Adios Amigos

Taking off for a little R&R...be back soon

Here's a hint of where I'm headed

This one will be pretty accurate for the next few days too...



What was once old...

Is it just me or does everybody secretly think that if they were to dig through their grandparents house they would come across a treasure burried deep somewhere in the attic that they could then take to the antique roadshow, only to be told they have found a unbelievably rare piece that now makes you a millionaire!!!

Ok, so it's just me that has had that thought...

Well, recently my family has been cleaning out my grandparents house.  While I did NOT find any rare treasures that would make me a millionare I did find a few things that were "neat", a few things I wish my eyes had never seen...and I claimed 3 things I saw good potential in!  What I claimed was 2 chairs and an ottoman, and when I asked if I could have them my family looked at me like I had 3 heads!!

Oh how I wish I had remembered to take before pictures (this is why I desperately need a new phone with a good camera) but if you can picture a brown and orange tweed from the 1950's that should give you a good idea of what kind of condition they were in!  Here's some pictures I found online that  hint at it...

So pretty, right???

The good news is I'm not completely crazy!  The frame of the chairs is all solid dark pine, only the cushions were tweed and they were easily removable, an easy fix!

I contacted Jamie Meares at Furbish (some of you may follow her blog isuwannee) and she was more than willing to help me construct some new cushions.  The old cushions were trash, we had to start from scratch.

I thought I would go with a really fun print or something bright, but ended up staying neutral to my surprise.

Here are the chairs in their new home, with new cushions!

Jamie did a great job the new cushions!!  Here's a closeup

I went with a cream linen with green piping and button.  The green fabric almost has a sheen to it so it's a great contrast against the linen.  (Note to self: must scotch guard asap!!)

The wood has some damage to it, more so than I had remembered, so I'm working with a local refurbisher to have them looking brand new again!  Now I just need to pick out some fun pillows to go with them.  Here's some ideas I have so far

I want to keep red in the pillow to tie in our big red couch. 

What do you think???

From Blah to Boudoir!

I mentioned awhile ago that I was completely inspired by this picture from The Lettered Cottage and intended to replicate this in my own bedroom.

Now without further ado...my bedroom project!

The before...I really need to work on remembering to take pictures BEFORE I start a project!

I have hated the color of our bedroom for awhile so the first step was paint!  We went from a drab khaki to a light soothing grey

(Benjamin Moore Wish) 

Here are our ugly closet doors 

After I removed the doors I added a fresh coat of white paint

Then I sprayed all the door hardware black to match the rest of the black hardware on our furniture

I measure the mirror and cut all my trim pieces and painted them.

Then I realized I cut all my trim pieces exactly 1 inch too short.

I went back to Home Depot, bought more trim pieces, meausred about 50 times, recut and repainted.

That was fun.

I had two 1/8 inch pieces of glass cut to fit the door and assembled them in my workshop guest room

One of these days I'll have a work space...

After I attached the mirror to the door with mirror mastic and the trim pieces with liquid nails and some small finishing nails I let them sit for about a day before hanging them back up.

I made a few more changes as well and TADA!!!!

My Our new boudoir!!!

I removed our old non matching (ugly) lamps and replaced them with matching wall mounted sconces

I LOVE the mirros on the closet doors! 

Please ignore the plethora of hats collected on our dresser.  We're getting ready for a little vacation and this is the start of the packing! 

I can't believe how much bigger our room feels just by adding a few mirrors!  We only have one window in our bedroom and this bounces so much more light around the room!

Yes, the doors are crooked.  When I have the time and energy I will fix this, until then I'll go on cursing the prior owner who did everything half ass in this house thus creating more work for me!

I added some art with a little sentimental meaning.  The large frame is an old map of the virgin island which we picked up on our honeymoon.

The smaller frames I painted white and antiqued and I found the nautical prints here on Etsy.

Grey dog loves the new room too!

I have to say I am very pleased with how it turned out!  It actually feels like a little retreat space now and I love being in there.  It's amazing what a little paint and a few simple changes can do to transform a space.

Onto the next project!!!



Circle of love...

 I just returned from a wonderful weekend in Pinehurst, NC with some of my favorite Sigma Kappa sorority sisters!  One of the girls, Shaler, has a family house in Pinehurst and seeing how we are now spread out up and down the east coast, reuniting back in NC close to our alma mater Elon University makes for a good central location.  

(It also happens to be super convenient for myself as it's only a little over an hour away from me!)

The Pinehurst trip started as sporadic get-togethers but has morphed into an annual tradition, so now once a year we try and meet up and whoever can make it does.  There are a lot of new babies on the way this year and a few have recently arrived, so the crowd was a little smaller than usual, but we still had a blast!

I unfortunately and very uncharacteristically of myself forgot my camera, so I will be patiently waiting for friends to share their photos!!!  hint hint ;) 

In the mean time I thought I would tell you one of my favorite things about Pinehurst. 

