Win an interior decorating consultation
The new Chicago-based interior decorating business Kelly + Olive is offering a giveaway to How About Orange readers! (You don't have to live in Chicago to take advantage.) If you've been helplessly wondering what to do with that blah room in your house or apartment, the "young, professional, modern, whimsical, pragmatic, ecclectic, and thrifty" pair from Kelly + Olive will help you solve your decorating dilemma.
What you can win:
"For virtual clients, we're offering our Style Sheets, a six page presentation which includes a moodboard with inspiration photos, suggestions for furniture placement, window treatments, color and fabric selection, and accessories. We source everything we suggest, so it's easy for you to find online or at a local store. We work within your budget and your constraints. If you can't paint, no problem, we totally love that color anyway. If your husband's bowling trophies MUST be displayed, not only will we work them in, we'll make them work!
If you're in the Chicagoland area we'd love to work with you in person! The service is essentially the same, except we'd get a little more face time to plot and plan with you, which we love. We'll even take you shopping!"
How to enter:
Leave a comment on this post mentioning one thing you dislike about your current home. (Might make for some entertaining reading!) Contest ends Tuesday at midnight (CST). Make sure to leave a link or way to contact you if you win. The winner will be randomly selected using a number generator.
(Giveaway is now closed. Kerry B., comment 313, is the lucky winner!)
For a complete outline of Kelly + Olive's services and more about who they are, visit www.kellyandolive.com. You can view more style sheets on their blog right here.
449 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 1 – 200 of 449 Newer› Newest»I don't want to win this, so don't pick my number. I just want the "entertaining reading" in my inbox. Heheh....
;-)
Mum
I don't like that I have nice things, and nice rooms, but I don't know how to pull it all together and make it sing!
My house is very small and I don't like how hard it is to utilize the space properly. I am having trouble finding a cohesive style that works well with such a small space.
e.mccormi@hotmail.com
Thanks,
Erin
Mom, if you don't want to win this, why are you commenting? You're so funny.
My living room has great light and good architectural lines, but I'm not playing any of that up right now. I don't know how to do it, so i haven't done anything! It's just blank walls :-( But there's so much potential!
abbeyl@gmail.com
I have a vaulted ceiling in my living room... but it's the kind that slopes from very high down to your standard 8 ft height. I can't stand the asymmetry of it, and haven't a clue what to do with my furnishings to take advantage of it. I'd love some help making it work.
Everything in my apartment is pushed up against a wall. I don't know how to work with angles to create cozy spaces. (colevb6@yahoo.com)
Oh boy! Would I love to win this. I have a very neutral paint color throughout my house and its driving me crazy!! It's just like BLAH. I want to get some exciting color going and something interesting on the walls, but don't know where to start.
The one thing I don't like about my house is my office (I telework). I converted our attic above the garage to my office space, and it is long, with low ceilings, and feels quite cluttered. I can work in it (of course) but know if I got it together it could be a fun place to work, too!
My house has corner fireplaces and corner cabinets in every room. They would be beautiful focal points if only i knew how to use them!
Our home is a bit teeny!
Thank you for a shot at this!
Our kitchen is finished. We remodeled ourselves, and it turned out well. We're pretty good with the built in things. But anything else? Oh lordy.
Our bedroom is a nightmare. The mattress is on the floor because we don't know what kind of frame to get. My desk is in the corner. Our clothes are hanging from a windowsill because we have no closet. All so embarrassing. (There's a reason my readers only see the living room/kitchen.) I can't tell you how much we need help!
Katie
I have low ceilings, and I'm not sure how to appropiately decorate to make the space feel more open and add height. (prinakeane@yahoo.com)
Thanks,
Christine
We're actually getting ready to move into a new house. The paint is already gorgeous, but trying to figure out where to go from there is like "AHHHH!" Do I get gray bedding to blend in with the pale green bedroom? Or orange to contrast? Do we want matching rugs or mix and match? So many decisions!
Jess, please pay attention...
"in my inbox"... as opposed to having to come to your blog to read all the comments.
Got it now??? ;-)
I don't like our boring bedroom. It is the one place in our house that has not been touched, at all. With a 2 1/2 year old and a 10 month old, we could really use a little retreat to escape to every now and then. :)
I have two quite small guest rooms in my house that are so bland and boring. I have no idea what to do with them. Please help!!
We live in a great apartment, but I keep feeling like there's something missing. I would love to figure out just what that is and pull it all together into something great!
We just moved into a new rental and I don't even have 1 thing hung on the walls, it is so bare!
We bought a condo in a beautiful building but everything inside is old and ugly. I want to bring out the 1940's glam the building has in my own apartment but I don't know how to do it!
My apartment has great bones with high ceilings and original molding. However, there's a space off my kitchen that contains my "closet" and "office that needs some help. I want to differentiate it from the kitchen and it could really be fantastic but it needs structure, storage and either some paint or wallpaper. Help would be lovely as I have some ideas but nothing cohesive!
I have no idea how to arrange furniture in the living room. it's very open, which I love, but it can't be an empty room forever, can it? I feel like furniture would ruin it, but that's silly. we need a place to sit.
Oh, now I get it, Mum.
