Hi, I’m Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle.
You can find me writing for HGTV and DIY Network, follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.
Thanks for visiting!
before + after
Hi, I’m Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle.
You can find me writing for Home Living Handbook, a Pursuit Channel for Men's Journal, HGTV.com, and a handful of other websites. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like.
Thanks for visiting!
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40 Comments
I’m loving the progress you’ve made. The two-toned walls are so original – I love the colour and the effect. Great home!
Can you tell me what brand/color of paint you have in the master bedroom? The gray is very similar to something I’ve been looking for but can’t seem to find. Thanks!
Hi Laura – it’s Benjamin Moore “Stone”. Definitely has purple-y undertones compared to other grays! Good luck! http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/for-your-home/color-gallery?cd=2112-40&col=CP#ce_s=stone
Hi:
Looks awesome!
We have a similar washroom and I was also thinnking of painting it grey.
What grey did you use ?
Thanks :-)
The bathroom gray is a Behr Pensive Sky! Thanks for stopping by, Marta!
What color white have you used for the trim throughout your home? I really love it….clean and crisp! Also, the blue you have used for the ceiling paint? Thanks a lot!
Funny you should ask about the trim – it’s white straight out of the can in every room. And not even a specific brand, I’m pretty sure it was just something inexpensive. The blue used on the ceilings in the office and sunroom are Benjamin Moore Gossamer Blue (so bright and light, I adore it). Thanks for stopping by, Karen!
love the two toned walls in the living room! love, love love! what colors are they?
Hi Laura! Both are Behr (from the same strip of colors): Summer Field (370D-5) and Venetian Gold (370D-7)!
Found my way here through AT – you are a home improvement supah star! I love the feel of your whole house – it’s very similar to the vision that I’ve had for my own home – I just haven’t been able to make it happen. I’m inspired after looking at all of your before and afters!
So happy to hear this, N in NH! Thank you for stopping by and enjoying what I’ve done!
Hi,
I just came across your site, led by Apartment Therapy and I just wanted to say, Great job! you’ve turned your house into a home which most people aren’t able to achieve, speaking from an Interior Designers perspective.
Anyways, thank you for sharing, you have a great eye for design. I really love your floors, that neutral colors you’ve chosen on your walls (I happen to have the same grey shower curtain in my bathroom BTW) and the Dark wooden planks on the wall behind your dining table and master bed; the only suggestion I would make is regarding your box springs, you could cover them with a fitted sheet, which I had to do to my own as well considering I don’t have a bed frame, other than that everything is pretty perfect!
Hi Susan! Funny you mention the boxspring! I had the same thought about it needing to be covered, and it was recently updated (I wrote about it on DIYNetwork.com): http://blog.diynetwork.com/tool-tips/2011/11/18/a-simple-bedroom-box-spring-solution/
I didn’t use a fitted sheet (they popped off too easily the times I tried that method, but my custom little jobber worked well).
Glad that you like the site and my little amateur sense of design and home improvement!
haha, yea it was the only thing that just stood out to me as unfinished; but great to hear and looking forward to checking it out your solution. My mattress/box sit directly onto the floor so it pretty much stays put.
oh and I just remembered that I had responded to you before, regarding your closet and the ikat design you hand painted, I subscribe to Apartment Therapy (one of my fav. sites) so they posted your project today linked onto Facebook.
just saw your living room before and after on pinterest and came over to see the rest of your work. wow! i love your home.
Love to hear it! Thanks for your kind comment, Sarah!
Wowsa! You rock girl. I’m a fan of the greyish purple paint in the master and have been eyeing the pebble rug on West Elm for some time.
But my favorite pic? The one with the furbaby looking in…
I can’t help saying this first: I almost almost bought that very same grey West Elm Pebble Rug! And, actually, I wish I had because instead I got a Flor rug which though half the price and a seemingly good concept, has problems.
OK, bigger picture: This is wonderful and inspiring. Thank you.
Glad you like it, Nomi! Thanks for the nice note. I do love Flor too, and am considering it for other areas of the house… what problems are you experiencing?
Emily, You are amazing! I love all your shiplapping and pretty much everything you’ve shown on your blog. I don’t know how you do it! (And thanks for showing us things like your candles, which remind us that you are actually maybe a mere mortal. Maybe.) That said, can I ask where you got your sofa?
Oh, squeal of glee! Thank you for the nice comment. The sofa is from Value City Furniture (circa fall 2009)! It’s holding up OK, but it’s a soft burlap texture that pills with age and wear. I think next time I’ll go for a modest CB2 or West Elm model because they’re priced about the same.
