Excuse Me While I Powder My Nose

Powder Room, Half-Bath, Water Closet. There are lots of names for it but when you really think about it none seem to truly fit. Anyways, meet our guest bathroom.

Its got some good bones, pretty basic but it does its duty. The trash can & toilet paper box were my birthday gifts from Tim's mom and yes, they are from Pottery Barn. The candles and holders were a wedding/housewarming gift from Tim's parent's neighbors. They fill up that empty spot and the candles are vanilla scented which is pretty awesome because you can smell them each time you walk by.

Things we have left to do here:


1. Get a vanity sink - When we first built the house we had the option to do a vanity sink then but didn't have the money. This is still a long term goal but I like the idea of having a place to put some stuff without worrying about it falling into the sink. Restoration Hardware has one, for an insane $2,000 on sale, that I will be using as a reference point to find one for us. They even offer the Crema Marfil Marble which matches the hearth of our fireplace.

2. Get a rug - Yet again, not surprising, but for two in a row I have found them other places than Pottery Barn. This one is on sale for only $14 at Ballard Designs, think I'm going to take the plunge and get this for sure.

3. Get a snazzy new faucet for the pretty new vanity - All of our accessories are oil-rubbed bronze so I want to get something to match. I found a vintage looking one I'm a pretty big fan of over at Delta.

4. Get some art - I love these prints from Ballard Designs. I'd have to wait until they actually arrived to decide if I'd put them over the toilet or on the bigger wall to the left of it. I do like the way all of them look together though so I guess that means I need to buy the set.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry

Tonight its all about the Dining Room, the least used room in our house. When we started to build the house we opted out of an eat-in kitchen for the simple fact that we typically will just plop down on the couches in front of the TV and hang out while we eat. We do have a table and chairs in the dining room right now but those are leftover from Tim's college days (aka they are covered in marks from many games of quarters). It is convenient when we have parties to put the food on and have people easily walk around.

I do love our light fixture and that will most definately stick around. The table and chair have got to go though. Half of the rungs are missing so Tim & I are always trying to make sure guests don't sit in them and end up on the floor by the end of dinner.

Things we have left to do here:


1. Get a rug - I want something thats pretty tough like jute but still is soft on your bare feet, enter the chenille jute basketweave rug from Pottery Barn. It even has the same color scheme I like through the rest of the house.

2. Get a china cabinet -  Sorry for the fuzzy picture but I saw this at a store called Dutchman's when Tim & I went on our mini-moon this year. They were the perfect mix of Anthropologie, Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware all in one, my dream come true.

3. Get a table -  I found this one while my cousin and I were out furniture shopping at Bassett one day and love the concept because when it expands it doesn't become an oval. You add the additions around the edge so it becomes a bigger circle. Not a huge deal but for some reason I just don't like oval shapes. Yes, it is weird, I know...

4. Buy some chairs we aren't afraid of letting our guests sit in - Pottery Barn, surprise, surprise, has some that I've had my eye on. I think I want to get 8, six to stay around the table and two extras I can store in the corners to either side of the china cabinet for extra guests.

5. Cover the tan - Obviously this room has the same issue as many of the others in the house with its overabundance of neutral.  I want to get something to add a little color to all of that so I need to figure out some artwork to go in there. 


6. Get some curtains - Once again just to finish off the room I'l like some curtains over the double windows. Plus its extra protection from our friendly peeping house-hunters.

Not too much of a welcome . . . yet

So right now when you walk in our house its blank...as in tan walls, brown floors and thats about it. I mean even the carpet is a slight beige color. Along with having issues keeping plants alive, I also have issues making decisions so anything that is slightly difficult to change (paint colors, carpet, wood stain, etc) is immediately regulated to my neutral color palette. I'm always afraid I'm going to regret my decision and be too lazy to change it after putting in the work. That statement will make a lot more sense after you see the mirror/porthole I bought without measuring to see if it would fit first...oops!

 Below is a reference picture:

Can you make out any shapes or do all of the tans just blend together? Anyways, as you can see there is a LONG way to go with this "room".

Things we have left to do here:

1. Buy a rug! - My grandfather helped us out by paying for our wood floors as a wedding gift and we are SO glad he was kind enough to sponsor those for us, they turned out really well! With as much as we like them we would like to keep them protected since this is the main entrance to our house, plus why give up an excuse to go to Pottery Barn? Problem for me may be that every rug I like right now happens to be on clearance (usually a great thing for me) and each time I'm actually ready to buy one they sell out of the size I need, go figure. Anyways here is the rug I love for this space that will most likely be sold out when I finally head back over to pick it up.

