We started Lookiloos to indulge the inner lookiloo in all of us, to showcase beautiful homes and gardens with original photos and stories, to give decorating tips and remodeling ideas and create a community to share our stories of home. Peek inside with us.
When Beth and Rick Weger bought their 1930s Spanish bungalow in San Jose’s Rose Garden neighborhood, the house was filled with vintage charm, from detailed archways separating the rooms, to a built-in telephone nook in the hallway. But the kitchen? A 1950s or ’60s remodel that needed attention. Since Beth had remodeled the kitchen of her last home and won second-place in a San Jose Magazine competition, she felt empowered to take on this kitchen for her family of four. Because she didn’t like the available options to go Spanish classic style, she went rustic instead.
The Problem: A wall with an awkard pass-through separated the kitchen from the breakfast nook. The counters and backsplash were about as dated as you can get — beige tiles with dark brown grout.
The Solution: Remove load-bearing wall between the kitchen and breakfast room, adding a chair-height breakfast bar (instead of stool height she didn’t like in her last kitchen). With the wall gone, the sunlight from the gorgeous bay window flooded the entire kitchen and gave Beth a new view from the sink down the driveway to the street, which she didn’t have before.
She added coppery green granite counters from Bedrosians in San Jose, new cabinets in distressed rustic alder, KitchenAid and DCS appliances, and a tile backsplash installed by S&S Tile from Tile Fantastic. She finished the look with a Kelly-Moore paint in Chamois Shirt, but 50 percent darker.
“In the end, we kept it warm and rustic and what we liked instead of going with exactly the style of the house,” Beth said.
When Jamie Lentzner first laid eyes on the five-bedroom, two bath house in Foster City, it was the ugliest house on the street. The 1966 tract home had been a rental for 20 years and vacant for the last 12 months. It was a wreck of a place when they saw it in 2001 and it didn't look much different than a foreclosure of 2009 does now.
Weeds grew waist-high in the front yard and shingles were curling off the roof. Inside was worse: ceilings were painted black to match the awful driftwood mantle, dead rodents were in the attic, and who would even want to imagine what that brown shag rug had seen?
"It was the house people didn't let their kids walk by," Jamie said. "But I knew there was more to this place than the bad shag rug."
And just like struggling homeowners are doing in these tough times, Jamie began a remodel on a budget.
With her husband, Darin, giving a reluctant okay, Jamie started to transform the bedraggled house into a warm and welcoming family home. Along the way, she found her true calling as an artist and businesswoman.
It was that extra special, homemade touch she added to her children's rooms – hand-painted decorative tiles – that launched her career. What started with oohs and ahhs from her friends in 2002, turned into a business that now sells painted tiles to some of the fanciest children's shops in the country and hang in the homes of such celebrities as Oprah and Nicole Kidman. She has been featured on the pages of Better Homes and Gardens and Celebrity Living, and her tiles have been seen on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and "CBS Saturday Morning Early Show."
After a career as an animator, she traded it all to become a stay at home mom in 1999& and took on the task of remodeling their home with a little bit of money and a lot of elbow grease. Immediately, she and her husband replaced the roof, painted the black ceilings white and removed the brown shag revealing oak floors. DIY project, anyone? In the bathroom, they ripped out flooring, added a new granite sink and painted. Crown molding was added throughout the house.
In the kitchen/family room, she replaced the counter tops and four layers of linoleum flooring. They kept the maple cabinets, but updated them with a coat of paint and hardware. But it was the kids' rooms Jamie looked forward to redoing the most.
Jamie was drawn to green and pink for her daughters' room and found many affordable treasures at Target and Pottery Barn bedding. "I wanted everything to look simple and fun, not old or too sophisticated," said Jamie. One of her favorite pieces is the antique vanity her mother had found when her daughter was just born.
But still, something was missing, something that said – quite literally – that this was "Abigail's room." After searching without luck in catalogs and stores, Jamie decided to make Name Tiles for her daughter on individual tiles. With brush in hand, she painted each letter of her daughter's name intertwined with flowers and polka dots.
She did the same thing for the room of her 6-year-old son, Grant, who loved airplanes. After painting clouds and planes on his walls and ceiling, she made name tiles for him as well using whimsical airplane details.
"My friends all loved them and wanted them for themselves," Jamie said. Pretty soon, she was taking orders and a new venture was launched. "My husband and I used to work at night when the children went to bed, and I would work when they slept during the day. I would send out emails at night to prospective stores and I would paint in between feedings and baths. Sometimes they would sit on my lap as I tried to ship out products. We would make constant trips to deliver my products to local stores," she said.
