Tag: sponsored

A Retro Dining Room Gets a Smart Upgrade

This post is sponsored by GLAS.

Friends of ours have been making changes to their Chicago Tudor over the past couple of years. It’s looking good, but they’re working on some of the mechanicals and upgrading to a smart thermostat was on their to-do list.

GLAS is new on the market, but it’s by Johnson Controls, the company that invented the room thermostat back in the late 1800s. They tapped into their experience in designing thermostats for industrial use and created GLAS to be beautiful and functional for both homes and commercial applications (retails stores, office buildings, and the like). It works with most heating and cooling systems and was designed to adapt to a wide range of installations, so chances are good that it will work for you, too. It was quick and easy to add to my friends’ house!

They have great style and they’re drawn to mid-century-modern pieces. (Isn’t their vintage dining set fantastic?) GLAS has a simple design with clean lines, and the translucent OLED touchscreen display lets the wall color behind show through so it blends in. The thermostat is in their dining room, mixing in with the art they’ve hung as a gallery wall.

You can interact with GLAS’ touchscreen directly, control it by voice (works with Microsoft Cortana^®, Amazon Alexa, or Google Assistant), or through its app. The thermostat also monitors air quality, showing you information for both outside the home and in. My friends each added the app to their phones, and one of the features they were most interested in was the ability to turn down their heating while they’re away. GLAS can even automatically adjust its settings and detect when a home is occupied or empty! They’re happy to add some energy-efficiency to the house and we were joking that it feels super fancy, but it really does.

To learn more about GLAS, visit glas.johnsoncontrols.com.

November 20, 2018
Choosing Countertops for the Laundry Room
The laundry room is so close to being done! I just need to sew a shade for the window, and the sink installation is being held up by the countertop selection. Originally, I was thinking I would go with laminate in either a marble or soapstone look.

Lowe’s is sponsoring the reveal, so I grabbed a million little swatches from them to see what I liked. These were the ones I had narrowed it down to; Marmo Bianco and Basalt Slate are my favorites.
The laminate options on the market today look amazing, and I still stand by them as a solid choice, but I’ve realized that it isn’t what I want for the room.

I’ve shimmed and leveled the cabinets and they’re secured in place, and I laid a faux-marble tabletop across so we would have a surface to use while I decided on the real counters. It’s pretty! But I like continuity throughout a home and I’m not planning on adding Carrara marble to the house (other than on furniture — love that table in my office), and it feels out of place. The dark soapstone look was becoming less appealing to me too as other elements came together. I got it in my head that butcher block might actually be the way to go, but that didn’t seem like the perfect solution either.

What I really wanted, I realized, was to do a wood counter like in our kitchen, or the tops of the cabinet sections in the library. And you can’t just buy them in the store because you have to make them. Eureka. I need to make my counters.

Because what is this house missing? Unpainted wood. Nope, none of that to be found here.

It’s going to be great. It’s certainly going to have continuity (ha)!
September 10, 2018
The Front Yard, One Year Later

This is the third of three posts sponsored by RISE’s AND not OR home and garden program. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Everything made it through the winter! Improving the backyard has been my big outdoor focus for this year, but I wanted to give you an update on the front, too.

The garden was pretty high-maintenance when we moved here, and I wasn’t out there all the time taking care of it. Half of our front yard had basically gone to weeds! I did a massive cleanup last year, keeping the boxwoods, clematis, and a rose bush. Everything else was ripped out in preparation for a new, easier to tend to garden.

I haven’t added anything new to the front yet this year, but I did weed and tidy things up. My in-laws helped and between us, the front was done in a day. So much better than in the past! We raked out old piles of leaves and junk (pest-friendly and unkempt is not the look I’m going for), trimmed back the hydrangeas and clematis, and pulled any weeds that were starting to come up.

I planned the garden with my level of commitment to it in mind. You can get tips from AND not OR tailored to your gardening style too (I’m sort of a cross between what they call “Daring Doers” and “Picture-Perfect Planner”).

A new row of boxwoods along the fence mimics the rows lining the walkway (or they will, in 10 years or so when they’re not tiny little things). Near the house, I planted yews as a foundation hedge with Annabelle Hydrangeas in front. The new shoots are just now beginning to take off.

