Cubes, Lamps and a Better Pier One Site - YAY!

So my mom bought the brown leather cube from Target! So great to see it in person - I really liked the size and everything. I even put two side by side to ensure that I liked it and I did - yay! They didn't have the brown accent chairs to try so that was kind of sad, but I did get to go by Pier One and I found two lamps that I just loved! I want to get matching ones and put them on each side of our bed - $60 each - not bad! Want them SO BAD. Pier One's website has improved - thank gawd - and they had a photo of it - yay!! I think it looked better in person... but I still love it! What do you think?

My Dream Living Room.... Only a Few Thousand Dollars Away...

Click to make it larger...

I'm obsessed with the living room that I worked on all day today!! I just think it feels so warm and fun, but also traditional and rustic with a contemporary twist. It makes me happy! And it's not that expensive. I already have:

• The coffee table
• The armoire
• The side table
• Decorative accents not included above like chocolate brown leather throw pillows, pottery barn trays, etc.

Stuff I need to buy:

• sofa - $400 increased to $500
• ottoman - $200
• leather chair - $500
• two accent chairs - $400
• table lamp - $160 on sale for $100
• floor lamp - TBD (would like to spend less than $60)
• throw pillows - $100 on sale for $80
• birch end table - $200
• wall mirror - $400
• red throw - TBD (would like to spend less than $30

Total: $2,430 (before added taxes & potential delivery charges; also before it potentially goes on sale and before added online rebates or coupons)

So while I don't want to spend $2,430 replacing my current living room stuff - it's pretty good that you can spend just that for a couch, three chairs, two lamps, an ottoman, an end table, two throw pillows, a huge mirror and a throw... I can't wait!!

P.S. My current living room stuff will be spread throughout the house (i.e. couch and leather "video game chair" in Austin's office; chaise in our bedroom; leather bench in the foyer). And, depending on whether or not we get a basement - the couch could go down there if it didn't fit in the office.

Cheap Find: End of Bed Cuteness

Per this post, you know I LOVE the little cubes that could go, for instance, at the foot of the bed. I would like to get two, like this, for one of the guest rooms (the "orange" one).


Can't you just picture them at the foot of the bed below?! Against the cream bedding with orange pillows?! LOVE IT!

I found them at Target for only $50 - so two for the set (before the 15% off) - is only $100 - not bad!!

Converting Buffets to Vanities

I found this buffet on a site. I think it’s amazing how she painted it white, and now uses it as a bathroom vanity!! I want to do this SO bad – I think it’s brilliant and so unique. I’m definitely going to look into how to and roughly how much it may cost because clearly, aside from any paint and hardware, you have to get a new surface, have a sink installed, etc. It’s like I love how it looks, but don’t get how it’s done! Haha Anyway… here goes:

BEFORE



AFTER




Photos by Meg Duerksen

Bedroom Ideas: Likes & Dislikes

I think this is a cute, clean bedroom, but i'm wishing it had a color pop - like green or deep purple, even cranberry. Anyway - I like a lot of things about it though:

Likes: The round mirror over the night stand, the night stand, the cubes at the end of the bed (love it!), the bedding and of course, the brown color.

Dislikes: I'm not a huge fan of canopy beds (but love the frame/headboard - just not the poles), I dislike the small photo above the bed, i'm not a fan of the lamp by the bedside table... then again - it may need to be different like that for the round mirror to work.... hmmm.

Since there's not a nightstand on each side, I think it's a great guest room look and may copy it!

Ideas from This Simple, Fun Living Room

There's something about this room that I find really warm... I'm trying to put my finger on it.

Here's what I like: The colors (warm, neutrals); The color pop in the bright pillow; The leather ottoman as a coffee table; the neat mirror leaning against the wall; the "lived in but picked up" feeling it has.

Here's what I don't like: The wreath... i'm not a fan of wreaths; the pillows on the couch - they blend too much/don't contrast enough; the lamp shade - i'm into the 'drum' shade Devon called it!; the sectional - while I love the color - i'd much rather have a couch and two chairs than a sectional.

Lessons Learned: I like warm neutral colors with a subtle color pop (i.e. red), I like the leather ottoman as a coffee table and leaning mirrors, I like pillows that contrast with the couch, with a more modern lamp and a couch with two chairs... i'm getting somewhere!!

Speaking of Scrapbooking...

