Simple and Clean Home Decor

If there is one style that defined me for home decor, it would be simple and clean and a little rustic - there must also be tons of natural light pouring it, that's a must for me.  We lived in a town house before we moved into our house now and there was only ONE sliding glass door downstairs, I hated how dark it always was!

I love looking at pictures on Pinterest and coming up with ideas or just day dreaming.  I feel like my house does have that feel to it; but there are so many pictures that make me wish I could change things up at home a little bit.  Since our budget doesn't allow for that to happen and since our things are no where near replacing, I figure I'd day dream with my friends here ;)

 

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Aren't they all so pretty!  What would you say your design style is at home?

House Updates

We've made quite a few updates since my last goals post.  I'm pretty content with the few things that we have done so far, a house is definitely a work in progress!  Like I said, 2015 is going to be the year of finishing decorating.


Master Bedroom

We gave our old queen set to my sister and got a king sized bed because the kids always come into our bed at some point at night, and we were having a hard time all fitting.  Also, our previous set was 10 years old and our taste has changed, not to mention whenever my husband went to work in the morning and got ready, our old pulls on the furniture would make TONS of noise - annoying!  We got this set from City Furniture and are loving it! 

We're loving the new set and how bright and airy the room feels!


The Playroom

We decided to clean out our "junk room" and make it into a playroom for the kids.  We were both tired of seeing so many toys downstairs and figured that even if the kids brought the toys downstairs, at least everything would have a place come cleanup time.  I didn't purchase anything for the room, just used what we already had to create a room for them to play in -- and some of their cute artwork helped.  There's still some tweaking that needs to be done, but the kids are loving their space.

It feels great having everything put away at night and being able to have the downstairs toy free!


Big Girl's Room

Not much has been done here - I bought some new art work, a mirror (comes today) and a burlap banner that needs to all be hung up.

Big Boy Room

Last week I went a little nuts and on a whim I packed up every baby item in J's room, and brought it to the consignment shop.  I so want to make him a big boy's room - he keeps asking for Star Wars, and where I normally don't decorate with characters, I realize that men never grow out of the Star Wars stage, so the force may be with me I can most likely get away with decorating with Star Wars and him not grow out of it for a while.

The Entrance

I bought a new print to hang and also some succulents in a frame to brighten up the entryway.  We also bought a Fishtail Palm for more pops of color.  I love seeing touches of green as we walk in!

One of our other projects happening in the next few weeks is putting a stackable washer and dryer in our laundry room to open up space and add some shelves, which will be great because all of our baskets will have a home, and there will be more room for detergents and possibly some room to add some of our towels.  Our linen closet is downstairs so it can be a pain when we need an extra towel.

Our gallery wall is almost finished too! I only need one more picture to hang, once it's finished I'll be sure to share.

I also gave into the 70% Rugs USA sale and ordered this baby for the family room - I'm in love and think that the yellow will bring a nice pop of color to the room!

What do you think of the updates?  Are you making any big/small changes to your house this year?



Linking up with Natalie and Annie for Thoughts on Thursday

Gray and White Master Bedroom

Good Morning!  I hope you all had a great weekend!  Ours was pretty good.  We tackled cleaning out the garage.  It's about 80% done, and I'm pretty excited about parking my car inside once it's finished.  Our garage has always been too messy for me to park my car inside.  So this will be a nice change, especially when I have sleeping kids in the car.

Last week we finally got our master bedroom furniture.  It's an all white set which I wanted.  We went back and forth on whether to get the furniture from Ikea (we were considering the Hemnes set and alternating pieces between the gray wood and white finish).  We decided against it because the quality isn't as good, you have to build it ALL yourself (insert lazy here), and we can buy a set from a furniture store for only a little bit more with financing when they had a sale.

The walls in our room are gray and we get a lot of natural light in the room.  I want to keep with the original plan of decorating the room, gray and white with little pops of color here and there...

 

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I want the room to be very soft and cozy looking - a place where we feel instantly relaxed when we walk in.

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I love these curtains!

Now, the challenge is achieveing these looks.  For some reason decorating bedrooms does not come easy to me.  Any suggestions?  Where do you all start?

I bought these lamps at Marshalls a couple of days ago because I thought they were different and I liked the charcoal stripes.  I just don't know if I jumped into buying something too soon,  I like them - but I also didn't shop around all that much.

 

Ok girls, spill all of your decorating advise!  

Have a great Tuesday! 

Easy (and cheap!) Wreath Tutorial

I've always wanted to be a DIY'er, but have also been scared to try crafting anything in fear that I would mess it up. I've also always wanted a wreath, and not only do they tend to be expensive, they also seem to be easy to DIY, so I thought I'd put my fears aside and try making one.   It was very easy, and fun to make and I think it turned out pretty well!

What I used:

• Store bought wreath
• Wooden letter
• Moss mat
• Super glue
• Metal key
• Wire edge ribbon

The first thing I did was cut out my letter from the moss mat.  I did it by simply holding the letter to the moss and cutting around it.  Easy peasy! 

