HGTV Design Star?!

While these are not the final pictures of the apartment, in the midst of my writers block, I thought it would be nice to show how Jenn, Caitlin and I have made our apartment into a lake/coastal cottage. All of us are from the East Coast. We have all grown up on some form of water; the ocean, a river, a lake or a bay. We wanted the main floor of the townhouse to become a relaxing spot that made it more like a home!

We have put a lot more work into the space since these photos. Updated pictures will come within the next week but here are a few to show our initial work (before and half-after!) Enjoy!

Living Room - Before

Living Room - Semi Complete

Breakfast Nook - Before

Breakfast Nook - Caitlin & I Painting Lake Hartwell Map

Lake Hartwell Outline Almost Complete!

At The End of the Day...

I started this Blog with the purpose of writing daily, obviously that hasn't occurred. However, the past few days have been packed with a necessary amount of task's.


First, I have to show off my new headboard. I saw a beautiful upholstered headboard for almost $600 and said, false! I started to put my design-star on and decided that Philip and I could easily create an awesome headboard for under $100. Guess what? We did it for under $50!


I used a few sites for reference, helping me to the estimate the amount of materials needed to create the headboard. I googled "Upholstered Headboards" to get some ideas then I just started! I know my style and the atmosphere I like to melt into when I get to my room at the end of the day, so that helped determine the fabric texture, color and the roping. The fabric is a linen, almost as thick as canvas - very durrable. It reminded me of the beach because it has the beige undertone and flecks of dark spots that resemble tiny pieces of shells broken amongst the sand. I lined the entire headboard in a goldish/beige/green rope - used Tacky Glue and pins to hold it in place. Here are the pictures, it turned out exactly how I wanted!

My Coastal Retreat

The full Head Board