Say hello to Piper, the newest member of the family! Roxy and Peanut are slooowly making the adjustment and accepting their canine sister. She’s a spunky little gal who’s extremely lovable and well-behaved. I couldn’t ask for more!
Thanks for all your help with names! I decided to stick with “Piper” for a few reasons. One, she answers to it. And two, that’s what I’d been calling her the entire time so she really had already become “Piper” already.
Today’s her first day in the crate at home while I’m at work. She’s already crate trained, but I’m still a little nervous. Crossing my fingers that she’ll still inside it when I get home after work!
If all goes well we’ll be adding a new member to the pet family tonight! After work I’m going to meet this sweet girl who an acquaintance has been fostering for the past week. She’s about two years old, 25 lbs and looks to have a little Jack Russell terrier in her breeding. Right now she’s going by the name of Piper, but I’m toying with the idea of changing it. (She was a stray, so she’s not exactly used to it.) And here’s where you come in…
What should I name her?
I need ideas! Do your best, if I end up going with a name one of you suggested I’ll be sending a little thank you out in the mail.
Welcome to the last stop on the tour inside my home: the master suite of course.
My bedside lamps are where the entire color palette began and they remain one of my favorite parts of the room. I once read that every girl should own a matching set of something. Well, these lamps are my something.
My other favorite is the starburst mirror that resides above my headboard. After months of watching and waiting I got a great deal on it!
Curtains are at the top of my Wish List. I’m dying to find some plain linen ones in goldenrod, but they’re proving to be the death of me. So now I’m also beginning to consider either a light gray or teal colored set.
I’m all about white bedding. I’ve covered my down comforter with duvets in the past and it just doesn’t feel the same to me. I believe in a white down comforter always and white sheets when possible. These are 500 thread count Egyptian cotton and have spoiled me like no other. If you’ve never experienced a set I suggest you do so in the very near future – your life will never be the same!
I don’t ever use the top of my dresser and mirror to put on makeup or anything, so it remains fairly uncluttered. The latched box was a gift from a dear friend.
My two dressers have been with me since I was 11. That’s forever. I’m definitely searching out some newer, more modern looking pieces. But my grandparents bought these for me and they’re really quality work, so they’re not headed for Goodwill any time soon.
Just like I inherited my dad’s secretary desk, I also have my mom’s cedar chest. My grandmother bought it for her and my dad when they got married. I’ve considered painting it, but can’t stand the thought of marring such pretty wood.
This is built-in is the focal point of the walk-in closet off of my bedroom. I use its shelves to display hats, clutches, jewelry box and perfumes. The sight of them never fails to make me smile. There are also shelve above the racks on either side where I stash larger purses and shoeboxes.
This is a painting I whipped up a few weeks ago to fill some space on a wall. Silver paint against dark slate gray always looks amazing.
The paint in the master bath is exactly two shades darker than the bedroom walls. I love the oyster shell hue in the bedroom, but wanted to change it up slightly. I’m all about the white in here as well. White seersucker shower curtain, white towels, white rug. The space isn’t all that large, but the use of light colors has definitely helped open it up.
The jewelry I wear most often gets slung across this stand that resembles a tree branch. I also like to keep a few little bowls on the counter for hair clips, lip glosses and my glasses.
I’m actually really impressed with all the storage in the bathroom. I’m a product whore, making lots of space a MUST! To the right of the towel rack is the second walk-in closet. It’s safe to say I’ve never had so much storage in my life!
The only two things that I’d like to do with the bath at the moment are installing a permanent shower rod and replacing the cabinet fixtures with glass knobs. This past weekend we replaced the faucet and it makes such a difference! (Pictures to come)
Having enough space for my own studio and office space was one of the things I was most looking forward to when I moved into my house. Before I was forced to store most of my fun crafty things wherever there was room. Now I love having a little sanctuary where I go and release some creative energy.
This desk is another one of my restoration projects from a few years ago. I bought it at a hotel liquidation sale for $15. It was an awful looking cream color with bright blue crackling and a faux marble laminate top that was peeling up at the edges. I (literally) chiseled the laminate off and painted it this beautiful blood red color. We’ve been happily together ever since!
I love, love, love these shelves. I can’t find better words than that to describe how awesome it is to neatly store everything in it’s own designated cubby. A total lifesaver and the boxes and other things within hold some of my favorite supplies.
I definitely need a new desk chair as this one clearly isn’t meant for sitting on hour upon hour. The comfort level just isn’t there. I’ve seen a few I like, but haven’t managed to commit to one just yet.
To the left of the shelves is an empty corner and window. The plan is to get a comfy chair and lamp to occupy it and give myself a little “Inspiration Corner” of sorts.
I try to keep my desk as cleared off as possible, but that generally doesn’t last for long. I like to store the pens and brushes I use most in cups for easy access.
