Archive | our house

Last week, when September 1st hit the calendar, my instagram feed blew up with cozy images of Fall.

Pumpkins, plaid, wool blankets, crackling fires, chunky knit sweaters, golden leaves.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am a Fall girl through and through. It always has and always will be my favorite of all seasons. I remember not too long ago when I had to restrain myself from pulling out all my favorite Fall stuff to pepper around the house before September 1st.

Now, however, I’m not quite there. Not quite in pumpkin and plaid mode.

This year I’m feeling the need to ease a bit more slowly into the new season. 

Over the weekend, I did make a few simple changes to our home to gently reflect the upcoming season.  Easy things that help it feel a little cozier without going all the way.

If you need a little inspiration for ways to bring your home into the new season, try out these three steps:

STEP ONE:

Add freshly clipped greens.

When we returned from our extended road trip, the back yard was basically a jungle. I spent hours pulling waist-high weeds, trimming overgrown shrubs and spreading a new layer of black mulch. While I was out there, I clipped a few branches off the maple tree to pop into a vase inside. The leaves will be changing color soon (it’s still fun to clip when they are turning!) and I love the organic and slightly unruly look of them up there on the kitchen shelves.

Our home is very neutral and the green just seems to make it all come alive.

While fresh flowers and bright greens are perfect for the spring, deeper green branches feel decidedly fall. Plus, they are free! Head outside, take along a pair of clippers (I like these) and clip off a big, funky branch to bring indoors.

STEP TWO:

Throw in some cozy texture.

There is something about chunky knits that feel absolutely fall-like. This oldie-but-goodie knit throw works in any season because of its creamy white color, but I especially love having it out as Fall approaches.

This is our main hang-out area in the house and why I insist on having the couch filled with pillows is beyond everyone in my family. They inevitably end up on the ground and I inevitably put them all back up three hundred times per day. But the combination of texture we have going on right now makes me very happy. It feels fall-ish without being overly obvious and that’s just what I’m looking for as I ease our home into the season.

I’ve heard it said that texture acts like pattern and am always a fan of mixing as many textures as I can get away with.

Mixing a chunky knit throw (like this one) with a graphic woven pillow (from here), soft leather pillow (from here), funky faux fur (found here) makes for an especially cozy feel.

STEP THREE:

Change out the scent.

I was just talking with a friend about how I don’t like smelly candles. And then midway through the statement I had this moment of clarity: I used to not like the smell of candles.

This all started back in high school when all my friends burned sickeningly sweet vanilla ones and I got an instant headache. Since then I’ve told myself I don’t like smelly candles but actually, I do! It just depends on what it is. Candle scents (and packaging) have come a long way since the late 90’s and there are far more options than vanilla.

If you are a candle person and have been burning a summery scent, switch it up! Maybe don’t go quite to the deep fall scents of balsam and cranberry, but try something woodsy and fresh.

One of my favorite candles is this Izola Green Moss candle – half because of the gorgeous green of the glass and graphic label, half because of the rich, pleasant smell. Another good option is this Driftwood + Indigo (I have it in the cute cement container on my desk right now, but I really like the wood version too).

The candle shown is a few years old from Anthropologie, which is always an excellent source for new scents and pretty packaging.

As the month progresses, I’m sure I’ll be switching up more around the house, but for now these three simple changes feel just right.

I’d love to know … are you ready for fall? Are you a fall decorator? If so, have you jumped fully in or are you a little slower like me? Do tell …

We don’t argue all that often. But on this particular day, I was feeling feisty and he was being stubborn and so we fought.

Want to know what we were so passionately arguing about?

LAMPS.

I know. Ridiculous.

Ryan thought a pair of floor lamps would look great flanking the couch in the living room.

I thought it would be too matchy-matchy and preferred a floor lamp on one side and a table lamp on a table on the other.

We certainly needed more light in our living room and there is already plenty of furniture, so Ryan’s main concern was that adding a side table would clutter things up visually. My main concern was that matching floor lamps just isn’t done.

When he left the room, I immediately opened my computer and pinterest-searched ‘matching floor lamps‘ to see if it was a decorating do or don’t.

