Tidy Brown Wren, bringing order to your nest

Couldn't help but fall in love with this sunflower in my garden last month. The older grandfellas helped me harvest the last of the tomatoes and peppers before the first cold snap of autumn. Goodbye summer, thank you for your warm, sunny days.  

I'm getting ready for Tidy Brown Wren's Spring Open House. And you're invited! Saturday, May 9, 2015 9:00-4:00 Wren Acres in Chesapeake, Virginia If you missed the Fall Open House, you'll want to make sure that you make it to this one.  Most items are one-of-a-kind, so you'll want to arrive early to get your favorite piece.   Email me tidybrownwren@gmail.com for directions

Most of the time, when I'm called in to help stage or organize a home, I encounter an overstuffed master bedroom. What I mean by overstuffed is too much furniture, too many clothes, and too many items that don't belong in a bedroom. A lot of people, including myself, tend to put stuff in the bedroom that doesn't belong because we don't know what else to do with it. It becomes a staging area for projects, laundry, exercise equipment, and "stuff". So how do we get from ransacked to restful? I thought you'd never ask! Here are some questions to ask yourself: 1. What do I want this room to feel like? Restful retreat, romantic getaway, or an inspired haven? 2. What pieces of furniture could be gotten rid of? Bookshelves, dressers, chairs, exercise equipment? 3. What items end up in your bedroom that don't belong there? Toys, paperwork, laundry? 4. Are there any repairs that need to be made? Loose handles, broken curtain rods, stuck doo...

So, if you're following along with me in the process of organizing and cleaning your entire house this year, we'll be working on the bathroom in February together.  Well, not really together.  I mean you work on your bathroom and I'll work on mine. I thought I would use some photos of bathrooms I've staged for my clients over the past year or two.   One of the things you will notice about all of these bathrooms is that I use all white linens and light colored accessories.   You'll want to work on only one bathroom in your home at a time.   As usual, you'll want to check out each bathroom and do an assessment.    Check out this post for the details. Staged bathroom in a home for sale. After you've done an assessment of the bathroom it's time to roll up your sleeves and get to work.    1. Remove everything from the cabinet or drawer. Wipe out the cabinet/drawer and line with contact paper if desired. ...

So. . . you've set a New Year's resolution to organize and deep clean your house this year.  Sure, sure - you said that same thing last year, but this year you really mean it.  But now it's almost the end of January and you don't know where to start.   Well, today's the day.   I'll be blogging each month about an area to work on .  We'll take one area per month.  Don't try to do more than that one area a month and overwhelm yourself  because you'll want to quit.   And quitters never have clean homes! Ready?  Let's go! In January, you should work on the area where you enter your home.  Front door?  Back door?  It doesn't matter.  We'll just call it your home's entrance.   1.  Evaluate what you need in the area.  Think through your daily routine of entering and exiting.  Think about what you need to help your family get what they need and keep it organized. ...

I recovered a chair for my son's apartment a few months ago and I'm eager to show you the before and after photos.   This was the chair that we've had in our bedroom for at least 20 years.  My father in law originally got it from one of his older neighbors.  It was very sturdy, but very out dated and stained - and pink. I took the cushions off of the chair and removed all of the old fabric.  The cushions were still in good shape.  Then I spray painted the frame with Oil Rubbed Bronze paint.  After that, I stapled the new fabric (left over from a previous project) onto the cushion forms.  I needed to cover up some of the staples on the back of the chair but I didn't want to purchase anything.  Thankfully, I always save extra strings, ribbons, and trim.  Out of my basket of trim, came a wide brown shoe lace.  Perfect! Not bad for using supplies I already had on hand.   I made a pillow to go with it - ag...