Just~One~Donna

Have you noticed how it is getting dark earlier at night these days?  The thing I like least about fall and winter is how early the sun goes down.   Today I'm sharing a simple, pretty solution to the dark hours ahead of us.  Read on for a DIY fall decoration that will light up your life. A Lighted Fall Pine Cone Basket  This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.  The compensation I receive when you shop with these links helps to support the costs of publishing this blog. A Lighted Basket of Pine Cones There are two solutions I gravitate to to solve my dislike of the dark nights of fall and winter. Sure, you can turn on the lights, but I prefer little pockets of light to brighten the dark corners of my rooms. For that, I'll use either flameless candles or strings of mini LED lights. Flameless candles with automatic timers are my first love.  You'll find them all over my house.  They are easily tucked into shelves ...

This post contains affiliate links.  I thank you for making a purchase through one of these links.  The few pennies I will receive will help to maintain this blog Today I am taking a break from the kitchen to update a post I wrote four years ago about two magazine racks I purchased for my bathrooms.  Sometimes the fact that I am the only female living in a male dominated home reveals itself in mundane ways.  One of those ways is the stack of reading materials that grows and grows in the bathrooms. Do you know what I am talking about?  There are magazines on the back of the toilet.  There are magazines on the floor.  There are magazines on the vanity.  I'm forever picking up, stacking and culling magazines in the bathroom.  That was until I purchased wall-mounted magazine racks.  Finally, an answer to the disorganization caused by reading materials in the bathroom. . I wanted to provide an update to my original post because I reali...

Kitchen Renovations can be very stressful.  A well thought out plan will help to reduce your stress but what happens when you turn the plan over to others to do the work?  Sure, you've got a great plan and you are most feeling in control and excited about your kitchen renovation plan. Now it is time to get the work done to make your vision come to life. Kitchen Design Plan Here are my five tips for how to survive the work phase of your project.  These recommendations are the result of my own experience with my own successful kitchen renovation.  I hope my experience helps you to weather the upheaval a kitchen renovation brings with a minimum of stress. Five Tips for a Successful Kitchen Renovation  #1. Hire the Right Professionals Ask for Recommendations:   Talk to family, friends and neighbors to get recommendations for kitchen designers, plumbers, electricians, painters, and carpenters.  It is best when you can actually see the w...

I'm a big online shopper.  I guess you can even say I was an early adopter of online shopping.  When I discovered online shopping it allowed me to improve the efficiency of my shopping technique over the usual approach of browsing from store to store until I found the very best price for whatever it was I was shopping for. The trouble with the brick-and-mortar store search was that shopping took forever. With online shopping, the time I have to spend searching out my deals is reduced exponentially. At least, the time I save  seems  like an exponential improvement to me.  I also appreciate the wider variety of options I can find online and the ease of making pricing comparisons.  Occasionally I score a deal I want to share with all of you.  My new modular bar is one of those deals. My Modular Bar I first saw this modular bar at Pottery Barn .  You may have seen it as well.  It has been prominently displayed in various Pottery Barn cat...

Kitchen renovations can be very intimidating.  Once you've committed to the fact that a renovation is in your future you must decide what you want your result to be.  It's important to get some clarity about this before you start talking to kitchen designers and kitchen contractors.  Without that clarity, am suggesting you want to be clear about the layout, the style, and key elements you'll want in your finished kitchen.  You may become overwhelmed by all the options you have.  It is very helpful to have pictures to show to kitchen designers and contractors as well.  Those pictures will help the professionals to narrow their suggestions to your preferences.  You'll save time and reduce frustration in the process.  I'm not suggesting you will need to have made all your decisions in advance.  You will want to have a very good idea of what you want your new kitchen to look like.  How do you know? Where to Find Inspiration for Your Kitch...

It's absolutely true what is said about the snowball effect of home upgrades.  A little paint here turns into new paint everywhere.  Fix a broken tile here and soon whole floors need changing.  Well, that's what has been happening in my "Just One Donna" home.  Spring brought us a brand new kitchen and that kitchen makes everything else feel old and worn out. Not one to throw it all out with the bath water, so to speak, I have been working hard to find ways to update on a budget.  Freshening up doesn't mean you have to break your budget.   One room of focus has been the dining room which is adjacent to the kitchen.  It's a work in progress, but I've made a few changes to get some momentum going.  First, let's take a look at the before dining room.  You can see it is a very traditional dining room.  I love the traditional feel but wanted to add some more modern accents. Three things have changed.  The first and mos...

Three Steps to Creating a Kitchen Renovation Plan This post is the third in a series detailing my experience with my kitchen renovation.  Previously I wrote about accepting that a renovation is needed and the five questions to answer before starting a kitchen renovation project.  Once I had some clarity about what I wanted my new kitchen to look like, and I had established an overall target budget for the project, I needed to determine how to go from the "idea" to an actually finished kitchen. That meant I needed a "PLAN". 1. Sketch Your Dream Layout The first step of my plan was to complete a drawing of the layout I wanted for my kitchen.  This was easy for me because I didn't want to change very much about my existing layout.  I had lived with, and loved, my existing kitchen layout for many years.  That may be a reason I had resisted a kitchen renovation for so long.  The existing kitchen was working pretty well as it was. Kitchen Layout...

