Black Bookshelves

Last weekend we started our first project of 2013. It was a smallupdate, but something we've been wanting to do for awehile. We painted our built in bookshelves black. I love the contrast.

It helps tie the dining area and living room together. I like how the chalkboard wall gallery looks near the bookshelves.

We really want to paint the living room, but haven't found the time, so this is holding us over for now. Have you done any little projects with big impact lately?

Black and White Pillows

I recently posted about my dilemma in finding reasonably priced throw pillows. A bunch of you shared your favorite places for finding reasonably priced options and it looked liked HomeGoods was a favorite for most. It's usually my go to store, but I hadn't found anything I liked in the past. It turned out that the week I posted my dilemma also happened to be an employee discount weekend for them. I have a family member who works there that asked me if I wanted to come, so I figured with all of the recommendations and the discount, I should definitely give it another shot. I'm so glad I did!

 

They must have had a pillow event going on because when I walked into the store there were pillows in the front aisles and there were more pillows than I've ever seen at a HomeGoods. I ended up leaving with six pillows in four different designs. Far more than we actually need. Which brings me to a new dilemma, which ones should we keep? The beige striped pillows and the black and off white trellis pillow we already own.

 

We took a few different variations on what we'd like to do.

 

 

In case anyone is interested, here is where the pillows are from and their pricing:
Striped beige pillows from Jordan's Furniture, came with the couch
Black and off white trellis pillow, Park on Etsy $55
White ruffle pillows, Homegoods $16.99 each
Black and off white chevron pillow, Marshalls $19.99 set of two
Black diamond design pillow, HomeGoods $14.99
Black and off white floral pillow, HomeGoods $19.99

Jim and I are usually on a similar page, but we're pretty torn about this. I'm leaning more towards the look of the first photo. I love having lots of pillows in a mix of patterns. Jim likes the look of the second photo with just the beige and white pillows. We're both in agreement on adding black accents to the living room though, so I think the second option doesn't works as well.

What do you think? Any favorite pillows you think we should keep? Do you like the mix of patterns, or more neutral with the beige and white? Any other combinations you think we should try?



Progress: The Living Room

I love Emily Henderson's Secrets of a Stylist on HGTV. When J and I style our home, we really try to incorporate both of our styles a la Emily. The living room has probably achieved it best. J wanted neutrals, comfort and function. I wanted details, texture and an overall cozy lived in feel. I think we've really achieved a cross between the two in our living room. I'll call it cozy function.

We see our living room as a place to relax and entertain friends. We definitely wanted it to be livable. J is a big guy, so more than anything he wanted a big couch. When we were searching for furniture we ended up with an extra long, extra wide couch in a neutral color - it literally hit all of J's points. It worked out perfect because in the same collection was a chair with a floral print that hit all of my points.

When we bought the couch and chair, we also got a coffee table, end table and entertainment center. I originally wanted white furniture, but it would have gotten a bit too feminine, so we went with a darker wood. Now that we have the furniture, the main pieces are in place. It's time to start adding details, which is where more of my stlye will get to come in.

When it comes to details, we don't want to spend a ton of money. We've sort of gathered pieces over time from HomeGoods and West Elm. I think my favorite is the ruffle throw we have on the couch. The couch is super comfy, but it doesn't have a lot of style. I think the ruffles add a nice touch. I bought it on clearance at HomeGoods last year and they recently started carrying it again. I just bought it in a gorgeous green that we'll use in the spring. It's by Cynthia Rowley. I also added a furry pillow to the mix to get some of the texture I love. I'm hoping to add some more texture in the room, maybe adding a furry throw or maybe cable knit over the chair and throw pillows with different designs.

Last year West Elm had a big sale with 20% off your whole purhase, so I got a few items to accessorize the book shelf including owls, a mirror sphere and mercury glass votives.

J's favorite part of the room is our big screen TV. I think it helps tone down the girylness of the room, until I put on one of my girly movies. J's other favorite part of the room is the fireplace. This thing is going non-stop in the winter. It definitely adds to the cozy effect that I love, too.

We've still got a bit to do in here. The biggest thing is paint, which you can see we are deciding on by the paint chips over the fire place. We're thinking of doing just one accent wall, but I also like the idea of color blocking. J isn't too keen on that. The most time consuming project will be a collage wall. Because our fire place is off center and we have a long mantle, I think a collage wall will look better than just adding on picture over the fire place. We're also thinking of an area rug. I want something super textured, but J thinks it will get too messy with Sky pup. I know he's right, so we're kind of on a standstill with that. We have to paint a piece of wood that was added when the floor was installed. The big thing is just adding details. I love how the room is coming, but it doesn't feel lived in yet. I like collecting pieces over time because we get pieces that are really us. I don't want to run out and get things just for the sake of having something. Plus finding the details is part of the fun.

Other than that, I think it's pretty close to what we're going for. I think it definitely fits cozy function. It's come a long way from where we started, but still needs some work.

The in between:

We were given couches from a family member to hold us over until we purchased our own.

 What's your design style? Do you and your partner have similar tastes or do you have to compromise to find the right balance?

"Those" Neighbors

I'm pretty excited about our most recent purchase. It probably should have been number one our list back when we bought the house. That is besides the point, because as of now we'll hopefully no longer be known as "those neighbors".

You see, we have a distinguishing factor when it comes to our house. There is something you just can't miss and we are teased about it often......the T.V.

When we bought the house, we were saving for a flat screen and we were really excited about it. Then J's parents surprised us and gifted us with one for our shower. Instead of being content with their extremely generous gift, we decided to take their generous gift and upgrade with the money we were saving, hello 55"! So now we have an obnoxiously large TV straight across from our bay window.

If you are within vision of our window, you can see exactly what is on our TV. My sister  jokes that we should put sound in the driveway so she can watch things from out there. J was absolutely horrified that our neighbors could see my secret love of the real housewives (it's a train wreck, but I still watch it). After about a year of sharing my love for reality TV with our neighborhood, we started to feel like it was time. We no longer had anymore excuses. We were no longer new home owners, planning a wedding or newlyweds.

Despite knowing what needed to be done, It wasn't until J was walking Sky pup recently and ran into a neighbor that I became extremely self conscious about it. The neighbor introduced himself and J said we were relatively new to the neighborhood, explained which house was ours and the neighbor said, "oh yeah, your the house with the TV".

That week we went out and purchased curtains. I can now watch reality TV without shaming J in our neighborhood.

source

Are you known for anything in particular in your neighborhood?

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?

Got Wood?

When J and I were looking at houses, we both had our own lists of wants. In the end we had to compromise a bit on things, but there was one thing I really didn't want to compromise on- hardwood floors.

This may seem like no big deal, plenty of people live with carpets, but it wasn't something I could live with. We have a dog and a cat, they are messy. A carpet with Sky pups wouldn't last a month. J was fine with this until we fell in love with a house, which was fully carpeted, indoor/outdoor carpet to be exact (with the exception of the bathroom and kitchen).

When we were purchasing the house, I said I'd do it under one condition- we install hardwood floors. J was resistant at first. He was hoping to put carpet in some of the bedrooms to save money, but this wasn't something I wanted to budge on, especially since I gave up a few of my other wants for this house.

After just over a year in the house, I think we both agree this was the best house splurge yet.

Look at that shiny new floor! While Sky pup still loves coming in after the rain and shaking off his fur, wiping rainy dog off hardwood is much easier and more pleasant than cleaning wet dog out of a carpet.

While we had the floors installed we also decided the blue tiles and gold fireplace set had to go.

I think the slate was another good call.

What's been your best home splurge?