Don't peak! Ok, maybe a little...

The past month or so has been nothing but work, eat and sleep.  Nothing too exciting has really been going on ..  until now!  There have been a few house DIY/renovations on the back burner for a while but not anymore. 

Here's a sneak peak at posts you can (hopefully) expect sooner than later:

And for those of you that I know in real life and insist that my house is always clean.. the photo below is proof that this is not the case.  Hooray for construction :)

Fall Decor

I know I am about two months late on this .. but I figured I would cover this now before I switch everything over in a week ;)


Seasonal decorating .. what's your take on it? 

There is a woman I work with that freaking loves it.  It seems her cubicle gets a complete overhaul for every holiday and season.  And when I say 'every' .. I do mean it; Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Breast Cancer Awareness Month .. the lady doesn't miss a single one! 

Here's the thing though .. as much as I like using her cubicle as a humongous calendar .. it's not for me.  Not only do I not have the spare cash to cover my house in pink for Valentine's Day .. I just don't have the conviction .. with two exceptions:  Fall and Christmas.  Maybe one day I will add a couple touches here and there for Spring and Summer but for now I put my effort into making my house as cozy as possible for the colder months.

Fall has always been my absolute favorite time of year, but aside from a front door wreath, I've never really shown it love.  This year I decided to change that.  With a little help from the craft store, grocery store and some creative recycling .. I've put a few extra Fall-y touches throughout my house. It's only minor but it makes a difference. I hope to build on it even more next year but until then .. here's what I've done:

What's Your Style?

HomeGoods has come out with a style quiz that is impressive (I think) in both its simplicity and accuracy.  There is a grid of 36 pictures and all you do is pick the 5 that appeal to you most.  Here were my picks:

And the results:

I couldn't believe it .. but in 5 pictures .. they nailed it!  I always said I was Eclectic with a touch of Classic but Urban Funk makes more sense.  There is a common thread running throughout my house versus everything being mis-matched which I feel is sort of the mark of someone who is truly eclectic.  I am also anti-clutter.  Anyways .. I digress...

You should totally click the quiz and take the test! I had Mark do it and he was "Urban Funk" with a touch of "The Traveler" which is perfect for him!  The results also include blogs, style and entertaining tips related to your category.  It's pretty cool and only takes a few minutes.  So what style are you?

Guest Room Redesign

This is so overdue it's ridiculous.

In January, I initiated The Great Switcheroo.  This is where I decided to "rotate" three rooms in my house and change up their uses to better meet our future needs (i.e. a growing family one day).  The first room tackled was the office.  Of course the room is nowhere near done.  It was simply put together to be functional.  I am still up in the air as far as what I want to do in there.  There will be some minor knocking holes in the wall construction so it will probably be a while until you see the full transformation.  As always, I will keep you updated along the way.

Last month, I tackled the guest room.  We had some guests spend the night so it gave me a deadline (which I love).  The "before" pictures were taken mid-switcheroo.  I was so focused on getting all the pieces I wanted downstairs that I forgot to grab the camera.  Here are a couple pictures during the moving chaos.

The pictures are bad, I know.  I don't have a wide-angle lens so it's hard to show everything. Basically it was a giant pile of stuff that was on its way out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The room sat empty (aside from the stripped bed) for a while as I tried to figure out what I wanted to do.  When I decorate a room I always work off of an "inspiration piece".  It can be a painting, pillow, anything.  The piece isn't necessarily the focal point in the room but a jumping off point.  I needed to find my inspiration.

Mark went on a Men's Retreat with our church and that left me with a weekend to myself.  I knew about our guests coming to stay the night so I planned on going to Target to get a couple things to make the room functional.  Well, that trip turned into WAY more.  I started finding incredible deals and then stumbled across my inspiration piece!

