home sweet home: dining room

So here's our dining "room" BEFORE we moved in...

and AFTER...

It's just to the left of our front door and foyer, with columns defining the space. In our old house, we never really had a dining "room" either - just a space off the living room and it worked for us. We actually used our table then way more than we even do now because it was right off our kitchen. Now our dining room area serves us more when we have friends and family over and more formal dinners, whether it's just us three or whether it's with more family.

For this room, we decided to nix the tray ceiling (Gorgeous, yes. However if one thing to cut I thought that's where we could save money) Instead, we opted for wainscoting and extra thick crown molding. It helped "dress up" and define this space even more.

I found my fabric for curtains seriously years ago when I first knew we wanted to build. I'm not even joking. It was an impulse buy at a fabric sale in Williamston and the moment I saw it, I fell in love with it. I never looked back. I knew I wanted light pale blue/aqua walls in the dining room (my favorite color!) and so I matched to a color in the fabric and there you have it....Sherwin Williams Silvermist. The most gorgeous blue! I could stare at it all day long. I recently had Mrs. Ann (sweet family friend) sew my curtains and I purchased the hardware from Hobby Lobby (y'all. Hob Lob has some seriously good drapery hardware. Always 40% off with coupon, if not more when running 50% off sale!) 

The Claire Chandelier from Ballard Designs has always been one of my favorites. Well, when I saw it at the Ballard Designs Outlet marked to $150 (regular $400) I thought "yep, that's it". It's so gorg and you know I got to have a little "bling". So we strapped her in the backseat and off we went. Again, so many months before we even had the dining area complete. If you can't tell, I definitely had a set vision for this space.

The table and china cabinet was a purchase from my dad and stepmom when Chad moved into their old house (now our old house) before we got married. It was so heavy and they had so much furniture already (from combining furniture when recently wed) that they just simply did not want to move. They sold it to us for a pretty penny, but it was still an amazing deal! I am so glad we splurged because it could seriously be our dining room furniture for life. It's classic and timeless. Solid wood. Farmhouse style. We've enjoyed so many meals at this table and knowing my dad sat here and enjoyed many of meals too, it makes me love it even more. 

Wall Color: Sherwin Williams Silvermist
Trim Color: Sherwin Williams Pure White
Rug: RUGS USA (75% off sale)
Chandelier: Claire Chandelier via Ballard Designs Outlet
Vase: TJ Maxx

What's most special to me about this room is the china in our china cabinet. When we were engaged, I didn't register for formal china, only everyday. I knew that my grandmother had boxed up china before she passed that she had purchased years and years ago - long before we were ever even out of school or thought of being married. It is the most beautiful, simple white china with gold trim. I love!

I also love my pillows, also hand sewn by Mrs. Ann. The pink fabric matches the curtain print fabric perfectly and I told her I wanted the leopard print piping to add a bit of pizazz. Then I had to monogram it....le duh. 

 And finally.... dun, dun, dun, dun....here's the very last missing piece to the puzzle....what FINALLY makes our dining room THE only 100% finished room in our house...we recently added both of our boys' portraits to the wall!

The plan is to take a picture of Charlie when he's the same age (2),  in the same outfit, on the same porch. Until then, I just couldn't wait to get Cade's on the wall and bc I'm OCD about symmetry, that meant Charlie needed a pic up there too. Glad his newborn photo worked out perfectly!

the opening to the left in the hallway goes to the kitchen...

 The portraits look so small in the photo above, but you can see here they are perfect size for the size room and china cabinet. I would have hung them lower but we ran into an issue with the breaker box being behind Cade's portrait (on other side of wall) and had to hang higher than anticipated. I don't freak out about stuff like that though. It's perfect to me and that's all that matters.

This has turned into one of my favorite "rooms"...

and I'm so jacked that it's the only one that's completely "finished". Now my thoughts are how to plan Christmas decor around all the PINK? Oh I can't wait...

home sweet home: master bathroom

I have so much to catch up on. We have been busy little bees...lots of workin', going to market, and just enjoying Summer. I'll try to catch up posts on the little ones soon (and share some pics from Charlie's newborn session) but for now here's a post I had drafted up to continue the house tour!

