A DIY remodeling feature Houston House & Home November 2011 Issue
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house& home | November 2011 | house andhomeonline.com 20 before & after When I first met Catherine and Alejandro Araiza in 2009, I was enthralled by the resilience of this young couple with two small children. Readers may recall The Araiza’s story of their kitchen reconstruction from “Changes In The Wind,” Houston House & Home, March 2011. During Hurricane Ike, a neighbor’s very tall pine tree crashed diagonally through their small home all the way to the foundation, narrowly missing both sleeping children and parents. As the eye of the storm passed overhead, the couple managed to wake the children, climb over the tree inside their home in pouring rain and escape to Catherine’s mom’s dry and safe home down the street. The Right Touch of Red
Transcript
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before && after
When I first met Catherine and Alejandro Araiza in 2009, I wasenthralled by the resilience of this young couple with two small children.Readers may recall The Araiza’s story of their kitchen reconstruction from“Changes In The Wind,” Houston House & Home, March 2011.
During Hurricane Ike, a neighbor’s very tall pine tree crashed diagonally
through their small home all the way to the foundation, narrowly missingboth sleeping children and parents. As the eye of the storm passed overhead,the couple managed to wake the children, climb over the tree inside theirhome in pouring rain and escape to Catherine’s mom’s dry and safe homedown the street.
The Right Touch of Red
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AFTER: By increasing the size of the enter-tainment wall and painting the shelves thesame color as the wall, the large bookcasenow blends into the wall. Careful furnitureplacement allowed room for a large tree andplenty of gifts with adequate space to walkthrough the room.
BEFORE: Storage was a big issue in thissmall open plan. By keeping the floors natu-ral in tone and darkening the walls the roomfelt larger.
BEFORE
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Living in an apartment while construction workers put their flattened homeback together, Catherine called me (after a referral from family friend andclient, Fritzy Dean) to help her select finishes and colors and redesign theirhome.
“I needed someone to quickly read my style and help make decisions whichwere just overwhelming for me. You were very knowledgeable and methodi-cal,” she said. “I was so relieved after our first visit because I knew you would
AFTER: Decluttering the view of thebackyard from the dining room andarranging the table near the window,but not against it allowed a spaciouswalkway to the hallway and room forthe family to actually use the table.
BEFORE: The cluttered backyard wasvisible through the large dining win-dow and needed simplifying to makethe spaces flow.
BEFORE
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make this process easier and that we would come out with a much nicer projectthan we could have conceived on our own. Your experience and creativity gave us somany more options to consider and you were willing to work with our small budg-et,” Catherine explained.
TIP: When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. A devastating storm likeHurricane Ike opens the door to make changes and improvements.
Catherine and Alejandro’s living/dining room is a small, open space and it isalways a challenge to squeeze in a large Christmas tree. She loves Christmas andtreasures her collection of tree ornaments, always a big highlight for the children.The couple loves a classic holiday look, with Nutcracker dolls and a beautiful tree.But the look of her living/dining room is more mid-century Danish modern withaqua accents than traditional red and green, so the two looks don’t necessarily gotogether.
TIP: Red and green can be mixed into an aqua color scheme if done sparingly.Sherwin Williams “Believable Buff” (SW 6120) in a flat latex finish was applied tothe walls.
The same color was used on the bookcase in a satin enamel finish to make theshelves practically disappear into the wall, while the natural color on the oak floorscreated a calm feeling in the open room. “I love the colors—they make me feelwarm and good when I walk into my home and are so much better than renter’swhite,” she said.
Working with what they had, my design assistant Dorenda Longoria and I placeda colorful weaving and iron sleigh filled with holiday balls on the couple’s coffee
AFTER: The top of the credenza was cleared, allowing the holiday cheer of thenutcrackers, candles and snowman to truly shine.
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table from World Market. Beneath the table, the existing area rugfrom Home Depot complements oversized pottery pieces fromJim Romberg, so the colors came together in peaceful harmony.Christmas accessories were also tucked in amongst books andeveryday accessories on the bookshelves.
Catherine was not surprised that my main suggestion was toreduce the holiday clutter and tone things down. The hardestthing to visualize was removing the runner that she had alwaysput on the credenza. “I had way too much holiday stuff piledaround, and you two helped make it look simple, which flowsbetter with the normal look of our house,” she explained.Catherine really liked the way the color red was threadedthroughout the decorations. “You can’t do Christmas without red,in my opinion, and I really liked how you used just enough of itin the poinsettias, candles and cranberries. Not overbearing, justthe right touch,” she said.
Joetta Moulden offers home makeovers using your own home furnish-ings. See more makeovers on her Web site at www.shelterstyle.com, e-mail her at [email protected] or call 713.461.2063.Appointments or referrals booked by November 30 will receive a 15percent first meeting discount. Shelterstyle.com holds a "Pages ofHappiness" rating and, for the fifth consecutive year, a “Super ServiceAward” presented to 5 percent of companies that achieve and main-tain a superior rating on www.angieslist.com.
• Paint consistently gives themost bang for the buck. Paintinga large bookcase the same coloras the wall visually declutters a room.
• Get creative. Inexpensive cranberries can be used to add a holiday touch to a vase of flowers.
• Sometimes the most effectivestrategy is not to buy more furni-ture and accessories for yourhome, but to first rethink thepieces that are already paid for.