I didn’t find a lot (the table/floor lamp combo seems to be most common), but I did come across a few rooms that looked great with a pair of floor lamps on either side of the couch.

So I humbled myself, apologized for my stubbornness (and possible brattiness) and the next day we bought a pair of floor lamps.

And you know what? I actually really like them. They keep things modern, clean and less visually cluttered. The lamps we bought are sturdy, shiny, classic and add a touch of fancy to our casual living room.

Ryan was right. Matching floor lamps can be a great choice.

Here are a few rooms with matching floor lamps that helped me change my mind:

Moral of the story:

My husband has good taste. Rejuvenation is my new favorite store. Big windows are a must for our next house. A pair of matching lamps look great flanking a sofa.

I was thinking the other day … sometimes it’s tricky to understand how rooms flow together when just looking at pictures.  You’ve seen our house from every perspective I can think to show, but still it’s probably different in real life than it appears in images.

So today, I’m giving you a quick tour of our house in video form. Think of it as if you were to just pop by during the middle of the day for coffee and I was showing you around.

 
I hope you enjoyed your (virtual) visit!

Some things to note:

– Our house is very quiet and mostly clean during the day when the kids are at school. I function better when my space is picked up so I do lots of clearing off counters, picking pillows up off the floor and putting them back onto the couch, throwing random stuff in that basket on the stairs each morning after they leave for school. I do the same neurotic routine after they go to bed. And actually, pretty much the whole time we are home in the afternoon and evening.

– The kids keep most of their stuff upstairs and while I hound them plenty about keeping it picked up up there, I can’t promise that is what actually happens.  When they were babies we had more toys and books downstairs; now it’s pretty much all upstairs.

– I picked up a little before the video (as I would if I knew a friend was dropping by), but not like I normally would when taking photos of the house. Garbage bags of randomness to donate, storage bins waiting to be expertly organized, our bed unmade – these are daily realities and so I left them.

– What do you put in the middle of a dining room table when it’s not in use? This has been perplexing me for all of my home-making days.

– Our bathroom. Gah. I guess it just serves to remind us how far we’ve come on the rest of the house.

– The battery died on the camera at the end, hence the very abrupt ending. What I was trying to say through my rambling is that we are grateful for our house, thankful for the opportunities it has given us to host parties and small groups and have families live with us, and also the many ways it has opened doors creatively for both me and Ryan. This house is far from our perfect dream home and I could share a list of all the things we would like to be different, but 2016 is the year of renewing my mind and I’m choosing to see the positives :)

Let me know if you have any questions about anything!

Confession: as much as I adore the Christmas season, I have been dragging my feet to put up decorations this year.

For a while now, I have been craving less, simple, clean, bright (hence the all-white walls). Putting out more stuff just felt crazy.  Plus, last year we went all out preparing for the Better Homes + Gardens magazine shoot and I feel like I used up all my good decorating ideas!

We finally added ornaments to the tree this past weekend and put out just a few of our favorite christmas things for a very simply decorated house. It still feels light and clean (at least while the kids are at school!) with a touch of cozy and sparkle. Enjoy a small peek!

ENTRY

We’re taping holiday cards to the wall for all to enjoy. Felt ball garland is from West Elm (which they don’t sell anymore, but this wreath is pretty darling), the mirror is from IKEA for just $49.

DINING ROOM

As a girl, I danced in Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Nutcracker. My parents gave me a special Nutcracker each year and so I have a small collection. The kids love them and since we don’t have a ton of decorations out, I figured grouping them all in a tray was a fun way to display them. (Tray is from Target).

LIVING ROOM

The stag always looks so handsome with a wreath around his neck (this pom pom one I made. Here is the tutorial). The garland is fresh and nearly dried out, but it still looks pretty. We get cedar garland at Costco each year and you can’t beat the price. This one is actually doubled up because it is so long and it fills in a bit more.

The stockings are from West Elm (on sale for $9 each right now!) and I like to embellish them with tags or numbers or ribbon. The snowflakes are also from West Elm as is our tree skirt – which you can’t really see in photos, but it is the same white felt with pom pom balls all the way around.

