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Hot Water Heater Moved & Installed

December 14, 2015 by CORINNA HENDERSON

One of the single biggest struggles we’ve had since moving into our house in 2012 is having hot water from anywhere in the house. That’s because our hot water heater had always been located in our garage. Our garage is not insulated, it’s not attached to the house, and the temperature is not regulated.

So for most of the cooler months, showers and baths are unbearable. I have arthritis so a hot shower does a lot to help loosen up my joints and so I’ve spent most of the past few winters feeling crippled and curled up in bed.

And even during the warm months, the lines were so far from the house that we would have to waste quite a bit of water before warm water was coming out.

So at the end of last winter, I decided I’d had enough. If nothing else but one things got done in 2015, we needed to move that damned hot water heater into the house.

We have a large pantry and we don’t utilize well so the space was there.

So over the summer we began the process of a bathroom renovation. And part of this renovation involved rerouting lines for the hot water heater (as well as doing some electrical upgrades to accomidate the unit in the house). The joke was on us though, apparently at one point in time the hot water heater was exactly where we requested it be moved- go figure (thank you whoever blew up our budget having that moved back into a sane place).

We are now in December. We’ve been working on this project for 5 months. We are finally finished with the work (minus some storage and decorative stuff in the bathroom, but that’s for another day).

And we have hot water! So not only will we be wasting less water, but I imagine our utility costs are going to lower, too. The unit won’t have to work so hard in the winter and because we’ve upgraded to a newer, more efficient hot water heater, it’s going to run more efficiently on the power it draws.

We’ve installed the Performance Platinum 40 Gal. Medium 12 Year 5500/5500-Watt Elements Electric Water Heater with LCD Touch Control Display (it’s a mouthfull, but with so many different models I wanted to make sure I included the full name) and we have the EcoNet Home Comfort WiFi Module for Select RheemPerformance Platinum Electric Water Heaters. Both are available at The Home Depot.

I couldn’t be a happier person right now. I aim to be a fairly earth friendly person so this situation is ticking off a lot of boxes on my checklist.

I am proud to bring you a collaboration between A Designer At Home and Rheem to bring you real time numbers on whether or not upgrading to a high efficiency unit (and even making the investment to moving a unit to a better suited location) will make a difference in your utility costs.

Over the next 12 months you’ll see a post here on A Designer At Home covering reports of my utility costs versus last year, as well as details about the unit we’re using and the econet system and collaborative initiatives to bring you information on ways to lower your utility costs.

rheem hot water heater tucked into right side of underutilized pantry — There’s even still space above the unit for bulk storage- so it’s a triple win!

I hope you find this collaboration a source of helpful information and that it helps you make decisions on everything as big as units to small changes you can make around your house to make the comfort in your home top notch.

We’re falling right into winter and I won’t be chatting with you much more until after the new year so I wanted to get a head start and share this infographic with you so we can start preparing for the cooler season.

Twig & Glitter Christmas Ornaments

December 12, 2015 by CORINNA HENDERSON

Hey guys!
I have one more ornament tutorial for Christmas Week here at A Designer At Home. And it’s by far my favorite tutorial because it’s free if you’re an avid crafter. It was for me, at least! For a lot of us, a touch of rustic makes it way into our holiday decor and it’s just fitting for the season. There’s probably a lot of dead sticks lying about. At least here in Virginia there’s a plethora of them as the greenery dies off. I scoured the yard for sticks that had a bit of chunk to them but that would still be easy to cut by hand.

Combined with a little glitter I had on hand, spare ribbon, hot glue and spray adhesive, I was able to create ornaments that sparkle and add that rustic factor. Want a break down of how I made them? Here you go-

Twig & Glitter Christmas Ornaments

To start you’ll need a small tree branch or several twigs. Cut them down into smaller pieces.

Start assembling the designs you want. I kept things simple by choosing a basic snowflake shape and picture frame shape. Hot glue your designs in place once you’re happy with them. *You can use dollar store super glues if you don’t already own and don’t want to buy a glue gun (you can get one for less than $5 though!)

Lay your ornaments onto newspaper or any surface that can be sprayed onto freely. Coat the ornaments with a spray adhesive and sprinkle your favorite glitters onto the wet adhesive, allow to dry. *Most dollar stores have a glitter glue than you can spread onto the ornaments (the glitter is fine though and clings to a brush so you may have to do layers)

Personally, I prefer silver, metal ornament hangers versus the green ones on my tree. I always keep at least 1 pack on hand in our Christmas supplies. I pick them up from the dollar store (that’s the third dollar!). Straighten one of the ends into an “L” shape and hot glue it to the back of your ornaments.