This room inspires me so much!! If for some reason we end up with a house bigger than we need and there's a random extra room (outside of the master, two guest rooms and an office) I want to do it like this. How CUTE is it. Now granted, i'm not into florals, but I love the green/white/black and BRIGHT colors in the chair (just not that pattern). It's just too cute... Happy Monday!

Makes me Want to Scrapbook...

I love a sawhorse desk! I think it will make a PERFECT scrapbook desk to put in one of the guest rooms. Right now it's at Ballard Designs for $499 which isn't bad... but i'm going to keep my eye on it at the outlet off Holcomb Bridge! Hope I find it... think it's going to look AWESOME in the orange/brown guest room...

Inspirational Console

I love everything about this console. I like, of course, the actual console, but I also love the art... I love the vase with "dead things,", I love the lamp and shade, too, and the platter with what looks like river rocks? I think what I like is that it's very, very simple design, but it fills the space at the same time.


The chest is $1,699…. Dang!
The lamp is $200… sad.
The vase is $35… not bad! And filler would be cheap.

Can’t find the other stuff online… but still – this look is pricy! The vase isn’t bad though, and if the lamp goes on sale even better! That console will never be mine though – WAY too pricy!

Kitchen Renovations: Refacing Cabinets

Forgive me as i'm unsure where we found this... but we're VERY inspired by this kitchen!

BEFORE


AFTER


Clearly the remodeler spent LOTS of $ on cabinets to the ceiling, new cabinets with glass fronts, the granite slab against the back, the wood backsplash, moving the dishwasher, etc. Furthermore, I would not be interested in doing anything this extensive, certainly not in our first home. However, I think the greatest idea we got from it was for a refinishing...

So i've done a lot of research on cabinet refinishing/renovating/refacing and decided, depending on how much our home costs/how much we have for upgrades/etc. we may look at doing the cheapest option for the kitchen: refacing. This, "they" say can last for a long time and is the cheapest option. Basically it involves:

1. Removing all cabinets/drawers from the kitchen and sanding them all down.
2. Patching all holes of current hardware.
3. Priming them and painting them a color (we LOVE the color above). What color would you call that?
4. Adding new hardware (I heart the European Bar Pulls above).
5. Putting them back on.

Yes, that's very oversimplified, but I’ve found lots of people who did it on their own and I’m super, super inspired by them:

Kitchen #1
Kitchen #2
Kitchen #3
Kitchen #4

This is where I want to buy my hardware (per numerous recommendations online):

myknobs.com

Here are some job aids I like:
This Young House Tutorial
Ron Hazelton Tutorial
Lowes Tutorial

So what do you think? I'm so excited!!!

Guest Room Purchases

So... I've had my eye on this West Elm bedding. I have the brown set on our bed and LOVE it. It's soft, but keeps you warm and I love a nice solid so you can add prints to it. So here were my inspiration boards for two guest rooms (the boards get larger if you click on them!):

For this room, I would keep it very neutral, but hav an orange pop. They were out of the rust bedspread, so I got the ivory bedspread and the ivory euros, with the rust colored standard cases. Then I figure we'll paint the wall behind the bed (that wall only) the rust color. What do you think?!

For this room we LOVED the green. So I got it (on sale!!) including the quilt, the green euros and the green standards. We may not use ALL the green - could end up finding different Euros or something... I don't know. I thought it best to buy it all at once though just in case I like it all green with maybe a black/patterned accent pillow in front. What do you think?

Loving This Chair...

It's inspring me! I could see these accent chairs in a den, or even in a bedroom. I'm a fan, and $220 isn't bad! I heart Target... it also has 15% off so it wouldn't be that much... I'd want two though. Hmmm.

There's Something About Ovals

I have thing thing for oval tables! I feel like rectangles make it harder to talk, but circles take up a lot of space. Something about an oval seems like a perfect happy medium! This one is crate and barrel and can hold eight people. I love it. It's only $549 - NOT BAD - and it's extended so you can make it a 4-person table if need be. Check it out!

Photo Walls

I've seen many photo walls, but my favorites are at my sister's house (Pier One glass with brown frames - she floats pictures in between) and one at Austin's mother's house. I don't have a picture of Devon's - dang - but here's one of Michelle's in her guest room:

I love the different pictures, the history, the different frames - I just think it's SO pretty. When you do the ones's like Michelle's that are less lined up, more "random" - I found online that people put down large sheets of poster board and lay them all out. Once they get it how they like it, they trace it on the paper, measure the distance between the traced frames and use that as a guide when hanging. I thought it made sense. Anyway, I can't wait to do a photo wall, and am pretty sure i'm going to do a 'wedding wall' with six of my favorite vertical black/white photos from our wedding, and put them in glass with black frames so I can do 8x10 photos floating in the frames. Here’s the frames I want.... they NEVER go on sale. Argh. It will be $15 x6 so almost $100. Not awful, but I'm going to look at Pier One, too - maybe i'll have some luck! And check online for a promo code!