The walls were already painted slatey-blue with the light blue stripe.  We didn't plan on repainting (for now) so I wanted to work that in.  We also have tan carpet and I had a white duvet so I wanted to work with that as well.  While wandering the pillow aisle, I found the throw pillows.  They were perfect!  They had the exact blue and tan with the added punch of a deep purple.  I never considered purple so it was a fun addition.  With pillow in hand, and sales deals everywhere, I furnished the rest of the room:

I already had the duvet and tan pillows (they have since been replaced with an awesome duvet set from Ikea but I forgot to take new pictures).  Mark made the floating side tables at of some spare wood (pictures to come). The lamp bases are from Target but the lamp shades were some I had laying around.  I plan on switching them out but I haven't found what I want.  I think rectangular shades would be nice and more modern .. perhaps in a light grey linen/crosshatch pattern or something? hmm...

The photo gallery on the right is of my beautiful niece.  The vertical arrangement on the left is part of our "welcome to our home" gallery that we had downstairs.  The chair and lamp were from other parts of the house.  The curtain (both panel and sheer) are from Target.  The black curtain tie is, funny enough, a grosgrain ribbon that came wrapped around the purple blanket.  It is finished on each end with velcro (to keep the blanket folded) and ended up being a perfect tie.  I just nailed one velcroed end to the wall and wrapped the rest of it around.  I love that little freebie.

The door you see on the left is into the bathroom.  I don't have pictures of that (I'm not doing so well on this picture deal....) but I will update you later.  The "throne chair" is an heirloom piece from Mark's family.  We love that chair.  It is crazy, super formal, could have been in a castle, has claws for feet and tons of scroll work.  It doesn't match our style AT ALL and it makes me love it even more.  The fabric is worn and old and needs to be replaced.  I want an unexpectedly modern fabric, but one that still works with the old style.  We'll see how it goes...

The crooked gallery is the rest of the "welcome to our home" display from downstairs.  Mark is going to build a console table to go underneath the pictures.  It will be a great place for some cute baskets, luggage when people stay over, a TV, etc.

One more last minute addition was the stairwell light fixture.  Once I finished the room, and was looking around, I noticed how hideous the builders grade light was.  It was one of those dome-and-flush-with-the-ceiling fixtures. Bleh!  I went to World Market and bought a giant chinese lantern and light kit.  It's the best $12 I've spent in a while.  It completely transformed the stairwell.  Since you see this stairwell from downstairs, it was nice to do something special.  I like the overall effect.

So, as you can see, the room is still very much a work in progress.  Are rooms ever really finished though?  The projects in this room will probably we on hold a while.  Our focus is shifting towards the downstairs.  We are currently picking paint colors and making plans for the spare room/nursery and office.  There is also an outdoor shed that is top priority as well as landscaping.  Needless to say, we have LOTS on our to-do list.

What's on your to do list?  Any makeovers lately?  Any suggestions for fabric for that crazy chair?  I want to hear from you!

Quilted Genius

Keeping with our bookish theme today ..

Anthropologie is one of those stores that I love to peruse.  I can't afford half the stuff in there but I LOOOVE to look at it all and feel inspired.  My favorite section, of course, is the "House & Home".  As I was drooling over all the eye candy I came across the most amazing quilt ever!  Check out the "We Play In The Woods" Quilt:

Is that not awesome!?  The quilt is made/designed by Comma Workshop out of Colorado.  They hand-and-machine stitch an entire story on the bedding.  I'm just in awe of this.  Is such a subtle touch because at first it just looks like a loopy stitch pattern but then you look more closely and you realize it is words. So cool.  This would so be in my house except for the not so small issue that it would set me back $2,400.00. 

Yeah, no thanks.  There is just a part of me that can't justify buying a quilt for the same amount as a used car.  I still totally appreciate the design though.  If you happen to have $2.4k just laying around and want to purchase it for me then that is TOTALLY ok with me ;)  I'll even let you cuddle with it when you come over...maybe.

Paint Picks

I love color and I am definitely not afraid to show it.  I'm drawn to darker walls and lighter floors/major furniture.  It just works for me.  It makes the room feel cozy but not heavy and closed in.  We have lots of windows in our house and our carpet is beige so that helps balance everything. 

Each of our rooms holds a strong but subdue hue.  The colors were picked for their combination of boldness but subtleness.  I know that's a contradiction but it's true.  I love Apple Green and I wanted a green kitchen.  The problem with Apple Green though is that is can get kind of loud.  We instead "dulled" it and chose a more Avocado green.  It's perfect.  I love colors muted with gray/brown undertones.