Use loops of a pretty ribbon as hangers for the ornaments. Just hot glue the ribbon into a hoop and hot glue it to the back of an ornaments.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial. It’s very easy, but they end up looking so pretty up on the tree! If you like this tutorial, or think someone you know will, please share it via your favorite social media networks!

Gilded Agate Slice Ornament Tutorial

December 11, 2015 by CORINNA HENDERSON

It’s another ornament tutorial today for Christmas week here on the blog. I made these ornaments last year when everyone and their mom was crushing on agate. I think it’s safe to say most of us are still crushing on agate so it felt natural to share that one, especially since it’s one of the handmade ornaments that have landed on my tree this year.

Agate is beautiful hung in front of lights. The rings and colors really light up (no pun intended) and are a really interesting addition to a Christmas tree. And with the variety of sizes and colors available nowadays, they can blend in with the other decor of the season.

Want to know how to make them for your tree? Let’s dive into it.

How To Make Gold Leaf Agate Ornaments

Supplies:

Prepare the agate slices by ensuring they’re clean. A little bit of soapy water should be sufficient. Once completely dry, paint a thin layer of adhesive onto the outer edge of the slice.

Give it a second and fairly quickly press the gold leaf onto it. I think with the edges being rough and a bit porous, the adhesive dried much quicker than it ever has in previous uses. I worked one ornament at a time to prevent the adhesive from drying completely (this happened to me). This is also why I have no during photos, sorry guys!

After getting the gold leaf on one, you can let it sit while you finish up the others. Paint a layer of sealer over top the gold leaf.

Once the sealer has had time to dry, you can go back in and scrape off any sealer and gold leaf that ended up on the face or back of the slice. Most importantly the face, but I set mine in front of lights in the tree and it mattered to me that the back be clear of debris.

Loop an ornament hook through the pre-drilled hole and slide beads onto the hook. You could secure them with a tiny bit of glue, but I left them loose on mine.

If you can place them strategically to hang in front of lights on the tree, you’ll really get some of the veining to pop and the color to stand out more. Our tree is very colorful and gathered this year with no particular theme. So mine are spaced sporadically throughout the tree for a touch of eclectic.

They’re quite fun! Thanks so much for reading and for taking the time to be here today. I’d love to see you make some! If you do, please comment or tag me in the photo on social media.

Thrifted Christmas Ornaments

December 10, 2015 by CORINNA HENDERSON

Hey Guys!

It’s Christmas week here at A Designer At Home so if you’ve missed any of the posts, I’ll leave the links below so you can check them out. Today I’m popping in with a #thriftscorethursday post sharing all of my vintage/second hand ornaments that I’ve picked up from thrift stores and secondhand shops. There’s nothing like a good vintage ornament to bring some originality to your tree. So if you haven’t yet given the thrift store a chance for your holiday décor, definitely swing by before all the good stuff is out.

Christmas Week Line Up

My tree this year is a sight to see. I’ve really thrown in all my personality and flavor. In past years I’ve always aimed to emulate what I’ve seen on Pinterest, but this year I did me. The pickings for vintage ornaments were pretty slim this year, but I did find a couple of ornaments to add to my tree this year.

The first and most exciting is this maroon colored ball with an oil slick look to it. I’m not sure what causes this and I came up quite empty handed searching the internet. I’m probably missing that one keyword that would bring it up. I did find this ornament on etsy with a similar effect, but even that didn’t tell me why or what causes the unique finish.

The only other ornament I thrifted this year were these maroon colored tassels. They were still on their very old cardboard tags and the tag told me these are in fact ornaments (how cool!) and that they’re old as heck.

Unfortunately that is it for ornaments, but I did find one more great fine! I scored this set of 5 wine bottle ties. The maker says Gorham 1831. And the original Kohl’s sticker says it retailed for $19.99. I scooped it up for $4 🙂

And that wraps up this week’s holiday treasures for me. I love seeing what everyone else scores! The #ThriftScoreThursday feed is always full of fantastic treasures. Here are my favorites from the feed recently:

@thoughtsfromalice Sweet, vintage tray from my mom. (More from my living room on the blog and a $500 gift card giveaway! Link in profile.) here’s the link to her blog

@miriams_memories A treasure made by my own grandmother. #thriftscorethursday #crewel # stitchery #crewelembroidery #needlework

