Toltech Repairs

As the only female in my office, the job of office decor fell upon my shoulders. Toltech Repairs is an electronics repair shop. The owner had a lot of old computer and phone parts that he wanted to do something with so I created a gallery wall with them. It turned out really cool! I also disassembled an old iphone, hung it on the wall, and connected it to blue tooth to play music from. 

I used my Cricut Explore to cut the vinyl lettering for the door signage and the logo on the front desk.

Mailbox Tutorial

One of the main requests my friend Liz had for her wedding decor was a mailbox for cards. We looked at some vintage rental stores and they were about $50 to rent. I decided to try making it on my own and it turned out great.

I found this picture on Pinterest that I loved. Liz's colors were Grey and Light Pink so it worked perfectly. It took me a while to realize that the flowers were in a flower box next to the mailbox, but I liked the way it looked so I decided to put flowers on the mailbox.

I bought a plain white mailbox from Home Depot. It was about $17. I also grabbed a can of Grey spray paint. I spray painted the mailbox. (the red flag comes off of the mailbox which makes things so much easier!) I didn't spray paint the inside, but I did spray the other side of the lid because the mailbox would be open. Once it was completely dry I started adding the flowers. I got flowers from Hobby Lobby. I wanted big flowers, leaves, and succulents. I played around with them until I had an arrangement I liked and hot glued them on. Hot glue is awesome. We opted to not have the ribbon on the mailbox. I love how it turned out!

We had it on the gift table for cards. It was so cute and added a great focal point for the table .

Did Somebody Say Wedding?

Hi Guys!!

It has been a really long time since I've posted, so I apologize. I have been EXTREMELY busy with this WEDDING! I love weddings!

My best friends Liz and Matt (who I introduced 1 year ago) just tied the knot and let me plan the whole thing! Like I have mentioned before, weddings are kind of my thing. One of my favorite parts of design is being able to personalize details. Weddings are so perfect for that. 

This wedding was a tricky one. I had a month and a half to plan everything, and a budget of $1,000 for the whole wedding. Have you ever heard of a $1,000 wedding? Me neither...

First things first, we had to get the engagements done. The photographer called last minute and couldn't make it, so I pretended to be a photographer and did the pictures for them. You guys, this was literally the first time I have ever taken pictures that weren't on my iPhone. Surprisingly, the pictures turned out pretty decent. Also, it helps that I am fluent in Photoshop :)

Thankfully, the bride was able to find a location for the wonderful price of FREE so that helped a ton with the budget. We put aside $400 for the cake, food and other items. The total decor budget came to $600. For this wedding I was very grateful for Hobby Lobby and their 40% off coupon. I was at Hobby Lobby almost every day and I used that coupon over and over. This literally saved my budget. Another thing that helped a lot is that we were able to find a lot of things that people already had. The chair sashes and table runners were free, as well as the arch.

Also, Pinterest is the greatest tool for wedding planners because the bride made a board of things she wanted and it was so easy for me to recreate. This was the inspiration for the wedding:

There were a few things the bride absolutely wanted. She wanted candles, a mailbox for cards, and chair sashes. We had originally purchased tea candles, but then found out the building didn't allow candles, so we settled for fake candles that still looked great.

Another big cost saver was that I handmade almost everything. I had checked out some great rental places, but they did not fit so great with our budget. I handmade all of the centerpieces, the decor for the arch, the mailbox, chalkboards, and picture board. It was super simple and only took a couple hours. Tutorials will be posted later :)

I am extremely please with how everything turned out for this low cost wedding!

October Obsessions

Growing up I was never a huge fan of Halloween. I don't like being scared and Halloween was just an all around scary holiday. As I've gotten older Halloween has become one of my favorite holidays. I love how much every one gets into it. By far my favorite part of Halloween is the awesome decor. I've shared a few of my favorites below:

1. Haunted Houses // Pottery Barn Kids

2. Birdcage // Pottery Barn

3. Crow Wreath // WhimsyChicDesigns (Etsy)

4. Skull Vase // West Elm

5. Chalkboard Tombstone // Pottery Barn

6. Potions Book // ElvesInTheAttic (Etsy)

7. Bust Bookends // Ebay

8. Pillows // CozyDIY (Etsy)

9. Skeleton Sconce // MoonshineLamp (Etsy)

This Halloween decor adds a simple spooky touch to your normal home decor. 

Happy Halloween!

Office Space

Lately I've been longing for a cute and functional office space. And, like, a real desk. Right now all of my work is done at the comfort of my kitchen table which makes it awkward when its time to eat and I've got multiple computers, paper and fabric spread across it. 

See? I told you... not the best office space.

As I was browsing through Pinterest, I found this lovely desk setup and fell in love! 

I decided to recreate it. The basic breakdown of this design is: the desk, chair, lamp, and a few office accessories. I'm going to leave the computer out of this design because I already have too many of my own :)

1- Office Chair // Pottery Barn

2- Mirrored Desk // Horchow

3- Candle Holder // Target

4- Vase and Flower // Hobby Lobby

5- Desk Lamp // West Elm

6- Desk Tray // Kate Spade

7- Pencil Cup // OCM

8- Tissue Box // Wayfair

There you have it! One Pinterest worthy office space!

Reupholstering 101

I'm going start by saying that reupholstering is not my favorite thing in the world. This whole project kind of started by accident. I inherited this very ugly but extremely comfortable couch from my grandma and after I painted my living room I just wasn't loving this 80's style couch anymore. I had dreams of reupholstering it but I knew that was out of my league of abilities. I had heard nothing but horror stories about reupholstering. 

Well, one day at work I came across this blog post about reupholstering a couch:

http://do-it-yourselfdesign.blogspot.com/2013/08/how-to-re-upholster-sofa.html

She makes it look so easy! 

So I went home all pumped to take apart my couch. I found some awesome fabric at Home Fabrics and started ripping apart my couch. I didn't know what I was in for. 

Reupholstering isn't exactly hard, it is just VERY TIME CONSUMING! I didn't realize how much time it would take to just take the old fabric off of the couch. Taking the staples out took about a week. (I watched a lot of Grey's Anatomy to keep me entertained) Once the staples were out it got a lot more exciting because I could start putting my new fabric on. 

These are my Instgram photos documenting the process. Clearly I had a very positive attitude...

The biggest complication I came across was how to hide the new staples. So I found a fix by adding nail heads on the front. In the end, it wasn't really that bad. Most of my struggles came from not knowing how to approach a task. This project took me a total of 3 months because I was working full time while trying to do it. If I had worked straight through it would have taken about 2 weeks.

I probably won't be reupholstering again any time soon, but I do love my new couch!

Intro

Hello!

 My name is Olivia and I'm an Interior Designer. I graduated from LDS Business College in April of 2013 with an Associates in Interior Design and Drafting. Before that I also went to Culinary School and graduated with a Science of Culinary Arts Degree. One of the things I specialize in is Event Planning. With my experience in Culinary Arts and Design, I love planning events because it ties both fields together. 

   

     I am passionate about design. Ever since I was little, my mom always gave me free reign in our house to rearrange furniture and paint my room how I wanted. She even let me paint my room rainbow once! I was lucky to be able to develop my creativity at such a young age. I am a big fan of DIY projects. I love taking something meaningless or old and transforming it into something new. 

    This blog is where I'll be posting my latest projects and ideas. It is a great place to learn how to do DIY projects and get ideas for your own home!