Within months, she hired staff and temporarily moved the team of eight into the garage. Jamie's Painting & Design became so successful, however, that she moved the operation into a warehouse five minutes from her home in 2006. The garage has been transformed into the kids playroom complete with foosball, the ever-popular Lego table and art supplies.
"I don't think you need to have expensive furniture and artwork to have a beautiful home," she said. "I love that people enjoy my home and that they feel welcome in my home." It is hard to imagine that seven years ago this house was the worst on the block, or that this stay-at-home mom would turn her talent into her livelihood.
Looking for something for that special pirate or princess? Need a personalized baby gift? Have I got a find for you. Jamie’s Painting and Design has adorable hand-painted decorative tiles. You can spell out your child’s name with the letter tiles, which run $13 each. You can also find a single plaques with the child’s name or adorable “birth certificate” displaying all the important information and these run $35 each. You can buy these at Lullaby Lane in San Bruno or order online direct from the artist Jamie Lentzner at www.jamiespnd.com.
When I first took this snapshot of my home in the spring of 2001, I recall that I was mostly interested in photographing the pink tulips in full bloom. It was the first year they came up and added a spash of color and softness to our 1930s angular house in San Jose's Rose Garden neighborhood.
The fact that our son Daniel, who was two at the time, was walking by with his Winnie The Pooh by the ear, or that my husband's prized 1963 Buick Riviera was parked in the driveway seemed a bit beside the point to me at the time.
But when we developed the film (before we came fully into the digital age) my husband, Chris, pulled out this photo and took it to his office. He didn't frame the standard 4-by-6 image. He just leaned it up on his desk. A coworker had noticed it, he told me, and said something like this: "A beautiful house, a classic car, a fine young son — this is what life is all about."
And just like that, I saw the photo in a whole new light. It symbolized, I realize now, all that we treasure both inside the house and out: home, family, the community of our neighborhood and, in the case of the Riviera, my husband's roots in Detroit and the place we met.
As our economy plunges and so many Americans are losing what they hold dear, I'm clinging to this photo. Chris and I still hold our jobs, although both industries are in crisis now — construction and newspaper journalism. So I can't help but inhale the collective angst of an uncertain future. I know life is about more than a house and a car. We are healthy and happy, and I'd like to think we would be anywhere.
Daniel is nine now and our daughter, Claire, is 11. And over the years, after Chris changed jobs, the snapshot disappeared. For months, I asked Chris to look for it. I went through every old negative looking for the image so I could reproduce what had become to me an iconic image of our lives. But I couldn't even find that. When Chris finally found the picture, buried in a desk drawer, I exhaled with relief. Home, family, community, roots. A youthful hope for the future.
We're ordering copies. I'm going to frame one and hang it securely on my wall.
When you walk in the Londres front door and look to your right the first thing to catch your eye is the rich chocolate color. The new kitchen is very open. The dark stained lower cabinets seem to ground the space while the light upper cabinets keep it fresh and airy. The granite slab the Londres chose is warm and rich with an intricate design.
Karin Washler, the designer, used three different elements for the back splash. “I wanted to do a back splash that would compliment the granite slabs,” Karin said.
The tile for the back splash is all by Walker Zanger in Hayward. The “subway” style and mosaic tiles compliment each other very nicely and sandwiched in between is a chair rail in Vibe Boogie Brown. What a fabulous name for the color.
Behind the Wolf Range she used Moroccan Mosaic again in that Vibe Boogie Brown. To top it off she used a large farmhouse sink in a coppery finish and a matching square bar sink. From top to bottom this kitchen makeover is gorgeous. It’s so warm and inviting and it is truly a great place to entertain or cozy up with just the family.
Karin wanted the WOW factor and I think she achieved that. “This kitchen lets people know the hip and fashionable vibe the Londres portray with everything they do and how they live day to day.”
Designer: Karin Washler, G K Washler + Associates, gkwashler@sbcglobal.net, 925.735.0337
Contractor: Barry & Barry Builders in Danville 925.743.0644
Cabinets: Dimensions Unlimited in Benicia 707.746.6624
Tile back splash:Walker Zanger in Hayward (Andrea Stark)
Moroccan Mosaic in Vibe Boogie Brown color 12″x12″ mesh backing
Rail Moldings in Vibe Boogie Brown color 1 1/4″ x 6″
Gram mercy Park Hampton beige for the off white tile design “subway” style 2″x6″
Pastia Clove Onyx Mosaic in Taj field
Sinks by:Native Trails, Island sink is the Farmhouse sink in Antique finish and bar sink is small square also in Antique finish
Bar Stools by: The Decor store in Livermore 925.960.9823
A dozen red roses for $120 might be off the table this Valentine’s Day as pocketbooks are shrinking. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a romantic day with style — and on a budget.