I laid sod in the middle portion. Not my favorite gardening project to date! The results though — instant lawn — were admittedly nice. It was just a lot digging to prep the area. You can check out RISE’s list of grasses that work well in the midwest if you’re looking to add a lawn.

We watered the grass deeply and often all summer and into the fall, and it’s looking decent. A few spots are a bit brown, but I’m hopeful that they’ll green up along with everything else. And I kept that gazing ball on a pedestal in the middle. The previous owner added it and while it’s not something I would have chosen on my own, I’m into it!

Also very into my new planters on the porch and stairs. The bust of Apollo with flowers is my favorite thing out there right now, and the curvy metal planters are a close second. Mine are vintage, but I found reproductions for sale.

To the left of the porch, our Dwarf Alberta Spruce is getting new growth! It had been slowly declining and the master gardener that RISE put me in touch with last year helped me realize I need to treat for spider mites. There are still bare patches, but it seems healthy overall and I’m hopeful that it will eventually recover.

The yard has come together so nicely! I’m a little jealous of all the tulips that popped up in front of other houses around town, so maybe I’ll plant bulbs in the fall. I also want to do something along the fence this year — it’s a prime opportunity for something pretty. RISE has a downloadable list of flowers that work well here, and that part of the yard gets full sun, so there are tons of options open.

My sister has been watching our yard progress and she asked for help picking out a few easy to care for, low-maintenance options for her place. I’m all too happy to oblige! Now is the time to get bushes in the ground, and the selection at local nurseries is expanding everyday. Have you been out there planting too?

May 11, 2018
The Newly Planted Backyard

This is the second of three posts sponsored by RISE’s AND not OR home and garden program. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The yard is on its way! Little baby plants, all set in place and ready to do their thing. There were some existing mature plants that I liked and wanted to incorporate into the new design. The boxwoods at the entrance to the dining patio, the lilacs along the fence, and the climbing roses at each end of the garage are all lovely. I’ve added hostas, heuchera, duetzia, viburnum, boxwoods, and I have a few hydrangea waiting to go into the ground too. If you’re interested in plants and flowers that do well in the Midwest summer (and winter) check out RISE’s downloadable list.

Please ignore the awful fencing! Oscar is a cute puppy, but he needs to be restricted because he loves to dig. The plastic garden fencing is only 2’ high and I’m sure the dog could jump it if he tried (especially as he gets bigger), but the combination of supervision, training, and a physical barrier has worked so far. If we only need it temporarily, great! If it’s going to be long-term, I’ll find a more attractive option.

Let’s talk about the roses though — whoops. I cut them waaay down to the ground years ago, and they’re just now starting to halfway resemble their former glory. I didn’t know what I was doing before! I mean, I still don’t sometimes, but I’ve learned a lot. I did a ton of research on climbing roses a couple of years ago.

The old rose trellises were falling apart. When I took them down, the paint behind them was cracked and flaking, so that wall of the garage was scraped, prepped, and painted last week. The new trellises are more visually delicate than the old ones, but they seem sturdy and will hopefully last. Roses can be a bit temperamental, so I fertilized them with a product that also prevents pests. I’m training the canes back and forth in a winding S-shape (new, flowering shoots only grow off of horizontal canes), and I planted clematis that should make its way around the roses, blooming earlier for more seasonal interest.

There was snow on the ground not long ago, so all of this came together over the last couple of weeks. (Also, an update on my hand — I sprained it, but it will be fine!).

Those giant ball finials are weird in a good way, right? I needed something grand in scale since it’s going to be years before any of the new bushes (very excited about the Mohawk Viburnum!) reach their mature sizes. Itty bitty baby plants are cute, but the eye goes right past ’em. I considered a more modern geometric sculpture, but liked the idea of something with age (or at least the look of it). I also relocated a metal tub planter from a different part of the yard to somewhat hide the back of the barbecue.

I added plenty of mulch everywhere after getting the plants in the ground. I’ve gone through all of the effort to weed an area before, pulling things out by the roots or using weed-killer for things like poison ivy, and if you leave that soil bare for even a little while, new weeds come back so quickly. Mulch prevents weeds, keeps moisture in the soil, decomposes and improves the soil, and helps plants survive the winter. Magic stuff! Messy, heavy, and requiring a few trips when you need as much as I did, but magic stuff nonetheless.