It's the GORGEOUS houses!!!

I pretty much almost get into multiple car accidents when I'm driving around because I can't stop staring at all the beautiful homes.  One thing you see over and over...and over again are circular driveways!

I'll tell you a little secret about myself...I PINE for a circular driveway in my future!!!! 

When I peruse the MLS listings in my spare time, I'm constantly looking at the size of the front yard to see if it would be possible to add in a circular driveway. 

On Saturday morning we drove around and stalked some homes for a bit.  Unfortunately my cell phone is a P.O.S. and doesn't take good pictures so you will have to settle for these pictures I found online instead

 Can't you just see the potential here!

 Quaint and cute, looks just like a Pinehurst house...in fact I think I may have found this one when I googled "Pinehurst houses with circular drives".  It looks familiar...

 I could see myself parking in front of this house...I would need a fancy new car to match though

 You want to pull in that driveway too don't you!

 Again...potential!!!!



I see French country side when I see this!

 Aaaaaand...I'm home!

Hope you had a great weekend too!! 

P.S. I realize (and have had it pointed out to me) that I have been slack at showing you the finished product of a few projects, like the bathroom and mirrored doors...soooo I'm going to try and do that tonight!  Stay tuned!

I heart remodels!

I had to share this AMAZING renovation I saw over at Remodelholic

It makes me want to renovate an attic into my own little retreat space!

Now I just need a house with a walk up attic...



Kudos Ewe Hooo!!!

Nature or Nurture

Here's a fun little article I discovered over at Deliciously Organized

It's from HouseBeautiful.com - Pillow Talk

Apparently my pillows are perfectly symmetrical

The definition reads:

Keeping all your ducks in a row — and your pillows too — means you have a tailored, classic style. This look is best for someone who is detail-orientated, organized, and orderly.

Tailored, classic style...yes, yes I will go along with that.

Detail-orientated, organized and orderly...hmmmmmm.  Yes on the detail-orientated, unfortunately the rest reads more like my mother.  My mother makes her bed this way also, which is where I am assuming I learned this perfectly symmetrical style of bed pillow lay-out.

So is my pillow talk more by nuture or nature???

I think i yearn to be organized and orderly, so I'm going with Nature!

Breaking News!

I know a lot of people who are going to be very jealous about this announcement as their time has come and gone...however there will be even more people thrilled with this little tid bit of information

Anthropologie is launching their very own wedding line on Valentines Day!!!

(I can hear the collective cheers and sighs now)

How about a sneak peak

You can find more info here: http://www.glamour.com/weddings/blogs/save-the-date/2011/02/want-a-sneak-peak-of-the-new-a.html?mbid=fb_fanpage 

Inpiration

The wonderful world of the WWW

I've mentioned before that the online magazine Lonny is one of my favorite monthly reads.  Well there seems to be an exploding trend in the online magazine arena and I'm loving every minute of it. 

I've always been a sucker at the check out line in the grocery store or convenience stand in the airport for picking up countless magazines ranging from trashy gossip to elegent design.  Unfortunately this habbit was starting to create a large dent in my wallet and A LOT of clutter at my house! 

(I have baskets of magazines all over my house, it's not ok)

So online magazines make me smile becase

A.They're FREE and B.They're so satisfying!

Two new online magazines launched in just the past week or so  and they also happen to be authored by two of my favorite bloggers!  If you have some time you'll have to check them out:

MatchBook - By: Katie Armour

HighGloss - By: Paloma Contreras

I tip my hat and thank you for some fun new reading material!

One of those days

Puppies

Tulips

Sunny Days

The Beach

Wine

My Hubs

Grey Dog

Pretty Fabric

Clothing Sales

My Friends - near and far

Decorative Baskets

A fire in the fireplace...and not a gas fireplace

Candles

Renovating

NY Pizza

Wainscoting

My crazy family

I am having what some might call a challenging day...

I'm just trying my best to think of things that make me happy...

What are some things that make you happy...maybe they'll help bring me a smile too!

In the mean time I'll have this on repeat

Measure twice...cut once

The bedroom is painted and looks fantastic (minus a few mishaps on my ceiling/wall edging I need to touch up)

I went with Benjamin Moore Wish



It's a perfectly soft and soothing.  It doesn't lean too much towards the blue family or the tan family, just a really nice pure grey tone!

The mirrored doors on the other hand are taking a tad longer than expected. 

Ya know the old saying, measure twice, cut once.  Well my mantra should be more like measure 5 times, mark your cut spot, then go back and measure a few more times.  Needless to say I cut all my trim pieces an inch too short.  ARRRRRGGGG!!!

I'm hoping to have it done in a few days, Bryan might kill me if I don't put the closet doors back up soon.