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I have been crushing on patterned floor tiles and graphic stone flooring for some time, but have not determined if I could be swayed into this sort of carpet.

{Apartment Therapy}

{Country Living}

{Ann Sacks}

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I’m a huge fan of color, but my favorite color for the bedroom is white. I like my bed to look like a fluffy white cloud that I can nestle into.

{bedroom styled by Eva Lindh via This is Glamorous}

{House Beautiful via Apartment Therapy and The City Sage}

{Black & White Home}

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I think we can grab inspiration from all around us, especially from nature.  When things are kind of bleak outside as they are now, it’s nice to recall the colors of green grass against the blue sky.  I think blue and green go so well together, from aqua and olive to kelly and sky blue!

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My New Year’s resolution is to just do – no more procrastinating, putting things off or wavering with my decisions. It is time to get things done – in our house, at work, with my blogs, etc. Another incentive for getting our house in shape, is my mother-in-law and sister-in-law upcoming visit. It is crunch time to get our house organized and looking fantastic. The last time Nick’s mother visited we’d only been here a month so it was half painted and barely decorated.

Our “Home Sweet Home” was introduced in this post, and has changed a bit since those photos, but we still have a lot to do to make it truly “sweet.” We can’t afford to do everything I want all at once, so I’ve selected a few less expensive projects to complete before they arrive. The first room to tackle is the dining and living room. This room opens up into the entry and is the first room you see when you walk into the house. These photos show some views as of November, hence, the Halloween/Thanksgiving decor. Sorry for the terrible photos; they were taken at night before a dinner party.

Please ignore that beautiful plaid, hand-me down sofa peeking out in the corner and pretend it is a fabulous tan or green sofa from Pottery Barn. For now, it stays. I try to ignore it. Also, pretend you don’t notice the horrifying vertical blinds. For now, the blinds provide privacy and a break from the constant sun. Those will be dealt with during their visit. I might not have mentioned that my MIL is an interior designer.* During her visit, she is planning to help me choose, purchase or order and possibly hang curtains.

My short term to-do list for this space includes:

1. Find chairs. I know exactly what dining table chairs I want. However, they are relatively expensive, so I’m hoping to find some cheap yet attractive chairs to paint black and hold me over until I save up for the ones I really want. The black folding chairs aren’t doing it for me!
2. Get a gallery wall up. To the right of the dining table, I really want to do a wall filled with black frames showcasing old family photos, wedding photos, etc. This is one of those things I’ve been putting off pulling the trigger on for the past few months. Now is the time.
3. Organize and style the bookcases. I threw the books and magazines in the shelves right after I put them together, so I want things to be a bit more styled and edited.
4. Remove and repaint chandelier. The light fixture is brown speckled with black. A quick swash of black spray paint and one other small touch should do the trick to make it look more fantastic.

The long-term to-do list includes so many more items, but these will get me to a place where I actually like this space and finally feel at home. Plus, they are somewhat easy to accomplish in a short amount of time. I am looking forward to checking these to-dos off my list all the while sharing the process with EAD Living readers!

Do you have any tips or recommendations for completing my to-dos? Are any of your New Year’s resolutions decor-based? What are your goals for your home in the new year?

*Could this be why I am so freaking out about our house looking nice? Why, yes it is! She and I have different, yet similar tastes and are both very opinionated, so the curtain process should be interesting.

Happy New Year, everyone!  I haven’t posted in a while but with good reason – as it turns out, we’re buying a house and things have been pretty crazy! Somewhere around Thanksgiving we started mulling over the possibility of shopping for a house. This was not in our original plan, but on a whim we started evaluating current real estate prices which when combined with incredibly low interest rates and the extension of the appealing first-time home buyer tax credit, really made buying a home for us as first-time buyers quite appealing. We decided it would be silly not to at least see what was out there in our price range in our area.

Seemingly out of the blue, we put an offer on a house and away we’ve gone down the path to home ownership! We had our home inspection earlier this week and, unfortunately, a few issues did arise. Nothing appears to be a deal breaker at this point but there is one significant enough problem that has landed us back in negotiations, the end of which we might not see for a few days. So while all of that is going on, I’m distracting myself by digging up inspiration for renovating the terribly outdated kitchen we’re inheriting. It comes complete with more late 70s/early 80s charm than I can stomach.

