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Instagram Lately...

9/27/2018

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I've posted some home pictures lately on my Instagram page, but wanted to include them here on my blog and link some of the most popular products that I get questions on! 
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Olive Branches: from the Target dollar bins, similar here 
Sink Console 
Sconces 
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Mini Chandelier Pendants
Gold & Marble Tray
Cake Stand
Utinsel Crock
Scalloped Pie Dishes
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Barstools
Plush Pumpkins - Target dollar bins, wheat grasses - cut from my garden

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Farmhouse Sink
Faucet & Side Spray
Flowers & Eucalyptus - Trader Joes - they have the best flowers!
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I had to add the pumpkin bouquet that I made too, because I love how it turned out! 
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Parker's Nursery & Bath....

5/31/2018

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Ever since we found out baby #2 is on the way, I've been thinking about how we are going to rearrange the rooms in our home, as we'll have to move P out of the nursery we built for him and into his big boy room.  His nursery was one of my favorite spaces to design, so I wanted to share it one more time on my blog - this time showing his bathroom, too, and some of the inspiration I've been loving for his big boy room. So fun to start thinking about that space and how I can make it feel like a warm and inviting space for him during the transition time. 
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Crib (similar here & here)  | Crib Sheet  | Elephant  | Animal Prints  | Lamp 
Beaded Flushmount | Wooden Stump side table | Grey Pouf | Rug | Rocker 
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Crib (similar here & here)  | Crib Sheet  | Elephant  | Animal Prints 
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Mirror | Changing Pad | Changing Pad Cover  | Storage Bins
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Whitewash & Birch Shelf  
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Diaper Pail 
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Step Stool | Shark Animal Head | Monogrammed Towels 
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Bookshelf | Storage Bins 
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I'm thinking that we will move Parker's furniture with him to his new room, because I've heard that you want to keep toddlers in their crib for as long as possible and with how busy Parker is, we will definitely need to! However, as time passes, I can't wait to do a really fun lofted or bunk bed. Here are some of my favorites - all sourced from Pinterest. Here's a link to my inspiration board on Pinterest if you want to follow along there, too!  We will also have to re-do the bathroom for his new room as that was the only place we didn't remodel when we re-did the home. I'm hoping to do a nautical bath.
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I love the coastal/nautical vibes of this space as well as the different textures. 
Source: Pottery Barn Kids
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Monika Hibbs is probably one of my  favorite bloggers - she has impeccable taste and her son Liam's room is so darling. I'd love to combine elements of these two pictures together to make P's big boy bedroom.

Below is one last picture that I love, too. It's not coastal but I love the wall coverings and artwork, along with the buffalo plaid sheet.
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Home Tour...

5/4/2018

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To view our home tour click here.
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Entryway Before & After...

2/22/2018

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Other than our kitchen, I think that the changes we made to our entryway are at the top of my favorite list. Scrolling back through the before pictures of our entry brought back some fun memories...including THE EAGLE! Todd LOVED that giant statue, and it was always a running joke in the family about that big eagle in our entryway. Todd claimed that he couldn't move it because it was sooooo heavy. Then one year for my birthday he surprised me and had it moved to his office, haha! Best. Present. Ever! 

Anyway, when we were making our plans, my builder had an awesome suggestion, to make our doors 8 feet high, instead of the standard 7 feet. We also removed the triangular window above the solid wood doors, and have glass doors now, which make our entryway feel sooo much brighter. I love how this transformation turned out. The only regret I have is that I didn't put tile in our entryway. When it came time to select tile I was so incredibly overwhelmed that I asked them if I could just put hardwood in instead and they said yes. Now I'm wishing I had stuck with our original plan to put tile in the entry and back hall. But that's ok, I still love the way it turned out! 

BEFORE PICTURES
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AFTER PICTURES
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Master Bath Before & After...

2/5/2018

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I've been wanting to share some of the before & after pictures of our remodel that we did a couple of years ago, so I thought I'd start with a space I haven't shared very much, but when I do on my stories I tend to get a lot of questions. You guys, I am really embarrassed to show you the before pictures of our old master bathroom... it was really really dated and the picture quality is so bad! But in order to see the transformation you need to see both pictures. 

