Can you believe fast time flies when you’re mindlessly oggling images of dream rooms on Pinterest? Naively, I start to believe I can turn my house into one of those inspiration boards. The image above is one of those rooms I want to recreate in my house. (Honestly, who wouldn’t want their own little “morning room” where you can single handedly bring back letter writing?) This smart room above was featured in an Elle Decor article entitled A Chic Retreat in The Hamptons. Like most slideshows, I thought every room would be as appealing as this little gem, but happily, the the other rooms held no appeal for me. I say happily because I’m happy I didn’t have to be jealous of their entire Hamptons retreat, just this inviting office/letter writing/reading/morning room.

If you’ve read my blog in the past few months, you may know I’m in the process of a whole house makeover for my weekly newspaper column. When I saw this picture, I knew I could do this look in my own house, the side room off of our master bedroom, which you’ll read more about in a moment. When we first moved here, we halfheartedly turned it into Mr. Mod’s home office. Who knew he was such a slob? Keeping a tidy home office was never a dream of his. He brought home the biggest, clunkiest, darkest desk he could find. What’s more, he quickly tired of being isolated upstairs when all the action was going on downstairs. So, it has become an eyesore of a room complete with a gargantuan copier from, like, 1989 or something. However, the room does have a massive window facing south where I sometimes stand in my jammies with arms outstretched, replenishing my supply of Vitamin D. Can you see where I’m going with this? I could really appreciate this room, I could make it something wonderful.

Now, I’ll let you in on the horrible secret. This upstairs side room was weird, creepy and dreadful when we bought the house. I suspect there were some very strange “get togethers” that went on up there. I don’t even know where to begin, but here goes:

*Diagonally cut tongue in groove panelling on the walls
*Two walls with floor to ceiling smoked mirror panels attached to the paneling
*Brown, black and amber mottled ceramic tiles all over the floor
*A giant, freakin’ outdoor hot tub smack dab in the middle of the raised floor
*A 2′ x 2′ wooden storage cabinet in the corner that houses a garden hose and spigot. (?????)
Need I say more? Oh, I could say more, but I won’t, other than the house practically had to be exorcised before we could call it home.

Anyway, once the keys were in our hot little hands, hubby ran upstairs thinking he could take a dip in his very own in-house, sexy, flippin’ hot tub right there off the master bedroom. To say he was disappointed would be an understatement when he discovered water pouring through the ceiling into the dining room. He made a quick phone call, borrowed my brother’s Sawzall and the hot tub was quickly stacked in neat little piles out by the street for Tuesday morning trash pickup. Plywood was put down to cover the hole, carpet was laid, and the smoked mirrors are still up there. But not for long.
It’s just about time Mamma has her own sun drenched morning room.

Few readers may know this, but I write a weekly column for The Indianapolis Star called DIY Journal.
After taking a few months off this summer, I came back with renewed verve to do a whole house makeover. (Don’t even ask me how I’ll be financing this behemoth!)

The first thing you see when you walk in the front door is my front hallway, so that’s where I’ve begun.

Using a photo I found in Canadian House & Home for my inspiration photo, I got to work with some boring door repair and then it was time for the fun stuff. I had to find a modern-ish chair to add color to this 12′ x 12′ entry. As you can see, the lines of the chair are fantastic, the color and cushions, not so much.

To see read the entire Step by Step and photo gallery, click here.

Here’s a project that will only take you about 1 1/2 hours to complete.