Fall LOVE

I LOVE Fall Y'all!! These ideas are awesome--Enjoy!

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Homemade Bookcase

Have I told you how talented my husband is? Well, if not, let me brag and say--he ROCKS! When we first got married we used to watch Bob Villa's "This Old House" and laugh at how Riley, Bob's assistant, was the real "brains" behind the show. Bob would have all these great ideas and projects and Riley would make them all happen.

Over the years, I started calling Ray my "Riley". I would have an idea on something I wanted to do, some way to set up a room, or something I wanted to make and Ray would be the brains that helped me figure out how to make it happen. This AWESOME homemade bookcase is no exception!

I've struggled with our sitting room since we moved into our house 4 years ago. This was an added feature to our floor plan and it really is a nice bonus space. My struggle has been how to best utilize the space for our lifestyle. It's been a storage/staging area, a make-shift nursery, a temporary office--you name it. Well, I was kinda tired of it not being a designated space so when I took my Design 101 class, I used this space as my project space.

I browsed magazines and websites for photos of what I wanted for the space. One idea that stuck with me was sorta a library space that would utilize one side as a place to relax with a book and the other side as a work-space for blogging, crafting, etc. I knew I would need a large bookcase to eat-up some of the wall space and provide some much needed display for "stuff"! I gave Ray some "go-by" photos and presto, here's the end result. I really LOVE this bookcase and the wonderful brains of my "Riley" which made it happen!!

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It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

Sunday afternoon my mom and I finished decorating for Christmas. Typically, I put a little something Christmas in every room and last year we even had two Christmas trees. This year we opted to tone it down a notch and keep our decorating confined a bit--here's what we did....

On the front door we put a simple live wreath with a snowman plaque. Next to the front door I hung a wrought iron cross and I flanked the door with large red poinsettias (somehow, I didn't get a picture of those).

The Foyer/Entry Hallway got lots of Christmas touches and mini-trees.

The Christmas Tree is decorated with lots of silver, red and light green.

In the Dining Room, we added pre-lite garland and architectural trees to the top of the china cabinet. We used some beautiful white/gold poinsettias on top of a mirror as the centerpiece and added ornaments, garland and candles. As a final touch, we hung a red berry wreath from gold ribbon in front of the large wall mirror.

The Keeping Room got some mantle love with lots of lights and greenery. Ray told me this was my best mantle yet (WOW, thanks honey)! The trees are from our wedding reception and we spruced them up by adding garland, extra lights and wrapped the bases in foil wrapping paper. A berry wreath over the top of a star burst mirror added some cheer to another corner and a few more small Christmas touches were added to the TV cabinet.

The Master Bedroom and Bathroom got a little hint of Christmas too--I just couldn't resist!

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Show Us Your Life--Entry Ways & Foyers

Today at Kelly's Korner it's Show Us Your Life--Entry Ways & Foyers so let me welcome you into our home! This is the view when you open the front door.

The one thing we really liked about our house when we picked the floor plan was the entry way. The foyer is nice, long and welcoming. We chose to do hardwood floors instead of tile so the entire space would be seamless and we are very happy with our decision. We used to have a large rug in the center of the space but it was in Jackson & Macklin's way for riding their train so we've moved it to our laundry room so they have plenty of open space! There's a tiny wall right behind the front door where I have a small, distressed white table I found at a local antique mall. This is the space at the bottom of the stairs. This cabinet was Ray's when we got married and I gave it a little face-lift with some suede paint. The lamp I purchased at an estate sale for a dollar and I spray painted it red for a punch of color. This is the hallway that brings guests into the keeping room and kitchen. The pictures on the wall are one's Ray and I took on our trips to Greece, St. Lucia, Jamaica, Seattle and all sorts of fun places we visited prior to babies! The tiered cabinet was a clearance purchase at Pier One and we have lots of family and travel pictures displayed on it. The wall across from it has two Magnolia Lane wooden frames I LOVE--sorry I don't have a photograph to share (you can see a side view of where they hang on the wall in the very first picture)! One of the frames is hand-painted with 1 Corinthians 13 (we had this verse read at our wedding) and the other is the frame "Life is Not Measured"--they are really special and I hope to get another to add to my collection for Christmas! Thanks for visiting and I hope you have a blessed weekend!

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Show Us Your Life--Bonus Rooms

Today at Kelly's Korner it's "Show Us Your Life--Play Rooms, Bonus Rooms & Laundry Rooms" so I linked up my Craft Room. Since this space didn't exist when we bought the house, I thought I'd share with you how it came to be.

When we purchased the house, this room was our unfinished bonus room. We could have paid the builder a bunch of money to finish it out but we didn't have a bunch of money! Instead, we opted to do it ourselves after we moved in. My handy husband came up with the idea to divide the large room into two separate spaces with a closet. He decided to use pocket doors so we wouldn't loose any floor space with traditional swinging doors. I admit, I was somewhat skeptical at first but now I absolutely love the space--you've seen it finished here. Our home is now a five bedroom house with a media room and yes, it's way too much space to "try" to keep clean with two active toddlers! Check out the before pictures below. If you're looking for some inspiration for your "bonus" rooms, visit Kelly here to see all the posts for SUYL Friday!