Prior to our remodel, you could access our master bath from both our bedroom and the upstairs hallway. In order to build another bath on our upper level for the nursery, we needed to change the floor plan a bit, so the orientation of the bathroom looks a little different. Now you can only access it from the master suite. We didn't have tons of space for our new bathroom, and we decided to eat into the master bath space by building a "his closet" in the space behind the sinks (the door in the middle of our sinks leads to Todd's closet).  I am not a bath person at all so if it were up to me I would've just left one out, but for resale you can't exactly do that, and it's doubled as a "baby jail" for P, so at least its getting some use. I'll put him in our big tub and let him play with toys while I get ready. :)  I had wanted to do a free-standing tub, but for budget reasons ended up going with the built in tub instead. 

Picking tile was really overwhelming for me.  There were so many options to choose from and so many different designs. I knew I wanted a lot of marble, but my budget didn't allow for me to do all of the tile in marble. So here are a few of my money saving tips:
  • Use plain white subway tile in spaces that aren't the focal point. I used an oversized size.
  • Spend the money where your focal point is.  For us, that is that back wall. I had them create a "picture wall" in a herringbone marble pattern here since it was the main place your eye goes when you look in the shower. 
  • Shop at discount tile stores! The floor in our bathroom was a find at a discount tile store and they had just enough left in stock to do our master bath and our laundry room. 
  • Choose a more affordable tile, but then pay a little more for the labor for a more upscale feel. I feel like what makes our bathroom floors look so good is that they are laid in a herringbone pattern, the tile alone in a normal pattern definitely wouldn't look as nice. 
  • Also, our faucets are Delta and can be found at home depot. They look upscale, but are super affordable. 
AFTER PICTURES
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Flushmount
Shower Hooks
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Faucet 
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Closeup of the fluted pulls.
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I love that our builder made these vanities to look like they were furniture pieces with the legs. Cabinetry was all custom built. (Ignore the wear and tear.)
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Mirror
Wall Sconce 
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All items are linked by clicking on the pictures below. 
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Pink Decor for Valentine's Day & Spring...

2/2/2018

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I love that pink is showing up everywhere right now. If you know me in real life, you know I love blush - it was one of my wedding colors. These blush tones are a perfect way for me to add color to our home, to accent all of the grays and whites, without deviating from my mostly-neutral color scheme.  Below are some of my most favorite picks and I actually have almost all of them in my house right now! I've also shared some pictures of how I have styled them in our home, too. Thought these would be fun to share with Valentine's day and spring around the corner, plus they are all super affordable!
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Click on the pictures below to shop these items or you can keep scrolling for more links.
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Pink throw pillows here. 
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Pink velvet bench. I use this at my makeup counter, so it feels feminine and girly when I'm sitting there getting ready (which to be honest is rare these days.) Also, if you LOVE nude lips like I do, this is literally THE perfect nude lipstick. It's MAC - Color Satin. I couldn't find this exact one online, but linked this one that looks almost exactly like it. 
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Love these vases. Small Vase, Large Vase. I can't wait to find the perfect stems to put in them. I had them out at Parker's party and I got a lot of compliments on them. The picture on the website looks really dark, but they are much lighter in person. 
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This rug in my kitchen is so beautiful in person, and looks really high end, but is only $20. 
The rug below I have both when you walk into our home and by the sliding patio door off of our dining room. You can order it in any size off the website to fit your space. It's beautiful in person. 
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Master Bedding...

1/18/2018

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Ever since we remodeled our home. our master bedroom has been a work in progress. From the furniture to styling the bookshelves to finding the right bedding and accessorizing our night stands. I think I have finally found my bedding that's here to stay and I'm pretty excited about it!

Right when Parker was born I thought it was a brilliant idea to do solid white bedding, haha. New baby + white bedding... but hey that's what Oxiclean is for.  I love how it turned out and contrasted with our antiqued black bed. (Todd and I were eyeing that bed on the RH showroom floor for a lonnnng time. I'm in love with all of the intricate detail, and I feel like it adds a bit of a masculine touch to our very white and bright home. I found a similar style here for less than half the price.)  But even with our pretty new bedding, it still seemed like it was missing something. I put two of our belgian linen pillows on the bed that we'd gotten for our wedding, but it just never really looked complete. Then, lo and behold, I was walking through my favorite store the other day and came across these pretty pillows that added texture and were the exact color I was looking for! Plus they are only $29! Love the way it all turned out. 

