From the first time I laid eyes on a DIY for a bubble chandelier, I knew I had to make one. I believe it was the night I discovered Door Sixteen, and I spent the AM hours reading through her blog, bookmarking gray rooms and the instructions for this chandelier.

While I love the idea of a standalone chandelier, and I still might make one for my foyer, I really wanted this in the center of my living room. However, I have a ceiling fan, and I am not willing to give up my cool breezes and good air circulation for aesthetics. (more…)

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Living Room by Courtney

image from Prints.com

As I’ve thought about what to do with our master bath, art is one of the many things that has stuck out in my mind. I’ve wanted to have old movie posters featuring pin-up girls, or something evocative of these posters. Maybe Vargas girls. Just something fun, flirty, and that I don’t care if it gets ruined by humidity (not that it’s been a problem in the past, but just thinking).

I have other defined ideas – marble tile, open shower, cool grays, etc. When I stumbled upon this picture in one blog or another, I decided it would be the perfect image for the future bathroom. Cool grays, warm yellow, a bit sexy. I’m sold. The only thing to ponder is how to frame it. Just the girl, or the whole poster? Oh, and when to embark upon the massive master bath remodel. That’s the bigger question.

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Master Bath by Courtney

That’s right, two years. It feels like yesterday we were moving in, playing furniture roulette, and enjoying beer while sitting on the porch. Literally on the porch, because we hadn’t dragged any furniture outside yet. I guess in some ways things haven’t changed. I’m still playing furniture roulette, but I’m getting closer to achieving the vision I have in my head.

For our side yard, that vision has changed a bit over the two years. One of the slightly-awkward things about this house was the fact that the deck and backyard were off of the master bedroom. There’s a sliding glass door in the family room/dining room into the side yard, but when we moved in the side yard was so lackluster that I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to hang out there. A strip of dead grass, lots of concrete, and fenced off from the back yard, it certainly wasn’t inviting. Since it was off of the dining room, I decided that we would put the dining table in the side yard, and dress it up a bit. This was my original plan for the space: (more…)

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Backyard, Patio by Courtney

view from the master bedroom

It seems as soon as summer hits, out the window goes anything indoors. All of our focus has been on getting the outdoor space to be as close to perfect as possible. Sometimes with all of the hard work, I lose sight of how much we’ve done, but these pictures that contrast when we first moved in last year with where we are now show how much we’ve accomplished.

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Backyard, Patio by Courtney

After is a bit of a misnomer in this picture, this is really a “during”, because there’s still much work to be done in the living room. However, as you can hopefully tell from the picture, we’ve done a lot of work in this room. When we moved in, the room was a greenish yellow, with an accent wall of a lighter yellow, so the biggest help was just getting a new coat of paint up. We used Behr’s paint and primer in one in Silver Screen to coat the walls, as I was going for that light shade of gray in Excel (yes, I’m such a geek, I know). I have to say, I love the Behr paint (and no, this isn’t a paid advertisement). I was lucky enough to have 4 extra people around the day we painted the living room, and with 2 gallons and an hour or two, we had that plus the entry way done. See more pictures and details below. (more…)

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Living Room by Courtney