According to my astrological sign, I am a homebody and get comfort from my home.  Perhaps that is why whenever I think about tearing my home apart in a renovation I get a panic attack.  The thought of the impending disruption is certainly a reason to put those renovation thoughts on the back burner.  It's one thing to know that you want your kitchen renovated, but it's another to actually take the steps to get the work done. You mustn't delay updates to your home forever.  Short of moving there is no other way to address the wear and tear a family of four leaves on a home over time.  Let's face it, the kitchen takes a lot of abuse from the daily life of a family.  My experience with a family room addition several years ago left me greatly resistant to repeating those trials and tribulations. In that project, the three-month family room addition turned into six months of disruption, of which about four weeks were spent with the backside of our home complet...

When is it the right time for a kitchen renovation?  We'd been thinking about a kitchen renovation for a long time.  The kitchen in my house was original to the home, built in 1981.  It was a beautiful kitchen when built, with custom cherry cabinets and well thought out use of space. We made some changes in the past by installing double ovens in a mysterious closet space, and an electric cooktop, with a cabinet with sliding drawers, where there once was a range. These updates made the kitchen very serviceable and a pleasant space for cooking and entertaining.  As my sons grew we made daily use of our kitchen table, especially enjoying the morning sunshine while eating breakfast. You can see in the picture above that I added a mobile kitchen cart to the end of my island as a way to test whether or not I would want the length of the island extended.  I found the additional 24" of length to be very useful, especially when taking hot dishes from ...

I decided a little over a month ago that it was time to refresh my three season porch.  You know what I mean.  All of a sudden the porch went from a place where I liked to spend my time to a place I never wanted to be.  It was time to fix that. My Porch Before All of the paint in the room needed to be refreshed.  I wanted to brighten the trim around the windows by painting it with Benjamin Moore's Atrium White (PM-13).  The previously white walls needed a little color.  I chose a light butter cream color called Palm Coast Pale (330) by Benjamin Moore.  I thought the sloped ceiling might benefit from a little color as well.  I chose Benjamin Moore's Spring Mint (2040-70). The Color Palette There was some water damage on the ceiling that had to be fixed.  I turned to YouTube for some how-to advice. Water Damage on the Ceiling I was careful and didn't rush the repair.  We also decided to add some trim work that helped...

Spring has sprung and when that happens I always start looking around my home for projects to freshen up the place.  Do you do the same?  Trouble is that I don't have much patience for disruption in my home.  The thought of a major remodeling project sends shivers up and down my spine.  As a result, I'm always looking for ways to refresh with as little disruption as possible. Our master bathroom is in need of work.  Truth be told, we should gut the room and start over.  I just can't bear the thought of it.  So, instead, Hubby and I decided to freshen up.  Here are a couple of pictures to show you what it looked like in the before state. The Master Bath Vanity This master bathroom is a small room and as you can see there is only one sink.  I bet you can tell which of us has claimed this vanity as her own.  There are many things I really like about this vanity.  I like that there as six drawers in total, flanking the cent...

I posted about my powder room remodel project a couple of weeks ago and since then have been asked about the specifics of the products used.  Today's post will share the details of all the products we used to go from... The Old Powder Room to... The New Powder Room The Paint The paint is Behr brand from Home Depot.  The yellow color is Provence Creme , eggshell finish.  The white is Brilliant White, semi-gloss. The Tile 6 x 6 Marazzi Montagna Lugano tile from Home Depot.  It came in multiple versions.  We alternated plain tiles with fancy, decorative tiles. The Fixtures The toilet and pedestal sink were from the Kohler Memoirs line .  The faucet is Kohler Devonshire . The Mirror The mirror is the Carrabelle 23 inch wide mirror in Glacier White from Home Depot. The Wall Mounted Cabinet The cabinet over the toilet is the Fieldcrest wall cabinet from Target. The Wall Mounted Magazine Rack The magazine rack is also a toilet paper ...

My family has lived in our current house for more than twenty years.  We were not the first owners of this house, so over the years we have completed many projects to make this house our home.  Recently Hubby and I decided to tackle our first-floor powder room for a complete makeover.  My Old Powder Room How hard can it be, we asked?  After all, it is a teeny tiny room.  We were confident we could replace the existing fixtures, tile the floor and repaint the walls and ceiling in a couple of weekends.  So confident were we that this would be a two-weekend task we started the work a couple of weekends before Christmas knowing full well we would be hosting more than twenty people for Christmas festivities.  I know, it was a crazy thing to do. The most complicated elements of the plan for us were retiling the floor and adding a raised panel wainscoting to the walls.  Hubby was taking the lead on the tiling and I was in charge of the wainscot...