Over the past couple of months, Corey and I have been slowly but surely updating our guest bedroom. We got a new bed, painted some stripes on the wall, added some bright (temporary) night stands, and made some easy-but-awesome DIY silhouette art. Last time we chatted about it, it was looking like this.

Notice anything particularly awful about the room? No, I’m not talking about the bedding that totally doesn’t go in the room at all (though that needs to be fixed, stat). I’m talking about that awful, atrocious, so-ugly-it-hurts-my-eyes ceiling fan. It’s bad, right? I don’t even have anything against ceiling fans – I live in Texas, so I straight up love ‘em. I refuse to have a bedroom without one, and we rely very heavily on the ceiling fans in our house throughout the summer months. But this one just had to go.

Thankfully, this room just so happens to be right across the hall from our AC unit and has the shortest duct line to get to it, so this room stays very cool throughout the year. Meaning, I could actually have a room in my house that doesn’t have a ceiling fan! When Corey and I began working on this room, we quickly established that a ceiling fan was not going to be necessary and that we’d just replace it with a small table fan somewhere in the room. Once we’d decided that we were going to ditch the ceiling fan, we had a whole host of options open to us – but we quickly narrowed it down to nothing too feminine (most of our guests are either single males or couples, so guys need to be able to be comfortable in here too!) and something relatively light and airy to balance out all of the graphic black (and green) accents that we plan on incorporating throughout the room.

What did we finally decide on? These super cheap, super cute Väte paper lanterns from Ikea.

(Väte paper lanterns, via Ikea)

They don’t actually come with any lighting, but with a few quickie light kits (also from Ikea), it was no problem to turn them into exactly what we wanted.

The light kits from Ikea came with ceiling hooks, so all we had to purchase were the paper lanterns and three light kits to go along with ‘em. I will give the disclaimer that our method for this project is not the safest, smartest way to go about it, but it is the cheapest. Please don’t attempt this one for yourself unless you’re confident you know what you’re doing with light fixtures and you’re relatively comfortable messing around with the electrical side of your home. Corey and I have installed and tweaked enough light fixtures that we were comfortable taking it on this way, but if we hadn’t known exactly how to make it work, we would have coughed up the extra cash for a light fixture that is intended to be hardwired (as opposed to the cheap-o Ikea ones, which are technically plug-in light kits).

Now that I’ve given my little public service announcement, let’s get on with how we actually did this. We started off by playing around with the configuration of the lights until we figured out approximately where we wanted to place them on the ceiling. Then, we screwed in the hooks that came with the light kits and temporarily hung up the lights (without altering the light kits at all yet) so we could measure where we wanted to cut.

(Apologies for the awful lighting, we were scrambling to finish this on Monday evening so I could post about it today!)

Once we knew exactly where we wanted everything to hang, it was time to chop off the extra cord (making sure to un-plug any light fixtures you may have plugged in, of course!)…

And expose the inner wire. Corey did this by cutting back the black insulation very carefully with a knife, and then stripping the coating off of the inner wires so that the actual copper wires were exposed. He was very careful to wrap any areas that he might have nicked with the knife with electrical tape so we could be positive that it was all protected. When he was all finished, it looked something like this.

From there, it was just a matter of hanging the light fixture like we would any other. Black wire goes with black wire, white wire goes with white wire!

And then? We had finally gotten rid of the ugly, straight-from-your-grandma’s-house fan and upgraded to something much more fitting for the direction the room is going.

I’m so happy to finally be rid of that fan, and I think these add a fun, unique touch to the room! I love that they’re slightly industrial, thanks to the exposed black wire, but the bright white color and soft texture add a softness to it that fits in the room nicely.

The room as a whole is looking a bit feminine as of right now, but once we add in some non-floral bedding, a few black accents, and some more graphic art, I’m hoping it will turn out to be a nice mix of girly and just plain comfortable and inviting.

Oh, and here’s a shot of the room with the lights on, so you can see how nice and pretty the glow is. The light bulbs we currently have in the lanterns are way higher than we’d like them to be – all we had in the house were 60 watt bulbs – but we plan on switching ‘em out for a much lower wattage so the lighting isn’t quite so intense.