Try “recessionary chic” with San Jose floral designer Jose Ibarra, who drew inspiration from Chanel’s spring collection to create whimsical red and pink flowers out of tissue and construction paper.
Add some rock salt, Kool-Aid and winter branches from your garden, and watch out Karl Lagerfeld! All it takes is a rummage through your cabinets or a quick trip to Michael’s for some inexpensive supplies, Ibarra says, and your Valentine’s Day table will be beautiful and won’t wilt in three days. It’s quick and easy and for a family dinner, the kids can help, too.
Ibarra, the son of a seamstress who learned early how to create with his hands, has decorated many Silicon Valley homes for the holidays and for special events. He offers these tips to set a gorgeous table with paper roses:
Making Tissue Paper Roses in a Vase:
1. Cut tissue paper in the shape of an “8″ or a basic butterfly.
2. Take a length of floral wire and bend in half.
3. Slide tissue cut-out between the wire “arms” to the apex of the bent wire. The flower takes shape as you repeat the process, sliding and scrunching tissue “petals” to the top of the wire.
4. When flower is made with six petals, twist the two arms of wire together, which secures the tissue petals and finishes off the “stem.”
5. Wrap wire with green floral tape.
6. Stick flowers in a clear glass vase filled with rock salt.
Making Construction Paper Roses:
1. Cut construction paper into 12-inch by 12-inch squares for large flowers that can lay on a table or rest next to a cake, or 4-inch by 4-inch squares for little rosettes that can be glued to branches.
2. With a pencil, draw a spiral nautilus, beginning at the center and emanating out to the edge.
3. With scissors, cut along the spiral line. The length of paper will curl and cascade.
4. Start rolling from the outside end of paper, and crimp or fold back and forth every so often to give extra texture to the flower.
5. When you reach the center of the spiral, add hot glue to the end spot, then push the spiral flower down to meet the glue.
6. Hot glue the little rosettes to branches. Put branches in clear glass vases filled with red Kool-Aid.
Jose likes to cover his table with white construction paper for a crisp, clear canvas, then dress it with a red velvet cake (Duncan Hines out of the box!) with a white frosting covered with shaved coconut. Stunning.
I got a tip from a Lookiloo reader about 3 months ago. Janice said in her email, “There is a fabulous store in Pacific Grove. Diamonds and Rust. It is a delightful mix of antiques, shabby chic and Italian religious items. It is well worth a look when you’re in the Monterey and Carmel area.” So after a horrendous week, I called my Mom to see if she was up for a little Lookilooing in Pacific Grove. And Lucky for me, she was. We headed south and watched the skies clear. Just what I needed.
As we pulled up to the storefront I was immediately taken by the building itself. Built in 1924, originally as the Grove laundry, it has since been remodeled for retail space. A large garden arbor is front and center, as you enter. It’s not overpowering, since the ceilings reach all the way up to the second story. Treasures fill every corner. Carolyn Baylor rents space in Diamonds and Rust and was gracious enough to give us a tour. She works with Denise Castagnola, the resident designer and they have the space upstairs. You will find truly beautiful things. I loved the over-stuffed chair and the bedroom vignette.
Susie Montgomery and Marilyn Buck have owned Diamonds and Rust for five years. They’ve been friends ever since their kids met at daycare, twenty years ago. They did some traveling and after a trip to Italy, decided to go into to business together.
“The focus is on French and Italian items,” Susie said. I asked Susie what their personal styles were like. She replied, “I like the frilly, girly and pretty things and Marilyn likes the Victorian gypsy.” And I heard Marilyn add “tattered Victorian gypsy,” from the other room. What a great description of style.
Susie let me in on a little secret. They are getting a new neighbor and hopefully the new shop will be open by March 1st. She said Trellis is moving in. It is the perfect compliment to the shabby chic and antiques at Diamond and Rust. Hey Mom, are you up for another trip to the coast?
Diamonds and Rust
472 Lighthouse Avenue
Pacific Grove, CA 93950
(831) 658-0488 www.diamondsandrust.us
Do you need a gift for a new baby? Have I got a tip for you! Launched just this past week, is a place to find that beautiful handmade baby blanket. Sugarbug Designs. Elissa Page, of Danville California is the proud owner.
“Moms want a funky, fun and chic blanket,” said Elissa, “but it has to be cozy as well.”
These blankets are created with fabulous fabrics of cotton, minky and corduroy. And on top of all of this is free shipping during the month of February. You can’t get better than that.
We line up for home tours. We brake for open houses. We peek through fences. We fantasize. We want to get in! We started Lookiloos to indulge the inner lookiloo in all of us, to showcase beautiful homes and gardens with original photos and stories, to give decorating tips and remodeling ideas and create a community to share our stories of home. Peek inside with us.
-- Desiree, Julia and Sheila - Silicon Valley
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