House of the month!

 

Madison Magazine has selected our home as November's House of the Month!!!
Be sure to pick up the latest issue to see the article and awesome photos!
You can also read the article online here:

http://www.madisonmagazine.com/Madison-Magazine/November-2012/Eclectic-Excitement/

Thanks for following our progress with us! Please let us know what you think!

Curb Appeal

 

Before

 

Hello Iconiers!!!

    So it came time to finally concentrate on the front facade!

The photo above shows the before... the rest of this post will show our progress! We are not yet finished, but sometimes it is helpful to see the working transition from boring to fun.  

We started by removing those "not-so-Iconi" shutters and giving the white brick, the trim, and the door some color.

 

    Recognize those "hedges"? They are from our Design MMOCA exhibit. They aren't staying here, you will see them disappear and be replaced as this post goes on. Nothing is set in stone at the Iconi Home. Which, if you've been following, I'm sure you've you realized by now! Its an ever changing process! At this point, the part of our curb appeal that gave us the most trouble is the rock/ mulch area in front of the hedges. If you have any examples of cool landscaping you have done with the front of your house, please share!

 

 

    We moved our lovely (and now fully functioning) mailbox closer to the door. We are able to lock and (more importantly) unlock it now, so it is finally our main mail receptacle.  We tried several different options for what we wanted to put in the corner to right of the door. This was attempt one, but it needed more.  

 

 

We also tried this two level approach. We liked the height it added, so we took it from there.

This picture provides a good look at the... um...lovely original light fixture. Those won't be around long!

 

 

We had this tall black planter, so we traded this for the others we had stacked in the corner and instead spread those three out in front of the front window.

 

    We have plans to beef up the wimpy columns out front with some Charred Wood. We will also put a charred board as a header across the top and add some for detail on the windows. The link gives examples and more information, but it is a really cool process. We will use cedar we found at the Habitat Restore, and basically burn it and then immediately put water on it. This seals it and turns the cedar fireproof as well as giving it a very cool color in grey/silver/black brown tones, or as we like to call it, our favorite Sepia tones!

 

 

This planting done along the sidewalk was added earlier in the spring. We like that it softens the hard lines of the concrete!

 

In this photo, the plants are just sitting in the planters. When planted, they will be in full display and not just peeking out, which you will see in the following photos.

 

 

 

 The next step was creating a planter to introduce another level and a softer material. The wood becomes a nice contrast against the hard cement and stone.

 

 

We filled it with this awesome black mulch!

 

 

We then created an organic shape where we had room. Now the sharp angles don't seem as harsh as they once did.

 

 

 

To be continued... with our Charred Wood Front Post!

 

 

 

P.S. Look at our backyard garden grow!

 

    All the fencing  on the planters is necessary to keep the bunnies out, otherwise they can just hop up there even though they are 2' tall. Everyone loves the garden including them, and as we recently found out, the chipmunks!
    While the bunnies' plans have been thwarted, we found a chipmunk sneaking his way out of the planter with full cheeks the other day. Based on what has been nibbled on; tomatoes, cilantro,... we think they are putting together some really great salsa for their next fiesta!

 

Apparently our parsley planter also doubles as a nursery! Look who we found the other day.

 

The Master Bathroom!

When we first moved into this house we staked out this room as the future master bedroom .We had always talked about having a walkout deck off the master bedroom at our prior home.
We knew we were going to have to make a lot of changes to it, as well as transform the bathroom next to it into a master bathroom and make the deck more private, so we moved into the house's then current master bedroom for the time being. We had priorities, and the kitchen most definitely came before the master bedroom. (if you look back at the kitchen you can easily see why).

Well now, its time has come! This post is about the master bathroom. Next week we will move into the bedroom.

What the bathroom used to look like: 

 

and

What the bathroom looks like now:

So here's what we did!

First of all we messed with the floor plan a tad. In the above picture you see the wall drops back and we placed a cabinet there. There used to be a built in cabinet or should I say a nook with shelves and a pressure rod. Believe me it wasn't anything exciting... made evident by our lack of photos of it. Besides the one of it going away:

  We just dropped back into the master bedroom to both straighten the wall and give us more space in the bathroom. And that is now where a gorgeous cabinet sits!

The cabinet started as this:

We found this gem at the comfy chair consignment.

We transformed it to this...

We painted it to give our find an old look that worked with the bathroom and the rest of the house. The glass was given a distressed mirror coating so that you can no longer see through the panes, but they still feel lighter in the room than a solid door.

For the entrance to/from the master bedroom from the bathroom, we took an amazing vintage door and applied the same distressed mirror finish to it. It is mounted on the bedroom side with the same sliding hardware we used in the living room. We love the sliding doors when you need a door but do not want it swinging into your space it is clean and gives a modern feel.

This wall/ door is the one bumped out and replaced.

Here is the view of the door installation and hardware from the bedroom.

Oh so pretty!!!

Our swivel towel hooks are super cool.

It brings a little spice of modern/industrial into the mix.

The vanity was made from two vintage nightstands with a GORGEOUS piece of granite called "sueded Nambe" to top it off.

Progress shot!

Awesome lines, plenty of storage, and amazing hardware to boot!

We replaced the floor was a perimeter glue vinyl from Armstrong.

The shower became bigger than the last one. It used to end where you see the wall end in the photo above. We bumped it out, and in the space we acquired, were able to add a shelf and a bench in beautiful tile work.

Stay tuned for updates on the bedroom!
We are almost done! Isn't this exciting? You will be able to get another look at our house in the November Issue of Madison Magazine when we are featured as house of the month!!!

Stay cool today! 

Hopefully you will tell us what you think of our progress as you type from your air conditioned room!