@maggieoverbystudios Thrift store ornaments totally don't count as buying "New" ornaments because technically they are old ornaments. Scored these brass deer, wooden bead garlands, and about 50 gold and white ornaments for $9 not feeling guilty at all! #thriftscorethursday #christmasdecor #brassdeer #colddeadfingers #bloggingyourway #finditstyleit #jmholidaystyle #completehappyhome#westgermanpottery — @maggieoverbystudios Thrift store ornaments totally don’t count as buying “New” ornaments because technically they are old ornaments. Scored these brass deer, wooden bead garlands, and about 50 gold and white ornaments for $9 not feeling guilty at all! #thriftscorethursday #christmasdecor #brassdeer #colddeadfingers #bloggingyourway #finditstyleit #jmholidaystyle #completehappyhome#westgermanpottery

@boxycolonial Christmas home tour on the blog today! (Link in profile)….I found this white tree just in time at the thrift store last weekend #thriftscorethursday #christmas #christmastree

And because the holidays aren’t everything right now, I just had to include these two, too!

12346166_1646998185551776_729211903_n — @mariaski63 Mother, macrame I? ? It’s hard to tell but these are: 8 ft, 6.5 ft & 3 ft! The owner of the estate that I bought them from made them as well as doilies galore! I’m so envious of those who are skilled at handmade, old school crafts. ?

12292771_561115067373158_1276339044_n — @suite22antiques Cutest desk accessory ever. Vintage hand carved and hand painted mushroom pencil sharpener. Heavy enough to double as a paperweight! ? Now available in my etsy shop! **here’s the link** *(I have purchased many items from Jenn, you’re in good hands purchasing with her!)*

And that long wind of things will be the end of my chatter today. I hope you’ve enjoyed taking a look at my recent thrift finds and I hope you’ll share yours with us using #thriftscorethursday on Instagram. Be sure to catch up with the other lovely hosts by clicking the pictures below!

Want To Join In? Here’s The Rules!

Want to host? Got an Instagram and Blog? We want to hear from you! Fill out this form for details.
We want you to participate! Hit up your local thrift stores, craigslist, yard sales, estate sales, side of the road, anything! Thrifty doesn’t necessarily mean from a thrift store. We want to see your good deals, wacky finds and treasures.
Don’t feel like you need to save those finds for Thursdays! Yes, features are shared on our blogs and Instagram on Thursdays, but we’re all checking in on (and using!) the hashtag all week long. So, when you see/find it, feel free to share it!
Each week, Trisha from Black and White Obsession, Cassie from Primitive and Proper, Brynne from The Gathered Home, Myself (A Designer At Home) and occassionally a guest co-host will pick a favorite thrift score or two to feature! So please note that by linking up with #thriftscorethursday, you are giving us permission to share your finds via social media or on our blogs.
Please remember that we can only share love for photos shared on public accounts. If your profile is private, we can’t see your finds.

Glittered Woodland Creatures & Burlap Garland

December 9, 2015 by CORINNA HENDERSON

Hey guys! Continuing with Christmas week, I wanted to share this tutorial for a rustic burlap and twine garland. Last year I actually used in on my Christmas tree, but this year I draped it around the window behind my tree to make it the centerpiece of the vignette. I’m really excited to share with you how I made the garland. It’s so pretty and looks great anywhere you could use it.

Rustic Burlap and Twine Garland

If you’d like to make your own burlap and twine garland, I’m going to show you how I made it from scrap burlap material. But you could substitute the burlap for a roll of burlap ribbon (isn’t it awesome that stuff is so readily avaiable nowadays?). I also embellished mine with glittery woodland animals, too. But you could skip that part and make this a quick one.

Materials:

Burlap
Scissors
Hot Glue
Animal Stencils
Glitter Glue
Roll of hemp or jute twine

To make thick burlap ribbon, cut about 4 inch wide strips as long as you can.

Use your hot glue gun to glue the ends together.

Once you have enough to wrap around your tree (every tree is different), roll it into a roll to make the next steps easier to work it with.

Here’s where to start if you bought burlap ribbon– I was very, very neglectful and did not take pictures of this pictures. Rather, I swear I did but cannot find them! I simply printed out an owl, deer head, and squirrel silhouette and cut them out with scissors. Center your stencils onto the burlap. Using glitter glue in a squeeze tube, trace the stencils.

