Remaking Home | a Summary

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Kaia Calhoun

Remaking Home | Blog Post 5 / 5

Today I give you the last of my Remaking Home Blog Posts! This post serves as a summary of the whole project from start to finish, including before pictures 🙂 I will guide you through the project in the order I finished the rooms – ironically, the last room to be finished was the first room I started so I figure by rate of finishing is a better gauge.

First, the premise of the whole project. This Remaking Home overhall idea was born last fall. Josh and I had spent significant amounts of time praying about a new place to live fitting in certain specific criteria. When we moved into this home we asked the Lord for a personal relationship with our landlord, office spaces for both Josh and I, and a place that allowed dogs. We still needed all those criteria fulfilled but we now were additionally seeking a place where I could grow a garden and open a studio. Instead of answering our prayers with a new home, He brought me a vision of how to make the studio happen in our current home and gave me the guts to ask our landlord about our garden. Several months later the Remaking Home project is finished, I held my first session here in December, threw my a Sunshine Moment Photography Studio GRAND OPENING, and have planted my garden.

In order to open a studio in our apartment I knew the whole home needed a serious makeover. I knew my clients would be walking through my living room to get to the studio and they would walk through the living room, kitchen, and bathroom if they needed relief. That left one room for our bedroom but instead of using that space for our bed we decided to give Josh a music room. We were excited about our artist’s bungalow and resolved to sleep on our hide-a-bed indefinitely. I am happy to say, this arrangement not one works but our hide-a-bed is actually more cozy than some normal beds and I have been thriving in my studio space! God is so good! Thank goodness for his brilliant idea 🙂

ROOM 1 | Kitchen

The kitchen was done first because this room didn’t need any repainting and I needed to move the furniture around anyway. This was our most initially successful room. When we first moved in I chose this subdued red color for two of the walls to blend the cabinets and the counter tops into the space better. With a trip to IKEA, Josh and I decided kitchen ware as “wall art” would be a nice touch so we proceeded to buy the prospective equipment and hung our pots, pans, and baked goods in the corner by the oven.

All I did to touch up this room was ditch a table, bring in a smaller one, and resituate the knick knacks. (INTERIOR DESIGN TIP: don’t underestimate knick knacks – use them for accent colors and presentation and the key is quality, not quantity.)

For the full blog post on Remaking Home in the kitchen CLICK HERE.

BEFORE

Not a true before picture because I had already moved the yellow and brown tables from their original spot but the knick knacks are different. Sorry for my forgetfulness in the BEFORE picture department 🙂

AFTER

ROOM 2 | Bathroom

The bathroom was another easy fix room – mostly because it’s such a small space to work with. For this room I switched out all the linens, added a shelf, switched out the toilet seat, and painted two walls.

For the full blog post on Remaking Home in the bathroom CLICK HERE.

Sorry, I don’t have a BEFORE shot of this room…

AFTER

ROOM 3 | Living Room

The living room was my next easiest fix. Like the kitchen, Josh and I were mildly successful in painting the first time around and the general position of most furniture. However, it did need some serious adjustments. In this room I switched out the upholstered furniture in favor of some new items, painted the remaining tan walls, built a collage of images of Josh and I as a visual centerpiece, adopted a rustic shelf from Mom and Dad Calhoun, rearranged our media and knick knacks, refurbished and hung a chandelier, reworked the lighting, changed the hardware on the entertainment center, and changed our shoe department.

To see the full blog post on Remaking Home in the living room CLICK HERE.

BEFORE

AFTER

ROOM 4 | Studio

This room needed the most work. I needed it to serve as my office, the place where we sleep, a place to hold meetings, and a place to conduct various photo shoots. That’s a lot of activity to fit in one space while trying to uphold an open and beautiful space.

Everything about this room is different and new. Not a speck of original furniture remains. With a lot of repainting, repurposing, and a little bit or purchasing I finally came up with the perfect convertible room.

CLICK HERE to see the full blog post with images from each room arrangement and function.

BEFORE

KIND OF BEFORE…

AFTER

ROOM 6 | Music Room

This room didn’t actually need a lot of work, but it posed the biggest creative black hole for me. I puzzled over this room in circles. I would come up with the perfect idea and then that perfect idea would be over taken by another perfect idea and so on. Finally, with the push to finish the room before the a Sunshine Moment Photography Studio GRAND OPENING party I moved my last item and painted the last wall only two days before the open house. This room stretched me because it was everything I didn’t know. My job was to create a space that would serve as Josh’s office while be the ideal space for practicing drums, keys, and guitar. Since the room doesn’t have a lot of available wall space due to the radiator, double doors, window, and closet spaces I was left to puzzle through all the pieces I needed to artistically display within the space.