Hmm, my biggest problem with my place right now is that it's filthy. I dislike that. I don't guess Kelly + Olive want to come and clean it for free, though. Shucks. Or fix my floorboard that's STILL broken from when we moved in a few years ago? Plus I think I'm ineligible for this anyhow, since this is my blog. :)
I love my house so much, but it's a century-old colonial, so some of the rooms are oddly proportioned and I'm never sure how to work with them.
Additionally, the entire downstairs is painted in this yellow-cream color that I hate--I want to put up a few accent walls or something, but since standing in the family room means that you can see most of the dining room and most of the living room, I'm afraid that any accent wall will have to somehow carry over into all three rooms, which is a little overwhelming.
I'm not afraid of getting dirty to change things, but I've no idea where to start.
Our Chicago Apartment is so small that my husband and I use 1/2 of our Dining Table as an office and 1/2 of our table to eat on...We are unable to both brush our teeth together due to the size of the bathroom.. and everything is cluttered together! It is a Love / Hate Relationship with our Apartment!!
I hate that I can't figure out how to utilize my small space. All of my furniture is just pushed up against the wall and not tied together very well.
I hate that we're not getting walk-throughs, and that it's 3,000 miles away from where we want to be! We'll be moving as soon as it sells...would LOVE a consult for the new place. :)
I desperately need to win this...close your eyes and imagine pea soup green kitchen cabinets, pale yellow walls and a faux brick floor....oh. and black formica countertops.... This room just sucks the inspiration right out of you
(please note: i am not the ORIGINAL decorator...I bought it this way last year)
As much as I would love to win this, the person who REALLY needs to win this is my sister who lives in Oak Park. She's going thru a divorce (and when aren't they ugly). She finally decided that it was time to paint her living and dining rooms -- she picked a hue darker than beige (warm muffin and clam chowder -- maybe she was hungry). For my sister, this is a great step, but she's still a long way off -- maybe she wouldn't want to paint bright green in her kitchen (works for me), but she needs some advice on new furniture, etc. This is her chance to start over. She's young, cool and hip and definitely deserves the same design. Have a great Friday!
I hate that even though we own our condo and are real live grownups, we can't seem to get rid of enough crap and get the right things so it doesn't look like we're in college anymore. ARGH!
I have sliding doors everywhere. closets, showers, bathrooom doors, cupboards. argh.
I have a huge "great room" with vaulted ceilings, it's beautiful, but I have almost nothing in it because I am too intimidated by the large space. It's just huge and empty and echos, I need some design help!
Oh... this is a dream come true. I'm moving into a new house in a month and my kitchen desperately needs re-doing. I have no idea where to start, and I'm terrified I'm gonna completely mess it up.
If ever there was a blog contest I needed to win, it's this one.
I hate that when we bought and remodeled our house, I couldn't decide what to do color-wise with the front room and kitchen, and now 6 years later, beige still reigns supreme. The area of my house that we use most and people see most is the part that's most boring/ugly. I also hate that since I can't figure out what to put up on the walls they're _still_ bare.
My basement walls are faux wood panels-- BLECH! Redoing the walls with sheetrock is not an option for us at this point. :( However, we painted them white, which helps tremendously.
i hate that everything is beige...in my next home (hopefully happening soon) i want color!
I am pregnant with our first baby and would LOVE help to design the nursery. We have a large, but due to the design not very functional closet in the room, and 4 windows despite the small size. I could use a lot of help with its redesign .
I'd love some help!
One thing I don't like about my home is that it needs major accessory help. I had a few things but I'm terrible about finding the right pieces that fit well with the space.
First of all, I absolutely love that your Grandma leaves comments! And secondly, our bedroom is crying out for decoration help. I love the color and our bedside tables, but that's about it. On behalf of our bedroom...help.
I bought my first condo about 18 months ago. And while I love it _ quirks and all _ I really wish I had more space and could make it more open and bright. I've already repainted parts of it, but would LOVE any suggestions.
ashley (underscore) heher (at) yahoo (dot) com
What a lovely giveaway! I seriously could use some help with my kitchen. I spend a lot of time there, but it doesn't inspire me. It has awful wallpaper, which makes it look as though it has been gift-wrapped. I also dislike the cabinets and would like to paint them. Light fixtures need to be updated, seriously, there is just so much to do, I don't know where to start. Help please!
Dislike? that it's not my old house. :( Oh well... make due with what ya got, right? And by the way, you're Kelly and I'm Kelly... coincidence? I think NOT! Choose me, please! How fun would this be... I'm pretty sure it would be amazing. I love your site. It's just so fresh and entertaining. :)
We've just moved into a new loft that is twice the size of our old home and are in the process of buying furniture to make the space more cozy. It's so hard figuring out what will work with our new space, and how to make one large open area function as different spaces - kitchen, dining room, living area, office, storage, etc... We need your help!!
Design wise? I have what my ex husband used to call the mystery room. It is my grown daughters room that needs to be redone into a guest/hobby/office room. I have been thinking charcol and vanilla but I am open to anything. How fun. And I like the personal virtual idea.
I need help finding furniture that would will create storage and placement for things in our home. And I need help figuring uot where to best use said furniture.
This contest is coming at the perfect time! I'm moving in two weeks, so I have an (almost) blank canvas to work with! My boyfriend and I will be combining two apartments full of hand-me-down furniture into one and we're stuck with the off-white walls and carpet, but want it to feel like it's "ours" and it's "home."
Shelving! I need it! It needs to be crazy fun! It needs to be in my price range, my very very very small price rang! Does this exist?
