Thursday, October 31, 2013

My Modern & Fresh Home Tour!

 Hi everyone and welcome to my autumn home tour!  When Kristin and Lindsay asked me to participate I was beyond honored to be a part of this wonderful series. Have you all been following along? There has been some amazingly gorgeous home tours shared by some amazingly talented ladies!




I loved having the challenge of decorating for a modern and fresh fall season!  Lately, I've noticed I've been taking my design inspiration from color, rather than a particular object or theme.  This fall I have really been loving orange paired with brass and gold (OK, I really always love brass and gold, but the orange is a bold departure for me).
 

One of my favorite things this season was balancing gourds and pumpkins on brass candlesticks. I love how it made these simple and natural objects take center stage on my mantel.




As you can see, I love using nature in my home and added this large branch to the other side of my mantel. The vase fillers are little golden skulls that I altered by using Rub 'N Buff on some inexpensive dollar store finds.

(You can see more of my mantel, here.)
 
 
 
To warm up my living room I changed out my light and bright aqua and white pillows from the summer with this deep orange/red chevron pillow in a more substantial fall fabric.
 
 


I always decorate my coffee table with seasonal items. The cement pumpkin was a recent find this fall and I love the contrast of its industrial feel with the brass vase and gold mini pumpkin. I also added in these pumpkins on a stick that I found at the grocery store (of all places) last year. Everyone needs a few pumpkins on a stick!




Turquoise is the main accent color in our home and I have been loving how it looks paired with the warmer oranges that I've added to the space.




Can you tell I have a thing for interesting gourds and pumpkins? And bittersweet...I always have to add in a sprig of it to my autumn home.




Our main living area flows right into our dining room.




Our table is set to welcome guests with gold, skull place cards.




You can see the full post about how I created them, here.




These cattails were another grocery store find. Seriously, check out the floral department. Sometimes they have really unique items.




I added in another nod to Halloween with this sugar skull that I drew on our antique chalkboard and a garland of skeletons I draped from the top of it.




An old wooden card catalogue drawer filled with vintage candlesticks and orange candles carries my color theme into this room, too.




I made this dream catcher a couple of weeks ago with craft supplies I had lying around my home. It's super simple to create! (You can see my step by step instructions and read the full post here.)




For one final natural element, I filled this vintage crate with colorful Indian corn. The metal S is for our last name and it's orange color is just perfect!
 
 

 
Thank you all so much for stopping by and have a fantastic and fun Halloween! One last thing, though. My house tour would not be complete without a picture from Figaro, my resident DIY assistant and constant photo bomber. He did his absolute best Halloween cat impersonation for you all! Fierce, no?
 
 
 

 
Now go and check out every last one of the home tours shared this month. I promise you they are fantastic!
 
Modern + Fresh Fall Home Tour Bloggers:
 October 1 – Kristen and Lindsay
2 – Sarah from Sarah M. Dorsey Designs
3 – Gabbi from Retro Ranch Reno
4 – Brittany from Brittany Makes
5 – Jesse from Scout & Nimble
6 – Julia from Cuckoo 4 Design
7 – Carolyn from Sweet Chaos Home
8 – Jennifer from The Chronicles of Home
9 – Bethany from Dwellings by Devore
10 – Carmel from Our Fifth House
11 – Kristin from The Hunted Interior
12 – Annekke from This That & Life
13 – Michelle from Décor and the Dog
14 – Cassie from Primitive & Proper
15 – Ally from From the Right Bank
16 – Shannon from Shannon Berrey Designs
17 – Danika from Gorgeous Shiny Things
18 – Kristin from Bliss at Home
19 – Jenna from Rain on a Tin Roof
20 – Jessica from Dear Emmeline
21 – Kelly from View Along the Way
22 – Sarah from Lacquer and Linen
23 – Eileen from A Creative Day Blog
24 – Sarah from Royal Marigold
25 – Lori from Lori May Interiors
26 – Jennifer from Dimples and Tangles
27 – Caitlin from Desert Domicile
28 – Sherry from Design Indulgence
29 – Lakeitha from Lakeitha Duncan Lifestyle Blog
30 – Shavonda from A Home Full of Color and Whitney from The Curtis Casa

31 – Angela from Number Fifty-Three and Jennifer from Brave New Home
  
 

 

 
 
 




Linking to: 

startathomeAll Things Thursday Blog Hop














Monday, October 28, 2013

Golden Gourds & Canning Jars

Yesterday was the most gorgeous fall day here in Massachusetts, so my Mom and I decided to take my oldest to the pumpkin patch with us to have a look around and get some pumpkins for carving. (My youngest is now sick and had to stay home...this month has been insane with illness here!)
 
Anyway, we got our pumpkins and a whole passel of awesome gourds. My son was in awe over how cool they were with their unique colors, shapes and markings.


Thursday, October 24, 2013

Glam Skull Place Cards

I have to say that in past years, I never was one to decorate much for Halloween.
 
 
I've tried to embrace it this year, though, for a couple of reasons.
 
One being that my oldest has had such a miserable month being sick that I knew he would love the additions (his favorite holiday is Halloween and he loves sciency things like skulls).


Wednesday, October 23, 2013

[Project Notebook] Office Updates

So, the other day I sort of touched on the fact that our office is a dumping ground. Not only is it where all the unwanted furniture and accessories end up, but, the vintage furniture that I bought for the space never got the updates it needed. Like, I have this awesome hardware from D. Lawless for my desk sitting in a box in my basement just waiting to be used. Part of the problem is figuring out which pieces to leave as is and what to paint since I love that balance of painted furniture mixed with stained in a room. Another issue is getting over the mindset that this room is going to be decorated differently than it ever has. I'm going in with an attitude that this is a main part of our house and needs to be decorated as such, rather than just putting some stuff in the room and hoping it works.
 
 
 
One of the main reasons that this update can even occur is that the school desks have been moved into each boy's room. It is making for a much quieter, calmer school year to have them separated. As an only child I am still shocked when I see the brotherly relationship my boys have....the love equals the instigating for sure!
 
Anyhoo, here's my plan for things...(P.S. I've already finished idea #1!)
 
 
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6
 
 

And...here are some office spaces that I find inspiring...