Even minus the fence, the side yard was UGLY and full of stumps. Half a dozen trees had once been there! We live in a duplex, so there isn’t a lot of private space. We wanted to use what we had, but the existing yard was way too lumpy.

Here’s one more pic of what we were dealing with toward the front yard:

We were not flush with cash, but the fence really needed a fix. Last spring, we brought in a stump grinder and took out the stumps. (That was crazy and violent and satisfying and I wish I’d filmed it.) Our neighbors pitched in for supplies and I called in my little brother Joseph.

He tore down the fence (all except a one still-sturdy, if a little crooked, post #brotherlogic) and put in new pilings. That was no small task.

We gave the old weathered wood to some friends. Some of it became a chicken coop and some became the sign that is now on the front of South Restaurant.

Awww, look. There’s Joseph with then-baby Neri.

We wanted privacy, but to let in some light. We decided to go with an 8-foot fence made of treated wood with lattice at the top.

It got a little hairy because the old fence was built on a retaining wall. But Uncle Joseph figured it out:

Where the stumps had been, we used sand and pavers to make a patio.

It turned out great. That’s the old gate that I spray-painted and replaced the hardware.

(Don’t look too hard at the dirt the chickens scratched onto the stairs….)

I planted mint and rhubarb and waited all summer for this dang beanstalk to bloom. A super cool plant.

I found the pallet bench at the home consignment store on Fireweed Lane.

It’s a little uneven when you sit on it, but that kind of goes with our general aesthetic. (Not pictured: my dirty old grill. Though it looks much more dignified in its new environs)

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Anchorage loves coffee. And for longtime residents, that love began with a warm mug from Cafe Del Mundo, the coffee shop that introduced the city to espresso 40 years ago.

Founder Perry Merkel, who started roasting coffee in a shed in Spenard, was part of the first wave of specialty coffee culture that brought Starbucks and Peet’s Coffee. When Merkel retired and sold the shop to Kaladi Brothers in 2010, the new owners wanted to update both its coffee and its interior, without losing its welcoming feel and commitment to good coffee thoughtfully sourced from around the world. Many regular customers at del Mundo’s midtown location have been coming for decades.

“We wanted to build an environment around the coffee,” said Jared Mockli, the shop’s general manager, “while maintaining a comfortable, upscale atmosphere.”

Here’s what it looks like now:

Mockli talked me through the redesign—over coffee, of course—on a recent Wednesday morning. Most of the bar seating and bistro tables were occupied and the server behind the counter was busy tending a round of pour-over coffees.

You can still get an expertly-prepared espresso at Black Cup, but the shop now offers several types of drip-style coffee, best served black. Many of the drinks at Black Cup are made using the classic pour-over method, which dates back to the early 20th century and is still widely considered the most efficient way to make a quality cup.

From my seat, I could also see and hear the latest, dazzling addition to the coffee bar, the Steampunk machine, which is considered to be the future of craft coffee brewing technology.

Efficiency and beauty were key to a successful remodel, Mockli told me. Being able to see and engage with the person making coffee and the coffee making process is also central to the Black Cup floorplan. The coffee bar is extensive and open with white marble countertops. A record player sits behind the bar, providing the soundtrack, and occasionally a barista will deftly lift the needle and change the record.

In the back seating area, geometric black and white floor tiles anchor the modern palette, while mahogany wood tables and secluded booths add visual warmth and elegance. Brushed metal barstools and chandeliers offer simple accents. 

The design concept is attributed to Black Cup owner Brad Bigelow, who has an extensive background and masters degree in architecture and design. He envisioned what fellow designer Michele Parkhurst later described as, “a new-old space that is unlike what you see in Alaska.” And she’s right: Black Cup is much more European bistro than Anchorage cafe. “The cafe design was primarily influenced by early 20th century glamour,” Parkhurst said, “with big window curtain panels, chandeliers, Persian-influenced tile floors, and communal tables.”

Those involved in the redesign worked hard to gracefully incorporate references to the original shop. The long central table has been refinished but remains the same. The wall-size map is an homage to an older version that hung on the same wall. The espresso machine, too, is a holdover, but will soon be replaced with another innovative coffee gadget: the Modbar, which will be the first of its kind in Alaska. 

“We’re providing a craft-coffee experience,” Mockli explains, “We’re focusing on the origin of coffee: how the coffee is grown, harvested, and processed, and how all those factors go into creating a different type of quality and an added experience for our customers.”

As I finish my coffee, I look around at the cafe-goers around me. People of all ages sip their beverages, type on laptops, chat with friends. There’s an ease that Black Cup achieves through its dedication to simplicity, to the idea that great coffee can bring people together, and that ease can be seen in its customers. 

