Lamps We Love

For anyone that has been following along with my family room makeover I have a little update.  It's almost done!!!  I'll share all of the details soon, but wanted to share this little corner of the room.  

Brushed Brass Floor Lamp ($73)

We had been waiting on the chair and ottoman to arrive and, like everything right now, the delivery was delayed.  This big chair and a half finally arrived, but this corner looked pretty bare with only a big chair for a while.  I eventually found a little side table for drinks/books at HomeGoods, but had been searching for a lamp for a couple of months.  I had something in mind and just couldn't seem to find it...until now!  The Better Homes & Gardens line at Walmart NEVER disappoints and I don't know why I didn't think to look there from day one.  While I was on the hunt I came across all of these great lamp options that I just loved and thought I'd share if anyone is looking to spruce up an area in your home! 

1. Arc Floor Lamp ($80)

2. Brown Weathered Wood ($32)

3. Bronze Floor Lamp  ($65)

4. X Frame Wood Lamp ($18)

5. Geo Textured Glass Lamp ($36)

6. Gray Glazed Table Lamp ($36)

7. Diamond Weave Table Lamp ($38)

8. Tripod Floor Lamp ($80)

9. White Washed Table Lamp ($24)

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How To Turn Ikea Curtain Panels Into Custom Looking Drapes

I've been slowly making my way through a long list of house projects that I want to accomplish and new curtains for our living room has finally been checked off the list!  When we decided to move our living room furniture into the new media room (more on that to come next week), I knew I wanted to brighten up this room a bit.  

previous living room curtains/furniture 

I loved the old curtains I had made, but they were dark and heavy, and this room doesn't get much light because of all the trees around our house so I wanted something much lighter.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do and could have purchased the fabric to make the panels, but I'd seen a few ideas floating around Pinterest of an Ikea hack and decided to order them and give it a try.  I'm SO happy I decided to go this route because I ended up with custom looking drapes for a fraction of what I would it would have cost if I made them myself and even less than if I had paid someone else to make them for me.  

When I shared on Instagram last week, I asked if anyone would be interested in a tutorial and got a lot of YES responses.  I didn't take the best pictures during the process because I was so excited to be getting them done, but I'll share as much as I can because if you can sew a straight line, you can make these, too! There are a ton of YouTube tutorials that show step-by-step exactly how to customize these panels. If you need more guidance than what I share here, you can always search for a video. 

The Ikea Ritva curtains come as a two pack in both 98 and 118 inch lengths which is great if you have high ceilings and what's even better is the price!  I got the 118 inch length pack of two for only $39!  They are called "white" on the website so I wasn't sure if they would work for me, but a lot of the reviews said they were more of a cream/off-white which is exactly what I needed.  

I debated adding lining to these because all custom drapes are lined and these do not come lined, but I opted not to line them because I really wanted the light to be able to filter through and help brighten up this room. To me what really makes them look custom is adding the velvet trim tape. They would look great alone, but I think adding the trim to them really helps make them look special!  

Because they are 118 inches long the first thing I needed to do was hem them.  The first step is to determine how long your panels need to be and then decide what size hem you would like. I went with a big 6 inch hem, but you could also do a 4 inch hem and have it look nice.  With a 6 inch hem you need 12 inches total extra length because you fold the bottom up once, then again and sew. The easiest way to hem is to fold over the bottom and iron it into place (measuring the length of the hem as you go) and then fold it again while pressing the hem and pinning into place. Lastly, just stitch a straight line across the top where you have pinned. 

bottom of the panel - 6 inch hem

The next step is to pin and sew on your trim.  I went with a 3 1/2 inch velvet trim tape, but there are SO many possibilities.  I purchased my trim at a local fabric store, but I actually found this velvet trim online, too!  I measured the length of my hemmed panels, added a little extra, and multiplied by 4 because I was going to be adding the trim on one side of all four panels.  I needed 13 yards total and it was $14.95 a yard, so not cheap, but I figure it's all about balance since the actual panels were very inexpensive! I layed out my curtains on a large flat area and decided that I wanted the trim to be placed 1 inch in from the side.  I pinned the trim in place the length of the panel (and folded it over the top and under the bottom of the panel).  Next sewing that straight line comes into place again.  Simply stitch along both sides of the trim, removing the pins as you go until the entire thing is secured.  

velvet trim pinned into place and ready to be sewn 

The last step is to add pleating hooks.  This is kind of a cheat way to achieve a pinch pleat look.  Generally, you can sew in pleating tape across the top of your panels. It has these tiny little pockets that you can slip THESE hooks into to achieve the pleated look. The wonderful thing about the Ikea curtains is that they already have pleating tape sewn in which mean one less step. They actually have three ways to hang them, but the pleating tape/hooks make them look the most structured and custom. 