2. Update the light fixture -  Don't get me wrong, I adore our current fixture but it doesn't make as much of a "statement" as I'm looking for. My big plan is to move the current fixture into the back hallway and replace it with this beauty from Restoration Hardware, stay tuned for the electrocution of the newlywed. Just kidding my dad will be supervising me, or I may supervise him as I "learn" what I'm doing, aka talk him into doing it for me. Right now the only problem being that I finally saw this in person last weekend and it may actually make too much of a statement...I should probably get out that measuring tape!

3. Find a console table - The one below from Pier 1 is similar to what I like but not all there just yet, we'll see what I come across. I've started searching antique stores but still can't really see what a piece of furniture could be from what it already is and can't commit to any one piece (see indecision above). 

4. Get some art for that tan wall... and yes it still is kind of neutral but in my defense it does have some brighter colors in it. I found this on Pier 1 online and haven't seen it in person but am thinking I would want to replace the frame with something nice, big, chunky and brown (sounds like a description of some shoes I want right now as well...).

5. Get some knick-knacks onto the table - Typically I am not a fan of knick-knacks (aka dust collectors) but I have recently discovered that I don't think something really looks "done" until it has a knick-knack involved. Maybe a bowl that had a previous life mixing dough, some scholarly hard-cover books I can try to convince people I actually read but in fact have never picked up in my life, picture frames that I'll never get around to actually putting a picture into or even some type of little statue, but no candles for this girl. I've learned that candles + me = danger, whether it be hot wax spilled everywhere or the fact that I left a candle burning all night...again...its just never a good ending. 


Now that I actually put this all down it doesn't seem like there all too much to do...well except starting to make some decisions. This could take awhile...

Starting from the Front

Since our closing our awesome builder/friend installed some shutters to the sides of both sets of windows on the front of our house, painting them a dark navy to match our front door. These helped the look of the house so much and really gave it a more finished appearance. They've been too good to us!

Moving into the house we were lucky enough to be able to start with a good amount of furniture and household items due to Tim living on his own back in college and me living solo during the short 9-month tenure of my first job. Something neither of us had were rocking chairs and what proper front porch doesn't have rocking chairs?

After moving into the house in November and with a pretty cold winter we really didn't have much focus upon the front porch, then spring arrived. The warming of the air and blooming of everything around us not only brought on my seasonal allergies but with them came an itch to start making that porch more functional and our house appear more lived in. This slight itch became too strong to ignore after walking sleepy-eyed into the kitchen wearing nothing more than my pajamas, grabbing a refreshing glass of OJ out of the fridge and glancing up to see a woman peering into our front windows. Luckily she seemed to be just as shocked as I was and I became absolutely determined to make our house look much more lived in rather than a model home after that lovely experience with our very own peeping Tom.

Lucky for us we had a Home & Garden shower a few weeks after my unexpected morning visitor and not only did we receive some excellent kitchen tools, garden tools and fabulous Home Depot gift cards but Tim's parents went in with his brother and sister-in-law to get us....rocking chairs! Beautiful, white, classic chairs that were made for front porch sittin' and sweet tea sippin'. I couldn't have been more excited, in fact I was a little disappointed that we couldn't fit them into Tim's car to take them home and place them on the porch that very night.

Now that I had my chairs I could tackle the flower boxes I had been pondering over. I took my sister off to Home Depot and invested in some boxes, potting soil and a few different resilient looking plants. $100 later I was using some of my fancy new gardening gloves and trowel (also picked up from our shower, we've got great friends and family right!?!) to plant and install our new boxes. It took about two more trips in the following week to get enough potting soil but finally we were up and running. I've killed the plants a few times but somehow they keep coming back for more.

Next up was a table to put in between the chairs because what good does that big glass of sweet tea do you if  you don't have anywhere to put it while you rock. I searched all over for an iron table that wasn't too big or too small, too high or too low and found a great little side table at Pier 1. It wasn't the aged brown color I was looking for but the style, size and price were perfect so it was sold. Pier 1 is a place I always forget about until I walk in the door and discover just how much I like their stuff again. You can't really go wrong with their prices either. I even found a nifty little hook I could screw into our front door to hang wreaths on as the 3M hooks I used over Christmas are not such a great match to the great outdoors. Lets just suffice it to say that our front porch looked like a murder scene after our red wreath was blown down in a rainstorm and proceeded to bleed all of its dye for the next couple of hours.

