Giving a Little Preview of You in Your Home

Someone once told me that three places in your home that you can give a flavor of your personal tastes and style and create a welcoming atmosphere are your front door, mantle, and dining table. These are areas that you can change up seasonally or as your tastes change, and give guests in your home a way of seeing what your decorating style is at first glance. I'm still working on my table, but I've recently finished updating the door and mantle. So, here is how I've currently decorated those areas, and of course, they are DIY projects that cost me hardly anything!

Front door:

View from the street


Closer up; my dad made this iron-art piece for me, the planter I pulled out of a trash pile!, and the personalized wreath I made very inexpensively (see below)


Upclose of the planter box; loved the weathered/aged look, this was exactly how I found it, and yes, out of a trash pile on the side of the road!


And here's the close up of the wreath; I found the wreath at Hobby Lobby, loved the unique shape of it, and it was half off. I then recycled this ribbon from the diaper cake made for me at Luke's baby shower! And the "D" I made out of a recycled FedEx box! I just drew the shape of the letter, cut it out, and used hot glue and burlap to cover it, then used hot glue to add the rick-rack; lastly used hot glue to attach it to the wreath. Easy as can be and practically free!


Mantle:

Here is the first version of my mantle. I've had the old window there for awhile, but just recently added the wreath. Got this idea from my friend, Tiffany, but loved it so much, I had to adjust the idea for my space.


Second version: I took out the moss orbs and added books that I turned pages out to uniform the color and make it more neutral. I also adjusted the other accessories.


Upclose of the wreath. Love how this adds so much to the window


Another view of the mantle


Last view from the other side


Hope you enjoyed this little piece of me through my spaces and maybe have gotten a few ideas for the first welcoming spaces in your home!

Bedroom: Baby Girl Nursery

So, I'm FINALLY getting around to posting pictures of my baby girl's nursery. I figured although I don't feel "finished" with the room, I'd go ahead and share what all I've done up to this point.

Welcome to Mia's room:


The following pictures are traveling around the room from left to right:

(The top of this little green dresser is not really decorated yet; these are just pieces that will be incorporated in the room somewhere)







This room started out as an office, painted a dark green Behr color called Painted Turtle. So after some priming and two coats of two different pink paints (Behr, My Fair Lady, bottom wall color and Coy Pink, top wall color and ceiling) we got this lovely little girl's nursery! I also decided to use brown trim to separate the pinks to give a little weight to the bright and airy pink walls. The trim is about 10-12 inches from the ceiling as opposed to chair rail height or molding height:


This green display shelf was made by my grandfather and was in my room growing up painted white. I painted it green and added fabric to the back of it.


Here are some upclose pictures of the shelves:
Top of the shelf--Mia's footprints at 8 weeks propped up against a pink plate, a Precious Moments ballerina given to me by my dance group, an antique glass-lidded container, and Momma as the Dewdrop Fairy:)


Sorry this picture is blurry, but used a little silver tray as a background for one of her newborn pictures, along with a pink basket propped on its side, and her Bible


Covered a frame with fabric and put this picture of Luke kissing her head


Spray-painted a clearance clock from Hobby Lobby ($2.99) and an antique vanity handheld mirror and (not-pictured) a silver tray with a candle to round out the bottom shelf


My mom made this sweater and bonnet for me when I was a newborn! Perfect colors for this room and I love this heirloom piece. I've actually noticed in putting together Mia's room that I'm very fond of heirloom pieces. I absolutely love things with family history attached to them!


This is one of my favorite things in the room. I first showed you these vinyl wall decals when I posted the pictures about Luke's room. I got them from this online store (loved working with this company--so friendly and created exactly what I wanted!). I got a scrap piece of sheetrock, painted it the wall color, and made a foamboard frame covered with batting and fabric. I then added the fabric-rolled flowers that are all over blogland right now. I intend to add more flowers, but haven't made them yet! These are so easy and are made from scrap fabrics, so they are free!




Now for a few upclose details around the room:

This is the same dresser I used in Luke's nursery, but changed out the knobs. Got these from Hobby Lobby when they went 50% off.


The light fixture. This used to be in my childhood room and I just love it in here!


I got this chandelier from Hobby Lobby as well when it was on half off sale. I love it and just had to have it in her room! It hangs over the crib.


I turned this brown basket on its side to use kind of like a shelf on the other end of the dresser to give me more dresser/changing table space. I also revamped the lamp, which you'll see in a minute.