The AND not OR approach to gardening is all about finding that balance of what works for you. I like the big initial spring clean-up because it’s nice to be outside in the sun after a Chicago winter, but the weather tips into hot and humid pretty quickly and then it’s not so fun. Getting rid of the weeds that were already out there now and preventing new ones with mulch will make upkeep much quicker and easier.

Gardens are always a work in progress, but that’s especially true of this one right now. I’m going to add a hedge (yew or boxwood) to more formally separate the front and back half of the backyard, and the arch needs something to grow over it. I think I’ll pick up a pair of pedestals for the urns to give them a bit more height, and the flower box on the back porch railing will be filled. Imagine those changes with mature plantings and leaves on the trees — like so.

You see it, right? We’re also planning for a new fence this year. The section behind the egg chair is in decent enough shape, but it’s shot pretty much everywhere else.

Our egg chair is still a big hit with the kids! It’s “all-weather wicker” (plastic), and it has held up beautifully. It’s tucked away and as the lilacs leaf out and bloom and the new deutzia I planted to the right of the garden stool grows, this area should have a kind of magical secret garden vibe. I’d like to add flowers along the fence too, but that will have to wait until after it gets replaced.

There are dahlias and a heuchera in the washing tub, and I’ll add sweet potato vines once the nurseries have them available. This photo from a couple of years ago shows the same angle, further on in the season. I love the softness of the trailing leaves.

A post shared by Nicole Balch/ Making it Lovely (@makingitlovely) on Aug 7, 2016 at 2:12pm PDT

The trees are only now beginning to bud and I’m hopeful that the hostas and heuchera will take nicely, so the garden is going to be more lush and leafy soon! It already feels like a much nicer place to be. And if you have any tips for keeping the puppy from undoing all of my hard work, I’d be glad to hear them!

May 4, 2018
Bettering the Backyard
This is the first post of three sponsored by RISE’s AND not OR home and garden program. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The backyard was so charming when we moved to this house! The previous owner spent her days in the garden and it showed. Years later with us and our combination of kids, a dog, and plain old neglect, we’ve done a number on it. I could barely keep up with the front at first because I was pregnant, and then it was even harder the next year when Calvin was a baby — forget about the back. I didn’t weed or replant the annuals. Without any grass in the back, Murray trampled and peed on the plants (mostly hostas), and they all died. I haven’t done much to change the yard for the better, and it’s definitely in need of some love.

I took the AND not OR approach in planning my front garden last year, and bolstered by that success, I’m turning my attention to the back. We have a cute new dining set on the flagstone patio with less than cute surroundings. I could pull off a close shot last fall, kind of, but take a step back now and it’s a mess.

The idea behind AND not OR is that there are a variety of ways to care for your yard, and you should take into account your style of gardening. I do like to be out there shaping our hedges and tending to the roses (especially as I’ve learned more about how to do it!), so I don’t mind a garden that needs some maintenance. We’ve got three kids though, plus a brand new puppy, so I’m trying to come up with a plan that’s going to work for our lives and schedules. Weeding, keeping pests away, pruning, shaping, and fertilizing — I’m happy to do it as long as it isn’t all day everyday. I need a balance.

RISE (Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment)® put me in touch with a Master Gardener again this year, Eric of Complete Lawn Care, Inc., and he confirmed that grass would be difficult to establish in our shady back yard. I know the hostas have flourished in areas where they’ve been left alone, and I’m learning a lot about what else could work in the garden from my local Extension site.

