Mudroom Before & After

It's Friday afternoon and the kids are officially on Christmas break. Let the chaos commence!!


A few weeks ago I showed you the design I was working on for my neighbor's new mudroom.

The original laundry room was off the garage, and was rather small and cramped…

Borrowing space from the garage enabled them to have a much larger room with plenty of space for laundry and storage.

 The floor tile is Restauri Porpora, and the wall paint is Benjamin Moore "Mosaic Tile."

The electrical panel was cleverly hidden behind doors that were coated with chalkboard paint...

The countertop is quartz black noir. We're still waiting for the faucet to be installed.

It's such a great space. I'm a little jealous :)


You can see in this "before" picture, the space they grabbed from the garage to create the mudroom...

And the view from the garage now...

It really didn't affect the garage area at all, and now they have a much more useful room to store all the kids' gear.

I've got to go hang with my boys now, but I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Mom's Dining Room Reveal

Today I get to do my favorite type of blog post… a before and after!


I've been helping my mom make some changes to her dining area. Her home has an open concept floor plan, and the dining area was looking rather dark and drab.


Here is the room before…

And here is the after…

We started by recovering the dining room chairs with a blue and white geometric fabric.

Then we (or I should say my dad!) painted the walls. We used Sherwin Williams' Comfort Gray above the chair rail. The walls below the chair rail were painted white to match the trim of the house. The new paint colors really helped to revive the space.

We added a few new accessories. The ginger jars came from Home Goods. And, the gorgeous prints came from the lovely and talented Jennifer at The Pink Pagoda.

My mother brightened up the existing mirror by lightly brushing it with some of the "Comfort Gray" paint.

We are absolutely loving the new look of her dining room.

Hope you like it, too! :)


Sharing at The Pink Pagoda's March Blue and White Bash

My Christmas Mantel

This is my year of keeping Christmas decorating simple, and the mantel is no exception.

I want my house to feel cozy and inviting, but I also want to enjoy this time of year and not make myself crazy with decorating.

I kept all of my usual accessories on top of the mantel, and just added greenery and lights. I had a couple of faux branches that I used on the ends, and I filled in the middle with cut roping from Costco. I was pretty loosey goosey with the lights… intertwining them through the lantern, ball jars and greenery.

I did get some new stockings this year. I wanted something neutral and reasonably-priced since I needed 6 of them. I found these cable knit ones as JoAnn Fabrics for $10 each. Score!

The stockings are "labeled" with lettered ornaments that I picked up a few years ago at Restoration Hardware.

While I've been getting the inside of my house ready for Christmas, Mother Nature's been doing her part outside. Lots of snow out there, and the kids are on a 2 hour school delay this morning.

It's the perfect day to sit by the fire!

Stay safe and warm, and have a great day :)

Meet Chewie

What do I do when it's two weeks before Christmas and I haven't begun my Christmas present shopping or decorated my tree?

Rescue a dog, of course. Isn't that what any sane person would do?

I went to check out this little fella for my parents' friend who recently lost her husband.
We have always been a big dog family, so when I go to visit the rescue dogs, I pass right by the little doggies and head straight to the big boys.

But, since my parents' friend wanted a lap dog, I thought this boy looked like a good candidate. Well, let me tell you, the minute I took him out of his crate, I was IN LOVE! He was so calm and sweet and snuggled right into me. I couldn't leave him there.

I texted his picture to my mom, but unfortunately, her friend preferred to have a female dog. I explained to my mother that I couldn't possibly leave this dog. He was something special. And, we would regret it if we let him get away. My parents have always said they were done having dogs, but for some reason, they agreed to foster him for a week.

If they didn't decide to keep him, I would have. I just wasn't sure our Lucky would be too thrilled about it.

Luckily my parents fell in love with him, and he's officially part of the family. They named him Chewie, due to his resemblance to Chewbacca.


However, after his recent grooming, he doesn't look too much like an ewok anymore :)

I just found out that Chewy's girlfriend has puppies that will be available for adoption soon. If they are anything like him, I might get myself into trouble :)


Are you ready for Christmas? Or are you finding other ways to procrastinate like me??

Blogger Stylin' Home Tours

Lindsay at The White Buffalo Styling Co. put together an awesome Christmas home tour series, and I'm honored to be a part of it.

To those of you who are coming over from The Thriftress and are here for the first time…. a big warm welcome! And, to my loyal readers… I'm always glad to have you here :)

Today I'm going to share some of my Christmas decor with you. I'd show it all, but that would require me to actually be finished with it. Which I'm not. So, I'll take you through the living and dining rooms, and hopefully, you'll come back to see the rest of the decorating as it unfolds.

Come on in...

Traditional red Christmas decorations wouldn't jive with my home's color scheme. Instead, I've used simple touches of greenery with neutral colors and pops of pink. I'm slightly obsessed with pink.

This pretty rattan wreath is the newest addition to my Christmas stash.