Once I cut it out, I hot glued the moss to the wooden letter. 

The bow was also easy to make because it's a faux bow.  I cut a long strip of the wired ribbon I got and fold each end to the middle and hot glued it.
 

Then I scrunched up the middle to give the bow effect.

After that, I cut a smaller strip and folded it in long ways and glued it to the center of the bow.  Then I cut two long pieces and glued them to the back of the bow and overlapped them a bit to make the bow's strings on the bottom.

Once I finished I glued the bow to the top of the wreath and positioned my moss letter and key where I wanted it and glued that on as well, and wah lah!  She was done!

 

I loved the way it came out. It's very reminiscent of the decor in the inside of my house, light colors with pops of brighter colors.  My style is very simplistic, so there isn't much on it.  You could add more though to make it a little more decorative if you'd like.

I really enjoyed making it, and now I don't think I'll be as intimidated to DIY things myself.

October/November Goals

I'm loving documenting my goals each month because it makes me feel  much more accountable to finish (or at least start) them each month!

October Goals

Stick to cleaning schedule - Success!  I'm happy to report that I have been sticking to my schedule and I'm a lot happier.  The house feels so much better!

Decorating playroom: 25% done - I got a Playroom Rules picture and the kids painted some awesome pictures that need to be hung up.

Decorate living room:  25% done - I bought an area rug that I LOVE and that's about it.  I think I need to go on Pinterest for a few ideas, I kind of feel stumped on what to do next.  My decorating style is very minimalist and clean, so I don't know where to go, I think I kind of like it the way it is now.

Print family pictures and get our gallery wall finished: 50% finished - the family pictures are FINALLY printed!!!  I'm so proud of myself, haha.  Now I need to buy some frames (hopefully this week) and get the gallery wall finished.

Find artwork for kids' rooms:  70% done - I found tons of cute stuff for E at Hobby Lobby, but not for J.  He's in a toddler bed so I feel like I'm limited to his decor.  There are no cool bed sets for toddler beds, and I just feel like we're in this "in between" stage for his room.  I may wait until he's a little older and make it a big boy room then.  With that being said, I need to get hubby to hang E's stuff on her wall.

Curtains bought AND hung in dining room:  This wasn't on the list, but it's something that I have wanted to do for a long time.  I finally found the perfect curtains and I'm loving how they look.

 

November Goals:

Since I went on vacation and 11 days of November are now over, I'm not going crazy with the goals - I'm just going to focus on finishing the above goals and attempt to...

• Organize garage a bit

• Go through my clothes and kid's clothes to purge what we're not using/doesn't fit

• Buy our new bedroom set - I'm so excited about this one, we'll finally have a king sized bed and white furniture that I've been wanting for a long time.

I'm excited to get all of these goals done, and am loving these monthly goals - it's like a little challenge for me.

Happy Tuesday!

Table Decor {Lovely Life Styling}

Hi Friends! I'm Lindsay from Lovely Life Styling filling in for Amanda while she's on her Dominican Republic getaway! Let's all let out a sigh of jealously at the same time...

Can you believe we are only a few weeks away from Thanksgiving?! 

If you are planning to host this year, there are a lot of easy ways to incorporate a 'Thanksgiving' theme to your dinner table. 

gold flatware | mercury pumpkins | pumpkin wine stopper | metallic ikat plates | pumpkin place card holder | pumpkin candle | turkey serving bowl | thankful napkins

If you are not hosting, any of the above items would be a great gift to bring to the hostess' home!

I'm loving these metallic ikat plates from West Elm. And you can carry these into Christmas!

Thanks for having me, Amanda!

Enjoy your vay-cay!!

My Dream Workspace

When Sarah from WeWork contacted me to show where I work on my blog and create a dream workspace, I jumped on the opportunity - I mean, who doesn't love a mood board #AmIRight?

I must admit, I do not blog anywhere glamorous.  I'd so love to have a cute office where I blog, with a vase of fresh flowers, but - that's not happening any time soon.  If I would've started this blog before I had kids, I can assure you my space would've been totally cute.  Most often I blog on my living room couch.  I have cozy pillows, a glass of wine, and usually something on TV that I'm half watching while I dump my brain of its thoughts on this blog.

 

These pictures were taken over a year ago - mostly everything is the same except for an addition of some yellow pillows, the fact that the bucket of toys is now upstairs and I have some mirrors hung above of where the bucket of toys is.  It's nothing fancy, but it does the job and I look forward to my alone time each night to blog, it is one of the best times of the day!

If I had my dream space, it would look like this:

Dream Office by kidsandcabernet featuring sweet jojo designs curtains

Regina Andrew Design round lamp / Modern contemporary rug / Handmade home decor / Sweet jojo designs curtain / Floral decor / Arteriors glass bookshelve / Kartell ghost furniture, $330 / LumiSource glass furniture

I consider myself a girly though and through.  My dream space would definately be pink, gold, white with pops of aqua.  I think the space above represents me very well.  Ahh... remind me again why I didn't start this blog 5 years ago? ;)

Thank you WeWork for the opportunity to share my dream office space!