I’m pleased with how the room is coming together so far! I find it slightly sad that the most completed room so far in our home is the one we spend the least amount of time in, but at least our guests will be happy!

Have you ever altered a light fixture to make it exactly what you want? Anyone else ever work more on a guest room than any other room in your home?

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I just wanted to pop in this morning to let you know that I’m over at Hyphen Interiors today talking about how much our style has changed from the old duplex in College Station to our house now. It’s pretty insane to look at the photos next to one another and realize how incredibly far our design sense has come!

Be sure to check it out, and while you’re there have a look around at Kristy’s blog – if you haven’t read all about her painted chair, then you NEED to see it! It’s one of my favorite projects I’ve ever seen!

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Okay, y’all, I was totally planning on coming back and posting today, but I had asked my sister to write a guest post for me and she came through in an amazing way. I didn’t want you guys to miss out on her awesome projects, so I had to share! I’ll be back tomorrow, but until then I hope you enjoy this post and leave my sister lots of love, because she doesn’t have a blog you can visit (although she absolutely should)!

Hey Love & Renovations readers – my name is Jennifer and I’m so excited to be guest posting for Amanda today! She’s pretty amazing (but y’all already knew that) and I’m lucky to call her my sister and BFF.

Now I need to be up front with you guys and lay it all out on the line. I am NOT a blogger. I am an avid blog reader, and I love me some DIYs and I absolutely LIVE for Before and Afters. However, the process of recording what I do on a daily or even weekly basis with actual pictures and words and stuff …. Yeah, fail.

So, while I was honored when Amanda asked me to do a guest post, it made me kinda nervous, too. You see, I have completed a bazillion projects around my house in the last 6 months, and I could walk around and take pictures of all the Afters, but to me it never means as much unless I can see the Befores. I began the process of digging through my camera, photo folders, and cell phone to try and see if somehow I managed to capture ANY of the work I’ve done along the way. I did come up with some things, but here comes the part where this non-blogging girl begs your forgiveness for the grainy, un-staged mess of pictures I am about to present. I totally give props to y’all for the effort it takes to get this stuff put together. And am laughing to myself about that one time I had an urge to start my own blog …

HA HA HA ha

*ahem*

… and then I came back to reality. Today’s post will have to suffice.

First up, I have this desk purchased from my love, Craigslist. (Seriously Craig, I know I say terrible things about you sometimes and curse how hard it can be to find what I want, but I heart you. Xoxo)

BEFORE:

It was my first refinishing project *evah* and I totally love how it turned out. We sanded, primed , and then spray painted the desk with Krylon Bauhaus Gold. The handles were spray painted with a gloss white and then we put a nice coat of satin poly on the whole thing. Now it serves as a nice home for my sewing machine. Sigh. Still in love with it after all this time.

AFTER:

Next we have my dining room table and chairs, which are by far the worst example of before pictures ever taken in blogging history, but it’s one of my favorite afters, so it got included.

BEFORE:

The table is shown without any of the leaves and I was actually taking the picture of my chevron rug to send to Amanda. Luckily the recently acquired table made it into the background of the pic. There is also a close-up shot of the chairs which were HIDIOUS when I got them, 50+ years of grime and grossness. But that SHAPE – couldn’t resist!

Once again, we set in with the sanding, priming, and painting. And in the case of the chairs sanding, sanding, crying, cursing, sweating, sanding. Honestly, they were such a pain. But worth it …. I think ….. okay, maybe I shouldn’t revisit how much trouble they were. After all the refinishing was done on the chairs, I replaced the cushions and recovered them in a faux-ostrich for easy clean-up.

And here is the AFTER:

And last but not least is my copy-cat chair. I saw this chair on the Crate and Barrel website and fell in love with the Dwell
Studio fabric it was covered in.