For the full blog post on Remaking Home in the music room CLICK HERE.

BEFORE

My desk used to be wedged into the corner of this room. This shot was taken after I had already moved my computer.

AFTER

Thanks for reading about my Remaking Home adventure and I hope it was educational, inspirational, or both 😉

To see all of my Remaking Home blog posts CLICK HERE.

Remaking Home | Studio

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Kaia Calhoun

Remaking Home | Blog Post 4 / 5

Back in November of 2011 I started working for Houzz as an Ideabook Photographer. Then, in December of 2011, I started working at Sherwin Williams as their Design Product Specialist. Lastly, in mid January Josh and I moved into a new apartment where I was granted permission to paint the walls. My very first walls to paint!

My spark of a love for interior design was quickly provoked into a steadfast fire because of my new involvement with interior design. All of a sudden it was a huge part of my life – making its way in as a profession, into my photography, and into my personal space. I started finding myself standing around my house dreaming up new ways to make it look better all the time. However, professional interior design requires capital and I couldn’t justify laying down the cash to upgrade and rework until God nudged me to open an in-home studio space.

a Sunshine Moment Photography Studio

This room was the reason behind my redesign.

As I mentioned in previous Remaking Home posts. Opening an in-home studio space required upping the quality of most of the rest of my house. I was aware that my clients walk through my living room to get to the studio and they would walk through my living room and kitchen if they had to use the bathroom. This meant I had to at least work on my living room, kitchen, and bathroom. Well me creating a studio involved kicking Josh out of his office and moving his stuff into storage. A couple of days later, on a coffee date, we were talking about my new project and the forlorn look on his face in regards to not having personal space gave me an idea. The idea: forget having a bedroom, we are artists and our art is our priority. So the bedroom transformed into the Music Room, Josh’s office became my studio, and now we sleep on a hide-a-bed.

My first step in the studio was a repainting overhaul. I knew I wanted yellow because it is my favorite color and my business name is a Sunshine Moment. I mean, come on, it had to be yellow!

I painted it once. It looked like I had spread Velveeta macaroni and cheese sauce all over my walls. So I painted again. The second color choice was one I actually brought home back in June and was a color my friends Aaron and Lynette used in their kitchen that I love. On this rare occasion the transplant of a color looked beautiful. My walls are a warm yellow color that fools me into thinking every day is at least partly sunny. That is good for my soul.

My next step was finding a desk. The desks Josh and I had before were no longer satisfactory due to the new nature of interior design perfectionist. So, we disassembled the “desk” portion and I painted the shelves the same yellow as my studio walls and stuck them in my studio.

I knew I wanted a corner desk with shelves and at least one drawer – shelves for easy access to the supplies I use daily and a drawer to hide my keyboard and mouse when I’m not using them. I also knew I wanted something made of real wood that was not too dark but not too light. Lastly, I wanted a desk that a rolly desk chair would push in all the way when not in use and that would fit my legs comfortably even if I sat cross-legged (because that’s how I sit at least half the time). I was picky because I knew what I wanted after having many a desk before. Finally I made a trip to IKEA and rolled chairs over to desks so I could sit and get a feel for them. After scouring the web and hefty personal debate I decided I would spring for the Hemnes Corner Workstation. It’s awesome.

My next step was furniture. I agonized over this detail and feng shuied every room every other week until I finally settled on the arrangement below. With a the little addition of a coat rack for my clients to hang their coats and purses and a rug to break up the floor space I was finally satisfied.

When I was finished fussing with the furniture I could work out lighting. This room doesn’t have an overhead light, though it doesn’t matter anyway because Josh and I light our world with lamps. The first lamp was easy because I obviously would need some form of light at my desk for working in the darkness. Over Christmas I was inspired to hang lights around my big front window because there are no outside outlets. I like it so much I’m keeping it up, they are just white lights after all. And finally, I worked on the lanterns. I already had hanging lanterns in this room so I simply moved those and bought one more for a little extra fun.

Finally, I added my canvas prints to showcase some of my favorite work in my favorite space 🙂

This space is functional.

The set up featured below is what my space looks like when I have client meetings and certain photo shoots. It has four purposes total and three functional set ups.