 

back/top of panel with pleating hooks in place 

After slipping all of the pleating hooks into the pleating tape you are done and it is time to hang your curtains!  You'll need some curtain rings to put on your curtain rod. They make rings specifically for pleating hooks, but you don't need to spend the extra money on those because normal rings work just fine!  You just place each hook through a ring and they are secure. 

pleating hooks hanging on regular curtain rings 

This is the finished view from the front. This project is so simple and so worth it for the final look.  

If you don't know how to sew and want to do something similar, you can google "how to use iron trim tape" and see some tutorials for using THIS stuff.  It allows you to hem and add trim tape without sewing.  I'm not sure how well it holds long term, but it would definitely be worth checking out. 

Any questions? Don't hesitate to ask!

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Home Sweet Home Tour: Family Room

A part of us thought this quarantine would mean that we would have a lot more free time to blog consistently, but oh how we were mistaken.  First of all, I feel like I'm third in line to get my laptop after the kids are done with all of their online school work.   Secondly, I've just had a hard time getting motivated.  BUT, today I have a new post in the Home Sweet Home Tour series!  

Up first though, if you missed any of the other posts in this series they are all linked below! 

The Building Process 

Building Tips 

Entry and Office 

Mudroom and Command Center 

Kitchen and Keeping Room 

Dining Room 

Today I'm sharing our Family Room! We spend a lot of time in this room. It's where we watch TV each night, where we put our Christmas tree and open gifts Christmas morning. 

 It's the room where I sit late at night when everyone has gone to bed and I just need a few moments of quiet to myself. 

It's a very lived in room. My daughter stretches on the floor in here and practices tumbling drills on the sectional. My son uses the sectional, pillows and chairs as a ninja course and we have even been known to do some baseball drills in here on a rainy day! Dodge ball and nerf gun wars occur, our dog used to run laps around this room when he was a puppy and just about everything else you can imagine. 

We knew we wanted a giant, comfortable sectional for this room. It might not be the prettiest or most on-trend piece of furniture, but it is comfortable and our entire family can snuggle up on it and watch a movie.  I just try to dress it up with the pretty pillows! Funny story, that square coffee table is one that we bought in college at a garage sale and refinished.  Not even lying!  We originally put it in this space until we could find something else, but it fits in the square part of the sectional so well that we ended up just leaving it.

I needed something to fill the space on the wall above the sectional and a friend suggested doing maps. I loved the idea and ended up ordering them from the USGS website.  They were all between $10-$20 and I was able to pick places that are meaningful to our family.  The frames are from Hobby Lobby so overall this was a very easy and affordable project!

This little sitting area has chairs from Pier 1 and I was so exited when I found this lamp and shade with the the coordinating nail head trim!  I always love using some sort of greenery and books to help spaces feel welcoming. 

I wanted to share all of the links and sources that I could from this room! If you have other questions, just let me know. :-)
Sectional - Rooms To Go 
Seersucker Arm Chairs
Buffalo Check Pillows - Custom 
Monogram Pillows - Custom 
Macrame Pillow Covers 
Down Alternative Pillow Inserts 
Lamp Base 
Lamp Shade 
Curtains - Custom 
Bamboo Shades
Leopard Throw Blanket
Maps
Map Frames - Hobby Lobby 
Round Side Table 
Wall Paint Color - SW Silver Strand 
Trim Paint Color - SW Canvas Tan 

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Guest Bath Refresh

A few weeks ago I got the itch to update some spaces in our home.  Nothing crazy, but just a little updating here and there. I hadn't really made any chances except to the kids' rooms since we moved in almost 6 years ago!

