I have a lot of people ask me questions about decorating their homes.  Most questions are from people who are afraid to get started.  They don't know how to pull a room together and have all the colors work together.  I don't have it all figured out, but here's how I usually work.

I'm not one of those designers that has it all figured out in my head and can do it in one shopping trip and a couple of days of executing the plan.  I start with what I like and then stand back, see what else it needs and buy the next item.  I'm not afraid to buy 3 things and take 2 of them back that I didn't like.  I like to see things in the room relating to each other.  One of my tricks to matching colors well when I'm shopping later is to find paint color chips that have the main colors of my scheme and I keep those with me in my daytimer.  That way I'm always correct on the color and not relying on my memory.

I start with the toughest item when I do a bedroom -- the bedding.  I'm very picky about bedding so it took me almost a month of looking to find what I wanted.  Once you figure that part out, it's easy to work outwards from there.  Here's my bedroom in progress.  There's still quite a bit to do, but it's at a place that I can show it.

I looked everywhere for the bedding.  I was willing to pay up to about $200 for it.  I finally found the bedding at Ross Dress for Less.  It was ridiculously inexpensive, I think maybe as low as $39.95 for a comforter, two shams, and a dust ruffle.  The exact same set was available next door at Bed, Bath and Beyond for $150.00.  Mine had a couple of small puckers where the stitching wasn't perfect and that was all.  The brown pillow trio was found at Ross also for $19.95 for the three pillows.  The center pillow matches the table runners that I used to create my valances with to top the curtains.  I found a raw silk slip cover ($79 at Ross) that I covered my love seat with and from that point on the room was easy to finish.

I reused the lamps that my grandmother gave me, I found the great chocolate silk shades at Lowe's for $19.95 each and it made them look like new lamps. 

Paint colors are easy to pull out of your bedding.  Sometimes people get set on a paint color and then will have a hard time finding bedding to coordinate with it.  You can actually bring your sham to the paint store and they can mix a color to your exact specs.  I brought home about 50 different colors and then picked the three I thought I would like the best and bought small sample to paint on the wall.  I'm never able to pick wall color from a tiny piece!

Another suggestion, go model home touring and look at the rooms that make you feel good.  What color are the walls?  The furniture?  What style furnishings and types of artwork or pattern in the fabrics.  With cell phone cameras, take lots of pictures and go home and duplicate it!  Take a good close up image of the paint to try to match it later.

I love to mix woods.  Because of how awful our dust is I like "dust colored" furniture, LOL!  Antique English Pine is my favorite, but I love a thrown together look and not a "matchy-matchy"one.  The light and dark woods work well here in this room because I'm using the chocolate brown as my accent color.

When you mix objects to create an interesting decor area, uneven numbers look best.  Mix heights and textures.  Don't be afraid to experiment or even tear out a magazine picture and try to duplicate an arrangement that you like.  It's easier than you think!  TJ Maxx has awesome decor items for a song, it's one of my favorite places to shop for them.  In my room I just reused items I already had around the house in my bedroom.

I still have crown molding and baseboard to add.  The ceiling fan is a must as the room is so still, I'll change that out to a much more contemporary look to perk things up.  The carpet is hideous but I'm stuck with it until we're totally finished with all the work in the house so that we don't get it dirty.  At the pace we're going, I think it's be gone by the next  presidential election... maybe... maybe not.... LOL!

Tags: Audrey Jeanne Roberts Home Decor

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Well... it's been a long while since I told you I was going to begin remodeling my bathroom.  It all started with a can of paint that promised I could paint my bathroom cabinets without having to prime or sand.  I decided to put it to the test! 

The paints that I used are part of a furniture, cabinet & trim paint line that has no VOCs (smells and pollutants that fill your home's air after painting), levels to a very smooth finish and has a diamond hard finish. They are called "Canvas Naturals" and are available at Joanne's.  I found them advertised in Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion magazine and decided that if they worked in my bathroom I would tackle painting my kitchen cabinets as well. In the end I was very happy with their paints.  You can see their website AT THIS LINK.  They have wonderful brushes in some great shapes for painting cabinet doors, I loved their triangular shaped brush I used it more than any of the others I had.  There are lots of very fun goodies in their shop. 