Playroom Plans

Now that the spare bedroom is officially our playroom, I figured I should spruce it up a bit and make it a room that the kids enjoy playing in. 

We get so many drawings and scribbles from the kids that I don't always know what to do with, so I'd like to have an area where I can hang their little masterpieces.  I want a system where it's easy to take the pictures on and off.

 

This design is cool, it's just twine tied to a nail with clothespins that the kids can paint.  Inexpensive and cute!

  

This system uses the Ikea curtain wire for kids art, which is also a great idea!

Another thing I'd like to do is an alphabet wall!  I'd like to attempt to DIY because all of the ones I've seen on Etsy are too darn expensive!  There's no way I'm spending $130+ for an alphabet wall for a playroom.  That being said, if anyone has ever made one before - spill all your secrets and please give me some tips!!

 

This one is my favorite because I think it would be fairly simple.  I can get cardboard letters and glue scrapbook paper to the front of the letters.

 

I also like something like this, just not sure how hard it would be to find all of these letters and shapes.

Another thing I want to add is Playroom Rules.  I just bought this one at Home Goods (except it's on canvas), but am keeping my eyes peeled in case I see anything else that I may like a little better.

 

What do you think, should I add anything else?  How did you decorate your playroom?

 

 

September/October Goals

Last month I wrote down all of my goals for the month and I felt like it really held me accountable for things I wanted to accomplish, so I think I'm going to keep this up as  a monthly thing.  Plus I've been so into writing to-do lists lately, this will just be an extension of that obsession ;)


September goals:

• Working out 2-3 times a week - Fail.  I haven't been to the gym like I had originally planned, but we have been getting out a little more with the kids these days, I walk around the neighborhood as I follow them around on their bikes/cars.  It hasn't been consistent though, which is why I call it a fail.

• Potty training - Success!  J was potty trained in 2 days, and I couldn't love it more!!  He's been waking up with dry diapers at night for a couple of weeks too, so I might be putting him in undies at night soon too.

• Finish cleaning out spare bedroom aka new playroom - Success!  I'm happy to report, the room has mostly been cleaned out and we got our toy storage and ALL of the toys are in that room now.

• No Shopping in September - Success!  I was tempted a couple of times, but all in all it was pretty easy, and I plan to do these type of months more often!

• Print family pictures - Half success??  The pictures have been uploaded to Costco, now I just need to decide what sizes of pictures I want for our gallery wall.  That may take another 8 months ;)!

I think it was a pretty successful month!


October goals:

• Stick to cleaning schedule - In January, I came up with this cleaning schedule.  I stuck to it for a while and was happy with the way the house was looking, then slowly fell off the wagon.  It's so much easier to stick to a schedule because the house stays up to par, and I'm not spending whole days cleaning the house.

• Decorating playroom:  Now that the room is cleaned out, I want to start decorating and adding a few things to the walls.  I want it to be a room the kids enjoy being in and make it look cute.  Like I said we got the toy storage in, and that's pretty much it.

•  Decorate living room - Now that all of the toys are upstairs, I want to accessorize the living room and get it looking the way we want it.  I've bought some lamps and a new table, but the room still has a ways to go.

 

(horribly grainy picture, but you get the idea)

• Print family pictures and get our gallery wall finished!!  I need to do this ASAP! 

• Find artwork for kids' rooms.  I bought a couple of prints off of Jane yesterday, does anyone know if any affordable places to get cute pictures/prints?  I keep checking Home Goods, but they don't seem to have anything I like.

Hopefully many of these will be crossed off of the list this month.  You'd think I was nesting with all of the decorating I want to do, haha!  I just really want to get the house to how we want it.


What are your goals for October?

Fall Decor {Recent Somethings}

Hi! I'm Shelby from over at Recent Somethings. Although we're still braving 80+ degree temperatures here in Charleston, who doesn't have fall on the brain? I thought I would round up some decorative touches that add a little fall flair around the house, without going overboard in the spending department (that's what Christmas is for, #amiright?).

Mercury glass pumpkins / $24.50+ at Pottery Barn

Dried fall arrangement / $19.99 at Target

 
Fall throw pillow / $23 on Etsy

 Faux garland / $29.50 at Pottery Barn

 
Monogram pumpkin flag / $10.99 from Kirkland's

 
Hanging block sign / $22 on Etsy

Gold fall figurines / $22.99 at Target

 
Burlap table runner / $12+ on Etsy

 
Pumpkin doormat / $14.99 at Kirkland's

A bonus to fall decorating is that you can find a few items at good prices and use them from September through November. Let's get our money's worth, right? Thanks so much for having me guest post, Amanda. I hope y'all are having a wonderful time on your vacation!