We were at John’s parent’s house when his mom found the recipe in one of her favorite cookbooks (Pillsbury: The Best Of Classic Cookbooks) and thought it would be a fun little project for us to take on. So we snagged a watermelon along with some pineapple, honeydew melon, cantaloupe, blueberries, and strawberries and got down to business. The first step was cutting off the top third of the watermelon (tip: you may have to even out the edge a bit if your cut isn’t perfect from the get-go; also it’s best to pose like a serial killer):

You may also have to cut a small slice off the bottom of the watermelon to ensure that it sits on the table without wobbling (we skipped that step because ours was miraculously a bit flat on one side). Then you cut out hunks of watermelon (eating a few as you go is mandatory) and hollow it out until it’s about two thirds empty. Here’s John making long criss-cross cuts:

We also took care to thin the sides of the watermelon with a melon-baller for a clean and bowl-like effect, so once we dumped hunks of tasty fruit back in it would look like a little basket of goodies:

Then came the detail work to create a quick little decorative star trio on the front edge. John’s mom happened to have a star-shaped cookie cutter on hand, so we used that along with a toothpick to pierce the watermelon in the five outer corners and four inner corners the of the star so we could remove the cookie cutter and use the holes as a guide to cut out three partial star shapes along the rim:

Then we just filled our patriotic little watermelon back up with fruit for a deeelicious and delectable result.

We also took the liberty of sticking a few small toothpic flags that John’s mom had laying around on the back rim for even more yay-USA flair. Here it is all set out on the middle of John’s parent’s table just waiting for lunch guests to dig in:

John’s parents had some pretty fabulous company so our centerpiece wasn’t just for our enjoyment. My very best friend Cat (who married John’s cousin to become a bona fide family member- as seen here) came over with her hubby Travis and their new baby in tow! Born just five days earlier, Elsa Kelley is a doll. Happy 4th of July little Elsa! Sorry you couldn’t enjoy a bit of fruit with the rest of us.

And our baby got into the 4th of July spirit too. Just look at him hanging out with his red, white, and blue buddy:

Happy 4th to you and yours!

First, let’s take a look back at the “before.” Collective shudder.

And now, the “after”! Woot!

Besides a few new coats of paint (Gobi Desert in the hallway, Breakfast Blend behind the appliances), we also unstacked the washer & dryer, added a few shelves, and took down that cabinet. We will eventually re-hang that cabinet in the same spot, but I am in the process of painting it white and adding some hardware to make it look better. We wanted a countertop space on top of the washer & dryer so we could actually fold clothes there. So we bought a piece of plywood, painted it white and slapped on a coat of polyurethane for good measure. I also put some of those cabinet liners down underneath so they don’t scratch the washer & dryer. So far it’s working out great!

Thanks to Kim for sharing her makeover. We love to see those freebie prizes put to good use like that. Congrats on the great makeover!

And while we’re on the subject of doing the wash, here’s how we transformed our laundry area on a serious budget.

And then there’s this little set of Dean & Deluca spices (we spied it in Savannah at The Paris Market) which struck us as charming thanks to the test-tube display cases. Think you guys could hit up an online science store (like this) and DIY this arrangement for your kitchen counter? Or is that a bit too much trouble to go through for paprika?

We’re itching to know what you guys think about these uniquely repurposed containers. Do tell.

And while we’re on the subject, here are some old posts about how we store TP and spices in our house. Ahhh, storage…

I’m so excited to have you work some magic on my family room! We recently moved in and the items were pretty much just set around the perimeter with no thought. As for my style, HGTV says I’m ‘Old World, New Way’, whatever that means. I feel I like clean (no clutter), comfortable, inviting, nothing stuffy. I really like Pottery Barn, I’d say that is my style. Also, the store Anthropologie appeals to me as soon as I walk in. The items that must stay are the sofas (they’re a dark greenish, distressed leather), the piano, the wood blinds on the one window, and according to my husband, the tv. The items that can go: desk, office chair, the rug (please!), bookcase (but I would need something else), and the glass-topped table. We’d definitely like new paint for the wall. I also convinced my husband that we might just have to paint the brick wall. I really need some sort of functional window coverings. We don’t use the fireplace and won’t anytime soon, so maybe something for in it? I can’t wait to see what you come up with!!! – Amy

This space is full of potential. Here’s the plan:

And now for the mood board breakdown.

