Dining Room

Our dining room is right off of the keeping room and where our kitchen table is. It is also a direct shot to the screen porch. I love the placement of it because I feel like when we have parties or have a lot of people over guest will actually go into the dining room without feeling like they are isolated from everyone else.  We used what was the original living room in the old house and used it for our dining room. It is a sunken room, which we kept because we felt it added a little character and kept the dining room feeling like a separate room since it is right beside the center of the house and where we spend most of our time.  

I found some pictures of similar paneling on Pinterest and just printed to show to our builder and trim carpenter and I love the way it turned out.  Robby painted the walls so that they could be different from our main color.  It's Sherwin Williams, Morris Room Gray.  The light was a Ballard Designs outlet find for an incredible price.  So incredible that Robby bought two!  We have one hanging in the dining room and another in the office.

I think the thing I really love about our new dining room is all of the space and the fact that you can really see our table.  We bought our dining room table right after we got married and it is a really large table. It's extra long and all of our dining rooms have been a little on the smaller side. This room is much larger than our other dining rooms...so much so that several friends have asked if we got a new table because you just didn't notice it before.

Handley's Pink and Turquoise Bedroom

Like I mentioned before, I let the girls have free choice when deciding what colors their new rooms would be.  Handley is my pink girl.  She loves all things pink so she decided on pink and turquoise.  Her walls are Tidewater by Sherwin Williams and I love the way the bright pink pops against the blue walls.

I found her bedding on clearance at Target and loved it right away not only because it was cute and girly, but also because it had green in it and that meant I could reuse a lot of things from her old pink and green room.  I added monograms to the pillow shams and made an throw pillow out of the curtain fabric.

And, speaking of fabric, aren't these just amazing. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the fabric I found for her room. I feel like it is girly, a little sophisticated, and will match just about anything she decides to do for her room down the road which means I won't be remaking drapes for her anytime soon.  Of course when I found it I didn't know it was pretty much out of stock everywhere and although I was able to find small amounts online here and there, I needed a bunch for her room.  Thankfully I was about to get the full amount I needed and totally love how they turned out.

This cross-stitch of her name was a gift from my mom to Handley before she was born for her nursery and it still looks great in her room today.

I was able to reuse her name that has been hanging in her room since she was born.

My mom had this desk in her house that belonged to my great Aunt. She wasn't going to be using it anymore and asked if I wanted to have it.  I jumped at the chance because then it meant Handley would have a desk for her room, just like Harper.  My mom had painted it green to match with her house and it works great in Handley's room. I found the pretty pink glass knobs at Hobby Lobby and switched those out, but besides that it was already set.  The rest of her furniture was hers from her nursery.

This little side table has been all over the place. I think my parents bought it for me at a garage sale to use in my first apartment in college.  My mom refinished it and cleaned it up a bit.  For 10 years it served as the nightstand in our guest bedroom and now it is here in Handley's room. I'm planning to paint it a deep turquoise color to match her room and hoping it will be my first attempt at using the famous chalk paint for furniture.  I'll definitely share my before and after pictures when I get around to this project.

Harper's Lavender Bedroom

When Robby was drawing up the plans for our house he was sure to make each of the kids bedrooms and bathrooms exactly the same size so that down the road there would be no arguing about who had the bigger room.  They each also have a fairly large closet, although each of the rooms and closets are layed out differently.  I knew which room I wanted to be Hudson's, but with the girls I pretty much let them choose the room they wanted and I also let them choose the colors for their rooms.  Harper loves purple so that's what she wanted. I wanted to do a purple room for her that wasn't too purple if that makes sense.  I went back and forth for months about what color to paint her walls and seriously up until the day before I was still undecided, but I'm happy that my BFF, Jen, gave me the nudge to paint it purple instead of just having purple accents and bedding.  Since all of the interior doors are painted a dark gray, the paint colors also had to coordinate well with those.  I absolutely LOVE her paint color though and she does, too!  It's called Silver Peony by Sherwin Williams and it is the most pale, calming, beautiful shade of lavender.

Her bedding was a clearance find from Belk's that my mom came across last winter.

And these letters hang above her bed.

I'm all about reusing what I can and using antique pieces that mean something to me, so that is exactly what I did in her room.  I was trying to sell the green glider that was originally in Handley's nursery and later in Hudson's, but since it hasn't sold yet I decided to move it into Harper's room and it really looks and fits great in here so now I'm happy to just keep it.  All of her white bedroom furniture was my mom's as a little girl and then it was the furniture I used as a little girl. It was cream with gold accents and my mom helped me paint it right before Robby and I bought our first house so I could use it in one of the guest bedrooms.  Now it's here in Harper's room! 

