Decorating for Easter

I am always excited to decorate for Easter because that means Spring is coming!  I like to keep my decorations simple for Easter.  This year, I decorated my dining room table and a couple other small decorations for my living room and family room.

For my Easter centerpiece, I re-used my vase from Christmas.  That's the great thing about buying things that can be used for multiple decorations.  The flowers are from Michael's and I found them on sale for $0.99 each!  I chose to use pink flowers because it's something that I have never done before plus it's a great Spring color. The "Happy Easter" eggs are from PotteryBarn.  I saw these in the store last Easter and talked myself out of them.  When I saw them again this Easter, I told myself it was meant for me to have them and I am really happy with the way they turned out.  I chose to hang them on the flower branches but you could always place them in a clear jar as well. 

The green bunnies are from Pier1.  When I saw them I knew I wanted them but I wasn't sure what exactly I was going to do with them.  I stuck them in my floral arrangement and they have been there ever since.  I like how they are a little hidden in between the flowers and the eggs.  Sometimes, it's best not to over think your decorations.  This is what I found with them.

For my living room and family room I chose to keep it really simple.  I added a small vase with speckled eggs to my bay window and an Easter basket to my new fireplace!

Thanks for visiting!

Complete Kitchen Renovation

When my husband and I were deciding on the house that we now live in, we knew that we would need to completely renovate the kitchen.  It's a small kitchen, but that wasn't even a problem for us.  It was very outdated, the appliances didn't work very well, and the layout wasn't very functional.  We took the room down to the studs.  This was a lot of work, but it was well worth the expense and wait.  By doing this, we were able to rearrange the appliances, add new switches and plugs, and expand the doorways.

Here are all of the before pictures...

And now for the after pictures...

When we began to put the room back together, the first thing that we had to decide on was our cabinets and layout.  I chose to go with cabinets from Ikea because they have an enormous amount of selection between style and color.  With our kitchen being smaller, I knew I would have to choose my cabinets wisely.  We had to put them together ourselves, but it really wasn't bad.  I also chose to get our butcher block countertop from Ikea as well.  Our appliances are Frigidaire Gallery from Lowes.  There's nothing like new appliances.  I still have to add my backsplash.  Once I do, I will be sure to share the pictures with you.

I don't like to overcrowd a window with decorations, because after all you want to be able to open and close it.  However, I do like to dress it up like everything else.  When putting the trim around the window, I added a ledge to the bottom so that I would have a place to set my little decorations.

I saw this in a magazine before and really liked it.  Not knowing if they purchased the letters finished or unfinished, I knew I had to create them myself.  I bought the letters from Joann Fabrics and spray painted them white to match the cabinets.  I chose a simple font, but they have others as well.  With the letters being leaned against the wall they can be removed at any time.  I also like to decorate in ways that are not very typical.  I didn't want to have a typical paper towel holder.  Instead, I took this wire basket (painted it black) and threw a couple of paper towel rolls in it.  

I always try to incorporate decorations that tie in either colors or feels of a room.  That is what I did with these containers here.  It brings the black and the white together into one piece which makes the connection between the two colors.

These shelves were a must to incorporate into my kitchen.  I love how on the top I can display different dishes  and the bottom I use for towels and baskets.  In the baskets I have chip clips, measuring spoons, etc.  Having these baskets lets me free up some space from my drawers which is always needed.

Keeping with not liking typical uses of items, I found this white strainer at HomeGoods one day and thought it would be really cute to sit on the counter and put different fruits in.  It is not something that I keep out all the time, but it is a nice accent when I do have it out.

I hope you enjoy my complete kitchen renovation.  It took a lot of time, but it is so nice having everything just the way you want it.  If there is anything I missed and you have any questions for me, feel free to email me.  I would love to help you create your dream kitchen too!

Family Room: Sneak Peak

Our family room is finally coming together.  We have been working so hard to get it done and we are finally seeing some end results.  Today I am going to be sharing a little sneak peak of some of the decorations/updates. 

The first sneak peak that I would like to share with you is a little bit of our decorations that are being used throughout the room.  From the picture you can obviously tell that this table is sitting in front of our window.  I wanted to have something substantial on the table without taking up the entire window.  You will have to wait to see the entire table, the legs of the table are my favorite part!

The last sneak peak you will be seeing until the final reveal is our new fireplace!  I am so happy that we added this to our room.  It is so nice to have on, plus it looks great even when it is not in use.  When I reveal the entire room at it's completion I will give more information about the fireplace in case anyone out there is considering one for their home.

Hopefully I will be sharing the room with you very soon.  I am just waiting on a couple of things to come in that I had to order online.  In the mean time, I am going to be decorating for Easter to try and get my mind off of waiting for a shipment!  I have realized that things don't get to you faster just because you constantly track a shipment!

Check back to see how I decorate for Easter!

Family Room: Floors

I am so excited to share my new floors with you!  We knew that we wanted the click and lock hardwood laminate flooring, the only major decision was the color and finish.  I wanted something unique, but I also wanted something that I could live with forever considering we are wanting to do this in the rest of the house as well.

Here is what we decided on...

When we were going through all of the options, we kept leaning toward the wider boards and the boards with the hand scraping.  I also chose this floor because of the muted color.

I hope you enjoy my floors like I do.  If you have any questions about them feel free to email me.  Soon I will be giving you a little sneak peak of my decorations for that room.

Decorating a Guest Room

I have recently made some changes to my guest room.  I liked the room before, but it wasn't flowing with the rest of my house as much as I wanted the room to.  So, I decided to change the bedding and update some decorations.  

The first change I made was with my bedding.  I decided to go with a more neutral base.  To bring in color, I added the green quilt and matching pillow.  Going with a more neutral base makes it easier to change your accent color.

I like to add a lot of pillows to make the bed look more inviting.  It's also good to mix and match the pillows so it doesn't look like a set.

I wanted to incorporate the green from the bedding throughout the room so you can imagine how thrilled I was when I found these matching candles.  I used the same two candles on the dresser, but I used two different candle holders to give a more unique look.  With each candle holder being neutral and natural they flow together even though they are different.

Aside from the bedding, this is where I made the most change to the room.  Even though I loved my DIY teal table, sadly it didn't match anymore.  However, I'm really happy with my replacement table.

When I was decorating this table, I wanted to keep it simple.  Because the table is so unique, my decorations didn't need to stand out as much.  I really like having family photos up in my guest room so I incorporated the frames from before and added these chunky brown candle holders.

With spring being right around the corner, I wanted to add a touch of color with some flowers.

I hope you enjoy the changes!