October 19, 2020

DIY Bunting - an Easy, No-Sew Tutorial

October 19, 2020/ Erika Conner

I obviously LOVE home design, but when it comes to seasonal decor, with the exception of Christmas, it’s always felt a little pointless to me. I mean, who am I decorating for anyway?

Well, let me tell you… now that my older daughter is almost 5, I need to get my ish together because there’s no way she’s letting me get away without any fall decor up in here! I couldn’t say no to her incessant pleas for decorations (kids, amirite?), so we’ve been spending a lot of time lately finding ways to create some festive decorations together, including the topic for today’s post: how to make an easy, no-sew bunting.

October 12, 2020

Halloween Mantel Decor on a Budget

October 12, 2020/ Erika Conner

Let me tell you, I have had a helluva time decorating my mantel for Halloween and putting this post together… because I’m cheap.

Let me explain…

September 21, 2020

Modern Dining Room Reveal

September 21, 2020/ Erika Conner

It’s done! It’s done! The dining room makeover is done!

If you’ve been following along, you saw last’s week post where I shared the accent wall we installed in our dining room. Well, as I was writing that post, I was working on putting the dining room back together for the grand reveal. It took a TON of restraint to not share a million sneak peeks, but I kept my trap shut and now I’m so excited that I can share it with the world!

September 14, 2020

DIY Geometric Wood Accent Wall

September 14, 2020/ Erika Conner

Well, we finally did it. Our geometric wood accent wall is complete and I’M SO IN LOVE WITH IT! In fact, I love the finished product so much, I wrote a tutorial about it! (Surprise, surprise).

August 31, 2020

How to Plan and Hang a Gallery Wall

August 31, 2020/ Erika Conner

The thought of hanging a gallery wall can be intimidating. So many pictures. So many nails. So many potential mess-ups and unnecessary nail holes! Where does the madness end!?

Have no fear! I’ve got you covered with a step-by-step tutorial on how to hang a gallery wall that eliminates the probable accidental nail hole (or two, or three).

August 24, 2020

How to Pick the Right Size Lamp (Every Time!)

August 24, 2020/ Erika Conner

A lamp is a lamp is a lamp, right? WRONG. Although a lamp may easily serve its main purpose of lighting up a room, choosing the wrong size can really skew your design. But how do you pick the right size lamp? In this post, we’re going to talk all about how to choose the correct size table lamp, so you can select the perfect size lamp on the first try (and not try out a bunch like I did).

August 17, 2020

How to Reupholster Dining Chair Seats

August 17, 2020/ Erika Conner

I recently took a little break from the current projects around the house I’ve been working on to reupholster the chairs in our eat-in kitchen - and wrote a little tutorial so you can do it too! This is a quick and easy upgrade that seriously anyone can do!

August 10, 2020

Chandelier and Area Rug Roundup + Dining Room Mood Boards!

August 10, 2020/ Erika Conner

Now that the DIY Sharpie wall in my office is complete, and while we’re waiting for materials for the master suite to arrive so we can start rebuilding, I feel like I can finally turn my focus back to the dining room.

I’ve developed a pretty good vision of how I want it to look, but, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m very indecisive. So, I put together some mood boards of the dining room with different lighting and area rug combinations to help quell my indecisiveness. And MAN, did I get nerdy with it.

August 03, 2020

Master Suite Remodel - A Change in (Floor) Plans

August 03, 2020/ Erika Conner

I posted two weeks ago about our master suite remodel, including what we had demoed and the new floor plan. After that post, we were finally able to take some time and officially tape off the floor to REALLY get a feel for how the space would work. Unfortunately, we quickly realized there were some issues that we had to solve for.

July 27, 2020

DIY Sharpie Wall Tutorial

July 27, 2020/ Erika Conner

HOT DAMN, it’s been a minute since I shared an update about my home office redesign. Well, don’t you worry your pretty little head. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been working on it!

I’ve finally painted this room and created a killer DIY Sharpie wall that I can’t wait to share with you (including a tutorial)!

July 20, 2020

Master Suite Remodel - Demo and Floor Plans, Oh My!

July 20, 2020/ Erika Conner

We have officially demoed our bedroom, bathroom, and closets!

Yes, it looks absolutely nuts. Yes, I’ve had more than a few “ohhhh noooo whatdidwedo!?” moments. But every time I walk into this space I get a jolt of excitement that easily puts those fears at bay. Also, LOOK AT ALL THAT NATURAL LIGHT!

July 13, 2020

Feast Your Eyes on This 100-Year-Old Victorian Mansion

July 13, 2020/ Erika Conner

Each summer, our city has a festival in the historic district where homeowners open up their beautiful old houses for curious eyes like ours to stroll through. Well, one of those houses is for sale, and Lucius, being a local real-estate agent and all, is fortunate enough to be the listing agent! That means I have an “in” and absolutely HAVE to share this house with the world because it’ll BLOW YOUR MIND!