Silver and gold… and pink...

My advent wreath...

I love a boxwood wreath...

Pay no attention to the naked bannister. It'll be dressed in garland soon :)...

Let's head into the dining room. You must forgive me if I have gone overboard with pictures of this room. I finally have my pink silk drapes up, and I may have gone a little picture-happy :)

I've been creating this "fruit tree" for the last few years. It looked really great when my room was a  Williamsburg colonial-style. It may not look perfect with my new colors, but I'm okay with that. You gotta feel it. It's eclectic! Boogie woogie woogie...

These napkins I found are perfect for the room though. Each napkin is one of the "12 Days of Christmas," and I love that they have a pink and turquoise color combination.

See? I did go overboard with pictures.

One more...

I might enjoy outdoor Christmas decor even more than indoor. It's so magical walking or driving at night and seeing all the beautiful lights.

I always look forward to putting candles in the windows. Wish it wouldn't be weird to keep them there all year long. It just seems so home-y to me.

Our backyard is surrounded by fir trees. Some have been around for a long time and are very tall, so we can't light them. Others we planted about 6 years ago, and they're getting to the point where my poor husband can't reach the tops with a ladder anymore. But, he did a pretty good job...

I told him we'd have to rent a cherry picker next year, because looking out at those trees is one of my favorite things.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I still have quite a bit of Christmas decorating to show you. The kids and I are decorating the real Christmas tree this week, and my mantel is awaiting the arrival of one more stocking.

So… please come back and visit again!

In the meantime, head on over to Jamie's beautiful home at So Much Better with Age to see what she has in store for you.



Here's a list of all the homes on the tour…

Monday:

Lindsay - The White Buffalo Styilng Co.

Roeshel - DIY Showoff 

Jess and Monica - East Coast Creative

Laura - Finding Home 

Jesse - Scout & Nimble

Sarah - Sarah M. Dorsey 

Angela - Number Fifty-Three 

Gwen - The Makerista 

Brittany - Brittany Makes 

Tuesday:

Ashley - The Handmade Home  

Anneke - This, That, & Life 

Gina - Shabby Creek Cottage 

Cassie - Primitive & Proper 

Caitlin - Desert Domicile 

Jenna - Rain on a Tin Roof

Sarah - The Thriftress 

Carolyn - Sweet Chaos Home 

Jamie - So Much Better with Age 

Shavonda - A Home Full of Color 

Wednesday:

Emily - Jones Design Company

Jamie - C.R.A.F.T. 

Lucy - Craftberry Bush 

Michelle - Decor and the Dog 

Whitney - The Curtis Casa 

Kristin - Bliss at Home 

Summer - Simple Stylings 

Sarah - Lacquer and Linen  

 Kelly - View Along the Way 

Thursday:

Kennesha - Restoration House Interiors 

Jenna - SAS Interiors

Chris - Just a Girl 

Kelly - Eclectically Vintage 

Michelle - Iron and Twine 

Amanda - Our Humble Abode 

Julia - Cuckoo 4 Design 

Bethany - Dwellings by Devore

Lindsay - Makely Home

Jennifer - Dimples and Tangles 

Friday:

Shauna - Perfectly Imperfect

Traci - Beneath My Heart 

Jennifer - The Chronicles of Home 

Jen - Tatertots and Jello 

Kristin - Hunted Interior 

Eileen - A Creative Day 

Gabbi - Retro Ranch Reno 

Shannon - Shannon Berrey Designs

Kristen - KFD Designs 

Jessica - Dear Emmeline  

Sarah - Royal Marigold 

Carmel - Our Fifth House 

Danika - Gorgeous Shiny Things

Have a great day!!

Sharing at Thrifty Decor Chick's Christmas Party

Terracotta Pot Advent Wreath

Hello! Hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving. Mine was filled with friends and family and too much food.

Yesterday I had a rude awakening when I was the only member of my tennis clinic to show up for practice. Nothing like huffing and puffing through an hour and a half private tennis lesson to yank you out of a food coma :)

Now that I've emerged from my tryptophan tranquility, I can't believe it's already Advent. Thankfully, I had finished my Advent wreath in the nick of time.

I am not a crafty person by nature, but once in a while I see something that inspires me to try. This picture on Pinterest was my inspiration.

via

I had some terra cotta pots, but I needed to give them a little patina. I lightly brushed on Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in "Louis Blue" and "Old White" for bit of a time-worn look.

Using EAB Design's suggestion, I downloaded and printed out numbers in the font, Bickham Script Pro and created stencils. I used black acrylic craft paint for the numbers.

I filled the pots with rice to secure the candles and added moss to the top.

As you can see, we've already lit the first candle for week one.

I tend to get overwhelmed by Christmas shopping and wrapping and decorating my house in December. I want to stay focused on the true meaning of Christmas, and this Advent wreath is a reminder for our family to spend time in hopeful anticipation.