sarah is up to her ears in flowers right now so she’s sent over some beautiful spring bouquets to keep our eyes occupied this week. stay tuned next week for regular weeder’s digest content- and a how-to video soon!

it’s always fun to see what decorative painting can do to spruce up a piece of furniture and this project from kristen davis at kfd designs is a great example. inspired by a dwell studio pillow, kristen updated this swivel chair with a coat of paint and cheerful bird design. i love the yellow color and the playful spin on such a classic chair. thanks for sharing, kristen!

also, i missed this email last week and it’s already made the blog rounds but it was too lovely not too share: a gorgeous kitchen makeover from neryl walker. wow.

i hope that one day when we move into a real house we have a stair case of some sort- nothing too fancy, just something that lets me decorate the stairs like this makeover from d*s reader helen. helen has done some amazing before & after work that you can see on her site, but today she’s sharing a simple stair case makeover. i love the way wallpaper cheers up a room and this is no exception. thanks to helen for sharing her work with us. [click here, here and here for more wallpaper makeover ideas from lauren and derek]

[have a before & after you'd like to share on d*s? just shoot me an email right here with your images!]

our first before & after of the day belongs to carrie of pattern of life. carrie found this somewhat dilapidated dresser and had the vision to turn it into a beautiful sink. she picked up the dresser for $30 and with a little ingenuity and elbow grease- they created a new sink from their found piece. carrie and her husband completely remodeled their home by themselves and this piece is a great example of what you can do with your own two hands and a little creativity. great work, carrie!

this next before & after comes from d*s reader sarah in branson, missouri. she transformed her husband’s grandmother’s chairs with a little love and a bold (affordable) fabric from ikea. well done, sarah!

[have a before & after you'd like to share on d*s? just shoot me an email right here with your images!]

in one of katie’s guest blog posts this morning she linked to j. morgan puett’s interiors and i’ve been drooling over the site ever since. hello, rooms of my dreams. i’d like to take a nice long nap and read a good book in each one. click here for more interior dreaminess.

Bonnie Runnels, Painterly Garden Home, Fayetteville, Arkansas

Bonnie Runnels is a painter, a collector, a gardener, a grandmother, a wife, and a mother….my mother. She was raised as a young girl in a small Hungarian neighborhood in South Bend, Indiana then spent her teen years under the warm skies of southern California. She married my father when she was barely nineteen and had three kids by the time she was twenty-one. They lived near and far while my father was in his residency- Sacramento then Denver, and Seoul, South Korea. In 1976, they finally settled in a small town in the foothills of the Ozark mountains- Fayetteville, Arkansas. (Where my story begins!)

Before moving to Arkansas, she would have never believed she would grow to love the South, its people and the landscape. She raised her family in a constantly evolving nest of styles that were always warm and inviting…I for one had a very hard time leaving. I’ve watched my mother work feverishly over the years to make our home beautiful, stylish, and most importantly- comfortable. My father used to joke with her that the walls in the hallway were becoming narrower with each new application of wallpaper. She spent countless nights sewing costumes, curtains, dream dresses into the wee hours of the morning. Only recently has she finally been able to devote her energy to her first love- painting. The home she keeps has become more streamlined and reflective of her true passions; art, travel, gardening, and family. Her classic yet down-to-earth sensibilities have influenced my siblings and my own home life. We are forever grateful for her hard work and the passion with which she taught us to live and discover a more artful way of life.

A view of the telephone desk that sits next to the informal dining table. The blue Gustavian chair was purchased at Anthropologie and the desk from Bonnie’s favorite haunt, Homestead in Fredericksburg, Texas. The telephone is reproduction from Pottery Barn. If she had to mention one designer that has been central to her style…it would have to be Ralph Lauren. She also finds inspiration in the aesthetic of Rose Tarlow and Martha Stewart.

A basket of well loved detritus including a photo of my mother’s late father, John Szoke crouched in his own garden sometime in the 50’s. Bird Plate is “vintage Katie art”.

Bonnie remodeled her kitchen about eight years ago. I find it almost monastic in its simplicity-perhaps harking back to her Catholic school days? The kitchen tile was sourced from Waterworks.
Built in cupboards house a collection of vintage McCoy pottery, Ironstone, and Transferware in her favorite shades of white, cream and brown. “I like vintage things with character and pieces that came from a favorite place I’ve been or handed down from the people I love; an apron from a favorite aunt, or my mother’s soup tureen.”

A pale and natural color palette runs throughout the Runnels’ home. The tufted sofa is from Martha Stewart’s Collection with Bernhardt. The Leonardo da Vinci book was found in Savannah at The Paris Market and Brocante. “I think nature has inspired me in the color department mostly. The blues, greens, sand colors, textures, etc. Today when I was driving to Little Rock it was almost a religious experience seeing the beautiful spring colors. I’ve never seen so many shades of green and the ominous storm clouds parted and showed the most clear blue sky and it was all the colors that I love to have in my house. I love mosses, shells, birds nests, etc. I like to see bright colors in other people’s houses but my life is so busy and hectic that I need the calming colors of nature.”

Her painting of the figs, the little girl with her feet in the pond, and the portrait of my dad are arranged salon style with those she has collected from other artists. The conte figure drawing is by Scott Burdick. The watercolor of a monastery was found in France and the watermill pen and ink drawing was purchased from an artist on the Charles Bridge in Prague. The Aspen Tree painting is by Swiss Impressionist, Guido Frick. The portrait of me was done while at SCAD by my friend, Robert MacDonald.

The lovely light streams in from an eastern facing window in the master bath. The white field bath tiles are from Waterworks. The English bamboo dresser was found at antique shop in Little Rock. McKenna Jewelry box from Pottery Barn.

My parents both love gardening. The grounds surrounding their home have been transformed from the former owner’s horse corrals into lush almost room-like gardens and orchards. My father also loves water and has dug a pond in every backyard of every home and apartment they’ve ever lived in!

Bonnie’s art studio sits adjacent to the main house connected by a vine-covered walkway. The studio was designed by local architect, Albert Skiles to reflect my mother’s love of Karen Blixen’s home in Out of Africa. The studio also serves as a guest house, including a separate bedroom area, kitchenette, and bath.

A still life of Bonnie’s art in progress…she often works in oil, watercolor, pastel and pencil. Her love of the Russian-Impressionists is evident by her gestural mark-making and vibrant plein aire painting style.

Items from her collection of found objects, mixed with fruit or flowers from the garden are most often the subjects of Bonnie’s still life paintings.

I love the look she captured in this oil portrait she painted of my niece, Maggie. We are truly blessed to have these original treasures! Her work has won ‘best in show’ for two years in a row at the Arkansas Artists Exhibition. She can occasionally be persuaded to paint commissions…. inquiries can be made here: bonnierunnels@gmail.com

My parents raise Hampshire Sheep simply to admire them with added bonus of keeping the pasture grass tended. “Looking out to the front pasture on a foggy morning with the sheep grazing is as close to heaven as I can imagine.” Being at home with you and dad…that’s my heaven!

good morning! i’m typing slowly this morning because yesterday i sliced my finger open with a lovely new bread knife we got as a wedding present. 4 hours later i left the ER with new stitches so now my typing ability is slightly impeded. thankfully katie runnels has two beautiful interiors up on the d*s guest blog so this morning i wanted to start with those (and give myself time to slowly type the next posts). this morning katie is taking us on home tours with pam pemberton and katie’s mom- bonnie runnels. i hope you’ll enjoy them as much as i did- after a week in georgia and south carolina it’s wonderful to see homes that remind me of the warmth and charm of southern homes.