Over the past few years we've tackled almost every room in the house.  There are only three rooms left to be decorated. (Of course that doesn't mean I will be done .. it just means they will be "complete" for the first time ..)  The three rooms left are: the office, the future nursery/spare room, and the master bath.

the master bath 

This room has actually been painted already.  About a year ago Mark and I tackled our foyer/mini-hallway and decided to keep it light and airy.  We have cathedral ceilings, light carpet and lots of windows in the main part of the house but the foyer is different.  It has a standard ceiling and dark wood floors. To keep it open, we reversed our general design cues and went with a light buttery yellow.  It's fun and bright and helps break everything up.  Since we had leftover paint, we used it to paint the guest bath off the hallway and the master bath.  We've lived with it for a year now and, although I still love it in the front of the house, I'm just not feeling it in the master bath.

Time to start over. (yay!!!)  We decided to get rid of our shower curtain, rugs, etc and completely start from scratch.  I decided to switch back to what I love .. darker walls and lighter everything else.  The bathroom floor is beige-y white and I found a beautiful shower curtain I love in a tan/taupe color. Since it's connected to our bedroom (which is a gray blue color) I knew I wanted it to coordinate.  We have a 5-foot wide canvas hanging in our bedroom of the Brooklyn Bridge and NYC skyline.  The picture was my inspiration for my bedroom and thus should carry over into the bathroom.  I noticed a lot of purples in the sky and decided that was the avenue we should go down.

So this is where you come in. The following are color swatches from Benjamin Moore. I've narrowed it down and would love to know what you think. We will mostly likely get testers, paint patches on the wall, and then decide but it never hurts to get a second opinion. Remember there is a lot of light bouncing around in there and lots of white so no fear.

I can totally see how next to Purple Rain, Chambourd practically looks brown. 

It's not. I promise.


I just can't decide if I want to go purple purple or hint of purple. I want it to be sophisticated because we could very much so get into teenage girl territory and that.is.not.ok.

When coupled with pretty whites, tans, and stainless fixtures.. this could work.  So which one should I pick?

the nursery and office

I've coupled these two rooms together because we are going to paint them the same color; part for convenience and part for continuity since their doorways are right next to each other and thus part of the same visual field.  In this instance, I am calling the spare room the nursery because that is how we want to think of it for this application.  Painting is not our favorite thing.  We don't want to have to do this again. 

The office is totally hodge podge right now.  It's a bunch of mix-matched pieces with no consistency.  You've got to start somewhere and I've chosen paint.  Since the office can go in any direction, I've decided to let just follow suit to the other room... and true to form, I have already planned the nursery. (of course I have, right?!)

As far as nurseries go, I am a more gender-neutral-anti-"baby-room" kinda gal.  I love baby blues and soft pinks in other people's homes but in mine it would stick out like a sore thumb.  I want the room to be something I would want to hang out in and something that can grow with my kid.  That's why, no matter the gender, I have chosen gray walls. (*gasp*) I know it's very non-baby and some people think WAY too dark but I promise, if you saw the whole plan, it makes perfect sense.

Speaking of "the whole plan" .. I will not be revealing my nursery ideas until there is an actual baby.  So it will be a while.  Just saying ...

In order to help you pick colors, I have to give you a little hint of what I am thinking for in there.  Since it really does matter the gender (even though it is mostly gender neutral) .. think jewel tones.  Think apple green, bright blues and bright corals.  See why I am going with gray? 

Anchor Gray has a blue undertone that makes we waver but Mark likes it the best.  Stormy Sky is a more "true gray" as far as my eye is concerned but does it have enough personality?  Burnt Ember is the warmest but maybe it's a little too brown?  Who would have thought picking a gray would be so hard?!

So there you go.  Three grays.  Three different directions.  We have a large Impressionist-style landscape that hangs in our office.  I have confirmed that all three of these colors would coordinate nicely so there would be no need for new artwork .. unless, of course, I just want to ;)

So there's my color conundrum.  Which purple and which gray should we choose?  Any other hues I might have overlooked?  Are we just simply crazy?  Leave a comment and cast your vote!