1. Our color palette will include deep espresso wood tones to help tie in the dark piano along with the dark green in the existing sofas which we’ll complement with some warm wheat and tan tones and set off with a dash of ruby red. For the walls (including the brick fireplace wall) we’d love to see a warm golden wheat color (Benjamin Moore’s Sepia Tan 1116) to instantly expand and lighten the space (we painted our den’s brick fireplace wall and the room immediately felt less broken up, bigger, and brighter). And we’d actually like to see a richer and more saturated pop of golden wheat on the small wall where the TV was (last photo) for a bit of interest and fun when you’re walking towards the kitchen (Benjamin Moore’s Guesthouse 1117).

As for the new furniture arrangement, the TV will go where the desk once was, the new bookcase will go where the TV used to be and the sofas will form an L shape in front of the left window and facing the fireplace instead of facing away from it. Floating a new 8 x 10 rug in the center of the space will ground the L-shaped seating arrangement and the existing cream chair can even be placed in front of the built-in fireplace bookcase and angled in towards the new round coffee table in the middle of the rug. Voila: a cozy seating area floating in the center of the room with easy TV viewing and fireplace enjoyment (even if it’s not used often, it’s a great focal point for the space).

2. Here’s the new bookcase that will be placed along our slightly richer golden-wheat accent wall where the TV once lived. The deep tone will tie in with the other furnishings and the existing piano for a crisp and casual look that’s inviting and chic. And we’d love to see the TV (which will move over to where the desk once was) on this complementary dark-toned media stand.

3. Since there’s a built-in bookcase on one side of the fireplace wall (which we’d also love to see painted the same golden wheat tone as the wall itself), the other side of the fireplace could use a bit of height for a more balanced and cohesive look. Adding some tall cream colored willow branches (for just $7.95 a bunch) in a clear cylinder vase will really bring in some dimension and interest to balance the bookcase on the other side.

4. The existing sofas could use some side tables for functionality and to tie the next L-shaped arrangement together. We’d love to see one of these clean-lined beauties (on sale!) between them (in the middle of the L-shape) and another one to the right of the cream chair that will be angled in towards the sofas in front of the built-in bookcase.

5. Because Amy mentioned that she loves walking into Anthropology, we took a bit of an eclectic mismatched approach when it came to the pillows. By mixing a few red and cream coral pillows with a few printed bird pillows, the sofa and the cream chair will really give off that casual Anthropologie vibe.

6. Floating this new 8 x 10 rug in the middle of the room will tie everything together from the golden toned walls to the wheat-colored curtain panels. And the pops of green and red in the casual and cheerful pattern will further hammer home our entire color scheme. Plus the rug can be used for the placement of the sofas and the chair (the front legs of each piece should be on the rug while the back legs remain on the floor).

7. Amy mentioned that they didn’t use the fireplace much and wondered if there was something decorative that she could place inside. We love the idea of adding a few of these candle lanterns (on sale!) for interest and ambiance… and they’re a lot easier to use thank making a full blown fire. They’re a little old world, a little bohemian, and oh so Anthropologie.

8. A new fan with an overhead light will provide a crisp and updated vibe (while keeping things cool and bright).

9. We’d love to see an architectural dark wood shelf hung above the fireplace to create a makeshift mantel, and one of these from Pottery Barn should do the trick. Then Amy can lean or hang this gorgeous round Anthropologie mirror (we like the larger size) above the shelf to truly transform the entire fireplace wall into a breathtaking focal point in the room.

10. This gorgeous sculptural floor lamp will look lovely in the left corner of the room between the wall with the large window and the fireplace wall (and not only will it add height, but it’ll add even more ambient light).

11. Here are our wheat colored curtains (in toffee) to work with the rug, the wall color and even the gorgeous mother of pearl mirror to tie the whole space together. We’d love to see them hung high and wide on each of the windows with matching wood blinds (or faux-wood) blinds on the left window to balance the existing ones on the right (Target and JC Penney both make affordable white wood or faux-wood blinds in many sizes). Since Amy mentioned that she’d like to be able to pull the curtains closed on cold nights, hanging four panels on the larger window (one in front of each of the posts between the windows and one on either side of the entire window) will make it possible to draw them closed whenever the urge strikes.

12. We thought this elegant yet casual round table (on sale!) will really look right at home in the middle of the seating arrangement to ground the rug and provide function to spare. Round tables are especially great with L shaped seating areas since they’re easily accessed from all sides and they bring easy flow and soft lines to a room (and the circular shape will mimic everything from the mirror above the fireplace to the nearby side tables for a cohesive and streamlined look).