PURPOSE

Office (included in all arrangements, desk remains set up in the corner)
Meeting Room
Photoshoot
Bedroom

SET UPS below… and Sam modeled a little bit, he has to be involved in everything 🙂

Meeting Room and Portrait Session Set Up

Newborn and Boudoir Session Set Up

Bedroom Arrangement 😉

Remaking Home | Kitchen and Bathroom

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Kaia Calhoun

Remaking Home | Blog Post 3 / 5

Ok, so when I posted Remaking Home | Living Room I said that was where I started. Well, truth is, I actually started with the kitchen but all I really did in this remodel was reorganize this room, no painting required. I promise I didn’t mean to fib 🙂

The kitchen was the only room I successfully chose the paint palette for the first time around. Red for a kitchen to me is fitting because it is a place with fire. Red to me speaks of cooking and baking and enjoying the occasionally spicy meal. I couldn’t do any red though because if you look at the counters they are yellow and the cabinets are a very yellow-brown. And I’m not a fan of putting catsup and mustard in a room. We also wanted to incorporate lime green in our kitchen. After looking and bunches of colors I found this Sierra Red and fell in love. I love the earthy, dirt red tone.

Our other hurdle with this room was that is was an awkwardly HUGE kitchen. We have very little counter space and only one place for the stove, refrigerator and radiator (yes, I did try to move the stove and fridge). To break up the space, and wall space, we added a small “dining” table and another table for some more counter space. We hung the lime green lantern over our new “counter” space and strung lights around the doorways for some nice ambiance. My favorite addition we made in this room are the pots and pans racks by the stove and the cubbies for jars of baking supplies. The last little touches were the pictures we hung and the curtain I got for the window leading to the porch (I get the most compliments on this curtain than anything else in the house I think).

Our bathroom is TINY. There is room for the toilet, sink, radiator, and tub… there’s enough left over to stand in the room and turn around.

When Josh and I got engaged we made our trip to Target to create our wedding registry. I look back fondly on this time now but that day he and I had it out. We could not agree on anything and particularly could not agree on towels. He wanted all these boring colors and I really wanted the bright colors (particularly yellow of course). We ended up getting so frustrated at each other that we actually went separate ways, wandering the store by ourselves for a while. Josh had the scanner so he took the liberty to add a few things in my absence (like an ax, which we actually got for a wedding gift) 😉 Eventually we had cooled down enough to talk again and Josh won the towel battle. The first two years of our marriage were privy to brown, navy, purple, and green towels. This year I found these way more exciting towels at World Market and was STOKED! I showed Josh and he liked them too so I bought them while they were on sale and with a coupon and put the old ones in storage for when we have more than four people in our home at a time. Josh has since learned that yellow is, indeed, an awesome color and that color in general is way more fun. I have learned that too much color variety, or rainbows in every room, just looks immature. One of the many, although seemingly insignificant, lessons learned because of marriage. Love that guy!

So I love my towels. It’s the little things in life right? But my other favorite part of the bathroom is my soap dispenser. Josh got this soap dispenser for me for my birthday, just before the redesign project took flight. The other thing, besides yellow towels, that I had been asking Josh for was a fun soap dispenser. I have always loved the kids soap dispensers and every time we went to Target I would make him look at them with me and I would say “some day I would really love one of these.” One such trip at Target we found my little elephant. This was finally a soap dispenser that was buckets of fun for me but not too obnoxious that Josh didn’t like it. So, lo and behold, one of the gifts I opened on my birthday was that soap dispenser and I WAS THRILLED! Such a thoughtful gift.

As for the rest of the room, fortunately green was already part of our bathroom scheme before so the rug, the toilet basket, the toiletry shelving, and some of the paint job could stay. When we first painted the bathroom we naively chose a neon green. It was hideous. So then we repainted two walls a more subdued green, but I still wasn’t happy, I wanted the room to be uniform so, for this project, I simply painted the other two walls that same, subdued, green color.

With the new towels we DID need a new shower curtain though. I browsed for a while. Since the bathroom is so small and the only window is behind the tub I wanted curtains that would allow the light to pass through them. I finally found this cool, map curtain at Urban Outfitters.

The last piece I added to the space was a simple shelf. Previously we had a couple hooks for the hand towels there but I wanted a little shelf to put a candle. The candle was important to me because I would light it every time I had a client meeting or session at the studio so if they had to use the restroom it would have nice ambiance and, most importantly, it would smell nice. So I found this shelf on Etsy and was exciting to have my candle shelf and towel hooks all in one, with the lovely addition of a jar for fake flowers.

Ok, the final last piece I added was a new toilet seat. The old one was the white plastic variety so we picked up this more aesthetically pleasing wooden seat at IKEA.

