Join me by taking a walk through our home and seeing our summer home tour. What a fun day this is! I'm joining several of my blogging friends to bring you our annual summer home tour! A very big thanks to Marty from A Stroll Thru Life for continuing to organize this fun tour. I always enjoy looking through all the different homes, but it's also a great way to document our progress and see how far we've come with our own home. If you're visiting me today from Tamara at Citrine Living, welcome! Tamara has such a beautiful home and her ginger jar collection is nothing short of amazing. She's collected so many lovely jars and they're a real treat to look at! I really had fun ...
Decorating
Our New Living Room Rug
Today I'm sharing all about our new living room rug and how much we are enjoying this fun living room change! A few weeks ago I shared that we were getting a new rug in our living room. After several years of having a jute rug in our living room spaces (I think I bought it in 2012!), I decided it was time for a change and to bring in a new addition to our living room. I went back and forth on which rug I wanted, and shared my favorite options here, and in the end I decided on this rug. I couldn't wait to unroll it, hoping and praying it was close in color to what the pictures looked like online... Our New Living Room Rug I'm happy to report, the new rug is beautiful ...
2021 Spring Home Tour
Spring is finally in the air! Take our spring home tour below to take a peek at our home and see how several of our spaces are decorated for spring. Oh sweet spring time! I don't know about you, but I've been craving the spring season like no other. This last week our weather has been beautiful, only making me more and more excited for spring! Today I'm so happy to be joining Marty from A Stroll Thru Life on her spring home tour. If you're visiting me from Anita at Whispering Pines Homestead, welcome! I love Anita's victorian home and the depth of her decorating! We've had several projects going on over the last couple of months (I can't wait to share more!), and with that, ...
Family Pictures In The Hallway
See how I personalized our home by adding a trio of family pictures in the hallway. It's such an easy and rewarding project! It's hard to believe we've lived in our home for almost three years and in that time, I haven't really added very much artwork to our walls. Other than a few areas, like our entry way, our walls have basically been bare. And for about all three of those years, I've been tripping over a stack of picture frames in our laundry room just waiting to be moved, or hung on the wall. Hanging them up seemed easier than moving them to a different spot...haha... so here we are! We also had family pictures taken right before Thanksgiving last year, making it the ...
The Fear Of Making The Wrong Decorating Choices
The fear of making the wrong decorating choices is real. Below, I'm breaking down several popular fears we all have and how you can overcome them. If you're an email subscriber, you know a few months back I did a recent survey asking all kinds of questions about future interests in the blog and what you'd like to see more of. I received so many great, thoughtful answers and it got me taking a deep dive into several different thought processes we have and go through with our homes. And whether you believe it or not, what we think about ourselves, and our homes, plays a huge role into the environment we create. With that said, a common theme many of us share (myself included), is ...
Art In The Entryway
Looking for a quick, budget friendly way to add art to your home? Digital prints are a great way to personalize your home while staying within budget! Our entryway is still going through a transition period. There's so many things I want to do, but until we can get it done, I've been focusing on easier ways to give the space the fresh look it's been needing. Adding new art in the entryway has done just that. It's been a fun, budget friendly way to really update the space, all while being cost effective. Affiliate links are provided below. Full disclosure here. Adding Art To The Entryway Digital prints have long since been one of my ...
New Dining Room Table
We recently added a new dining room table to our dining room! Suddenly, things are feeling much better! Our dining room... sigh. It's a hard space to figure out. With it being small in size, and right in the middle of two major walkways, figuring out the right furniture placement has been tricky. Since we've been moving furniture around to make room for the baby and her nursery, we recently moved the office furniture to our basement where we'll be reworking everything to make things fit. The table I was using for a desk however, wasn't going to fit. I wasn't sure if it would work in the dining room, but it was a chance I was willing to take in order for us to have a more ...
Our New Entry Light
We've been making some progress around the house these past few weeks. One of the things we were finally able to get done, was installing our new entry light. When we bought the house, most of the rooms didn't have ceiling lighting. I'm not sure why that was such a big trend back in the 1980's, but when we were knee deep in remodeling the house, we had an electrician come in and add recessed lighting, as well as a few new ceiling boxes where we didn't previously have any lights. Our entry was one of those rooms. We've waited several months before buying a light fixture for the space, but since we've been making a few other changes and adding in new furniture, it was time to finally ...
Changes To Our Entry
Now that we're finished with demo and have all the big key items in place, we can finally start playing around with all the fun things in the house. One of the first rooms I wanted to tackle, was our entry. Given that it's one of the first things our guests see when they walk in the door, I wanted to make it tidy and presentable. Changes to our entry our have definitely given the house a breath of fresh air, and it's so nice having a pulled together space when we walk in the door. When we first moved in, and as we were unloading furniture, we put one of our dressers in the the entry and it stayed there until recently. I knew the dresser would never be a permanent solution, but ...
TGI-FRIDAY: A Home Office Update & So Much More
It's time for another TGI-Friday, and this week I'm including a home office update. Honestly, since we've been knee deep in exterior projects, we haven't made a ton of progress, but that's about to change! A little while back, I shared the design plan for the office. We've been buying several of the items, and I can't wait to start putting the room together. One of the big key factors, is going to be getting the closet shelves finished. Right now, it's basically just full of boxes making the room hard to organize. We also need to buy a small filing cabinet, because as much as we've been able to go paperless, there's still papers that need to be kept and filed. I did get the ...
How To Use Patterns In Decor
When I was coming up with the design plan for our office, I knew I wanted to incorporate some kind of pattern. I didn't want it to be too overwhelming, that's not really my style, but I do like to incorporate some sort of pattern into each and every room of our home. It keeps things interesting, and can often bring the final touch to a room. While I was searching for office items, I found so many great pieces that would definitely provide that punch of pattern. Here's the thing though, there really is a way to include them that makes sense. Let's talk about how to use patterns in decor and around your home... Affiliate links are provided below. Full ...