Angela
craftdork@gmail.com
I don't like how my house looks so similar to every other house in the neighborhood (inside and out).
I hate how bland my house looks with it's white walls. I don't know what colors would look good with what furniture I already have, so I haven't painted. I would like to add little pops of color around but I'm not sure how to pull that off with out it looking to over done.
Help!
acd.sarah[at]gmail[dot]com
I moved into my new townhouse and I still have all white walls! And practically nothing on them! I would love to be able to change that.
Oops! forgot to add my email address: gracedleeATgmailDOTcom
Thanks! Grace
I have trouble pulling all the elements together and making a room feel cohesive.
I have no idea how to pull my house together, and make it "mine".
I hate how when our upstairs neighbors pee, it's so loud that my husband and I joke that we're getting peed on. Sometimes it's funny, but usually it's not. It's just plain embarrassing when we have guests to dinner!
We have a 1922 bungalow. I'd like to find away to bring the past and the present together with a few more modern pieces.
I hate the fact that I moved in 3 yrs agao and the all ugly wall paper is still up on the walls!
andrea.trudeau@gmail.com
my entire house is a mess. i need a plan!
The whole house is the same color..."almost white"...and the master bedroom needs some updating and a little more excitement...need I say more!
Actually, I want that orange chair in the picture and then design a room around that. You know, like that commercial where the woman puts a water faucet on the designer's desk and says, "Design a room around THIS." Love that orange chair....
Oooh, that sounds neat!
my house is still filled with builders beige walls, blah brown carpeting, and vanilla ceramic tiles that the builder put in in 1998! This house needs updated in a bad way, I just dont know where to start! The mis-matched hand-me-down/college days furniture dont help things out any!
leannsemail@gmail.com
not sure if this will be very entertaining, but i'll try =D
what i don't like about my house...
i don't like that because i have a safe, buy the beige couches kind of filter, my house now feels stuffy and straight out of a crate and barrel catalog. i'd actually define my style as kind of eclectic and random, but i'm scared to actually do it, because what if little cute birds become unpopular, those patterns don't actually go together, or wall decals just take people back to college dorm days?
What I don't like is the pale blue and white splattered paint looking tiles on my floor. It doesn't really match with anything.
I love our house just because it's our first, but we are looking to move to a bigger place in about a year. (We have 3 kids and only 2 bedrooms.) We have small rooms, a hodgepodge of hand-me-down furniture, and no cohesive style. We went a little crazy and painted the walls bright shades of green, yellow, and blue and it's time for a change. I want to redecorate both to prepare our home for selling and to make it a more beautiful place for my family.
I need help. Too many ideas, not enough organization. I especially need help with my babies rooms. I have a girl and a boy both under 2.Hence the needing help. :)
One thing? Wow, its hard to choose just one thing... I think the most frustrating thing about my home right now is that my bedroom is junky. I want it to be a sleep sanctuary - a getaway, and it is not!
We're trying to turn a guest bedroom into a bedroom for two little boys. I've never decorated for boys before and I want to stay away from the obvious sports and transportation themes and the color blue. We definitely need help.
I wish that my condo looked more sophisticated.
Our basement living room needs a lot of help!
eastcoast_kid at yahoo dot com
I wish I knew what to put up on the walls in our house! I can't decide what should go where, so our walls are all empty. I need help!
katielousoup@gmail.com
My bedroom needs help! The duvet/pillows I have were designed by my mom and me for the studio apartment I lived in (bright, cheerful, etc., perfect for small terrible studio). But now that I am in lovely, grown-up one bedroom it looks a little immature. I love how I've done my living room but can't seem to make my bedroom match that style. HELP!
Laura
laura (underscore) meister (at) yahoo (dot) com
It would the super nice to win this consultation! My fiance bought our house about 8 months ago, but have not had the chance to do anything to really make it ours. We are getting married this fall, so all our money and time are going to the wedding and planning. Our walls are all the same neutral light grey, and we still have random mismatched hand-me-down furniture from college. It would be nice to get some professional input so we can register for some items that will really work with our new house.
jamoandvit@hotmail.com
peach walls in my bedroom with peach greek key vertical blinds and a aqua green wall to wall carpet. throw in the ugly wood beans, track lighting, popcorn coated ceiling and hollow core door - you've got yourself one really uninviting space!
I haaaate the wall colors. With a passion. Sadly, I was the one who picked the colors so I can't even blame it on anybody else.
we tend to get stuck in the blue-tan-brown world when it comes to decorating. a little too pottery barn and not enough flair.
oh, and i like bright colors and my husband doesn't. so we disagree a lot.
What I hate about my current house is that its not mine. Its Army housing and we aren't really allowed to do anything in it. We did make an offer on our first house though! Its a fixer but its in one of the best neighborhoods around here and could be great if we had a little direction with it. I guess the thing I dislike about it most is the kitchen, it just doesn't work the way it is.
I don't like that my spare bedroom is a dumping ground for absolutley every mismatched piece of furniture that I own!! It's ugly!
What a fun giveaway! Great idea to do the virtual rooms also.
PS I love the comments between Grandma G and Jess- funny! Sounds like me and mymom!
