Angela sent along the following email to Jo and I about her home:
Six and a half years ago, we bought a bungalow in the suburbs of Chicago, and rehabbed nearly the entire thing. Several months ago, my husband accepted a job in another state, so we will be relocating and just put it up for sale (sad…). I was going through the before and after images, and just shuttered when I looked at the before. I kind of can’t believe the end result, and thought I’d send it your way.
She sent a post from her blog for a peek and I was immediately stunned into silence. I wrote back saying what a HUGE transformation it was. She responded:
Yes, it was huge. And so was I went the transformation took place (I due a month after we started rehabbing) — so we just moved ahead to get it all done, but honestly, it was all kind of a blur. It really just hit me when I was doing the comparison photos. We are very proud of the place. I know people thought we were crazy, but we saw the house, looked past everything and knew exactly what we wanted to do with it. We did have to have an architectural company lay out plans to get it approved by the village — but we used the architect from my family’s company (they are in the cemetery business, so it was a bit of a side track from what they typically do).
It really is shocking how the result is SO much more modern and updated and if she hasn’t already sold this house (after being on the market now about a week) it won’t be long now!

Here are some before photos (the only thing remotely worthy is that dining room wallpaper!)…

And here are a couple of after photos – YES, it’s the SAME HOUSE!!! (Many more after the jump!!!)

If you’d like to send us photos to include in next week’s “pets on furniture” post, please ensure your photos follow our basic rules: First, the pet must be on a piece of furniture. And said piece of furniture must be clearly visible in the photo, so it takes center stage rather than your pet. (Think of it more of a photo of a great piece of furniture that you want to show off…and your pet happens to be sitting on it). And second, the photo must be of decent quality. If it’s dark or fuzzy (from a camera phone) then it may not make the cut. Thanks! (Photos, your name, location and a brief description can be sent to desiretoinspirekim@hotmail.comand PLEASE don’t send me closeups of your pet!)

This is Simba our abyssinian kitty, he’s very adventurous and loves to climb this 8 foot ladder we have in our house. This picture always makes us laugh, imagine him singing, fa la la la la!

– Leah (Kailua, Hawaii)

This is Ringo our Manchester Terrier sitting on HIS chair in the kitchen, where he watches us cook dinner. I bought it from Vinnies for $15, re-upholsted it and painted it white.
– Gemma (Sydney, NSW)

Brothers Toby and Nicholas in Sydney. Toby is on the Chair.
– Thomas

Ella is a Mini Foxy, just 12 months old now! She loves to cuddle up on my favourite vintage cane chair in my office while I work! The chair was originally cane coloured but I sprayed it white to suit my office! It was once my Mum’s! I know it’s something I’ll have forever!
– Louise

This picture shows my cats Maya and Peeps. Maya is sitting on my Room and Board sofa and Peeps is sitting on my CB2 rug. The coffee table was made by my boyfriend who makes custom furniture. The top pillow is Tugboat for Urban Outfitters and the carpet square on the table is from Galbraith & Paul.

– Michelle (Philadelphia)

This is Charlie, he loves to sleep on these Chilwick place mats. In fact he has rejected every soft, cozy, warm thing that I have ever brought home for him! Silly Cat.
– Tina (Vancouver, B.C.)

Sophia Rescue Dog extraordinaire. Basset/German Shepard Mix. Yes came from a shelter backround but now prefers to sit on furniture.
– Grace

Here a few pictures of my cats sitting on furniture, they prefer to sit/sleep together. The first one is their favorite sleeping spot at the moment (they change over the year, in bed, on top, on the side table, under the side table, etc) Now it’s fashion to be on top of the side table, both, which doesn’t fit properly but they persist so we sometimes wake up from a cat falling down but it jumps up again until it’s morning and we go up… crazy animals. The second one is made this week on my new coffee table, I made it from salvaged verge collection stuff; the frame is made from a bed base, the legs were from an old broken greenish table, the mirror was cracked and the glass top came from an old desk. The shells I found at random over the world. I am so proud of it and so are the Pookies!
– Wilma (Swanbourne (Perth), Western Australia)

Sadly, shortly after this taken, Snookums, 16 1/2, passed away (left).  Target still enjoys sleeping in his chair but not as much without his buddy next to him.
– Stephanie

1. Bowie loves to sit on the cupboard of my deceased grandmother

2. Grandfather Casper in his louis XV chair 

3. Lovely kittens making a mess
– Katrien and Tom (Belgium)

If you’d like to send us photos to include in next week’s “pets on furniture” post, please ensure your photos follow our basic rules: First, the pet must be on a piece of furniture. And said piece of furniture must be clearly visible in the photo, so it takes center stage rather than your pet. (Think of it more of a photo of a great piece of furniture that you want to show off…and your pet happens to be sitting on it). And second, the photo must be of decent quality. If it’s dark or fuzzy (from a camera phone) then it may not make the cut. Thanks! (Photos, your name, location and a brief description can be sent to desiretoinspirekim@hotmail.comand PLEASE don’t send me closeups of your pet!)