The couch is always piled with favorite pillows. The fuzzy pillow is a steal at $21, Noel pillow is a few years old from Target, graphic pillow is from Target and the ticking pillows I made. That buffalo check wool throw just makes me happy (you can find them all over or try school house electric). Lamp is IKEA.

We live near a tree farm and cut ours down on Thanksgiving weekend. This one is so pretty!

You may remember my rug debate in the living room. The first light one just wasn’t right for the room, so we bought this linen sisal rug from Crate and Barrel and it’s just what we were hoping for.

Grocery store flowers made to look fancy by cutting them way down (here’s more on that).

I found these brass deer at a vintage sale last christmas. I’m very in to mixing metals.

KITCHEN

One of the best things about open shelves is the ability to style them differently each season. My basic dishes stay in the same spot, but I like to add in a few items that speak to the time of year. A few things to note: the lampshade is old from Target (it could be a super easy DIY with a plain lampshade, painters tape and black paint), the ipad mounted to the wall was Ryan’s genius idea (more details here), the striped bowls are from IKEA.

The chalkboard (a great diy) reminds us of what this season is all about.

Bottle brush trees are from West Elm, cake plate is available on Amazon.

BEDROOM

Just this past weekend I finished painting our room. It previously had a pretty deep teal/blue wall and gray elsewhere (see it here). But like I said, we are craving light! bright! white! so I painted the walls and ceiling the same white as the rest of the house (White Heron by Sherwin Williams).

And look! We put the white rug in here. It’s maybe not quite in the same style as the bed (no longer available from Restoration Hardware), but we’ll live.

The lamps are nearly 10 years old from Restoration Hardware, duvet is Crane & Canopy, coverlet is Target, gray sweater pillow was made by my mom out of my dad’s old sweater (I love it) and the baby it’s cold outside pillow is from Northernly. We’re working on our nightstand situation.

Thanks for visiting today! As always, if you have any questions on sources I missed, I’m happy to share. Just leave a comment and I’ll comment back.

xoxo.

PS. Here are my House Tours from season’s past:

Christmas 2010 (so long ago! So much red and green! But a sweet message)

Christmas 2011

Christmas 2013

Decorated Play Room 2013

Last November, we finished our biggest house project – new hardwood floors and freshly painted walls.

You can read all about each step:

the process for picking our floors,

picking the perfect white paint,

what the messy progress looked like

and the big reveal.

One year later and both Ryan and I still agree that putting in new hardwood floors and having all the walls painted white was well worth the money, time and mess.

Over the year, I have received a bunch of questions about our hardwood floors. Today, I’m here to answer.

WHAT TYPE OF FLOORS DID YOU CHOOSE?

We for months before finally selecting pre-finished, nail-down oak hardwood.

We talked about carrying the existing blonde hardwoods into the hallway and living room (see a before here). We talked about doing tile. We talked about just keeping the hardwoods and replacing the carpet. We considered installing cheap wood and painting it all white. We even dreamed for a second about doing concrete (and then quickly woke from that dream).

At the end of all that talking, we decided to go with the best quality floor in our price range in a dark gray/brown. It’s maybe not our perfect dream floor – I think we would both go with wide-plank, medium tone if cost was no object – but it was a great choice for this house.

The actual flooring that we chose is discontinued, but this one is by the same manufacturer, just a different color.

HOW HAVE THE FLOORS HELD UP AFTER A YEAR?

We’re a big, chaotic family. We live in the Pacific Northwest where it rains a lot. We have a dog. The neighbor kids are in and out. Our home is where we live.

So, yes, after a year of living on them, the floors show some wear.

(See that big scratch in the photo above? That happened on day one when we moved the piano back in. UGH!).

We typically take our shoes off in the house, so that helps keep the floors nice, but Atlas, our labradoodle, has done his fair share of scratching the wood. We just recently added the sisal runner in the hallway to help prevent his nails from scratching when he runs obnoxiously to the door every time someone comes over. I’ve considered putting socks on him, but then remembered that he ate socks like it was his job as a puppy and thought better of it.

