The perfect grey

I love house renovation/decoration before and afters and I loved that when we bought our house it was a blank slate with so many required updates – the windows, doors, floors, trim, kitchen and bathroom have all been changed and updated in the course of the last 5 years. But we have not done any renovations or changes, save the addition of two plastic all-season adorandick chairs and an outdoor rug to our little side porch.

I’m itching for change. Namely, to change my living room wall color.

I loved it at first. It went from this weird creamy tan color that looked pink in the sunlight and mocha at night, to a beautiful bright Carolina blue. I say Carolina blue because it really is the official jersey color of UNC-Chapel Hill (aka: The REAL Carolina). It is Matt’s favorite color and I wanted something bright to liven up the room. We had light tan couches and light tan roman shades and white furniture, and the color made the room feel so happy. I had brightly colored throw pillows and paintings and picture frames to add some more punch.

Then I got tired of it this past spring. I bought new throw pillow covers in navy and coral, painted all the picture frames white and changed out my lamps. The blue walls just don’t fit anymore. I want something more neutral again, more grown up. I’m leaning towards grey. (Yep, our bedroom and Brighton’s room are grey too, but I love it. I just can’t go with white walls, it feels too stark and Scandavian for me.)

So here I am, wanting to paint 400+ square feet of space as the weather cools and I have a small child who never sits still. I am crazy like that.

Here are the colors I think would work in the space with our furniture. Which one do you like?

Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter

Farrow & Ball Calluna Grey

Sherwin Williams Sea Salt

Outdoor Living

I am itching to do a little mini makeover of our outdoor space. We re-did the driveway this spring and planted all new flowers out front, added new mulch and I did some weeding, but our little side porch is a sad, sad site.

The man who owned the home before us painted the porch floor (along with the foundation brick) a creamy taupe color, but after almost 6 years of walking up and down it, along with the crazy Carolina weather, the floor has started to chip badly. 

See how chipped the floor is? So ugly!

 We have one sad fold up chair in the far corner, a rubber doormat at the side door, an old broken window leaning against the wall, a few hanging plants and the rustiest mailbox you've ever seen. It needs some help!

Since I am pretty cheap when it comes to purchasing anything these days (good lord has anyone seen how much college will cost in 18 years?!?!), I have been researching some good deals on 2 cute and comfortable chairs, a side table and an outdoor rug. 

Here are some of the items I'd like to add to our side porch:

Adirondack Chair from Lowe's

Target Woven Patio Table

Restoration Hardware Vertical Mailbox

Ballard Design's Chevron Rug

Makeover photos to come soon!

I'm already dreaming of Christmas...

I know it's not even Halloween or Thanksgiving, but I am already dreaming about Christmas decorations!

We have always decorated traditionally with the colors of red, white and silver in the house, with minimal decorations outside (a wreath for the door, and some fake garland for the porch); but this year we plan to do silver, white and a few shades of blue in a little more modern fashion. I already ordered these ornaments for our tree and am on the hunt for some new stockings, a tree skirt and some additional decorations for the fireplace mantle. I've been hunting Etsy and Pinterest for ideas.

I love these personalized stockings! But I would do different patterns/colors from this Etsy Shop

Via

This ruffled tree skirt is beautiful, but I'd like it in a different set of colors. (I wonder if this is easy to make? Probably not since I'm not crafty.)

Via

I saw a tutorial on how to make a paper wreath - I'd love to do one like this with pages from a book and jingle bells.

Via

I also want to dress up our dining room table - something like this but instead of wreaths behind the chairs, I'd like to do big fabric bows.

Via

This is a beautiful way to make garland with lights - I might do this for the outdoor decorations or our mantle.

Via

I know I'm crazy to already be thinking of Christmas. I even created a new board on Pinterest for all these pretty things! Maybe I should go carve our pumpkins for Halloween first? ;)

Happy Tuesday!

Master and Office Remodel Complete!

Warning - picture heavy!

As I mentioned here, Matt and I spent the last two weeks finishing two rooms of our home - the master bedroom and our office. Last spring when we refinished the floors in the living room, dining room and hallway, we had to leave these two rooms alone as we had no other place to store furniture.

Both rooms needed the carpet pulled up, floors sanded, stained and poly'd, plus new baseboards, shoe molding and door and window frames. Here are the before and afters:

Before

Office

Office without the furniture

Office without the furniture

Master bedroom

Right before the we redid the floors, we rearranged the furniture to see if a new layout worked - and it did!

Master - that carpet is nasty!

During 

We had to put our bed in the living room and all our clothes and dressers in the nursery!

Office - before the sanding and staining

Master - before the sanding and staining

During the sanding process

Because of some water damage we had in the master (darn you leaky roof), Matt had to spackle a lot of the master bedroom walls - which lead me to repaint the entire room! We painted it over 2 years ago and didn't have any of the paint color left over - I went to Lowe's thinking I could match it almost exactly and failed. I picked a color about a shade darker so I couldn't just touch up spots - I had to paint the entire room! And I did it on Mother's Day too. Gah!

The finished product!

Office floors

Office floors

Office after!

Office after!

Master floors

Master floors

Master floors

Master with furniture!

I still need to buy curtains for the windows...

Matching nightstands, lamps and a new duvet from Target

New throw pillows from Skoope

I am so thankful to finally have a grown up bedroom - in the seven plus years of marriage, Matt and I have never had a really nice duvet cover or matching night stands or lamps. I know this might seem insignificant, but when your bedroom still looks like a dorm room it can stress you out (or at least stress me out!) 

Hope you enjoyed the before and afters!  
Future Post: The finished nursery!!! So excited to show you those photos!

Spring Home Makeover!

In just one week, Matt and I are going to tackle the last of our interior renovations - the office and the master bedroom!!!

These are the last two rooms with carpet, so we plan to pull it all up, refinish the floors and install all new door frames, window frames, baseboards and shoe molding. Based on the work, we'll also have to do some paint touch-ups as needed. 

The office layout including, the art wall, will remain the same.

 We like the room for it's function as an office / guest room with the custom bookshelves and desk Matt built a few years ago.

But the master bedroom will get some fun updates! We are keeping the light grey walls and black furniture, but I plan to make the room more light and airy with pops of white everywhere and some teal blue. Here are the changes:

• Rearranging the bed and dressers for a more open feel. 
• Replacing the mini blinds with blackout roller shades.
• New white curtains for the windows.
• Matching bedside table lamps.
• Updated throw pillows (already purchased from Etsy!)
• Moving the art around on the walls.
• And maybe if I have some money left over a new duvet cover with shams. These are the duvets I am currently drooling over:

Via West Elm

Via West Elm

Via BBB

 I bet you're totes bored with these duvet choices, but I want to keep the bedding white with some texture since the room is small and the furniture is dark.

Some before and afters to come in a few weeks - I can't wait!

October Followers Fest: Fall Decor

In honor of the October Followers Fest

Hosted by Casey, Illy, Danielle and my sweet friend Jess, I am posting some of our pretty fall decorations around the house!

All of this cost me less than $10!

I bought the sunflowers, mini gourds and pumpkins and the larger pumpkin at the grocery story.
The vases, candle holders, raffia, place mats and napkins we already owned, and the greenery is from our yard. 

Here is how to look like Martha Stewart with your napkins...

And here are some of the decorations outside...

Although fall isn't my favorite season (I'm a summer/spring girl!) decorating our home in the pretty orange and earth tones decor was a lot of fun!