Here’s where you start if you’re skipping the animal silhouettes- Leave a bit of space and use some jute or hemp twice to tie a bow around a pinched section of burlap. Then trace another stencil, pinch your burlap, and tie a bow. Repeat these steps until you’ve reached the end of your garland.

Pretty simple, right? It looks beautiful when paired with other woodsy Christmas Tree decor!

And looks great hung around a Christmas vignette!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial and that it inspired an idea or two! Please give it a share and leave a comment below letting me know what you think!

A Globally Boho Christmas Tree

December 8, 2015 by CORINNA HENDERSON

Hey There! Welcome to the Christmas Tree edition of My Home Style Blog Hop organized by Steph of Casa Watkins. All week long, loads of fabulous bloggers are sharing their Christmas tree style all week long. And that’s exactly what I’m doing today. And all week it’s about Christmas here at A Designer At Home. Keep up with Christmas Week here. Not only is this the first time revealing my Christmas tree this holiday season, but I’m sharing the style and idea behind it: Vintage Global with a splash of whimsy (essentially how I’d describe bohemian ;))

If you’re landed here from Pocketful of Posies, welcome! Naturally, I’m so happy you’re here. If we’ve never met before, I’m Corinna and you’re at A Designer At Home. My passion is creating beautiful spaces meant for living in and this is where I share that passion. Everything from my latest decor obsessions to full on renovations, I share it all here. My style is Boho, but more specifically it entails vintage elements, global decor, and a lot of whimsy. Best way to keep up with it all is my newsletter, but I also love to be on Facebook and Instagram!

Before I dive into the details of my tree, here’s my Global Vintage with Whimsy tree this year!

The first element of my style I’ll cover is Vintage. Vintage brings character, history and soul to my home. I love the untold stories a dinged up dresser adds. Same with ornaments. I love the imperfections of time. Styles of the past. And I just love giving new life to castaway items.

Global decor is something I grew up with. My dad was in the navy and my mom loved asian and southwestern decor. This stuff runs in my blood. Our home was always filled with treasures around the world. I don’t get the opportunity to do much travel myself, but that’s why I’m so thankful for those that do and the internet. You bring the world to those of us stuck in one spot.

colorful, whimsical, bohemian Christmas Tree

I tried to pay homage to as many cultures as I could. There’s the sugar skull for Mexico’s celebration of dia de los muertos. The hamsa with the third eye has origins in middle eastern culture. Many of the big box store bought ornaments have shapes and styles similar to moroccan and middle eastern designs. The tree skirt is a tapestry I bought from a man who says it was handmade in India. There are a few ornaments with swedish/nordic inspired birds, a couple stuffed animal ornaments that would remind most of Africa, an ornate beetle that immediately reminded me of egypt, the Fabergé inspired egg ornaments are a tribute to Russian history, and even the star topper is a moroccan inspired punched metal.

And finally the whimsy. I like to add a touch of whimsy everywhere I decorate. It’s what brings the soul of vintage and global pieces to life. It’s fun and creates interest. The “conversation starters” of my tree are first and foremost the bright pink pom pom garland. I couldn’t resist when I spotted these are target. I put 3 strands just to break up the existing color scheme of metallics, royal blue and cranberry.

I keep several totes of Christmas decorations because I stock up on clearance items after the holiday. This year I finally pulled out the royal blue spiral picks. They’re quite fun and fill in the gaps nicely. I think the birds make a nice whimsical touch, too.

I really love everything that has gone into creating this year’s Christmas tree. Many of these pieces actually sit out year round because they make me happy. Carefree draped strands of beads, mix matched ornament styles and ornaments that bring to mind thoughts of the world. This is what I want from my decor.

The only thing I wish I could’ve done this year are more vintage ornaments. I didn’t thrift nearly as many as I had hoped. Pickings were just slim this year, I suppose. I still have a few to share this Thursday, though!

I encourage you to have fun with your tree, let it tell your story, choose pieces with meaning and throw in a little second hand. Here are some of my favorite elements of a Global + Vintage + Whimsical Christmas Tree. And remember, it’s Christmas Week here at A Designer At Home which, spoiler alert, means tutorials are coming for the garland/agate ornaments/twig ornaments- yay!

Thank you so much for taking the time to check out my Christmas tree style. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and that you’ll be back. It’s Christmas Week here on A Designer At Home, so there’s loads of Christmas posts coming your way. Stay tuned!

The next stop on this blog hop is The Happy Housie. Surely you’ve heard of her! She’s incredible so I know you’ll love the Christmas Tree she’s created this year. Head there next!