My Foyer

Over the last year or so, I've been slowly adding things to make our foyer a little more welcoming and useful.  This has been a low priority on my list because the way our home and driveway are set up, everyone uses our backdoor.  Even without a lot of traffic, I still wanted this area to look nice.  The stairs to the second floor empties right into this room, so I see the foyer every day - even if my guests usually never make it to the front of my house.

First, we painted the walls SW Rice Grain and the trim SW Dover White.

The first thing I did was buy a little table with a shelf at the Millstore, a local unfinished wood store.  I like that there is extra storage under the table skirt.  I then bought some natural color fabric at JoAnns, and made a pleated skirt.  I had a piece of glass cut at Ace Hardware to go on the top of the table. 

I then bought some trim at M&J Trimming, to give the plain skirt an extra detail, and just glued it on.  Here is the link to the trim that I bought, here, and it is called the 60MM Greek Key Jacquard, in the pale blue/antique.   (Don't mind the dust!  Yikes!  I shouldn't take extreme close-up photos of my floors!)

On the other wall, I framed some fabric that I bought from Shannon from the Designer's Attic.  I had originally bought the fabric to make pillows in my living room or bedroom, but I didn't end up using it in either spot.  But, it is perfect for timing my living room and dining room together. 

You can see how the blues and greens in the fabric pull in the blue/green from my dining room (the room reflected in the mirror), plus my living room with all of its blue is straight through that doorway. 

The mirror is from Lowes.  I painted it white, because the black was too much here.  You can't see it in the photos, but the inside of my front door is a dark natural wood color.  So, it was too dark in this small space with the black mirror right by the dark door. 

The lamp is from Kirkland's, and it was just what I was looking for - inexpensive and a pop of color.   I did change out the blue shade that came with it with an expensive one from Target.  I'm not completely happy with the shade, but it will do for now.

 I'm still struggling a bit with how to decorate it.  I need to buy some new books (or, at least, new to me books)!  And other little accessories.

Any one have any ideas for other accessories for me?  I have my eye on a few boxes, like the mother of pearl box at West Elm (found here) and maybe a fun tray.  I just need to liven the table up a bit.

House of Fifty - New Issue!

Have you read it yet?  If not, what are you waiting for?!  You can find a link to the magazine here, or you can order the app here.  Enjoy!

Guest Bedroom Progress

The last few months I've been working to spruce up one of our guest bedrooms.  It has a twin size bed, and also functions as Mr. DE's main closet.  It was a child's room in the previous owner's home, so I wanted to update the decor to fit us a bit better.   

Here is a photo from our home's inspection, with the children's theme border and lots of toys! 

Here is the bedroom now, with a fun and colorful palette.   I just love how cheery it is.  Most of our home is in more neutral colors, but I thought I could have some fun in the bedroom and really make it colorful and happy.  I think it worked. 

I made the headboard myself, based on Young House Love's tutorial, found here.  I made a headboard a few years ago for our other guest bedroom, and it was so easy I decided to do another one. The fabric is from Calico Corners, it is a Buffalo Check in sunshine, found here.  For the locals, I bought the wood frames for the headboard at Blicks.  Having the straight lines from the check pattern made it very easy to keep everything straight as I stapled the fabric onto the headboard.

I sewed the throw pillow.  The chevron fabric is from Premier Fabrics, and it is their zig zag pattern in chartreuse, found here.  I may sew another throw pillow a little smaller, just because this one turned out to be too similar in size to the blue sham, and I think a smaller one will look better.  The pillow inserts are from Joann Fabrics.

I made the bedskirt in the matching Calico Corner's fabric.  It was really easy actually.  I had an old ruffly one on there, and I just cut the ruffles off, keeping the fabric portion that went between the mattress and the box spring. I then placed that fabric scrap from the old bedskirt back on top of the box spring, leaving the mattress off, and pinned the check fabric on to the old bedskirt scrap, creating pleats at the corners.  That way, I could adjust the check fabric while it was hanging there.  It didn't take long and it looks custom.

