Wednesday, February 27, 2013

[Project Notebook] New or Vintage Couch?

 
Last week, on my Facebook page, I started a discussion on purchasing a couch. Specifically, would you buy new or would you buy vintage and have it professionally reupholstered? (You can check out my fb page, here.)
 
Martino and I have totally different thought processes regarding this whole couch issue.  Can you guess what side of the discussion I'm on? If you said vintage, you are totally right!
 
Nevertheless, I do feel it is a good idea to weigh all my options since this is such a big purchase.
 
In terms of new couches, I have it narrowed down to the following five options, with option number four being the top pick.
 
 
 
 
 

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

How to Wear Jeans & Top Picks

 Jeans are my go to outfit staple. I love that they can be dressed up or down and transformed in so many different ways. I recently found this on Pinterest and thought it was a great reference.
 

Monday, February 25, 2013

Early Spring Mantel

My March mantel has a few touches of spring. Seriously, as much spring as I can muster in New England after yet another blustery storm.  I'm sort of getting a little bit jealous of all of you in other parts of the country where spring is far more evident.
 



Sunday, February 24, 2013

Easy & Inexpensive Planked Wall

This is probably my favorite project to date and I am so completely thrilled to be able to share it with you all!  A couple of weeks ago in my [Project Notebook] series I mentioned that I was interested in doing a planked accent wall in our home. (You can see the original post here.)
 

Thursday, February 21, 2013

The Evolution of our Hutch...

Sigh.  Anyone remember my never-ending hutch saga? While I loved the storage, I despised styling it and it's matchy-matchy vibe with the dining room table. We tried to sell it last summer, to no avail. It started out as stained wood, I painted it white and distressed it and then, realizing that white didn't mesh well with our style, repainted it black on a whim.  We also removed the upper glass doors and changed out the knobs for a more vintage feel. And, I have to say, my husband and I felt quite satisfied with it.  So why then, does it look completely different yet again?  Let me explain...


Wednesday, February 20, 2013

[Project Notebook] Furniture

I am always on the hunt for new vintage pieces of furniture.  First of all, I just love the quality and uniqueness of an older piece of furniture. Secondly, the cost is typically more reasonable than new (plus you know I love a good project).  I've collected some of my favorite inspiration pieces to share with you all today. Note that not all are vintage, but I love the look, nonetheless.
 
 

1 Source  2 Source  3 Source  4 Source  5 Source
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
P.S. To see more of the furniture that I love check out my Fantastic Furniture board on Pinterest.
 
 
 

Monday, February 18, 2013

Glimpses of Our Home & Paint Colors

 Hi everyone! I feel like a lot of the projects that I have done these first couple of months of 2013 have not had very high impact; at least blog wise.  I mean, is it really all the interesting for me to post a picture of my newly painted almost white wall? Not so much.
 
But, one of the major goals that I have almost accomplished is to paint the majority of the rooms in our home.  I started back last fall with the master bedroom and we have been gradually updating with lighter colors in the gray family.  Do you find picking paint colors difficult? I sure do! But, my husband and I both are committed to these new choices and I am so glad. For once everything looks so cohesive and fresh.
 
So, with that said, I thought I would at least share swatches of the colors we chose and how they look in our various spaces. Some pictures you have seen, but several are new to the blog.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Displaying Collections {Guest Home Tour}

  I love the start of a brand new week, especially when I feel like we got things accomplished the week before.  One thing I've been wanting to do for a while was to photograph some more of my Mom's house to share with you all.  I had previously posted about her fall décor here and got such a fantastic response (which she was thrilled about) that I just had to show you more.
 
There is totally no question, whatsoever, where I get my love of decorating and collecting from. Wait to you see the awesome collections she has!
 
My Mom's style does differ from mine (although we trade items frequently and incorporate them quite easily into our respective homes). 
 
Enjoy!
  
I think that my Mom has a pretty amazing collection of Yellowware and Watt bowls, don't you?  The bowls, which were collected from estate and tag sales and consignment shops, are all neatly lined up for display in her pantry.
 
 

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Book Page Wreath & Dining Room Ideas






 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I was hinting around at wanting to add in a planked accent wall instead of the book page wall in our dining room here.  While I did love the book page wall, I knew it wouldn't be permanent and since we had commited to changing the paint colors in our home to lighter and brighter this year, the pages needed to come down.
 
As a nod to our old accent wall (seen here) I decided to hang up this book page wreath I had made several months ago, but had never shared with all of you because of the busy holiday season and a focus on other projects.




Wednesday, February 13, 2013

[Project Notebook] Master Bedrooms

I shared some tweaking I had made to our master bedroom earlier this week. (You can see the full post here.) But, before I began those changes I searched for inspiration to guide me and inspire me.  These were the top 5 favorite bedrooms that I found.
 
