Love doing all different type projects!

[designsbyjole]

Hi there!
My name is Jole' Reed and I have a passion for the arts! I consider myself pretty handy at alot of home remodels,wall murals,laying tile and design from interior to room transformation and I also do jewelry design along with moderate stain glass work.

Living literally around the world and having moved into 9 different homes in 18yrs. has given me the ability to be able to buy a house for my family, transform it into our "home" with the full knowledge that I was going to "flip it" in 3 to 5 yrs. I truly enjoy making the house's we buy up to date and to our tastes but yet knowing full well that it will be someone elses' home....

Hope I can be of any help in being able to answer questions that you all might have in creating different type room environments for just pennys!

Looking forward to meeting you all!
Jole'

[rosierose]

Hey there Jole..

Thanks for telling us all about you. This forum is great place to share ideas and lots of pics:clapping: So we would love to see your house flips and well as any advice you would offer.....

[Julie-Ann]

Hi Jole welcome to the forum. It's lovely to see you over here as well as Twitter. You sure have moved a lot of times:eek:. Yes it would be lovely to see some pictures of some of your homes.:)

[Eli]

Hi Jole, welcome to the forum :)

[Sarah]

hi Jole, welcome and nice to meet you too :)

[designsbyjole]

So you all are wanting before and afters!
I am a HUGE fan of paint! You virtually can do anything with paint as opposed to wallpaper! You want a pattern on your wall, go have a rubber stamp made in a pattern you'd like and it can be "stamped" on your walls and when you are tired of it, paint over it!
As of now, I have a foyer that is so boring but the chore of climbing over 20 feet to remove wallpaper is out of the question for me and I'm to cheap to hire someone so,I guess it will stay unless some contest is won for a redo!
I do paint over wallpaper, some would agrue that it's wrong but if the paper was applied properly (which the foyer wasn't) it can be done by priming,painting and there you go but I will suggest to do it on a dry day with little humitiy!
Here is what I was up against moving into my current home. At the time it was only 8 years old, the previous owner used a decorator but the house was very dated and honestly, off a beat. I see what she was trying to do but nothing seemed to be complete. So, I have been slowly redoing EVERY room in this house. Knowing once again we will be moving in about 1 1/2 yrs. (we bought for the school district, all kids' will be gone and I need more Urban)
I'm just wanting to bring it with a more 2010ish feel. The only true investment I've made are curtains, in a few rooms carpet and glass tile in the kitchen. You truly can get away with a lower grade of carpet but pop for a terrific padding.
I've given you 2 different rooms I've completed. The 1st is a daughters' bedroom. When we moved in, the 1st pic your seeing is a freshman in colleges' bedroom. I was really suprised at how "dated" it seemed for a young girl. FYI when buying a home, pick up any throw rugs, I neglected this in this particular room. When we moved in, there was a huge stain on the carpet where the throw was. Anyway, my daughter is simple, very "less is more" type personality. So what I purposed to her was all white but use the color on the wall. She asked what I had in mind and I told her a suedeing effect in eggplant on the focal wall with a chocolate brown everywhere else. She has a bathroom attatched so I told her a lighter brown in there and all white towels,shower curtains (her cabinet is white also) and we used dark brown wicker type accents. I hit a home run! The curtains in her room are recylcled from the dinning room. They were a cream silk and I hated to get rid of them (a few of her accents were cream). We went to our local Target, found an inexpensive white comforter, egg plant sheets and white towels. I had an old brown suede bed skirt and there you go! Great texture but very subtle.
The next is the dining room (it actually was the living room, I flip flopped the rooms, I thought the fireplace would be a terrific plus this room is right off the eating area of the kitchen, great flow) Amazing that I did the whole room for just under $200.00!
First the walls, I used a carmal color. My inspiration came from the wall accents on each side of the fireplace. (I talk about them later on) and once again, with a brown accent. Brown seems to be my neutral. It works with just about anything that will come into it! (Again, keeping in mind I'm selling"). The 2 windows are small so not alot of light comes in. The red was more of a "rose" hue and seemed really small. Amazing though that so many rooms can justify a larger feeling with darker paint (the trick of this????? I'll tell you, light flooring) The curtains I got for 19.00 a pair at a local discount store, they are unbelievable quality, the shears I got at Lowes' hardware store along with the rods (they were discontinued). The chandelier I got free on a local advertising site and the little shades came with me from a previous house. So just to give the room a wow factor, I stenciled the ceiling in a gold/copper pattern! The wall accents came from a furniture store warehouse sale for $15.00 apiece. So, there ya go for the first set of redo's! All on the "cheap" also! Amazing what a can of paint can do, right?

[Julie-Ann]

Jole the rooms are stunning and look like you have spend big bucks on them. I love the rooms but for that cost- brilliant:thumbs up:.
Your neck must have been so sore doing the stencil on the ceiling:(. But it looks magnificent. Congratulations:love it:

[thisisme]

Welcome to the forum Jole :)
I love your room transformations and look forward to seeing you more around this forum :)

[LDH]

Great pics! Thanks for posting! I love them both but the dining room is extra stunning! :) nice work!

[rosierose]

Great rooms.....so were these in the USA, is that where you are from? Once you get to know me you will know that I love all decor available in USA...so much prettier and cheaper and a wider range......

