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An Unexpected Surprise

08/01/2012

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I had a brave mother moment and drove the 10 hours from Santa Monica to a little town nestled at the base of mountains called Mapleton, Utah where my parents live. And I did that alone with my 4 and 2 year old boys. Although I was worried about it, my boys have done this drive many times so I knew what to expect and thought I might as well try it. Luckily for me, they were by far the best behaved than they've ever been on a road trip, so everything worked out awesome. Unfortunately, we just missed seeing Andrea on her month long trip to Utah though!

I will be staying at my parents house for two weeks. You may remember a post I did about my parents awesome playroom here (where my boys are currently occupying themselves as I type), but I thought I'd share another feature of this home that I love. 

Below is a picture of cabinets in my parents kitchen. But do you see a little light shining through the bottom of the middle cabinet?... 
I love a pleasant unexpected surprise, don't you? Behind the hidden door is the pantry. They can keep the door closed and you wouldn't think anything was there, or you can hook a hinge to keep it open if you need to keep going in and out. It also has an automatic light so it turns on when you go in, and turns off after a couple minutes of no one being in there.
Here's a view of the inside of the pantry (sorry for the yellow lighting...). The upper and lower cabinets on the left side are all closed storage, and the storage on the right side is all open, with drawers that slide out on the bottom section. You can also see that around the corner there is another fridge and freezer.
Isn't that fun? I love the unusual, unexpected aspect of it. Do you have any little surprises like this in your home? Or have you seen any fun ideas online that you love? I'd love to hear about it!
-Megan
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Real House Play Room

03/12/2012

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I've been staying with my parents for about a week now. My husband has been traveling a lot with his new job, so I figured why don't I take a little trip myself and spend time with family. One of the benefits of staying with my parents is that I LOVE their home. Although I can list many "favorites" to this house... I'm pretty sure the play room takes the cake.
Not a bad place to play, right? Man, I seriously would have loved this room when I was younger (hey, I like hanging out in there even now!). There's nothing like having an outlet for some creative play... not that you necessarily need painted walls and ceilings to transport you outdoors, with a castle with a dragon and slide to do that... but it sure helps!

Did you have a play room you loved growing up?
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Real Life House Tour

12/21/2011

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While I call this house tour, Real Life, let me also point out that my friends Jenilyn and her husband John are both designers; graphic arts and landscape.  So they're not only talented, but also trained.  Jenilyn graciously agreed to share some of her favorite bits of their new home.  I'll let Jenilyn and the pictures do the talking, enjoy!

I worked long and hard on this kitchen, it probably took more of my energy than any other room in the house. I found our range top on craigslist, got a good deal on our other appliances, and worked for a year trying to get these countertops. I still have not found the perfect pendant lights but these work for now. 
Our loft is another favorite. We have a small little family room upstairs with a "cubby" for the kids to climb into and play. This is by far the kids favorite part of the house, I even came upstairs to find that the baby had climbed up the stairs and was playing inside. There are two bedrooms and a bathroom on the other side of the loft. Also, I love the dutch door, it is nice to close the door to keep the baby from going downstairs but still be able to hear them playing. In the afternoons I will take a book and sit on the daybed and read while the kids play in the cubby or with the little kitchen, I love it. 
One of the very first requirements we had for our house was to have a wood burning fireplace. So glad we did it. 
Our master bath turned out to be me and Johns favorite room, we really didn't have any expectations, and have never had a master bath before so we have just loved it. We found this really cool polished porcelain tile for really cheap and had the tile guy round down all the corners since it didn't come with any bullnose pieces. Since its really big and polished it is really easy to clean since there isn't much grout. We were about a week away from being done with the house and I still hadn't picked out a countertop for the bath, I wanted to use the same marble as the kitchen but the countertop place quoted me an outrageous amount so I was looking for a remnant to use. The countertop place called at the last minute and said they would sell me the extra marble and fabricate the counter at half the price, I said no, how about a third the price and they agreed! 

We love having outlets in our drawers, I can keep my blowdryer plugged in and put it back in when Im done, our bathroom finally looks uncluttered on a regular basis.
At the last minute I had our vanity light changed from on overhead light to two wall lights and Im really glad, the light is really flattering and makes it easy to see for putting on make up and doing hair etc.
We kept going back and forth about having two or one sink, but I really wasn't convinced that we would use two, and Im glad we only did one, we really dont use our sink much.
When we were planning our house several people told us that or closet was a little on the small side and that we should maybe make it bigger but we ended up keeping it, and it has been the perfect size. Over all the layout and size of our bathroom/closet is just perfect! 


Thanks Jenilyn for sharing all these lovely images with us!  Can't wait to see what you come up with next!  This house really reflects this couple, they are serene and beautiful people, just like their home.  I think my absolute favorite element is the herringbone pattern inside the fireplace, I think every fireplace should look so tailored and rustic and fantastic!  And just because I loved the following two pictures from their home,  I'm including them too.
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