 
 
 

1 Source  2 Source  3 Source  4 Source  5 Source

 
P.S. If you'd like to see more inspiring bedrooms, checkout my Pinterest board here.
 
 



Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Casual, Modern Outfits

This is how you'll find me dressed most days...except for when I'm painting... then all bets are off and it's pretty much pajamas or yoga pants.
 


 Source  2 Source  3 Source  4 Source  5 Source

 


Monday, February 11, 2013

Non-Traditonal Backsplashes

I am a chronic project flip flopper. I will start a project, make progress and then, before I finish, I move on to something else.  Perhaps a bit of ADD involved, but I'm mostly going to go with the fact that I really do need to let a project or room evolve. You know all those great boards that decorators put together to plan out a room design? Well, I. Totally. Cannot. Do. That. I've tried, but I end up hating the results in the end.  The collected look is more than just a style that I like, it actually how my brain works to put a project together.
 
 
So recently, I decided to add a bit of a defined backsplash to our kitchen.  I've been making changes to the room slowly, over the last year, but now I'm to the real nitty gritty part of the makeover; backsplash and cabinet painting.


 

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Side Table Revamp & Master Bedding

We got so much snow this weekend. How about you?  All I can say is thank goodness for kind neighbors with snow blowers or I'm not sure we ever would have dug ourselves out!
 
While my boys were out snow fort building and Pokémon training I revamped some of the accessories and small pieces of furniture in our master bedroom.

 
 

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Valentine Entry & Tutorial


 I decided to add a little Valentine love to my entryway this week to brighten my spirits. 
 
The last few days have been pretty darn mediocre. 1) because Figgy has been sick and had to be brought to the vet and  2) dealing with frustrating issues with getting the services that my boys need.  The latter is not something that is comfortable or fun to talk about, but the reality is that my boys have special needs.  When your children have autism there are a lot of other issues, like anxiety and OCD, that sometimes go along with it. Things that require medication to function. All their doctors and therapists agree, but there are just not enough clinicians out there to prescribe. I cannot even begin to describe my frustration over this!
  
Anyway, on to happier things, like delicate, book page angel wings.
 
 

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

[Project Notebook] Planked Walls

I seriously love the look of an accent wall and, as our style and pieces in our home have evolved, I'm itching to add something different to our dining room. 
 
 If you haven't already heard, we've (O.K. really just me, but my husband picked out the color) have been repainting most of our house in a lighter and brighter color.) We went with Benjamin Moore's Cloud Cover and love it. 
 
So, even though I just recently painted our dining room, in the coming weeks months it will be painted again. Of course that will cause a problem because I can't exactly paint with the book page accent wall still up. I totally saw this coming, so that is why I simply hung up the pages with double stick tape. Easy on. Easy off.
 
My dream would be to replace the book pages with some sort of planking.  Aren't the examples below gorgeous! And guess what...the second photo is just a painting technique. Genius!
 



1 Source  2 Source  3 Source  4 Source  5 Source



Tuesday, February 5, 2013

5 Simple Updos for Everyday Hair

I love having the option of wearing my long hair up. Actually, it's my favorite way to wear it so that it stays off my face. (This is specially important in the summer months when my curly hair and I have issues with humidity.) And, I think the options below are great examples of a purposeful updo. (Rather than just piling all your hair on top of your head, securing with an elastic and calling it a day, which, by the way, I am all too guilty of.)
 


1 Source  2 Source  3 Source  4 Source  5 Source



Monday, February 4, 2013

Drop Cloth Wreath

A lot of the time when I make a wreath it takes me a long time.  Like sometimes so long that I lose interest and never finish. 
  
A few months ago I made a really awesome books page wreath (I'll share soon; with Christmas posts taking precedence and other projects around the house in January it never made to the blog, but since it is now hung in our bedroom and I think we have a minor chair crisis all situated, be on the lookout!)  Anyway, the reason I mentioned that wreath was that the directions I found said that it would only take about an hour to complete.  I kid you not I spent at least 10 hours on it. Sigh.
 
 

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Adding Pattern & Texture in the Living Room

     
Did you all have a good weekend? We spent our time running errands to catch up on all the things that didn't get done last week when I wasn't feeling well. 
  
It was such a huge relief to have our big Trader Joe's run done and put away before our date night on Saturday (it was insane in there with all the Super Bowl party shoppers)! My youngest, Gennaro, is allergic to many foods and that store is just a lifesaver for him.  His staples at TJ's are rice milk and sunflower seed butter. Do any of you or your little ones suffer from food allergies?  It can be a pain, especially when eating out.
 
Anyway, I was recently lured in by some after Christmas sales and made a couple of purchases for the living room.