Attention all repurposers and craft enthusiasts! This week is the Bungalow 47 Expansion Sale! Beginning Tuesday, September 9 and going until Saturday, September 13, we will be having our (non) warehouse sale! This time it will be done slightly different and there will be lots of great deals, awesome furniture and cool items. In this sale, we have lots of old wood windows with the perfect amount of peely, chippy-ness for your next project. To get you inspired, I have compiled a top 10 list from Pinterest of projects you can do with old windows. 1. Jewelry Organizer 2. Memo Board 3. Cabinet Door Front 4. Shelf and Hooks 5. Picture Frame 6. Quotes and Pictures 7. Coffee Table 8. Memory Board 9. Calendar 10. […]
What Makes It a Dream House Anyway?
Lately, my dreams have become more ‘daydreams’ then nighttime ones. It’s probably because by the time I go to sleep I am more comatose and unable to remember anything. Almost everyday, when I come into work, Chantelle tells me the most bizarre stories about what she dreamed of the night before. I mean, I’m talking some weird stuff! My dreams are less exciting, consisting of choices for faucets, door knobs, window treatments, toilets, moulding, paint swatches, etc. Tis the mind through a renovation, but I got to thinking, what makes a house a dream anyway? Bobby Flay as the resident chef, Mark Wahlberg as the pool boy, maybe Hugh Jackman as the postman? Oops, wait, I got distracted. Frankly, these days, any house could be […]
3 Things That Make a House a Home
It’s a funny thing, being an empty nester. The house is quiet, there’s no sporting events to go to constantly, less people visit, the fridge has way less food, and (the saddest part) there are way less happy distractions from what you are doing. However, I have to admit, I pictured my life less chaotic than it currently is. With a growing business, marrying off the youngest child, moving to a smaller house and trying to live through a renovation, I have needed to focus on life’s essentials. When living amongst boxes with all of our “stuff” packed away, I don’t have any of that excess around to entertain me, so it was important to set up our current living space with what’s important. My […]
How to Create a Cozy Home
I recently made a big move. Not just any move, but the “official downsizing, all of our children are married” kind of move. I didn’t mean to do it, well I did, just not at this time. We had been actually trying to sell our house for about three years (the market here was D.O.A.), so when our youngest daughter got engaged last December we let the listing expire so we could plan and focus on the happy couple. Then just as I began to get knee deep in wedding plans (a destination wedding!), we got two offers in one week! WHAT? Exactly. My husband and I stared at each other, eyes glazed over and decided, excitedly yet reluctantly, we had to do it! I […]
Layering Four Colors to Create One Great Look
A little over a month ago, Brian and I found a great house on an amazing piece of property and decided to put an offer on it. It’s on a beautiful piece of land with a pond and is quite a bit closer to Bungalow 47 than we are now. Well, long story short, they accepted our offer so now we are in the process of selling our house. We built our current home almost twenty years ago and have added quite a bit to it since then but when we took a good look around we realized that we really had our work cut out for us in order to get it ready to sell. We had things on our list from painting […]
Rose Bowl Flea – Ready for Bargains!
It’s that time of year again, where the weather gets better and people are out hunting for treasures. Of course, if you are in Southern California, it’s always flea market weather at the Rose Bowl. Held the second Sunday of every month, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena fills up with vendors peddling their treasures and hoards of people searching for a find! Recently Chantelle and I had the chance to visit the Rose Bowl and bring home unique items for Bungalow 47. Even if you only go to be inspired, it’s the place to find whatever your heart desires. My favorite treasure from past visits to the Rose Bowl include my amazing vintage bread board, featured in the blog post Tray Chic. With many opportunities for […]
Warehouse Sale
Do you remember when you were a kid, the anticipation of Christmas morning? What would you find under the tree? Will they like your gift? Will you wake up to an ideallyic snow (none for me in Southern California)? Well it’s just about Christmas morning at Bungalow 47 again! Our Warehouse Sale is coming next weekend, Friday and Saturday May 10-11. It’s our occasional sale where you will find ah-mazing things to paint and finish yourself. I think I have mentioned before that we are somewhat hoarders (in the best kind of way, of course!). This sale first began because we were overflowing with finds that we had not painted yet. The great thing about the sale is that we only present merchandise no one […]
I’d Like to Buy a Vowel…
When it comes to decorating with salvage letters, I’m a FAN! I love everything about them. I love the different sizes and colors, the rust, peeling paint and the variety… so much variety. While we were shopping Antiques Week last spring, my obsession got the better of me and I ended up bringing home a truck load of salvage letters. LITERALLY! Yup, that’s my truck! Bet you thought I was joking. I would never joke about something as serious as my love for salvage. When we came across this huge supply of letters we loaded up and left no letter behind. Well, at least we tried. The letters we couldn’t bring home we staged for FUN photo shoots. If I can’t have them all then […]
