Living Room

Our living room.

This is what the room looked like when we saw it with the realtor.

  

This is what our living room looked like for the first year we lived in our house. It took me that long to convince my husband we needed to change it.

From the first day I saw our house, I knew I wanted built-ins in this room. My husband had no desire to build them. When we moved our hutch out of the dinning room, it got me thinking. I measured it and it was the same width as the area on either side of the fireplace. My mom happened to have an also identical hutch in storage that she gave us. I found these plans from Shanty 2 Chic website that was designed by Ana White. So after much convincing, we began.

We started with these hutches:

My mom's on the left and ours on the right.

The hutches each come apart. We took them apart. Next, we dry fitted the lower portions on either side of the fireplace. They fit like a glove. Victory #1. After that came the fun part, not! We started stripping and sanding down the lower portions. Sorry, I don't have pictures of that progress. It took a few weeks of nights and weekends to get it right.  After they were prepped and ready for paint, we built the hutch part. We modified the plans to fit our space. Once everything was built, we primed everything. We again dry fitted everything in the living room. We cut the hutch shelves to fit around the fireplace. I have a bad habit of changing my mind a lot, so we decided not to take the molding off the fireplace in case I wanted to get rid of the built-ins, it would be an easy fix.

Once everything was in, we painted two coats of white latex paint. Then they sat for a few weeks because I wasn't happy. The paint bubbled in some places and the overall feel of the room really, really bright. I thought we made a horrible mistake. The built-ins didn't match our decor at all. So I went to the internet and Pinterest to see what could be done about it. I came across these bookcases  from Restoration Hardware and loved them. I love the light, rustic color and overall warm feel of them. 

After drooling over these for a few days, it finally clicked with me. I was trying to create these bright, white built-ins like I had seen all over Pinterest and blog land then I realized that wasn't me, or my style, or how I wanted my home to feel. My husband told me years ago when I first moved into his townhouse that he loved how my design made a house feel like a home and he love the feeling of wanting to curl up on the couch and relax. The white built-ins were too formal of a feel for us. I love them everywhere I saw them but at the end of the day, they weren't true to our style. It took me a while to be ok with this. White everything is the trend right now. So my built-ins might not be trendy but they are definitely our style and I love how they make our room feel. 

My next task was trying to figure out how to create this look. After a ton of research and days of trial and error. I ended up with this look.

It isn't the exact look but the feel is the same. I love the warmth of them without them being super dark plus it was super easy to glaze over the white paint once I figured out the right combination of paint, stain, and glaze. 

After I glazed all the built-ins, it was time to do something with the fireplace. I saw many tutorials on AirStone from Lowe's all over Pinterest. I convince my husband this is what I wanted to do. Again, after much convincing he was on board. The stone isn't stone at all but a thin like concrete material that can be cut with a hand saw hence the name Air Stone. I started by measuring the fireplace out and taping it out on an old rug turned upside down. 

 Next we installed them. It was easier part of the whole living room. We put the pre-mixed adhesive on the back cutting the ones along the way. It went up in two hours. For the hearth, I wanted one slab of stone but that wasn't in the budget. I found these stones at the Home Depot in outdoor selection. They match the airstone. We laid them out, I made a paper template, we trace onto the stone and cut. We used construction adhesive to adhere them to the marble. Lastly, we grouted the joints. Belong is the finished product. I love it. It cost right at $200. 

Upclose of the fireplace.

The living room last year with decorations. 

The living room this fall:

The view from the front door. 

I don't believe in wasting anything. Especially furniture. I think every piece deserves a second chance or can serve another purpose much to my husband dismay. I took the hutch tops and turn them into useful pieces in our house. I took off the doors  and remove the center bar. I added a piece of 1x12 on top and on the bottom to make this into a bookcase. 

I took the stain glass out of this hutch top, painted it, and use it as decorations in back of the built-ins but not before using it as a template to use out some 1/4" pine to go into the door openings. I added a pieces of 1x12 on top of the hutch to create a table like surface. Next we cut the sides off below the doors to create a flat surface and added legs to make it look like a piece of furniture. This now serves as our dry bar in our living room. 

Dining Room

Today I'm gonna share our dining room. I know a lot of people are moving away from formal dining rooms, but I love ours. We use it at least once a month if not more.

The Before:

This is from the MLS listing

We started by priming and painting the walls. Thankfully we were able to get most of the painting and renovations done throughout the house before we moved in which made things a lot easier.

When we first moved in, our dining room looked like this:

The table is our farmhouse table we built from Ana White's plan several years ago. The hutch was from our townhouse. It was one of the first things we purchased together after we got married. It came from Craigslist. No surprise!! 

At this point, we were just thankful to have a room unpacked and usable in our new house. The chairs are mis-matched from the tables we each had before we got married. 