In their painting instructions they tell you to test the surface for adhesion before painting -- I didn't on either project and should have.  I painted a table top (not shown) and later it bubbled up because the paint wasn't compatible with the surface.  Now I'm having to resand and repaint -- good lesson here, don't rush ahead, and READ AND FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS!!!   Here's the link to my original post:  LINK TO POST HERE

I can't believe it's been 4 months since I first got the remodeling bug.  My bathroom has an unredeemably ackward arrangement that will have to do until college loans are paid off.  I had to minimize the flaws while spending as little as possible doing it, since we eventually plan to tear it apart and start from scratch.

Here are my bathroom before pictures.

The oak cabinet and doors really closed in on the space, making it seem smaller.  The hideous green carpet -- well it's HIDEOUS and it's carpet in a bathroom so it had to go!  The cream tile is okay, but dated.  My goal was to make it look like it was there on purpose and wasn't something I had to work around.  The shower is in the same tile.  I had to come up with a color scheme that actually worked with said carpet until I can replace it but be a color scheme I wanted to live with in the long run.  Later I'll show the bedroom portion and the bedding that helped me pull that task off.

Here's the after pictures.  I feel like I'm living in a Pottery Barn bathroom, we really love it.  I still have to finish laying the tile in the shower/toilet section of the bathroom, after we replace the toilet.  We discovered it was on its last legs from our hard water so we're ordering the replacement and it isn't here yet. 

The entire budget spent for this so far is probably no more than $300, by the time the toilet comes in and the finishing touches are added it will be over $500-600.  Not bad for a country girl!  The mirrors were clearance at Lowe's $53 each.  The light fixture was only $15.99 at Costco, but I didn't like the globes so I replaced them at Lowe's for $5.98 each.  The faucets will be replaced but hubby and I can't agree yet on the model.  The floor is a porcelain tile (extremely durable)  that looks quite similar to travertine marble.  It was a steal at $0.78 a square foot clearance at Lowe's!!!  I bought enough to do all three of my bathrooms for just over $100.

We recycled the medicine chest by painting it with the same paint and the open shelving unit was purchased for $12.95 at Ross's and painted to match as well.  The cabinet hardware was about $2 per pull at Home Depot and selected to match an existing beautiful medicine cabinet and display unit that is mounted over our toilet (not shown). 

I've laid a lot of ceramic tile in the past, so that was an easy area to economize in, saving the average cost of $3 a square foot for installation.  But even if you have to pay for installation bathrooms can be pretty inexpensive to tile.  I did all the molding work and that was the first time I have ever tried it on my own.  My husband is hmmm... how can I put this kindly... rather "fussy."  I tend to be rather slap-dash, so I took my time, measured 3 times and cut once and he was quite impressed in the end -- though of course he can spot my minor flaws from 100 paces!

Normally, my husband and I would have done this together, but his job takes him away during the week so this is my therapy to keep from going crazy while he's gone. 

One last goody.  Here's a no-sew window topper.  I bought a table runner that was made out of embroidered silk and cut slits on the back side at each top side edge.  I threaded it onto a standard window curtain rod and that was it.  $12.99 at Marshall's.

A hint on working with wall color.  Spend the money to buy a sample size of 2 or 3 colors that you think you might like.  Do a patch on the wall and live with it for a while.  Also, color is much deeper when you see it on a wall than on a little chip.  If you're sure you like a color you might want to go two shades lighter on the color strip!  Paint is very cheap, so if you buy a quart or two until you find the exact color you want you'll do better in the end than being unhappy.

I'll show more later.  I'm also working on laying a mexican saltillo paver floor in the rest of the house and will tackle refinishing the kitchen soon.  As soon as I catch up on the rest of getting my kits up here at Aimee Asher, LOL! 