Thanks to fabric.com (seriously the BEST) I scored a few yards of the exact same fabric and then began hunting for a
chair to cover with it. Good old Craig came through for me again with this beauty –

BEFORE:

It was in great condition and the style was similar to what I was looking for. I’m kind of obsessed with the mirrored furniture trend, but don’t want to deal with the possibility of breakage or fingerprints – not to mention the fact that I might be totally over it next year. So, after I stripped the old fabric, I sanded the wood and followed it up with a coat of gray primer. Then, I used a silver metallic glaze over the gray to give me the bit of bling I wanted without any risk or commitment. I finished it up by recovering with my Dwell fabric and sewing a new seat cushion cover.

And here is the AFTER:

Thanks so much for letting me visit the world of blogging, and while I don’t have a cool site to direct you to, maybe my sis will let me visit every once in a while. *wink*

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Happy Friday! I hope your week was wonderful, and I hope you’ve enjoyed all of these guest posts! Today’s the last one, and it’s an amazing Friday Finds post from my blogging BFF, Mandy (at Married up with Wine). Mandy’s blog is incredibly well-written, humorous, and just all around awesome. I was so happy when she said she wanted to do the Friday Finds post, because I knew she’d come up with something amazing, and she absolutely didn’t disappoint! Enjoy her post, check out her blog if you haven’t already, and be sure to meet me back here Monday when my blogging break will be over!

Hey everyone! I’m Mandy, otherwise known as Mrs. Socks on Weddingbee, and I’m so happy that I could write this Friday Finds post for Amanda. I’m now writing on my blog Married up with Wine about my adventures, travels, and upcoming move to Spain! Every Friday, I’m blown away by some of the pieces that Amanda finds on Craigslist. Generally, I’m not the type that likes to hunt for things (keep me away from the bargain bins) but I wanted to give this a try to see what I might be able to find if I just looked a little harder for “diamonds in the rough.”

I was pleasantly surprised with some of the finds I have to show you! All of these were taken from Philadelphia’s Craigslist since that’s the area where I live. If I weren’t moving so soon, I might snatch up one or two things myself!

Teak Table & Chairs: $200

I really loved this table. I think it’s beautiful & simple, but I could probably do without the chairs. Also, I think the awesome wine rack that the people have in their house is what attracted me to the picture 

Rustic Armoire: $250

I could just see a farmhouse style kitchen having this armoire as a china cabinet. It looks incredibly solid–probably quite a chore to physically move it to its new home!

Mid-Century Chair: $65

I found myself incredibly attracted to mid-century items that had clean lines & simplicity in function. This chair definitely fits that bill.

Card Catalogue: $400

Okay, maybe its just because I’m a book nerd, but a card catalogue?? Amazing! I can see this being used as a knick-knack drawer, a space to fit craft supplies, or even as a cool jewelry/accessory case for those girls who have accessories overflowing from every surface 

Everything in this picture is for sale: Chair, side table, owls, lamps, etc: Price unknown

Okay, this woman seriously needs to just open up a vintage store, STAT. She has an awesome vintage collection (see the post if you don’t believe me) and I’m very tempted to make an appointment to see some of her items in person. I particularly loved this high-back chair & the owl figurines. The pheasant/turkey fabric might not be my style, but I think it’s kitschy and fun!

A closer look at the side table: Price unknown

Here’s a close-up of that side table in the previous photo. Isn’t it gorgeous? It’s one of those pieces that I have no idea what it would cost…it could be $200, or it could be $700! It makes it difficult to commit to going to see it if I don’t know the price range of some of these items.

Vintage Chaise Lounge Chair: $700

Okay, this one deserved a mention because I can tell that if it was reupholstered in a fabric that didn’t make you want to claw your eyes out, it could be a very cool piece. It’s visually interesting, but perhaps a tad overpriced.

Mid-Century Wooden Desk: $700

I dug this desk in a major way: again, the simple lines and functionality of it drew me in.

70′s Pop Art Dresser: $400 

Okay, I saved the best (most interesting?) for last. I ADORE this dresser. I don’t think I’d use it in the bedroom, and it definitely doesn’t go with anything in my house, but I think I could find a place for it in my dream house  I could see it as a cool TV stand, an entry/foyer table, or a buffet in a very hip dining room. Seriously. Love this.