To get us started, here is a look at the kitchen we will be working with:

And here are a few that I’m loving…

{Apartment Therapy}

While I can’t forsee myself ever going with something this bright, I love the idea of introducing color on cabinetry. Why is it that we always feel so compelled to stick with neutrals anyway? And I love the combination of the bold modern color with the classic white farmhouse sink. That is just the sort of juxtaposition of which I can’t get enough.

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I needed a somewhat fashionable curtain for our bedroom, and wasn’t having an easy time of explaining what I wanted to a seamstress. After trying a few times to find an affordable option in the stores, I gave up and created my own bohemian version (i.e. I didn’t pull out the machine and sew the seams).

Here’s the finished version:

Take your fabric and cut into strips that are about a foot longer in length than they need to be, and in whatever width you desire. I chose varying widths. Thicker widths create more coverage and larger knots, thinner widths create the opposite.

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I might be a little behind in getting on board the glitter house boat (I believe they became re-popularized in 2006 by Martha), but some people still haven’t heard of them so…  Here are two little houses I made.

“These quaint little decorations, known as ‘putz houses’ or ‘putzes’, were found on tables, mantles and under Christmas trees in homes across America for many decades starting around the early 1900’s.” (-LittleGlitterHouses.com). The blue one above as an attempt at a model of my own home.

I think glitter houses are adorable for Christmas and a fun craft project.  You can check out Martha’s instructions and templates here.  The pink, yellow, and green house I made is from LittleGlitterHouses.com.  It’s simpler than Martha’s, so it’s a good one to start with if you want to give this craft project a try.

A few things the tutorials didn’t mention: For the windows, I use red clear cellophane that’s like the stuff you wrap Easter baskets up in.  For the light inside, LED tea lights work perfectly.  If it won’t fit in the house, stick it in the base and make a hole for the flame part to come through.  You could also run a string of twinkle lights across your mantle or wherever you have your houses set up, but I couldn’t bear to see the cord. I’m trying again on my house soon – with lollipop sticks for the porch railing.  Wish me luck!

If you like these but don’t want to get quite as involved, check out Martha’s Train Station kit, available in lots of craft stores (I’ve seen it in Michael’s and AC Moore).

Have you tried these before?  Any tips?

P.S. Bonus – I’ve started blogging about the Baltic cruise Ami and I went on with our husbands over on my travel blog.  Come visit!

I’ve always been a fan of crafty projects and what better time of year to bust out your inner Martha than with the holiday season? There’s nothing like personalized touches in your home and a lot of times I choose to make our decorations instead of buying them because I love having full control over what we display. Saving money doesn’t hurt, either:)

For instance, both my husband and I grew up in homes that celebrated Christmas with yearly ornaments. That means that every year of our lives, from birth until we were ‘on our own’, is well-represented via ornaments. My mom and mother-in-law gave us all of the yearly ornaments last year and it is SO much fun to go through year by year and relive the memories. This is something I want to do for our family, too, and so beginning with the year of our wedding I’ve made a family ornament to hang on the tree. I just used a picture, some cardboard, glittery glue, some string, and any other little details I can find and voila….a yearly ornament!

2007:

2008:

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Lowe’s is my favorite big home improvement store, so I was pretty excited to see a commercial on HGTV about Lowe’s Creative Ideas for Home and Garden. It’s a bi-monthly publication that you can get delivered right to your home for FREE. There’s a sample issue here so you can see if you’ll enjoy it.

They also have a free publication focusing on woodwork projects; check out a sample issue of that here.  And, of course, there are ideas on their website.

Are you a Lowe’s lover?

I have an obsession with black lampshades:

{Desire to Inspire}

{Elle Decor}

{Decorpad}

I think they add a little drama to a room, and who doesn’t want that?

I had a basic Ikea floor lamp in my living room just begging for some drama so I decided to recover it. Below are step by step instructions.

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