Guest Room Update

They've changed SO much - I must get new pictures. For now - here is the orange guest room - added the wrought iron piece on the side and moved pictures to the top - fun!

Old guest room

Enter idea I saw at Pottery Barn

Welcome to to the new guest room

So what did this have to do with that piece of wall decor? There it is! And it kind of goes with the swirly pattern on that PB pillow!

And on over to the corner where my favorite little chair sits - loves it

New Den Wall Art

I moved some art around because of THIS:

I've been eying it for a while - I just love it. It's a 40" square - so a pretty substantial piece of wall art. It's wrapped on canvas. I wanted it so bad, but wasn't crazy about the $300 price tag.Here is is on their site.

But never fear, when there's a coupon there's a way. I received a 20% off entire purchase for Ballard Designs Back Lots (outlet). I headed over and there, in great condition, marked down to $223 (before tax). So with my 20% off it was still $178. Not cheap enough yet. However, I went back and wall art was 20% off, and then another 20% off with the coupon. Yes, I purchased for $143 (before tax). That's what I call a bargain, right? Heart! Here's a pic I took of it in my casa - just hung it last night!

New wall art

Old wall decor

I think I need to take new pictures of this - I like it MUCH better in person - it almost seems bare in pictures?? I dunno! I ended up putting the piece that was above the couch in a guest room - perfect!

New Canvas Print for the Casa!

I found this today...

Photo from ballard designs

close up shot

I've been eying it for a while - I just love it. It's a 40" square - so a pretty substantial piece of wall art. It's wrapped on canvas. I wanted it so bad, but wasn't crazy about the $300 price tag. Here is is on their site.

But never fear, when there's a coupon there's a way. Enter yesterday, I received a 20% off entire purchase for Ballard Designs Back Lots (outlet). I head to the gym on Sunday, walk over, and one was there, in great condition, marked down to $223 (before tax). So with my 20% off it was still $178. Not cheap enough yet. However, today I went back to the gym and waltzed over and wall art was 20% off, and then another 20% off with the coupon. Yes, I purchased for $143 (before tax). That's what I call a bargain, right? Heart! Here's a pic I took of it in my casa - haven't hung it yet though, clearly!

TOTALLY worth the $ - can't wait to hang it and take updated pics - YAY!

Dining Room: New Rug meant New Tabletop Decor

I LOVED my old dining room rug. It was a Pottery Barn Outlet find. Reuben loved it too. He loved to relieve himself on it to the point that we had to get it drycleaned. Fail. And then roll it up and replace it. Enter the new rug, which is a much more intense print which meant our printed place mats were no longer going to work.

Me, my mom and my sister all went up to Pottery Barn outlet today. They were setting up a display with a runner and these cool, heavy, awesomely rustic, candlesticks - with no candles in them. I loved it. I picked up 5 candlesticks (only $53 total) , my sis found the runner (only $15) in the store and game over - I was going to copy PB's tabletop for my living room for only $68. Here's how it turned out - not a major transformation but i'm much happier with the rug, and the room, now!

BEFORE: this is the new rug - you can see how the 'poppy' placemats were just kind of meh. As far as not just doing a single centerpiece in the middle - I was worried it would compete with the huge light that hangs over it! (not shown in this shot!)

AFTER: Candlesticks and runner instead - not competing with 'beehive' light... do you see little Reuben? LOL

Close up shot of candlesticks

The completed room - new tabletop and new 'party central' buffet!

Dining Room: "Entertainment Central" says BH&G

So, I was at the gym on Thursday and picked up a Better Homes & Gardens magazine. Not usually my bag, but I flipped through it and a page caught my attention. It was all about making your dining room buffet functional, and decorating with items that are great to have on hand for entertaining - even if it's last minute. Examples included a glass jug with napkin packs, baskets with appetizer plates and spreaders, a lazy susan with liquors, etc. Well, we already have a "beverage station" - our kitchen island has two cabinets with all of our liquors and mixers, and two drawers with all of our bottle openers, wine stoppers, spouts, etc. So I wanted to focus on making our sparsely decorated buffet a great location for: a few of my favorite serving dishes, party napkins, paper plates, plastic silverware, appetizer plates, spreaders, plastic cups, koozies, beer & wine charms, etc. - all of those things I dig out when we have company (usually kept in the pantry). In order to do this, I got the following: a couple of new servers at Crate & Barrel, new appetizer plates and spreaders, a big jar for napkins at Homegoods and a basket, green dinner napkins and a water goblet for displaying the spreaders.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Now for some detail shots:

Top shelf: new $10 server from C&B; new $6 server from C&B - narrow for crackers or olives; already owned two pottery barn servers, 3 Ikea mini servers and 8 Ikea sauce dishes

Bottom shelf: silver bucket that came as part of one of Austin's birthday gifts - it's filled with clear 16 oz. solos, clear wine glasses and our Martin-branded cups; new $12 basket from Pottery Barn outlet; filled with new $2.50 green cloth napkins from Pottery Barn, 8 new $3 Crate & Barrel appetizer dishes; new $10 Crate & Barrel mini tongs and already owned Pottery Barn pitcher.

Top shelf: Cutting board (wedding gift) - we've never used it but hope to use it more if it's out - maybe for cheese & crackers or something?!

Bottom shelf: Already owned Home Goods jar with wicker balls from Target; new $2 Pottery Barn Goblet with new green PB napkin; filled with 6 new $2 Crate & Barrel spreaders and 3 already owned Ikea mini spoons; new Home Goods $10 jar filled with new PB napkin and already owned paper napkins in brown and white (I plan to get more brown, white and green for it).

