Anita Roll Murals Designer Dawn Kines thought she had finished this striped room when I arrived to paint a giant helmet over the bed in the boys room. At the end of the job though we found ourselves standing in the nursery debating if it was truly finished. The stripes were there as well as the initials which were just hanging over the crib on nails. On a whim we thought a branch holding up the letters would be cute. I decided to create a tree for the branch as well as other silhouettes around the room. A last minute decision that made a cute room into something very unique and extraordinary. Everything clicked and came off looking planned which was not the case at all.

ikwewe My main bath has mid-century yellow tile in good condition, and it was papered in a cute yellow flower paper. But I was tired of yellow. I overspent on redoing the master bath and didn't have any money left for the main bath. I consulted my artist buddy, and we picked a woodsy paper, pale beige and printed with green trees. We thought it might go OK with the yellow. Once the paper was up, the bathroom seemed to want more woodsy details, so I got woodsy light fixtures with bears and trees, then towels with bears. They came with two bear ornaments which were hung on the mirror. A bowl of pine cones we gathered in the yard dressed up the vanity,and we had a lodge bathroom!

Tammy Brown I created this hanging ornament arrangement because we have a new kitten who couldn't resist climbing a Christmas tree. The happy accidents are 2--the light reflection is super fun and I love it so much I plan to create new arrangements that aren't seasonal.

dmonsi69 After some adult beverages, the boys decided the rocking chair should go on top of the pot rack. I think it's grown on me.

quatorze When I first moved in, I put the TV under a table to get it out of the way of the movers. I later propped a gilded frame against the TV for the same reason. As the movers left, I realized that, in my small NYC apt., that was exactly where the TV needed to be and the frame was a perfect way to camouflage it when not in use. Years later, I got a bigger TV, and the picture frame no longer worked. Shortly afterward, a pair of gilded bronze chenets, or fire dogs, came up on E-Bay for a song, and this is the result - my rental flat's hearth, complete with a "fire" courtesy of a realistic looking and sounding DVD. The effect is even more realistic in person than in the photos.

Jae Vinson It isn't an entire room, but the tile flooring in my bathroom looks much improved thanks to a happy accident of using the wrong colored grout to replace a broken tile.
http://www.designocd.com/2012/10/refresh-your-grout/

Becky {this is happiness} We have a small mudroom as you enter the house from the garage. Our plan is for my husband to one day build some built-ins in the space, but until then I decided to begin organizing part of it with things we already owned so that it could be functional. There is a small wall that is bumped out, so I focused on that area first. I added these very sturdy hooks from Pottery Barn. The shelf is from Ikea and was once painted blue and in our playroom a couple of years ago. I repainted it white and added the baskets from Target. I added a small bench and cushion to create a spot to sit. And finally I have a large basket next to the door heading out to the garage that holds all our shoes. It is a space that just came together by chance by just adding a few pieces and I was so please with the results that we are going to leave it as is.

To check out more of this space, you can visit here: http://thisishappinessblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/our-simple-mini-mudroom.html

And to view more spaces and projects in my home you can visit by blog here: http://thisishappinessblog.blogspot.com/

frugalfarmhouse My contractor inadvertently cut the ledge above my stove considerably shorter than I had planned. Gratefully, my cabinet maker helped turn this into a happy accident by creating a pot holder cabinet out of the flub. I keep my stove top cleaner and pads there too. I can't imagine what I'd do without it! As you can see from the last pic - anything would have been a big improvement - but I love this happy accident.

pippolata I could not find a colour for the kitchen walls. After a year of living with samples painted in splotches all over the walls I decided (out of sheer frustration) to paint it the same white as the rest of the house. But when I opened the tin of leftover paint it had an ikky grey mixed in it! I took all the sample pots I had (mostly greys, blues and reds) and tipped them into the paint tin. This is the colour that resulted... and I love it. The apple painting was bought in an op shop (thrift store) for $3.

birchandlily When the cabinets we wanted (white) were't available for our tiny condo kitchen reno we had to switch it up and go with a blonde finish. On the ride home I decided to change plans from the pale blue paint I'd planned to use to a deep navy (Benjamin Moore's Newburyport Blue) to ramp up the contrast. I ended up loving my kitchen even more than if it had gone according to plan!

See my kitchen here:
http://justinetaylor.tumblr.com/post/10125225720/kitchen-tour

nancam Real estate in Vancouver, BC is quite pricey so when we were creating space for our second child we chose to convert two closets into a small nursery. The room was originally going to have simple pot lights in the ceiling. At some point in the renovation, "a couple" of pot lights turned into "a couple" of wall lights. When I started shopping for light fixtures I got really frustrated trying to find wall sconces that were suitable for a nursery. I also then had to find lights that would work well as a pair because there were two electrical boxes. The outdoor light fixtures with the edison bulbs were a happy accident and seem like they were part of the plan all along.

nevadan We were having an old house renovated. Had selected a green porcelain tile for the kitchen floor. When an appliance was moved, we chanced to see Douglas fir subflooring peeking out from a linoleum floor. The conractor did not want to remove the layers of old Armstorng linoleum, so we revoed them oursleves with solvent and snow shovels. The contractor then refinished the wood flooring, but said it would wear out quickly. Twenty years later, it still is in great condition. Easy to maintain with urethane every couple of years.