And that’s all for you today, friends! I had a very fun time writing this post & I learned a few things about the kind of furniture I’d be more likely to look for the next time I’m furniture shopping. I’m hoping that I get to do some decorating in our home in Spain so I can start building a collection of pieces I love, rather than just the big-box warehouse type furniture we currently have. Feel free to follow along with our adventures on my blog Married up with Wine!

Have a happy weekend!

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Good morning! Today’s post is coming at you from Bird (at Queer Skies Ahead). Bird’s blog is one of my favorites because she is a dog-training goddess and has talked a lot about dealing with dogs with social anxiety (which my own dog, Ranger, has a LOT of). I seriously wish I could pay her to move to Austin and help me help Ranger get over his issues. So, I was really excited when Bird said she wanted to write a post about defective dogs, and I couldn’t wait to see what she came up with – I hope you enjoy!

When Amanda told me that she was looking for guest posts that aligned with the general theme of her blog, I got really excited. Most of the blogs I read are about weddings (I am married and mostly done with that), food (I always like the idea of cooking, but rarely actually do), babies (not having any), or buying and fixing a home (we are happily renting a house, and still in the process of unpacking. Yes, three months later. That’s how we do it, thankyouverymuch.). The point is, I enjoy reading these blogs but don’t have much to contribute to most of these topics.

But Amanda and I have something in common: we both have defective dogs (e.g. awesome dogs who need a lot of love and maintenance). So that is what I am going to talk to you about today: my defective dog, and how she got better.

our family, minus the Prettiest Cat, who refuses to pose for the press (photo by E. Leonardsmith)

I had been dreaming about getting a dog since age 2, and when I found myself in dog-friendly housing, I couldn’t wait another minute. Daphne was the first dog I looked at, and she was mine within two days of meeting her. She had spent the first six months of her family life living with four kids all under the age of five, and they had returned her to the shelter the day before we met her. She had never been properly socialized, and she had spent her time with them being crated all night and tied up in the yard all day. You guys, she was afraid of mailboxes.

the totally unflattering picture of her from the shelter's website

At first, I was in dog-owner-honeymoon bliss. Sure, she did refuse to go up the stairs, but I didn’t mind carrying her; what’s 50 pounds if it’s only one flight of steps? And, okay, she wouldn’t let anyone in my household touch her, but truth be told, I was living in a co-op and the people were pretty quirky. Maybe they just weren’t dog people?

I got away with a lot by simply managing her. She learned to go up and down the stairs, we avoided my housemates, and I took her to a park early in the morning and late at night, so she could walk there off-leash. We worked around her problems, but we didn’t fix any of them.

Does this face make her LOOK like a handful? I say no. (Did I mention this would be a picture-heavy post? It will.)

Then we moved and had to start walking her on leash, and all of her issues became more pronounced. She began to lunge at dogs across the street, people passing by, trucks, cats, and inanimate garden decorations. Once, a man was walking towards us on the sidewalk, so I pulled Daphne into a driveway to get out of his way; rather than passing us, he walked up to me and said, “Is your dog friendly?” I smiled (because it’s the polite thing to do!) and said, “No, she’s not.” Apparently he didn’t believe me, because he reached down to pet her… and she lunged at his face. Luckily, I was prepared, but let this be a lesson to all people who don’t want to listen to the owners: if the owner says the dog is not friendly, don’t try to pet it if you value your limbs.

The final straw was when she bit my cousin. Yes, folks, my dog, the one that I snuggle with and whose face I kiss and who I swore would someday get better, that dog – she leaped over to bite a child. She tore his shirt but not his skin. Long story short, it looked unprovoked, but it turned out he had been harassing her all day when I wasn’t around. In this situation, it probably seemed to her that she had to defend herself.

obviously not vicious

There are two good things that came out of this scary story: 1. A reminder that our dogs’ perspectives and interpretations are very different from our own, and 2. A trip to a veterinary behaviorist.

The trip to the behaviorist was sort of a disaster in that it took four hours, Daphne was incredibly stressed out, and I didn’t especially like the $100/hour veterinarian we saw. But what they told us was (almost) worth the money. First, they said that there are different “levels” of bites and that a dog that bites but does not break skin is not a huge concern; rather, the dog is expressing itself but is showing immense control. A dog that doesn’t break the skin is saying, “I am very upset, something is scary/stressful/awful and I want it to go away, but I’m not going to hurt you.”

