Back when we built a house in the 90s we had a brick island built in our kitchen. The mason who built it gave it a very Danish finish called 'Filtsning'. In Denmark you will typically find this brick treatment on more upscale home ...

Our upstairs hallway is ready for its final reveal. Even though it is 'just' a hall way, this space packs a lot of punch in our home. There are several nice storage features and conveniences built in that you may not see at first ...

This is what our pantry looks like now that it is all done. This was one of those projects that was trailing behind the others because we could just close the door. It's so nice that we can now open it and find whatever we are lo ...

This drawing was the first thing I made after Ana and I decided to make over her living room together. She was at my Christmas party and had seen my laundry room make-over with the zig-zag wall and liked it. She is also a fan of ...

My friend Ana recently bought a new house. She and her family have been looking for a while and then finally they found this gorgeous house in San Juan Capistrano, about half an hour from where I live. Here is Ana and her kid ...

I have a been very inspired by flamingos lately. Are they the new owl? I don't know, but I love them. And I wanted one for our newly re-done entry. I have seen flamingos here and there in the last couple of months and I was very ...

With the walls prepped for wallpaper, and lining paper attached to the wall, we set out to put up the actual wallpaper. I chose a dimensional vinyl wallpaper from Wallpaperdirect called High Leaf by Anaglypta. I'll be the firs ...

Aside from scoring some great deals this weekend, we finished putting up shelving and trimming out the master closet. It's ready for paint next. I bought a haz-mat suit. It's going to be awesome. I also mudded and taped and mudde ...

While we are in full gear building shelves in our master closet, I want to share some photos of yesteryear with you. Some friends of ours have a cabin in a very secluded area in Big Bear. It's such a lovely place and we got to vi ...

Here is the final result of our staircase make-over. From the living and dining room, the biggest improvement is that you can't see the staircase anymore. Or at least it is optional by way of our pocket doors. Our living room g ...

When you design a new staircase there are a number of building codes to adhere to and these should be reflected in your plan and in particular in your staircase or you will not pass inspection. Yes, the inspector will come out and ...

Kitchen reveal I have been thinking about updating my Home Tour a bit. Specifically, I wanted a better font for my "before" and "after". I searched online and quickly went to my favorite font source: FontSquirrel.com. Here, I n ...

You are looking at a missing staircase and a future pantry and our awesome stair guy - all in one picture. How great is that! After the old staircase was removed, our stair guy got busy building the new staircase. Why was he ...

Have you ever walked into a house and thought: "Wow, this is a great house, but that staircase has GOT to go!". No? Well, it has happened. Also, I was not a fan of that half octagonal shape in the ceiling there or the beam goin ...

Say hello to my little friend my new table top. The old table top was puttied and sanded and then it became painfully obvious that it was not very smooth. At all. So a re-do was in order. A new table top was quickly built. It ...