Review: Domino: The Book of Decorating: A Room-by-Room Guide to Creating a Home That Makes You Happy

Domino: The Book of Decorating: A Room-by-Room Guide to Creating a Home That Makes You Happy by Deborah Needleman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This is a fantastic book for decorating and inspiration. Written as a sort of textbook/manual, you will be well-educated by the end. I highly recommend this resource for anyone interested in home decor.



View all my reviews

Belated Weekend Update

Sorry about the mini-hiatus but I'm back! 

Last time we chatted I was planning for my solo weekend at home.  Mark went on a guys' weekend in the mountains and so the pup and I were on our own.  Naturally I wrote down a huge to-do list to keep myself busy.  It looked something like this:

~ Read 1 book (maybe 2)
~ Detail inside of my car
~ Start (complete?) taxes online
~ Deodorize/clean carpet
~ Finish organizing and decorating the guest suite and lounge from the room swap a couple weeks ago
~ Come up with an appetizer for the Super Bowl party (and then attend said party)
~ Laundry
~ Come up with menu/grocery list for the week
~ Clean the house (dust, bathrooms, etc.)
~ Go to a birthday party for a little friend that is turning 1 (this depends on the sick status .. no need to spread germs!)
~ Go to Target for items to complete tasks above.

So how did I do, you ask?

~ I finished one book and got through a big chunk of the second.
~ My car remains un-detailed .. but I bought an awesome air freshener that clips to the car vent so that makes everything ok ;)
~ I gathered some tax docs together that were already sitting on top of the desk in a messy pile to prep for actually doing it.  That counts, right?
~ Yes!  This was actually one of the priorities.  A few days earlier, while laying in Downward Dog (don't be fooled by the yoga-speak .. I just started), I had my nosed pressed into our carpet .. and was mortified to realize it REEKED of actual dog.  Merlin is cute but GEEZ!  He is bathed regularly and I keep plug-ins around the house so I guess kudos to them for actually doing their job.  I had no idea!  Now, thanks to Arm and Hammer .. we are back to being so fresh and so clean clean ...
~ Ohhh buddy .. this little bullet point shall continue below..
~ I copped out on this one.  I was going to do individual veggie cups but ran out of time.  Instead I went to the store and bought a veggie tray and hummus.  Oh well..
~ Done but the clothes weren't actually put away until Mark got home .. which might have actually been part of the plan .. because I will wash clothes all day but I hate hanging them ..
~ Yup!
~ Check!
~ I felt much better by the time Saturday night rolled around and so I went.  It was a ton of fun!  I don't often (ever?) hang out with that crowd stag so it was a nice change of pace.  The topic of my birthday came up (which was 3 days ago) and it was decided we would throw a house party.  Just something simple, easy and fun.  I will recap this in another post.
~ OK SO!  This was one of the major highlights of the weekend.  Yes .. I know .. I saw great friends and went to a sweet birthday party but OH HOW I LOVE TARGET!  My original intention for the guest room (thus Target trip) was to get some missing essentials.  We repurposed/donated a lot of the items that were in the previous guest room so all that I was left with was pretty much JUST a bed and a couple chairs.  Since this room was painted a different color, I couldn't even use the bedding because it clashed so badly!  So I made a list of what I needed: a lamp, some sort of side table, a hand towel holder for the bathroom and a comforter that didn't make you reach for sunglasses. Four things.  That's it.  And really it was possibly just three because Mark could build me a side table or two.

Off to Target I went. 

I started in the lighting department.  I didn't really have a budget in mind but cheap (without looking like it) is ALWAYS what I'm going for.  I saw several lamps I loved but didn't feel like dropping $40 on a lamp at the time.. especially since I really wanted two.  I kept perusing and then I saw this little red sticker that said "clearance".  Usually Target uses their endcaps for clearance so when I saw the lamps above the sticker (shoved way in the back) I figured the whole thing was misplaced.  Just on a whim though I checked.  FOUR DOLLARS!  Say what!?  They are medium/large ceramic white lamp bases, in perfect condition, and only $4.  There were two sitting there and so I grabbed them up.  They were meant for me. 