So far we've seen Charlie's nursery, the powder room, the back deck, and now {to continue this random-no-flow-at-all-house-tour}...our master bathroom!

Hands down, this seriously is my favorite room in the house. Ok, close tie with my kitchen but I do loooove my bathroom and knew I must create one I love, because I am certainly a girly girl and spend a lot of time "primping" {yeah, those natural beauties out there who can just get up and go in 10 minutes?... I envy you. Drying/straightening this unruly mane alone takes forever!) Also y'all. Confession: at our old home for nearly seven years we had plastic sinks (ok maybe it's called something else but I swear it seemed plastic...) and parts of it had melted/burn marks because my straightener and curling iron got too close to it. Just remember that when reading all this...can you say major upgrade? My plastic sinks served us well but what a blessing and absolute TREAT our new house has been.

Our house plan called for vaulted ceilings in our master bath. After nixing tray ceilings in the master bedroom and dining, we knew keeping the vaulted ceilings in the bathroom was a must. It really opens up the space and never leaves me chlostrophobic when feeling like a million degrees while drying my hair/steam from shower/etc...We also nixed a few other things to splurge a bit in the master and create a spa-like space that we love. First up, we opted to splurge on a tile shower and to save money for this splurge, nix a tub. We just aren't "bath people" at all. I knew if I ever got the urge to take a bath I would have one in Cade's bathroom so for us - it was just an easy nix. Again, everyone has their own "must haves" or "can do withouts" and that's the beauty of building a custom home!

However, after talking with our builder and knowing this may not be our "forever home", we left space next to the shower in case we ever wanted to add a free standing tub for resale purposes (or if we stay forever, I'm old and want to take more baths :) It's not a big space at ALL but it would definitely fit a {very small} pretty clawfoot tub in the future. At least that's what I see there one day!

For now, to fill that space, we are using an antique cabinet from my dad's shop as linen storage and also have a full length standing mirror/jewelry armoire which I love!

Wall Color: Benjamin Moore "Cashmere Gray"
Trim Color: Sherwin Williams "Pure White"

I also love our floors. We went back and forth about what to do in here. At first we just thought we may use some sort of vinyl planks that looked like hardwood, but we ultimately nixed more elsewhere to splurge on ceramic tile (that yes, looks like wood!) This gave us the look we wanted plus the guarantee that the floors would withstand any moisture in the bathroom and last a lifetime.

Tile: Mannington "Wilderness" in Dry Kindle
Rug: Pottery Barn Outlet

Cabinet Color: Sherwin Williams "Anonymous"
Hardware: Restoration Hardware

Jewelry Storage Mirror: TJ Maxx
Roman Shade: Pottery Barn

One of the places we nixed to get our ceramic tile floors (see how this works? Building and staying on budget is nothing but a game of give and take. Whew!) was the glass shower door. I mean, who knew those dang doors were like $800 or more? When we found out it could easily be added on later, we knew it would be wise just to go ahead and spend that money on the tile floors. Something that would be a PAIN to go back and "add later". I had seen a few ideas on Pinterest and knew I could come up with an idea for the tile shower - without a glass door. Indeed I used a cheap, extra long shower curtain from Amazon and mounted with tension rod, then I realized I still had these {FREE} long curtains I had once used at Sugar to frame out a dressing room mirror. Mounted those on another tension rod so when we take a shower we just pull the shower curtain across, see what I mean? (We pull the curtains out so they don't wet at the bottom though) So this little project costs me less than $50 and for now, totally works. Winning.

Oh and this is "faux marble" tile mixed with real basketweave marble in the niche. Another way we saved $$$. I didn't have exact name of the faux marble tile but I can find out. I was amazed at how great it turned out with the gray grout...

To save money we also nixed double sinks. We had double sinks at our old house and only used one anyways. Plus I knew I wanted a big vanity area! My vanity chair isn't exactly what I wanted but I've yet to find one I love, nor have I gotten a teak wooden shower bench for the shower either. There's a long wish list around here that's for sure!

Mirrors: Scalloped Frameless Mirrors from Target
Granite: White Macaubus remnant from Solid Rock Granite 
(also used in our Powder Room)
Vanity Bench: Target

but oh how I LOVE my vanity area and my bathroom cabinets. Plenty of storage and I have everything {i mean lots bc I'm a beauty product addict!) organized in all the drawers.