Here’s what I’m looking to do:
- Create a cute backdrop for the dining patio.
- Nestle the egg chair in among plants for a ‘secret garden’ feel.
- Replace the trellises to better support and encourage the climbing roses at each end of the garage.
- Reorient the barbecue or figure out a way to not see the ugly back of it.
- Figure out how to keep the puppy from destroying the new plantings (tall border fencing?).
- Focus on shrubs and plants that will kind of do their thing without needing too much help from me.
Local nurseries are starting to get their inventory out as the weather warms. I have a mix of boxwoods, hydrangeas, and yes some thriving hostas in other parts of our garden, and I want to continue with them as I work on the back. Maybe some urns, or more modern planters with annuals too? I’ve been thinking about this area since the fall and now that the time has come to actually work on it, I have too many conflicting ideas! Wish me luck as I get out there and start clearing the old stuff out. I think it’s going to be great once I commit to a plan and go with it.
March 29, 2018
Alternate Picks from The Mine and Other ORC Sponsors

There are two main parts to today’s post. First, I want to peel back the curtain a bit on how sponsorships work for blog projects like the One Room Challenge. And second is to show how even when choosing items from the same sources, the design could have gone in a different direction.

The official 20 One Room Challenge participants are chosen (you can apply! I did.), and we then have access to sponsorship offers. We can take advantage of each, or not, and not all are going to be a good fit for everyone. I didn’t need a faucet, bedding, or wall-to-wall carpet, for example, but those offers have been super helpful for some of the other participants. There’s often a budget limit from each sponsor, and then we’re free to choose anything from within that (going over that varies either by working out additional coverage, paying the difference, or paying for the rest at cost). In return, the products are showcased in our final reveals, throughout the challenge, and across social media. This is in-kind advertising rather than sponsorship, as we are not being paid but rather receiving product.

I am only speaking for myself of course, but I look at these types of sponsorship offers as a way to speed up the design process. Would I buy that beautiful lighting fixture, or those chairs on my own? Absolutely! But it would be over the course of months, if not years. The 6-week timeline (extended to 7 this time) also speeds up the process, forcing decisions that I would otherwise hem and haw over. I have a tendency to overthink things! I know this about myself. A deadline can be a great thing for me, and the process is much more in line with designing for a client than the usual circuitous process I take in working on my own house.

My design is a mix of new items I’ve purchased, existing and vintage pieces, and product from sponsors. As I was choosing which things to incorporate into my One Room Challenge office, there was a lot that I loved, but either I didn’t have the right spot or it wasn’t working with everything else. I went through the secret Pinterest board I used while planning my ORC and pulled out my very favorites, along with a reminder of which pieces I did choose. I’d love to hear if you think I made the right calls, or if you would have chosen some of the alternates I was considering!

The Mine

I found the room’s main light fixture at The Mine, along with a great blue and white planter and green dining chairs. They have so many amazing finds to choose from though — I had a hard time narrowing things down as I pulled my design together! Three words: Bunny Williams lamps. Oh, they get all the heart eyes from me. I also debated between the lighting fixture I chose and the other shown below.

• Ruth Green Dining Chairs • Blue and White Planter • Basil Brass Pendant • Middlebury Brass Ceiling Light • Brush Stroke Lamp • Pheasant Feather Lamp

Crate & Barrel

I have worked with Crate & Barrel in the past, and I reached out to them to partner for this round of the ORC. There is no more pleasing desk chair out there right now than their Liv Upholstered Wingback, in my opinion. I’ve paired it with their desk and also added a beautiful small marble dining table in the center of the room. Below are a couple of other lovely finds.

• Parsons Marble and Brass Dining Table • Morris Desk • Antique Bronze Wall Frames • Liv Upholstered Wingback Desk Chair • Dish Round Wall Mirror • Revolve Adjustable Dining Table

Lamps Plus

I love Lamps Plus and have worked with them in the past, but I didn’t need anything from them this time around. Any of these would have been great options had I not gone with other lighting fixtures and lamps though! I would love to see those plaster sconces given a fun makeover with paint and new shades, and the price is friendly enough to not feel scared about altering them. Plus I still think that Budgie lamp is so charming. (Too on the nose with the birds wallpaper though, right?)

• Annie Plaster Wall Sconce • Yasmin Floor Lamp • Newport Brass Sconce • Serpa Double Arm Wall Light • Budgies Table Lamp

Fabricut

You’ll see in the big reveal next week that I did steal curtains from another room in my house. I tried to find store-bought 84” pink curtains, which should have been easy enough, but I couldn’t find that barely pink blushy hue I was after and I’m picky about my shades of pink. Fabricut is a One Room Challenge sponsor and I fell hard for their Anapest pattern and a handful of others, but they just weren’t the right fit for my office.