Evelyn Street We had been talking, not terribly serious, about doing some kitchen renovations. One by one our appliances were needing to be replaced. One day the oven went out so it was time to look for an oven. We wanted a double oven and we bought a double oven that would fit under the cook top, range size. Shortly after it was installed we realized that the larger oven (big enough for a turkey) was too low to the floor. Not very handy. We decided to talk to a builder and he refer us to a wonderful kitchen guy. He came and looked at it and started making suggestion. Our cabinets were peeling and would need something done. Months later we had a totally remodeled kitchen. The oven was raised to the perfect height. Moved the island farther out from the appliances for more room to pass through. I love it! Custom made cabinets, floors refinished and exotic granite.

Marji Roy My accidental designed happened in my recent laundry room re-do. It was a major re-do from unfinished space to a complete laundry/pantry/utility room. The troublesome item was the ironing board. I had done a lot of research including on Houzz back in March looking for ideas. The plan was to use the upper half of the middle pantry cabinet for a fold out ironing board. It would require a custom solution because the cabinet is only 12" wide and ironing boards are all 14-15" wide. But then I really need the cabinet for pantry storage- not and ironing board. The accidental design happen when I place the old ironing board on top of my new, soon to be installed folding counter and realized the sizes were similar and it could slide in under it. My husband and I then started brainstorming ideas for securing the ironing board on top when I wanted to use it. The solution was much easier than putting a fold down unit in the cabinet, and it works beautifully. Additionally, I still have the cabinet for pantry storage. I have written several blog posts about this experience and the ironing board at
http://www.ashbeedesign.com/2012/12/laundry-room-reveal.html
http://www.ashbeedesign.com/2012/12/laundry-room-reveal-ironing-board.html

the_misfit I've just had a similar experience to nevadan's. I have been slowly renovating my kitchen (all by myself!) for the past 6-8 months. (I am a crazy person, so I use it continuously WHILE I'm working on it. Only one area is really out of commission at a time.) The last big push was to rip out the ugly pinkish vinyl flooring (quite new and in good condition - just a junk material) and replace with slate. I bought hundreds of pounds of cementitious tiling supplies and borrowed a friend's tools, and got to work with a razor, a pry-bar, and a shovel. All the while, I prayed that the subfloor in my 114-year-old house would be 1.25" thick or more, so I would not have to lay more subfloor and then backerboard and then tile. I knew there was nasty mid-century linoleum down there (I did not know it would be adhered with several layers of foul tar, nor that the idiot who put down the vinyl had put 2000+ brad nails in the backerboard he used, which I had to pry out individually with pliers. I ripped open every one of my knuckles multiple times on those horrible nails). But I did not realize that when I peeled away that last layer of tar under the linoleum (also Armstrong!), I would see not 1.25" thick subfloor...but a beautiful pine floor original to the house. Bye-bye, slate! I love slate. But there's no question this is better.

I do not really want to talk about the amount of sawdust that invaded my kitchen in the course of the power sanding that ensued (instead of staining and varnishing, for days I have been washing every dish I own. Some day, I will actually finish this floor). But if anyone is removing linoleum tar, I honest-to-God know the EASY way to get it off (assuming it's the same composition as mine). I discovered that one by accident, too - I was so sick with flu I was just too tired to scrape the last bit of my pre-soaked patch of tar before I went to sleep. And the next morning, after 12 hours of soaking under a towel and (initially) boiling water, all that nasty tar peeled off as if it had only been casually sitting there, waiting to depart for greener pastures. Now, if only there had been an easy way to remove brad nails...

the_misfit Oh, I have pictures. First is the floor after ripping off the vinyl and linoleum and all the tar that would tear off. Second is the floor post-sanding.

ikwewe That is beautiful! What a reward for all your work.

quatorze Amazing what people once covered over or removed in the name of "improvements"...

My parents had purchased a townhouse in Park Slope, Brooklyn. One day my brother and I were were rough housing and made a hole in a wall of the passageway between the kitchen and the dining room. My father shone a flashlight to see if there was a stud near the hole so it would be an easy repair, and lo and behold, he spotted leaded glass! Long story short, we pulled the rest of the sheetrock wall away and found a floor to ceiling built-in mahogany and leaded glass server, complete with drawers, doors and marble shelves, all in mint condition - amazing! I guess we should not have been surprised though, earlier that year, when clearing the weed-choked garden, we found all the pieces of one of the marble mantelpieces, still in perfect condition, that was "missing" from the house.

fredericklc quatorze, what an awesome story. Your adventure was like finding pirate treasure. Were the people who lived there before a little off their rockers?

quatorze Yes it was pretty amazing. That house held other secrets, but none so dramatic as that one.