So there you have it. A family room full of warm, casual and inviting style. We can’t wait to see what you guys think! And if anyone else out there is in need of a custom makeover of their very own, click here for some decorating advice on the double.

Note: Our mood boards are now posted at least three days after they’re sent to the client (so they have a chance to purchase everything before it sells out).

But back to the matter at hand: the winner. Despite all of your great stories, we can only award one prize to one lucky lady or lad (who’s selected randomly thanks to random.org). As you recall, this week’s winner gets their choice of one of the four pillows shown above by Artful Home artists Mariah Wren and Heather Lins. And that lucky person is…. Brooke Merritt. Congrats Brooke! We can’t wait to hear which of the four pillows you choose. For everyone else, all we’ll say for now is that next Monday’s giveaway is sure to delight you (yup, there’s a clue in there somewhere). Stay tuned…

Get more info on our freebies at our Giveaway FAQs page. Images courtesy of Artful Home.

So imagine how grateful we were when someone gifted us this under-sink filter from Filtrete (who knew they did more than air filters?).

Hiding everything under the sink sure sounded like the perfect design for us. Plus, it promised “easy” installation with “minimal tools.” Since Sherry knew that “easy” plumbing projects were right up my alley, this became my Sunday morning assignment last weekend.

I started by clearing out everything under our sink, turning off the cold water and readying the “minimal” set of tools needed. These are all the items included in their box (filter, filter head, tubing and screws) plus the tools listed in their instructions (screwdriver, adjustable wrench, drill and knife to cut tubing), though I also found it helpful to have plumber’s tape handy (not pictured). Oh, and a curious chihuahua is extra credit.

The first step was installing the screws for the filter head. After holding it up in place (with enough room underneath for inserting and removing the filter), it was easy to mark its placement with a pencil, drill a couple of holes and insert screws to secure it in place. This photo shows me testing my placement, but you actually don’t tighten the filter head into place until all the tubing is attached. It’s nice and pretty under our sink, eh? Not. (<– join me in the fight to bring “not” back).

The next steps were to remove the existing piping and begin connecting two lengths of cut-to-size tubing in its place. Well, our existing pipes were attached so tightly that it ended up taking four hands (mine and Sherry’s) to get them loose, leaving no one to operate the camera (Burger hasn’t quite mastered that skill yet). So all I’ve got to show you in the finished product.

Here’s one length of blue tubing (cut using a straight edge knife) connecting to our cold water hook-up on one end and the Filtrete filter head on the other. The cold water end attaches using a hex-nut attachment included in the package. The filter head end slides right into the opening and holds using a “push-in fitting.” It was easy as pie.

Similarly, on the other end you connect another length of cut blue tubing to the filter head and to your faucet attachment. This again attaches to the filter head using the push-in fitting, and the other end attaches using a faucet adapter included in the set. No surprise here – very easy to do.

Then, once the filter head was tightened into place, we just had to pop in the water filter that’s provided. It simply slips into the head and locks into place with a small quarter turn. The filters are supposed to be replaced every 6 months, so we wrote ourselves a really big reminder on our filter using a black sharpie.

The package also included a reminder sticker (this makes organized people like Sherry smile like it’s Christmas) so we stuck it in her dayplanner. Now there are two reminders floating around our house. When it comes time to replace our filter in December, we’re thinking we might upgrade from our current Advanced filter (which reduces sediments, chlorine tastes and odors - just like a Brita pitcher would) to the Professional filter (which also eliminates parasitic cysts – like a Brita or Pur faucet-mount filter does).

But back to our little project play-by-play. Next we just finished up the installation by turning the water back on, running the faucet for about 5 minutes (to clear our the system) and checking for leaks (none – score!). Now we can enjoy our cleaner and purer water without any extra hassle or faucet attachments.

How ’bout you? Are you heavy water drinkers like us? Do you filter your H2O? If so, what system do you use to clear things up? Do you use an aerator to reduce your water usage? We’d love to hear every watery detail…

I love your blog and get so much inspiration from it. I saw you recently featured a beautifully made-over dresser so I thought I’d send you my made-over desk. Who doesn’t love a before and after, right? I used primer and then just regular satin paint (for walls) from my local DIY store (called B&Q – I’m in England) in Antique White. Hope you enjoy the makeover as much as I do! You can check out more pics and details on my blog. Cheers!  -Jen

Jen’s lovely furniture fix-up proves that paint, sandpaper, stain, and new hardware can add up to a charmingly distressed piece that looks timeworn and lovely yet oh so current (thanks to the gleaming hardware and the rich stained top). Thanks so much for sending the pictures our way Jen! What do you guys think? Doesn’t this make you wanna whip out your paint brushes? Hooray for DIY furniture makeovers.

