Making a House a Home

It's easy to feel behind the times, out of touch with the current trends, unstylish. (Is that even a word?)   Pinterest has so many great ideas to update your home on the cheap, and as fun as those ideas are I'm starting to find myself drifting from the "trendy" and the "now." I like to frequent places like the Hobby Lobby clearance aisle and flea markets just like anybody else, and even bought a dresser that my bestie and I made over (post to come later.) Sometimes, though, it feels like if I don't have every space on my wall covered, I'm not making my home pretty enough. Heck, I even have big old screw holes and unpainted patches on a wall in my living room, results from our (not so) recent move around of furniture, and I have just never taken care of it.

I guess my thought is that I really could care less about buying lots of "stuff" to make my house look "pretty" in the current times. I have lots of big plans for it, sure, but I'm taking it slow. I'm a little intimidated for the amount of "stuff" we will probably need to purchase once our basement is finished, considering I will have almost another entire home to decorate. Yikes! I want the decor in my home to mean something though. I remember walking through my grandparent's homes, when everything had a story and a reason for being there. My Grandma Nancy had the gallery wall down way before it was cool, covering two entire walls in the hallway with family photos. My Grandma Mitzi had dolls displayed everywhere that she had made with her own hands. Even in my mom's kitchen you can see many special objects that she had in her own home growing up. One of my favorite blogs is http://fortheloveofahouse.blogspot.com/, a story of a husband and wife who bought an old farmhouse and are completely gutting and remaking it. Every piece in her home tells a story of her and her husband traveling the world looking for antiques together, and it's incredibly beautiful. I doubt it will ever go out of style, either.

I want my home to be more than pretty pictures I find at Hobby Lobby. I want it to tell the story of my family. I want it to represent events from my family's history, stories of my children from infancy to adulthood. I want to not care if it looks "perfectly coordinated," and most of all I want it to feel like home. My current mission is to find a paint color for my living room and basement that I can live with for a long time, and over time add pieces that represent us as a family. I want my home to be an ever evolving palette, adding texture and dimension the way our lives are shaped. I'll have a couple of spots for some "trendy" items here and there that will over time be replaced, but for now I am okay with it taking a lifetime to make our house a home.

IKEA Adventures

Well,six months after it opened, I finally got to go to the new IKEA that opened in Denver. My sister and I took the day (with Baby J) and spent several hours in this super fun store. Instead of showing a bunch of pictures, I thought I would make a video of our adventures:





I looked at entertainment centers, but my good hubby talked me down from spending a BUNCH of money. We decided to really plan our living room and make sure we get something we will love for a long time. In the meantime, I picked up some storage boxes for the living room and closet, some drawer dividers, and bins for the amazing amounts of legos that are now in our home. We sure had a great time!

PS - I know the video is SUPER cheesy. My mom and dad gave us a great new video camera for Christmas, so be expecting a lot more super cheesy videos in the future.

A Frugal Find!

I'm so excited I finally found a great garage sale item! I came across the prettiest fine china I had ever seen yesterday. It had beautiful colors and details, and except for being dirty and not packed well (the owners did NOT take good care of it) it was all in great condition. And they were only asking $15 for it! Of course I absolutely jumped on that one. I have always wanted a set of fine china!

The box came with 12 dinner plates, 12 salad plates, 12 fruit bowls, 24 bread and butter plates, a gravy boat, a creamer, and a sugar bowl. I checked the bottom, and sure enough it's the real thing, actual fine china from Japan. The only damage to any of the dishes is one bread and butter plate has a tiny chip on the side. I cleaned them all up, wrapped and reboxed each piece to keep them safe.

I couldn't help but wonder how much these dishes were worth, even though I am definitely not planning on selling them. My wonderful hubby looked up each piece for me and priced them out, and the total value came to $548!! I can hardly believe it! That definitely makes me want to make sure we take good care of these dishes.

So now my question of the day is, what occasions do you bring out the china for? I don't really host dinner parties or holidays very much, but I can picture having tea parties with my girls later or candlelight dinners with my hubby. Or maybe we will bring them out just for fun and have fancy dinners with our whole family. I'm just happy I found these dishes and I didn't have to pay an arm and a leg to get them!

I Hate Gray Paint

I have been searching for the perfect gray paint color for our living room and hallway. I have bought samples, searched online, and done the whole "try it on your own room" apps from various websites, and I still can't find a color I like. The first sample I tried was Popular Gray by Sherwin Williams. It was too pink in these rooms, too warm for the blue carpet.

The second color was Swanky Gray by Sherwin Williams. This time it was too blue, and when the light hits it just right it turns.... lavender.

The next color was Bedford Gray by Martha Stewart. This time it's closer to the color family I want, but WAY too dark to cover the entire main room and hallway in.

I am seriously at a loss right now. I don't want to commit to $100+ in paint if I don't love the color, and I have yet to find one I love! Here are some others I am considering right now...

Horizon by Benjamin Moore

Dolphin Fin by Behr

French Silver by Behr

OMG, who knew it would be THIS HARD to pick a color!?! I'm about fried... Which one is your favorite? If you have painted gray, which color did you pick? My biggest problem is that I have blue carpet which makes the gray turn too blue.....

Painting the Living Room

I have a confession to make. I’m a little obsessed with painting my living room. I want to paint it so badly that I have spent a LOT of time imagining what it would look like, and today I even made a mockup. I took a “before” picture, which you can see here:

I had a couple of kids over this morning, and my life is actually a lot easier when there are other kids around. I got that whole section of the living room cleaned and vacuumed today! Hoorah! Anyways, you can see how I chose to paint this room about a year and a half ago. Blue on the bottom half all the way around the room. I loved it so much when we did it, but now not so much. The room feels really saturated on the bottom to me, even when it’s clean. All of the color is in the bottom half of the room and I still haven’t figured out a way to make this look good. My cousin, who is in school for interior design, suggested I paint the whole wall a warm grey. Have I mentioned grey is my FAVORITE color? Seriously, it goes with anything. And it’s not brown. Here is a mockup of what I would like to do:

For one thing, we are stuck with this blue carpet. Loved it when we got it, and I wouldn’t mind it now as long as I can get it to work with the rest of the room. I’m thinking painting the walls grey all the way up, then painting the trim, the plant shelves, and maybe the ceiling (?) white. I feel like it creates a cooler palette that is a bit more consistent and modern.  The ceiling is going to be a pain though, so I need to figure out if it’s really necessary. So far I am loving this idea though! Please leave your feedback and your thoughts, I could really use some help. (PS, the color of the carpet in the second picture is MUCH closer to what it is in real life, not the grey color that is in the picture above).