That is so generous! How cool of them! We just moved and so I need some decorating help! I feel like our home has been the same decor and feel for YEARS and I want to freshen it up, make it more modern instead of so 'Pottery Barn'ish' Add cool new things - but where to start? That is the hardest part and it's so overwhelming - I could totally use some help!!! That, would be amazing! :) :)
i would love help making our standard rental apartment bedroom feel more homey (esp. given the need to keep the white walls, horrific vertical blinds, etc).
I dislike how my whole place lacks a flow and a style and I'm afraid to do anything with color in my living room, because it's so big. I want something risky, but I'm afraid to do it!
First off I would like to say that I don't deserve this chance but my house does. It is an 1896 Queen Anne Victorian that has been a victim of wall to wall magenta carpet, faux wood paneling, and extremely poor home repair choices. Right now, the dining room/kitchen has three different shades of carpet and really awful fake brick paneling. Help this house please! I have tons of pics on our blog under the tag remodel. Beware if you check it out, you too will be amazed at the amount of poor carpeting colors used.
Gosh, Jess. Grandma G has it all over you when it comes to technology!
What don't I like about my house? It doesn't clean up after itself and I resent it. And I'm suspicious it is mocking me at times.
Oh, and I don't like how water comes in from the roof. The designs on the ceiling aren't nearly as cool as you might think.
What an awesome giveaway!!! Maybe it would be easier for me to list what I like about my house rather than what I dislike!!! Yes, it is that bad! I especially can not stand the old off-white paint that covers ALL our walls and the general lack of space... I think the living room is the most need of help...
I love our house itself, but I feel like our decor looks like for people much older and more conservative than we really are! I'd love someone to tell me how to make what we have work with a younger and more hip vibe.
And as a bonus--we're less than an hour north of Chicago!
*jori maguire (at) comcast dot net*
Do I increase my chances of winning if I comment several times? Like 100?
Hi, Grandma G. So flattered to be in your inbox.
I want to hang these big beautiful shovels I found a local gardening shop on my living room wall and have no idea how to incorporate it. HELP! (michellelynne14@yahoo.com)
The windows! There are just too many treatments to choose from...I'd rather make spreadsheets than figure this one out. =)
mollymetz(at)gmail.com
One thing I dislike about my current home is that it is very boring. White walls, light tan carpet. I really like most of my furniture (which is good since most of it is also new), but I don't feel like there is a cohesive "look" to the interior. It's as if the individual pieces are just good by themselves, but not amazing when all together. Basically, just kind of "blah"!
Hi, Caroline! I was just gonna tell you that you can't opt in more than once. LOL Oh, and that my house doesn't clean itself, either.... I hate that, too!
Jess's (Kelly's?) "grandma" ;-)
(Let's see, this gives me 3 chances, and I don't even WANT it! I like my little homey rut as it is.)
I have a long bowling-alley hallway that I would love to decorate in a way that goes beyond the traditional family photo timeline. Something that draws you along as you walk. I know I'm dreaming!!!
my current space is a vanilla box and i'm look for life and color but also and area to relax!!! every exciting and thank you so much for this giveaway!
Hmmm...As of right now we are living in a relative's house, but when we move in a few short months, I can tell you that the thing I will like least about my house is the lack of decorations. Blah!!
snkjohnson at gmail dot com
I don't like how my house flows... I love color, and bright color, but I feel like my house is a crayon box and it needs to flow better from room to room. I feel like I have good style (I am sure everyone does though), just not enough consistency.
I just moved in with a roommate after nearly 5 years of living alone and combining our two apartments and styles is a challenge. Help!
My family room is in need of help. First of all it has a fire place and the brick goes all the way across the wall but stops about 3 feet from the end of the wall. There is also a sliding door that leads out to the sun room that at the moment is catch-all, and is very hard to put furniture around.
Help!
My apartment is very small and FULL of 10 years of my stuff. In light of today's $$ mess, instead of finding a bigger place my fiance may move in with me and I just don't know where to begin to make room for him. I want to make a 'home' for us that is 50/50 him and me.
taysha1128@gmail.com
I live in a dorm room.. enough said :) It's temporary but I would love the advice!
The third floor of my old, brick townhouse was finished very sloppily--terrible drywall job, bad carpet--but is a large open space with a city view that's just dying to be transformed into something better. But what? Should we put in a bar to make it a lounge area? A master bedroom? And what can we do on a limited budget?
my space is one room. i'm a single mom that had to move back in with mom and dad. it's an extremely small space 12'x9'. i live, sleep, entertain, and run my business out of this room. i really need help. sometimes i feel trapped in this space.
I can't seem to make my den friendly four kids, adults and critters and still make it cool.
My home is a little blah. I love color but am hesitant to commit because I love so many different "looks".
Pick me! I hate that my house opens right up into my living room and I don't know how to arrange furniture to make this work.
i have a very boring family room! HELLLLP!
I love all the men in my life (2 rambunctious sons, one stinky boy dawg, and my fabulous husband) I just don't like all their stuff strewn everywhere: legos, Pokemon cards, Hot Wheels cars, lacrosse sticks, soccer stuff, guitars). I am outnumbered and I need help!
Sometimes the last room in the house to get love is the room where you make love. Our master bedroom is NOT sexy or romantic, very utilitarian. It contains college furniture. (oh my) Please help bring the love and romance back into our bedroom. Va Va Va vooooom.