I didn't want the humidifier to be so obvious (and it was blue which just wouldn't work;)) so I took an old Pampers box, cut it to size, and covered it with fabric.


Here's the DIY crib bedding! This was quite a project that I worked my way through by searching on the internet to see how others did it! I made the crib skirt based on Luke's old one and then covered his old bumpers with this new fabric and ribbon. It was actually pretty easy, just time-consuming. In fact, the entire inspiration for the room was from these fabrics I found at Hobby Lobby. I started with these fabrics then pulled all the colors from them.




I found this "M" coat/bag hanger at the thrift store for $2. It started out blue so I painted it green and added the polka dots. The bag was a baby gift that Mia will use as her first ballet bag, and I made the tutu for her during the pregnancy. The tutu was also extremely easy, which I'll do a separate post for. This wall is still being switched around, so I don't think the bag and tutu will hang here permanently, but I wanted it out when she was first born (indoctrinate early;)!


This was my rocker in Luke's room, so I just made the pillows with scrap fabric to add a little girlyness to it.


My mom and I worked on this black-out curtain (found on clearance at Home Goods, maybe $8.99). You can see the top and the bottom of it. We added the pom-pom fringe to the top and then the fabric and trim to the bottom to make it longer. I wanted to hang it above the actual height of the window, to make the window look bigger, so that's why I added the fabric to the bottom. I just love this little paisly fabric!



This is the wall above the dresser/changing table. The corkboard started out as a plain, tan, run-of-the-mill corkboard. I painted the frame green and then used the fun fabric to cover the cork. Took some ribbon and thumb-tacks (painted green to add some personality) and made a little diamond pattern to stick notes or pictures under. The top, small window box with the animals, I just covered with batting and scrap fabric and then hung an antique vanity tray mirror underneath.


Here's the upclose of the revamped lamp. The base was clear crystal and gold so that was spray painted pink and then I took the old shade and hot-glued ribbon around it. Finished it out with scrap pom-pom fringe.



So there it is! I've had so much fun pulling decor together for this room. I still want to readjust some of the shelving knick-knacks as well as get a rug, but I definitely wanted to get this post done before the original things were switched up. I want to remember version #1! I'll keep you posted on how I update it!

Thanks for sticking in there with me on this blog. It's slow going, but I'm hoping to start posting more. I love sharing and getting new ideas with the blogworld! Let me know the latest room you are working on in your home!

Finally Finished!!

I've finally finished the piece of furniture I gave you a before shot of last month. It has gone from "drab to fab!" I love the way it came out! I've wanted a coat closet so badly and a way to have great storage right by the door for mail, keys, kids' shoes/bags, and all those miscellanous objects that clutter! So here is my solution...



So a little history behind this piece: Ross and I rescued it off the side of the road! The original piece had drawers on the left side that were all busted up along with a cracked leg. Although he was skeptical, I saw the potential! I've always wanted to find junk and turn it into treasure! So my dad helped in fixing the leg and made the shelves for the baskets and we turned it into this great storage piece for our entryway.

I don't have step-by-step pictures of the painting process, but basically I painted Sherwin Williams "Caribbean Coral" (same wall color in by guest bathroom) first, then painted "Pacer White" (same color as our interior trim color) over that. I then took my handy-dandy sander and roughed up the whole piece, sanding harder in some spots than others so that the original color would come out. Here are a couple upclose pictures of the edges:




I found the baskets at Bed, Bath, and Beyond on clearance. They were orignally $17 a piece but were on sale for $10. I had 20% coupons for each basket so was able to get them for about $8/ea! They started out like this:



But I then decided they weren't as impactful as I wanted. So I found chalkboard labels from this store on Etsy and made the little cards to attach them to. I then personalized each label with our names. Here is an upclose shot and a little mini picture tutorial on how to make the label cards:












To the inside of the wardrobe, I added a door mat cut-to-size on the bottom to allow for shoe storage if needed. I also added cork squares (using the adhesive squares that come with them) to the inside of the door to have a place to hold invitations, announcements, etc. I used twine and pushpins to make the diamond pattern to hold the cards.




A few personal items accessorize the top:


And a nice knob for the door (found at Hobby Lobby) to finish it off:


Not bad for a old dresser/wardrobe picked up off the side of the road! Let me know whatcha think and how you have added storage in your home!

I have so many more projects that I've started or are swirling around in my head so stick with me! The posts are few and far between right now, but eventually I'll get back to posting more often! Two little ones are kinda keeping my attention right now, and that's just how it should be!:)