"Design Happens"

Laundry rooms are all-too-often neglected spaces in the home, aren’t they? Sure, the laundry room might serve a purely utilitarian purpose, but function can be beautiful, too – right?

A major progress update!

Right! Remember just a few short months ago when I shared our laundry room (almost!) makeover? We’ve been slowly but diligently working away on the space, and thanks to our renovation checklist, we’ve made an organized effort to finish over the next few weeks. First on the list? Tackling our custom vanity, which included a DIY concrete countertop project. And although we’ve worked with concrete before (remember the concrete mantel in our dining room?), we were super nervous to construct something so… intimidating. After all, a countertop needs to be both durable, functional, and (preferably!) beautiful.
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As most of you know, our sunroom has been the biggest current project in the Loechner Lair, and I’m happy to report that after a few snafus and some scheduling conflicts, we now have progress to share (did that rhyme? I think it did!)!:

Well worth the wait!

Yes, that is a fully, 100% drywalled space. Are you starting to envision how beautiful it will be when finished? A vast improvement from the insulated room we shared just over a month ago, yes? We’ve tackled the electrical and finished spraying our insulation, so our renovation goal checklist for the room is coming along just swimmingly.
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Art makes the world go ’round indeed, and today I’ll be sharing how to create a quirky, informal art gallery for that empty wall you’ve been meaning to fill! Bonus? It’ll take just a short afternoon, so you’ve got no excuse not to give it a go!

Curious as to where you can score our art for your own home? I’ve got a source list right here – happy shopping!

Modern pet furniture has always been a hot topic in our home. Ken and I are the type of pet owners who plan our lives around our pups, and our pets are the type of dogs who bask in that delight daily (clearly, we’re in for a surprise when baby comes along this July!). And although we’d love to have gorgeous, modern pet gear sprinkled throughout our home, we’ve found that the majority of gorgeous pet items far exceed our budget.

If you can't find it, why not build it?

Still, I’m to the point where I can no longer look at our dogs’ cheap, plastic-y crate without shuddering. And when attempting to design your home around pets, it’s important you get a bit creative. Naturally, I consulted dear Ken with a conundrum much like my famous dining room table request:

“Can you build Bernie a dog crate that isn’t ugly?”
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See that giant TV on the left? It is about to disappear...

Televisions and entertainment centers are often the biggest eyesores in any space, and our bulky, ten-year-old TV was certainly no exception. (Remember spotting it in our living room makeover?) Still, it was functional and I happen to live with a man who would marry function if he could. Me? I choose form to a fault.
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Chalkboard walls are all the rage, but I knew I wanted something different in our kitchen. And yet, I can’t fight the notion that a message wall is just so darn convenient when tracking schedules, making grocery lists, leaving welcome messages (or, as you’ll see in a few images, professing your never-ending love to your favorite TV network).

The giant before.

January has been a busy month of travel and heavy sunroom updates (drywall is up next!), so we didn’t get as far along on our goal list as we’d liked. We did, however, cross off two items last weekend — both of which happen to lie in the lighting department (one of my favorite parts of any room).

A winter wonderland calls for serious insulation needs.

Well, the weather outside is frightful (I’m still allowed to hum Christmas tunes, right?), so it’s time to think about insulating our sunroom. To be honest, insulation is one of those scary words that sounds so much harder than it truly is — much like furniture plans, mold remediation and wall-paneling. Yet it’s a necessary evil if you live in a city where the above snapshot is your view for a good 4 months out of the year.

Spray foam insulation was the perfect solution for our sunroom.

Ken and I embarked on quite a bit of research before tackling our insulation project, mainly because insulation can be one of three things: (1) pricey, (2) dangerous and (3) very, very time-consuming. We wanted to bypass all of those fears and come up with a solution that would keep the space warm and our tempers cool. Luckily, we learned about spray-foam insulation, which was the perfect route for the sunroom. Because the beams are still exposed and we haven’t yet dry-walled the space, the spray-foam technique is perfect for insulating each nook and cranny.

The process was foolproof and included spraying the insulation, letting it dry for five minutes (at least) and cutting it down so the insulation is flush with the beams (so everything is in ship shape for drywall). Easy peasy, right? If you’re not feeling up to the task yourself, most any insulation contractor can get the job done.

Cutting down the dried insulation...

A surefire way to find out if your home is under-insulated? Check your R-factor, which is a fancy guideline for your area’s insulation needs. We used this R-value calculator to determine our home’s recommended insulation needs and found it to be an excellent guideline when figuring how much insulation to apply to certain areas of our home.

...and finished!

Long story short, a properly insulated home goes a long way in keeping your bills low and your spirits high. We’re already noticing a difference in our sunroom’s comfort level and can’t wait to drywall the space (stay tuned for that reveal in a next few weeks) so it will finally look like a liveable room!

You’re in for a huge treat this week, as Ken and I are going to show you a never-before-seen space in our home! I don’t want to give too much away, so you’ll have to tune in for the surprise reveal…

As you can see, we’re so thrilled! Looks like Rebecca’s new series couldn’t come at a better time for us!

Oh man, I love a good excuse to make a list. What better time to write down our renovation goals than January of this fresh new year? Ken and I have an insane amount of work to do, but we’re also pretty proud of how far we’ve come. Take a look at what’s on our to-do list this year, and be sure to check back every Wednesday as we mark things off.

The dining room, oddly enough, is one of our most finished rooms. Just a few things left to do before we can call it officially done!

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