BLANKHAUS

An exploration of home design and modern furnishing.

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Fireplace Project

BEFORE:

AFTER:

This weekend we took on a project that has been on our home to-do list for quite some time. If we're honest with ourselves I think we put this project off because it scared us to paint our stone. We didn't want to diminish any value of our home in the process and we know painting stone can be a bit of a "questionable area." However, seeing the end result is only a confirmation that painting our fireplace a white semi-gloss was the way to go. It opened up the space, brightened it up and made it feel more modern, clean & simple. It's amazing what a little paint can do. We're thrilled with the outcome. I'll post better photos later, but for now you can enjoy these quick iPhone grabs.

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Updated our nook & new cowhide rug

We've been making some updates to the haus recently & are really loving the outcome. We took what once were white walls and have painted quite a few walls all black. Our friend Brian Paquette who is a great local interior designer really helped us get a vision for how things could look with black & we're loving it. We just got the mirror & new lamp hung in a nook that was just occupying space before. And put a cool cowhide rug on the floor in the family room. We're really happy with the results!

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Office is coming along...

Photo taken with Instagram So remember when we talked about tearing all of our carpet up in the basement a while back? Well we've been on the quest to put things together in our office to make it an inspiring place to spend 10+ hours a day in. I think we're getting closer... 

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Our Map Case Coffee Table

This post is long overdue considering we have had our map case coffee table for a little over 8 months now... but either way, I finally took the time to take some photos of it. Last June I posted about how was really wanting one and we finally found a place that sold them with the top's cut out & a glass piece to go over the top. What I love about this concept is it is practical, but also allows you to switch out what is showcased if you get bored. It's like a "choose your own adventure" book from the 90's. I get bored with things really easily so this kind of versatility is great for someone with interior decorating ADD like myself. Currently we have a bunch of photos from our life showcased, but we have featured a world map with colored pins marking all of the places we have been. 

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Basement DIY for under 1K

Ever since we moved into this house the basement has been one of those things we always felt the need to apologize for when people come over. We have given it such names as "the dungeon" "the cave" & "the most miserable place on the planet," to name a few. I should also mention that the basement is the place where we are supposed to be ebbing all of those creative juices and stuff, so having a less than inspiring space to work has been a total bummer. 

Since we weren't in a place to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a full basement remodel we decided to go ahead and do the best we could all for under 1K. I wasn't sure if we could pull it off for such a small amount while still making it look semi-good, but you'd be amazed what a lot of white can do to improve a dark, cave-like space. We'll be decorating the space in the coming weeks and I'll keep you posted on our progress... for now you can check out some of our inspiration for the office on my Pinterest.

White Paint for Walls and Ceilings = $180 White Ikea Markland Flooring = $620 Lights & Light Covers = $40 Renting Power Tools = $60 

A little bit of the process:

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The best addition to our home...

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Gallery Wall

I've gotta be honest with you...I was pretty nervous about putting together a Gallery Wall with 25+ prints on the wall in our dining room. It seemed like something that could end in disaster since I had a hard time picturing how it would all come together. But we went for it. Some things that we did that put my mind at ease: We put together a photoshopped version of what each print would look like on the wall. We did this by taking a photo of each print that would be placed on the wall and cutting it out in photoshop and placing them all on the "virtual wall" so we could see how things looked together. I've heard of people doing this other ways with newspaper cut-outs in the shape of the frames, but I really wanted to see how the colors/shapes would look next to one another before committing and hanging it to the wall. And all said and done we're pretty stoked with the way it turned out! We're still adding a few here and there to fill in the gaps.  A BEFORE Photo of our Blank-wall (excuse our mess): 

An AFTER Photo of our *almost* finished Gallery Wall:

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Terrarium

Making Terrarium's is easy and it's a hell of a lot better than paying $200 for one that is already made. I made a few a couple of months ago. I gave two small ones as gifts and made a large one for the center of our dining room table. Here is what you will need: - Glass container - Activated Charcoal -Cactus Soil -Pebbles - Plants

1) Add a layer of Activated Charcoal to the bottom layer and over that add a layer of course pebbles

2) Then add the soil and plant the plants.. then add a little rock for the top layer and voila!

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our Charles Dickens wall paper in our Guest bedroom that cost us a total of $7.50 for all books/materials involved :) DIY win!

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Our Kerf Bookcase

& we're still trying to fill it....

For our third anniversary we decided to treat ourselves to a "piece" for our home. I've always dreamed of having a cozy little home for my books and when our friend and fablous designer Shara sketched up this design customized for our home we just couldn't resist. Our custom bookshelf was designed & built by the fabulous people over at Kerf Design. Now I just need to get to filling it up. I thought I read a lot, but I have quite the task ahead of me!

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i love hooks

So I have always had a slight obsession with hooks. mostly because there is nothing that I hate more than hanging clothes on hangers if I know I am going to wear it tomorrow. So hooks/coat racks meet me in the middle. I love them. Thinking about adding a couple to the house. Loved these...

Erich Ginder Ghost Tree Coat Rack

Wallter Slat Rack

Erich Ginder Ghost Antler coat Rack

Herman Miller Eames Hang it all Rack

Design House Stockholm- Wave

James Irvine: Big 5 Modern Coat Rack

Wis Design: Flip Flop Rack

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Apollo Chandelier

The other day our Apollo Chandelier came in the mail. My favorite part is the way the light bounces around the walls at night when the light is on and it's dark out. The light is art in and of itself. The dining area is coming together. step. by. step.

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Objects really do acquire a life of their own, when they've been held and loved for years

-Antiques dealer Vito Giallo

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The Shell Chairs

Our lovely little shell chairs came in the mail from Modernica the other day. I love the fiberglass. I love how the charcoal color turned out with the slab. mmmm mmmm good.

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Map Case Coffee Table

I absolutely adore the idea of having our coffee table be a vintage map case with a clear top where I can display some of our photos/maps etc. and switch them out periodically. I have found some metal ones, but we would really love an old wood one like the last one pictured here. They are mucho hard to find though. We're on the hunt!

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The Slab

Our very first purchase for our place was a Slab table. I've always loved these beautiful pieces so we sold our old table & chairs & saved up to have one. We found two local artists from Slab Art in Seattle who specialize in finding beautiful old trees with a story and turning them into something useable. Our Slab is made of out of Deodar Cedar and the base is Walnut. This is from an old tree from Snohomish Washington. I love that our table has a story... that is my favorite things about Slabs. 

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This Week

I did a post on what our living room looked like last week. This is what it looks like this week. New floors. New paint. No furniture ;)