If Cafe del Mundo first inspired people in Anchorage to look for superior quality in their coffee, then Black Cup is propelling this notion even further by creating an entire atmosphere around their delicious brews.

While cream and sugar are still acceptable additions, I suggest you take your next cup black.

(This post is sponsored by Black Cup. Go here for more information on sponsored posts or other sponsorship opportunities.)

Visit Black Cup.

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One day as I was trying to chop some onions amid all the mess, I started day-dreaming about building another place for all of it. A place where phones could charge without getting food on them and mail could be organized, or at least out of sight. I wanted the equivalent of the old school telephone table, except upgraded for the iPhone world. The only problem was that our house isn’t large. A piece of furniture wouldn’t really work.

Old school telephone table:

Then I noticed that there was this old, covered electrical socket high in the wall at the bottom of the stairs. It had been installed in the 1960s to power a plug-in clock. And there was kind of a roomy landing area. What if I used the socket at the bottom to build a new-school telephone table? A charging spot for phones and computers and tablets. A place to put the shopping list. A mini island of organization. A mother’s control center. I liked  “mother” and “control center” in the same sentence.

Here is the spot. If you look close, you can make out the socket cover on the wall:

Next step was to find some cabinets. I wanted it to be inexpensive but also cool. (Hahahaha…) Over Thanksgiving, I visited IKEA in Seattle and settled upon some components of the VALJE series. The key was that the cabinets and drawers were shallow so they didn’t take up too much space. (The experience at IKEA, I might add, was far better than my previous IKEA experiences. There was a shipping desk at the store with a staff person to help get things to Alaska. And I used Lynden as my shipper. It cost $100 to get the stuff to Lynden (as opposed to $50 for local delivery). But IKEA managed everything and it went really smoothly. More on IKEA shipping here. )

Here’s what I bought:

I settled on two red box shelves:

Two cabinets, in white larch:

And two sets of drawers in white larch (pictured here in mocha):

Once they arrived, it took me a couple of weeks to get the time to put them together because I had to do it sans kids. Of course it was tricky. There was one particular step involving sliding in the back panel that just kept going wrong. I was saved by googling the name of the piece furniture and the problem. That took me to a forum where I found out what I was doing wrong. (Side panels were not identical and had to be put on a certain way) After that, it was easy-breezy. Okay, except for one tiny, missing, essential part. But I called and IKEA sent it to me.

Once I got the pieces assembled, I decided to call my carpenter friend Dan Slattery to do it. I could have hung them, but I don’t do electrical. I put the top of the drawers at counter height, out of reach of children. Dan fished the electricity down from the old clock outlet, wired in an LED under-counter light and put in a sweet USB socket.

Light:

Cool USB socket. I got it at Lowes, but there are tons of them online.

Next I shopped around at some local solid-surface places for a piece of remnant fancy counter-top. I fell in love with this sliver of dark grey quartz. (I think putting the countertop on dresses the whole thing up so I get to call it an “IKEA hack.”  )

Even remnant quartz isn’t cheap. A suitable substitute would be butcher block. In that case, you could situate the plug in the back of the top drawer and feed the cords through a hole. Even tidier!

The top shelves gave me a place for the cookbooks I had left once I culled them using the KonMari method.

One of the benefits of the IKEA pieces was that I could afford drawers. The top one is where I hide all the mail.

And, look at this satisfying cord situation. (Plus that’s my laminator. I love lamination.)

And now, when I cook, there are approximately 50 percent fewer random items in the way. I’m all for simple victories.

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 1. How to buy an IKEA couch and have it delivered to Alaska. Yup: with perseverance, you too can have all the Swedish-designed, Allen-wrench assembled furniture you want and even with shipping, it’s comparable to what you can buy in AK. AND, AN UPDATE: I went to IKEA in Seattle over Thanksgiving and was pleased to discover they have a sweet shipping desk where somebody will help you get your stuff to a freight forwarder. It’s $100 bucks, but much smoother than the rogue approach I’ve taken before. I used Linden as my shipper. They were GREAT.

2. For Talking Points Memo: What the Lower 48 doesn’t get about Denali  The best line, from my sister-in-law’s friend Ajax, who I reached on his fishing boat in the Gulf of Alaska: “It doesn’t matter to me,” he said. “Let’s do whatever’s cheap.”

3. Before & After: The Living Room. (That down there is what it looked like before.)

4. Before & After: The Kitchen (It was pretty heinous.)

5. Before & After: The Master Bedroom I should have kept the light fixture.

6. This is a guest post by the talented event planner Erin Velander of Blomma Designs: Xtratufs, pistols, mountain peaks: Four truly-Alaskan weddings (This is her wedding photo)

7. Before & After: A pink bathroom gets a makeover, keeps its mid-century soul  Look at that pink wall-mounted toilet.

8. For the Anchorage Press: Getting sideways. This was a blog-post-turned-essay about the time I got two visiting journalism professors and my baby stuck at the top of Arctic Valley in a rain/ice storm. Because? I still don’t understand my thought process. Luckily my dad came to the rescue.