Unfinished Craft Room

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Recent Redos

One of my many strange tendencies is to rearrange the rooms in our home. I just can't seem to put something in a place and leave it there. Even though my madness lead to bodily hard for Ray several years ago, I cannot seem to kick the habit to move things! Bodily harm you ask, yes, bodily harm. Several years ago, I rearranged our living room after Ray went to bed one evening and when he got up early the next morning to let our dog out he broke his toe on our ottoman! Recently, we started entertaining the idea of selling our house. It's a great house, just not a great house for us. It's very spacious, has an open floor plan and sits on a great lot with an long driveway in a nice neighborhood. We have plenty of space to grow should we decide to expand our family but we think we'd be happier in a smaller, more comfy house.With these thoughts in mind, I've amped up my desire to get all the rooms finished and decorated for Fall. Now I not only face the challenge of incorporating kid-friendly design but must keep in mind that a "staged" house presents itself much better in the marketplace. Here's what I've accomplished so far: This is the small wall behind our front door as you enter our foyer. I placed a dainty table which I recently purchased at Chelsea Antique Mall. I wanted to use something in this space that wasn't overpowering but allowed for some small accent pieces.... This is the other small wall in our foyer. We used this cabinet in our previous house but I gave it a mini face-lift and added the dark brown accents. I wanted to have a mirror and lamp in this area for use in the evening and decided to keep the accents simple with my estate sale lamp which you may remember from here and some great frames I found at a few yard sales.... This is our dining room which is located just to the left of the foyer. This was one of the first rooms we painted when we moved in a few years ago. It's a fantastic shade of orange with turquoise and white accents and large, farmhouse style furniture for comfortable dining.... Our study is to the right of the foyer and has transom doors for privacy. You may recall this post which is the wall just to the left of these chairs. Currently, we are reevaluating the use of this space but this room is really comfortable and a great place to escape for some quiet time..... This is the entry hallway. I used this bookshelf from Pier One as a place to display lots of family photographs which can be easily removed before an open house.... This is the TV wall in our keeping room. The cabinet is from Z Gallery and was an excellent purchase--I wish I had another one. It neatly houses my collection of Martha Stewart magazines, design books, pottery and family photographs.... This is another view of our keeping room and it's where we spend the majority of our time. The curtains were my very first sewing project which you can read about here. I used the space underneath the couch table to organize all the boys books and toys in large baskets which provide easy access and clean-up.... This pie-safe serves as a room divider for the keeping room and eat-in kitchen area. We got this piece at Frontera and I must admit it is one of my favorite pieces of furniture. I have a set of pottery from my grandmother inside, a fore more design books and some serving pieces for entertaining.... This is a small wall in the back of our eat-in kitchen where I placed our wine table (minus the wine) and some cookbooks I use often.... And this is the space above largest wall of kitchen cabinets. It's hard to tell in this picture but the cabinets are designer cabinets with a glaze topcoat. I was the first to ever pick these cabinets at the design studio and everyone was anxious to see how they would look once installed. They are really neat and I am very happy with my choice. Hope you enjoyed the mini-tour. More decorating and space redos to come soon! Pin It

My Creative Space

Building a new house is both fun and stressful. I enjoy picking out all the finishes, colors, textures and landscaping. The not so fun part is arguing with the builder on simple changes that can drastically impact how you use a space. Case in point--my new creative space! During the planning stage of building our house, I was adamant about eliminating wasted space. One such space was a storage closet due to be placed at the top of our staircase. It seemed odd to me that you would come to the top of the stairs and have a closet on the only usable wall in a small space. I could envision a table or desk there with something pretty hanging on the wall. I could not picture a door! Luckily, I was able the convince the contractor to turn the storage closet into additional space in the fourth bedroom. This enabled me to have a small work space which I have so deemed by creative space! I had the space all laid all out in my head and couldn't wait to move in so I could start really being creative. Funny how other things took precedent and the craft area was placed on the back burner for quiet some time. It will be two years this March since we moved and I finally have the craft area set-up--wow, two years! I am still finishing some updates, ie. bulletin boards, ribbon storage shelf, etc. but at least the space is usable. Needless to say, it hasn't seen a lot of action yet except for Jackson sitting at my desk and playing on the computer (I think he's creating his own blog), but I plan to break it in soon! Here's a quick tour: This is my new desk. A friend told me about this wonderful place called The Blue Building in Alabaster which had lots of hotel furniture it had recently acquired from a closing sale. I hurried over and was able to get it for $50. Of course, I had to paint it orange (go figure)....

The chair at my desk and the one in the corner is a set I bought at the Chelsea Antique Mall yard sale for $25. I painted them both chocolate and recovered the cushions with cream suede fabric...... Th armoire is one we had in the guest bedroom at our first house. It's a computer armorie so it's practical and has lots of interior room for storage. I decided to repaint it chocolate.... And here's the completed space--completely stocked brushes, canvases, fabric, ribbon, and lots of tools to foster some creativity--now, all I need to do is put it to good use!

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