Blog

The most VERSATILE sofa

jo August 28, 2025 3 Comments
For a while now I've been looking for a new sofa to refresh our theater/ second living room, as our previous sofa set was dark and bulky, and took up a lot of the space. I wanted something that was smaller, but still accommodated enough people. Something lighter and brighter, but not white. I also love the chaise layout of the sofa in our main living room, and the 'Finn Fabric Sectional Lounge...

DIY Arched Bar

jo May 11, 2024 67 Comments
It's been a while since I've had the chance to jump back on here! We've been super busy building our new home, which we moved into back in September '23, and since then we've been non-stop getting so many projects done to turn our new house into a home, and one of those was creating an arch feature in our bar nook!So many of you loved this space when I shared it over on my Instagram, and I had a...

Our small backyard, on a small budget!

jo June 12, 2023 4 Comments
When building this home, we always knew we couldn't do too much with the backyard since it was only small, and we didn't want to put too much money into it, knowing it would soon be an investment property. So it's nothing fancy or grand, but I'm so happy with how it turned out - simple, and MUCH better than the before!Whenever I post it on my Instagram page, @jo.marie_blissfulbuilds, I often get...

DIY Drop Zone/ Mini Mudroom

jo June 4, 2023 4 Comments
When I designed this home, House 2 - Coastal Hamptons, I always knew I wanted to create a space near the entrance of the shopper door for a drop zone/ mini mudroom, since they are so handy, but also add such a feature to the home!With this home being built as an investment property, I knew I didn't want to spend thousands on custom cabinetry, so I started thinking of a DIY solution. There are a...

DIY Fireplace (out of cardboard boxes!)

jo December 13, 2022 3 Comments
This Christmas we're in a home that doesn't have a fireplace or mantle, and in the past one of my favourite bits to decorate for the holidays was the mantle in our last home!I was feeling a little uninspired this year with decorating, and while searching for DIY inspiration on YouTube I came across a whole bunch of videos creating fireplaces out of cardboard boxes, and I KNEW I had to try it out...

DIY Rustic Style Vase

jo September 27, 2022 66 Comments
I've been on the hunt for a beautiful big rustic looking vase for a while now, but every one that I came across was hundreds of dollars, but I wasn't sure I could justify spending that much! Since I love DIYing, I figured if I came across a big vase regardless of colour, I would try and create my own, and now that I have I am SO happy!When I shared the end result over on my Instagram page, so...

Our Coastal Hamptons Kitchen

jo August 29, 2022 11 Comments
Now that we’ve finally settled into our new home for the time being (House 2 - Coastal Hamptons), I wanted to do a dedicated blog post with all the details, starting with the heart of the home, the kitchen! If you remember the kitchen in our last home (House 1 – Glam Hamptons), you’ll notice this one is very different, not only style wise, but from a budget perspective too. Since this home...

The perfect GREY wall colour

jo March 2, 2022 6 Comments
If you've ever built or renovated a home, I'm sure you'll agree with me that picking paint colours is one of the HARDEST decisions! Worrying if it will be too light, too dark, will it match the cabinetry and compliment the flooring, and the fact that the walls look different in every room and in all different lights - so much to consider!It took me a long time to find that "perfect grey" for our...

Happy Halloween – Spooky Decor

jo October 27, 2021 1 Comment
I am a huge fan of Halloween, and decorating for the spooky season makes me so happy, so I thought since Halloween is this weekend I'd share some photos of the spooky touches I added to our last home over the years, as well as my favourite stores that I love to shop at!Halloween to me is such a fun time of the year where I can watch scary movies, decorate my home, eat yummy treats and dress up!...

DIY Textured Canvas

jo October 6, 2021 62 Comments
Lately I've been seeing a lot of different styles of simple, white textured canvas pieces pop up on Pinterest & Instagram, and admittedly I wasn't really sure if I liked them at first, but they've really grown on me! When looking online, they can range anywhere from $100 all the way up to $1,000 plus, and I came across a few others who had DIY'd it, so I thought I'd give it a shot! I...