Christmas Family Photos 2020

 Sometimes I write blog posts for our personal digital scrapbook. This is one of those times.

Candle Light Christmas Home Tour 2020

 Welcome back for the Candle Light Christmas Home Tour! If you missed the rest of the tour, you can see our Living Room, Master Bedroom, Breakfast Room, Screen Porch Here

Christmas Home Tour - Part 1

Christmas Home Tour - Part 2

Christmas Home Tour 2020 - Part 2

Thank you all for your sweet comments on my social media about my home tour. Yesterday we started at the front porch, and today we will start on the back porch.

Christmas Home Tour 2020 - Part 1

   Welcome to our Christmas Home Tour! Grab a cup of coffee or a glass of vino and come on in.

Foyer Update

Happy Sunday!  I hope you are having a great weekend.  I am excited because we have decided to do an update on our foyer.  One of my concerns, when we bought this house, was that it doesn't have a coat closet. It has a really small entryway bench built-in at the garage door, but that is it. I have found the perfect solution.

I was scrolling Instagram for mudroom inspiration and stumbled upon this image by Marly Dice.   I recognize an IKEA Pax closet when I see one. I knew this was something that we (mainly Nick) could build out ourselves.

Christmas-fy Services

I know that I have been really quiet on the blog lately. There was a reason for my going MIA. I took on a big Christmas Decorating project in the Raleigh area. A client reached out and requested that I decorate her living room, dining room, and front porch.  Get ready for picture overload.

2020 Christmas Mantle

Happy Monday Friends! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. It was just the four of us again this year and we missed our parents, but we got to FaceTime with them. Not entertaining gave me a lot of time to Christmas-Fy our house.

2020 Gift Guide - Favorite Things

 I put together a gift guide based on some of mine and Nick's favorite things. 

Taco Trucks | SoundLink Micro Bluetooth Speaker | Leopard Tennis Shoes 

Red Sands Polarized Sunglasses | Alex Gold Drop Earrings | Yeti Wine Tumbler

Secret Treasures Crossband Slippers | Copper Coupe Glasses | Nano Puff Vest

Coastal Master Bedroom Reveal

Good morning my friends, the full reveal of our Master Bedroom is finally here! Welcome to all of you that have come here from the One Room Challenge website! I am so glad that you are here.  

NextWall Wallpaper 

Coastal Master Bedroom Update - Week 5

I have a confession, I had been delaying this post because something in the room just seemed "off."  I think I finally figured out what it was. 

Thanksgiving Tablescape

Happy Sunday Friends!  Did you have a good Halloween?   We sure did, the boys went trick or treating COVID style as most neighbors laid out candy and treat bags on tables in their driveways.  Our street has a couple of driveway parties, one has a scary clown theme and the other is a beer garden. It's so much fun!

Holiday Time Lambs Ear Garland and Wreath 

Coastal Master Bedroom Update - Week 4

I feel like this room makeover has taken for-ev-er!  Maybe that's because we are completing it in real-time and not seeing a whole room finished in one hour like it does on HGTV. Our semi-custom curtains arrived and we are thrilled with the quality.

TWOPAGES Natural Linen Curtains Paper White Pinch Pleated Curtain Panels 96 Inches Long Room Darkening Curtains 

One Year Housiversary - Porches and Exterior

 Happy Monday!  I'm back with more of our one year housiversary updates.  Geesh! We have really accomplished a lot in one year.  Maybe that means that next year we will just sit back, relax and enjoy our house. Yeah right! Who am I kidding?  Let's get back to the updates. Come on in!

We intended to paint the house navy or dark gray after we bought it, but that plan has been put on hold.  We decided some smaller updates could make a big enough difference that we would be happy with the curb appeal. We had our awesome contractor Erik add molding over the garage door to help fill the gap between the windows, painted the front door SW Naval, added our furniture, and hanging ferns.

One Year Housiversary - Living Room, Kitchen and Breakfast Room

Good morning friends!  Happy Sunday! Today marks one year that we have been in our Woodland Grove house. I thought it would be fun to share all of the updates that we have made.  Plus this blog is also like a scrapbook of our lives and it's an easy spot to reference when we are trying to remember what color a room is painted, etc.