[Elements]

Thanks for the before and afters Jole. I love how you have calmed the rooms down from the bright backdrops they once had.....I love a bit of colour but your new calm approach looks fantastic:thumbs up:

[designsbyjole]

Thanks everyone for the welcome! Yes, I live in the US in Connecticut! It is 1 of the most expensive states' that you can live in! California and Hawaii are all in the same league! I think we're more expensive due to being so close to NYC and this particular area can give people the opportunity to live in the suburbs yet work in the city!
I've now included a couple more of before and afters!
The bright yellow (this is the master bedroom) was unexplainable. So extremely suprised that a decorator had done this room. The original curtains had an Egyptian theme to them. They were cream background with burgandy stripes with camels, Arabic people on them. The carpet was a green that would normally be seen on the top of a pool table and the accents of the previous homeowner was orange....This was a very hard room to come into at the end of the day. It literally took me 3 weeks to complete the whole room! I was fortunate, again, to be able to replace the carpet after the painting was completed so needless to say, I did not feel bad spilling paint on the carpet! I even had to paint the trim due to it being a shade of yellow! I never can understand why people would paint trim in a color. A neutral can be such an added compliment. The only lucky thing I had going was the slopes of the ceiling. While I was painting the chocolate brown (again, my neutral) I realized that it was cream. The yellow that was originally on the walls had so much green in it that the ceiling took that color on. Yellow is such an extremely hard color to paint with. I can see why people want to use it when you live in an area that has more winter then summer, but keeping that in mind, in those winter months the color yellow, if not done right, can make you feel really cold!
I apologized to my husband for taking so long in this room but he had no objection what-so-ever. He's pretty much a grey kidda guy but the color must have bothered him, cause my mess really didn't ruffle him at all!

The other set of pics are from my kitchen. The original owner had faux tiles painted on the back splash. They really weren't that bad but again, I was trying to just give the home an updated feel. I changed the hardware on the cabinets to reflect the lighting (bronze...their were brass pulls on all the cabinets) Being the area I live in is extremely conservative, I made sure that the glass tiles I picked were subtle.

Hope you all enjoy!

xoxox
Jole'

[rosierose]

Well you did a great job on master bed.....sooooo much better......thanks for sharing......do you have a kitchen before..........?

[Julie-Ann]

Wow great rooms. The decorator must have lost the plot when she did that bedroom:eek:. The room sounded ghastly. By the way have you ever lived in Australia? Do you understand our slang?
So back to decorating - the bedroom is now stunning. Well done:love it:. The kitchen is also gorgeous. I love the bronze fittings you get in the USA we only get a very small range here in Australia:(. Even in such a poor market I would think you will make a nice profit when you sell. You must have got the house very cheap- most people would have ran when they saw that yellow bedroom:D

[designsbyjole]

RosieRose No, unfortunatly I don't have a before and after. The back splash was just faux tiles that were painted. The artist did do a great job, just not my taste. Again, just needed to update it!

JA- the area we live in seems to be holding the value. I just want to make sure I get what I paid....As for the colors, it was something I could look beyond. You have no idea what some of the houses looked like...ARG!
As for the slang, I know doubt realize a difference and I do know that the "proper" english (England) has a different slang...I'm learning. Your styles are beautiful over there and going to Australia is on my "bucket list". I wish I could say that we've been there...some day! As for bronze. You know over here, there are spray paints that you can get to turn virtually anything into a "metal" look? Are you able to get them there? If so, lightly take a steel wool to "rough up" the metal you'll spray and it adhears unbelievably. I did it to all my old outdoor fixtures in my last house. Extremely cost saving! I had also gotten a spray paint for plastic and was able to transform shutters on the outside of my home (They we a type of plastic) into a whole new look.

Here are a couple more photos .... remember the diningroom? As I mentioned in above post, it originally was the livingroom. I flip flopped them for the "flow". This was a challenge room. As you can see, there is a chair rail molding. This room was awful.....it was painted a yellow (was the theme in the entire house) with a peach sponging both top and bottom. The idea of chair rail molding is to divide the walls and give it a certain height. I advise no one to sponge paint unless you really know what you're doing. I used something relatively new here in the states. It's called venetian plaster. It was a labor of love. You apply it much like plaster. You let the 1st coat dry for 24 hours. You go back the next day and apply the 2nd coat but then you have a 3 to 5 hour window to do the technique. You first use a 600 grit sand paper. You go over the entire wall with this paper. At this point you can see a sheen starting to appear along with a dull look. It by itself is so pretty but then you can take it one step further by using metal and buffing it to get a high gloss (to resemble almost marble). I choice to do that step. My GOD, I warn you all. It's a great upper body workout!!! So many techniques I've tried and just won't bother to do it again but this one 1 will. You really have to love, I see no way in painting over it but right now, I don't care being I'm selling in 2 years!
There is a double tray ceiling. I find these to be so beautiful in rooms but many people leave them white. I personally like seeing the depth of them so I take contrasting paint and just go around the bands of them to bring the dimension out! Where the chandelier was, I was able to get a magnificant overhead fixture from our local discount hardware outlet

[designsbyjole]

Here are photos of my family room! Again, yellow with these beautiful cherry bookshelves (they were there when we moved in). I really wanted to bring out the beauty of the color of the wood, so, a lighter color. I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed in what I chose. I bought a suede paint, and due to it being such a light color, you can really tell the true technique. I wish I would have gone maybe 1 hue darker. It's such a big room that it will have to do! I refuse to do it again!!! The curtains I kinda made. I found 8 ft. Black ultra suede fabric curtains at a local discount store. I knew all along this room would have black accents due to having cream leather. So to make these curtains bigger for the large windows I took fabric and just framed the original curtains. Such an easy and inexpensive solution for just pennies. The throw pillows I had from our previous house, so the whole look really came together and did bring the cherry wood out so much more!

[tractorgirl]

wow, that chandelier is a stunner! lucky you finding that, for NOTHING even! And that stencil looks absolutely fantastic, well done.

You surely have been a busy girl :)