Living Room Pics

I've got the living room mostly finished now. I've got several shelves on the wall behind the couch that still need some accessories on them. But I've got the fireplace wall and loveseat wall done so I decided to go ahead and post pics of them. I'm bringing up my Christmas decorations when I go home for Thanksgiving so I wanted to get as much of the living room designed as I could before I take it all down and put up my Christmas ornaments. Since I didn't get to decorate for Christmas last year because I was moving into the Mitchell St. house, I'm so excited to see all of my glittery, sparkely decorations this year!

Woman on a Mission

I've finally retrieved all of my boxes of stuff from my parents house. They have taken up new residence in my spare bedroom. The only problem is that my sister is coming up Saturday and Sunday and this is her room. So my goal the past 2 days has been to completely get everything unpacked. As you can see, I had my work cut out for me!

Luckily I've got about 2/3 of it done. So my goal today is to finish it all up so she can have a place to sleep!

Black and Brown Bedroom & Pillow Project

The first room I'm almost completely done with is my bedroom. Finding a decorating scheme for this room was a challenge! I had chosen to have an accent wall painted chocolate brown in the bedroom before I moved in. While I LOVE the color I didn't fully think the choice through. I have black bedroom furniture. And while I love the combo of black and brown together it made choosing a new comforter difficult. I needed something that would pull the room together and give it some direction. The great comforter debate was further complicated by the imput of my boyfriend, who is wonderful, but definitely prefers function over form. I, however, don't believe anything can be truly functional if its not pretty to look at. So 5 million comforters later an agreement was reached on one that was incredibly soft but still attractive. While it wasn't even close to what I had in mind, its definitely grown on me and now I couldn't be happier with it (and I have to admit that it is extremely nice to sleep with a light, silky comforter over a scratchy, albeit, beautiful one). I've still got a few finishing touches to put on but here are some pics of the bed wall. I'll add pics of the opposite walls as soon as I get the final accent pieces.

The black and brown pillows on the bed were my art project for today. Since I'm on a super tight budget right now and have some extra time (both of which are a result of having almost 3 weeks off from working) I bought some pillows from Wal-Mart for $5 and a stencil and some paint from Hobby Lobby. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out!

Back to Blogging

So after a very long hiatus from blogging, I'm back. A couple of months ago I put my house in Conway up for sale. It sold pretty quickly and a few weeks ago I moved into an apartment in Northwest Arkansas. While I'm still adjusting to apartment living I am finally getting settled in. And a new place to live means new opportunities to decorate! I don't start my new job until the end of November so this has given me some time to get the apartment decorated and even do a few art projects (and start blogging again). Having this much time on my hands is a BIG change from the way things have been for the past few months and I have to say, I'm ready to go back to work! I'm actually much more productive when I come home after working a full day than I am when I'm around the house all day. But until then, I'm going to post some pics on what all I've been working on lately.

Eye Candy

A friend of mine gave me this link to the website for Amy Atlas Events. The pics under the Eye Candy link are amazing and awe-inspiring! I'm definitely going to keep this link bookmarked and use it for future inspiration. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

www.amyatlas.com

Oh Baby!

Its been forever since I've posted anyting on here. I'm helping with a baby shower for a friend later this month and spent some time this afternoon looking through pics of some showers and diaper cakes that I've done in the past to get a little inspiration. So I thought I'd post some of the pics in case anyone else was needing a little inspiration too, or just wanted to look at cute baby stuff!

If I Had a Million Dollars...

There is a blog that I follow called My Sweet Savannah and she posted a link earlier to a website that is just amazing. The stuff is SO beautiful, but, unfortunately, a little out of my budget. But it really is worth taking a look at. It definitely gave me some inspiration!
http://www.couturedreams.com/

SLAH is Going to Make Me Go Broke!

The Spring Southern Living At Home catalog came out a few weeks ago and it is a feast for the eyes! After a few seasons of nothing to get excited about, this spring I think they picked the items just for me. I want it all!!!! But here are some of the highlights:

Chesapeake Flatware-Love it! It would tie my dishes and my flatware together so nicely. Also loving the appetizer plate, more on that in a minute.

Covington Accent Tray: Love it! In the catalog they also have the tray and the appetizer plate from above paired together and they look fabulous. We'll talk more about these dishes in a minute too.

Emerson Stemware: Love it! As if I don't have enough stemware already! The shape of these is so beautiful. They look like a candlestick you can drink wine out of. I may need to sell some of my stemware on Ebay to make room for these, but I'll definitely be getting them.

Estate Bathroom Collection: Love it! I must have these simply because I have all of the other Estate pieces.

Orleans Vase Set: Love it! So beautiful and delicate, these little bud vases can also be used as place cards.

Terrace Appetizer Plates: Ah, here are those appetizer plates again. Love it! What more can I say?

And the pièce de résistance:

Villa Stoneware: LOVE IT!!!! These dishes are my soulmate. The dishes, flatware, and accent tray are the most perfect combination I have ever seen.

So obviously, I love it all! I will definitely be having a SLAH party or two in order to try to afford some of these beauties. If you want to salivate through the catalog you can look at it online at www.southernlivingathome.com and click Browse Our Catalog. And BTW I am a SLAH consultant so if you want to have a party I'd be happy to do it for you. You can always place a catalog order through me as well.

Love At First Sight

On a recent shopping trip to Bed Bath & Beyond with my sister we saw something that literally stopped us dead in our tracks. It was the most beautiful shower curtain ever! The picture just doesn't do it justice, but it gives you an idea. The blue is deeper and sort of shimmery. The pattern is a brown velvet.

