What did we do to commemorate the first day of 2012? We moved out, of course!
The soon-to-be-new-homeowners are leasing it until we close this month.
A few words come to mind when I see our home, turned house emptied. Like…
Surreal…
Amazed…
Hopeful…
Humbled…
Excited…
Shocked…
Happy…
The house is empty, yet full: full of the memories we made while living there…full of anticipation for this new chapter in our lives.
Empty, yet full!
Happy New Year!
Jen
You’re in for a real treat this morning as my bloggie friend Sandy is opening her home to us so we can gather some Christmas inspiration! She has combined such happy colors with classic pieces that you are sure to have a smile on your face from looking at such fun decor vignettes.
Sandy and her husband are newlyweds who currently rent. She proves that it doesn’t matter if you’re renting and the carpet (a shade of beige-y pink) isn’t your top choice, you can still make your home beautiful, cozy and a reflection of you.
1. What was your inspiration for Christmas decorating this year?
My main inspiration was color. I love color! I’m originally from FL where there is color to be seen everywhere–salmon/coral buildings, greens, and of course all of the wonderful plants. I now live in Indiana where it gets dark and dreary (for me) so I wanted a lot of happy colors around me to make it through this winter. I love pink so I snuck some of that in. It all started with the snow globe on the coffee table that I found at Home Goods this year which has green and pink on it and I went from there with the balls. I knew I wanted them all over the place and I wanted it to have an overall fun – not too serious look.
2. How does your Christmas decor fit in with the rest of your home’s style?
I mainly try to have things go together by color so I already had purple and turquoise incorporated as well as green in the decor so I just repeated it with the balls. I did not want to go Christmas white at all since I really wanted our home to be a refuge from the darkness outside. In general I also always try to add a bit of fun somehow which the snow man snow globe started. Nothing serious about a snow man snow globe and we love to sit around the couch and randomly say “make it snow” and then “shake, shake, shake” the globe.
3. If you were moving overseas and could only bring three home decor items with you what would you take?
Wow three! That’s really hard because to me it’s always about the overall feel the items create together rather than really loving any single item in particular. Since I decorated very slowly one DIY project at a time I definitely noticed the difference just the tiniest change can make. However, I definitely love all my mirrors because they make the space feel bigger and add so much light to the rooms. Since my favorite mirror is the purple round one I’d bring that one along with me. I also really love my rugs so I’d definitely take my floral and zebra print rug. My floral rug is the most colorful thing in our place so I’d have to take it with me!
4. What is your favorite diy project to date?
Again, that’s a hard question! I think I always love them right after I do them and then I love the next just as much. The dining table was definitely a good bonding project since it’s the only one my husband helped me on. We sanded together for quite a while by hand. Other than that I would say the buffet at the entrance with the purple mirror is my favorite because it’s the first one I was riskier in, in that I made it two toned rather than a solid color. The drawers are rub n buffed and the body is a whitish cream color. It’s also the first piece I filled the holes in and put in new knobs. I love the silly lions heads I chose. It’s definitely a piece that even now months later I still look at and love!
5. Anything else you’d like to share?
In regards to decorating I’d just like to say that it’s all about your home reflecting you. I know my home would make some people crazy with all the color and it would definitely feel cluttered to minimalists, but it totally reflects my husband and me. If you’re just starting it’s definitely important to think about what you want your home to do for you. For us, we wanted it to welcome people in. A place you could walk in and put your feet up on the coffee table. I wanted there to be plenty of surface areas so guests could have plenty of space to put their drinks as well as appetizer plates down when we have gatherings– again adding to their comfort. I love DIY because I don’t take anything I do too seriously. I don’t worry about anyone ruining anything because I know it wouldn’t be hard to touch up. I think that’s the most important thing. No one would feel comfortable in a home where they had to worry about every single little thing. I just want people to feel at home.
And I’d also like to just say thank you so much, Jenny, for featuring my home! This has really been a fun process and thank you for your encouragement in the time we’ve known each other!!!
Thank you, Sandy, for opening your home to us and sharing all of your great advice on how to incorporate our Christmas decor into our home’s year-round look. You have done a beautiful job in your home and I hope to see more of your work in the future!
If you’re interested in seeing what Sandy’s up to you may visit her on Pinterest (or perhaps a future blog of her own).
Happy Christmas!
Jen
Last week when I posted about my autumn yarn wreath and fireplace mantel decor, The Nester shared some great tips for using what you have to create beauty around you this fall as well. I love her philosophy on decor because it’s so true that you do not have to buy, buy, buy to have a lovely home. Our home is a testament to that fact.
So, here’s my Simply Autumn Tablescape. The “table runner” is really a 1/3 of a sheet I bought years ago at Goodwill for $3.99. The other two pieces to this sheet can be found hanging as curtains in our “cottage.” I did no hemming (or hawing) to this piece, so I thought the messy, flowy look would work great and hide any raw edges.
For the stylish “stick” centerpiece I just used a large Ball jar, filled it with dried beans that we will never eat and plopped some large sticks from the front yard into it. Easy! Then the last piece to this tablescape is the little silver tray. I filled it with coffee beans we had on hand and three tea lights. That’s it!
If you were around here when I painted our dining room table and chairs you may find those shelves on the back wall to be a new addition. Yep, I found those on the side of the road. They’re a bit chipped, but I just call that character. I really like their placement above the buffet, giving it more depth.
How do you like to decorate your dining table for Autumn or Thanksgiving? I think Edie did a beautiful job at Life in Grace…don’t you?
And just for fun let’s look at a before and after shot of our dining room…
BEFORE
2008
AFTER
2011
Happy Creating!
Jen
Psst! I shared this simple centerpiece with Centsational Girl.
Yay! Our house is officially on the market. We’re doing ”For Sale by Owner” and I put the sign in the ground this a.m. So, if you know of anyone looking to buy in the Belton area, send them our way!
Have a happy day, my friend,
Jen
Good Monday morning, guys! Yay!!!
We have our first house showing this evening. And note: this showing is before we even put a “For Sale” sign in the front yard. Awesome!
Maybe this family is right for this home…and if not, we know someone will be…it’s just a matter of time.
Yay!
~Jen
To read the most recent entries on this adventure, click here.
Okay, let’s play a game: Can you name five things that are different and five things that are the same in these two photos? The winner gets the pure satisfaction in knowing that she is awesome. Very awesome.
So, let’s get started!
Photo 1
Photo 2
Did you find your five things? If you’re still working on it, I totally understand because there are so, so many changes to our livingroom that it would be hard to name them all. But the big main deal is that we got NEW FURNITURE!!!
Yup, after 8 years of marriage we took the plunge and bought furniture. But we did it a super smart way: on craigslist.
You see, we like to pay cash for our purchases and forking over $1000+ on a couch and chairs just isn’t something we were wanting to do. I guess that’s why it also took us EIGHT YEARS to buy any new pieces. (However, our new-to-us furniture is only 2 years old & cost just about $300…woo-hoo!)
And I it could also do something with the fact that I’m really frugal and if it (kind of) works then I’ll use it. The sweet leather couch was given to us from a couple at our church for our first apartment. Before that I just had that gold vintage bench (which I still love by the way!).
Old Couch
New Couch
Now, there’s still work to be done with the bench turned coffee table. Like, my hubby wants me to recover it. And I’d like to find a large tray to add to the top of it for our drinks and whatnot. But we love, love, love the clean lines and awesome fabric on our couch and our two chairs.
Old Chairs
New Chairs
I loved those vintage green chairs, but unfortunately I did not love sitting in them. Once you sat down there was no getting up (and that’s not because they were oh-so-cozy!). The springs and inner-workings of the chairs were just falling apart. They needed to be completely gutted and reconstructed and everything. Poor things!
Our new chairs, however, are big and soft and you can actually sit in them without feeling like you’re going to drop through the bottom. They are a-mazing!
There are more changes to share with you, but for now I’ll leave you with these happy shots…
Have you found your five things by now? If not you will be able to by the end of this week!
Happy Creating!
Jen
Good Monday morning to you, bella friend! I hope you had a refreshing weekend & were able to spend some time with the ones you love. After our trip to Sea World the family & I were in desperate need of some rest & catching up on things around the house. Thankfully, we were able to accomplish both!
Y’all, I have exciting news for you: we bought grown-up furniture. And.we.love.it! Here’s a sneak peek for you…
I’ll be back with more on our livingroom restyle & new grown-up furniture tomorrow! You won’t want to miss it…promise :)
Happy Creating!
Jen
The Crown of the house is Godliness.
The Beauty of the house is Order.
The Glory of the house is Hospitality.
The Blessing of the house is Contentment.
This inscription is the prayer of my heart as a busy season closes in my life, that is, the one where I work on a political campaign. I’m thankful to have the opportunity to get back to the basics of loving & serving my family and hopefully extending that love to others as I bring order, hospitality and contentment back into our home. Notice that I said “back into our home,” meaning with two months of busyness and being sick for the last several weeks things have gotten a little, well, less than picture perfect. And that’s okay. There is time to get our home back to beautiful, of which I am truly grateful.
What do you think makes a house beautiful? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
*taken from the book The Beauty of Motherhood
A few days ago the boys & I went on a drive to hunt down some (free) sunflowers & weeds to decorate our home, inside & out. We were successful! I also found $1 mums at Wal-mart while making a quick grocery run to add a touch of autumn to the outdoors in a cinch.
See that tree stump? Yeah, that used to be a REALLY creepy tree. It finally died, so we had to chop it down last year. Trying to “pretty-up” a tree stump can be a daunting task. Fortunately, I was able to find this adorable bicycle tree planter several months ago. I love how unique it looks on the stump!
More gettin’ our autumn on…inside the house!
Welcome to our living room…decorated simply with few objects on the wall. I like to let the room “breathe.” I took the rug away for the summer, but with fall approaching it was time to cozy up the space a bit more.
I found it on clearance at Pier 1 last year…don’t you love a good find?
To see the “Autumn Joy” garland in more detail, check out my tutorial from yesterday. (I turned a Starbucks bag into this fab & thrifty autumn garland).
I put some sunflowers & weeds on the mantel, too!
Oh, and I put some weeds over here, too. I still haven’t filled these frames with anything, but they’re okay with that; they know I have things to do like go flower-hunting in the woods. Priorites, folks, priorities.
I told you I like to keep things simple. But don’t worry, I will eventually put something in the frames…
For me, autumn says, “Cozy up and relax,” and that’s exactly what this coffee-table-turned-bench expresses perfectly. Oh and this bench says, “Ditto.”
If you’re curious about what’s going on atop that dresser-turned-buffet then check out my recent back-to-school post. Or just look at these cute pumpkins. Ahhhhhhh! So cute!
Are you gettin’ your autumn on? Do you use the colors of fall or are you like me and stick with the cooler colors to flow with your home? For more inspiration check out the lovely ladies linking to the Inspired Room , Craftaholics Anonymous & Domestically Speaking today…Thanks for stopping by. Happy decorating:)
The Nester is hosting a spur of the moment link-up party, so I decided to jump in the conga line & have some fun, too! We were supposed to share a table and chair combo that didn’t originally come together. I was all tears and sniffles at first because all of my “extra” chairs are being used for a home staging right now and everything else we use in our home would be too short for the table height (sniff, sniff). But I took the Nester’s longtime advice & just “shopped the house” and used what I had on hand to at least spiff the chairs up a bit. Ingenuity at its best, right? Well, we’ll see about that…
Anyway, here is the before “Plain Jane” table & chairs combo:
And after a little “home shopping” here is the updated, “Comfy Carmelita.” I just like the way that sounds, “Comfy Carmelita.” It’s exciting, warm & cozy all at the same time. If your name happens to be Carmelita, just know that I love it…I really do.
I know it’s only a slight change, but by adding two comfy pillows to the ends of the table we brought forth a new look…one that says, I’m not just a hard wooden chair, no, I’m a place to unwind and read your favorite blogs and sip on a glass of (insert favorite beverage here).
Don’t you just love this pattern? And the chocolate brown with white really pop against the neutral background. Yummy!
Not only did the chair-thing inspire me, but I was also inspired to create a new tablescape with things we had on hand: Some branches from the front yard, a fake green apple, a large candle we’ve had for years (although we have burned it quite often), a seashell from a beach vacation this summer, and a candle from Bath & Body Works. Simple, yet pretty. (A little somethin’ somethin’ that YOU can do, too!).
So, if you’re out there thinking, “I don’t have any way to jazz up my table & chairs (sans new paint)” then think again…there is always a way you can restyle your world:)
Happy Sunday!
(Don’t forget to join my “Restyle Your World” linky party on Monday…that’s tomorrow, folks…”Saying Goodbye to Summertime.” More info. here.