9. For The Guardian: Alaskans put politics aside for Obama visit. Remember that one time when the president came to Alaska?

10.Friday/Pieday: Cranberry Curd Tart. I know, Uncle Tommy is right,  there is something weird about reading “curd” next to  “tart.”

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During our remodel process, we painted the room white, changed out the carpet and put in new windows, but it took me a while to actually make it feel like a restful sanctuary. (Hahahah! Ironic to have a comfy bedroom, though, because with two kids we never really get sleep.).

I was inspired to decorate it by this image that I found on Pinterest:

I liked the blush/gray combination. (Here is my Pinterest bedroom board if you want more inspiration.)

Here’s what I ended up with:

The light fixture is IKEA, just a basic drum shape. I actually carried it home on the plane last year. The curtains are hand-me-downs, from West Elm. The rods came from Lowes.

My dad and I made the headboard from a solid birch door that used to be downstairs (more on that later). It’s a little beat-up but I like it. The house’s former owner made all the doors and they have really grown on me. The blush bedspread is Bloomingdales, I found it on sale on Amazon. The throw pillows (fuzzy and metallic) came from Pier 1. The light gray sheets are flannel from Costco. I already had the gray blanket and pillow cases.

I really liked this CB2 lamp, but it was spendy:

I found similar bedside lamps at Target, for $30 less. The bedside table is a hand-me-down. I got a new drawer pull at Target.

I wanted a desk area, which I TRY to keep from becoming a repository for clothes and books. I found this one for under $100 on sale at Target. Desk lamp is Target as well. The rug came from an Urban Outfitters sale. The chair belonged to my grandparents. I replaced the foam on the seat and recovered it with new fabric. The artwork on the upper left is a gift from my aunt, Laura Myntti. The one on the right is by local artist Jimmy Riordan.

I moved the old wall mirror to the corner, which probably isn’t feng shui.

The view remains the same.

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I decided to take a year off of work when my son was born. It was the best choice for our family, but living on one income has its challenges. That said, reducing the size of our budget for the last year taught me to live simply and redefine my concept of “enough.”

Someone clever said “when things aren’t adding up in your life, start subtracting.”  I started by applying this idea to my closet. When I thought I had nothing to wear, I pulled out everything I no longer wore and donated it. Unsurprisingly, what remained were the items I wear over and over, items I love. Getting dressed has never been easier!

Next, the linen closet, the kitchen, bathrooms, and the garage. Rather than purchasing new items to fill a perceived void, I chose to donate, sell, or repurpose. The end result not only decluttered our house, but we now live simply, and are much happier.

What does this have to do with design? I’m glad you asked.

As my baby grew to become a toddler he needed more space to crawl, walk, and play so I decided to give our downstairs a make-under that would simplify the space, and give our growing baby and ourselves more room. The catch? We would sell the things that no longer fit our lifestyle and only use that money – and not a penny more – to redesign the space.

Here are some before pictures:

We sold a couch, a lamp, a TV, a coffee table, a console, and a lighting fixture for $2,100 and got to work. First, we bought a smaller TV to fit in the space designated for it by the builder. Getting rid of the console and big TV opened up a huge amount of floor space that we now use as a music corner with a keyboard that my husband plays daily. I ordered a vintage Bob Dylan poster from e-Bay to go above the keyboard, and the yellow stool came from Target.

The couch we sold was awesome, but it took a ton of space and it sat too low to the ground, making it visually bulky, so we replaced it with the yellow couch that used to live in our upstairs office, and mirrored it with our existing white couch. The bright colors really pop against the charcoal wall, and they’re small enough to provide space for the barely there side tables that came from Target. I found the couch pillows at Nordstrom.

I moved the cowhide to my office and replaced it with a bigger area rug in the same color tones as the walls. The wool provides a layer of warmth and adds texture, while the geometric pattern gives a fun touch to the room. I topped it off with a modern, minimalist coffee table. The black iron frame makes a statement, but it doesn’t obstruct the vision from either side of the room. The area rug came from Target, and the coffee table from Pier 1 with a 20% discount. Hooray!

We moved the existing dining table perpendicular to the couches and added two chrome pendant lights that came from Lowe’s. 

My husband built the floating shelves from white Alaskan spruce that we got at the lumberyard. The shelves let me organize and showcase items we use daily, not to mention the amount of space that I gained in my kitchen cabinets, where those mugs and bowls used to sit, plus none of it touches the floor, opening up the space to move around the table.