My huge makeup drawer was one of my must haves and it. is. my. jam. I love it and used $1 Dollar Tree contact paper to line + acrylic makeup organizer from TJ Maxx + plastic storage containers from BB&B to organize it all.

When you nix the other sink, you can afford to make the one sink you do have look pretty amazing. Hello gorgeous chrome faucet! 

Faucet: Delta Dryden in Chrome

and I'm pretty obsessed with our crystal vanity lights. This picture does not do justice!

Vanity Lights: Golden Lighting "Neeva" Collection

Again, in this antique cabinet, we keep our towels and I have a few baskets to hold nail polish, extra small toiletries, etc...or as Chad says "my knick knacks"

So that's it! 

That's where I primp. That's where the grubby hubby gets clean.

That's where we spray down our muddy toddler {when needed}.

Just for kicks, here's my master bathroom inspiration to refer back to.

It's girly enough for me, yet it's durable enough for my messy men in this household.

It just works for US and again, that's what building a house is all about. I'm so glad it was one of our "splurges".

home sweet home: deck life

The hubs finally got around to staining our deck this past weekend. I had picked the color of stain and purchased months ago, but alas with all the rain and such (and prepping for a new baby), he finally got a few pretty days to get it done recently while out on "paternity leave". Cade "helped" of course. I love the way the color turned out and it has made such a huge difference. While we would have loved to have had a covered porch (first choice, but our house plan didn't allow that to be an easy addition), or some sort of screened in porch, the 16x16 low deck was an easy, cost effective add on when we built and since it was so low we didn't need railings so we added large steps all the way around the corner. 

We have big plans for our outdoor area in the future, but that's the beauty of "outside". While you can't always add on to your inside square footage easily, the options are endless outside. Well, if the budget allows. We are trying to save up and work on grass, landscaping around the deck, a concrete stamped patio coming off the deck, walkway to garage concrete pad, etc... for the future. All in good time! So I figured since I've already shown Charlie's Nursery and our Powder Room, we'd take it outside and share our small deck/outdoor space.

Last August I got an amazing "End of Summer" deal on outdoor furniture at one of my favorite home decor sites, Home Decorator's Collection. You can read more about that here and thus the reason the furniture is purple (not my favorite color or something I would have just chosen off the top of my head) because it was on major sale. That's enough reason to buy for me!

I immediately began to think of what fun colors I could put with the purple, as if it were a fun challenge, and I was drawn to a lime green. I also knew I wanted to re-use the indoor/outdoor Ballard Designs rug from our sunroom too. Throw in a couple of new Ballard outlet pillows monogrammed by a sweet friend and our old TJ Maxx chairs and voila! Here's how it turned out...

I don't care what color this furniture is, it is beyond comfy. So nice to sit out there and prop your feet up. I did that a lot while pregnant...well, when it was cool enough!

just when you thought I had shown you the full view, SURPRISE! Yep, there's a Big Green Egg at the end of the deck and while yes, we use it ALL the time and it's great to entertain out there while Chad is cooking, we would eventually love to have some sort of outdoor shed/shop area with covered spot for it and his smoker. The hubs is serious about his grilling y'all and I think he needs his own space. For now, we're making it work, just not my favorite view from inside. Sorry honey.

these concrete planters are from our old house and before that my granparents, so I think they've been around my whole life!

This rug has held up to chalk, crayons, loads of dirt, etc... as it was in our "sunroom" transformed into "playroom" in our old house. Now it's holding up pretty darn well outside on the deck. I swear Ballard Designs makes the best indoor/outdoor rugs. The welcome mat is from Target.

When I spotted this lonely, lonesome outdoor leopard pillow in a clearance bin at Ballard Outlet I knew it had to come home with me. Wasn't really sure how it would look out there, but eeeeh leopard really is a neutral right? I think she fits in just fine. The chairs and cushions are from TJ Maxx and were used at our old house too. The small blue table is from Ikea. I've been meaning to spraypaint but that may never happen.

