Trundle bed for the Guest Room

I've been working on our guest room/office this past week and found bedding at a garage sale. It's a soft, satin coverlet with matching shams for only $10 at the sale. The extra pillows were gifted to us from my husband's sister Jenna. We got daybed with trundle originally from Pottery barn this summer for $100 and just got a great deal on Serta pillowtop mattresses. I'll be doing finishing touches later this week. I'm still on the hunt for art above the bed. I'm thinking something swamp:

or a Audubon bird print:

:)

Happy Valentine's Day in Bacon

I've been trying to get better on actually doing things that I Pinterest, when I came across man Valentine's I was hooked. After alot of browsing I decided to try my hand at a Bacon Bouquet. I got two bunches of roses from Walmart for. 97 each last payday and this payday I got a $2.59 pack of bacon. The plan was to do as many tutorials say about drilling holes in muffin pans so the grease drips in a pan below. Well at 5 am I had no interest in drilling holes into my fought hard to get muffin pans. I looked around at what else to do and found our old pizza pan full of all those little vent holes.... duh why not just use that. Sure it made me feel a little less DIY but how often would I used drilled out muffin pans (wasteful!) So I just wrapped the bacon placed it on the pizza pan and a casserole dish underneath. No grease in my oven and they all stayed up fine. Take a look at these beauties :) They were well received by my honey after realized I did NOT go and buy myself flowers like he thought I had lol For the kids I made simple goody bags of frosted animals and learning books. I'm not big on them being sugared up. Happy Valentine's Day y'all!

Spray Paint the Ugly Away

Do you ever find things you love but hate the color of? Or they simply don't match your other decor. I'm a person who hates multiple finishes. I am more than okay with two but that is my Max for a house. A house starts to look junky with multiple metal finishes.

I made a trade two years ago for two over the door signs. This one is able to hold a wreath. I'm sure back in the day it looked great. I had stuffed it in our attic and forgotten about it until we moved to TN. I was really hoping to make it work in our new home. I used rustoleum's bronze spray paint. I didn't prime it just a good scrub down and two light coats. Much better don't you think?

I am in love! I think it looks so much classier. The white gave it a cottage feel and the faded gross later just made it look like a trip to the trash can was needed. This is much more my cup of tea.

My wreath was a 2.99 Goodwill find when we lived in NC. I paired it with a Pier 1 bird from my Mum. What things have y'all brought back to life with spray paint?

Inspiration

I'm definetley a type A personality this can lead to procrastination when things are not turning out perfect. We moved into our home in March, threw some cheap $100 for the lot furniture in the living room and called it good. After trying for months to make a really workable layout so I could progress from onward I figured it out. Our main goals were to have as much seating as possible while still keeping as open as a floor plan as possible. I hate closed off sectionals. *****Please squint hard and visualize with me.

This long wall will house a extra long sofa with a chaise on one end. Squint hard! I pushed the coffee table to act has a chaise. I'll be looking for a piece shorter by about a foot to eighteen inches.

I being a weirdo measured the deep that the current sofa bulges from the door frame into the kitchen. Here's to hoping for a slender, comfy, extra long, cushy dream of a sofa comes my way.

You've probably noticed the little cutie in my pictures. I feel so grateful to watch this little 7wk old. She is such a sweet baby and so cute!

Squinting again we can see a leather recliner. I'm not sure if the sofa will be leather but the recliner will be for sure. The back wall will have a huge console similar to this.

I found it on Joss and Main marked down to a crying $1700. It's by Hooker furniture and gorgeous. It checks off every category: sexy legs that do not obstruct the huge floor vent, lots of storage, a whopper of a size (105inches!), and stunning. Sadly not in my budget but I'm on the hunt down here and will DIY something if I need to.

The art work above the back wall console will be a DIY. I was looking at the new Ballards Design magazine that came in and fell in love with these maps. They make the over all scheme a bit more manly. The honey approves. At $289 a piece though these will definitely be a DIY project. I love the warm hues they give. Well that's it for now. I just had to log the inspiration before I lose it. :) One Last shot from entryway so you can see how open it will be. LOVE IT!

Great Nightmare

Does anyone else have awkward walls or at least one? Our house has several uneven walls or awkward little nooks. Made the house look gorgeous on the empty walk through when we bought but the design a nightmare.

This wall for instance is 16ft tall and 12ft wide give or take a few inches with a vent that starts about a foot in on the bottom and is 18 inches long. SWEET! Lol

The french doors open to the patio, the small opening next to them is a micro hallway into the master. Other end the wall is a taller opening that leads to two random rooms and extra bathroom. Exactly opposite of the hallway to the two rooms is the stairs to the second level.

I'm really at a loss on design. I favor open floor plans and having a sectional in this tall and long room would close off several openings. I've tried having the furniture at different angles or facing opposite each other and it annoys me. I can't handle the furniture covering part of the stair rails. Call me weird, I don't mind but it is a huge pet peeve of mine. Having the sofa all the on this large back wall would make it way to far for us to enjoy our subtitle movies not to mention the remote is to far away from the t.v. then. Standing and walking halfway to the t.v. to use the remote the horror! ;) Did I mention that we have a corner fireplace?

Oh yea we do with a wide off center opening to the kitchen.

I truly love this space but I need to kick up the functional aspect of it. I am saving up babysitting money for a dark brown leather set and I'm not attached to anything in the room. Honey does want the t.v. to stay over the mantle just mounted a tad higher. I'd love to have a blown up picture of each of the kids in the frames on either side of the french doors. So what do y'all think of this nightmare of a room. Thoughts? Ideas?

Monogramming and Sales

Garnet Hill has been having an awesome after Christmas sale! I found a backpack and lunch box for a fraction of what they originally cost. Backpack $44.95 down to $14.00 and matching lunch box for $8, markdown from $18.00

Being a girl who loves monogramming I sprung for the added touch. I was going to put Jacob on the backpack but when I asked Jake if wanted Jacob or Jake, he asked for Jake because he didn't want to be in trouble at school. Ha! We only call him Jacob when he is in trouble or when we have to be stern. Honey and me thought his reasoning was hilarious so Jake it is for school.

I also love that his backpack has clips on the front so it will not only cover his name but help keep the lunchbox hopefully from not getting lost. Wrapped the pair up and now we just wait til August so Jake can unwrap his first school backpack :)

Front Room Seating

We've been looking at some eye candy for the front room.

We are both over this East lake style furniture. This one has been recovered in gingham. It's our favorite.

We like this set also. Very similar, about $100 less on craigslist. Neutral fabric. Still not sure about the front room idea. Justin pointed out we can easily fit a upright piano in the Great room or guest room so we shall see where we end up :)