For The Home
New House: Dining Room and Foyer
Mornin, Y’all!
Hope your day is going well so far………..
Today, I wanted to share a few pics from our new Dining Room. I should probably mention that in our last house, we had a very open floor plan that had our kitchen, living room, and dining room all in one room. While the new house also has an open floor plan, the dining room is now in it’s own separate space.
In case you haven’t seen it, here is a quick pic of our last dining room:
While I really loved all the space that we had, it was really difficult for me to decorate that space because it always had to compliment both the living room and kitchen and very easily became cluttered all the time.
In our new house, I decided that even though the dining room now had it’s own space, I really like the simplicity of having a simple looking dining room without a lot of clutter. (*I’m thinking the last house did that to me. LOL!)
Here is our new dining room:
I was so excited when I got to take our chandelier with us and heard that the new homeowners didn’t want it. SCORE for me! I was able to pick up the curtains for the space at Homegoods. The best thing about picking up your curtains from somewhere like this is they usually sell the curtain panels in packs of two. Most stores try to sell you their curtains and charge per panel, so getting two is definitely a deal. Basically, I picked up two for the price of one. 😉
I searched high and low for this chandelier when I first purchased it and thought all the work I did looking for it and finding a deal was going to go down the drain, but nope! I’m really happy with how it looks in it’s new space. (*Side note: Color on walls is Light French Gray by Sherwin Williams)
I have had the star for quite some time now. It has mostly been outside on exterior walls, but I thought it might go well on the wall. I bought it from the flea market where I used to live for about $50. While I was in Homegoods looking for the curtains, I saw this awesome picture that went fantastic with the star.
I just love this picture so much. I also love how it is the first thing you see when you enter into our home.
You know I love painting ceilings! I mean, it is the “5th wall” afterall. 😉
We decided to paint only the highest tray ceiling area a different color. It’s only a personal preference, but for me, when you paint the both areas of double molded tray ceilings, I feel like it begins to look “choppy”. So basically, you would have color, white crown trim, color, white crown trim. I felt like painting only the highest ceiling and keeping the rest white, drew your eye up better and made the ceilings feel higher. (*Does my rambling make sense? ) The color we decided to go with is Iced Cube Silver by Benjamin Moore.
Please excuse all the lighting in the following pictures, but I didn’t take these until today and I’m not sure if you have heard, but apparently Joaquin Pheonix is reaking havoc on our coast line…….. I mean, Hurricane Joaquin. My bad, I had Joaquin Pheonix on the brain again.
ANYHOO!
This is why the lighting is not as great and my decor has changed a bit, thanks to my youngest chica. (*She loves Halloween, but really, what kid doesn’t?)
This is a better full pic of the dining room.
Just in case, for reference sake on where I got all the items are:
• Chandelier: Pottery Barn – sorry! not sure they still carry it. 🙁
• Metal Star: Flea Market – $50
• Roman Shades: Home Depot – Color: Driftwood
• Curtains: Homegoods – Tommy Hilfiger Brand – $ 26.99 for set of 2
• Table: Pottery Barn – Sumter Style – (Is a two leaf table that seats up to 10 total)
• White Chairs : IKEA – $ 50 each : IN STOCK
• Bench: Homegoods
• Rug: Grandin Road – $ 115 (Bought on sale)
While I’m at it, I thought I would share a bit about our front door. Originally, I was told that we could have our front door stained, which sent me over the moon excited. I have always wanted a stained front door. I love stained front doors. They always look so inviting and warm.
Well, it didn’t end up turning out that way unfortunately. (SAD FACE)
The sales team for our house was mistaken because the door actually came primed.
SO!
It was on to plan B!
I looked and looked at different doors on Pinterest and finally came up with the color I loved. I had to make sure that it would go well with our gray exterior color and black shutters.
The WINNER!!!!!!?????????
“Hale Navy” by Benjamin Moore.
In the light, it looks like the color above.
In the dark or less lighting, it looks more like this:
Which I’m very happy with, because I really did want the color to take on a darker hue on the inside.
And last but surely not least, this is the full view of the front foyer/hall/entry way.
