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Shabby Apple Dress Giveaway

I’m liking the Aloha dress above. A pink dress? Sounds good. And it has a scalloped tiered skirt? Even better!

Enter to Win a Free Dress

So that’s my favorite, but which is yours? One lucky person will win their favorite* Shabby Apple dress! Just leave a comment below to enter, telling me which dress you like. I’ll choose a winner at random on August 1. Good luck!

p.s. While you’re over there browsing the cute dresses, don’t forget to check in on the Shabby Apple blog too.

*excluding the Green Leaf and Golden Gate collections. Giveaway open to US residents only, one entry per person. Entries will be accepted through midnight CST, July 31.

* Congratulations to LAMusing, our second-to-last entry!

Working on Where I Work

I’m working with Sherwin-Williams to redo my office. I’ll have a $1000 budget to use, and I’ll be trying out the new line of HGTV® HOME by Sherwin-Williams color collections and paint. I also have two giveaways to tell you about too! But first, let’s discuss the office.

I started to make some changes to it last year. I rearranged the furniture, brought in a pretty mirror and a crazy zigzag rug, but that’s where the progress stopped. I was going for a kind of granny chic look, remember? Then I found out I was expecting (and I had zero energy), and we also started on the basement remodel (yes, I still need to finish my studio and the playroom too). Then I had my baby (sweet little August), and well… work on the office kind of stalled.

The room is more than just an office though. You’ll see in the video below that it’s also where Eleanor and August spend much of their time playing, and I would like the room to feel cozy and happy. Want to see how it looks right now?

To recap, these are the main issues I’ll be addressing.

  • Either the rug needs to go, or I need to reupholster or replace my office chair. They don’t match, and since I do like the rug a lot, I’ll probably switch out the chair. The Eames Management Chair is still the chair I dream of owning, but they’re very expensive and I don’t want to buy a knockoff. I’ve been watching eBay and Craigslist, but I may have to keep looking for an alternative.
  • I need to move the redundant computer and clean up the cords on my desk.
  • Storage and organization: Yes, please.
  • I’ve had a curtain for a closet door since we moved in to this house in 2007. Our house is 100 years old, so nothing is standard. We’ll need a custom-sized door, which is why we’ve put off fixing it for so long.
  • The window needs curtains and a new shade.
  • I’ll be painting the trim white, and painting the walls. The HGTV® HOME by Sherwin-Williams colors are grouped into 8 collections to make it easier to choose colors that will work from room to room in your house (I liked the Livable Luxe and Traditional Twist collections). There are a lot of nice greens, but I’m leaning toward a light, creamy neutral for the walls, along with painted white trim.
  • It’s time for the ceiling fan to go. It’s not terribly ugly, but it hasn’t been working well lately and I’d like to replace it with a prettier light fixture.

Now, about those two giveaways…

  • Need some color and design help in your house? Enter the What’s Your Color Now? sweepstakes for a chance to win a $5000 home makeover from BHG.com and HGTV® HOME by Sherwin-Williams!
  • I also have a 4GB Flip MinoHD camera to give away (so you can make stellar videos like mine, ha). Just leave a comment on this post to enter for the camera (one entry per person). This giveaway is open to US and international entrants, and will run through June 30 at midnight CST. One winner will be chosen randomly on July 1.

Good luck to you in both giveaways!

p.s. How much do you think it would cost to reupholster an Eames Management Chair? Say, if I found one from 1986 with really awful fabric?

July 1: Congratulations to Jennifer, winner of the Flip camera! And remember, there’s still time for everyone to enter the What’s Your Color Now? sweepstakes.

Social Space Makeover Contest Winners

Thank you all for voting for your favorite finalist in the Social Space Makeover Contest! After a lot of drama in the end, and a lot of data crunching this weekend, I can officially announce Heather as the first place winner. Today, I’ll be sharing the custom design board that she has won. And after resolving some issues with the voting data, the second place actually goes to two winners: Lisa and Mary Sue. They were only six votes apart out of thousands, and in my book that’s close enough to call it a tie. They will each receive a $100 gift card to The Home Depot, courtesy of the American Express Membership Rewards program. Congratulations to all three winners!

Heather’s Winning Entry:

Help! We’ve been remodeling the inside of our home for the past 2 1/2 years but have totally neglected the outside of our home – including our front patio that has a lot of potential but is just barren and boring! When we had our daughter Zoey 10 months ago we really stopped all work on our home and now that she is getting close to walking we want to spend more time outside with her and entertaining friends and family but have no place suitable to do so (our backyard is even worse than this, with a death trap back porch!) […]


Heather’s blog post
Heather’s original entry

Here’s how I’d use Heather’s 150,000 Membership Rewards points to redo her front patio.

Heather and her husband, Mike, are handy and they’d like to build a custom bench for their space. They may also replace their existing firepit with something custom, but I included a ready-to-go option in case they want to go that route. They’d like to change the exterior of their house to be yellow and gray, but Heather tells me that they’re saving up for a big siding replacement job. When they’re ready, I think they should go for it and paint their door a cheery yellow, like my friend Erin Loechner did. I’d set aside $400 to use at The Home Depot for materials and paint.

I would add a sleek table out there with six colorful chairs (in a green/yellow color that isn’t a perfect match for a yellow door, but that goes well). Tubtrugs are inexpensive and perfect for corralling toys, holding drinks for a party, or even as big planters. The solar lights are the only thing in the design plan not available through points, but they’re so good for the patio that I had to include them, and then cute accessories from west elm finish off the space. And plants! I can’t advise as to what’s good for the area, but I’d be sure to use some of that Home Depot money to add some greenery out there too.

Heather is free to use her points as she wishes, and I’m looking forward to seeing what she does with her space. Congratulations again to Heather, and also to Mary Sue and Lisa! Thank you, everyone, for following along with the contest. I hope you’ve enjoyed it!

Social Space Makeover Contest Finalists

I’m working with American Express to give away 150,000 Membership Rewards points and a custom Making it Lovely design plan. We’re looking to help people make over their social spaces; the spaces where they spend time with family and friends. Nearly three hundred people entered (here was the original call for entries), and it was no easy task for me to narrow them down to just ten finalists. There were poems and haikus, letters from non-persons, clever videos, photos with funny captions… it was a pleasure to receive so many wonderful entries (thank you)!

Below are the finalists’ entries. I tried to even the playing field by giving everyone the same photo/video space (500×750 pixels), and approximately the same description length (this symbol […] means that I edited the comment for length). Many of the finalists have additional photos and information, so I’ve included a link to them (and also to the original comment) with each.

Now it’s your turn to vote! The winner will receive 150,000 Membership Rewards points and a custom Making it Lovely design plan to help guide them in redoing their space. The second place winner will also receive a prize: a $100 gift card to The Home Depot. So here we go! The finalists, in no particular order…
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