Part of my K collection gets displayed on top of the shelves along with my framed Breakfast at Tiffany’s movie poster. If you didn’t know, I’m a big Audrey fan and this is one of my all time favorite movies!
Deciding on some sort of inspiration board area was one of my main focuses when thinking about how I wanted this space to be set up. I ended up going with individual cork squares set up in a grid for easy separation of thoughts. In retrospect I would have done six – three over three – instead of four squares.
There are two windows in the room that let in really great amounts of sunlight. I want to get a window covering that won’t shut out the light, but diffuse it instead.
My knock-off Rothko painting. Just a little something I did to take up space on an empty wall for the moment. When I lived in an apartment these shelves sat in my kitchen and held food. Now I’ve re-purposed them as a large magazine rack.
You can’t see the ceiling in any of the photos, but if you could you’d see the generic light fixture dead center. Since this is a creative space where magic is supposed to happen I want to find something really fun to replace it with.
A big part of me cannot even believe that I’m showing you this room. Because right now it’s a junk room. And I didn’t even bother to clean up before taking these photos! But showing you my house is showing you my house. Flaws and all. And this is by far the biggest.
The only thing I’ve done since moving in is painted the walls. Since I didn’t know what exactly I wanted to do as far as decorating this room I went with a neutral. Had it not been a glaringly bright harlot red when I moved in I would have held off, but it literally felt like walking into a red light district every time I opened the door! Yeah, it was that bad. I would normally leave the ceiling white, but the previous owners had done some bad touch-up paintwork with a matte on eggshell paint that stuck out like a sore thumb. It went all the way around the border of the room and needed a fast fix. The thought of repainting once I know what I’m doing has crossed my mind on more than one occasion.
For the time being a coffee table lives here. It’s the table I was using before I got my current one. I love it and have no plans of selling, just hanging onto it for whatever house comes my way later in life. There’s also a stack of boxes full of things I need to either keep or donate. Exciting stuff, right?
This is my dad’s secretary desk from when he was a kid. It sat in our living room for years while I was growing up and now it’s mine! I have nowhere else for it at the moment, so it’s bound to be a fixture in this room no matter how I decorate.
Whatever bed I end up getting has to be simple and un-clunky because this room is fairly small. Same goes for the nightstands. I think something tall and narrow would do the trick nicely. Unless the room pulls some House of Leaves move and gets larger there really isn’t any space for a dresser. I’d like to keep the bedside lamps simple and am even considering something wall mounted to save on space. The one place I’d really like to add something special is the window treatment. I’m really digging these curtain panels for a pretty subtlety.
My hall bath is probably what I would consider the most fun looking room in the house. Yes, that’s right, I just called a bathroom “fun looking”.
Originally this room was slated to be painted beige. But when I had some of this robin’s egg blue (the actual name of the paint has long since left my memory) left from another room I decided to go for it. I already had the shower curtain and the prints for the walls, so it played into my colorful scheme perfectly.
One of the (many) nice things about all the color is that I don’t have to really worry about bath towels ever not matching! It’s also really fun to accessorize for this space, which is what I’m in the process of doing right now.
There are really only two changes I’d like to make in the near future: install a wall mounted shower rod and replace the faucet fixture for the sink.
Miraculously, all of the different colors don’t make this space feel any smaller than it already it. I blame it on the white cabinetry.
My dining area is tiny. There’s only room for a four seat table and my bar cabinet. But it’s the perfect size for me right now.
The first thing I did, before I even had any furniture for the space, was replace the existing light fixture with this structural one that a lot of you will recognize from IKEA. It doesn’t emit a lot of light, but with the patio doors being right there I don’t really depend on it for that purpose anyway. It’s definitely something that has better looks than function, but it remains of my favorite things in the house.
Because of the limited space I really wanted two things out of a table. I wanted it to have nice lines and I wanted it to not stand out against it’s surroundings too terribly much. Luckily I was able to find a set that met both of those requirements and not break the bank. Once again, thank you IKEA!
Somehow over the years I’ve acquired quite a collection of barware. I love chrome and glass and wanted to be able to showcase it instead of hiding everything behind cabinet doors. Thankfully, this china cabinet that I restored has a glass door, allowing me to do just that.
I have to be honest when I say that the kitchen was the biggest reason I bought my house. I love the white, I love the all the storage and I love the set-up. After living in apartment galley kitchens all of my adult life this is a dream come true!
As much as I adore stainless appliances, I went with a white fridge. The stove and dishwasher were already in place and I wanted to maintain consistency. I like to keep it as cleaned off as possible – no magnet collections or anything like that.
Right now my counter is a dark, dappled gray laminate. It’s in great shape and will do for now, but eventually I’d like to install stainless counters. Perhaps even a built-in drain board next to the sink.