Thanks for peeking, AJ

Tags: Audrey Jeanne Roberts Remodel Home Decor Decorating Crafting Around The

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The weekend before last my husband and I snuck away for a romantic weekend in Laguna Niguel.  Over that lazy, relaxing time I read Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion cover to cover, sharing much of it with my wonderful husband (did I tell you he was a keeper?!)

On the back page I saw and ad that has totally intrigued me ever since and I thought I'd share with you why.

The ad is for a totally new kind of paint that requires no sanding and no priming to use on almost any surface including metal, acrylic, glossy surfaces and more.    Their website is www.canvascorp.com and the paint sells for just under $18 per quart.  Expensive in comparison to regular paints, but quite inexpensive for what it can do to a piece of furniture or cabinetry.

Now here's why it's so intriguing for me.  You see my house is now approaching 15 years old.  Too new for a practical girl like me to even consider gutting and remodeling, but also too dated for a designer like me to be totally happy with it.  Nowhere in the house is this in evidence quite as much as in the kitchens and bathrooms.

The bones of both the kitchen and baths are quite good.  Well, okay I'll admit the master bath is pretty seriously dorky, but that will have to wait for another day when college loans are paid off!  My kitchen however is extremely serviceable.  The layout of the cabinets is really about as good as it could be in the space, and there's plenty of counter top space (of course for us to fill with clutter!)

The cabinets are basic builder's oak cabinets and oak has to be one of my least favorite woods in the entire world.  I'd love to rip them out and replace them with elegant, expensive cabinetry, but a $50,000 remodel just isn't in the picture and there's no HGTV TV host banging on my door to do a show here.  So what's a girl to do?!

I love cream colored, antiqued elegant English style cabinetry with molding and trims and a nice dark granite counter top for contrast.  I'd love a big farm house sink to go with the terracotta floors I bought 5 years ago and have yet to install.  When I saw this product, the light went off and I think that I could use it to achieve the look I'd like with my existing kitchen cabinets!  And all without having to sand and prime.  If it works as well as advertised it would cut the job down by about 2/3rds the amount of time and energy and effort to accomplish.

I think I might try it first on my master bathroom cabinet so that I can see how well it works on the small scale before attempting such a large project.  I'll let you know and show some pics as I go along.

I'm so proud of myself... I have matured so much in the last 20 years... the last time I got a hankering to remodel my kitchen I got the idea around 7 PM, went to the store bought the materials and started tearing my kitchen apart by 8 PM (much to my husband's dismay LOL!)

Stay tuned!

Tags: Audrey Jeanne Roberts Personal Blog

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WOW!  I am overwhelmed by the support, encouragement and those who are struggling right along side of me. 

I went back and reread my post and realized I wrote it more like "This is exactly where I am today," than "This is where I was last week and what I've overcome."  The later is more accurate.

In all honesty, it is fast slipping behind me like a port of call behind a cruise ship (an appropriate metaphor don't you think?)  I know that the next Island is going to be a terrific one so I'm looking ahead to what is to come rather than behind to what I will miss in some ways and won't miss at all in others :-)

You all are such a blessing!

Hugs, AJ

Tags: Audrey Jeanne's Personal Blog

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Hi all!  Most of you know of course that I have my main blog that YOU CAN FIND LINKED HERE  (www.audreyjeannesblog.com), but since it gets so crowded with new goodies and bringing over the old, I thought I might do a small personal blog here at www.aimeeasher.cm (Aimme Asher Elite AKA The Island).

I will be bringing my art sets here to the Island as soon as Lynnie gets back and can show me the ropes of how to upload, what information needs to be selected for each kit etc.  Oh My Goodness!!!!  When you look behind the scenes here, it's quite complicated!

For those that aren't aware of it, Abigail Scott DESIGN Studio is also coming to The Island (and my blog store).  It is a design studio comprised of myself and my two daughters Jen and Jacqui.  For the full story you can go here

Now on to the personal stuff.  This will probably get a little long, so bear with me :-)  I wanted to share something I've been struggling with this week in the hopes that it might encourage you or someone else struggling similarly.  Without going into details, someone has been causing a great deal of pain.  They have spoken things that are unkind and untrue about me and have acted in a very personally hurtful manner. 

