DOOR DETAIL: CREMONE BOLT HARDWARE

I've always loved Cremone bolt hardware, it's the long vertical hardware that you often see on a set of French Doors. I think it adds such a beautiful detail to any doors (normally seen on a pair of doors). I've always envisioned this type of hardware on my double back doors, the black pair in the kitchen above. I think it would be a perfect finishing touch to these doors. I'll start looking for authentic vintage Cremone bolt hardware, but if I can't find what I'm looking for, I know it is available to buy 'new' from some suppliers who make vintage hardware. Here are more images of doors with Cremone bolts in my inspiration file.

Images above: source unknown

It also can be used to jazz up any interior cabinets, here is the hardware shown on cabinet doors, love how it looks!

Image source unknown

Image: House & Home magazine

ROMAN SHADES

I really like roman shades as a window treatment, and I prefer a simple, tailored style. In my own house I have all the windows covered in roman shades, and all of mine are in linen fabric. I like them in the house because when they're fully open they show off a lot of the window detail and let in a lot of light. But they also are easy to open and close for privacy or light control. The living room and dining room have a vertical band of accent fabric on the sides. Like this:

The kitchen is solid, natural coloured linen like these on the windows on either side of the range:

And upstairs on the third floor I have white shades, all mounted above the windows. I wanted white here so it would blend in with the room and be a very subtle look.  Like this:

Many people ask about the shades in this house – they are all custom made with lined, solid linen.

BEFORE & AFTER: CABINET

Back when I was working on CBC TV doing a regular segment called Deb on a Dime, I was always looking for inexpensive furniture. I'd often go by Value Village and check out the second hand furniture, and this is where I found this cabinet. I wanted to show this makeover because you really can decorate on any budget. Sometimes it means you'll have to get your hands dirty and Do-It-Yourself but you can find some great treasures. The things I always look for are the size and shape of a piece of furniture, everything else can be changed. For this project I needed a narrow cabinet and this one fit the bill. It also provided a pretty good amount of storage inside the unit. I picked it up for $9.99, here it is before:

It definitely wasn't pretty but I could see the potential. I spray painted it white and I covered the glass doors with frosted vinyl. It didn't take a lot of time, or cost much in materials, to totally transform the cabinet. Here it is after:

BEFORE & AFTER: GARAGE MAKEOVER

I love looking back at this Garage makeover! I worked on this a few years ago and it was such a functional, well used space. When I bought the property I was excited to have a very large 'garage' on the property. Of course I had big plans for the space and thought I could do the work myself. It hadn't been touched in years and the space was actually divided in two: the front was the garage and the back was a room called a 'summer bedroom'. The summer bedroom had potential but needed a lot of work. The fabric on the windows would disintegrate when I touched it. Here is how it looked:

And here is a picture of the front garage area:

I decided to remove the wall between the front and back spaces to create one large room. The roof also needed to be replaced and my very handy cousin Mike came to help me do the job (he did the entire roof!) and I worked on getting the inside ripped up.

Mike up on the roof:

And this was happening inside:

The wall is down!! It made the space so much larger, brighter and open, I loved it.

Mike still on the roof:

And the next phase was the floor; we did a new inexpensive spruce floor which I painted.

And then I spent one entire summer painting this space. The old barn boards on the walls and ceilings just soaked up the paint. It took many coats of primer and white paint. But in the end it was all worth it and I couldn't have done this without Mike! Here it is getting a mention on House & Home magazine.

http://houseandhome.com/design/cottage-garage-renovation

Bedroom makeover: before & after

This bedroom went through a basic cosmetic makeover- mostly involving paint. I removed the old carpet and found there were original floors underneath that had been painted. I updated those with a new coat of black oil paint and finished the walls, ceiling and trim in white. I added linen roman shades at the windows, but for some reason they aren't up in this shot. Here it is before:

And the after shot with a spool bed:

The image above the bed is currently for sale in Great Village, Nova Scotia. It's an old charcoal sketch signed and dated 1874.