Fun New Trick!

I often read a Blog/Website called The Lettered Cottage. Layla Palmer, the woman who writes the blog, often does a segment called "Pick my Presto." She takes a photograph that a follower sends her, and she digitally adds decorative elements, wall colors, furniture, and convincingly so. You can check out her website here. I have often wondered how she does it, knowing this this would be a powerful tool in deciding what direction I want to go in on my own home.

I have to make a confession. I am not, and never have been, a visionary. I have a hard time seeing the end result until... well... the end. I have instincts that USUALLY lead me in the right direction, but I am always surprised by the result. SO, with a whole house and yard to create, I find myself overwhelmed and intimidated.

I sat down today at my computer and opened my favorite photo editing software, Gimp 2, which happens to be freeware, and I highly recommend it, and started messing around.

Gimp 2 is like Photoshop, but free. You can download it here.

Be prepared, if you don't know Photoshop, this software is difficult to maneuver.  It's not terribly user friendly.  It's taken me several hours to even scratch the surface of what it's capable of.

I managed to finish my front lawn and one wall of my family room.

Here is the front lawn now, please keep in mind this is my first attempt and it's not perfect.

This is what I want it to look like eventually.

Red door, blue trim on the fascia, green grass, a few hydrangea shrubs, shutter and new windows and its literally my dream house.

Here is the west wall of the family room as it stands now.

And here it is in my imagination :)

If any of you are in a rut in a particular room, I would love to do this for you! Simply become a follower and make a comment on this post, I will choose a few of you, get a few photos, ask a few questions, and post the end result here on my blog.

Happy Imagining!