Grasscloth wallpaper | Striped Curtains (ours are DIY) | Striped Curtains from Ballard Designs | Lamps | Chandelier | The Frame by Samsung (art over the TV) | Rug | Similar Fireplace Screen | Cabinet Pulls 

Click Here to see more details about our curtains. 

Coastal Master Bedroom - Week 3 Update

This is going to be a really brief post. I am behind on my updates because Lucas turned 10 last week! We celebrated his birthday with his neighborhood buddies having a sleepover (it actually became a sleep under) then on Tuesday with a soccer game followed by lobster pasta and Nothing Bundt Cakes with Grandma. Wednesday morning at 6am Lucas had 9 teeth pulled!  He was such a champ! Then Nana and Papa came to celebrate with the birthday boy Thursday evening.  He said it was the best birthday ever, even with getting teeth pulled. He's the sweetest kid.

I spent most of the weekend sewing these custom pillows. I think it took me 4 hours to make this bolster pillow. 

Coastal Master Bedroom - Week 2 Update

We are on Week Four now of the Coastal Master Bedroom update. We are so close to being done that I can already see it.

Week Two we installed and painted the board and batten.  We used Young House Love's method if you want to follow their steps. 

Christmas Decor from Walmart

 I know, I know! It's way too early to be talking about Christmas. But I have learned that the good stuff goes really fast. Especially when we are talking about good stuff at super affordable prices.

Beachcomber Basket Tree Collar $129

Design Board Tutorial

I did something scary over the weekend, I hosted my first ever Design Board Tutorial!  It was scary to put myself out there with people that I don't even know. These are folks that I met in Facebook decorating groups.

My decorating loving friend Cierra wanted advice on what color to paint her shutters. Many of our decorating FB friends suggested black to tie into her black railings. 

Blue Palm Wallpaper

We finished installing the board and batten, and the NextWall wallpaper in our master bedroom this weekend. It's so good! Here's a sneak peek. 

Gallery Wall and Blue Buffet Cabinet

We've had this huge empty spot in our foyer since we moved in almost a year ago.  Not anymore! We stumbled upon this beauty in HomeGoods. Although, I think it looks more masculine than feminine so I should probably describe it as handsome. 

Our Bedroom Makeover is Underway

Our Master Bedroom Makeover is officially underway! This is the wallpaper choice that we decided on and one of the original design boards.

My handsome hubby stumbled across one of these dressers at our local HomeGoods. But there was only one.

Happy Fall Ya'll

Now that it is officially September I am starting to get the Fall vibes. Our neighbors told us about a tradition that they have called "Forcing Fall."

Sources: Grasscloth wallpaper | Striped Curtains (ours are DIY) | Striped Curtains from Ballard Designs | Lamps | Chandelier | The Frame by Samsung (art over the TV) Rug

 You essentially eat chili, apple crumble or any other hearty foods and get out your pumpkin decor. It's their version of dancing outside with your jammies on inside out to get snow aka no school. Although that won't work this year.

My front porch isn't done yet, but I got a good start on it today.

I want to add mums, cabbage and pumpkins but it was 100 degrees here today.

Does it still feel like Summer where you live? Please leave a comment with your location. I would love to hear from you!

DIY Ballard Bowen Stripe Curtain Panels

I'm getting a lot of questions about our new Great Room curtains so I figured I would post about them.

I fell in love with these Ballard Designs Bowen Curtain panels, which are on sale this weekend.   They were over my current budget though. I already had 2 pairs of Ritva Curtain Panels from Ikea, so we laid them out in the hallway and marked off every 8 inches. Then we used painter's tape to create very thin stripes. We eyeballed the thin stripes and just ensured they were straight.

Model Home - Myrtle Beach

I don't know about you, but I love to check out model homes.  We went to Myrtle Beach this past weekend and my boys went fishing. While the boys were fishing I decided to check out some model homes in Waterside Pointe at Grande Dunes. 

This powder bath was tiny (as most are) but the look was stunning!

Home Finds at TJ Maxx

Have you guys seen the awesome selection of home finds available online at TJ Maxx?  They have really expanded their offerings.

Source: jane-athome.com

You can get a set of two of these amazing stools for $300! That's a steal.