Our First Home Tour
I'm here sharing our first home tour in the Willow House! I've always loved looking back on past home tours. It's fun to see the progress that's made and all the changes that happen year after year. This tour will be one we'll really enjoy looking back on. We have so many projects in the works, and so many unfinished projects, but even through the chaos, we are loving living in this home. We love going through the house, piece by piece, making it ours and really putting our stamp on things. As we've been living in the house, we keep coming up with new ideas and plans for the future. And I'm sure it will change 100 times over, but actually living in the house always brings a ...
My Favorite Digital Prints For Winter
Since we have a few months to go still, today I thought I'd share my favorite digital prints for winter. The perfect thing about purchasing digital prints, is that not only are they cheap, but you can customize the size for your space... just like I did in my dining room! It's also an easy process to frame a digital print... you can either use your own home printer, or have it professionally printed! Digital prints are perfect for adding artwork to your home, decorating for the seasons and mixing and matching with pieces you may already have to create unique displays! Whether you need a horizontal or vertical print, these are perfect! They're all instant downloads, so as soon ...
Bringing Summer Inside
One of my favorite elements of summer, is all the gorgeous blooms and green foliage. Even the weeds look amazing this time of year, so lush and vibrant. I recently took a walk around our property and was surrounded by so much beauty! Even though it was a little dark and gloomy, and the clouds were threatening rain, I couldn't help but walk back to the house to grab my scissors to snip a few of the lovely blooms I found. I'm all about bringing summer inside, and be them weeds or not, these free, light and happy blooms were too perfect not to bring in and create a pretty bouquet... The breakfast nook was the perfect place to display them... It's a bit hard to see, but they ...
A Big Living Room Refresh
If there was one room in our home that just felt... bleh... it was our living room. It just didn't seem to be working for us, no matter what I tried, and there were so many different elements that needed addressed. We needed a big living room refresh to get the room back on track, and that's just what we did with the help of American Furniture Warehouse! First off, we only have one wall in the room that can have furniture up against it, and that's the wall with the T.V. Until we finish our basement, which won't be for a good while, the T.V. stays upstairs, making the rest of the living room a little tricky to layout. We also have a solid wall of doors/ windows, which we planned ...
Decorating Shelves Above The Toilet
If you've been following this blog for a while, you may remember last year when we installed shelves above our toilet in the master bathroom. Since installing them, I've never really "decorated" them. Sure, I added a basket or two, but that was about it. But even with the shelves not decorated, this little area in our bathroom is one of my favorite views. The dark wall behind the shelves, the crisp white planking and the rough texture of the wood all combines to create the perfect backdrop for accessories. I know decorating shelves above the toilet can be a little bit tricky, but I'm absolutely loving how our little area came together. I shopped the house and was able to use things ...
New Breakfast Nook Light
More details on our breakfast nook today! After we added the new stainless steel table to the room, I knew our old lantern style light had to go. It didn't fit the shape and style of the table, and it felt too small since the new table was much longer in size. And to be totally truthful, I'd been envisioning a different style light... Lighting makes such a huge difference, and I think it's often so under valued and appreciated. It's also really easy to update and transform a space just by adding a new light! Please note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which allows us to make a small commission from your purchase, but your purchase price stays the same. ...
Moody Dining Room Shelves
I know... I know... I left you hanging last week with the new dining room changes I made. That beautiful paint color has kind of changed everything! I'm beyond in love with the new color... we have moody dining room shelves now, and they're awesome! I'm still not entirely set on how they're styled, and they're guaranteed to change with time, but I did adjust how I displayed the items on the shelving. I have a lot of thoughts on our dining room... changes I'd like to make, a slight functionality change and the overall feeling in the room, but deciding on how I want to move forward with everything is a little ways off. In the mean time, it's still functioning just like before, except ...
Breakfast Nook Chairs
When we brought in our new table to the breakfast nook from our the upstairs loft of our detached garage, I absolutely loved how the longer, slimmer table filled the space. Our breakfast nook has seen several different "looks" with different furniture. In the beginning, I included a dresser to help fill the space that our little table left to the left side of the room. Without anything there, the room felt a little bit empty, but as soon as we changed the table, everything in the breakfast nook changed. We instantly had a table that filled the main area of the breakfast nook, which I loved. The table is a little bit slimmer than most tables, so we were able to use the best amount of space ...
New Breakfast Nook Table
Lately, our home has been feeling a little dull to me. Stale even. But... if there's one room in the house that is finally feeling and looking like I want it too, it's our breakfast nook. It's been quite the process, and there's been plenty of trial and error, but we've finally reached the point where I'm feeling excited and energized by the direction this little room is going! And it all started with our new breakfast nook table... For so long, the breakfast nook has felt stagnant to me... a bit dreary and lacking something... but I struggled to know exactly what it was. Every time I looked at the room, I felt like it was the table. We've had the old furniture in there for as long ...
Alfalfa Clippings
You're in for a real treat today friends, because I'm sharing an absolutely gorgeous peek into my beautiful friend Chelsea's kitchen! Remember her dining room? Swoon! Her home is utterly fabulous, and I love being able to share it with you... major inspiration, and I know you all love it as much as I do! Chelsea has always mentioned how much she loves how I use the outdoors so much in my décor. Be that just as my initial inspiration, or when I bring the outdoors in with fresh clippings. You know how much I love using tree clippings as my focal point, but for her kitchen, we decided on some Alfalfa clippings. Gorgeous! Living in a very rural area like we do, it's easy to ...