One of the spaces I wanted to change up was our guest bathroom.  It's a small ensuite bath and gets used when we have family or friends visiting, so not on a regular basis. When we first moved in I put up an old shower curtain that we had from our previous house. It was much darker with tans, golds and browns. I also had dark bath mats in here. Because I rarely go in there it is one of those things that was kind of out of sight, out of mind.  However, I finally decided to give it a little refresh and love how it turned out!

I found the blue and white buffalo check shower curtain for under $20 HERE and knew it was just the look I was going for. Something lighter and brighter to freshen up this space. 

The cotton wreath came from Oriental Trading, but I found a similar one on Amazon HERE.  I grabbed a matching blue satin ribbon from the craft store and tied a bow to pull out the blue from the shower curtain.

I also switched out the darker bath mats for cream ones that were only $8 each HERE. It's just amazing how something small like that can really change the look of the room.

I know I always seem to forget some necessity when we are traveling or visiting friends so I like to keep some extras on hand for our guests.  Toothbrushes, shampoo/conditioner, lotions, soap, Ibuprofen, etc.  Most of this stuff is usually extras we bring home from hotels and I just put them in a basket under the skin or in this little galvanized bin with washcloths so our guest can feel like they have everything they might need.

My mom is coming to visit in just a few weeks so I'm happy to have finally freshened up this space just in time for her to use it!

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Home Sweet Home Tour: Dining Room

It's been a hot minute since I've shared a post in the Home Sweet Home Tour series.  With the holidays and everything being decorated for Christmas I took a little break from it, but now the house is back in order and I'm back to sharing!

Today I'm sharing our dinning room, but first here is a little look back and the other posts in this series: 

The Building Process

Building Tips

Entry and Office 

Mudroom and Command Center

Kitchen and Keeping Room 

Just after buying our first house we needed to have the exterior painted.  We were in our early 20's, trying to save money every way we could, and the Mr. got a wild hair that instead of paying professional painters, he would just do it himself. I wasn't really on board and didn't think it was the greatest idea because it was a two story house.  However, he convinced me by saying that with the money we saved we could buy dining room furniture.  That's all it took to sell me on the idea! We had been living with an empty dining room and I was eager to buy furniture. He bought all the equipment (including a two story ladder), painted the house every weekend for about a month, and then we were off to buy furniture! 

We found our table at a store in Atlanta called Manorisms that I believe has closed down now.  They used to carry one-of-a-kind pieces and the second we saw the table we fell in love with it!  

It didn't have chairs to match, but we found a bench at the same store that worked for one side and then ended up getting Parsons chairs from Ballard Designs for the other sides. 

The table is oversized and every time we moved and looked for a new house the dining room was often a make or break for us.  I wasn't willing to give up the table and a lot of homes we looked at didn't have dining rooms that were big enough to fit the table.  

When we bought the house we live in now, the original house had a sunken living room that was just one step down from the rest of the house.  As we were reworking the layout and changing things up, this space was going to become our new dining room.  We talked about raising the floor to make it all level, but I kind of liked that it was different. And, it fit our dining room table perfectly! 

It's hard to tell from the picture above, but we ultimately decided to keep the step down and added an archway to set this room apart.

I knew I wanted judges paneling on the walls and I like having the little ledge on the top of the paneling. I'm able to rest things there instead of having to put more holes in the wall. I bought those HOME letters from Hobby Lobby to go somewhere else in the house, but they ended up working better in here.  

I found these giant mason jars in the basement left from the original owners and I can't even image how old they are.  The house was built in the 60's and when I found them they were covered in what looked like years and years of dust and dirt.  It was such a treasure though because I cleaned them up, filled them with some greenery and found the little caddy at Home Goods to hold them all.  

That pretty much sums up the dining room.  The Mr. jokes that this room never gets used, but we actually used it a ton over the holidays so it just sort of depends on what we have going on.  I love having this space though and wouldn't change it! 

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Exterior Home Mini-Makeover (Update)

A few months ago I shared that we were planning to paint our house.  You can see the inspiration post HERE.  It was just a tan to start with and I never really loved it so when it was time to paint I was ready for a change. The problem was I couldn't decide between white or a darker color.

We looked at a bunch paint samples, drove around a ton of neighborhoods, and scanned Pinterest for ideas. We even had our color wheel out in a new neighborhood that was being built and trying to hold it up to compare it to paint colors on the houses.