Fortunately, the color would have clashed with the color of the walls in both of my bathrooms. I say "fortunately" because I just purchased two new shower curtains for my bathrooms in the last month and I would have HAD to buy this one had it not been for the obviously color clash. My sister has decided that it will work in her bathroom though. I did get the hand towel while we were there for my master bath.

The handtowel looked so wonderful in my bathroom that I've decided to go back and get a few of the accessories too. I hope that they'll look good with the wall color but I'm not positive. I love them so much though that I have to give them a try! I especially love the toothbrush holder. Just look at the shape and design of it! Its heavenly!!!

Someday...

A friend (who is having a baby) and I were discussing baby bedding the other day and I told her I would post the pics of the ones that I have picked out for whenever (if ever) I have a baby. These are the two that I have fallen in love with, one of a boy and one for a girl. Of course, I'd rather have the one for a girl, but I guess that's all up to God! By the time I actually do have a baby I will have probably changed my mind but if I were having one right now these are definitely the ones I would choose. I don't care for how they decorated the boy's room, there are some things that I would do differently. But I love everything about the girl's room. It is exactly how I would want to do it. Anyway, just thought I would share.

The Befores

Okay, so I've now been in my new house for a little over two weeks and I feel like I am finally starting to make some progress. Slowly, but surely, it is starting to resemble a house instead of a dumping ground for brown cardboard boxes. Since I hope to be posting my After pictures soon, I decided to go ahead and post the pics that I took of the house before we bought it. When I first saw it I knew it had potential and now I'm starting to actually get to see some of my visions come to light. So I hope you enjoy the Befores and I hope to have at least a few Afters in the very near future!
(You can click on the pics to enlarge them)


The House: It was originally built in 1952 but was gutted earlier this year and was completely rebuilt except for the framing. I love the mix of the newness with the feel of the old. I really love the colors of the siding and trim. The concrete on the big front porch is stained and looks really nice. There will be a bistro set on the front porch just as soon as I can find one that I like and can afford. December is NOT the time to be looking for outdoor furniture though and I'm having a hard time finding anything.


Master Bathroom:
I was really excited to find that this house had a master bedroom suite which is not typical of older houses. Since the bathroom at my old house was huge I was worried about having a smaller bathroom. This one has good space though and it doesn't feel cramped at all. I actually really liked the wall color so I left it. Its hard to tell in this pic but the countertop is a really nice brown/black stained concrete. I also really liked the open storage beside the shower. Its the perfect place to put cute baskets and adds a lot of valuable storage space. The master bathroom is probably the room that I have closest to being complete and I love the way it is turning out!


Master Bedroom:
I know its kind of hard to tell much from the pics. But the wall color is a really pretty silvery/grayish/blueish/greenish. :) I picked a black and white damask comforter and this color complimented it nicely so I'm not planning on changing it. The master bedroom is right off of the living room and is split from the other two bedrooms, something else I was suprised to find in an older home.


The Living Room: The same gorgeous wood floors are throughout the entire house with the exception of the bathrooms and kitchen/utility room. They have stained concrete. I'm not sure if the floors are original to the house or reclaimed wood from another home but they are stunning. They are probably 95% of the reason I chose this house. When you first walk in through the front door you are in the living room and can see through to the dining room and kitchen. I loved the visual of the three rooms flowing into each other. There is a seperation but also an openess and I really liked that.

The Dining Room: I am a big formal dining room person so I was so excited to find a house that had a seperate dining room. The dining room has a beautiful chandelier and lots of space. I finally have a table in there and my baker's rack from the old house and once I get my hutch in there (which I still have to pick up) it will be complete! Oh, except for the painting. This is one room that I definitely have plans to paint, I'm just not sure when...


The Kitchen:
I really liked this kitchen. The cabinets go all the way to the ceiling which gave me a lot of space. My plans are to lightly glaze the cabinets with an Espresso glaze to tie the countertops and cabinets together. The countertops are the same brown/black stained concrete used in the bathrooms. I was pleasantly suprised by how much I liked the stained concrete countertops. I would have preferred granite but I knew that I would have a really hard time finding a kitchen that had it (since the whole point was to find a cheaper house to live in while we build our new house). I think the stained concrete is a much better option than formica. There is a big sink and a cute little window above it. The kitchen and utility room both have stained concrete and access to the back yard so its the perfect place for the dogs to be during the day. Speaking of the back yard...


The Backyard: It is beautiful. Its got lots of room, gorgeous trees, a brand new fence, a small deck, and a beautiful flagstone walkway leading to the gate. The dogs have really enjoyed it and as soon as spring gets here I'm going to really enjoy planting some flowers in it.



Second Bathroom:
I loved the pedastal sink! I have always wanted one. I think they are so charming. This bathroom was the same color as the other one and I decided to keep it the same as well. I found a gorgeous black and white shower curtain for this bathroom but still have a few finishing touches left. One of the main ones is to add a white candelabra/chandelier. I think it will look fantastic!



Second and Third Bedrooms: As I mentioned earlier, the house does have a split floor plan. Both of the bedrooms are good sized and have large closets with double doors. And those floors! One of the bedrooms is now my office and the other is currently the home of all of the boxes I have yet to unpack but will soon be a guest bedroom for my adorable nieces. I would eventually like to paint both of these rooms but we'll see...

So there it is! I love it more every day and it starts to feel more like my home every day. I'm so excited to get to live out my dream of living in an old house. And living downtown has been fantastic. There are so many beautiful old homes and I keep finding new ones everyday. I still have a lot left to do to get it the way that I want but at least I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere!