1.31.2015

Nesting: What Our House Looks Like Now, After Over 4 Years of Living Here



See the newly painted white walls! They look so much better!

I cannot wait to hang some white curtains. Since we have a total of eight windows in the living and dining rooms and we would like the curtains to match I think we'll go with these as they're cheap and long. To dress them up, maybe some of these tie backs.

I haven't hung anything on either side of that huge mirror because I'm at a loss as to what to put there. I don't want to hang two-dimensional artwork because we have a gallery wall started in the dining room but I don't want to hang just anything there. I do thinks we may hang Matt's guitar up on one side so that it's off the ground but still accessible. One of our fur babies knocked it over and the neck cracked, hearts were broken. A cracked neck of a guitar would break any guy's heart. On the other side I've been thinking of commissioning a woven wall hanging. I'm going to meet the lovely Layne of The Room Journal next weekend and she makes some beauties, I might have to talk to her about a commission.

The couch replaced the leather couch Matt had as a bachelor and which Lady destroyed. It is gigantic. This is the only wall that it would fit on. Even though it's not super stylish it is so comfortable and I don't regret the purchase at all. We found it on Craigslist and it was basically brand new. The coffee table is such a treasure as my dad made in high school. It was in my grandmother's house for the longest time and when she passed it became mine. I love it so! My dad is mighty talented.



We were in desperate need of new book cases for too long. When we first moved in we bought some of those cheap black bookcases from Walmart and not a few months later they started tilting. It was bad. I finally purchased these industrial shelves to use instead as they're heavy duty and can hold all of our classics, best sellers, art books, farming books, records, and such. That clock, that beaut' was a wedding gift from my parents. It is so charming and chimes on the hour.






































I cannot wait to replace this chair. It's Lady's chair and she has completely destroyed it. She does that to all furniture, it's ridiculous. We are searching for a wood mid century modern chair so that none of our fur babies will damage it. I'm looking for something larger, so not just an occasional chair.  If you find one let me know!

On to the dining room, our little jungle:





























I painted this room a nice blue green for Matt. He loves color on the walls and I don't mind it all that much either! It's a refreshing change from all the neutral homes that are so popular right now. I would like to replace that table and chairs we bought from Target when we first moved in. When I was younger I didn't know the value of only buying things you absolutely loved, but we needed a table and this one was convenient. I would like to thrift a light farm table, maybe with a distressed white look to it. These chairs would brighten the room up so well and contrast nicely with an old farm table.





























You can see our lovely heirloom china cabinet Matt's parents gave us as a wedding gift. It is filled with heirloom china and in the bottom we store games, puzzles, and movies because when you live in a tiny house you have to put things in weird places like china cabinets.






































This is our landing strip. That big blank spot in the middle of our gallery wall is where the portrait I drew of Bill Murray will go once I can find a frame for it that I like. We are also trying to get rid of the victrola, if you know anyone you would like it have them contact me! I'm going to add this coat rack to the right of the gallery wall so that all of our belongings have a place to go. The desk I have had since I was teenager, I love it so. That chair my good friend purchased for me for a whopping four dollars. Such a steel.

Onto the kitchen:

I'm so glad I painted the kitchen white and that dark gray blue when I did. It's such a more cheery place. It was a grimy cream before. Speaking of grimy, those kitchen tiles, they're so bad but in a way they have grown on me… but then again I can't wait to get rid of them. I was talking with my mom about the tile on the walls and realized that we have no idea what we are going to do with the floor to ceiling tiles on the stove wall and the north wall as our walls are made of plaster. It is going to be a disaster updating this kitchen. The counters won't be too difficult though we plan to replace them with this formica top.  I'm not even going to show you the sink wall as it is so bad…

That cutting board and butter dish were lovely bridal shower gifts from my lovely lady friends.

See the tile? It goes all the way up that wall! And don't you just love the ivy wall paper covered switch plate? It makes me giggle.

I had to buy that Rifle Paper Co. recipe box after cooking my Mom's Chicken Noodle Soup from a recipe scratched on a scratch paper. It's the only recipe in the box too. Some day I'll scribble all those special recipes down, some day. The olive oil dispenser was a Christmas gift from my parents, it was made by an artisan in their tiny little town of Westcliffe, CO.

Our stove is crap. It's so old and the top is rusted in on the left and has fallen through. We'll be replacing it as soon as possible! I would love this one, but Matt gets to pick it out since he's more of the cook of the house. 

He also wants to add a peg board wall to the left of the stove for all of our utensils. I want to try to make something like what my dear friend Casey made for her back porch. It looks like this but of course ours will look more like this.

Here is our square hall way that leads to the studio, bathroom, and bedroom:

I really want to wallpaper this little hallway with this Rifle Paper Co. wallpaper. I just want to do something really unexpected in this room as it is just a passage way and sorely overlooked. I will probably even wallpaper the ceiling. There is already a nice ceiling medallion around the light bulb that just needs a fresh coat of white paint. I'll replace the bulb with one of those nice Edison bulbs. Those prints are from Elise Mahan Fine Art Etsy Shop. Matt got them for me for my birthday last year because we are super space nerds. Like we re-watch and re-watch Star Trek episodes and go see every space movie that hits the theaters. Takes me back to when I wanted to be an astronaut because we learned about Sally Ride in science class one day when I was little. So cool.

Lets peek into the bathroom as you can see that pretty pink octagon tiled floor from the hallway:



I keep going back and forth about updating this space. I like it. I like how retro it is and it's pretty nice for how old it is. The bathtub really does need replaced but if we were to replace it we would have to replace all of the tile. I've been researching how to repair tubs and I think I may be able to do it on my own. We shall see. We will definitely be replacing the light fixtures and I am thinking about these. I would like to try to add a wood trim around the mirror just to spruce it up. I painted the walls and ceiling a light gray a long long time ago, it was so nasty before. I just changed out our shower curtain too. The one before was light gray, so much a gray. Gray, Gray, Gray. Speaking of gray, are you going to see 50 Shades of Grey? I couldn't get through the sec on book so I probably won't… but kind of want to. Ha.

Here is a lonesome photo of my studio:

This room is very open. If we have a baby while we are still living in this house this room will double as a baby room. We will definitely have to do some rearranging to make space though. Back when I was pregnant, before we lost the baby, I painted this room a nice minty color and I am so glad I did. It is such a soothing color and gender neutral. I really hope that it becomes a nursery sooner rather than later.

And here is our bedroom:


This room is so light and airy but it needs painted badly. Matt wants it to be dark in there so I'm thinking about painting it a dark green like this. I don't know if I should use the color on an accent wall, behind the bed, or for the whole room… I'll be referencing Emily Henerson's blog post on the subject rather often while working on this room. We also need more private curtains to go over the sheers and two of these pretty little things.

I can't wait to start all of these projects and share them with you here on the blog. 


2 comments:

  1. I have an iron bed too! Love it!

    Such a cute home, styled so well!

    And yahoo for new blog-instagram friends! Layne is one of my favorites!

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    Replies
    1. I've had my iron bed since I moved from a twin to a full when I was just a kid! It's falling apart. :(

      Thank you so much, I've only recently feel like it has come together. It was such a mess the first three years we lived here.

      I can't wait to meet Layne. Maybe I'll meet you soon too! Are you going to the Galentines event held by Casey and Lindsay at Frolic?

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