Emily, hi. I don’t want to be the final word for you or anyone on Flor. Don’t feel like I have enough experience with it, and I may have gotten their lowest end line. Well, it was one of the least expensive lines; don’t know if that speaks to quality or not.
But it’s been a couple of things. The “dots,” as I think they call them, the sticky circular pieces of plastic that hold the tiles together from the back don’t keep them aligned indefinitely. I started noticing separation after maybe six months. I rejiggered them, using some fresh dots, but that’s only held so-so as well. Also, there’s been some pilling. So…I don’t know. I still really like the concept and even still like the rug I got, but not as much as when I first laid it down.
Thanks for the additional detail, Nomi – really good to know. The ones I’ve seen in person have admittedly been new and less trafficked, so it’s nice to hear how it might wear over time. Definitely worth keeping that in mind.
Hi! Love your work! What did you use for the feature wall in the master bedroom – the wood?? I’ve been thinking about doing this for a long time but I’m not sure what to get, how to install it, etc!
Thanks!!
It’s stained shiplap from Lowe’s, and the install is pretty easy – here’s a post that might help it make sense! Thanks for stopping by! http://www.merrypad.com/2011/09/06/shiplap-paneling-headboard/
Great site you have! Still reading… lol. Love the pictures of yours. =)
Glad you like it! Thanks for stopping by :)
A Rochester girl on AT!! This I had to see! I haven’t live in Roch for 20+ years, but still visit there frequently. I think my sister has the same house as you. She lives off of Lake Avenue. Anyway, you have done a beautiful job! Thanks for making this fellow Roch girl proud!
Sears made a killing on their little American Foursquares in Rochester, I probably do have the same house as your sister :). Glad you visited, and thanks for the kind note!
What a great job you did…how proud you must be!
I love the color palette! You did a fantastic job, very inspiring. I especially loved the horizontal dark panel accent wall.
Thanks for the note :) The shiplap walls are easily one of my favorite things about the place.
I love the lights you have in your dining room. Where did you get them. I plan on doing a number of projects to brighten our living room, dining room and entry way this summer as a gift to my wife. Those lights would go great with our large table.
Hey! Glad you like. Those are IKEA LUNTA 365+ pendants (the large glass pleated style). They come on a track lighting system, so installation was easy for the pair but they can also be hardwired if recall. I hung a baby-sized pendant of the same design over the kitchen sink – I really love the weight and texture of them in the home.
Wonderful transformation! I’m also a homegrown Rochester girl too (now living in CT), and was so jazzed to see someone with pizazz giving the ROC some good press! Still have family there and still love to visit. One of the most under-rated little cities in America. Enjoy and much happiness in your home.
I’ve heard so many nice things from Rochesterians and former Rochestarians – thanks for the note, Kim, it really is a great place to live!
Hi, I love your color schemes, because of that we were inspired to pick the color Venetian Gold our dinning room/living room but somehow the color came out more yellow tinted than the olive green we seen in the pictures you posted. We understand the monitor color calibration might effect the shade of the colors, but we were wondering if you did more than one layer for it to appear more green than yellow?
Thank you.
Ira
Hi Ira –
So glad to hear you were inspired by my palette! I have a few ideas: What color did you paint over, and how many layers of paint did you apply? I had to apply three coats in my home. In the living room, I painted over a light green, and in the dining room, I painted over a very saturated pink (no primer, which I should have done). If I look really, really carefully, I can still tell that the base color was slightly different between the rooms. Any chance that you were painting over a yellow-y base?
My other idea would be about the amount of natural light or lamps in the room; at night, with the lights on, it does look more yellow than during the day in the sunlight.
If you’re still unhappy with it being too yellow after a few more coats, I might suggest Behr Burnished Bronze. It’s a slightly darker but almost otherwise identical shade. I have it on the walls in my stairwell – the original intent was to have the stairwell darker/cozier than the living room, but they end up looking very similar in the daylight photos on my site, only a bit different/less yellow in the evenings.
I hope this was of some help!
Emily
What a gem of hardwood floors!! Did you do any refinishing on them? I also dig your office space and sunroom. I’m also a former Rochesterian and visit my family once a month or so (hopeing to move back in a few years). I love reading your blog every morning when I have my coffee. Gives me a little glimpse of home!
Thanks Mollie! The hardwood floors were entirely covered with carpet when I moved in! The only room not covered was actually the dining room, but when I got the carpets up I completely refinished them throughout the house with a rental from Home Depot. It was a lot of work for several days but totally worth it. Glad you are enjoying the posts!