The light in this room is from Lowe's. I got it for $30 because they were changing the design.  This is the new design. Our chandelier looks like this one from Pottery Barn which I love and was thrilled when I found this one on clearance. 

After a few months of the dinning room looking like this, we changed it up to this:

We moved the buffet in here from the garage. The buffet was originally my husband's dresser when we first got married. Once we were married, I moved the dresser into our living room to hold our TV at our old townhouse. The living room in our new house has a fireplace and the dresser was overpowering for the room. It sat in our garage for three months before I convinced my husband to move it into here. 

My husband was hesitant because we said when we moved into this house we were going to buy a grow up table and chairs. I, however, am attached to this table. Not only was it the first thing we built together but we did it for $75 with a saw, drill, and some screws. It was built long before we had money for a Kreg Jig. Not to mention, I love all the dings and notches in the pine from the years of having dinner at. A new table wouldn't have the same character as ours does! 

My husband has since fallen in love with the table since I got the chairs pictured above. I found the chairs one day at Athens Habitat Restore. They had seven and I only paid $143 for all of them. I recovered them with a drop cloth. Between the chairs and the buffet, our dining room now looks more 'adult' and no longer 'hey, we just got married'!!

The dinning room looks like this today:

I got this 8x10 rug at a yard for $10. The lady had four different rugs that size and all $10 each. I wanted to buy them all, but my husband said 'no'!! Since we installed laminate upstairs, I have wished several times I had bought all the rugs. Oh, well! 

The flower artwork was given to use. We use the easel during parties and the holidays.

The plates on the wall are a set my husband had when we got married. There were only three plates so I thought they would be great artwork. I just haven't changed them in four years. I love they don't take up much wall space but still look nice.

The lamps are from Kirkland's. I got them one weekend during a sale. I paid $40 for the lamps and shades. The picture above our buffet is from our wedding. I got the canvas on sale at the old Wolf Camera for $10 and the frame was $5 from a Potter's House Thrift Store. Most of the decorations are from husband's grandparents house. The Bulova clock was one of my husband's grandparents anniversary gifts. My husband thought I was crazy when I wanted to keep it, but I love the look of the glass and brass in here. The basket that holds the flowers was part of my husband's grandmother's china. The candlesticks are also from their house. The small plate has an 'L' painted on in it in gold and is from their house too. The big white platter we bought for Thanksgiving one year. When I run out of room in my cabinets, I use platters as decor so I don't have to get rid of them.  Sort of a platter hoarder. Don't tell my husband. 

View from the kitchen

The curtains are from Tuesday Morning. They were $40 for the pair. The curtain rod and finals are from Ikea.

This is our current table setting. I change it up a lot. The table runner is from West Elm. It was a Christmas gift. I love it, but it has taken me six months to decide how to use it. I use some bamboo chargers I got at Goodwill with simple white plates and black bowls. The napkins are from my husband's grandmother's house. They have hand embroidered hearts on them. I love them. I never got to meet her but I feel like having her stuff in our dining room makes it feel like she is here. My husband said she loved formal dinners and that they always had nice china for all the holidays. I like to think she would like our dining room. The artichoke place holders are from Williams Sonoma that I found at Goodwill for $3 after Christmas. The candlesticks and tray were gifts. The hydrangeas are fake and are in a mason jar left over from our wedding. I love having real flowers in the house, but I don't buy them enough so the fake ones serve a good purpose in our house.

This grandfather clock my husband's great grandfather bought the clock kit and built the came for it. He made a lot of things in our house. I love antiques and the stories behind them especially when they involve family. 

And there you have it our dinning room!! 

♥Melissa

First Post-The Nursery

So I finally did it-start a blog.

I thought it would only be fitting to start with my new favorite room in our home, the nursery!!

The nursery started out like this:

All the decorations in this room were left over from our previous townhouse. When we moved in, I didn't invest in anything new because I hoped one day this room would be a nursery.

We started by moving everything out of the room and putting down laminate floor way back in March. The nursery was the first room that we put the flooring in so it became our bedroom while we put the flooring down in the master. After weeks of laminate flooring installation and getting our second floor put back together, it was time to start on the nursery. 

I wanted to install board and batten in the nursery. Several pins and tutorials later, I convinced my husband. The Shanty2Chic tutorial on Ryobi Nation website is the one we ended using with some modifications for our room.We also added crown using SawDust Girl tutorial.

After getting all the board and batten up, it was time to paint. We painted the inside of the closet accessible beige. The board and batten was painted antique white and the wall above it was painted perfect greige. All the colors are by Sherwin Williams.

The view of the nursery from the door:

View at night

The monogram above the crib we made ourselves. I cut vinyl out on my Silhouette Cameo, adhere it to scarp wood, and we jigged it out. It a got a coat of spray paint with Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch 2X Colonial Red. This is my favorite spray paint by the way!!! 