The blue quilt and sham are from Pottery Barn, found here, in Blue Dusk. The color is actually much softer in person and goes really well with the curtains.  




I really love how the curtains turned out. The fabric is Robert Allen Les Fauves Grasslands.  It is a really bright, happy fabric.  I bought it on sale from The Fabric Corner in Arlington.  I sewed these in a more casual style than the drapes in my living room.  In my living room, I followed Janell's excellent tutorial for fully lined drapes (found here).  For this room, I went with something a little more casual and less time intensive. These drapes are unlined.  I based the curtains on the instructions in the new Design Sponge at Home book.  Although I did sew a rod pocket (just in case I want to use it down the line), I bought drapery hooks and rings and used those to hang the drapes on the rod (all hooks, rings and rods were from Joanns - got to love the coupons!).

 
 If I could sew these again, I would add a fabric interfacing like Janell advises in her tutorial to the top hem - it would add a lot of structure to the top and make it easier to attach the drapery hooks without poking through the front of the drape by accident! Since I was going for a more casual look though, these look fine. My advice is to pick a fun fabric, and no one will notice the imperfections!


 
 The walls are painted Rice Grain, by Sherwin Williams.

There are still some things on the "to do" list for this room (don't tell Mr. DE, he thinks it's done). Some art for the walls, a new light fixture, maybe some new furniture.  The wall space above the headboard is screaming for a fun little mirror.  But most of that will be down the road, as I find things that I love.  But I am really happy with how this is coming along!  I smile every time I see this room.

 

My Master Bedroom

Over the last two years, we've been working on our master bedroom piece by piece to bring it all together and create the peaceful retreat we wanted.  It's not quite done (nothing is!), but I'm ready to post photos of it. 

I'll start by showing you what we started with.  Here are two photos from when we inspected the home, before buying it (so, seller's furniture in the photos). 

It is a good size room.  A little long and skinny, but definitely workable.  We loved the hardwood floors, and the previous owners added a new master bathroom at the far end right before we moved in.  Here's the other side of the room.

   

And here it is now.

First, we painted the walls Blue Hubbard by Sherwin Williams. To date, it's my husband's favorite color that we've used in the house (mine too). It's a soft blue/gray/green, and it is very soothing. Perfect to unwind at night. The trim is Dover White by Sherwin Williams. We left the doors their original color because the wood is very pretty in person. I think the doors are original to the house (1930s).

   

We also bought some new furniture.  The two dressers are from Boston Interiors.  I love the color of the wood, and they were made in Vermont.  The quality is very nice.  The scalloped mirror is from Lowes, and the three vases and curtains are from Ikea.

I always wanted an upholstered headboard, so after much thought I decided that I wanted to buy a slipcovered one, because if the headboard ever got dirty, I could take the slipcover off and wash it. Or, if I ruined it or got tired of the white, I could sew a new one. I bought the Riley headboard and slipcover from Pottery Barn last Febrary, when they were 20% off. The bedding is also from Pottery Barn. I bought the fabric and sewed the two euro pillows. The lamps are from Kirklands and the night stands are from Ikea.
 

On the other dresser, I have a pretty tea cup that was a gift, a fabric flower pin made by my talented (and thoughtful) sister-in-law, and the Portofino jewelry box from the Container Store. I love how my jewelry can be neatly put away, but still be decorative. 

Here is another close-up of the lamps.  I love the tone-on-tone blues with the wall color, and it has a great shape.

Here is another view of the bedroom. You can barely see the rug that is under the bed, but in case you're wondering it's an old Pottery Barn one (Concentric Squares in cream).





This is a very special corner. I framed a few black and white photos from our wedding, and hung them in Target frames. But the most special part of the room is the rocking chair. My mother-in-law rocked my husband to sleep in it when he was a baby.

