hold their shape!

Let’s just say the kids were not impressed. If you have a history of sugar cookie Pinterest fails like me – there is hope. These sugar cookies with almond extract are here to save your baking reputation.

Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookie Cut Out Recipe

Why I Love These Soft Almond Sugar Cookies

Recently I attended a holiday party at my friend’s house and she kindly passed the recipe to me when she noticed I couldn’t. stop. eating. them. Oh my gosh, the flavor!

They were perfect vanilla almond sugar cookies. Soft, thick, and just a little chewy. There are so many creative ways to decorate them too!

My favorite part of this recipe is that this dough doesn’t have to be refrigerated before cutting out cookie shapes – it’s perfect for impatient bakers like me! Or, you know, your kids. Ahem.

As soon as I got my hands on that recipe, I had to try making them myself. So easy. The kids loved making the different Christmas shapes and decorating them and the time spent together in the kitchen was a total mom win.

Continue reading

Children’s Artwork Display for Less Than $5

This is one of my favorite projects to date – also the easiest and least expensive: the children’s artwork display located in our Family Command Center  – otherwise known as the mud room.

I wanted plenty of space where the children could hang their artwork and good grades with pride, without that messy cluttered look on the fridge. It also needed to be really flat to the wall, since the area I’d designated is in a space the width of a hallway.

Mud Room Family Command Center DIY Kids' Art Display | Five Marigolds Mud Room Family Command Center DIY Kids' Art Display | Five Marigolds

Here’s how I did it:

  • Buy these eye hook screws and wire at the hardware store for less than $5 total (or spend a few extra bucks and shop Amazon at the links above if you want to save a trip to the store).
  • Drill holes into the wall where you want your eye hooks to go. Screw the eye hooks into the wall by hand.  Then, wrap your wire around one of the hooks a few times. Stretch it to the other eye hook, pulling and straightening as you go. Wrap it around that eye hook 2-3 times and cut the wire.
  • I already had these cute little inexpensive clips on hand, leftover from Eve’s party favors.They work great for holding the various art and school papers the kids bring home.
  • Voila! Children’s art center complete in 20 minutes and for less than $5.

Mud Room Family Command Center DIY Kids' Art Display | Five Marigolds

As for the rest of our family mud room command center, it’s still a work in progress. I have dreams for this space!

Mud Room Bench Storage | Five Marigolds

Mud Room Key Drop | Five Marigolds

I found that sign at the thrift store. I think it was from a hotel long ago. I just love it!Mud Room Family Command Center Key and Mail Drop

What do you think of my low-tech art center for the kids?

Sources:

  • Rug, Homegoods (similar here and here)
  • Basket, Mary & Martha (similar here)
  • Door Paint, Sherwin Williams Tidewater
  • Walls, Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter
  • Drawer Pulls and Knobs, Restoration Hardware
  • Key Hook Sign, thrifted (similar here, here,  here and here)

Bring Life and Personalization to a Neutral Family Room

I recently posted a photo of our family room on Instagram and got lots of notes asking me about the space. I had friends tell me it looked like something out of a magazine. What a compliment!

Neutral Family Room with Bold Pops of Color | Five Marigolds

I was really surprised by the reaction I got, though. The truth is, anyone can make a space look amazing in just one photograph. Our home is a work in progress. Most of our home is not decorated. I finish little areas of a room and wait to finish the rest of the space as inspiration strikes me. That means there are uglier areas of the room that don’t get shown in photos – like the comfortable, oversized, slightly worn leather chair the corner where it doesn’t quite fit. The lamps that don’t quite match but that continue to live on in the room until I find the perfect lights that fit my budget.

I’m not very confident as a decorator, so I just go by my gut feeling. If I put a rug in the space and I find that I don’t feel comfortable, it’s not the right fit for me. If I put a wild throw pillow on the couch and it makes me want to sit down and enjoy the space – it was the right design choice for me.

Here are the design tips I follow in my home:

  1. Start with high quality, neutral furniture This means a great neutral couch with clean lines, a high quality rug and furniture in the space. Keep the colors neutral so they can last – both in structure and in design taste –  for many years. Like all things in life, when you get the foundation right everything works much better!
  2. Bring in texture In our home, we add lots of texture with mixed leathers, deep rich woods and distressed reclaimed woods, too. It means sleek cool mirrors and hard metal vases and decor juxtaposed with wild flowers and dried wild grasses. We use fabrics with varying textures, too – but they must always, always be comfortable and soft! Make sure your throw pillows are filled with down, too. They will look 100% better and will be more comfortable, too.
  3. Add pops of color For me, this means bold colors and patterns, as you can see with our throw pillows. I love all of these colors and patterns, and somehow when I mix them all they come together perfectly to me.
  4. Personalize This is my most important design rule. Nothing makes an environment more sterile than lack of personalization. I like to decorate with lots of pictures. Some I keep in their frames forever for nostalgia. For our main wall, I use updated family photos every year.
  5. Keep it versatile One of my favorite tips when buying mats and frames is to buy square or symmetrical frames, and have the mat cut to the size of photos you plan to use. Here’s why this is genius: if your favorite photo this year was portrait – oriented, inevitably you’ll one day have a favorite that is landscape – oriented. Instead of buying a new frame and re-hanging the photos on your wall to fit, you just turn the frame on its side, and you’re in business. See how I have examples of both portrait and landscape photos on my wall?

Sources:

  • Sectional: Carson’s Furniture
  • Ottoman: Restoration Hardware (old) similar here
  • End Tables: HomeGoods (old) similar here
  • Lamp
  • Pillows, similar: animal print, black/white geo, floral pillow made with Robert Allen fabric
  • Throw: HomeGoods (old) similar here
  • Wall Monogram: HomeGoods (old) similar here
  • Wall frames and mats
  • Rug

Family Growth Chart for less than $15

We recently made the decision to sell our “starter” home and build a new home that better accommodates our growing family. We bought this home just months before our wedding, had three babies here and many, many precious memories as a family. We’re ready for the next chapter, but this sentimental mom is feeling a bit emotional about it, as well.

The moment we signed the papers to build our new home I was immediately motivated to take on a project I’ve been meaning to for a long time – make a family growth chart that we can take with us – wherever we go. Our former growth chart was done the old fashioned way – with pencil on the wall of our kitchen (that I still can’t bring myself to paint over even since I’ve made this beautiful new chart).growth chart2

I’d once tried my hand at an embroidered chart that was supposed to be  cute and charming, but didn’t end up looking quite as polished as my inspiration. I also  found that I was too lazy to embroider once a year. My laziness factor is high.

So I moved on to those cute reclaimed signs I’ve seen all over Pinterest.

I started with a 3/4″x7″x8′ piece of cedar lumber that I purchased at Home Depot for less than $9. First, I enlisted Dub to weather it for me. I gave him chains and a hammer and let him have at it. I stained it with leftover stain that I used on our stairs for our garage makeover.

From there, I had to get measuring – my least favorite part. Our family is really tall, so I cut my board to 6′ tall and painted 1′ white stripes using leftover paint from the garage makeover. These are some terrible progress photos, but you get the idea.

Family Growth Chart for Less Than $15 | Five Marigolds

I actually liked the way this looked when I was done, but I went ahead and sanded it to give it a more distressed look.Family Growth Chart for Less Than $15 | Five Marigolds

Family Growth Chart for Less Than $15 | Five Marigolds

Then, I used my silhouette to create the measurement marks. I barely use my Silhouette but I used it for this, figuring it would make the measuring much easier for me. I measured it on the computer, cut it out on the Silhouette and then used transfer paper to stick it right on the board without having to re-measure.

Family Growth Chart for Less Than $15 | Five Marigolds

I’m super happy with the way that it turned out! I can’t wait to hang this measurement chart in our new home next year. I can see keeping this chart in our home forever, and measuring little grandbabies someday.growth chart2_1

Postscript: after completing my chart, I stumbled upon this cute version by Handmade Charlotte

growth-chart6-handmade-charlotte-powerofpaint-dot-net

If I had to do it over again, I think her way of painting the numbers would be a lot cheaper and easier. However, I’d still want to make the measurement marks so that I could tell visually exactly how tall the kids are. Everytime they get measured they want to know EXACTLY how many feet, inches and centimeters tall they are. Because that matters to 4 and 6 year olds.

What do you think? Do you have a family growth chart in your home?


(Very) Small Spaces: Shared Girl Room

Baby #3 is on the way  soon(!) and the nursery is officially done. We live in a 3 bedroom home with cozy (aka ridiculously small) bedrooms which meant lots of creativity and organization.
I tried my best to create the illusion of space with monochromatic touches of taupe and pink with gold accents against white.  We used a pink and taupe toile in the bedding for both girls and carried the colors throughout the room. Here is a mock up:shared girl room3
I’m certainly no designer (clearly!) but because I had such a hard time finding decor ideas for tight quarters, I’m posting mine for all of you out there with small spaces.
Tiny Spaces Shared Girl Room
Do you like how I kept the overstuffed toy box in the shot? That’s just me keeping it real.