The doors on either side of the crib came from the Athens Habitat Restore East Side for $5. They originally were bi-fold doors that we took apart and added the lights to. The lights are wall mount lights that I got at Athens Habitat Restore West Side for $6 because they were missing some parts. My husband rewired them into plug in lights using this tutorial. 

The mobile is Pottery Barn Brand that I got from Young'uns Children Consignment store in Athens for $13. The bedding is from Pottery Barn website called Bright Border in navy. It was on sale and I used a coupon so it only cost me $100. The blanket on the crib, my husband's nana had made for us. The crib itself was a gift from my in-laws and my husband's grandparents. 

The window wall:

The tractor is being passed down to our son. It was my husband's uncle, his father's, then his and now will be our son's. 

The curtains are from Tuesday Morning. I got them for $20 a pair so $40 for both sets. They are lined so they work perfect in this room. This room is in the front our house and gets a lot of sunlight not to mention is it on the second floor so I wanted lined curtains to help maintain the room's temperature. 

The Atlanta Braves hat was my husband that he has had forever. The bat we got from Antiques and More for $7. The glove came from the Woodstock Market for $13. 

The lamp we got on vacation at the beach for $13. We like to go shopping when it rains at the beach. The home plate was my husband that we dug out of a shed at his parents along with some of the balls. The other baseballs and football came from various antique stores we have visited. The cabinet was my husband's nightstand when we first got married. 

The chair is from Athens Habitat Restore for $25. I spent $16 on a drop cloth and recovered it. The ottoman is from a yard sale for $5 and got the same treatment.  Beside the chair is a wicker hamper I got at Goodwill for $5. 

The dresser we got off Craigslist for $60. It is solid maple and Ethan Allan brand. We sanded it down and stained it with Rust-Oleum Kona Brown Stain. My husband sealed it with several coats of poly. The bar hardware is off the cabinets in our garage and the cup hardware is from here. I had a coupon code so they only cost me $22 with shipping. The changing mat was a gift from my husband's nana along with the cover. The tiered storage I moved from my office to in here. The diaper Genie was a consignment find for $4. It was nasty yellow color but still worked so I spray painted it navy.

The shelf above the dresser was made with scrap wood that my husband routered and wooden corbels from the Home Depot. I can't find a link to them but they are located in the molding section and only cost $1.50 each. The framed outfit on the left was my husband's coming home outfit that his mother let me have. I got the frame from Goodwill for $3 including the mat. The silver cup and spoon was my husband's as well. The sock monkey was a consignment purchase for $2. The bulldawg plaque was an antique store find for $6. The sign in the middle is from Goodwill for $2. The other frame outfit is the one we hope to bring our son home in. I got the frame from Hobby Lobby for $5 and the outfit at consignment sale for $2. The little dog looks like our Holly Jayne so we had to have it. The football was a gift from my husband's nana. The Hairy Dawg is from Goodwill and was $1. My husband had to have it because it plays the UGA fight song. GOOO Dawgs.   

The rug in the room was another Habitat Store find for $12. I always question buying used rugs but after checking this one out and looking for stains on the back and having my husband smell it, I went for it. Not much to lose for $12. 

The closet started out with one single wire shelf and was an ugly yellow color. I saw this closet on Pinterest and was determine to have something similar. Sorry I've searched for the link to the original closet post but can't find it. If you know the owner, please let me know. I started by drawing up some plans for our closets dimensions. A $5 Craiglists dresser and $100 worth of supplies later, this is what we have. We made the closet to accommodate adult size clothing so that we wouldn't have to modify it in the future. The shelving in the middle is adjustable. I like having the four hanging rods so I can divide the clothes up. One rod holds NB-3months, 3-6months on another, 6-9months on one, and 12months plus on the last one. 

The dresser is solid birch and was in pretty bad shape when we got it. It still has some missing corners. I knew it was going in the closet so I didn't bother spending a lot of time or money repairing everything. We did sand it down, stain it with same stain as other dresser in room, and my husband sealed it. The drawer pulls is one of my husband's old belts I cut up then used bolts and nuts to attached to the drawers. We already had all the supplies so we spent nothing on the pulls!!

The closet wall:

Most of the doors in our house are painted black. I love the look. The wall plaque was a Target clearance find for $8. I could have made it myself but it wasn't worth the time and vinyl to make it. 

What do y'all guys think? Definitely a thrifty decorated nursery with southern style. Can't get much more southern then a monogram, Atlanta Braves, and Georgia Bulldogs. 

If you want to see anything else or want more details on a piece in the room, let me know.

For those who asked, we spent $717 for all supplies, molding, and decorations not including the crib. Our budget was $1000 which we would be at if we had bought the crib ourselves. 

Melissa