And now, the visual evidence… 🙂

Wall Colors…

Kitchen Red: Sierra Redwood (Sherwin Williams)

Kitchen Tan: no clue

Bathroom Green: Parakeet (Sherwin Williams)

The Stuff…

KITCHEN

Pots and Pans racks: IKEA

Wood cubbies: IKEA

Yellow table: IKEA

Curtain: World Market

Trash Can: IKEA

BATHROOM

Rug: Target

Toilet Basket: Target

Beside sink shelves: Target

Yellow shelf: Etsy

Towels: World Market (not the exact same as they discontinued them in December but these are similar)

Soap dispenser: Target

Shower Curtain: Urban Outfitters

Toilet Seat: IKEA

Trash Can: Target

Remaking Home | Music Room

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Kaia Calhoun

Remaking Home | Blog Post 2 / 5

The “music room” as I call it, or Josh’s office, was the last room I finished. So, naturally it is the second room I feature 😉 I figure I have to save the studio for last, it is sort of the capstone of the whole ordeal after all!

I puzzled over the music room for months. When I started the project in October I did my first rearrange of the house which left the music room in a state of disarray. It was the room that got everything I didn’t know what to do with. Several rearranges and three different paint jobs later I finally came up with the set up below.

I set out to make the music room a place where Josh could do his work, play keys, play drums, and listen to records.

Wall Colors…

Light Blue: Old Pickup Blue (Benjamin Moore)

Orange: Custom color (Sherwin Williams)

The Stuff…

Desk: Calhoun family heirloom (Josh’s grandpa made it)

Record frames: Urban Outfitters

Guitar: hand-me-down from my mom

Hamper: T. J. Maxx

Rustic wooden frames: Hobby Lobby

Rug: Urban Outfitters

Remaking Home blog posts to come…

the studio
a summary (including the kitchen and bathroom)
before and after pictures

Other Remaking Home blog posts…

Remaking Home | Living Room

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Kaia Calhoun

Remaking Home | Blog Post 1 / 5

Back in early November I was struck by an epiphany. Up until that point Josh and I had spent a lot of time in prayer about our living situation and thinking it was getting close to time to move again. Instead, God answered our prayers by giving me a vision for our home that included the things we were asking Him for.

Josh had been gone for a day or two when the Remaking Home idea came to me. It all started with a vision for A Sunshine Moment Photography Studio. Because I was committing to a studio I suddenly had to up the quality in the rest of the house. In order for my clients to get to my studio space they were going to have to pass through our living room. And lets say they had to tinkle, in order to get to the bathroom they would have to pass through the living room, the kitchen, and the bathroom. Two rooms untouched right? Wrong. I also needed storage shelves for all my new equipment so I looked to the otherwise unusable porch space. Finally, with one room remaining and completely disheveled at this point, we decided to convert that into Josh’s studio so he could set up his drum kit.

The Living Room was step one in the process, mostly because it was the easiest to work with. The remake consisted of touching up one wall and repainting the other three, opening the space up, incorporating a new bookshelf, de-cluttering surfaces, dressing the walls, ditching the junk, and adding some aesthetically pleasing nicknacks for a final accenting touch.

Main points of interest…

Bookshelf
Wall of Us
Wall Colors
Wine Bottles as Vases
Antique Chandelier
Wooden bird cage

Wall of Us: every year Josh and I get pictures taken of us right around our anniversary.

I got this chandelier from my Grandma Hagberg. She has several of these in her summer home and bequeathed one to me last summer when I visited. It came to me looking pretty shabby (before and after pics later) so I cleaned it up and gave it a new paint job. I also ripped out the wiring and converted it to a candle chandelier.

Those double doors are a friends and family favorite. When we were considering moving into this lower level house apartment all doorways were open. I told our potential landlord that we loved the place but couldn’t move in unless we had doors for the bedrooms. He found the rustic set hiding in the basement and the darker set at an antique store. He was going to refinish the rustic doors but we asked him to keep them as is 🙂

The stuff…

Corner shelf: gifted by Grandma Lu
Rug: IKEA
Entertainment center: gifted by Deedee
Bookshelf left: gifted by Grandpa Bud
Bookshelf right: gifted by Mom and Dad Calhoun
Wingback chair: IKEA
Loveseat: Target.com
Blue wall color: Seaworthy by Sherwin-Williams
Green wall color: Hearts of Palm by Sherwin-Williams

Remaking Home posts to come… Music Room, A Sunshine Moment Photography Studio, A Summary (including bathroom, kitchen, and storage room), and Before & After