Price Reduced

The price on this house has been slashed to $155,000! Need a bargain?

Why move to Staunton, Virginia?

Here are a few excellent reasons!

House for Sale

Studio B is looking for a family!  

(Someone who likes to garden might enjoy adding landscaping, what a difference that would make!)

If you or someone you  know might be "it" then please contact your realtor and have a look round.

More information.

Happy Trails, 

(and end of commercial!)

-Carmen Rose

PS, someone please buy my house?  LOL!

Kitchen Transformation

When I met this house, the first thing I fell in love with was the kitchen.  And yes, that's what it looked like when I walked in. 

Look at all that space! Imagine what you could cook in a kitchen this size...

And those two HUGE pantries!

And vintage 1975 everything!

but it was wide open to the family room, there was space for dogs, cats, kids on bikes... lol! 

I started with a coat of paint for the walls and trim.  All the lighting was replaced.  

The chandelier was a lovely addition over the breakfast table.

But still... no matter what changes occurred... THAT FLOOR ruined everything.  

So... lots of sore knees later I had installed a brand new floor.  

A couple coats of finish and the floor looked amazing in the morning sunlight streaming in the windows.

My mom helped me paint the uppers white, all the lowers a charcoal gray.  (The right side was unfinished in that photo above, finished now.)  It's an updated look from the all white kitchen, and much more practical.

I added polymer clay hardware (which I'll take with me)

Installed a new stainless steel hood and great range with bells and whistles.  

These delivery guys were great!  They got it in without a single scratch to the floor, and perfectly level.

A new faucet and tract lighting over the counter facing the family room (where I dyed a bunch of fabric that day)

I painted the inside of the pantries white and added more shelves to better use the space.

The second smaller pantry became a home office.

I liked this little cubby, a great spot for my favorite cookbook and some artwork.

 Lots of room for any hobby or collection you can imagine.

And beautiful morning sunshine.

This may have been my favorite room in Studio B.  I had a glass glazing studio there as well as my soap making studio.  But it's time for new people and new endeavers for this house.

The listing.  Please feel free to pass this link to someone who might need a great home in the area.
The price is low, the time is right to snatch up a great house at a great deal!

Happy Creating,
-Carmen Rose

Living Room & Back Deck

I never really did that much with the Family Room, the next big project would have been to replace the carpet.  But here are a few photos of the room just to give you a feel for the size of the room and the possibilities.

This is how the room looked when I saw it the first time.  Even the dark paneling could not cover the fact that it was a huge room with lots of light and an amazing view out over the golf course.

I took down those grandma curtains first and updated that light fixture.

We sanded, primed and painted those paneled walls.

The room has an intercom terminal and dedicated thermostat.  I loved the zone heating options on this house!  And of course it's wide open into the kitchen and we added tract lighting above the bar in between.

So after the paint dried I added some shelves and painted the walls behind them the blue from the kitchen to unify the rooms some.  But the dark fireplace was still too dark and overwhelming in the room.

So I carefully stained the brick and was very pleased with how it turned out. It brightened up the room a great deal, a good coat of masonry paint in white would work wonders in my opinion. And a simple mantle.  Oh it was wonderful to have a fire in there in the midst of snow storms!

I changed the window treatments to ones that showed off my ever changing collection of art glass.  The sun came through there in the evenings and just made my glass glow, I loved that!  And in the evening with guests we'd light the candles in the sconces and they looked so pretty.

And just outside the sliding glass doors is the roomy back deck.

I kept a bowl of bird seed for the guests who liked to drop by.  They were fun to watch!

I think this deck was one of my favorite features of this house.  I grew veggies and an herb garden here and made pizza and pretty much anything else on the grill.  There simply is no better place to be in the cool of a summer evening.

The listing.  Please feel free to pass this link to someone who might need a great home in the area. 
The price is low, the time is right to snatch up a great house at a great deal!

Happy Creating,
-Carmen Rose

Bathroom Transformed

The bathroom was transformed, it took some work but check out the process:  Everything was vintage 1975! There were various colors of green in this bathroom, from the avocado tub, to the multicolored floor, to the moss green counter top… and then the gold walls.  I gave it a big face lift!

After:

I love the great shower curtain from Marimekko.
And all the gold paint had to go! I chose a shade of green that would tie the other greens together and give an updated look.
I picked out a new faucet and hardware for the vanity. (Can you tell I have a thing for fleur de lis?!) I painted the vanity and all the trim in a lovely clean ultra white. I removed the hinges and rattle canned them white. My STBX installed GFI outlets and changed the switches and recepts to white with white plates.
He also removed the old lighting and put in track lighting, with two pendants lights and some spots. I love how the glass shades echo the black lines in the shower curtain and I love the flexibility of track lighting spots.
I loved the new TP holder, just another nice detail. This room has it's own thermostat and intercom terminal.  I could listen to my ipod in any room of the house. The "towel rack" for towels, the lighting for artwork...I'm wishing I had photos of the large bathroom closet but I don't.  It is huge!


It looks nice when dressed up with some artwork and pretty white towels.  The track lighting really works to great advantage in this room.

The new bracket-less shelves lend themselves to a great collections of pretty things.

This was one of my favorite transformations in Studio B.  Now it's time for someone else to make their mark on this great house.  If you or someone you know might be interested in more info on purchasing this house, please let me know.

The MLS listing links are in the sidebar.

Happy Creating,
-Carmen Rose

Bedroom 2

When I met this little bedroom I wasn't a big fan of the peach walls. 

I painted everything white with one accent wall in that rich earthy color and added some lovely layered curtains.

This room is 11x10'7" and has it's own thermostat and intercom terminal.

Stay tuned for more before and after photos from Studio B.
And let me know if you or someone you know would like more information on purchasing this house, real estate listing links are on the right.

Happy Creating!

-Carmen Rose