a home decor blog, making it pretty one space at a time
Have you ever had a project that isn’t done around your house forever and ever and you can’t force yourself to tackle it? We all have, right?
There’s one project that’s been nagging me for years- my dining chairs. I bought them 7 years ago from Pottery Barn. They came with a muslin fabric that was meant to be recovered. I liked the light color, but knew that down the line it’d need to be replaced.
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Hi Guys! I hope you all had a great 4th of July! Our family went on a little vacation and for 2 days I didn’t work at all (besides chasing a toddler around 😉 ) and it was just what I needed! Some time by the beach, good food, and quality time left me feeling so refreshed.
I am working hard on my dining room update. Last week, I shared with you the super boring before and the plans to jazz it up (I sound like I’m 90 years old writing jazz- haha). I am happy to report that the room is already looking much more exciting! Why? Removable wallpaper.
In mid May we finished our kitchen renovation. And I’m still kind of tired from it- haha! It was a ton, ton of work, but I am thrilled with how it turned out (here’s the full kitchen reveal post)! I’ve been getting a lot of questions about it on social media and from friends, so I thought I’d give a kitchen update of what I’m loving and what I’m not loving.
hardware / faucet / soap / candle / brass vase / sink / tile / quartz / cabinets
The sinkHands down, my favorite part of the kitchen is the sink. It is huge and beautiful! I love that it is so deep that if you have a bowl at the bottom, it’s not really visible so the whole kitchen feels cleaner longer. The part I love most about it is that it isn’t stainless steel! It’s granite and always looks clean. My old stainless sink consistently had water marks on it and it drove me crazy! I was talking to a friend about this and she says lots of people get water softeners just so they have less stains on their sink! So for me, this was definitely worth the upgrade! [Read more…]
I’m a flower lover. I think they are the perfect luxury- they aren’t too expensive, and when you have them, your home feels prettier, more inviting, and looked after and loved. Pretty much, I always have fresh flowers in my house.
There’s all sorts of ways to buy your flowers- grocery store, from a flower shop, or you can buy a flower subscription service from a company like Enjoy Flowers. But is there a quality difference? I decided to buy a bouquet of similar flowers from both the grocery store and through the mail (I used Enjoy Flowers) and did what I call- the Grocery Store Flower Experiment! [Read more…]
Good morning friends! One of my goals with writing this blog is to encourage everyone that is it possible to have the home of your dreams! Today I am going to show you how to style four areas in your house. Arranging your accessories in a pleasing way is a really easy and affordable way to make your home look pretty in minutes! I will share with you the easy to follow formulas with videos that I’ve learned as a professional Interior Designer. I am so excited about this post and teamed up with Extra Space Storage to bring it to you. Here we go!
How to style your coffee table…
Your goal with your coffee table is to have a decorated and practical space.
-Start with a stack of books. These should add a nice pop of color and be a reflection of your personality.
-Remember to add some height with a hurricane, candle stick, or greenary.
-A tray is the perfect coffee table accessory because it can corral decorations and remote controls.
-Adding in a quirky item (like a brass ram!) keeps your table from being too serious.
-A magnifying glass is perfect on your stack of books. A match box and a candle are another great set of functional additions for your coffee table.
ram (similar), tray, magnifying glass, book- The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Wes Anderson Collection, In the Pink [Read more…]
Happy weekend! I’ve had a few non home decor related posts lately, so I am excited to report that I’m back with a makeover plan!
Last month we finished our kitchen and it’s no secret that I am in love with how it turned out! Right next to our kitchen is our little dining room. Since they are so close together, the dining room benefited from the kitchen updates with things like crown molding, white paint on the walls, and a bead board ceiling. Last fall, the floors were changed from tile to wood. So it’s safe to say that this room is a perfect blank slate! Here is how it is looking right this minute:
this it the weirdest graphic I’ve even made. I didn’t want to search for “meth icons” so I just made it pretty- lol!
Last week, I shared the cute historic home that we’re under contract for. The house is perfect for our family- under budget, the right amount of bedrooms and bathrooms, lots of character, in a good neighborhood, big backyard. and tons of potential. But its old (built in 1905) so we paid a ton of money to get it inspected and tested for everything in the hopes that we’d know what we were getting ourselves into.
The test results started rolling in- everything looked great! The sewer, lead, radon- they all came back looking good. Sure, there were cosmetic issues, but the house was safe! So I posted about the home and figured I’d just have to wait 2 weeks and we could move in. And then a big test result came in- the house tested positive for meth. Yikes, right?! I definitely freaked out when I got that email. [Read more…]
Hello, my name is Ashley and I’m addicted to Instagram- haha! Here’s a little overview with my relationship with Instagram. I started my account in September of 2015 with 0 followers and worked really, really hard to get my following up. In May of 2016 I’d grown my account to 3000 followers and now I have over 83k followers!
You can find people who love the things you love! I’ve found such good friends through the app. You can share glimpses into your life with people around the globe. Its fun to experiment with different looks and mediums! You can change out your signature colors! It’s fun and easy to try out new things.
Hi friends! If you are new around here, once in awhile I like to talk about finances. A few years ago my family was in over $40k in debt! Paying off our debt was life changing and I am passionate about helping others to do the same so once in awhile I like to share some money tips. We worked really hard and skimped to pay every penny of that off. If you’re interested, here’s the post where I talked about how we did it (one of my most popular posts to date!).
Once our debt was all paid off, it was time to save for our emergency fund. We are following Dave Ramsey’s baby steps and here’s what he suggests:
So steps one and two were done, but we were tired. We were super strict with our paying off debt years and sent every extra penny towards towards debt that we needed a break. We took a year off and guys, it was niiiice having some extra money! Honestly, that probably wasn’t the smartest move, but it’s what we did and it felt right during that time in our lives. Then something changed. Instead of it being about the money and not wanting to just sit on it, we got a big why and we saw our emergency fund as launching pad for a bigger life we want to live. So here’s some changes we took that put our savings into overdrive that would work for anyone:
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I love talking about and embracing home trends! A little bit of the trend here and there can give you a fresh feeling in your home without needing to break the bank. Today I’ll let you in on some tips for using the home trend- marble. Here’s the thing about marble- it’s usually an expensive countertop material. But now that it’s a popular look, you can find it in affordable applications on everything from notebook covers to lamps.
So now that you clearly know my love of marble, I wanted to show you a few accessories that I have and love! First up is my custom iPhone case. I love pink something fierce and combine that with marble, well I couldn’t think of a better look. [Read more…]