I live in a 1960s brady bunch house...and I am a traditionalist in terms of decorating. I HATE HATE HATE my kitchen, but am paralyzed not knowing how to redo the faux-modern look that was "in" in 1960...seriously, I have redone 2 other homes (painting cabinets, laying tile) and I am stuck on this one. Oh, and its tiny also...
Only ONE thing I hate about my house? Ugh...it's a horrible 1970's modular home that has never been updated (we're talking popcorn ceiling with glitter!). However, at this time the number one thing I hate the most is my boyfriend's framed commemorative picture of Ronald Reagan!
My guest room! It's currently being used as a music room (piano, guitars, keyboard), my office (separate from my husband's), and an occasional guest room, and I have no idea how to unify them under one fabulous design scheme while accommodating all of these functions...
Hello and thanks for the chance to win!
We built our house about 7 years ago and it's still contractors white. BORING! What bothers me most is the living room. It doesn't feel warm & cozy. A half wall divides the living room from the hallway. We have a huge entertainment center between two windows so the living room can never be changed around. The room is still painted white.
If you can give me warmth and comfort to the room, I'd love ya!
I hate my kitchen ceiling. It looks like someone chewed up popcorn and then barfed it up all over. Ugh. Horrid!
Ooh how exciting!!!! I feel like there is not enough natural light in the downstairs, and I would like help using mirrors or paint or something, to make it brighter.
I moved into my hubby's home, which had previously been a bachelor pad (for 11 years) and our "garage" has been converted into a bedroom, an office, and soon to be a TV room. It needs some definition for sure!
My bedroom is so boring and mismatched. For some reason, this is the one room that I never know what to do with. (cynthia.pan@gmail.com)
I would love some ideas on curtains and what to put on my mantle for our family room. For some reason, I just can't "make it work". Thanks so much for the opportunity! How fun.
We have 70s wood paneling in a horribly shaped rectangle-with-odd-corners basement, and we can't seem to place any furniture or decorations in there that look right. Our style is vintage contemporary - how do you pair that with wood paneling and make it work?
needlethreadbutton@gmail.com
Finishing our basement is out of the question financially right now, but I'd love to be able to make it a more finished-looking area.
I don't like the layout of our house. Many of the "rooms" have to double as walkways or hallways. I need help with flow!
gkatner@mac.com
I just bought my first (tiny) condo in July, and I LOVE it. However, the layout creates a good bit of wasted space. I'm sure there's a good way to put that space to use, but I haven't a clue where to begin!
Oh, and my kitchen cabinets are the color of glazed krispy kremes... Yummy to eat, but not so much to look at (:
I don't like that my "look" doesn't flow. Or even have a look. LOL
I actually really like my home… but I know there are spaces are not working as well as they could be.
Our house is really old and not much renovation has gone into it, so the rooms are really divided. I don't like how everyone just stays in their own room in front of their own computer pretty much all day, worse, they close the doors.
I would like to turn our family room into an actual family room, where we can all hang out and actually see each other and know what each other are doing (instead of finding that out from facebook).
I'm at a complete loss for what to do with my husband's CD collection of 2500+ Maybe thse guys could lend a hand
Our small house is just so bare. I don't dig a ton of doodads because it's just more for me to have to clean, but man it needs some life.
Problem is, I just don't know what!
And if they could help me how to incorporate a necessary dog crate into the living space without looking nasty so I can free up space in my kitchen to actually use the table…that would be AWESOME!
I have a lot of vintage stuff that I love, but I don't know how to put it all together. Also, my living space downstairs is a fabulous color of blue but it is the place where my furniture and baby toys go to die. It needs an identity! Please pick me!
www.the-savage-family.blogspot.com
i love to decorate my house all by myself ;-) so if i win it'd be for my sister who just bought a new house and is having trouble with filling it! i live too far away to be able to help her as much as i'd like. i'd say her front room, which she wants to make a formal sitting room, needs the most help-it's bare!
I'm about to move into an old firehouse that's been converted into a gorgeous loft space. While I'm very excited, there are a few deep-set glass block windows that I have no idea how to utilize.
Do I use them as display space?
Do I put up blinds and drapes like a normal window?
I'm perplexed. There are also a couple of windows that are completely unsymmetrical and I can't decide the best way to tackle. Basically I need major HELP to bring this potentially awesome space up to its full potential. So PLEASE pick me!!!!!
My poor living room just has no soul. Plus, it's so small that I just cannot figure out how to arrange it.
Give me soul!!! =)
We moved into our house two years ago, and we are still living with stuff we swore would only be temporary!
I have nice things, and nice rooms, but I don't know how to pull it all together, plus the style is a mix of "his" and "hers" but not entirely a combo of both... like our living room has my knitting stuff in one corner and his Star Wars stuff in another.
We have the dinning room, living room "L" and I don't know how to decorate the two rooms. I don't know if they should flow together or if we can some how make them two separate rooms.
jlkojis@hotmail.com
I enjoy reading your blog and have gotten a lot of great ideas from you.
Thanks
Jennifer
One thing I dislike about my house? Hmmm.... I have a good one: I dislike that even though I am a photographer I only have ONE photo hanging on the walls of my (large) bedroom. I love this photo but it's in a CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP crappy frame (one of those pop-in-the-glass numbers). Other than that I have absolutely nothing on my bedroom walls!
