Author name: Renee

My family adopted two miniature poodles this spring. Meet Roux, the mild-mannered apricot-colored fluff ball who loves watching pet-focused reality TV, and Neko, his scrappy, dark-coated brother who has an insatiable zeal for treats and has never met a stranger. This adorable pair has kept us on our toes and, for the first time in our lengthy pet-owning experience, convinced us that they should be allowed on the sofa. We’re not sure if the stumpy tail wags, literal puppy-dog eyes, or the pleading of our kids convinced us this was a good idea. However, we are glad that, given the circumstances, we considered more than good looks last fall when we chose our new family room sofa. Pet-Friendly Furniture Tips If you, like us, share your home with four-legged family members, here are a few things you might remember when shopping for pet-friendly furniture: Look for furniture with solid construction. If your pets (or kids!) launch on and off each day, flimsy furniture may need to be replaced sooner than anticipated. Go with coated leather upholstery if you have a pet that sheds a lot. If constant lint rolling or vacuuming your upholstery, isn’t your idea of fun, fur doesn’t stick to coated leather! If you prefer fabric upholstery, read up on pet-proof options. Velvet, chenille, microfiber, and outdoor fabrics are among the top performers. Consider buying furniture the same color as your pet – for obvious reasons. If you have cats, invest in multiple, sturdy scratch posts. Ensure they don’t move when your cat scratches them, and “train” your cat to use them by sprinkling them with cat nip. This doesn’t guarantee the cat won’t scratch the sofa, but it doesn’t hurt to try! Of course, if you’re a dog owner, you could also train your pup to stay off the furniture, but really, who doesn’t want to snuggle into a poodle pile and watch some Lucky Dog?

On the seventh day of Christmas, we give you: Seven Interior Design Blogs to Read, Six Festive Cocktails, Five Holiday Wishes, Four Tips for a Successful Renovation, Three Blogs Not to Miss, Two New Traditions, and One Room to Refresh. If you’re like me, the combination of more time spent indoors during winter along with holiday season “downtime” often turns into a push to complete (or even just start) a home improvement project I’ve been thinking about for months! On Day 7 of our 12 Days of Christmas series, I share with you seven of my favorite sources of design inspiration from across the web. 7. The Design Files Though it aims to be “Australia’s Go-To Design Destination,” The Design Files’ posts are definitely relevant to those of us not living down under! The blog is full of gorgeous home tours, architecture, and interior posts sorted into useful categories that make it easy to find just the right inspiration – minimalist, family, coastal, etc. 6. Mad About The House Mad About The House features the pragmatic and engaging content of Kate Watson-Smith, a journalist turned design blogger and consultant. Kate’s posts are as personable and entertaining as they are informative. Her recent thoughts on the need to push past the desire to attain perfectionism in our homes got me thinking. 5. House Beautiful House Beautiful’s online presence is every bit as satisfying as its print edition. It’s packed with design inspiration for every style and every room of the house. Once your interior is situated, extend your home outdoors with House Beautiful’s inspiration for the garden. 4. Design to Inspire Put together by a Canadian and Australian team, the posts on Design to Inspire are focused on homes across the globe. Their content is a delight to scroll; it’s light on words and heavy on dazzling photography. 3. Yellow Brick Home Yellow Brick Home follows the renovations of DIYer couple Kim and Scott. The couple covers five renovations in-depth, often sharing what they’ve learned and why they made the design decisions they did. Check out some incredible Before and After galleries. 2. Style by Emily Henderson From luxury renovation projects to high-end looking DIYs, Emily, and her crew at Style by Emily Hendersen cover all the bases in posts that are helpful and a voice that’s friendly and authentic. Also, if you’re still after last-minute gift ideas, I found Emily’s gift guides this year to be spot on! 1. Cup of Jo Though not expressly an interior design blog, Cup of Jo has featured some of my personal all-time favorite house tours. The interviews accompanying the tours offer glimpses into the lives of the home’s occupants that enhance the tour as much as the photography. Cup of Jo’s weekend link lists have been a staple of my weekends for years! Now it’s your turn. What are some of your go-to blogs for inspiration?  