After going back and forth for a few weeks we finally decided to go dark and just kind of picked one we both liked.

I remember still being nervous after we picked out the color and just hoping it would look good once it got on the house. When I came home after they started painting the first day I LOVED it and couldn't wait to see it completed.

I just love how it makes the trim pop and I really feel like you notice the stone more with the new color.

I'm so happy to see it every time I pull into the driveway! 

Paint color details for anyone that wants to know. 

Siding: SW Thunder Gray 

Trim: SW Canvas Tan 

Metal Roof: SW Caviar 

 

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Home Sweet Home Tour {Kitchen and Keeping Room}

It's time for another Home Sweet Home Tour post. 

First though, a look back and the other posts in this series: 

The Building Process

Building Tips

Entry and Office 

Mudroom and Command Center

Today is all about the heart of the home...the Kitchen and Keeping Room.  This is probably where we spend the majority of our time...just like any family!

When we were deciding on our kitchen I really was considering doing gray cabinets because that was really popular at the time we were building, but ultimately decided against it because I was worried it was too trendy. Instead, we just did a cream color because I felt like it would be more timeless. I knew I wanted the island to be just a little different than the other cabinets so we picked a khaki color that matched the beveled subway tile back splash. 

I had really wanted to fit more stools at the island, but because we were working with an existing footprint we just couldn't make the layout work.  The kids eat at the island for most meals so I just got easy to clean wooden bar stools.  I would like to replace them now that they are a little older and don't make quite as many messes when they eat.

I knew I wanted a wooden counter top for our island. I looked and researched them for months!  I just love how it brings some warmth to the kitchen and sort of makes the island feel like a piece of furniture, setting it apart from the rest of the cabinets and counter tops. 

Another thing that I researched like crazy were kitchen sinks!  I knew I wanted a farmhouse or apron front sink, but wasn't sure about having a single or divided sink.  Every single review I read of homeowners who switched from the double sink to one large single basin loved it so I bit the bullet and decided on that. I am SO happy that I did. I LOVE having one big sink.  

I think my hesitation was not having somewhere to dry hand-wash dishes, but I just use a drying mat on my counter top and put it away when I'm not using it.  We searched for sinks for a long time because so many of them were VERY expensive.  We kind of thought finding THIS ONE was a fluke, because it was such a great deal.

I don't love to cook and part of that could be because we are rarely home. I know some people really want and need double ovens, but for me that was not anywhere on my wish-list.  Instead we did a single oven and cook top and splurged on a more expensive microwave.  

I wanted it hidden so we did a drawer microwave and put it on the backside of the island.  My kids eat popcorn almost daily and when they were younger this allowed them to be able to reach it themselves with no problem. 

When we aren't sitting or standing around the island to eat we sit at our kitchen table. It belonged to my grandmother and I was so excited to get it to use for our home.  

We had the banquette (or bench) built and I had planned to have a cushion made for it, but again...with kids that make messes when they eat I was holding off on that and just used some pillows for now.  

The chairs that go with the table also belonged to my grandmother.  I actually didn't want to use the chairs at first. They were rickety and had a crazy plaid fabric. The Mr. was convinced he could tighten them up though so I got to work recovering the cushions and was so in love with the way the turned out! 

Now when I mentioned our keeping room before I had several questions about what a keeping room is. According to my research a keeping room is basically a secondary living room that connects to the kitchen area. It was a popular space during colonial times due to the fact that the heat from the kitchen kept the keeping room warm, making it one of the few heated areas in the house.  

When we were originally designing the house we knew we wanted to keep the existing brick fireplace  so it just kind of made sense to turn this space into a keeping room off the kitchen.  

We painted the brick and just used a love seat we already owned.  The kids will sit here and watch TV while I'm cooking or I'll have it on when I'm in the kitchen if I want to keep an eye on a game or something that is happening.  

The sofa table belonged to my husbands great-grandmother and this antique hutch belonged to my great-grandmother. I love having family pieces that we can use in our home! 

So there you have it for the kitchen and keeping room. Most definitely the space where we spend the majority of our time and where everyone congregates when we have people over and aren't in the basement.  It feels cozy and welcoming, and that is exactly what I wanted! 

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