Child's Play

In general, I enjoy a clean and crisp designed space.  However, when it comes to children's rooms and playrooms, I think the opposite yields the most magic.    

Here's a look at wallpaper done right.  A child's room is the perfect place to let your imagination fly!  Mustard floors, blue floral print wallpaper and a fuchsia sombrero...why not?!

Designed by Jennifer Jansch

This playroom/bunk room was designed by Lisa Sherry.  I love how deceptively simple it looks.  Plus, she knows how to make storage look good!

Designed by Lisa Sherry

The textures and greens in this room had me swooning.  What little girl wouldn't want to lay her head here?

source unknown

3 Years

That's how long it's been since Jon and I said "I do." I know everyone always says it, but it really is hard to believe it's been three years.  Three years is a long time; yet, it still seems like it was just yesterday that we were standing on those windy shores of Inlet Beach, FL.

I think a lot of the "just yesterday" memories are because I had such a hands-on experience with my wedding day.  I can still remember me and my sister putting together my bridesmaids bouquets, my mom and her best friend helping arrange the table centerpieces, my friend Emily making my table visions a reality on the day of the wedding and the list goes on.  It was quite a family affair, and I honestly wouldn't have changed it one bit.  Our special day was made even more special by the people who had their hands on it, and I will be forever grateful.

I was looking through old albums last night and found some pictures from my sister's camera showing the beginning photos of the wedding week.  They make me smile to see where the week started and how beautiful it turned out in the end.

Here are some of the vases and jars collected by family and friends to use on our special day.

Me with the arrival of all of our beautiful flowers.

Me and my sister tying together one of the bridesmaids bouquets.

We'd spend a few hours each morning working on the flowers in the floral shop kitchen before taking a break and enjoying some time at the beach.

The bride in action.

Even Jon lended his hand in deleafing some the stems :)

Trying to get a visual of what my bouquet would look like before I officially tied it up.

My sweet friend Emily being a life-saver and putting together all of the tables on the day of the wedding.

This day was special to Jon and I not only because it was the day we commited our lives to one another but because we got to share it, TRULY share it, will our sweet family and friends who traveled for hours to be a part of it and make it beautiful with their helpful hands, encouraging spirits and sweet smiles.  We love you all.

Happy anniversary to you, Honey!  I love you bunches and bunches and can't wait for you to return home next week!  Our journey has only just begun!  :)

If you want to see how the "big day" turned out, here's a video I made of some of the professional wedding photos.  The music is the song from our first dance, "This is Us" by Christ August.  I hope you find it to be as beautiful as we did!

Before and After-Kitchen Pendants

When we first moved into our new home, these are the lights that hung over the bar in the kitchen.  Not horrid to most, but way too small for me.  And they screamed "builder grade."

Here's another shot showing their small size and wrong height.

After some research and oogling, I finally decided on some beautiful Regina Andrew globe pendants.  Thankfully, I was able to order them through work so the pricetag wasn't AS haunting.  But even still, I'd say the pricetag was well worth the transformation.

via Tracery Interiors

I opted for this darker finish to compliment our existing cabinet hardware.

Here they are in action!

 I absolutely love them and couldn't be happier with how they've transformed the space.  Now I just need to replace three other lights in the home!  Jon will be a master electrician before I'm done :)

Here's one more before and after.  What do you think of the change?

Guest Room Before and After-Healing Aloe

 Here is a shot of the room in all of its coral glory.  Great for a teenager, not for a soothing guest room.

And here is the Healing Aloe after.  Healing Aloe is a color by Benjamin Moore.

It was hard to get a good shot of the true color, but it is more of a seafoam than gray.

Aside from painting the walls and buying a new white quilt for the bed, everything else in the space we already had--most of which are hand-me-downs (bed and dresser) or thrift store finds (lamp and side table).  It will all be sufficient for now, and hopefully a space that our guests will love.

I'm very happy with the outcome and the progress of one more room in the house coming closer to completion.  One down, three to go (at least in the painting department!)

What's in My Bag-LBD Outfit

Here's a look at one of my recent purchases from Piperlime.  I love this site because of their free shipping and free returns.  You can't go wrong with that!  Here's what I put in my bag.  I didn't buy all of the items as an outfit, but upon arrival, I saw how great of a team they'd make :)  And it helps that I saved 20% on all of them with a promo code.  I love Piperlime! (And no they didn't give me anything to write this.)

1- The little black dress.  Business in the front.  Party in the back.

2- You had me at fringe...and statement necklace.  I'm a sucker for a good statement necklace.

3- The perfect dressy black sandal, complete with a gold zipper in the back.

Let's Paint!

While I loved a lot about our home before we bought it, there was one thing that I knew I would be changing after moving in--the paint colors!  All three guest rooms and our master bathroom will be getting new coats of paint, as well as the open living room that I mentioned yesterday.

The largest guest room belonged to the previous owner's teenage daughter....hence the coral pink walls.

This next room was a former nursery, and since we plan to use it as such one day as well, we're not worried about painting it just yet.  We'll wait for a baby to come first :)

The last guest room was a safari room for a little boy, complete with bamboo lined walls.  It will be transformed into Jon's man cave.

And last but not least on the "to paint" list is our master bath.  It's a little hard to tell in this picture, but the walls are actually faux finished in a sage green over a beige.  The faux has to go.

So here's what I'm thinking for the new paint colors...

For the coral room, Benjamin Moore Healing Aloe seems to be the winner.  There is only one small window in the room so I wanted to keep the color light and bright.

The safari room will become the man cave with Benjamin Moore's Charcoal Slate up top and white board and batten for the bottom of the walls.  I think the color is masculine and will be a great backdrop for Jon's Navy memorabilia.  Painting half of the walls will bring the drama without making the space too dark (it will function as a second guest room when visitors are in town).

And in our master bath, I'm going to with Valspar's Moutain Smoke, the same color I used here in my mom's dining room.  This room has a lot of light beige tile in it so I wanted to go with a darker tone to add in some contrast for a little dimension.

I'll keep you guys posted on the changes!  Wish me luck!  I'm to get a lot done before Jon gets back from his deployment.  Wouldn't that be such a nice surprise? :)

Our Living Room Mood Board

Our living room is slowly but surely coming together.  The biggest To Do's are ordering a new media console, painting the room (which is unfortunately open to the dining room, kitchen, office and breakfast area which means lots of painting to be done!), order a few lamps and a console for the long wall behind the couch.

I realize I haven't shared any pictures of our "new" house (we moved in at the end of last October) with you guys.  So here's a glimpse of the living room before we moved in.

This is what you see when you walk in the front door.  The dining room is on the left, the living room is straight ahead and the office on the right.

A closer look at the living room.  Florida loves their plant ledges...I do not.  You win some.  You lose some.  I also want to replace the tile around the fireplace.  

A view from the back of the living room looking toward the front corner of the house. The room behind the half green wall is the office sans the French door...which I'm happy to say are repainted and now up!  More on that later.

Lastly, here's a view from the living room looking over into the dining and kitchen area (breakfast area on the right).  See what painting one rooms means painting them all?

So here's the plan... or something similar.  Most of the pieces I want in the space, we already- gray slipcovered swivel gliders, neutral couch (although I'd like to put our current chaise one in Jon's soon-to-be "man cave" and get a new one like the one you'll see below), brown tufted cocktail ottoman, accent pillows, peacock mirror, neutral rug, brass candlesticks, milk glass vases and botanicals.

The items still needed are a long console which will go on the long wall separating the kitchen from the living room, new lamps for the console (maybe green for a pop of color?) and a new media console for the TV.  Our current media center will also be making its way into the man cave.  So did you get all of that?  If not, here's a visual...

I really like these Arteriors lamps to bring in some color, but I don't think I can go for their pricetag.  The console is actually a serving table sold by Ballard Designs.  I've looked high and low for a long console (the wall is 91" long) that is narrow and open on the bottom for stool or basket storage, and this is really the only one I've found that  I like.  I also would love to have set a set of black and white photos in offset matted frames like shown above--classic with a twist.

I've yet to order my new rug, but I'm pretty sure the winner is the woven jute one.  It's a great basic, and I can always layer a more colorful flatweave rug on top later if choose.  The walls will be a soft white--my current favorite is China White by Benjamin Moore but that changes every day so we'll see.  Since this room is such a large undertaking for painting, I'm going to start with the smaller rooms in the house first.  I'll share more on those later this week!

So that's the plan!  What do you think?