A: Good question! One of the hardest things about finding the right house is that there’s no such thing as the perfect one. It’s all about picking the perfect house for you, so figuring out how you’ll use a home before you buy it is the challenge. Our biggest tip would be to sit down for hours, maybe even days and talk about what you’re looking for in a home. Not how you’d like to use it if you were a debutante, but how you’ll really use it on a day to day basis (for example, you might have lofty dreams of entertaining droves of people but you have to look deep inside and be certain that’s really how you’ll live before you snag the house with the giant formal dining room instead of the TV room that might get eons more use). In our case we opted for a house with two living areas (a living room and a den) so we knew we’d have space to spread out as our family grows.

You’ll also want to take things like your children or your pet’s habits into consideration (will you want a mud room to keep their things organized?) and your own lifestyle (will you want a computer counter in the kitchen with a chair and room for a laptop since you often cook and surf the web at the same time or is that an upgrade that you’d pay for and never use?). All these decisions can be easily organized in a must-have, and a would-be-nice-but-not-necessary list to guide you in your search. For example, these were some of the things on our must-have list:

• nice location/neighborhood
• good schools
• private backyard
• at least three bedrooms
• at least one and a half bathrooms
• garage

This was our would-be-nice list:

• wood floors
• a fireplace
• basement or attic storage
• front porch
• sunroom
• bay window

You can see from our list above that we didn’t have things like new granite counters and curb appeal on our list. This is because after a few long what-we-really-want chats we decided that we’d like a fixer upper that we could mold into the perfect house for us instead of paying for someone else’s upgrades that might not necessarily be our style. This allowed us to snag a house that was almost 25K less than our budget (so we had some money leftover to put into renovating our new house into our dream home). So if you’re looking to do the same thing, we’d suggest asking your realtor to show you homes that don’t have any obvious structural issues, but could use some cosmetic updating (this means that a bit of elbow grease and maybe a bathroom or kitchen redo will take the old clunker from ick to ooh-la-la).

You’ll definitely want to steer clear of homes that have more obvious issues (for example, a house that has sustained flood or fire damage can turn into a money pit once you inherit it and realize there’s a lot more to repair than initially met the eye). And of course getting a thorough inspection before you move in (which will allow you to withdraw your offer if the house is too much work) will help you uncover issues that may have alluded you otherwise). On the other end of the spectrum, you might know yourself well enough to be certain that you don’t want to deal with the headache and stress of a renovation at all, so an updated kitchen and new windows should probably be on your must-have list, so you’ll end up with something that wows you from day one.

Asking yourself how your house can work the hardest for you and your lifestyle before you buy can really make or break your choice. It’s the difference between purchasing a house that would be good for the joneses or good for you and your family. For example, maybe hardwood flooring and granite counters aren’t really your cup of tea, but you do laundry five days a week… choosing a house with a spacious laundry room might just be the thing that will have you thanking your lucky stars for years to come. We actually picked our house due to the lot that it was on. We loved the location and the schools (two extremely important things to consider when looking to buy) and the private backyard complete with 9′ privacy hedges and a half acre woods beyond ensured that we could enjoy a serene and secluded existence (and our future babies could play all day back there without worry).

We were hardly wooed by the house itself. After all, it looked like this…

But we could see beyond the bad wallpaper…

…and the green toilet…

…and the empty rooms to see that it had good bones and a lot of our would-be-nice features and then some! It not only had a sunroom with three full walls of glass and gorgeous private views but it had two working fireplaces, basement and attic storage space, hardwood floors in about half of the house, and a sweet little front porch. So even though it also had terrible floral wallpaper, giant ceiling fans dwarfing almost every modestly sized room, and a whole host of other grievous features (have you seen the stove-microwave combo along with the faux-brick backsplash that we inherited?)…

…we knew that some paint and a save-for-it kitchen remodel would take our home from caterpillar to butterfly.

In thinking about how we live we also appreciated the abundance of common space in such a small footprint. Although our home is only 1350 square feet, it still has a back patio, a sunroom, a den, a living room, and a front porch for reading, relaxing and enjoying some downtime- which will really come in handy for our future kiddos who want places to play together (or hide from their annoying siblings). We also liked the layout with the bedrooms on one side of the house (which feels more private) and the more open living areas on the other side of the house. It just made sense when we walked through it, and although we made plenty of changes and it certainly didn’t have it all (we would have loved if our master bedroom was on the back of the house instead of the front), it’s still the perfect house for us.

