A Cheap Find

When I mentioned that I wanted the floor mirror from West Elm to match our bedroom furniture, my friend Kelly told me that Ikea had a great knock off. So, the other day we were at Ikea and I saw that it looked just like the one at West Elm and bought it. It matches our West Elm bedroom furniture perfectly, too. Score!

West Elm Chunky Wood Floor Mirror

$329.00

Ikea Mongstad Mirror

$99.00

Chelsea Gray - Guest Bedroom

We have been working hard to get the guest bedroom done so that we can move on to the next project. Casey installed Pergo floors, new closet doors, and a new entry door. We also have painted the ceiling, primed the walls, and put in base board moulding. Tonight we hope to finish the painting of the walls and base boards. I will hopefully have some before and after pics to post soon!

I wanted to paint the wall gray and have the room decorated in shades of white, gray and black with a pop of color like a yellow or tangerine. I picked out Chelsea Gray from Benjamin Moore's Historical Collection. I am a little scared b/c it is so much darker than what I imagined in my head. Plus, I am not used to dark colors. However, I hope it turns out nice! If not, we can always re-paint. Here are some pictures of rooms with Chelsea Gray paint. Any thoughts?

Jalepeno Green at C&B

I walked into Crate and Barrel the other day and the store is splashed in spring green. There were so many things that match our jalepeno green kitchen. I managed to walk away with only these margarita glasses and pitcher.

But, check out the rest of these fun, green goods.

New Bedroom Furniture

We recently decided it was about time to upgrade to a king size bed. The queen was getting a little bit crowded with two humans and three dogs. I wanted to get a platform bed so we would just have a mattress, no box springs. However, we didn't want one that was too low to the ground, and we wanted to have a little room underneath to use as storage. So, we decided on the Tall Wood Bed Frame with the Window Headboard from West Elm.

I am loving the new bed. I love the platform, it makes our old mattress feel somewhat better (we are still waiting for the new one to come in), and I really like being lower to the ground. The dogs can actually get up on the bed without the unsightly plastic doggie stairs.

I can still slide my two under-the-bed storage containers (from Target) under the bed and they are completely hidden. This is where I store my off-season clothes.

We also got this Narrow Leg End Table from West Elm. I originally wanted one on each side, but there just isn't enough room in our bedroom so we ended up with just one. Casey's side of the bed has a box window so he has plenty of room to put a drink or book there in lieu of a nightstand.

The current lighting situation in our bedroom is terrible so I am going to put a table lamp on the nightstand and possibly a floor lamp or another table lamp in the other corner of the bedroom. I'll see how that works and add more, if needed.

I am really liking this table lamp from West Elm for the nightstand.

The next bedroom furniture that I want to replace is my dresser and TV stand (all the old furniture is being moved to the guest bedroom). I am hoping to replace both with a longer dresser like the one below from West Elm. I am thinking we can put our TV on top of it, instead of having a separate TV stand.

Right now, this is the only TV in the house since the basement is still unfinished. Not sure what to do with the tivo box and DVD player in the interim but once the basement is done we will only need the tivo box upstairs. I am hoping I can think of a way to hide it so that I don't have to add additional furniture to the bedroom.

On one side of the bedroom, we have an outcropping with three windows. I would love to make it a little reading nook with a slipper chair and side table. I am in love with this side table from West Elm but wondering if it would be possible to make something like this ourselves?

I love the slipper chairs from Target, but would have to find something that doesn't clash with the print on our rug. None of the colors they currently have are exactly right.

Finally, I would like to add a stand alone mirror on the other side of the bedroom, like this one at West Elm.

Fireplace

At some point we need to have our fireplace inspected or have a chimney sweep come or something. BTW thinking about chimney sweeps makes me sing that song from Mary Poppins, "chim chiminey, chim chim cha-roo" and then Casey looks at me like I am crazy b/c apparently he has never seen Mary Poppins nor has he ever heard a person who does a worse rendition of it than me.

Anyway, in the meantime we thought it would be nice to use our fireplace for candles instead of an actual fire so we don't burn the joint down. So I bought a bunch at BB&B and voilà, instant ambiance.

Entryway/Living Room Project

As our Entryway/Living Room project is coming to a close, I find myself pondering furniture options. We will probably hold off on making any big purchases for this room until we are done with other renovation projects, but a girl can dream.

After contimplating serveral different entryway options, I think we have decided on this from Pottery Barn. Since we have no coat closet (or any closet on the main level, for that matter), an entryway unit is necessary. I like this one b/c the baskets can hide keys, mail, boots, gloves, etc. Plus, I like the bench to sit down on when you're lacing up your shoes.

For the living room, we need a coffee table, new rug, and some lamps. Also, we are toying with the idea of hanging a small chandelier over the new fireplace and mantel. Something like one of these from Lowe's.

Merry (Belated) Christmas

This December passed by in a whirlwind, as it usually does. We got our tree up, in the past we have always been in tiny apartments so it was nice to give it plenty of room.

For Christmas, my wonderful husband gave me a new DSLR camera! I am so excited but am clueless about all the manual settings and am trying to teach myself how to use more than just the auto setting.

Our tree:

Using the candlelight auto setting:

A few ornament shots:

And, course, our Moravian star:

Photo Coasters

My little sister-in-law got us these photo coasters from Crate & Barrel as a house warming gift when she came to visit. I was trying to decide what photos to put in them since all I really have around are wedding pictures. Then I decided, maybe this would be a good way to use up some of our prints of the wedding details like the cake and flowers.

Casey's boutonniere:

My bouquet:

Our cake:

And a ring shot:

Thanks, Jillian!