The Prairie in Round Top, Texas
Since it is the week of fun in Round Top, Texas right now, I thought I would share our memories from our trip in January. The highlight of our journey was staying at Rachel Ashwell’s Prairie, an amazing bed and breakfast in Round Top. As you drive out into what seems to be the middle of nowhere, you come upon a dirt road with an American flag that beckons you down a path to a cluster of the cutest little buildings ever. We stayed in a smaller cottage next to the main house where our associates were staying. There are wonderful patios for conversation all over the property and wide open spaces to enjoy the true Texas prairie. We woke early in the mornings to […]
10 Things Every Guest Room Should Have
Sometimes life gives you little surprises. This winter/early spring we are expecting our first two grandchildren, both granddaughters! The first decided to surprise her parents 3 weeks early! So what was originally planned as a weekend away out west, took me on a little journey for two weeks to see our beautiful granddaughter and help her parents decorate their new house they had just moved into two days before we got there. My plan was to actually go there to stare at and hold the baby for 10 days straight. My son had another plan for me. After several gallons of paint, too many trips to Home Depot and major muscle aches on my old body, their kitchen was transformed! At the end of each […]
47 Weeks of Inspiration
Welcome to “47 weeks of Inspiration”, week 1! This journey will take us (over the next 10 months or so) into a closer more in depth look at our homes. Each week we will focus on a different area, I will ask questions and you will have homework! Doesn’t that sound fun? Don’t worry, we will make it stress free and enjoyable. Our main goal is to get us really thinking about our spaces. Do they reflect who we are? Do they look and function how we need them to? Are they beautiful and personal? SO this week, let’s start at the beginning. Although I am all about the beauty of a room, FUNCTION is the most important thing to me in a home. Frankly, […]
New Year Inspiration
The new year is upon us. Has anyone else stopped to think, “How the heck is it 2013 already?” The new year always brings new resolutions (that we’ll forget about by February), a look to the future (how will our lives change this year?) and lots of guilt about what we can do better (I can’t help you with your guilt, blame your mother!). So I thought I’d share a few of my favorite home quotes (visuals courtesy of Pinterest) to inspire you to think about your home. We love the idea of home so much that when we started our business, we wanted to give it a name that was a synonym for HOME. We considered many, but Bungalow just sounded cozy (to hear […]
Tray Chic
I have a little ‘tray’ problem. Actually, you could say I am somewhat obsessed. But truth be told, you could say I’m obsessed with a lot. Hmmm, this explains some stuff. Anyhoo, what’s not to love about trays? By definition they are meant to carry, hold or exhibit articles and that makes them super useful! As always, it’s good to think outside the box, so here are some tips for finding and using trays. 1. To be truly tres chic, it doesn’t have to actually be a tray. Marble slabs, wood cutting boards and pedestals, wood remnants, small framed or unframed mirrors and open baskets all make excellent trays. My favorite I own is actually a vintage European cutting board. I don’t cut on it, […]
Chantelle’s Man and His Car
I know this will sound kinda “braggy” but, I’m married to a fabulous man! He’s loving, kind, gentle, faithful, smart, funny, handsome, and HANDY! I remember him telling me once (when we were dating) that he could build anything. I was skeptical then but 25 years later I can honestly say that YES, the man CAN build anything he sets his mind to. This is one reason I knew he would love going to the Round Top, Texas flea market last spring. Round Top promised to have acres of treasures that he could pick from to upcycle and transform into something amazing. Many things caught his eye but the various rusty old pedal cars that were scattered throughout the show seemed to touch a […]
Bring it On Home!
I recently attended the Stormville Flea Market in Stormville, NY that is frequently featured on the HGTV show Flea Market Flip. I had high hopes for the day, feeling that I might find something special. After making the full loop of the flea market and sampling yummy food there (even though we had just had breakfast and it was still early), I ended up finding THE FIND. After a slick negotiation (“can I get it home?” and “gee, that’s more than I wanted to spend”) I was the proud owner of something special. Hmmm, now how to get it home to Michigan? Hubby suggested we just pack it up and ship it, but that fell on deaf ears. Part of the ‘thrill of the […]
Jill’s Weekend in New England
One of the perks of having a husband who travels is occasionally he will ask, “do you want to come with me?” Well, that depends; Vegas in the summer “NO thank you!”, Alaska in the winter “have you lost your mind?”, New England in the fall “yup! i’m in!” So a few weeks ago we headed off to the northeast. We spent 15 years vacationing in Cape Cod while the kids were growing up, so we headed to Massachusetts to have a little stroll down memory lane and to visit a few of my favorite thrift stores. Needless to say, when we travel, I shop. We have a little understanding that goes, if he doesn’t have to touch it, I can buy it and haul […]