The only item that did not sell was the server we used to have in the dining room. I painted it, and repurposed it as an entry table that holds our record player and is the place where we can quickly store away my son’s toys when we have company. The whale art is a Terry Fan print.

When all was said and done we spent $2,085 and the project took 4 weeks to complete, mainly because of the time it took to sell things on Craigslist. We met our goal to recycle the money from items that no longer fit our lifestyle, and we built, repurposed, and created a home that is representative of the life stage we are in.

One of my favorite designers, Gabrielle Stanley Blair said,  “A thoughtfully designed home is one of the greatest gifts you can give your family. The item’s you’ve chosen to surround you, both the practical and the decorative, tell your family’s story. They foster important conversations.  They influence the likes and dislikes of your family members. They have the ability to prevent or cause frustration. They form the backdrop to your child’s childhood.”

I hope this will encourage you to realize that we don’t need deep pockets to live a full, simple life in a beautiful surrounding, even with kids in tow.

Fernanda Conrad is a designer and blogger who lives in Anchorage.

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Here’s what we ended up with:

What we did:

Replaced the floor. We chose marmoleum for its retro feel. It was actually pretty similar to the original vinyl we removed. Except it didn’t have glitter in it. The color, sadly, has been discontinued. Here’s a close-up.

We replaced the vanity with a simple white shaker one. I chose glass knobs to match others I’d found elsewhere in the house.

I chose regular white formica-style counter top with a fine bamboo pattern:

I replaced the toilet. That was harder than it looks because the original was wall-mounted. And we are on a concrete slab. Which means no regular toilet without a jackhammer. And that was not in the budget. I found what I think might be the only one on the market that fit our existing plumbing. It is made by American Standard and is expensive by normal toilet standards, though not by wall-mounted standards. I got it on sale and Anthony my contractor helped me ship it from Seattle. It has the world’s loudest flush due to some kind of fancy pressure system in the back.

We recolored the tub. This costs about $550 or so. It looks great, but, parents take note: it is a little fragile. We’ve already made some scratches with Matchbox cars. The tile enclosure was in fine shape, and basically white, so we kept it.

We painted. (Twice.) In the end, I went with brilliant white, a totally un-tinted bright white paint. In semi-gloss because my children tend to splash all kinds of water and, er, other liquids, all over the place.

I fell in love with this funky light fixture that was in the upstairs bathroom (there were two, actually and I have one in my closet if anyone wants to give it a home). This isn’t the best picture of it but it’s rad. I rehabbed some of the inside parts and repurposed it.

The rest was just decorating. Fernanda helped me find the perfect mirror at Lowes.com.

I framed up a collection of Alaska-themed posters I picked up at the SubPop store in the Seattle Airport and at Dos Manos gallery.

Towels came from Target. (White sale!) And J.C. Penney discount bin yielded the Jonathan Adler shower curtain. (I took the baby protection lock off the cabinets for the photo shoot. And the baby wipes off the counter. Oh, and I wiped the perpetual water puddle… wait is that water?… off the floor….)

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The post about this chair is one of my most recent favorites. She took the fugliness above and, with some sewing skills and her mom’s old suiting, she turned it into this:

Nice! To find out more about how she did it, read more here.

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Among the chaotic nooks was the small room where our furnace is. The room was never touched during the remodeling process and I’d never so much as dusted in there. It was getting crammed with random stuff, so much so that I worried I was going to burn the house down. There was no functional storage. I decided to give it a makeover before I killed us all. (The picture above is AFTER I took out all the piles. Except for that lovely roll of toilet paper.) The challenge: make it clean and functional for under $200.

Step one: Clean. I vacuumed, wiped down the walls and the window and used half a box of Swiffer pads on the floor. It was SO gross. Floor turned out to be gray, not brown! I let everything dry overnight.

Step two: Paint. I am totally not a fan of crazy paint colors, but there is something kind of freeing about painting the inside of a storage closet. I went to the Pantone section at Lowe’s and picked the shade that happened to appeal to me. It happened to be red. “Poppy Red.” The walls were full of holes. I did my best to patch what I could, and then just went for it. Sure they are rough looking, but it’s a closet! Doesn’t have to be perfect.

I also painted the floor with some charcoal-colored floor paint. That made a huge difference.

After that, I hung some Rubbermaid closet shelves. They require only a hammer, drill and level. Easy-breezy. And, finally, I replaced the light fixture with an industrial pendant. (My brother helped with that. No one was electrocuted.) I also happened to have new outlet covers lying around, so I switched them out. Here it is ready for some stuff:

Total budget: Paint, $30, shelving, $150, new fixture, $30. Total spent: $210. Not too shabby.

Here it is in use. (The rug I had already. It’s a runner from Urban Outfitters, bought on super sale. Great place to buy sale rugs, fyi. And the wall art was a Christmas present from Aunt Barbara. )

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