New Art: Custom State Art Print

One of our friends, Meghan, recently gifted us with a really nice gift- a piece of art for our home!

We've been in our home for over three years now and haven't really put up a lot of art, even though I think homes look so much better with it. I just have a hard time choosing art for our home, so we have lots of bare walls or art that has yet to be hung.  I was so excited when we received the custom print that works perfect in our guestroom, which currently has bare walls. It's a print of Rhode Island, with a heart over Newport, where we were married. It has our names and wedding date on the bottom. If you've followed along since our wedding, you've probably noticed I love sentimental touches, so this was the perfect gift. I love how it looks in our guest room. It even inspired me to add a few pops of pink to go with the little heart on the print. Thanks Meg!

Have you received any personal items you were really excited to display in your home?

A Cape Inspired Room

About a year ago we shared our guest room makeover. We added some paint, added some furniture and left it at that. We didn't really want to spend any money on artwork or any details because we don't really use it. I think since we did it over, we've had maybe three guests. We planned to keep it as is. Then we were out shopping recently at a vintage market in Boston (SOWA) and found a print we both fell in love with.

It's kind of funny that we fell in love with it because Jim isn't a huge fan of Cape Cod. I have a lot of great memories there with friends, but if we were going to choose a map to include in our  house, this would't really be a location I'd go looking for. We'd probably go with Newport, Jersey, or Boston. Regardless, we loved the map and thought even if we didn't plan to use it, it would be a really nice gift for someone else (we had a couple specific people in mind). Then we put it in our guestroom to store (which also happens to be our gift room....a.k.a. I put gifts for future use in our dresser in there) and it just works.

We really didn't want to have any more nautical or coastal touches in our home, especially since our bedroom is coastal themed, but it looks like the coastal theme is taking over yet again.

It probably didn't help that right after buying the print, I found this fabric on clearance at Calico Corners. I'm going to stop by tonight to check it out in person, if it is the bluish gray it appears, it may complement the map and wall color well.

I took it as a sign that it was meant to be, and here we are in phase two of the guestroom makeover about a year later. I'm thinking pillows or curtains with this fabric. What do you think?

Here's what the space currently looks like:

Here's our other coastal inspiration:

Bedroom inspiration board

patio inspiration board

At least we're shifting away from navy. That's progress, right?

Do you have any themes or styles you are drawn to? 

Progress: Master Bedroom

All of the pieces are starting to come together!

The walls were painted over the summer. The navy paint transformed the room. I love the contrast between the navy walls and the white trim and bedding. I decided to use lots of white accessories because they really stand out against the walls.
This is the only room we've hung artwork so far. It gives the room a much more lived in feel than the others.

I really want to add a chair in our room, for now we have a temporary solution. I found two bistro chairs at a local shop and have them standing in until we find one that works better, or until the summer when these move outside where they belong. I love the Crate & Barrel chair on our inspiration board, but it's out of our budget.

sources: bed set, wedding photo, lamp, paint chip, chair, rug, water photo, nautical objects

I'm hoping to find a more budget friendly chair to re-do with a similar vibe.

I liked the sea life creature figures on the inspiration board, but Jim didn't want to get too literal with the nautical theme (a little late?), so he shot those down. I did however sneak in another element that was too perfect to pass up. On a shopping trip to a local craft market,  I came across the starfish frames below. I promise to refrain from any more nautical purchases after these....

All that's really left is drapes, possibly a small rug, artwork over the bed, and maybe adding a few throw pillows to add some more graphic elements and make the nautical look less literal. I'd really like to add this one:

Zhush

Jim likes the idea of adding some pops of yellow. I'm on the fence. I love yellow, but I really like the vibe now.

What do you think- add pops of yellow or keep the navy and white scheme?

Progress: Master Bedroom

The house progress has been pretty slow the last few weeks, but we're starting to make more progress.  I shared our nautical inspired - inspiration board awhile back and it seems like we haven't been doing anything, but it's almost complete!

sources: bed set, wedding photo, lamp, paint chip, chair, rug, water photo, nautical objects

Hopefully, I can share the final project soon. Until then, here is a sneak peak:

We're hoping to finish this project soon, so we can move onto some outdoors projects. This warm weather is making us want to get the patio ready for some grilling and nights by the fire pit.

What projects are you working on? 

Bedroom: Inspiration to Reality

sources: bed set, wedding photo, lamp, paint chip, chair, rug, water photo, nautical objects

Sometimes inspiration is found in the least expected places. Long before J and I even had a place to call our own, I knew exactly what I wanted our future bedroom to look like. It all started with a trip to Newport.

We were in search of hotel rooms for our out of town guests for our upcoming wedding. I didn't really have bedroom decor on my mind, but when we walked into a guest room at the first hotel, I had found everything I never knew I wanted in a room.

source

When I look at the photo, I'm not exactly sure what about it drew me in so much, maybe it was the ocean views (which we obviously won't have at home), or maybe it was the nautical vibe (which gets me every time), or maybe it was the sentimental side of me that loves Newport. Whatever it was, I decided I wanted this room, or at least my own version of it.

The months leading up to our wedding were filled with lots of plans and somehwere in the midst of it all, I became determined to find a white bed spread with navy piping.  After some searching, I found a similar bed set at Bloomingdales and deemed it as fate. That very day I decided to register at Bloomingdales, if only for the fact that we could get our dream bed set. Luckily my bridesmaids indulged us and bought it as our shower gift. And thus began the inspiration for our semi nautical semi sentimental dream bedroom.

It has a way to go and I'll post pictures soon, but this is what we started with:

Have any of your decor choices been inspired by something or some place unexpected?

The Home Tour (in the beginning)

Before I get further into all of the home projects we have going on (and already completed), I thought I'd share what we started with when we first purchased our home. When you walk into the entry way there is a coat closet and there was some ceramic tile flooring.

The entryway is actually part of our living room, which was wall to wall indoor/outdoor carpet.Actually pretty much the whole house was when we moved in. 

Our house has an open floor plan, so the living room goes right into a dining area, which I forgot to take a photo of, but it looked pretty similar to every other room you see here- white walls, blue carpet. To the right of the dining area is the door to the garage. This is probably J's favorite place in the house. It was his #1 must have when we were looking.

To the left of the dining area is the kitchen. It was renovated recently before we bought it. Apparently it was pink when they first put it on the market. I appreciate the upgrade. 

Right past the kitchen is the bathroom. We only have one, which was a definite no for me, until we found this place in our dream neighborhood.

It's pink. The previous owner really liked pink. Before they put it on the market, the realtor told us everything was pink.

Down the hall are the three bedrooms, they are really hard to differentiate in these pictures, since there is nothing in them and they all have that lovely carpet.

Bedroom 1:

Bedroom 2:

Bedroom 3/Master Bedroom:

The two smaller bedrooms had these storage units in place.

It's funny to go back and go through these photos. When people ask us how things are going with the house, I tell them we are slowly getting there. I feel like we haven't gotten a lot done yet, but when I look at these photos compared to the house now, I hardly recognize this place.

The two things that have made the biggest difference have been the change in flooring and painting the walls. Everything looks drastically different, just with those two changes.

What changes have you made to your home that made a big impact?