What a Weekend!

This past weekend was so great! Friday night, Michael and I thought about prepping our hallway for a makeover, but opted for recordings of Disaster DIY on HGTV! It's one of Michael's favorite new shows where we watch other people make costly mistakes as we learn from them :)

Saturday, I was fortunate enough to get to attend, my new friend, Jessi's baby shower at Breadwinners in Uptown. It was such a sweet atmosphere and a great way to share an incredible breakfast!

Later that day, we FINALLY got around to working on the hallway! Poor Michael spent a lot of extra time painting the ceiling, because the previous owner thought it would be a great idea to paint the walls and ceiling all one color. Easier on that guy, but it certainly created a dungeon effect and more work for us/just Michael.

 



You can see the before color of the walls- which weren't too bad, but overall, not helping with the windowless hallway. We selected a Creamy Mushroom (which reminds me of every casserole I make) from Behr at Home Depot. We thought we would need two gallons, but ended up only needing one. This works out though, because we'll use the other gallon in the front room. (Updated image to come for the hallway - it's still a work in progress!)

Saturday night we had some friends over for dinner and to play a few dominos...great dinner!

Sunday we hung those mirrors that I bought at Target and we're still debating whether or not to lower them one to two inches It's a tough call because they were fairly challenging to hang. We are still going to paint the walls and railings, but what do you think? Should we lower them?



Imagine grey walls, with the wood repainted white :)

We wrapped up the weekend with a wedding! We've been married four months and a few days and I just LOVED going to this wedding! What a beautiful reminder that our spouse is our encourager for a deeper relationship with Christ and a motivator in helping us become who God wants us to be!

Congratulations Greg & Christina! 

Suitable Substitution!

The wall in our kitchen "eating" area is quite long, and fairly large. I had a collage up there, but I think I'll be moving it to the hallway after we paint. So, what to do with wall??...well "not pay a bunch" was the bottom line. So I took to the internet!

I found these mirrors that I thought would open up the space since there isn't a ton of lighting in there. I also love symmetry sometimes (most times)



Notice the multiple mirror look...so great!

 

The mirrors above are from Ballard Designs and so great, but not at all in our price range...so where did I turn?? Target of course! Talk about several winning seasons with Target Home Decor lately!

 

I found these! (below) Three of these mirrors on our wall will look great!  I'm waiting to show you what it looks like because we still need to paint the wall where they'll be, so for now - you get to use your imagination :)

 

 

The best part is...I got them for WAY less than other places! Not the exact look, but similar!

 

I'm so thankful for Michael and all the hard work he's pouring into the house! ...way to go babe! 

 



Master Haven Complete

We did it! I'm so happy with the outcome of our master bedroom! I love, love, love how warm and homey our room feels whenever I walk in! The best part of it is that Michael built our headboard and our matching nightstands! He has become incredibly talented at building furniture and fixing up things around the house! Click here to see the before pictures when this room belonged just to Michael and it was two shades of green! :/

Welcome Chest!

When you first walk into our home you are greeted by a collage and a chest that I've had since college. My mom picked it up from a garage sale for $10 and I've always had better hopes for it. A whopping 8 years later, I finally got around to sprucing it up.

Here are the Before shots:



The collage was completed by Mrs. Lauren Johnson!

Cute, right?



And the After shots:

Ta-Da! I'm really happy with it!

Thanks for all your help Lauren!



Head towards the light

While Michael and I move (slowly) through our home renovations, I've come to a, surprisingly, time-consuming decision to make. We need to replace the majority of the lighting in the house and I haven't a clue where to begin. I tend to lean more towards the Pottery Barn look of things, but lighting can be ANYTHING you want it to be. I'm constantly looking online at Shades of Light and Rejuvenation for their lighting options, but I can't come up with a cohesive design throughout the house. Which brings me to my question...does it have to be cohesive?

The first stop on my lighting transformation highway, is the kitchen! We have this terrible light in there and we want to change it. So do we go with can lighting? Do we dabble with some pendant lighting? Under the cabinet lighting?? It never ends!

The picture below is NOT our current kitchen, but what I love is that: it's the layout of our kitchen! I don't love everything about it...but we're working with the same one-window situation and I want white cabinets :)  (Image is from HGTV's Designer Portfolio)

Here's the direction that I want us to go in. We obviously won't have that killer range set...

So here's to weeks of looking, pricing, and deciding...I can't wait until it gets done!

Also, if you have any other great lighting websites you'd like to share...PLEASE let me know!

The Master Haven: In Progress

After our honeymoon, the first order of business at the house was to transform the master bedroom from a bachelor pad to a peaceful and resting haven for our slumber. We're still working on some of the details, so I'll post pictures soon!

Before!

Before!

Before!