I figured it had to be a fluke until I was heading out of the lighting department and spotted a second little red tag.  It was for a smaller black lamp with a cool oval shade.  SIX DOLLARS! Then halfway down the aisle a stainless floor lamp with remote for TWELVE DOLLARS!  I had been in Target all of 15 minutes and my cart was full with three ceramic lamps and a stainless floor lamp for a whopping $26.  I was totally elated.  The extra lamps weren't really on my list but how can you turn down a sale like that!? 

I looked around for signs advertising some sort of crazy sale but there was nothing.  Just these little red tags stuck amidst the regularly priced items.  I immediately started to amend my shopping list in my head to include all the "wants" and not just the "needs".  I thought about how I wanted to dress the room and began to practically skip to the other departments.  All in all I came away a HUGE winner.  Turns out those little red stickers were everywhere!  This is what I ended up with:

- 2 large white ceramic lamp bases
- 1 black ceramic lamp with shade
- 1 stainless floor lamp with remote
- hand towel holder for bathroom
- embroidered curtain panel
- sheer curtain panel
- curtain rod
- super soft throw
- 2 accent pillows
- glass vase
- welcome mat
- makeup

What was the grand total?  $114.76! I think the checkout girl thought I was nuts because I totally asked her to repeat herself (even though it was on the screen in front of me) and there may have been a very small happy dance involved.

Needless to say it was a success :)  I will post pictures soon of the finished results.  Below is the photographic evidence.  Consider this me bragging ...


Sorry for the bad pic.  Mark took the good camera with him to the mountains.



Lesson Learned?  ALWAYS look for the little red tags. 

Do you love Target like I do?  Have you scored some insanely good sales lately?  Where is your favorite place to shop?  Have you ever embarrassed yourself with a happy dance?

Office Swap

This past weekend set my makeover-loving heart aflutter when we switched several rooms in our home.  Below is the new office.  It is one of the most-loved and frequently used rooms in our house.  The new set-up makes me a bit gitty.

The first three photos are panoramic "before" shots.  I wanted to give you somewhat of a sense of how the room was laid out.  Please also note that I never got around to decorating this room.  I decorated it with a bunch of cast-off accessories and hand me downs mixed in with some "on purpose" pieces.  Since this is a free makeover though, you will be seeing most of this again (but upstairs).

Can you spot Merlin's photo bomb?  He was keeping an eye on me and that pesky camera.

This camera setting makes the room look pretty small.  Those windows are actually really big.

Once again .. the scene is skewed.  That's a queen bed and a 5-foot dresser.

The following shots are just to more clearly see the things in the room.

Not a single piece of bedding matches. haha. Yay for guest room doors that you can close ;)

That dresser was a hand-me-down to fill the space.  It's not our style (and no longer necessary) so it has since been donated to a local thrift store.  C'est la vie.

This is a gallery wall Mark made.  The theme is "Welcome to Our Home".  It is a series of macro shots of our house.  I.LOVE.IT.  It will be relocated.

And now for the afters.  Like I said, all this stuff we had within the three rooms.  This room is not even close to being done.  I just set everything up to make it functional.  This now serves as the office/future kids playroom/second den.  These pictures will soon become the "befores".

This was the wall with the bed.

Sorry for the bad lighting.  I didn't want to wait until night to shoot so we will just have to deal with the blue tinge.

Once again .. daylight + me refusing to learn how to properly use the camera settings = bad picture quality.

This couch is another hand-me-down from the grandmother.  It's super comfortable but covered in pink flowers.  I don't think the ratty red slipcover will stay but it works for now.

R.O.Y.G.B.I.V anyone?  I heart me some color-coding.

That little TV has been around for years.  It works great and always fits in the tiniest spaces which I love.  The black shelves are actually the two nightstands from the old room.  Mark made them and they were hung on the wall.  When I was rearranging I realized the TV fit perfectly inside one of them.  Insta-mini-entertainment-center :)

Merlin .. the couch opportunist. <3

The Great Switcheroo

I love me a makeover. Nothing beats a good "before and after" and I bet you would agree with me. There is just something about drastic change that gets me excited.