My mom graciously helped me plant all of my flowers in the Spring since I was majorly prego. They haven't all taken off just yet, but man the sweet potato vines have. Oh and it just so happens they coordinate into the purple/lime green color scheme effortlessly :)

So there you have it. Our small thrifty little deck area that has been a labor of love for all of us. Can't wait for more deck sittin' and sippin' on Summer nights and entertaining straight through Fall!

home sweet home: charlie's nursery

I posted this sneak peek of Charlie's nursery on Instagram last week and thought I would share more since it is mostly finished and ready for our littlest to arrive!

Can't wait for him to wear his brother AND daddy's precious hand-me-downs.

Yep, can you believe the little outfit on the far left was Chad's? His mom found a stash of adorable jon jons recently and they were all in almost perfect condition. Be still my heart.

I have loved planning his nursery for months now. Just can't believe he will be here in a few shorts week to enjoy it.

Now I am by no means a great designer when it comes to all things home, but I loved scouring home decor sites for deals (almost everything purchased for his nursery was on sale and/or purchased with my cc reward points) and we were also blessed to re-use Cade's crib and glider, which I knew I would whether we had boy or girl. I tried to keep everything neutral from the get go. I wanted a fresh, crisp, more subtle not-so-babyish look that could grow with him...(and something totally different than Cade's nursery) especially after seeing how incredibly fast they really do grow. I will blink and this will turn into his "big boy room". Have mercy. 

For now, I am going to soak in the sweet smells of baby powder, Noodle & Boo lotion, and ahem...not so much the dirty diapers, no. (glad we saved the Diaper Genie!)

I knew this handpainted sign was a must-have as soon as I spotted it on Susie Harris' Instagram.  My dad absolutely loved music. He sang, {tried to} play guitar, wrote songs, and even recorded his own gospel album. Anytime you went into his auto body shop, you heard the classics blaring. I'm talking the good stuff. Waylon, Johnny, George. CCR, Van Morrison, The Doobie brothers, The Rolling Stones.

My love for those classics runs deep and luckily I married a man who shares the same love (and plays them all on acoustic guitar). This is by far one of our favorite songs and since we're also both lovers of the salt and the sea also, it just made perfect sense to have these particular song lyrics in Charlie's nursery. Obsessed.

FYI: if you're looking into the Ikea Hemnes dresser in blue, this photo does not do it justice. The dresser looks more stark blue in these pics, but it's actually a bit more dull navy in person. I love it and it was a true labor of love for my husband. Seriously took him about six full hours one Sunday afternoon. Bless him. Still not done with this wall gallery either, but thankful my sis could snap a few pics on the beach that I'll cherish forever. More to come!

The babe's closet, which is basically a hodge podge mess of extra diapers (praise the Lord!) and way too many clothes. We put Cade's nursery Ikea Malm chest of drawers in the closet too. Tons of storage, which I love. Just a little more work to do to organize it all :)

Excuse the windblown curtain look since the air vent is right under the one to the left

Also need to add something over this oar. Any ideas?

A photo of my dad when he was little, in the same frame it's been in for probably close to 50 years. Yes, it's broken but I will just never change it. So special to me and I can't wait to see if baby Charlie looks like his namesake.

37 weeks today, Charlie is FULL TERM, and our bags are packed. I can't believe it.

Whew, we pulled it off after all.

Now to just sit back (inside in the cool a/c of course) and wait to meet our sweet boy!

sources:

// crib, glider, white shelf: from Cade's nursery //

// dresser: Ikea Hemnes Dresser in Blue //

// crib bedding : Serena & Lily //

// crib sheet: Pottery Barn Outlet - no longer available online //

// blackout curtains & hardware: Pottery Barn Kids //

// orb rope light fixture: RH Baby & Child //

// wooden wall monogram (that I stained "Driftwood"): The Monogram Company  //

// hand painted van morrison lyrics: Susie Harris //

// bookcase, pillow, and toiletries organizers on dresser: TJ Maxx //

// fisherman lamp: PB Kids , but I got mine at PB Outlet //

// clothes hamper: Joss & Main //

// oar hooks: Kirklands //

// distressed photo frames: Hobby Lobby //

// changing pad cover: Target //

// gingham monogrammed boppy cover: PB Outlet //

// diaper bag: major sale (um, $14.99!) at PB Outlet //

// wall color: Sherwin Williams Amazing Gray //