Now to figure out how to style the nightstands. :) 

​AFTER PICTURES
​(Scroll down for before pics)
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Below is a picture of how I set up our bassinet with P was a tiny little guy in our master.
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BEFORE PICTURES

Below was our master bedroom right when we moved back in after our remodel, with our old bedding/furniture. Below that is how our master bedroom looked before we remodeled. 
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SHOP THE PRODUCTS IN THIS POST HERE
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My Christmas Table...

12/11/2017

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We started hosting Christmas for my side of the family in 2014 after we got married and it's something I really, truly love to do.  I love decorating our home and bringing our family together. This year, my sister and her family bought a new home, so they will be hosting. I am excited for them to start new traditions in their home with the boys, but will kind of miss hosting, so I decorated anyway! I haven't gone as all out as I usually do decorating because we aren't hosting, but I did decorate our table with a pretty, neutral theme this year, so it still feels festive! 

Below are pictures from both 2016 and 2017. I've linked everything at the very bottom, and the napkin holders and wine glasses are on sale right now! I also talked about some tips for how I added some fun touches to our 2016 table below. 

2017 Christmas Table Centerpiece
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2016 Christmas Table

I used fresh greens from a local nursery that I bought on Christmas Eve day, so the house smelled amazing and they were like 75% off! They were two door arrangements that you would hang on your front doors, but I just laid them on my long table, and they worked perfectly!  A few other touches I added were gold pinecone place settings with hand lettered name cards. I also put frozen cranberries in the water glasses instead of ice cubes.
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Gallery Wall...

10/4/2017

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I was so happy to finish off our lower level when we updated our home, so we enjoy this space and get some good use out of it! My husband had demo-ed it before we met and it was that way for a few years, so we never got to take advantage of this space.  Once we finished off this space, we were lucky enough to inherit some furniture from family to fill it, but the walls have been bare and the decor has been lacking. When I saw Emily Jackson's gallery wall I knew I wanted to recreate this somewhere in my house. I knew this lower level space was the perfect place to do it. However, when I went to use Framebridge, the company from Emily's post, I was shocked at how expensive it was.  Don't get me wrong, they are absolutely beautiful frames and everything is pretty much done for you but it was going to cost over $1K to do this wall, which was just unrealistic for us right now. So I set out to do this on a budget of $300 or less, and I did it! I used Mpix to print my pictures (and you get free shipping on your first order), and found my frames here - each for under $30!  

I love the way it turned out! And thanks to everyone who responded to both of my inspiration pictures in my stories. I was leaning toward the other option, but am SO happy with how this one turned out!
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DIY Deck Makeover...

6/12/2017

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Todd and I have an awesome backyard, it's not huge, but I love to sit back there because it's pretty private and I love the way he landscaped it (before we met). But, because we both worked full-time last summer and head to the lake on the weekends we never really used our outdoor patio. We had thrown our patio furniture away and didn't even realize what bad shape our deck was in until it started getting nice out this year.  I wanted to take Parker outside during the day, but didn't really have a place to sit with him. We also offered to host a get together this past week, so it got us thinking we should probably make it a little more presentable and livable!

Below are the before, in-progress and after pics as well as product details.
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A few years ago before we did our remodel we had our deck stained to match our fence which was a dark, orangey wood color. However it was cracking and peeling from the sun and rain and was becoming discolored. So my husband power washed it, stripping all of the rotting/warped pieces away.  I had asked him awhile back if I could stain the deck a gray tone to match our new white siding and front doors. He remembered this and came home from Home Depot with BEHR deck paint (not stain, the product was called Deck Over) that I wasn't so sure about at first... It was super thick and not really what I had in mind. He painted a small area with it to show me the color and said it was now too late to stain it. I was a little hesitant at first, but once we started painting I really liked how it turned out! The paint was so thick that it filled in all of the uneven spots. We started with the color silver gray (which when you held up the swatch, matched our doors perfectly...but flat it read almost white), so we decided to do a darker gray and went with the color drift gray, and I love how it turned out.


I was also lucky enough to score this table & umbrella for FREE! (it's slightly warped but I am not complaining), and these chairs were on sale for only $15 at Target.... so in total we got a completely revamped deck, along with new patio furniture and spent only about $150 including the cost of paint. We have already had people over and entertained in this space and have enjoyed sipping on wine back here. I just love that we can use this space again! This was the perfect way to revamp the deck until we decide to put a new one in and splurge on long-term furniture.
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