Due to another excellent gift card to Amazon I was able to get a nice little spring-ish wreath that could carry through the summer (well it is going to at least), added a wide ivory ribbon to it for hanging purposes and voila no more model home look.

Throughout the summer I've been finding little knick-knacks to add to the porch; a welcome mat from Target, a moss-covered terra cotta pot from Pottery Barn complete with a plant I've been assured that I cannot kill, outdoor throw pillows from Restoration Hardware and some decorative birds from Crate and Barrel and Mast General Store. It looks homey and Tim and I have even eaten supper out there, well we started to until the mosquitoes got too bad.

Although it may sound like we have this "room" pretty much wrapped up, I still have a few tricks up my sleeve that I want to get taken care of...


Things we have left to do here:


1.   Add some house numbers above the entry - although we already have numbers on our mailbox, with a new house being built next door ending our residency of being the only house on the street I think its about time to add that on for a little more recognition. I'm thinking of something along these lines...they are pretty inexpensive but I haven't found any that I really love just yet and as a rule I won't buy anything unless I have to have it.

2.   Install an iron railing - not only will it help to define the space a little more but would be extremely helpful when it gets icy and will help us with the resale of our house. Our neighborhood has a nice mix of age groups but we live in the section that the retired folks seem to prefer and retired folks like safety, hence the handrails.

3.   Get some weathered Terra Cotta pots and more unkillable plants for the base of the steps -  We've got this pencil sticky plant thing right next to the steps that around February I could've sworn to you was a goner but it came back about 2 months later and although it is thriving right now I keep waiting for it to re-kick the bucket. I want to replace it with a planter, along with one to match for the other side with the idea that its a lot less noticable when I kill those then my pencil plant is when it dies again (and yes when, not if). Pottery Barn has some that I am adoring right now but the $169/pot price tag is a little bit of a kill-joy for that one. I'm hoping to save up a little and grab them right as they go on sale a little later in the summer. Here's to hoping they don't sell out first!

4.  Get some planters and more unkillable plants to place beside the front door - Yes, I may be harping on that whole "unkillable" thing a little too much but if you knew me and my black thumb you'd get it. I found some unbelievable (and again unaffordable - be prepared for the reoccuring theme of my life) through Aiden Gray. They are $450 and I haven't really figured out just yet if that is for the set or just for one, regardless these will remain a pipe-dream unless some miraculous twist of fate lands them upon my porch. Doubtful but a girl can dream right?

5. Add in a ceiling fan - I'm not so sure how we can do this since I was smart enough to request a can light over the rocking chair area of our porch but having a fan to create a little breeze would make the porch so much more comfortable and user-friendly. There has to be a kit that lets you do it and we will be exploring that as we move into our home improvement phase. I want something pretty basic that can handle the weather but that looks like an outdoor fan, not like I'm trying to bring the indoors out. Maybe adding a cage around the light to make it look a little more rough & tough would do the trick! This Emerson fan and light kit are close to what I like but maybe with just 1 light rather than 3.

 

6. Upgrade the doorbell -This should be a pretty quick, not to mention inexpensive replacement. Welcome to the OCD side of my personality where everything must match but not in the matchy-matchy sort of way. Due to this the doorbell MUST be the dark oil-rubbed bronze so that it aligns with every other part of our home. Sometimes my insistence on all of the particulars exhausts myself, poor Tim!

7. Last, but certainly not least, an uncertainty about a bench - now this is a purchase I haven't fully committed to the idea of just yet but I do like the idea of it. Plus we stayed at an incredible beach house last weekend where I saw an adorable bench and now want something similar. Just something simple, backless and with a weathered paint job, preferably in the cream family. Ballard Designs has one with potential for only $120 that I'm thinking I could paint pretty easily.I still haven't decided how I'm going to fit this on my relatively small front porch but was thinking of placing it along the railing next to the front door. I need to do some measuring first (learned this after the porthole purchase mishap, a story for another day).

Here are some pictures of our handi-work thus far:

A little bit of everything.

Comfy pillows make for longer relaxing...

until the mosquitoes come break up the party...

Still enough room to put my glass & my plate.

Not only is it staying alive but it also blooms!

The more successful basket (and the wrap of our new neighbors house).

We can stare at each other through our kitchen windows, yay.

Overhead view, this reminds me that we need to mulch...

The entry of the porch along with the pencil plant.

My spring wreath thats rockin' its way through summer...