Home Tour- The Before Pics

We closed on our house last week and have been preparing for the projects ahead. We have someone coming in 2 weeks to refinish the hardwood floors and stain them a shade or two darker. And before he gets there, we need to paint all the ceilings and walls.

So before the projects begin, I thought I'd share the before pictures.

From the front door you walk right into the living room.

I love this little built-in. This is directly across from the front door so I'm thinking of putting a console table against the wall to the left to designate the entryway.

How great are these windows?? They take up the whole wall and let in so much light.

This is the front door.

Off the living room is the dining room.

These stairs off the dining room lead to the second level.

Here's a little breakfast bar and the kitchen.

In this eat-in kitchen, my dad will be building some banquette seating.

Off the kitchen is the backdoor to the backyard and a stairway to the basement.

Down to the basement.

As you can see we have already started demolition in the basement. There used to be carpeting and a counter and cabinets along the far wall. We have taken out the cabinets and the fridge will be leaving as well to make room for a wall to wall desktop. We'll make 2 workspaces here- one for an office desk and the other for my sewing/crafting desk. Once some crawlspace work has been completed we'll put in new carpet.

There is even a half bath in the basement.

Up on the second level this will be the baby's room.

Directly across from the stairs is the full bathroom.

I love the wainscoting.

There is even a great linen closet in the bathroom.

On the other side of the bathroom is the guest bedroom.

This room was originally the master bedroom so it has 2 closets. This larger one will house our out-of-season clothes.

And the smaller one will be used to store bed linens.

And finally there is one more staircase leading up to the third level.

This is the master bedroom converted from attic space.

I love this little nook by the dormer window.

And best of all...a walk-in closet!

Here's a view of the backyard (and the garage on the left).

So there you have it- a quick walkthrough of our first home. We are so anxious to start the projects and bring you along for the ride.

Stay tuned!

A Pastel Christmas

I was reading Hostess With the Mostess today and came across these beautiful pictures of a Christmas dessert buffet.

I love that the colors aren't the typical red, green and white but lovely shades of pastels and silver.

The soft hues really give this a vintage feel.


What a pretty, soft holiday palette.

Holiday Swag

My next holiday project was to make a holiday swag for our front door.

I bought a plain evergreen swag at Joann's and got some embellishments to decorate it with.

Here's what it looks like on the door.

I made my own bow from green and gold ribbon and added gold leaves, pinecones and gold ball ornaments.

An easy 10 min. project and you have a unique holiday piece for under $15.

Linking up with Between Naps on the Porch

and Centsational Girl.

Pottery Barn-Inspired Holiday Centerpiece

I found this great holiday table on Pottery Barn's website and thought I could replicate their centerpiece.

Here is my DIY version.

I bought 2 potted silk poinsettia plants at JoAnn Fabrics 2 for $10, a mini wreath on sale for $3.99 and some burlap fabric.

I took the gold wrapper off the poinsettia plant and replaced it with some burlap. And I hot glued the mini wreath to the top of the styrofoam base as an evergreen filler.

An easy, fast and inexpensive holiday centerpiece that can be used year after year.

Linking up with Between Naps on the Porch

and Centsational Girl.

Swimming in Swatches

We are now 3 weeks away from closing on our first house and the decorating ideas are flowing! My mom and I have been to several fabric stores and I think we've nailed down the main colors for the living room, dining room, kitchen and nursery.

Here is a look at our living room:

This is the view from the dining room at the front of the house.

And this is the view from the front door looking in.

These are the main colors that we will be working with. We will be refinishing the floors throughout the house and have decided to use a darker stain. The Pottery Barn fabric swatch will be the color of our couch, Walnut. The floral fabric will be used to reupholster 2 vintage barrel chairs. This fabric has a great medley of chocolate brown, steel blue, cream and a burnt orange. The orange isn't really demonstrated in our swatch so the orange fabric shown below is the same color in the floral fabric (which would make great pillows for the couch!).

The living room, dining room and kitchen all flow together so I think it's best to use the same wall color (or a shade lighter/darker) for all 3 rooms and use coordinating colors throughout. I'm considering using the same fabric that will be on the living room chairs for the dining room curtains. And then my dining room chairs will be recovered in a coordinating blue fabric. That fabric is yet to be determined.

And finally, the kitchen. The little eat-in nook will eventually have banquette seating being built by my dad :) The benches will even have hinged tops to utilize more storage space.

The fabric on the bottom will be used for the cushions on the banquette benches and the top fabric with be used for curtains.

And as of Thanksgiving, we found out that we will be having a baby boy! The picture below is the room that will become the nursery.

This is the fabric that my mom and I found for the baby's room. I am totally in love with the chocolate houndstooth fabric and that will be used to slipcover an armchair and also for the crib bedskirt. The coordinating fabric will be used for the roman shades my mom will be making and maybe a pillow for the chair.

The majority of the house is already planned and ready to go! Now we're ready for the hands-on portion to begin!

Sewing- Baby Burp Cloths

My co-worker just left for maternity leave but before her last day we threw her a baby shower. I decided to try a sewing project I saw on Prudent Baby- terry cloth burp cloths.

I found some fabric in coordinating colors and then bought a cheap towel at Target. I cut my fabric pieces to 8" x 18". After ironing fabric, pin wrong sides together.

Sew around the edges and leave a gap to turn fabric right side out. Then sew around edges, closing up the gap.

And now you're done! Check out the colorful fabric and the terry cloth underneath.

I rolled them up and tied a ribbon around them.

So cute and so easy!

Linking up with Metamorphosis Monday on Between Naps on the Porch.

House Wishlist #1

I'm going to start my wishlist one room at a time and this one is for the living room.

Eventually we would like to move our current couch into the basement and find something new (that will hold up to cat claws :/ ) for the living room.

I found this sleeper sofa in the Pottery Barn catalog. I think it's the perfect size and shape. Adding the sleeper sofa will give us even more sleeping space for all the guests we anticipate for the arrival of our baby. :) I like this color pictured or maybe a shade or two darker.

There really is no designated entryway into our new house so I thought I could create one with this bench and shelf from Pottery Barn. There is a small coat closet directly across from the front door but it has been converted into the housing station for the surround sound system. Having this bench and shelf will give us a spot to hang a few coats or purses.

I wonder if Santa can fit these items down the chimney :)