• Anapest Fabric • Big Ditty Fabric • Edie Fabric • Priya Fabric

Artfully Walls

I’m starting to amass a good selection of prints, framed or otherwise, and the ones I have from Artfully Walls are always among the best. They’re not an official ORC sponsor, but one that I reached out to because we had worked together in the past and I wanted to incorporate a few specific pieces (the vase with flowers, and the beetle print).

• ‘Emerald Beetles’ by Kate Roebuck • ‘Flowers in Vase’ by Ruti Shaashua • ‘Library with Flowers’by Kate Lewis • ‘Olive’ by Polly Mann

Bellacor

Pay attention to the measurements of lamps, friends. I had overlooked this June ceramic table lamp several times while browsing the site, thinking it was cute but nothing special. Eventually I clicked for more details, and realized it was huge! The oversized scale and deep orangey red make this lamp something special indeed. I did have my eye on a few other finds first though…

• Kendrick Side Table • Jane Table Lamp • Utopia Occasional Table • Brighton Pendant • Black Tang Lamp

Arianna Belle

The best selection of designer fabrics, ready to be turned into pillows in the exact sizes you need. These other three are all on my wish list.

• Bukhara Ikat Pillow • Channels Pillow • Pyne Hollyhock Pillow • Hot House Spark Pillow

Jill Rosenwald

I have a thing for ceramics, especially with a handmade element. Jill Rosenwald combines fresh, modern colors with bold stripes and fun patterns on simple forms. I love the vase I chose for my desk, but these others from their Indigo collection are fun too.

• Freer House Slim Keith • West Palm Slim Keith • Gloucester Swoosh Letter Tray • Fans Bud Vase

Stori Modern

Stori Modern is an official ORC sponsor and while they weren’t a fit for my office, I will have a separate post coming up next week with them! The peacock made the shoot. ;)

• The Memoir Dining Collection

Annie Selke

I didn’t need anything from Annie Selke this time around, but I do love them a whole lot (I have my rug coming out with them next year!) and their products are always top quality. Our rugs in the library and living room are gorgeous, and the quilt and ottoman I have of theirs from a past ORC are lovely. These are some of the pillows and throws I had considered for my office design before going in a different direction.

• Resist Octagon Indigo Throw • Pom Pom Pink Throw • Fossil Embroidered Pillow • Thumbprint Embroidered Pillow • Antigua Linen Pillow • Resist Tile Java Throw

Jenny’s Print Shop

Art on demand! Jenny of Little Green Notebook has been killing it with her print shop, bringing in work from other artists and photographers, as well as her own. As I’m putting the finishing touches on my space, I’d deciding which pieces of art are going where. I’m not sure if I’ll have room for more, but if I do, it’ll likely be one of these.

• Roses • Claire • ‘Tulips’ by Lynne Millar • ‘Hyacinth’ by Lynne Millar • Eleanor

Cedar & Moss

Oh gosh do I love my Audrey sconces. I did look at several other options though, all of which would have been equally great. This is another sponsor whom I adore that I reached out to on my own, not through the ORC. They are able to customize lighting fixtures, which was so helpful as I was looking for beautiful sconces with both a plug and a switch.

• Audrey 8″ Sconce • Terra Sconce • Pearl Sconce • Moss 8″ Sconce

Article

I’m using their walnut bookshelves, and they are heavy, sturdy, and all around well-made. I’m having serious envy over The Makerista’s pink velvet chair from them though, and Megan’s leather sofa! Oof. So pretty. So in my palette.

• Walnut Bookshelf • Cigar Leather Sofa • Embrace Velvet Armchair

Milton & King

I just finished hanging my Ornithology wallpaper yesterday, and it is a showstopper. So good! I also loved (and requested samples) of a couple of other patterns before making my decision though. Still haven’t decided if the pinned butterfly specimens would have been too creepy, or totally amazing, but I am in love with the birds.

• Ornithology wallpaper • Euphemia 5 Wallpaper • Lepidoptera Wallpaper

So what do you think? The design could be successful in a number of ways. Would you have made similar choices, given the other pieces I was considering, or would there be a lot of changes?

November 10, 2017