A Home Office

So, I'm still working on an official inspiration board for this room, but it did involve my first purchase for the house I don't own so I thought it made sense to post about it! First, know that the office is more an Austin thing then a me thing! He loves sitting at a desk, working at one, etc. The idea would be to have an office on the main floor that's closed off, but has french doors so you're not completely closed off. I'd love to see it have molding, high ceilings, wood floors, etc. For colors, we're sticking with our current colors, Austin's favorites, chocolate, black, taupe/camel and cranberry red. We already have a desk, computer, etc., and plenty of stuff to hang on the walls. He is lacking storage though and bookshelfs.

Here are some photos we like:

We like the shelves, idea of having a flat screen in there, etc. We also like the colors here. We don't like the whole shelves on each side thing.

Here we like the ladder shelves and the leather parsons chair. That's Target! Only $94! Here it is


In this one we love the idea of having two ladder shelves side-by-side, but with space in between. We also like that these have sides. However, we'd use them more for storage bins.

Like this one! We love that it has so many spots for hidden storage, and that big oganization board in the back is cool.

With this one we really just liked the art... the rest wasn't us.

So here is the desk we have now, it looks kind of small in this pic with the high ceilings/big art, but it's a great size for Austin:

We thought about getting the Parsons chair above, and getting two ladder bookshelves that we could get baskets for to put his stuff in (i.e. CD towers, cords, etc.). My favorite site, This Young House, suggested J.C. Penney's ladder shelves! I'd never thought of that store, so I checked it out and for TWO they were on sale for $89 each - AND I found a promo code online. So these below (we got in black) were $157.30 for TWO including shipping. Sorry, i'm very impressed, especially since they're much, much more at your Pottery Barns, etc, and I trust This Young House to not have me buy crap. Here are J.C. Penney's below - just picture them in black covered with Austin's books, records, and baskets like those filled with stuff. And ours won't be so side-by-side like that - we'll leave some space between.

They arrived on Saturday. I'm SO excited, our first purchase for the home we don't have! Austin won't even let me open them though. Sigh.

So It Begins...

Yes, I've decided to create a blog that will document me and Austin's journey from apartment renters to home owners. I still can't believe we've arrived at this crossroad, but so happy to be here! May will be three years renting the same space, and we're now ready (for various reasons including wanting walls, the economy, wanting more space, etc.) to look into buying a home. Ideally - we'd like to close around the time our lease ends to avoid paying $4,000 to break it. Here's some other things we want (in a perfect world):

1. To live in Brookhaven, Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Roswell or Alpharetta (the 400 corridor in North Fulton County outside of Atlanta).


2. Something along the lines of: Good (3br/2ba; 2 dens or 1 den/1 finished basement); Better (4br/3ba; 2 dens AND finished basement); Best (4 br/3ba; 2 dens and finished basement- UPGRADED.


3. We'd love for it to be upgraded. Upgraded in our minds = painted neutral colors, hardwoods on main, berber carpet on upper and/or lower, nice cabinetry, upgraded appliances, tile in bathrooms, upgraded hardware in kitchen/bathrooms, nice countertops, nice fans, etc. Don't get me wrong, we're not scared of DIY - just saying... :)


4. What we prefer: Open floor plan; Kitchen connected to living room; Pool table in its own area; A laundry room not closet; 10' Ceilings on main; 4-sided brick; Hardwood floors throughout OR hardwoods on lower w/berber carpet on top floors; No wallpaper; walls painted neutral colors; large walk-in closets, office OR master on main floor, etc.

So at this point we've just been locking down what we want in a house, where we want the house to be, how much we want to spend and what we're willing to do ourselves (clearly the odds of a property having everything we want and like are low). I've also been working on inspiration boards for different rooms - color palettes, what furniture/items we have that goes in it, what furniture/items we need to buy to go in it, etc. It's fun! Aside from that, we spent Sunday with a realtor looking at 8-9 houses in the Alpharetta area. We LOVED one, but it had synthetic stucco which is scary and expensive to replace. So we're back to square one.