Entry Table and Lamp Source

So every time I post a picture of this table on Instagram I get a million {okay maybe not a million but pretty close} questions asking where it came from along with the stone lamp.
They are both Homegoods finds. Unfortunately that means they aren't available to run out and grab up. They were purchased awhile back. Table about 2 years and lamp about a month ago. Its certainly the grace of the interiors gods what you are going to find there!

Making the house work for us

My main focus for our home is always to simplify and to declutter. I want our home to work for us instead of us always working to keep up with our home. Less stuff. Less to organize, clean, pick up...etc. Am I right?!?
Over winter break I was on my usual mission for the beginning of each new year to get this house in order. I cleaned out closets. I organized drawers. I tossed so many things that I can't even remember what I threw away which means we didn't need it in the first place. While I was in the midst of the great clean up of 2015 our basement flooded. UGH. At first I was really upset that we had all this work ahead of us to now clean up the basement along with the rest of the house but then I realized it was truly a blessing in disguise. It was just the excuse I needed to just throw more things away! I have to say its so much easier to let something go when its sopping wet on a basement floor. Yuck.
When I declutter it pretty much all goes so how do I decide what stays?
These are the questions I ask as I purge my home.....Would I buy it today? Do I think its beautiful? Will I miss it in a week from now?
Yes, I have sold or thrown away things that I regretted.... for like a second. Seriously, I am not sentimental about stuff and I know I breath clean air when my surroundings are minimal and cozy. Not cluttered.
When its all said and done, in the end you won't remember the stuff anyway. Its the people and the places that you go that will make your memories sweet. Don't waste your time managing the stuff when you could be making memories.
There is nothing like the feeling you get when you know you have empty closets in your home. Yes, empty because you don't need all the crap you are hoarding inside of it.
I decided that if I bring something in to the house then two things must leave. Yes, two! I also don't shop anymore unless I have a plan. I know exactly what I am looking for before I head out. I have a list and if I happen upon something I have been wanting but didn't know I was going to find then I make a promise to myself that I will sell or give away whatever I am replacing it with. It's working and our home is becoming more thoughtful and less full everyday. Its wonderful. I am also replenishing my wallet in the process which is also good!

Now that the house was in finding its way to less stuff and the closets were all cleaned out. I started really thinking about the fact that we not only needed to keep up with our mission of less but also really make our home work for us in every way!
I needed to rethink the space inside these walls. How could we get our home to meet all our needs? First, I had to figure out what those needs were? I grabbed a sheet of paper and with the idea in mind to not over think this too much ( I can obsess a little over this kind of thing) I started jotting down our needs.....

We have a five bedroom home with the fifth bedroom on the main floor. Sometimes this room is a playroom and sometimes its a guest room. Which always involved a ton of rearranging every time we had guests coming and lugging a mattress up and down stairs multiple times! So dumb.
My office is next to the downstairs bedroom and to be honest I wasn't ever in there. Most of the time I was doing my work from the kitchen table, bed or in the living room. I had an entire room in my home that wasn't even being used and we were lugging furniture around the house every few weeks. So dumb.
Another room that wasn't being used was our dining room except for thanksgiving and the occasional birthday dinner. But I loved the way it looked! It was such an inviting and pretty space and the first room that guests saw as they entered our home. I didn't want to lose all that. But what was I trading for it?
I knew what needed to be done and today it happened. I said goodbye to my pretty dining room and moved the table and chairs in to the kitchen. I wasn't going to get rid of those...heavens!
I swapped them out for the kitchen table now turned desk and added in the arm chair. I can now use this space for when I really need an office and it still looks inviting to guests.  But we can still pull in the large table and use it as a dining room come the holidays. Easier to move tables for company then a dang mattress...am I right?!?

{before}

I think I can handle the room like this and I like knowing that its going to work so much better for us in the long run. I do miss my pretty table and chairs in here but I also know that I will get used to it in  the kitchen. 

The other changes that I made was turning the playroom back in to the guest room and my old office is now the kids playroom/craft/computer room. All in one room!

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I grew up sharing a room with a sister that was nine years younger than me in a home that we had one living room and one kitchen for gathering and only two bathrooms for five people and you know what? It was fine!! We actually thought we were doing pretty good considering we actually did have two bathrooms as opposed to some of my friends that only had one! What the heck has happened that we as parents think our kids should own every room in the house? Since when did having their own rooms not become enough? Why must they now have a bedroom, playroom, craft room, media room, etc. all full of toys and their stuff and do they really need all that stuff. I believe this is another post to come shortly. 

 This might sound cruel to some but my husband and I have decided to take our house back. 

I should of been clear, when I said I wanted our home to work for us...that meant the adults..ha!  

{photos of the playroom and guest room changes coming to the blog soon}

Target Style

Oh Target you always know how to speak my love language and right now you know Im all about the natural tones and elements. Give me all the wood, brass and marble!
I took a little trip there today and I loved everything I was seeing. Keep the neutrals coming and I will always be a happy girl!

Just a few of my favorites that are available on line after seeing them in person today. Who would of ever thought you could be so inspired while on your way to buy deodorant, milk and lightbulbs! 

Lamp

Desk

Bench 

Cube

Chair

Coffee Table

Ceramic Vase

Clear Candle Holder 

My Middle's Bedroom Makeover

Its been a little while since we completed our middles room and so I thought I would share a few behind the scenes images with you all on how it all came to be!
You might not remember but her room used to look like this below

I had an idea to make the space a bit softer and so we started by painting over the Sharpie wall and tearing up the carpet to the subfloor.

Once we had new white paint on the walls it was time to lay the plywood plank floors and install the Chasing Paper wallpaper.

After these steps were completed it was on to planking all of the walls and painting the planks white. 

Before any project I always create a design board so that I can visualize the entire space and I don't waste time purchasing items that I end up not loving once I see them all in the space together.

Of course the board is always tweaked a little as I go and because I am always working on a budget I have to improvise as the project is completed. I still incorporated all of the colors in to the finished space but some of the items changed. Instead of a white bed with mint green bedding, I flip flopped the look and painted her existing bed green and used white bedding. This was huge when it came to cost. I always try to use what I have before purchasing new items. Shopping your own home is always the best way to start when you are styling a space.

I found the perfect mint green paint below at hobby lobby and the application was super easy and not much over spray at all. Two coats the red was gone!

The one thing I wanted to add to her room was this dresser from The Land of Nod. But at $1299 it just wasn't in the budget so I started thinking that I would just recreate the look myself. Using the dresser she already had in her room. I used frog tape on the front to create the pattern similar to the LON dresser.

The design was far from perfect but after a few tries I was fine with it....I stopped going for "perfect" a long time ago. 

The next step was to paint over the tape with my favorite primer HERE. If you follow the directions this stuff will stick to anything and considering I didn't prepare the dresser for painting by sanding it, I needed to make sure this stuff was going to stick!

I let it sit for a week and then pulled off the tape. I didn't paint over it but instead used a polyurethane to seal it. 

The two side by side. I still love the lighter one but saving myself $1299 was worth it! 

Im still over the moon with how the space turned out. Its a small room and so I had to be creative with the design so it didn't feel crowded or over done. I needed a real plan for the space and stick to it so that I didn't find myself purchasing things that ultimately wouldn't work and wasting time and money in the process. I also knew that if I didn't have a design we both loved that I would end up changing it again and that would make for a grumpy husband and I didn't want that!