This is a fantastic giveaway! Congrats to whomever wins it!
katie.loves.stan@gmail.com
I love my living room, but I'm struggling with the layout - every wall has either an opening, a window or a fireplace right in the middle of it!
nathanandkate6708@gmail.com
I adore my kiddos, but I hate designing the house around them. Can I have some help finding some things that are kid-friendly, and I like living with them AND I can afford them? Erin@LovelandFeedAndGrain.org
The small 'formal' living room at the front of our house doesn't get used except for when we play the piano there. I'd like to make it much more functional and beautiful -- especially since most of the sunlight comes in there!
I love my house but I don't love the square-ish living area, and there's only one living area!
Our basement is dark and dreary and a total mish-mash of furniture and wood finishes. Unfortunately, it's also home to our comfy couch and tv, so it's where most evenings are spent. It makes me crazy!
My house is tiny! And we have so much stuff. It's hard trying to be organized and stylish. Help and advice is always appreciated!
OH me me!! Please!
I am clutter girl. We need streamlined space and organization for life with our two little girls and THREE doggers. Help!
I studied Interior Design in school... I have yet to finish my degree, but I really enjoyed the program. That being said- I can walk into anyone else's house and see potential galore. Colour schemes come to mind, furniture styles, accessories. I do not feel that same inspiration and potential when it comes to my house. I am not happy with the main living areas of my house {living room, dining room and kitchen} but can't for the life of me figure out what to change. I want a new colour scheme but I swear my house is where colours come to die! The colours I choose never seem to come out right once they enter my cave of a home!
officerswife33 {at} gmail {dot} com
i hate that i don't have any closet space and live in a small apt. i need creative, aestetic solutions to storing my clothes that goes beyond drawers/dressers/wardrobes because, quite frankly, i don't have a lot of room for those.
I love my house, but it's old (1920s) with small rooms and lowish ceilings. I don't know how to take advantage of the light; I'm awful with color schemes; don't know how to highlight my fireplace. We're a mess over here.
ugh, our bedroom. it's painted a shade of green we don't like (the previous owners did it) and we made the mistake of doing touch-ups with some paint we found in the garage. Which turned out to be glossy and not flat. Oops. So now we have marks all over our walls. We need help!
I don't like how our family room seems to be a big jumble of stuff that doesn't necessarily go together. I'd love this room to be bright, fun, and fresh!
my bedroom is blaaaaaand. i want to feel inspired when i wake up, not bored.
what a wonderful giveaway.
OMG! I need a basement makeover so badly right now. I was just talking about this with hubby last night. Our basement (which houses my studio, the kids' playroom and out family room) doesn't even look like it belongs with the rest of the house. The rest is nicely designed and the basement is a disaster! Messy, nothing pretty on the walls, old furniture! My studio is the only pretty part about it but the rest needs major help!
Hey, I'm sorta local... will they come down here?!!?
patty
My home is kind of a hodgepodge of styles, and not really pulled together.
We just bought our house and it's white. Everything is white. White with really poorly textured walls. I thought I would be excited and gung ho about all the decorating possibilities, but I find my brain as blank as the walls. All our furniture is used, and there's only one piece we want to keep as it is. It's really hard to draw inspiration out of all this nothing!
dangerkittydesigns (at) gmail.com
Well, lots of issues in my old house, but number one is that it is very, very small for this family of 5!
Oh my gosh. I have a new house of 3 years and my front room, the living room and front entry, is the weirdest place to welcome people. It's long and narrow because we didn't want to build a huge ostentatious home, but now it's too small in a way. When people come and sit down, it's like we're lined up against the window on the wall and nobody can have a conversation. Plus, at the time we designed the house, tvs were not quite the shape they are today. SO....our tv sits in a built in SQUARE and we're worried that when it dies one day, that the newer rectangle will not have a place to go. With our gigantic rock wall with the built in square, what can we do to remedy the situation? And how to arrange furniture (we need to add chairs --I have maybe a good idea of what I love, but afraid to pull the trigger) in a way to make a fun conversation spot. ??
I'd say our type is "urban" and "earthy" and "Northwest." Lots of rock, wood, and iron.
And then...don't even get me started on the unplanned room above the garage. (storage now, but why?)
We could use some love in our direction.
Thanks!
Min
My husband and I have been living with the same hand-me-down furniture for 10 years because we can't agree on what to buy. We "kind of" find stuff we like and then we walk away because we don't love it or it's too expensive. We have a 50's Ranch that we could really do right, if only we could find (or have some help to find) the right style for our home.
Thank you for the opportunity!
I would love to win this prize. We have a very long but narrow master bedroom (can we say bowling alley?), and I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to arrange everything or what colors I should use. This service would be perfect!
I HATE the paint colour on our first floor. It's a drab and boring grey/green colour and I have been meaning to repaint since we moved in three (gasp!) years ago.
So many things are wrong with our house but the number one thing is the old walls - they're horsehair plaster and crumbling and need to come down. We are re-wallboarding one room at a time when we can but at the pace we're going it'll take years to finish! Boo :-(
email is my name @yahoo.com - in case I win
Because of the placement of the stairs and doors in my house, my livingroom is oddly-shaped and it has been a struggle to come up with a workable solution. It's sad: we only really use half of our living room. I know there must be a good solution that I just can't see myself!
