Stephanie Kraus Designs: before and after

Monday, July 8, 2013

For the love of floor lamps

(and another mini before and after)

west elm

Yep, another mini before and after.

Please someone tell me to

PUT THE SPRAY PAINT CAN DOWN NOW!!
Step away slowly.
Before someone gets hurt.

amazon

I'm becoming an addict. But c'mon tell me this lamp doesn't look better than it did before????

For some reason I totally forgot to take a real before picture of this floor lamp which I am sooo guilty of doing on several projects (I'm getting better). So I found this picture of the lamp from like 5 years ago. I purchased it from a store called Scallywags that went out of business like 8 years ago and I paid a pretty penny. Trust me on this.

Here's what the floor lamp looked like before...

Now here's the after:

Kind of amazing, right? Doesn't even look like the same lamp, right?

I'm also going to divulge two (2) other trade secrets demonstrated in the above photo.

1. A touch of black in every room is a must. A black lampshade with gold lining makes a simple floor lamp look elegant and rich-looking.

2. Also, if you have light colored furniture like my blue and white wide-striped slipper chairs from Lee Industries... place a textured throw on them to keep sticky, grimy hands away from them! ha - so there you have it.

My plan is to purchase this lamp here to replace the other one...

Arteriors floor lamp in gold leaf

Love it, right?----

But until I do ---this works don't ya think?

Do you likey? yes, no? or

should I just bite the bullet and get the Arteriors lamp for that spot now?

P.S. If you want to pin one of my images just hover over it -- I just added a pin button

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ALSO LINKING UP WITH....

AND I'm sharing this post with Kim from Savvy Southern Style!!

PLEASE Go check out her blog. Kim has been so supportive of me being a new blogger and all!!

I'm also linking up to

Awesome blog you can check it out here! Thanks Marty!!

AND

Of course here at Funky Junk Interiors

One last most awesome blog .... The Shabby Nest!

Thanks for reading xoxo!

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Stripe it Rich!

here

source

There's nothing richer than a good classic stripe!

Let's Freshen up a Sentimental Favorite

Client T (for thoughful) has a dining set that was given to her by her mother. It has sentimental meaning to her and she wants to keep it. I love that about her. Not just because I believe in using what you have, but I think it's so important to have pieces in your house that have special meaning to you.

wall color is revere pewter by BM
lighting is clients own from Pottery Barn

She could easily have gone out and bought a brand new dining room grouping but chose to keep her mom's pieces. So, we're just going to freshen them up a bit with these:

Navy and white here

We are in the beginning stages of this design but I thought I'd show you the steps as we move along.

Remember the before?

Let's call this the "in progress":

The china closet needs to be restyled and so on. But, this client could almost stop here -- looks fresher right? She spent less than $100 on the fabric.

Stay tuned for more. Oh, and don't forget to look around your room is there something special to you? Thousands of dollars in designer fabrics, wallpaper, etc. mean nothing if your room doesn't hold meaning to you!

OK found some fun stuff in NYC

Room Service

Seriously, who is going to let me order these chairs for them? Crazy you say. Crazy like a fox. Let's pair it with a white lacquer table in the kitchen shall we?

You can buy them here if interested.

How about this guy?

I would pop out the great state of PA in a colored denim that is pulled from the room. Red perhaps? Wouldn't it be great if you used your own son/daughter's jeans for this project? Way to recycle.

Onto the random thought of the day....must see TV

So last week I mentioned this concealer and since then I have run into several peeps who also use this product. Yeah! I love positive reinforcement.

Do you remember that I tried to explain the correct way to use it or how to "correctly contour" under the eyes, on the forehead etc.?

Well, I did a horrible job -- not my expertise by any stretch.

But, I found someone who can help us.

Have you ever wondered how the celebrities get that flawless skin look? --- well here is the secret and it doesn't take that long once you master the technique.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd9GCnHntcs

You may have to modify a bit depending on your skin tone but you can get the general idea.

And I know she's a bit west coast and I'm not trying to stir up any Tupac vs. Biggie bad memories here but they can be a bit more bold with their makeup on that coast because they are in the sun everyday.

I would use whatever bronzer/concealer you have on hand or if you need to buy new I would highly recommend this duo. It's better for our east coast faces.

You can buy it here.

I hope you found it interesting ... so go play with it! What are you waiting for?

If you are looking to freshen up a room in your house for Spring contact me at kraussteph@yahoo.com.