Taking the time to write out the cons of a house that you’re thinking about purchasing can also be extremely eye-opening. For example, these are some cons that you should probably disregard because in under $100 and an afternoon, you can usually remedy them:

• the walls are bright pink/green/yellow etc
• there’s an ugly light fixture above the dining table or in the bathroom
• there’s hideous wallpaper with clowns/flowers/fruit on it
• there’s ugly furniture or clutter on every surface

By contrast, these are a few cons that might take a substantial investment on your part to rectify, which might be just fine with you if you’re going into the process looking to redo things, but if you don’t have money leftover for renovations you’ll probably want to avoid these cons:

• the bedrooms are far apart (not on the same floor, etc) and you’d like them together
• the kitchen is a lot smaller than you’d like
• there’s not enough room for your existing furniture
• there’s hideous flooring throughout the home that needs to be replaced
• the aren’t enough bedrooms, bathrooms, or living spaces

Keeping the cons in mind as well as the pros should really help you evaluate whether you’ve found a nice house for someone else, or a nice house for you!

And here’s an after-you-move bonus tip: we would suggest waiting a bit to take on any major restructuring right after you buy your home, just to give yourself time to settle in and be sure that you’ll really use that dining room turned library or that you truly want to sacrifice the family room for a bigger kitchen. Chances are that your initial instincts were right on track, but we actually didn’t think about widening doorways for about 6 months, so if we started our kitchen reno as soon as we moved in, it wouldn’t be half as open and airy as it is today. John and I intentionally lived with our house as is (we just painted, but didn’t make any structural or layout changes) for almost a year until we were confident that we wanted a bedroom more than a formal dining room (you can read more about how we majorly restructured our home’s layout to work for us) and we were certain about what we wanted (and didn’t need) in our new kitchen. Hope it helps! Happy house hunting…

So whenever ours threatens to spread out a bit too much, we grab the scissors and get our clip on.

And the greatest thing about it is that by clipping close to the root of the plant…

…each too-long branch that we snip can be placed in a glass of water only to grow roots and become a clone of the original plant. Really, the entire plant will regenerate from one small cutting once it’s placed in a cup full of water near a window. Is that sci-fi or what?!

Then once those spider-like roots form, just plant each branch in their own pot with some lush potting soil and watch them grow up to be a spitting image of their momma. There you have it. Free house plants for little to no effort. Gotta love philodendrons… when they’re not giving house plants a bad name.

How about you guys. Do you have any cheap house plant tips to share with the group? Any impossible to kill varieties that are tickling your fancy these days? Spill the house plant dirt.

Wanna know what other plants live here at Casa Petersik? Here’s the long and leafy breakdown.

Yup, it’s chalk. Let’s have a closer look, shall we?

After we painstakingly removed all the wallpaper and painted the walls a bright and happy tone it still felt a bit bare in there, so I grabbed some chalk from the junk drawer and freehanded some leafy branches around the room right over the flat latex paint (which is Sea Spray by Glidden by the way). I fully intended to use a small brush to paint over them with white paint but I actually got lazy and found some spray-on chalk fixative (an old art-school trick of the trade) at a nearby craft store instead. With a few thin sprays it was “sealed” right on the wall. And the fixative didn’t leave any drips or wet spots when we applied it. Whew.

It was still a bit less secure than if I had painted over my chalk branches (if you applied some serious pressure like you were sanding the wall a bit of chalk could be found on your hand) so I would recommend using a small paint brush to trace some paint over your chalk art if you’ll be doing this project in a child’s room and need maximum durability. But for a casually trafficked area like a dining room, chalk + fixative = perfection.

Oh and because everyone loves a good before & after (and this room no longer exists in our house since we turned it into a third bedroom) we thought we’d remind you guys what it looked like when we purchased our house:

She’s a beauty, eh? And you might notice that the brass chandelier looks a bit sleeker in the photos above. Another quick and easy dining room project of yore was painting the ol’ brass chandy. And it’s really a super simple process. Just remove yours and bring it outside or into a garage and spray it with Kilz or some other spray primer and follow that with two thin coats of regular latex spray paint (in any color that you’d like- it would be just as fab in soft green or sultry red). Of course we removed the bulbs and taped off the bulb holders so they didn’t get coated with paint. And afterwards we even replaced the flame shaped bulbs with clear round Domino-esque ones when we rehung it). Simple, cheap and oh so effective. Happy chalking and spray painting everyone!