home decor + diy + thrifting
I’ve been wanting to update my dining room lighting since we bought this grand ol’ home in 2010. Lighting plays such a big part in the overall ambiance of a room! And as a complete ambiance geek, it was making me a little cuckoo. If you’re new around here, our home is a 1908 Craftsman…
Read More
As I may have mentioned, I listen to a lot of podcasts. One thing I hear over and over from the experts, is: get clear on what you want. What you really want. I started Catrina At Home because I wanted to help women with their homes. Sometimes that looks like DIY projects or decorating…
Read More
I knew better. But I was in a hurry. I can’t even remember why. I had purchased an outdoor wrought iron couch and two chairs (at an estate sale, of course) and I wanted to put them in my living room. I know. Sounds weird but stay with me. The couch was a four-seater, the…
Read More
If I asked you to describe yourself, would you use just one word? Can one word really capture all that you are? I don’t even know you personally but I’m pretty sure the length and breadth of who you are cannot be summed up in a single, solitary word. Three to five words? Maybe. I’ve…
Read More
I love gardening. It’s in my blood. My Abuelo (Grandpa Vargas) was a prolific gardener. (I searched for over an hour to find my photos I have of him gardening, even into his later years, but no luck.) I started my garden back in 2012 and kept it up for a few years, let it…
Read More
Just before the holidays last year, we stopped all the work on the kitchen, pulled up the drop cloths and decided to take some time off from the renovation. After the holidays I was sick for a month straight and spent the next month or so after that, making up for lost time. That brings…
Read More
This post contains affilate links for your conveniece that I make a small commission from (at no cost to you), should you choose to make a purchase from these links. I recently put together a list of home decor accessories for a client and decided I would share the pieces with you, too! Their home…
Read More
I follow a lot of other folks on Instagram who are also renovating and restoring old homes. Ours is a 1908 Craftsman Bungalow, others are renovating farmhouses and making homes of buildings that were formerly businesses. There’s something we all have in common, that feeling that the work is never done. We cheer each other…
Read More
A common problem with one-hundred-year-plus-old homes is a small kitchen. One of the first projects we did in our home was to knock out the wall between the butlers pantry and the kitchen to expand it but it’s still pretty small by most standards. The only time I feel the small size is when we…
Read More
I have a love/hate relationship with trends. It’s always fun to see ‘popular’ designers make their predictions for the year and introduce new and tried and true ideas to the mainstream. The trouble begins when we start listening to and following the ideas of ‘experts’ instead of our own intuition. Then there’s the ‘pack mentality’,…
Read More