House Tour

Am I the only person that loves trying to peek in people’s windows as I drive by their houses at night?  The nosy side of me comes out and I long to see the pictures that are hung on their walls, how they’ve arranged their furniture, what color palettes they’ve chosen to decorate with.

That’s why blogs are so great – you can virtually peek in the windows of thousands of different houses!  Yay for being a creepy blog stalker!

Anyways, it’s only fair for me to allow you to peek in the windows of my house.  I still feel like much is in progress, and it probably won’t look like this two weeks from now (can you say Rose Bowl Flea Market and raiding Grandma’s house on our trip to Arizona?), but without further ado, I present you our little love nest.  Come on in!

As you enter the front door, directly to the left is the dining room.

I absolutely adore our dining room table and chairs.  David’s late father bought them years and years ago, his friend Ian refinished and restored them, and then they were used by Ian’s daughter before sitting in storage for years.  When we got married and needed a table, Ian gave us the table, chairs, and the plant stand in the corner.  I love that the table is round, is on casters (so cute and vintage), and it’s the perfect color.  If only it expanded to seat more than four people…

Let’s talk about my plants.  In the corner, you see my Fiddle Leaf Fig tree.  I love love love this type of tree, but mine is growing into a kind of strange shape…I think it needs a hair cut on top.  On the table is my second attempt at caring for a Maiden Hair Fern, which I also adore, but these plants are so difficult to keep alive.  It’s looking uglier and uglier by the day.  Need to replace soon.  The artwork is all DIY.  I talked about the book page print a while ago.  The photograph is David’s dad and grandpa, when his dad was about 3 years old.  We found it when creating the slide show for his funeral, and loved it.  I got the frame from my mom’s shed, and am smitten by the original gray matting.  The third picture is just a floral I printed from the internet and put in a thrift store frame.

To the right of the dining room is our little kitchen.  I’m so thankful that although we live in an apartment, our kitchen feels so clean, new, and is white, which is my fave for kitchens.  Not a whole lot to see here; I try to keep it pretty clutter free since it’s always messy from my cooking ventures. 

Just to the left of this photo is the kitchen counter.  This is our living room.  The hutch was my great grandma’s, and it’s the perfect size for an apartment.  I currently have books, rather than dishes, displayed in it.   You’ve already seen the couch…this is how I’m currently styling it.  I just have to mention that although I have like 40 pillow covers in my closet to sell on Etsy, all of which I love love love, I have a total of two pillows in my living room.  Major fail!  Anyways, the trunk is from Target, the little chair is from a thrift store ($6!), and the end table which you can’t really see is an antique wooden filing cabinet that was in David’s bedroom for years.  It’s got a fun industrial feel to it, although it’s probably technically too tall for our couch.

The photos on the wall were either taken by me on my travels, or printed off the internet.  I bought all the frames at thrift stores, spray painted them white, and printed the photos on our printer, so the whole arrangement only cost a few dollars.  The tray is from an old pewter tea set that was my mom’s for years.  The brass birds were a thrift store find; David first response to them when I brought them home was, “They look like idols!”  Hehe.  I’m rather embarrassed to have silk flowers, since I’m rather opposed to them in general, but these were from the dollar store and felt like a quick fix to offset the fact that I have an extremely colorful couch with almost no other saturated color in the room.

I have two confessions to make in regards to this picture.  The first is obvious: I still haven’t moved my old couch out yet (committment issues, anyone?), and the second is that my house is rarely this clean.  I cleaned like mad and took all these pics right before I went to pick my sister and brother in law up from the airport a few weeks ago.  At this moment, I’m looking around at two huge signs I’m painting for VBS, sewing stuff everywhere, all my nail stuff on the floor, and paperwork all over the place.

Anywho,  the two brass lamps were thrift store finds, with new lampshades from Target.  The white end table is part of the set we bought at a thrift store for our bedroom and then David painted white and replaced the hardware, but I wanted a pop of white in that corner so I moved it out here.  The chair should be in the corner to the right of the end table, but the couch is currently in the way.  Behind the couch is our sliding glass door leading out to the patio.

The tray and books (Shakespeare and Steinbeck, two of my faves!) are thrifted; the owl is from TJ Maxx.   This fern is doing infinitely better than the Maiden Hair, is almost kill-proof, and has such a great retro shape and feel to it.  The W is from Michael’s. 

We’re in love with our patio and have been eating dinner out there almost every evening this summer.  We keep white Christmas lights up year round for a romantic atmosphere and extra lighting after dark. 

Moving back on into the house….let’s go down the hallway into the bathroom.

Hmm…kinda difficult to photograph, but you get the idea.  Shower curtain is from Target and was the first blue home decor item I think I’ve ever bought, and I loved it so much that it opened the door to me wanting to use blue everywhere in the house.

Back down the hall, we arrive at the bedroom.

This room definitely feels unfinished to me, but I love that the entire room was decorated for probably less than $150, including the furniture.  The duvet cover ($15), blue shams ($5), and curtain ($5, sewn from a flat sheet) are Ikea.  The bedskirt is from Goodwill ($5), but it’s from Target’s Shabby Chic line (same as my sheets) and was still in it’s original packaging, so after I washed it with bleach I felt fine using it.  It was totally a story of God providing what I wanted in a special way (special = I didn’t have to spend much money on it).

The lamps were ugly brass lamps from a thrift store, which we spray painted white and replaced the shades.  They were in the living room but I wanted pretty vintage brass lamps out there, so into the bedroom they went after I bought some new lamps.  The end table on the right is thrifted ($7) and I really dislike it, but haven’t found anything amazing yet to replace it with.  It too used to be in the living room but recently moved into the bedroom so the white one could go in the living room.  The end table on the right was thrifted ($12) and David painted it white and replaced the hardware.

We made the headboard, but I still need to finish it.  I haven’t decided whether I should do nail head trim or tufted buttons…The pillows are made by me, but I don’t love them so they’ll probably be replaced eventually.

So, the dresser was another great story of God providing.  Before we got married we trolled several thrift stores looking for a cheap dresser to paint, but couldn’t find anything we loved.  Then, I was driving near my mother-in-law’s house and noticed this dresser out on the curb!  It had ugly wood veneer, but overally was exactly the shape and size I was looking for, so David went and picked it up, and then repaired, sanded, painted, and replaced the hardware.  Then, like a year later, I was driving around in the same neighborhood and found this mirror on the curb!  The glass was covered in old, dried on masking tape and the wood was in terrible shape, but we worked on it and it’s so pretty and perfect now!  Overall, though, please ignore the styling on the dresser, as it desperately needs to be revamped.  Also, the fan is ugly, but whatever, the house gets hot at night.

I got the picture from my mom’s shed, and the brass bowl for my jewelry was thrifted ($1). 

My sewing desk was thrifted ($4) and provides the perfect little sewing station.  And thus ends our little tour.

Ok, your turn!  Everyone start a blog and virtually invite me to tour/stalk your house!

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