I recently bought a house, and by recently I mean THIS WEEK! The kitchen is everything I want except for the blue gingham wallpaper and sunflower border on the walls and some space that I don't know how to best use. The cabinets are white and need a new paint job, which will definitely happen. Once the wallpaper comes down, WHICH IT WILL, I have no idea where to go from there.
I would love to win this! We totally need some help. We have a little 2 BR condo that has a large open area in the middle that encompasses the living room, entry way, dining room, and kitchen and I am finding it very difficult to unify the space while still creating 4 separate and functional areas.
lcbeard@gmail.com
Old home with a crazy living room layout. We don't know where to put bookshelves or our TV or the giant print of the sea battle, that we both love.(eclenz@gmail.com)
I live in a brick house in Chicago that may or may not be about 100 years old (it's a mystery). The people who lived there before us brought the house into the 20th century, but did it using the cheapest ugliest materials they could find at Home Depot (every time we go to HD it's like an awkward family reunion-- "Oh. Er, hi, tacky vinyl wall covering...") Our biggest constraint is a long narrow kitchen. There's nothing I want more than to find a way to create a space that lends itself to both cooking, socializing and storing all our gadgets. And to get rid of the yellow wall/yellower trim/country border look...
Anyway this consultation could take care of the running/screaming toddler that lives upstairs? No? Then I guess it would have to be all about my craft room...or lack there of!
My husband is in the Navy and we move quite frequently (Naples Italy here we come). One of the most stressful things is designing/setting everything... again!
A consultation would be the best house warming gift ever.
annielouise69@hotmail.com
my playroom. Love the kids, and their toys, and their artwork and their cracker crumbs, wait, not the cracker crumbs. But, dislike the mess and craziness associated with a million different colors, shapes, sizes and textures of kid things. help me pretty please.
i'd love to throw down the wall between the kitchen and the living room...
My husband complains all the time that we don't have anything on the walls. I used to be an artist and I bought two canvases to paint something for my sons' room - they are still sitting blank in the garage. We've had the fantastic opportunity to travel the world and all of the things we've collected are in a storage bin because I don't know how to pull everything together. It's like I'm paralyzed by the thought of doing something wrong. I just don't know where to start!
I live in a small apartment and we started out ok but now it looks drab. And storage is definitely a problem. We can't paint but we can hang stuff on the walls. Please help!
I would love some help with my space. I've always wanted a little reading area in my bedroom because my desk chair is not the most comfortable.
iseemoo@hotmail.com
Thanks!
Our bedroom needs help. I love our furniture, but we have nothing on the walls and with two dogs who sleep in the bed, it's tough to have a really great comforter, kwim? I would love to make something really work in there!
I don't like the small-ness of my apartment (~280sq ft). I'm sure downsizing some of my furniture would make it feel bigger, but I think there might be a better and less drastic (and less costly!) option.
Hmm. Only One thing. Difficult. I guess it would have to be that it is poorly laid out and so we are not using all the spaces wisely.
Unbelievable! I am moving to Chicago in 2 weeks - this would make styling my new space so much fun. It's a (small) blank canvas.
I want this sooooo badly. What I don't like is my bare walls due to my fear of commitment to put anything up on the walls or to select furniture. I need a plan!
Oh I would love this. Not only do I have a boyfriends bowling trophies to fit, but also his baseball card collection, my quilting/sewing stuff and a home office in a small one-bedroom. Would love some help! acsenn@hotmail.com
Oh man... what do I hate the most?... You know I AM in love with my husband, but... do I really have to let him in the decorating decisions? Can't I just order built in shelves from him (a pretty competent carpenter)? Why the hell does he refuse to have another of the boring, horrid white living room walls painted in the same blue that HE chose for the fourth wall?
Oh dear... It's the endless negotiation that 95% of the time dead ends us that I hate the most.
My husband and I have competing tastes. I like bright colors and if he had his choice, the color palette would be white, white, and white. Looking around our livingroom, I see that I've managed to dominate the color scheme so while it feels warm, I'd like to make room for my husband's tastes and create a crisp, clean, and modern environment. We both have insane schedules (I'm a doctoral candidate and he's an architect) without any time to spend on our home. We need serious help.
I hate the bathrooms in our condo!
Think white vanity with dark green marble top, ugly/plain mirror taking up the entire wall, terrible Hollywood lights - you know 6,000 light bulbs across the entire wall? Oh and the white tile. I'm a much more modern girl, but we're paying for a wedding and the $$$ to do a gut on the bathroom just isn't happening right now. But it needs a facelift!
Paint? Perhaps just a new vanity and mirror? I dunno. HELP!
my husband's insists on displaying every little knick knack around the house.
i don't like that we don't live in it yet... we're between homes and crashing with my mom... me, my son, and my husband.
UGH!
I live in an old Victorian house built in 1874, which was turned into two apartments. It's not a fancy house, quite the opposite (you probably wouldn't guess it for a Victorian). There are so many wonderful things about living in an old house – the space, the details…but then again, there is a lot about living in an old house that is a pain in the you-know-what.
Since the house we're living in is so old, it's hard picking just one thing that I dislike. Plus, you did mention that this could make for interesting reading…
So here is a little rundown of the top five things I really dislike about my house:
1. The house was originally built without a bathroom, so when they did add a bathroom they had to collapse a staircase to do so. This means the bathroom is exactly the size of the landing of that staircase – tiny doesn't begin to cover it. And I have to keep the door open when I shower because there is no other ventilation.