Mark and I constantly toss around ideas of what we want to do with our house. We had never formally written the list down so I attempted to do so recently. It's only been in black-and-white for a week and yet items have been finished, added and removed. I will get to the completed items in a second but here is the newly amended list:

Build a shed
Landscape with mulch and a tree or two
Install a pantry
Install double sinks in the master bath
Frame the mirror in the master bath
Replace the mirror in the hall bath
Add a fan in the kitchen
Move the office into "bedroom 3"
Move the guest room upstairs to make a "guest suite"
Move the 'man room' to "bedroom 2"
Create a second closet in new office
Build better closet organization in office and "future nursery"
Install a back splash in the kitchen
Build outdoor planter boxes/benches to line the patio

As I am sure you can tell, the new/tweaked items are in blue. There are a couple items missing  that had to do with opening up a wall in the living room (and subsequently adjusting our hardwoods). We went up in the attic on Saturday and realized that the wall is very much load-bearing. We know we could add a header and fix the opening structurally but it's just not worth it. We may add it back to the list later but, as of right now, our monies and time are better spent elsewhere. The ones dealing with the mirrors and fan were on the list 'in our head' and I simply forgot to add them. I didn't realize it until after the list was published.

The Great Switcheroo actually began on Thursday night. (Leave it to me to start a huge project on a work night .. poor Mark.) The original plan was to simply flip the old office and guest room. They are right across the hall from each other so I figured it would be easy. I should have known better.

We spent Thursday night swapping all the furniture and I quickly realized that making the old office the new guest room was just not going to work. The furniture was just too big and the room felt cramped. I had to rethink the situation. On Friday night, while organizing the new office, I contemplated how to remedy the guest room conundrum.

Upstairs we have a bedroom, full bath and walk-in closet.  When we moved in, since the room is separated from the main part of the house, we deemed this the "man room".  Over the years it has become a catch-all for Mark's various projects and not the 'getaway' originally planned.  When thinking about the guest room situation, it dawned on me that upstairs would make a fantastic "guest suite" because guests would have complete privacy and quiet.

I wanted to be fair to Mark and so I approached the subject carefully.  Once I explained my idea to him he agreed.  So on Saturday, the guest room furniture moved upstairs and the beer fridge and lounge chair moved downstairs.  By Saturday night we were exhausted and thrilled.  I just can't get over the changes.  I feel like we have doubled our square footage and the flow is so much better.  I just wish we had done this four years ago.

All of the rooms are in various stages of progress and it will be a long time until they are totally finished.  I will post "before and after" pictures based on the original switch.  We spent $10 on sheer window panels for the new office and that was it.  So for $10 we got three brand new rooms.  Not too shabby :)

Each room will get its own post (the better for referencing) so keep an eye out.  First up is the new office....

Have you done any room switching lately?  Do you start projects on weeknights knowing you have to get up early in the morning?  Do you love makeovers as much as I do?

Thanksgiving Decor

With Thanksgiving coming up I thought I would give everyone some inspiration for decorating.  I figure that most people decorate for fall before Halloween but switch out a couple "holiday specific" items.  No matter whether you are already done decorating or haven't even started, here are some pictures to get your imagination in gear ...

Cute Oreo turkeys that everyone woud love!

Gourd Candle Centerpieces are a great alternative to large flower arrangements. This could also be a good option for a kids table since they are so low.

I grew up with pine cone turkeys made with construction paper tails but pear name tags are much cuter!

Try these hurricane tissue paper lanterns to cast a warm glow on your party.

Whether you serve buffet-style or not .. wrap silverware with folded cloth napkins for easy retrieval.

Cornhusked-wrapped votives provide gorgeous ambient light while allowing your guest to see each other across the table.

This would look great on a mantle or sideboard!

I do not have the source for this (google images) but this is my idea of a perfect setting!

Love this! Have everyone write down something they are thankful for and share with the ones you love!

Once again, no true source (google images) but if I had mantle I can guarantee you I would try to duplicate this!



I love wreaths so I had to throw in a fun fall one!