So what about the stuff that doesn't match the scheme? IT'S IN THE DRAWERS! Yes, novel concept using the drawers i'm sure. These used to be EMPTY. This is theme in our house... empty drawers!

Drawer #1: Already owned container and filled it with clear silverware; remaining is filler pinecones and rocks and extra runner

Drawer #2: Already owned clear plates and assortment of beverage napkins in different colors - room for more!

Drawer #3: Already owned assortment of plates, beer charms and extra bamboo placemats.

So that's it! I'm really happy with it but am open to recommendations? What am I missing? Is it cluttered or does it need more? There are a few items I have my eye on for it. They include:

some fancy toothpicks!

potentially this short storage bin for the low shelf - could replace servers? Could house more cups or koozies? May not be necessary and may be too "officey"

More appetizer plates - great price on this set of 12!

P.S. You can see a bit of our new dining room rug in these pictures. Reuben ruined the other one by making it his personal pee pad. Dry cleaning didn't even work. Sigh. More pics to come of it later.

P.S.S. SPECIAL THANKS to my mom and sis - I couldn't have this without them and their help today - I had so much fun with them and SO APPRECIATE their advice and ideas!!

Sorry for Going Dark!

I know! I've gone dark again, but truly nothing has been going on at the homefront (as far as home decor!). Between football season, birthday parties, weddings and more - we've done NOTHING to the house short of trying to maintain it!

I expect a few purchases later this year - new rug for the dining room, maybe some decor items for the kitchen, but all projects are TBD! There's been talk of the TV over the mantle dealio happening sooner rather than later - and maybe new backsplash in the kitchen - and maybe a new lamp for the living room but nothing is needed so it's all on hold!

I know, boring. :)

Master Bedroom Update

I've been meaning to post our bedroom switcharoo! I know I mentioned that we switched up our bedroom from chocolate/cranberry to chocolate/green. Here's the new pics! (the green came from our guest room and the cranberry moved to our upstairs den which used to be blue, but now Austin's home office is blue). :)

Basically - we just got two new nighstands, added the green bedding, added some pillows from other rooms, a bit of new art and some green accents!

Austin wanted the closed-off Pottery Barn nightstand

I wanted open shelving - although I need to work a bit more to keep it clean!

Random shot - and poor Reuben has given up! LOL

New art and some new green accents

Here are some before shots:

gotta love nightstand shopping - only took me a year! haha

So much darker before - and we ultimately had to toss the moss A and K from our wedding - they died!

Still love the red- but really like the lighter colors now!

Hope you like the changes we made! The great thing is we can always go back - stuff is just shuffled all over the house. I could see going darker in the winter!

Things I Learned: The Last Project

• Be Flexible. You can know where you want your lighting, but that doesn't mean that pipes, beams, etc. won't be in the way. You have to be flexible and know that it will look good regardless.
• Label your light switches. Tell them up front what you want each switch to do.
• Think about the future. We closed up all of the previous holes (they weren't electrical any longer - they moved it to where we needed it). However, i'll make sure to note where they are in case owners later (or us if we get rid of the pool table) want to add a fan. We know where it fits, where the support beam is, etc.
• Have one person do the whole job. I'm SO glad I didn't piece meal to different vendors for painting, carpentry and lighting. It was great for the team to work together to get the job done and come when they were needed. The schedule changed a lot so if it had been different companies it would have been very frustrating. It was also nice to have one contact.
• Get more than one quote. That's easy, but it really helped. I was able to get this one company to match a lighting quote from a different company, and to get them to match a carpentry quote from yet another company. Basically, I liked this company's painting quote and they matched on the others to do the whole job. Then they did extras, like painting our hall closet for $70 and putting crown in our half bath too for only $145. I hope I can use them again. Later, if we stay here longer, I could see adding crown to the 3 bedrooms upstairs and 2 bathrooms that lack it, and, when I can no longer stand the satin, i'd bring them on in a heartbeat to paint repaint the interior.
• Get buy in. Austin was so supportive. We made the choices together with where lights would go, which lights we would buy (pendants) and worked with the vendor together, especially once they were on site.
• Have a plan. We drew out the room in PowerPoint and indicated where we wanted 6" recessed cans, 4" recessed cans, pendants, etc. We got feedback from lighting peeps and adjusted based on their ideas. Before they came, we sent the diagram we all agreed on and when they arrived they had copies of it and we all knew which direction we were heading in.

I think that's it! Every project is trial and error but I always walk away feeling so much more knowledgeable and comfortable, though i'm never in the mood for another project for a while! LOL

Before & After: Lighting, Painting & Crown Moulding Project...

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE


AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Three Words: I'm So Excited.

Three More: We Love It.

Three More: Hope You Do! :)

Three More: Reuben does too...

The Renovations Have Commenced...

I know I still owe a bunch on this blog - eek! But for now, know that the lighting has commenced - yay! I took some 'during' pictures last night. He was at the house from 3:30 until 9 p.m. He has cut 8 holes for the 8 6" cans so far and has run all of the wiring. He's arriving at 9 a.m. today to cut 5 more holes (for 3 more 6" cans and 2 more 4" cans) and to hang the 3 pendants. Then the lights go in... then the switches are fixed... i'm SO excited!

UPDATE: 12 p.m. Austin sent a few pics. NOTE: These were taken with a blackberry. Also, once the ceiling is white we think it will look SO much better! (so the cans will be flush)

UPDATE: 4 p.m. Austin sent another pic. Note: These were taken with a blackberry. Also, he insists that they just look close together due to the angle. We like.... eee!

Update: 4:40 p.m. Austin sent another pic