I must have tried a million different pieces of furniture in that space the bench is occupying. Everything just seemed to eat up a lot of the floor space and make that area seem cramped. All but the bench that I ended up sticking with in the space. This bench actually used to be the bench that was used in the dining area at our last house. (*You may notice it in the first picture above)
I felt that it had a better place in the foyer though. The black top really seems to mimic the look of the front door (even though the front door isn’t really black).
The walls in the hall are somewhat empty right now. I know what I would like to do there, I just don’t have the budget to do it right now.
I’m hoping to wait patiently and snag a good deal on a few large canvas prints so I can fill that space with really big pics of my kiddos! Until then, it will just have to stay empty.
Items in the foyer:
• Front Door Color: Hale Navy by Benjamin Moore
• Wall Color: Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore
• Bench: Grandin Road from 2 seasons ago.
• Flushmount Lights: Purchased at Home Depot – Hampton Bay Brand (*Cheaper than Lowes Brand)
• Throw Pillows: Color: Linen – TJ MAX – $ 10 each
Ok, my loves! Thank you so much for stopping by and spending time with me again!
I hope you enjoyed taking a look at the dining room and foyer. Next week, the incredible Steve Egloff makes an appearance again! *Or, at least his awesome work does. 😉
Next week, I plan on continuing with my tour of the downstairs and sharing our living room pics and ideas!
It includes built in cabinets and something called a “planning center”!
What is that, you ask?
Guess you will just have to check back to find out!
Until next week!
XOXO!
Esther
New House Sneak Peek! (Breakfast Nook)
Hello, my favorite people!
Today, I wanted to give you a sneak peek of our new house. I have had multiple people ask for pictures and I wanted to share with you, some of the things we have done.
This is probably one of my favorite spots in the whole house! It’s so cozy and I just love it. To start with, none of the built ins were here.
I knew I wanted to put the built ins here before we even moved in. I had scoured Pinterest and searched and searched and once I had found the look I wanted, I called the only person I knew who could make it all come to life! His name is Steve Egloff from The Wandering Woodshop. Steve is a true craftsman. He loves what he does and it shows in everything he does.
If you live in the Myrtle Beach area and need any kind of wood work done, he is your man! You can check out his Facebook page here.
Be forewarned! I will be bragging about Steve again in the upcoming weeks as I share all the projects he has done at our New Home. 🙂
We have a mudroom area right off our garage that has a built in bench already and I really wanted the space in the breakfast nook to look like it had always been there and wasn’t an addition on our part. I had Steve mimic the look of that here.
It turned out EXACTLY how I wanted!
I asked him to have it function just like the other one and works perfectly.
He even put felt stoppers in between the closing areas so that it wouldn’t slam shut. Because of this, it shuts very smoothly.
We purchased the table while we were still in the apartment. I picked it up from World Market. I believe they still have them in stock. The chairs are from Ikea and stay in stock.
Then there is Penelope and Bessie. My new pets. Probably as close to actual pets as I will ever get. (Insert tears here) I love these paintings. I received a catalog from Grandin Road before we moved in and I couldn’t think of anything else for this wall space. I even based how high I wanted my Batten Board on the wall because I knew I would be ordering these.
They are 36 in. sq. and are the smaller of the two sizes they offered. Can you believe that? They stole my heart from day one.
Towards the back side of the house, we have a little nook that I had Steve build another bench on. This serves as multiple things in our house. It is our quiet spot, reading nook, time out corner, sometimes blogging nook and I love it. 😉
Even though it was tempting to have this bench open for storage, we decided instead to keep it stationary.
We also decided to keep it simple with the moldings on the front and mimic the detail from the breakfast nook slightly to have it all look cohesive.
Well, there you go, my friends! The first look into our new house and few comfy spots that we love. I hope you liked taking a little peek into our house with me.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you check back next week, as I plan on sharing a few dining room pics with you.
I was ecstatic when I was able to keep my chandelier from the old house when the new homeowners weren’t interested in keeping it. It returns next week to it’s rightful home!
Have a wonderful weekend, EVERYONE!
xoxo,
esther
How we sold our house in 10 DAYS!!!!!
I have to say that I cannot believe I’m actually sitting here writing this post about how we sold our house in ONLY 10 DAYS!!!!
Crazy!
Well, on that note, I guess I should probably back up a smidgen, right?
