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hey there! I'm monica 

I pride myself on making amazing style and design accessible for everyone, regardless of location, budget, or ability! My design philosophy is rooted in authenticity + attainability - If I can do it, you can too! My work has been featured in countless publications, but I take the most pride in homeowners that have been personally inspired by my DIY ideas and have tried something in their own homes!

learn more about ME + MY BIZ

Welcome Nate Show Lovers!

Well, Monica and I are just over the moon today for several reasons (which I’ll share in a moment), but we first want to say how flattered, humbled and thankful we are for all of your support, good wishes and super-nice comments over the past several months. We never dreamed our little blog would take off like it has, and we have YOU to thank for that. So, thanks! 🙂

So, here goes:
1. Remember that contest we entered called Crafting with the Stars? Well, we won. This contest was one of those things we were dying to do, but we didn’t fully realize how much time and effort it would take from us. It was seriously like Design/DIY bootcamp! We are so excited to have won, since we were competing against some pretty fierce competition. In case you were wondering, here’s the project that sealed the deal for us:
Check back tomorrow for all the details on how we made that amazing pallet wall, and how the room came together.

You can see how we did that fabulous fabric wallpaper here, how we transformed an old dresser into an amazing Anthropologie Dresser knockoff here, and how we took an antique table and turned into a gorgeous bathroom vanity here.
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2. We were on the front page of The Intelligencer (our local Philly paper) today! We were happy to read such a nice article about us, and also share a little bit about our Design it Forward initiative!
You can read the whole article here, and see the video we shot with them here.
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And 3) Of course, our 2nd appearance on The Nate Show aired today! We know you want to hear all about the behind-the-scenes stuff, so let’s get right to it!
It all started with a crazy hectic arrival into NYC on Tuesday night around 10 PM . Monica and I got to stay at the very nice Lucerne Hotel a few blocks away from the studio. Well, not really stay there… we stopped in for about 2 hours after we redesigned the room.
We had a million ideas so we jumped right in and worked from 11-3 AM on our room design and then headed back to the hotel for a measly 2 hours of sleep. I must love you guys a lot to let you have a sneak peek at me getting ready that early in the morning!
Can you say tired eyes?
Thankfully, after the magic of hair and makeup we looked somewhat presentable…
I honestly had no idea that Monica and I matched so exactly.  We were literally just running on adrenaline at this point, and I guess we’re just lucky we remembered to put ANYTHING on under those aprons. Speaking of the aprons….could anything be less attractive? But we were thrilled to have our blog initials thrown in there for all to see. (We’re so not afraid of the shameless plug! 🙂
So, this is the room in process. This was our first time doing a redesign on the actual set of the show. It was pure madness! There were a million people adjusting the lighting, checking our mikes (mics??!) and moving things around.
Tada! This is the room after we finished the show. We LOVED the way it turned out. I had the idea to use the foam core they gave us to do a board & batten treatment on the back wall, and Monica made that idea come to life! It added such a nice architectural detail for the focal wall. We also used the newspaper to create wallpaper- this is SO easy to do. Just spray the wall with spray adhesive and then give it a coat of matte mod podge to seal it all in. But forget all the good stuff, let’s chat about the elephant in the room; the mason jar disaster in the corner of the room:
Our goal was to create something like this:
il_570xN.260204442
Unfortunately, with the limited materials we had on hand, our project didn’t even come close to looking like that. Even Nate asked us what it was and if it was a place to store macaroni. Ugh. So embarassing. Moving on….. (please)
Using our perfect stripe painting method, we added navy blue stripes to our chair and whipped up two little pillows to throw on there. The stencil was a last-minute addition, which we LOVED.
And yes, the most exciting part of the whole ordeal was that WE WON and are already planning our trip to Mexico to celebrate our 30th birthdays in February. Woohoo!
Ignore the fact that we sort of look plastic (tv make up is simultaneously pretty and wierd, isn’t it?) and that we look extremely sleep-deprived, and take a look at the gold hard hats and yellow roses we were awarded for our hard work.
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So, if you’re new to our blog, thanks so much for stopping by! We hope you’ll come and visit us again (and again, and again, and again….:)
Have a great day!

The comments +

  1. You rock girls!!! Congrats congrats!! It was a pleasure competing with you!

  2. emu0221 says:

    great job girls!

  3. Sarah says:

    you ladies are amazing! nice work!

  4. Ive seen both of your nate show segments and am just now finding your blog! Just started following so I can keep up with all your awesomeness 🙂

  5. Hessboogie says:

    Congrats ladies did an awesome job. I love the creativity!! Love the blog by the way.

  6. your girls R O C K ! I’ve been so behind catchin’ up on my fav blogs, I’ve missed your recent magic room transformations! Love it all, especially the palette wood in the baby’s new room. FABULOCITY at it’s best. Planning on doing some copy cat work on my own home. Keep it up girls!
    d e n i s e
    (an thanks for the shout out today)

  7. Anonymous says:

    Yippee you won twice. So knew that pallet wall was you guys..glad I voted for it, just love how that room turned out. And can’t wait to try something like that for the wall at the top of my stairs. Just need to find some pallets for free!
    Judy sjmagee1 at verizon.net

  8. Congratulations! Nate’s is my fave show, been following him since Oprah, and it’s been awesome to see him embracing the DIYers of the blogosphere the way he has! I meant to come by your blog the day I watched your win but forgot, then was reminded by the Ucreate blog.

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