Second, they told us, “Your dog is clearly very attuned to you, and you are doing things right.” While it was frustrating to have to pay $400 to hear that, it was comforting to hear real live professionals tell us we weren’t failures, that our dog wasn’t doomed, that there was hope (and a lot of it!).

Since that visit a year ago, a lot of things have changed. Daphne turned 3, and this marked a major shift in our life with her. She has mellowed out a lot. We moved out of our apartment and into a house, so we no longer have strangers on our front porch the way we did when we had to share an entryway. And I have worked with her.

Demonstrating an impressive "Wait" (those are DELICIOUS KIBBLES and she cannot have them until we "release" her).

The work isn’t always focused on a problem. Yes, we work on using the cue of knocking on the door to mean that she should go to her crate. We work on tossing treats whenever guests came over. These things have helped. But also? We work on fun things, like spinning in a circle or taking two steps back or picking her toys up on command. We work on things that were interesting to me, and because of that work, she looks to me for direction more and more. We continue to work, even if it’s only for ten minutes a day for a few days each week, and our patterns of communication are getting more reliable.

This is not to say that things are perfect. She doesn’t always come when called, but she’ll come eventually. She still barks like crazy when someone comes to the door, but we can put her in the back yard. She’s not all fixed, but you know what? She is manageable. We can have guests come over, and we know the right pattern to have her asking for belly rubs within 10 minutes (as long as they follow our rules).

If they don't follow the rules, they get crated. (Just kidding. The crate is NEVER used for punishment.)

Out of all of this – the money and the stress and anxiety around not having the “perfect family dog” I always pictured – we have found a lot of good. We are incredibly grateful for the well-behaved dog we finally have. And I have realized how much I love training and teaching and (shocking, after reading this) talking about dogs, and I am going to school for behavior analysis in the fall.

If you have a dog like this, here are some things you should remember:

• It’s not your fault, and you are not the only one. It’s lonely to be the owner of a high-maintenance dog (HMD), because most of us HMD owners hole up in our houses and don’t take our dogs out. But we’re out there! Look online, go to the dog parks early in the morning or late at night, and you will meet other people experiencing the same things.
• Your dog is a dog and thinks like a dog. Example: if your dog barks at cars, it’s probably because he thinks cars are scary, and barking makes the cars go away. We humans know that the cars are driving by whether or not your dog barks, but to him it seems like the cars leave every time he barks! It’s like magic!
• It’s not your fault if your dog is neurotic/a handful/difficult, but you can do things that will make things easier on your dog! The work is definitely worth it in the end. It would be nice if we could all have magically well-behaved dogs that came 100% of the time we called them – but that’s pretty unlikely. And there’s something to be said for the satisfaction you get from seeing your dog do something that you know you taught it.
• You are responsible for keeping your dog safe from the world. It is tough to say to people, “No, you can’t pet my dog.” Especially if your dog is cute, and it probably is (have you SEEN Ranger? ADORABLE.). But often this is the safest thing for everyone, and if your dog can see that people can approach and walk away without trying to touch him, then he’ll probably relax a little more with lots of people around. Some good “no” responses are, “Sorry, we’re training right now,” “He’s working, but you can give him a treat,” “You can’t pet him, but you can ask him to sit and give him this cookie.” I recommend not saying things like, “He’s nervous” or “He’s scared,” because people are nice and want to comfort scared and nervous dogs. Often by hugging them. This is not a good solution.

Since Daphne joined our family, we have come and long, long way, and I am proud of the dog she has become and the dog owner I have become. Over the past couple of years, I have only gotten more excited to work with people and dogs with, ahem, issues. I can’t wait for school to start, and in the meantime, I am doing some online consults with people who want training tips and assistance. If you have any questions about issues with your dogs, I would love to discuss them with you!

happy. (photo by E. Leonardsmith)

What are the best dog training and managing tips you have? What has worked well to help you live better with your dog?

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