family room

Fabulous Budget Furniture

by Alison Moore Smith on September 29, 2011 · 10 comments

A brand new home often calls for brand new furniture. Your new home will have it’s own color palette, new room sizes and configurations, and different purposes. The furniture should match the new rooms. Yesterday I had a couple of friends over and they asked where I got the latest additions to our slowly-but-surely-furnishing-the-home collection. [...]

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Shaggy Rugs – In Style Again

by Alison Moore Smith on September 27, 2011 · 5 comments

In the 1970s, my best friend had a shag carpet in her bedroom. I was beyond jealous. I had dreamed of a shag rug — mixed yellow and spring green, to be exact — for my gorgeous new bedroom. But it wasn’t happening. My mother was just way to practical to put one of those [...]

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Glass Tile on a Budget

by Alison Moore Smith on September 24, 2011 · 2 comments

When we were building the house, I had a file full of designs I loved. One of the recurring themes was glass tile. Especially glass subway tile. I’d seen it in about every home design book and magazine I’d read through, and had fallen in love with the look. In our last home, we added [...]

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Using Furniture Collections to Decorate Your Home

by Alison Moore Smith on September 15, 2011 · 2 comments

We spent the bulk of our Labor Day holiday, laboring over furniture choices. When we finally went home, we ended up with less cash in our wallets, but some great furniture bargains: 2 tan swivel gliders for the library 2 fabulous brown pillows for the library 1 leather cocktail ottoman with storage for the family [...]

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Cabinet Hardware Selected

by Alison Moore Smith on September 17, 2010 · 0 comments

As it typical for craftsman-style homes, we have a lot of built-in cabinetry. And that means lots of cabinet hardware as well. I found some beautiful cabinet hardware at Kitchen Cabinet Hardware and was able to get everything I needed for the whole house in one purchase. Best of all, I saved a bundle. My [...]

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Tile Installer Chosen

by Alison Moore Smith on September 8, 2010 · 2 comments

The counter and tub surround selection took a very circuitous path. I love the look of tile and had a lot in our first build in Boca Raton, but I really (really) hate grout. So we went with concrete floors and priced out anything-but-tile surfaces. It wasn’t until we began working with granite and solid [...]

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Cabinets Selected

by Alison Moore Smith on July 13, 2010 · 3 comments

Choosing cabinets was, I think, the most difficult single decision on the entire house. It was grueling. Not just for me, but probably for the cabinet makers as well. With budget overruns in engineering, footings, lumber, electrical, and plumbing (oh, yes, you’ll hear about all that later), cabinets (unfortunately!) was one of the few places [...]

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Ready for Cabinet Bids

by Alison Moore Smith on March 22, 2010 · 11 comments

Note: The cabinet drawings have been updated. The kitchen has been modified and the master bath vanity drawing is now complete. 5/5/10 Just a quick heads up to all you carpenters and cabinet makers! We are going to be getting bids on all the cabinets and built-ins in our new home. We are looking for [...]

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Tips for Your Next Sofa Purchase

by Alison Moore Smith on November 28, 2009 · 6 comments

Buying a quality sofa involves more than just dropping by the closest furniture store. When making a significant purchase such as this, get the most for your money with some savvy shopping.

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Lights & Fans in Every Room

by Alison Moore Smith on June 2, 2009 · 11 comments

When we built the Eagle Mountain house in 2003, we chose to put fans in most of the less formal main living areas for comfort. Each of the seven bedrooms had a fan, as did the family room and “the canyon.” (This was a three story high area adjacent to the family room that had [...]

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