July 06, 2020

Dining Room Renovation Progress - A Dusty Improvement

July 06, 2020/ Erika Conner

Back in March, I posted about the beginning of our dining room renovation. In that post, I shared the progress of what we had accomplished so far and our plans for rounding out the room.

Since then, we’ve slowly been working on the dining room (while getting sidetracked with working on my office and the yard) and it’s about time for a progress report - especially because we’ve made some pretty big changes recently!

June 29, 2020

Choose the Best Paint Finish for Every Room

June 29, 2020/ Erika Conner

Sometimes I forget that not everyone has painted several houses worth of rooms and may not know what to say when the person at the paint counter asks, “what finish do you want that in?”. So this week, I’d like to bring back the basics and break down how to choose the best paint finish for every room in your house.

June 22, 2020

Tour the Exterior of our Mansard House: The Before

June 22, 2020/ Erika Conner

Back in March I posted a tour of our current house and promised to take pictures of the exterior once everything was in bloom again. Well, now that it’s summer and everything is lush and green it’s about time I followed through on my promise.

June 15, 2020

How to: Paint a Room Top to Bottom Efficiently

June 15, 2020/ Erika Conner

Remember back in math class when they taught you the order of operations - PEDMAS (or, Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally, as I like to remember it)? I've never been good at math, but I do know that the order of operations is an integral part of it. Well, I believe there’s an order of operations to painting a room that makes it easier and faster to complete. And I’m here to break it down for you!

June 08, 2020

How (Not) to Stain Butcher Block

June 08, 2020/ Erika Conner

While working on the flip recently we had one of those “oh crap” moments when we realized we ruined the brand new butcher block counters. It would be easy to pretend we didn’t screw anything up and post a perfectly flawless “how-to” post, but where’s the fun in that? So follow along, because in this post I’ll share what went wrong and how we made it right so you can avoid making the same mistakes!

June 01, 2020

The Flip is Complete!

June 01, 2020/ Erika Conner

I’m so excited I’m not even gonna try to think of a formal introduction for this post… THE FLIP IS DONE!!! We put it up for sale 4 days ago and as of yesterday, it’s officially under contract!!! Picture me (and Lucius) with all the jazz hands!

Okay, now that that’s out of my system, I’ll take a step back and think of a more formal introduction… Oh yeah, here we go….

May 25, 2020

How to: DIY Nursery Mobile on the Cheap

May 25, 2020/ Erika Conner

When I was pregnant with my second daughter and couldn’t continue with my normal home renovations, I had to redirect my energy somewhere else. I spent some time reupholstering our dining room chairs, painting, and creating curtains for our front door and sidelights. Then I got the idea to create a mobile for her room. Today I’d like to share my process with you so you can create one of your very own at little to no cost!

May 18, 2020

5 Home Decor Trends I'm Loving in 2020

May 18, 2020/ Erika Conner

I’ve been spending a lot of time on Pinterest lately. Like, a lot more than usual. And I’m noticing some design trends that are really catching my eye. It’s very possible I’m behind the curve on these and most everyone already knows about them. But for those of you that don’t, in this post I’m going to talk about 5 trends I’m seeing a ton of right now that I’m really digging. Ready. Set. GO!

Nov 6, 2024

D&D Dungeon Reveal

What would make your next D&D session even better? If you had an awesome venue to play in, of course! In this post, I’m very excited to present to you the reveal of the D20 Dungeon - a fully immersive event space now available to rent for your own gaming adventures!

Aug 26, 2024

Storage Closet With DIY Floating Shelves

Who in their right mind would give up their laundry room for a storage closet!? In this post, I’m covering our latest renovation: turning our old laundry room into a functional (and much-needed) storage closet with DIY shelving - and why we did it.

Jun 21, 2024

DIY Stone Veneer Installation Guide

Stone veneer is an excellent way to add texture, dimension, and rustic charm to a room. Plus, it’s budget-friendly, makes a big visual impact, and is totally DIY-able! Stick around for my step-by-step guide on how to install stone veneer yourself.

Jun 3, 2024

Playroom Makeover Reveal

What do you do when you have a formal living room, but you’re not exactly formal living room people? You turn it into a playroom! Dive in to see how I reimagined this space to work for our family.

May 13, 2024

Airbnb, but make it D&D

I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume you’ve heard of DND before. Or, more widely known as Dungeons & Dragons. But why in the world would I be talking about it? Well, that would be because my husband has roped me into designing a fully immersive Dungeons & Dragons space in the basement of our office building.

Olive & June