The finish is wearing in a few places and it has chew marks on the gliders from where my husband's childhood dog nibbled on it, but we won't ever paint it. There is a lot of love and memories in that chair.  It's perfect just the way it is.  

Thanks for letting me share my bedroom with you!  It has taken awhile to put it together, but I am so happy with the results.

Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake

I've been a little late to the pinterest craze, but you can now count me as one of the pinterest addicts.  That site is amazing.  Just thought I would share the Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake that I made this morning. 

 It is so, so good.  And it may be even better tonight when I have a piece with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream.  As a side note, I put the batter together last night and refrigerated it, then popped it into the oven this morning.  It worked beautifully.

I've also been inspired by two of my friends (I'm talking to you Susan and Kelly!) to begin posting again more regularly.  I have been doing lots of things around my house, but I haven't been documenting them the way that I want with posts on this blog.  I would like to get back into blogging, especially since this blog really serves as my personal journal on all of our home projects.  I've been away long enough that I've really started to miss this creative outlet. 

In case you would like to follow me on Pinterest, click here for my boards.  I'll follow you back!  I love how interactive the site is.

Bathroom Face Lift

Mr. DE and I have been knocking out home projects left and right this summer. One of the next projects on our list was to update our hall bathroom upstairs.

The previous owners of our home added a nice, new master bathroom, so the family bathroom in the hallway is only used when we have guests stay with us or at parties. So, we wanted to update the bathroom, but we didn't want to invest too much in it since it doesn't get a lot of use.

Now for the good part. Here is the before (a picture taken at the inspection before we bought the house, so previous owners stuff):

Yikes. Our house was built in the 1930s, and this bathroom certainly reflected it. The previous sellers only added the new master bathroom right before they sold the home, so this was the only full bath in the house. I don't know how the previous families did it. This bathroom is s-m-a-l-l.

In the planning process, we decided to embrace the yellow and black tiles, since we weren't going to rip them out and start from scratch.

And I love how it turned out.

The first thing we did was take down the unnecessary medicine cabinet on the wall and the extra shelves. Mr. DE then painted the walls and ceiling white (specifically, Sherwin Williams Dover White). He also primed and painted the mirror and the vanity black. I cannot tell you how much better this looks in person. It's unbelievable. Even though the bathroom is teeny, tiny, it feels bigger.

Mr. DE also added some left over knobs from our kitchen remodel. It makes the vanity much more functional. (I really need to get a new soap dispenser!)

We also changed out the horrible, plastic light fixture with a new one from Lowes. It was a mix and match deal. We picked the fixture part, and then chose the shades to go with it. We went with more traditional style shades, since the bathroom is very old school. The new fixture looks great, and it was very reasonably priced too.

I then channeled my inner "Darby" and made a fixed roman shade for the bathroom. Since it doesn't get a lot of use, there was no reason to make a functional one. The fabric is Riley Blake Petals in Gold. It's really cute in person. The only downside is that it's not home decor weight, so the shade doesn't hang as nicely as the ones I made for my dining room, but it looks cute enough so I'm happy.

I also bought two yellow and black butterfly prints from etsy seller east ashley studio. They are beautiful in person and very reasonably priced.



I bought the two frames as a set at Michaels, and with my coupons they came to $4 total. I love how the black frames pop against the white walls, and balance the black frame of the mirror.

I just love how it turned out. Nothing earth shattering, but it just looks a lot more coordinated now.

Have a great weekend!

Small, Modern Home

The Boston Globe has been doing features on smaller homes. While this particular home is more modern than my normal style, I still appreciate all of the details that this young couple added to their home when they remodeled it, and how warm the feeling is in the house, even though it is modern. The house just gives off a very happy vibe.

The home is about 1780 square feet, and in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Here is the link to the article.

All photos from the Boston Globe, photographer Eric Roth

So, what do you all think? Too modern or just right?