The desk had always just been in our basement before because there wasn't enough room for it in her last room, but she loves having a desk in her room and is excited about having a place to work on her homework this fall. The chair is an antique that my mom had and gave to me. I have recovered the seat cushion a few times to fit different spaces, but of course I used purple for Harper's room.  (And, obviously I still need pictures for those pretty purple frames!)

Harper's drapes were the first ones I worked on of the kids and I am pleasantly surprised by how they turned out. It was my first time making pleated panels and it was really a lot simpler than I thought it would be.

This little crystal vase belonged to my grandmother and I remember her giving it to me before Harper was born so I've always had it in her room.  Harper loved going to pick out new purple flowers for it a few weeks ago.

And she is proudly displaying the painting she made at Handley's painting party last year.

Nautical Bedroom

Hudson's bedroom is probably the most "done" right now.  There is nothing for his room I need to paint, make or sew. It's all done!  And, thankfully, I was able to use a lot of things from his nautical themed nursery in this big boy room, too.

The pillow shams were some hand-me-downs I bought from a family friend and I found the solid navy quilt at Target.  I loved the red gingham fabric I came across to complement all the bedding so I made a throw pillow and slapped a monogram on it to finish out his bed!

These cute nautical flags were a gift for Hudson right after he was born from our old next door neighbors and I just love them in his room!

This sweet blanket was also a gift when he was born from another of our old neighbors.

I debated about making his curtains out of the red gingham and ultimately decided to save money by using solid PBK navy panels and doing a color block of the red gingham at the bottom and I think it was definitely the right choice.

 

His boat book shelf used to be in Gigi and Papa's lake house until they sold it.  Then it migrated to our lake house and finally to Hudson's room.  I love it in the corner to hold all sorts of little do-dads.  

The dresser he has in his room was the changing table my parents used for my brothers and I growing up. I painted it and used it as a changing table for both Harper and Hudson and now it serves as his dresser with fun nautical accents like the sailboat lamp and the buoys hanging above it.

This adorable rug was also part of the hand-me-downs I purchased and it fits perfectly at the end of his bed and he just loves laying on it and riding his cars around with the boats.

Speaking of his bed, up until the week before we moved I still didn't have a bed for him since he was in the crib when we moved out of our house almost a year ago. I got to searching craigslist and scored a GREAT deal on a bed for him.  It's a little scratched here and there, but for $25 we couldn't pass on it. That's right...only $25!!!  I love a good deal. :-)

Home Sweet Home

Robby got back from a week long business trip on Saturday afternoon and despite the jet lag from his oversees travel, he was a great sport and got right to work at the house. I hadn't hung anything because I wanted his help and although we aren't done with all of it, we at least made a dent!  It's funny though because our priorities are glaringly different.  While I want the drapes and pictures hung, he is more interested in adding weather stripping to the garage doors and pressure washing the patio.

He got the final TV set up on the screen porch (remember - priorities, people!) and I also convinced him to spent a lot of time in the kids rooms getting their curtains hung and things on the wall.

I've loved tinkering here and there and adding little touches like my grandmother's (or great grandmother's  - I need to confirm that) silver in this amazing caddy my friend, Carrie, gave me.  Also the girls got two beautiful bouquets after their recital a week and a half ago.  Most of the flowers are done, but some are still hanging on and look lovely right beside my kitchen sink.

I was very excited to get my chalkboard hung in the kitchen. I've noticed through Pinterest and other blogs I read that chalkboards are very "in" right now and I had been on the hunt for one. I was excited to come across this one at HomeGoods not long ago and it was exactly what I had been searching for.  I'm probably a little too excited about changing out the message on it with different holidays and occasions, but it's these little things that make our house feel like Home Sweet Home.  :-)

I'm planning to do a house tour of each room as it is competed, but the kids rooms will definitely be the first I share. It was my goal, before we moved in, to have their rooms done and thankfully I was able to do that.  Now I'll be able to focus on the rest of the house (which is far from being "done"), but I'm happy knowing the kids can start feeling settled in their own spaces.

We're in!!!

Tomorrow will be one week that we've been in our house.  It's kind of hard to believe it's already been a week and on the other hand it's hard to believe it's only been a week.

There are still little things here and there that need to be done to the house, but for the most part it is all completed.  It was certainly a rush to the finish line though and up until the day before I was nervous we wouldn't be able to move in on time.  I learned a lot during the building process, but I think the thing that stands out most is that everything takes a lot more time than you think it should.

I'm debating what to do with this blog, but I'm thinking I will probably continue posting updates about the house, projects I plan to complete, and decorating that gets done bit by bit.  I have a list a mile long of things to make, paint, and sew -  and would love to share it with anyone who cares to see! :-)

For now though, I'm off to unpack another box!