This is only a small fraction of the cookbooks I own. The rest are squirreled away in a cabinet next to the oven. The binders on the left are full of the recipes I share on The Daily Eat and the books are some of the ones I like best.
There’s isn’t any backsplash in place, only wall. I’ve been seeing a lot of subway tile lately that I’d love to employ in this space. White please!
I started collecting my Fiestaware in college. Now I have eight settings and some random serving pieces. I love looking at them all stacked up in my cabinets. Most of my other “supporting” dishware is equally colorful or glass. Right now I’m on the market for a set of white dishware for entertaining.
The only window in the entire kitchen is above the sink and is shaded with custom 2 inch wooden slat blinds. My hope is to take them down and in their place put up a few glass shelves when I can grow herbs and succulents.
There’s also a flush mount light fixture (unseen in photo) overhead that I’d like to replace with a modern pendant lighting.
The living room is where I spend most of my time. Even though I have a studio/office I normally do crafts on the floor here. I just love all the space!
The fireplace is the focal point. I’ve always wanted a mantle and love showing off little things on mine. My bird collection sits perched in a line front and center. The tarnished mirror candlesticks that were one of the best gifts ever are on the left. A tall, wide-mouthed recycled glass vase with sticks sits on the right. And of course, my beloved For Like Ever print backs everything up standing tall in the back. I’m considering painting the mantle itself black to match the fireplace screen, right now the white is just standing out a little too much for my liking.
On the left, my bird collection. On the right is one of my favorite purchases – a long wooden tealight candle holder. I always get a ton of compliments on it.
I eventually want to replace this couch with something long, low and modern. What I do love is the coffee table – black lacquered wood with copper panel inlays. And it’s a hand-me-down! Score. So is the copper leafed floor lamp on the right that I can’t seem to part ways with. Although I do plan on replacing the table once I get a new couch in place. The two canvas piece on the wall behind the couch is my own work.
When I got my first job this TV cabinet was my first purchase. I got it at Pier 1 and talked the manager down to 50% off for the floor model. It houses my behemoth 32″ TV that is not a flatscreen. I’d love to replace it soon than later, get rid of the cabinet and mount it above my mantel. Then follow suit and re-situate my entire living room towards the fireplace. Another option is to still ditch the cabinet, but in its place put a long console to set the TV upon. The green bowl that sits on the ground was a gift from my mom and is one of my most beloved possessions.
The two sets of shelves are part of the same collection as the cabinet (since discontinued) and house the majority of my book collection. (They look a little tilted in all the photos, but it’s just my camera going fish-eyed without my consent.)
The Mandarinetto print has been with me since college and was probably one of the very first pieces I bought that reflects what my style has become. As you can tell, I much prefer to lean large frames that actually hang them on the wall. I’m slightly obsessed with the Eiffel Tower and have managed to collect quite a few. I stacked a bunch of my coffee table books, then set the figures on them to vary their heights. It also manages to show off the books at the same time. Two birds, one stone.
If I’m not sprawled over the floor working on a project I’m most likely in this chair. This faded chair that badly needs to be reupholstered. It’s another hand-me-down and was bright and vivid paisley when I got my hands on it. I’m hoping to go with something really graphic when the time comes to give it a makeover. Behind it is my gallery art wall, which is one of my favorite things. It shows off pieces from some of my favorite artists as well as some of my own art. Next to the chair is a cute little tray table. The top pops off – the actual tray – and the legs fold up. There’s also a ring hanging off of it for a bar towel. This is really my favorite corner in the entire house.
The prints on the wall are from Uptown Minneapolis’ fusion restaurant Chino Latino. They were menus from a few years back. At the end of the hallway is a movie poster for The Endless Summer. I love the bright neons and pop art feel.
The day is finally here. The day many of you have been asking about since last July when I moved in to my first house. The day where I show you where I spend my days, my nights and my in betweens.
I’ve decided to break it all down into posts about different rooms. Bite size pieces are much more manageable than one lump some, or so I think. They’ll be spread out over the next few days for your perusal. As with any house things are always changing and being updated, so this is really only the starting point.
This is basically the extent of what goes on in the foyer. Easily one of the most boring areas in the entire house. Peanut and Roxy think the bench is theirs and use it all of the time. Sun-bathing being on the more important in their lives and all. Peanut also likes to keep watch over the front yard from this vantage point.
The big picture plan is to eventually tear up the white tile and carpeting and install something like this bamboo chestnut flooring throughout the house. The tiles are textured, which makes them really difficult to keep clean, especially in the kitchen. The oatmeal colored carpeting was brand new when I moved in, but I’d love to get rid of it. Although I’m suspecting anything else wouldn’t hide hairball stains half as well!
Say hello to Piper, the newest member of the family! Roxy and Peanut are slooowly making the adjustment and accepting their canine sister. She’s a spunky little gal who’s extremely lovable and well-behaved. I couldn’t ask for more!
