Style resolutions 2009: Sherry from This Young House

Today's style resolutions come from Sherry at This Young House. As well as writing about renovating their own house, Sherry and her husband John run a service offering decorating advice to readers, with this one being one of my favourites. I love the before and after photos at the bottom of this post - in fact it was quite a while before I actually realised the curtains were hiding something; the renovation is seamless. I'm very jealous of their twentysomething exuberance, and the lush green corner where they are both pictured - it looks like a blissful place to live.

Thanks Sherry for taking part!

Style resolutions: Sherry from This Young House

We were super flattered to be asked to share our style resolutions for '09! We're two twentysomething newlyweds who run a home improvement and interior design blog called This Young House. What started as a hobby quickly turned into my full-time job and my husband's pretty demanding part-time job. And although we work well beyond the 40 hour work weeks of our past, we do what we love and love what we do.

Q. What was your favourite design find/achievement of 2008?

A. Our favorite design achievement of 2008 has to be our master bedroom makeover. We transformed what was once a tiny box of a room with one piddly closet into a three-closet master suite with soft textiles, serene beachy blues, and more function than meets the eye. As you can see from the before shot, it used to be a blah-looking room with a sad little platform bed (and John was forced to store all of his clothes in the guest bedroom due to the tiny single closet that was packed with my stuff).

But John was determined to get his clothing into the master bedroom, so he devised a genius plan which basically entailed buying two doorless Ikea wardrobes, installing them on either side of the bed to create a built-in sleeping nook, and covering them with luxe draperies to mimic the look of breezy window treatments that actually conceal tons of storage and triple our closet space. The finishing touch was adding a wooden header that's suspended from the ceiling in front of each wardrobe and crown molding around the entire room for a seamless it's-always-been-this-way look. And of course the capiz chandelier (a $99 score from West Elm) and the swing arm lamps (snagged for 40 clams each at a lighting outlet) add ambiance and elegance (on a serious budget no less).

The icing on the cake is that our swankified bedroom landed us on HGTV's Rate My Space as an "inspiration room" for a designer who was remodeling one lucky homeowner's master bedroom and using our room as a guide throughout the process. Yeah, we're still pinching ourselves over that one. Needless to say all the hard work totally paid off and we couldn't be happier with our beachy chic bedroom makeover.

Q. What are your style resolutions for 2009?

A. My style resolution would be to open our home to family and friends more often in 2009. We take such care in fixing up our 50's ranch and sharing our progress on the blog but we really need to host more game nights and spaghetti dinners. That's the plan for oh-nine.

John's resolution is to tap into his inner carpenter and build something - even if it's just a few flower boxes for the front porch (and the back windows above the patio if I have my way).

Oh and John also surprised me with the promise of a bouquet a month (even if it's just a two dollar daffodil bunch from the grocery store) in an effort to bring the outdoors in and enjoy more greenery and life in the house in '09. We already popped over to the store and grabbed some frilly pink blooms for the month of January, and at $3 a bunch we just might be able to afford two bouquets a month. It really is the little things that make your house feel like home sweet home.

Q. Which style/design blog(s) will you be reading in 2009?

A. We're huge fans of too many blogs to count. We'll say Making It Lovely, Decorno, and Decor8 just to name a few- but you can check out a full rundown of our daily reads on the sidebar of our blog under "Link Love." So many blogs, so little time!