Studio B

Studio B is looking for a family!  

(Someone who likes to garden might enjoy adding landscaping, what a difference that would make!)

If you or someone you  know might be "it" then please contact your realtor and have a look round.

More information.

Happy Trails, 

(and end of commercial!)

-Carmen Rose

PS, someone please buy my house?  LOL!

Studio B Transformations Kitchen

When I met this house, the first thing I fell in love with was the kitchen.  And yes, that's what it looked like when I walked in. 

Look at all that space! Imagine what you could cook in a kitchen this size...

And those two HUGE pantries!

And vintage 1975 everything!

but it was wide open to the family room, there was space for dogs, cats, kids on bikes... lol! 

I started with a coat of paint for the walls and trim.  All the lighting was replaced.  

The chandelier was a lovely addition over the breakfast table.

But still... no matter what changes occurred... THAT FLOOR ruined everything.  

So... lots of sore knees later I had installed a brand new floor.  

A couple coats of finish and the floor looked amazing in the morning sunlight streaming in the windows.

My mom helped me paint the uppers white, all the lowers a charcoal gray.  (The right side was unfinished in that photo above, finished now.)  It's an updated look from the all white kitchen, and much more practical.

I added polymer clay hardware (which I'll take with me)

Installed a new stainless steel hood and great range with bells and whistles.  

These delivery guys were great!  They got it in without a single scratch to the floor, and perfectly level.

A new faucet and tract lighting over the counter facing the family room (where I dyed a bunch of fabric that day)

I painted the inside of the pantries white and added more shelves to better use the space.

The second smaller pantry became a home office.

I liked this little cubby, a great spot for my favorite cookbook and some artwork.

 Lots of room for any hobby or collection you can imagine.

And beautiful morning sunshine.

This may have been my favorite room in Studio B.  I had a glass glazing studio there as well as my soap making studio.  But it's time for new people and new endeavers for this house.

The listing.  Please feel free to pass this link to someone who might need a great home in the area.
The price is low, the time is right to snatch up a great house at a great deal!

Happy Creating,
-Carmen Rose

Studio B Transformations Family Room & Deck

I never really did that much with the Family Room, the next big project would have been to replace the carpet.  But here are a few photos of the room just to give you a feel for the size of the room and the possibilities.

This is how the room looked when I saw it the first time.  Even the dark paneling could not cover the fact that it was a huge room with lots of light and an amazing view out over the golf course.

I took down those grandma curtains first and updated that light fixture.

We sanded, primed and painted those paneled walls.

The room has an intercom terminal and dedicated thermostat.  I loved the zone heating options on this house!  And of course it's wide open into the kitchen and we added tract lighting above the bar in between.

So after the paint dried I added some shelves and painted the walls behind them the blue from the kitchen to unify the rooms some.  But the dark fireplace was still too dark and overwhelming in the room.

So I carefully stained the brick and was very pleased with how it turned out. It brightened up the room a great deal, a good coat of masonry paint in white would work wonders in my opinion. And a simple mantle.  Oh it was wonderful to have a fire in there in the midst of snow storms!

I changed the window treatments to ones that showed off my ever changing collection of art glass.  The sun came through there in the evenings and just made my glass glow, I loved that!  And in the evening with guests we'd light the candles in the sconces and they looked so pretty.

And just outside the sliding glass doors is the roomy back deck.

I kept a bowl of bird seed for the guests who liked to drop by.  They were fun to watch!

I think this deck was one of my favorite features of this house.  I grew veggies and an herb garden here and made pizza and pretty much anything else on the grill.  There simply is no better place to be in the cool of a summer evening.

The listing.  Please feel free to pass this link to someone who might need a great home in the area. 
The price is low, the time is right to snatch up a great house at a great deal!

Happy Creating,
-Carmen Rose

Birthday Week Adventures

I had one of the most delightful birthday weeks EVER! I'll tell ya, I highly recommend turning forty mumble with some excellent friends!  I spent some time with my friend and her family who live near DC.



The food was amazing!  We feasted (this doesn't include eating out where I must have forgot my brain because I don't have photos of the restaurant food!  O Bother!!)

I enjoyed her creativity a great deal, aren't these little jello bugs the cutest thing ever?! She made the jello in an egg carton! =)

We had a lovely time at an art museum in DC, I took a few photos of my favorite things.

Sometimes it was the words more than the artwork:

Or a quote included as part of an exhibit:

This one just fascinated me!  I just LOVED it SO MUCH!

And a huge installation of the map of the US.  This is just before I set off the "You are too close to the artwork" detector thingi.  Oopsy!  It was cool, there were so many screens and each state had video on a loop that had to do with that state specifically.  It was a fascinating piece.

And we had to get a photo of me with all the Steelers stuff (this trip was the week before the super bowl) because my friends are raving Packers fans! 

Which is a good thing, because the Packers won! And what a great game it was!  

I loved my adventure, I have the best friends a forty mumble woman could ever hope for!

 And while I was there she taught me the art of Kumihimo ~ ancient Japanese braiding. 

Now THAT is fun!

And who doesn't need another new art media?

LOL!

Happy Trails to you,

-Carmen Rose

Studio B Tranformations Bathroom

The bathroom was transformed, it took some work but check out the process:  Everything was vintage 1975! There were various colors of green in this bathroom, from the avocado tub, to the multicolored floor, to the moss green counter top… and then the gold walls.  I gave it a big face lift!

After:

I love the great shower curtain from Marimekko.
And all the gold paint had to go! I chose a shade of green that would tie the other greens together and give an updated look.
I picked out a new faucet and hardware for the vanity. (Can you tell I have a thing for fleur de lis?!) I painted the vanity and all the trim in a lovely clean ultra white. I removed the hinges and rattle canned them white. My STBX installed GFI outlets and changed the switches and recepts to white with white plates.
He also removed the old lighting and put in track lighting, with two pendants lights and some spots. I love how the glass shades echo the black lines in the shower curtain and I love the flexibility of track lighting spots.
I loved the new TP holder, just another nice detail. This room has it's own thermostat and intercom terminal.  I could listen to my ipod in any room of the house. The "towel rack" for towels, the lighting for artwork...I'm wishing I had photos of the large bathroom closet but I don't.  It is huge!


It looks nice when dressed up with some artwork and pretty white towels.  The track lighting really works to great advantage in this room.

The new bracket-less shelves lend themselves to a great collections of pretty things.

This was one of my favorite transformations in Studio B.  Now it's time for someone else to make their mark on this great house.  If you or someone you know might be interested in more info on purchasing this house, please let me know.

Happy Creating,
-Carmen Rose