SO! A couple of months ago, we decided to sell our house.
I was really very happy at our home, but then the developer who originally built the homes in our community decided to start building again. I had a side street that pretty much went to no where, so I knew that the possibility of the street actually going “somewhere” one day was a reality.
I just didn’t realize that the somewhere was on the side of my house and the back of my house. I basically was going to have a street on ALL sides of my home. I looked at the plans and I was HORRIFIED to find this out. 🙁
I just couldn’t see how it would be safe for my kids to play amongst all this. I knew I wouldn’t feel good about just letting them run around with all of that going on. So, we made the big decision to put our house on the market.
Then, we went under contract in only 10 DAYS, Y’ALL!
I want to add that I scoured the internet for ideas on how to do this and I feel like I took away some good tips that I REALLY want to share with you!
So, here it is!
I kept the foyer/entry way as clutter free (you might see this word a lot!) as possible.
Usually, you would see book bags, toys, and coats overflowing on the coat rack, but I made sure this did not happen while we were showing.
To be honest, probably one of the first things I did was rent a storage unit. I know you may think to yourself that you can just stick things somewhere, but the problem is ….. it’s not like company is coming for dinner and you can cram those dirty clothes or toys into a closet or another room. The potential buyers are going to be looking in that closet or room you try to cram the dirty clothes and toys into! YIKES! THERE IS NO WHERE TO HIDE!!!!
You really have to get the stuff out of your house all together. I’m not saying put your dirty clothes in a storage unit, but I am saying put anything that you don’t necessarily use every day or might not use for at least the next couple of months in there.
To see more of what I did, I decided to go a little more in depth in this video.
You can check it out here:
I am going to put together a “Part 2” to this video so that you can see what I did with the rest of the house. The concept is not much different, but I do have other rooms like the dreaded KIDS ROOMS that I had to tackle. Not to mention my office, which always looked like a bomb went off in it. 😉
Until next time y’all!
Happy WEEKEND!
XOXO,
Esther
Thanksgiving Stuffing
That’s right, y’all!
Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK!
Do you know what you are going to fix yet?
Did I just give you a mini heart attack?
If I did……..
I’m sorry!
Well, there is one thing that I know I am going to fix and it is good ole Stuffing!
I have a question though.
Do you fix Traditional Stuffing or do you fix Southern Dressing?
Well, I grew up with the Traditional style, while my husband grew up with the Southern Dressing. Though, I am not partial to either because I love both…….
You see, my mom would fix it the Traditional way and my Grandma would fix it the Dressing way.
So, I decided to fix each one and share the recipe!
First up is the Traditional Way. Rustic, large chunky bread and sausage, with celery and onions and LOTS of butter! 😉
I’m breaking the recipes up into two posts, but because I love you so much, I made a video. Make sure to check it out below and give it a “thumbs up” if you like it!
For the full written recipe, check it out below the video!
XOXO,
Esther
Recipe: Traditional Thanksgiving Stuffing
Ingredients:
• 8 Cups Cubed Bread (* 9 if omitting the Sausage)
• 16 oz. Sage Sausage (Regular is fine) * I used this to enhance the Sage flavor.
• 3/4 Cup Onion, Finely Chopped
• 1 1/2 Cup Celery, Chopped (with leaves)
• 1 3/4 Sticks Butter
• 1 1/2 Tsp. Dried Sage
• 1 Tsp. Dried Thyme
• 1/2 – 3/4 Cup Vegetable Stock , Unsalted (Use according to how dry you like)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
Directions:
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a large skillet , melt butter on medium heat. Add celery and onions and saute’ until just softened.
• Stir in 1/3 of cubed bread and toss for a minute. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and set aside.
• In same skillet, add sausage and cook until completely brown.
• Add cooked sausage to vegetable and bread mixture.
• Add remaining bread and ingredients to bowl and toss until well combined.
• Add salt and pepper to your taste.
• Spray a 9 x 13 casserole dish with non-stick spray and transfer stuffing mixture to pan.
• Bake 30-40 minutes or until mixture is completely warmed through and top is golden brown and crispy.
NOTE: * Tossing mixture in the middle of cooking time, may help keep bread underneath from becoming too moist.
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