-Bruce (Austin, TX)

Here is a photo of my two model dogs – Lily (brown and white) and Molly (black and white) both Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. They both love this chair and if there is a cushion in the way, Molly will just lie on top of Lily to ensure she doesn’t miss out!
– Kellie (Sydney, Australia)

Please find attached a photo of our French Bulldog Mack who has been sprung on my heritage silk bedcover(check out the guilty look) playing with his ball.
– Vicki (Auckland, New Zealand)

I’ve attached a photo of my little lady, Oney, enjoying my Ikea slipper chair.
– Mia (Austin, TX)

I live in Maine and last year I took some interior photos of my apartment & one of my cats, Bagheera, snuck into this picture.  He’s not exactly on the furniture, but the furniture was meant to be the focal point!
– Jennifer

I know you ask for no close-ups but had to show you how Lucy, the camouflage queen, disappears when she curls up on my faux fur throw.   “You can’t see me!”  When she was younger she would nurse on the pillow– thought it was her mom.
– Jean (Knoxville, TN)

It may be 26 below outside, but Henry the Great, Stan and Frankie all find the one warm spot in the house – much to the dismay of our leather sofa.
– Nikki
(I stole the photo below off Nikki’s website because King Henry is a superstar)

I have attached two pictures of my 7 month old kitten George, he’s a Snowshoe cat and is a little bit of a spoilt brat, but that’s why i love him so. He likes to hide on the little shelf on my dressing table, but his favourite place to sit is in the sunshine on the big armchair in the lounge!
– Hannah

These are my book ends; Murphy-Doodle (blond, left, 9 years old) and Shadow (right, 5 years old) on my hand-me-down PURPLE couch I have always wanted——-pre and post “squirrel-sighting” included.
– Gina (St Johns, Oregon)

Jo mentioned in her post yesterday that this weekend is our last blog-free weekend, and while she kind of broke that rule by blogging, I am doing the same. I thought I’d get some blogging out of the way that I was supposed to do last week. Before I get to that, we’ve had people leave comments here and there asking about whether we’re on Facebook and Twitter. Some members of my family have also been driving me nuts about this so over the holidays my husband got us up and running on both, and has been maintaining them ever since. Although Jo and I already have our hands full, hopefully we’ll be able to start getting more involved. So in the meantime check us out on Facebook here, and Twitter here.

Alrighty, so last week we had 2 new advertisers join us that I wanted to mention. The first being J.Covington Home, a shop based in Portsmouth, NH that now has an online store of beautiful furniture, lighting, pillows, art, antiques and home accents. Unfortunately they do not ship internationally so I will have to love their pieces from afar, but folks in the States can take advantage. I devoured their website and below are some of my favourite finds.

After the jump is an introduction to another new advertiser….

Curtainworks has joined us as an advertiser and this online shop only started out in 2009. They sell MANY styles of curtains to appeal to the masses. My favourite curtain is a grommet top in a thick sailcloth canvas, and to my delight Curtainworks carries this curtain in several colours. (I have been searching Ottawa for weeks for this exact curtain in white for my dressing room with NO LUCK). I was sad to notice that this shop also only ships within the U.S. 🙁 For those in the U.S. shipping is free on orders over $100. 🙂 Here are a few product shots from their website.

It is Thursday night as I am getting this post ready and I am a little bit swamped – I need to tidy up the house and get some photos together as we’re meeting with another architect tomorrow when I’m off work for our house additions (we hadn’t heard from the first one in a while, and we just found out due to some serious family matters he’s unable to continue with our project). Luckily this shouldn’t stall our plans. Anyhoo, I thought in my haste I’d just slap up some photos I saved a while ago from the website of French magazine Campagne Décoration (suitable because I had a 3 hour French class this aft).