My husband has nicknamed me "Saint Audrey" but I assure you, my thoughts have been anything but "saintly!"  It's easy to have your every waking thought become consumed by thinking about these things.  It's easy to want to strike back, clear the record, stand on your honor and go tell the world why this person is wrong -- but that's the flesh's response.  And I've discovered that when I respond in my natural desires (the flesh) nothing good ever comes of it!

What have you done when someone severely let you down?  What was your response when someone told a deliberate lie or intentionally mislead others about your character and nature?  What do you do if someone has really hurt you and said damaging things about you among your friends?  What do you do when you can't get these things off of your mind and you find yourself obsessing about them?  Have you found a positive way to handle it that moves your forward or just given into the negative and felt trapped by the circumstances?  Here's what God has challenged me to do this week...

SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY:  Matt 5:43-48

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,  that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
NKJV

My inner man cried out "OH GIVE ME A BREAK!  God, you want me to do good to someone who is intentionally doing evil to me?  That doesn't make sense!!! I can't bless them, they'll just keep doing wrong, isn't it my job to protect the world from them! " 

Why does God like to get right "up in our business" with scriptures like this?!  Because He knows that without this principle of doing good to those whe despitefully use us, we will become bitter, angry, self-centered and become captives to our own outrage, pain and unforgiveness.  He does not want us to become like the very person we're fighting against.  His first concern is for "us" rather than "them."

The way my mind works to try to resolve an unresolveable conflict, is to think it over incessantly.  To think through the conversations, my response, what I should have said, what I can't believe the other individual said.  I end up with all of my energy feeding into the negativity and my life begins to suffer because of it.  Once again, this week, the Lord challenged me to take that negative energy and turn it into a prayer of blessing on the individual causing the conflict. 

Now "blessing" them doesn't mean approving of what they've done or wishing wonderful, happy, good things and prosperity on them -- it has a much deeper meaning than that.  Have you ever met a happy, fulfilled, joyous person that is personally attacking others?  Has anyone that is determined to destroy you or your reputations been filled with the peace of God?  Not likely.  They are usually bitter, self-centered, self-righteous and angry at everyone, including God.  They live under a storm cloud and they take it with them where ever they travel.

The way the Lord has taught me to bless this kind of individual,  is to pray that they come to know HIM, and that the broken parts of their nature that allows them to do such spiteful acts would be healed.  He has taught me to pray that every avenue of escape for them, that would lead to destruction would be closed down and that the Lord would direct their path towards Himself.

He has taught me to pray that if they are experiencing any "peace" that is a false peace and will lead to their ultimate destruction that every bit of that peace would be removed and they would feel the full weight of God's conviction on their hearts and souls.  Most of all, as hard as it can be to do, he has taught me TO PRAY FOR THEM when my heart hurts, pray for them when I am upset that my reputation is being trashed, and to pray for them until I find the victory in my own life!

If you are in a similar situation let me encourage you that it is hard, but to not do so is destructive to your own heart and soul.  Bless them, love them whenever and however you can, if you have the opportunity and leave the results up to God.  Sometimes you'll be astonished at the changes in that individual's heart -- most often you may never actually see any results.  Just do the right thing anyway and let God handle them.

In the end you'll be free.  Your own heart will be filled with the peace of God that passes all understanding and God will smile down at you.  You will have blessed His heart that you chose to trust Him with your struggles.

PRAYER:  Oh Lord!  Now you ARE messing with my business!  This is hard stuff.  I don't have the strength or the willpower to bless those that despitefully use me.  You're going to have to give me your strength.  I can't even think of what to pray for this person, you're going to have to give me your ideas. 

Help me to lay down my rights when I've been wronged and to trust that You are capable of defending my reputation when I trust utterly in you.  Set me free from any hint of bitterness or resentment.  Don't let me be taken captive by my own anger, but help me to rise above the circumstances and grow through them.  AMEN

Tags: Audrey Jeanne Roberts Personal Blog

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