Last night I was thinking about how much my readers have influenced the design decisions I made for our home. It’s really amazing how much input I get from readers, but beyond that, it’s amazing how talented some of you are. Some of you clearly have talent and experience in areas that I don’t, and it’s been amazing to receive that information and actually put it into motion (or have plans to put those plans into motion in the near future). Here are three areas that readers have influenced in recent months.
Kitchen and pantry
I was really struggling with the idea of ​​cooking. I knew I wanted a new kitchen and I wanted to move the kitchen, but the only thing I could think of was to add a new kitchen. After playing with several ideas, this was the best one I could come up with…
And then several readers suggested moving the kitchen into the current breakfast room and pantry area, but Jenny’s idea of ​​converting those rooms into the kitchen in addition to converting the study bathroom into an easily accessible pantry From the covered parking it was absolute gold. Never in a million years would I have thought of that idea and yet it seems so perfect!
The closet and laundry area
I actually didn’t think I was having problems with this area at all. I had a very clear vision of how this room could be designed, and it made sense to me to align the closet on one wall…
And then put the laundry room on the other wall…
So when Phoebe came with her suggestions, I initially didn’t think it needed any changes. However, the more I looked at it, the more I realized how brilliant its design is. I can’t wait to get started on this room!! Right now, this is the room I’m most excited about.
The driveway
Two days ago, I was outside with spray paint in hand trying to determine how to connect the street entrance to our driveway to the section of driveway on the side of our house. I was sharing on Instagram and was clearly having trouble making it look good. Here’s a screenshot from one of my Instagram stories. You can see how he was sloping the driveway right next to the street.
Here’s another look. Sorry for the bad image. It’s a screenshot from a video and I was looking directly at the sun. But you can see how I got the curve to start almost immediately.
So once again, a reader came to my rescue. She comments under the username Sewducky and it turns out she is a civil engineer. She saw that I was clearly struggling and sent me an email with a description of what I had to do (with technical terms, some of which I missed ), but luckily, she also sent me a drawing. I can follow drawings.
I won’t say they followed their plan exactly. Trying to get these guys to slow down and come up with a plan when they are going full speed ahead to get a job done is quite a task. But they followed the general suggestion and it looks much better than how I sprayed it!
The main tip was to go straight down the first part of the driveway, as if you were going directly to the studio, and then angle to meet the side part.
It looks great and I’m so grateful that she swooped in to help me when I was clearly having a hard time with it.
Those are just the great designs readers have helped me with. There are thousands of other small decisions that you all have helped me with over the years. I feel like I owe them a big party when this is all over!
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 upper that my husband, Matt, and I purchased in 2013. Matt has MS and can’t do physical work, so I do most of the I work at home alone. You can learn more about me here.