On the fourth day of Christmas, we give you: Four Tips for a Successful Renovation, Three Blogs Not to Miss, Two New Traditions, and One Room to Refresh. If you’re like many homeowners, once the decision to start a home renovation has been made, you’re eager to begin as soon as possible. The months or even years of living in a space not well-suited to your lifestyle have taken a toll, and you want to make forward progress right away! While we understand the desire to roll up one’s sleeves and jump in, slowing down and taking a little time to consider the following four tips allows homeowners to start their renovation with a foundation as solid as the one their home is built on and to move through the project with confidence and grace. In fact, three of the four tips are for before construction even begins! This highlights how important it is that homeowners take their time preparing and planning for what will undoubtedly be a large investment of both time and resources. 1. Make it personal – Start with a solid plan personalized for your lifestyle. Reflect on what made you even want to do a renovation in the first place. If it helps to clarify things, write down your goals for the final renovated space. Think about functional needs before you think about aesthetics. What really needs fixing? Do you need more pantry space? Is your kitchen too dark? Does the soaking tub in your bathroom take up too much valuable real estate? Consider the needs of your family and make sure you can communicate clearly the problems you’re trying to solve with any partners you’re working with. After you have a solid grasp of functional needs, it’s time to think about aesthetics. Consider what overall look and feel you’d like your home to have. Do you have your heart set on creating a modern and minimalist space, or does the architecture of your home lend itself to a more classic but cozy feel? Think about colors you love, any specific materials you’re interested in, and where in your home it feels reasonable to splurge vs. save. A top priority for a family with young kids and pets might be a durable tile kitchen floor while a recent retiree might finally install the blond wide plank wood floors they’ve been dreaming of for years. Now is the time to gather your Instagram or Pinterest inspiration and use it as a tool to communicate your functional and aesthetic needs to the designers and/or contractors you’ll be partnering with. 2. Work with the right people – Form a solid team you can trust. Speaking of partners, engaging the right people to help with your project is key! If the thought of being able to define your overall project makes you sweat, engage the help of a design professional to walk you through. A qualified design professional will have an established process. They will get to know you by visiting you at your home and asking lots of questions about your needs, lifestyle, and budget. They’ll listen carefully and will use this input to design for your practical needs and visual preferences. They will also produce design deliverables useful to contractors. Additionally, make sure you work with trusted contractors. Ask friends and family who they have worked with and what their experiences were like. Interview potential contractors to get a sense of their personalities and to ask questions about how they approach their work. Look at their portfolios online or ask them to send you photos. You can also ask for references. An alternate option is to work with a design-build firm that will work with you on the design process and then manage the construction from start to finish. Working with a design-build firm means you’ll have a partner all the way through the project. 3. Be prepared – Start preparing well before the demo crew shows up. Once you’ve designed for the end goals of your project and have engaged the right team to help you get it done, being prepared includes both taking the practical steps you’d expect to prep your space, as well as adjusting your mindset to help you manage the inevitable ups and downs that will present themselves along the way. First, decide where you’ll set up a temporary kitchen and construction-free zone where your family can relax, prepare simple meals if your kitchen will be out of commission, and eat. Gather everything you’ll need for this area – this might include a microwave, electric kettle, and other small appliances. Also, decide where you’ll put your refrigerator in the short term. After items needed for your temporary kitchen are set aside, plan to pack up furniture and personal items in your space. Move out everything you can and store your things in another part of the house. This prevents your items from getting dirty or damaged, and it makes contractors more efficient as they aren’t working around obstacles, moving them about the space, or needing to spend time taking extra precautions required to protect your things. Aside from these pragmatic steps, managing your own expectations can also be a help. Despite all your preparations, things will not go according to plan. Expect to be flexible and to pivot as needed as work gets underway. Be prudent and structure your project with flexibility built into your timeline. Also, set aside additional funds to address unexpected costs that arise. Even the most thorough planning won’t help you predict hidden complexities. Finding old wiring that must be brought into code compliance, insufficient insulation, or mechanicals in locations that don’t work for your new plan are all common problems. Unexpected material delays are another. Expecting challenges to arise will allow you to respond in a more confident and timely manner when they inevitably do. 4. Communicate effectively with your team – Be a good client. As you can tell, we value planning and preparation when it comes

It’s starting to feel like Spring! If you’re like me, the melting snow and milder temperatures have you thinking about sprucing up the exterior of your home. After months of gray skies and dead vegetation, you want color! You want pop! You want to…add shutters to your house!? I understand the attraction. Exterior shutters can add architectural interest and an element of color to the right home. They also might feel like a relatively small upgrade compared with the other items on your long list of home improvements. However, before you head to a home improvement store or call your favorite contractor, there are a couple of questions you should ask yourself. Do I have windows that are the right style for shutters and will allow my shutters to be sized appropriately? Exterior shutters, if they were closed, should cover half of the width of the window. Shutter height is important too; shutters should be as tall as the window (not the window and sill). Making sure shutters are appropriately sized is critical to making them feel authentic – even if your shutters won’t be operable. In general, windows that are wider than they are tall, shouldn’t have shutters. Similarly, if you have casement windows that open out, these windows typically wouldn’t have shutters. The same is true of bay windows. Is the style of my home suited to having shutters? To answer this question, first, do some quick, anecdotal research. Look at homes similar to yours while you’re out and notice which shutters look most authentic. (I promise during this process you’ll see lots of windows with shutters that shouldn’t have them!) Second, look online. A quick search on shutters for your style of home will help you decide not only if shutters are a good option but also which style would be most complementary. The resources online are, of course, plentiful! I found Timberlane’s article to be a helpful general overview that covers typical home styles and matches them up with viable shutter options. For vintage homes, I like the perspective of the Old House Guy. Given this food for thought, where do you stand? If you answered “yes,” to both questions, move forward with your shutter project with confidence! The right shutters on the right house can really make the home shine. They “feel” right, they look thoughtful, and they give the home a timeless quality. Words of caution are only warranted because when shutters are used inappropriately, they can do, well, the opposite. The shutters featured in the photo were custom-built to match the cottage style of the home. Complete with bespoke flower boxes, the shutters elevate the home and achieve the desired quaint look. They have a cozy quality that make me want to garden or maybe sit on the porch and drink tea while someone else gardens? Either way, they add great atmosphere. To make your new shutters evoke a similar affect, consider making them operable (or look operable) with the appropriate hardware. House of Antique Hardware has lots of options, as does Hooks & Lattice. Rejuvenation has some more limited, but really beautiful classic pieces too – I’m loving this shutter lock. Anyone else get overly excited looking at hardware?? What if you can’t justify shutters? So you just figured out exterior shutters aren’t appropriate for your home, but you still want a refresh out front. What do you do? First of all, don’t despair! There are plenty of other simple exterior projects that have equally satisfying results. Here are a few ideas to get you started: Change the color of your front door. This can drastically change the look of your home with the added bonus of being low risk and low commitment. Think accessories. New planters and a welcome mat are a super easy way to make things feel fresh. Swap out a builder-grade mailbox for something more fitting, look for house numbers you love, switch out your exterior lighting for standout fixtures, or add landscaping lighting in preparation for when things are again lush and green. There are so many ways to spruce up outside that will look beautiful and feel authentic. If you’re feeling stuck, reach out to your local interior design firm. Many designers consult on exteriors too and can give you suggestions to up the curb appeal of your home – with or without shutters in the mix!