Chandelier

10.03.

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

Tags: Benjamin Moore, Chandelier, Dining Room, Flushmount Light, Foyer, Hale Navy, Hampton Bay, Home Depot, Homegoods, Hurricane Joaquin, IKEA, Light French Gray, New House, Pinteres, Pottery Barn, Revere Pewter, TJ Max, Tour

07.13.

Office Makeover

You know those days when you fly away to an exotic destination and forget the mess that you call an office?

Or better yet…… Snap your fingers and it’s clean, organized, and redecorated?????

Then you ACTUALLY WAKE UP and realize that it was all one mean dream? That you aren’t actually about to board a plane to your dream vacation. That you don’t possess magical powers that allow you to snap your fingers and things just fix themselves. No! The reality is that you have to go through every cluttered box you own and piece by piece, organize it!

BLAH!

Well, luckily……… that’s not how I role.

I love looking at organized stuff and my things may have some rhyme or reason to why they are all grouped in one general location, but I am definitely NOT a self professed organizer.

Oh yes, I have very ambitious thoughts from time to time, but then I get distracted by more important things…… like ice cream and chocolate.

I am, however, VERY happy with the way it turned out!

The lighting was hideous the day I tried to take these pics, thanks to all the rain we have gotten.

It’s not completely finished yet. I still have a few things left to do, but for the most part it’s complete.

I wanted more of an open concept than the one I had before. Before, the desk on the right was in the middle of the office, which really cut off the room visually.

I’m still brainstorming with ideas for that open wall above the desk, but nothing concrete yet. I’ll update once I’ve decided.

Also, as you will notice, my lovely hubby still needs to go and finish painting the baseboards. (I’ll do a post soon on how to build up your baseboards for practically nothing!)

I am notorious for painting my ceilings. It gives the room such a custom look. Plus, when you have high ceilings, the height can make your room seem too empty. Painting your ceilings can either give you the illusion of higher ceilings or lower, depending on the color you choose. Painting the ceiling a neutral tan color in this room, really “cozied” it up for me.

Paint colors:

Benjamin Moore’s At Sea – Walls

Benjamin Moore’s Bleeker Beige – Ceiling

High Gloss White – Trim

On the left side of the room is where all the organizational stuff is. I decided to not have any closed storage. This kept things open for me to just grab when I needed. Instead, I chose to go to Target and Homegoods for all my containers and idea boards.

I found the 3 shelf bookcases at Walmart for only $17 each. When it came to the idea boards on top, I almost splurged on Pottery Barn. The thought of spending over $700 on boards that I was going to hang on the wall, made me sick to my stomach, so instead, I went to my trusty ole’ Homegoods store to see what I could find first. I’m so happy I did! Not only did I find something, in my opinion, prettier……… They were far CHEAPER! I only spent $40 on the big one in the middle, and $20 each for the ones on the sides! Woot! Woot!

I felt like the colors were perfect. Lighter is what I was going for. So, when I start to put my ideas on the board, they will really POP!

I am so happy that most stores in general are really starting to amp up their office storage. All the designs are so nice these days. You can find cute stuff everywhere! AND CHEAP!

I got the brown storage boxes and multi colored file box from Target.

The cream colored baskets (set of 3), grey woven boxes (set of 2) from Homegoods.

The black boxes from Walmart.

Pattern file folders from Office Max.

This table was a MUST have! I could see in my mind what I wanted and how I wanted the office to turn out. I just couldn’t find a white pedestal table to go in the middle…….. that I could ACTUALLY afford!

I found plenty online! But they were all a small fortune and I just didn’t want to spend it.

Then, one night when I was searching Target’s website, I found it! Their new line Threshold, had the perfect one. It was so late and I was literally about to go to bed. So, when I saw that it was only $120, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me! It happened to be on sale because I think it is normally around $150. Plus, if you use your Target red card, which is the Debit card, you get free shipping even if it isn’t supposed to be. Not to mention you get the 5% discount.

I’m in love with it! The great thing is that it is a dining table, so it can double duty as extra eating space if you ever have people over! 🙂

This chandelier was originally meant for the girl’s room at our previous house. I had just bought it when we decided that we were going to sell our home. So, I held onto it hoping that I could find a nice spot for it here. So happy that it worked out for the office. I think it gives it an unexpected chic feel.