2. The upstairs/top story is practically unusable except as storage. Ceilings are 6' at the tallest point and the roof/walls starts pitching 2' off the floor, so you can't even add shelves or cabinets. Plus, most furniture can't make it up the semi-spiral staircase up to the second story anyway (too sharp of an angle).
3. Lath & Plaster. Ahhh! Hanging anything is a nightmare. There are holes in the walls where previous tenants hung a picture or a shelf and the weight of it took a chunk out of the wall.
4. Lead based paint. Yup, our house has its share. It's OLD. Plus, someone thought it was a good idea to paint the majority of the house with different shades of mauve. The bedroom and kitchen are the only rooms not this color.
5. No Closets. Again, built in a time where people used armoires. Our only real closets are one awkward cabinet and another collapsed staircase landing.
The house does have some really fantastic details, if we could just figure out what to do to make those details shine. Since most of my dislikes are structure things, it's not like they can change. But if we could just make our furniture work and figure out what colors would showcase the neat details of this old house it would make so much of a difference.
Our bedroom. Bare, boring and less than relaxing!
I dislike my home's open floorplan and lack of architectural detail. I'm scared to use color because each room is open to the next with no clear definition between each space. My house is one of a bajillion cookie-cutter stucco/tile-roof boxes that cover the Southwest and is utterly devoid of charm. I desperately need someone to tell me what to do!
My room is just a big plain white space and I don't know what to do with it. Also, the dining room and living room's pretty boring too
I have no idea what to do with my window treatments--I need serious help--and I hate the wall sconces the landlord hung up that forces me to center my couch between them--lame.
man- where to start... i think right now the one thing that I dislike is my living room and my bedroom and that they've been about the same for 4 or 5 years now. I don't want a total re-make but I do need something to help liven the areas up and change things around so that they feel fresh!!
I love design but am on a very limited budget right now. We're also renters, so that hinders us a little. Most of our time is spent in our living room and the one thing I don't like is that it looks a little too "Pottery Barn" - kind of matchy and dull. I'd love to infuse it with design and inspiration!
Our living room is painted a lovely blue and has a gorgeous fireplace, and picture window... but all of the furniture is hand-me-downs from my fiance's bachelor days! We want it to be a welcoming place for friends to sit and visit. We need furniture ideas, art ideas, rugs, window treatments etc, etc.
I love our apt., but I'm having trouble figuring out the kitchen. It's nice but blah. It's also our entryway, so things get dumped and messy-looking there. We have pretty much no budget, but...I'm creative and can sew or move things or whatever. There is a creative solution to most dilemmas! I know it!
I really love our house. The one thing that I don't like is the my inability to make it look as nice as it could. that and the wallpaper in every. single. room.
Mostly I become paralyzed with the sheer number of decisions redecorating will take.
help!
My master bedroom, to put it bluntly, SUCKS! It is so boring and bland and of course it is the last thing in the house that needs to be done. I don't know how to pull things together - like how do you decorate on top of a dresser anyway?
Thanks
Our house is beautiful, it really is...but it isn't me. And I don't have the money to make it "me" so I just leave it really nice, but looking like someone else. I would love to find budget ways to make it reflect me and my family more -- especially in the family room, where it is a mishmash of hand-me-down furniture, and neutral colors. Ugh.
oh--my struggle is that our house is brand.stinkin.builder.new. meaning: it has zero character. there are 500 houses in the neighborhood that look just like it.
and--i'm such a contradiction that i can't stick with anything long enough to fall in love with it. this drives my husband absolutely nuts.
:) haha, hoping i win this, but if i don't--we may have to just pony up for the services!
hayleyemorgan@gmail.com
We repainted our bedroom, and the walls are completely bare. I have no idea what to put on them!
I live in an adorable Craftsman style house in the hills of Pasadena, California. The problem is that inside it's dark. When my mother visited over the holidays, she dubbed the living room the "chamber of darkness." Oh. Joy. As sweet a place as this is to live, it is not conducive to creativity. I need some magic to help it become a room of light.
Hoping for a colorful miracles, mari
I'm making my home now, so... I need it!! :D I have to change all rooms!!
Hugs from Spain (and sorry for the terrible english)
meninheira(at)gmail(dot)com
our bedroom is uber dark... with only one sliding glass door for natural light... would love to figure out how to get some more light in there... via artificial light, paint, decor, etc... I guess it doesn't help that we have super dark wood furniture? :)
Our bedroom is the boring-est, ugliest room in our home. Please make me not hate it!
We bought a newly renovated home which is great.
But I have a major problem with the colour blue. I just can't live with it in my home.
Yet, my kitchen benches and splashback, as well as my bathroom accent tiles are all blue. Is there an inexpensive way to BANISH THE BLUE????
we recently moved from our chic 70's light filled home to a rambling dark bungalow built in 1912. It has good bones, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to approach it & have it feel warm & 'us'. Biggest challenge...the kitchen. I have finished chipping off most of the '50s era plastic tile...now what?
I don't like how, until recently, I've been trying to decorate according to other people's tastes and not my own.
I'd actually love to get some ideas on my studio. I do all me creating there so I feel it's a very personal space, but so far I've given it NO attention. Beige walls and bunches of boring cabinets aren't cutting it...
Our place is small and doesn't have much storage. Clutter clutter everywhere!
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