Meet Frank & Fiona, my Fiddle Leaf Figs

Apparently, COVID has turned me into a crazy plant lady 😂 One of the most frequently asked questions that I get is if my fiddle leaf figs are real?  Yes and no.  

Flower Pot | Similar Pot | Plant Stand | Mila Chandelier

These two beauties, whom I have named Frank and Fiona, are in fact real. I got them when they had about 6 leaves each, 7-8 years ago.

New Home Office Pieces from World Market

Since we are planning to change the dining room into a home office, I started looking for some new pieces for the space. World Market is one of my go to places for furniture and Nick's style leans toward mid century, so it seemed like a good place to start. 

Dining Room/Home Office

Do you ever eat in your dining room?  We don't, we usually eat on the porch because that's where you can usually find me  😉 or at our kitchen island. This house also has a gorgeous breakfast room, although we rarely eat there.  We do occasional play games or puzzles in our dining room, but that's about it. 

Home School Tips and First Day of School

Mason and Lucas started school today and it looks a whole lot different than it has in the past. 

Lucas's desk is setup in the breakfast room. This makes it easier for us to assist him with assignments and helps to keep him focused. 

Coastal Master Bedroom

I woke up this weekend with a vision for updating our Master Bedroom. Nick and I are divided on the wallpaper and we would love for you to weigh in.  What option gets your vote?

1 Bamboo Leaves Wallpaper with Navy Nightstands

Porch Fireplace DIY

I think this weekend might be the first time that I have experienced a DIY fail :(  Lucas and I spent almost 3 hours (not to mention the cost) to create this succulent wall insert. 

I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. Something is just off.  I'm debating on turning it into a wall hanging.  Or adding some sort of tile around the firebox to make it look bigger. Do you have any suggestions for me?

Porch Updates

One of the top appeals of our new house was the fabulous screen porch.  We had a great screen porch on Everstone (our last house) as well, but this one is even bigger. We had one little issue though, it didn't have a wall for Nick's TV but now it does.

As you can see, we had our contractor install a shiplap wall to add privacy and to give us a wall in which to hang a TV. 

Great Room Updates - Phase 2

My hubby was checking out my new blog posts today and was shocked and appalled perturbed that I had not yet featured our fireplace wall and DIY curtains.  How dare I!  He did most of the wallpapering and helped with painting the curtains. He's my partner in crime.

Sources: Grasscloth wallpaper | Striped Curtains (ours are DIY) | Striped Curtains from Ballard Designs | Lamps | Chandelier | The Frame by Samsung (art over the TV) Rug

Navy and Gold Bathroom

I don't know about you, but being quarantined has gotten my creative juices flowing again.  We want to add board and batten to our downstairs bathroom as well as some wallpaper.  Here's what I have in mind.

Great Room Updates-Phase 1

There were two things that really drew me to this house. The first was the white kitchen with marble countertops. The second was all the windows, especially in the Great Room.

These are pictures from the listing on MLS. As you can see the previous owner had excellent tastes. We haven't changed very much besides the lighting and the wallpaper in the niches next to the fireplace.

Our New House

Since we took a walk down memory lane yesterday with a tour of our old house, today we are going to move into the new house.  We have already made some pretty drastic changes. I have to say that I passed by this house several times on Realtor.com until a picture of the kitchen caught my eye. I knew we would need to make some changes to the exterior so that it would feel more like us.

Exterior Before

Exterior After when we first moved in.

Then we had molding added around the garage. 

This past weekend we painted the front door Sherwin Williams Naval. I reached out to the FB Bless'er House Decorating Community regarding the paint color. Naval was by far the top choice. The second was to leave it the existing terra cotta color. 

 

For those that are curious about the terra cotta door color, it's Sherwin Williams Roycroft Adobe and the house is painted Sea Salt. 

The Doormat is from Target and the welcome sign was a Walmart after Christmas clearance find. 

I also added some new pillows to the porch and some ferns that I got at Lowes. The funny thing is that I bought these pillows to tie in the color of the front door when it was terra cotta. They look even better with the navy door.

We originally planned to paint the entire house navy or dark gray, and even had a rendering done by James Hardie.

What do you think? Should we eventually paint the whole house? Of course, then I have to pick another color for the front door...