One little trick we learned from the floor installers is to keep a Minwax stain marker on hand to disguise any deep scratches.

You just fill in the wood, buff it with a paper towel and the scratch disappears.

ARE THE DARK WOOD FLOORS DIFFICULT TO KEEP CLEAN?

We were warned many times when choosing a dark floor that it can be hard to keep clean. Our friends have super dark, glossy floors that are gorgeous, but show dust and footprints and require a bit more attention than what I have to offer my floors.

Part of the reason we went with the matte finish, hand-scraped, gray/brown floors was in an effort to hide dirt, not make it more obvious.  Thankfully, this is exactly what we have in these hardwoods. They get dirty, for sure, but hide it pretty well and clean up nicely.

Ryan bought this industrial dust mop that I run across the floors daily to pick up dust, fur, crumbs and wool from our rug that sheds a lot. We mop with white vinegar + water once every two weeks (and by we what I really mean is Maria, our angel of a housecleaner).  Other than spot cleaning when there is a spill, I don’t do much else to them. I’d say the floors are quite low-maintenance.

Adding in hardwood was a big decision and investment for us and we’re so happy with the results. Having one consistent floor throughout the main level works wonders in keeping things visually cohesive and grounding the space. The color works well with our neutral color palette and we’ve been happy with how they’ve held up (despite our hard-handling of them).

And it’s crazy that a year has gone by so quickly.

I was asked by my friend Melissa of The Inspired Room to help celebrate the launch of her newest book with a quick peek at my favorite room.  I knew right away that I would share my office.  If you’re a reader of Melissa’s you know she is all about loving the home you have rather than wishing and waiting for something better and using what you have to make it feel more like you.

This is totally the story of my office.

When we moved in a little over nine years ago, this is what the office looked like:

It sits off to the right when you walk in the front door at the front of the house. The big window gets the best light of the house and it’s the perfect mix of open to the rest of the house and its own space (the french doors help with that). When we first moved it, this was Ryan’s office, but once I started the blog and began working more consistently, I took over the front room. The initial transformation was so much fun and exactly what I needed at that time in my life.

As a mom of many small children, having a space in the house that was just for me felt like the greatest gift. I could go in the office and be surrounded by things that made me happy and inspired apart from who I was as a mom. I will forever look back on this time and feel grateful that I found EMILY. I don’t know that I lost myself, but there is such potential when you spend your days loving and caring and protecting and nursing and cooking and picking up and forgetting to do things that make you feel alive and beautiful and creative.  That is what this office has represented in my life.

From the first version in 2010 until now, this room continues to be a place of inspiration and function. Let’s take a look at the many changes and updates that I’ve made over the years to my favorite space.

This was right after I completed the room makeover. I still love the painted wallpaper (see the tutorial here) and chalkboard wall. The drum shade was a simple diy (glue some fabric to a drum pendant and you’re done!) and I did like that dresser in there.

After a while, Ryan decided to move in with me. We put two matching desks back to back and I went a little crazy with the wall of pictures/art/etc. Ryan and I liked working together, but he values function over form and his metal file and shredder just didn’t cut it in my pretty space so he moved back upstairs to work.

A new, longer desk was needed as was more storage for all of my envelopes, files, etc, so those changes were made sometime in 2012. In December 2012, Better Homes + Gardens came to photograph my office (see it in publication here) which was beyond thrilling. To see our very average builder-grade home in a magazine was pretty affirming that we were indeed loving the home we had (even if it was/is not our dream house!).

For about a year, not much changed in the office except my style which gradually became much cleaner and neutral.

When I could take the carpet no longer, my boys and I pulled it up one day and I painted the chippy plywood subfloor white.

I actually really, really loved the white floors. They were not practical (especially because of the chippy subfloor that couldn’t be mopped), but the white was so bright and a great backdrop in there.

In November 2014, we had new hardwood floors installed throughout our house. It was a major undertaking and we love the results.  I miss the white floors, but having one consistent surface throughout the downstairs keeps things really open and visually clean.

Better Homes + Gardens photographed our house again in January 2015 for the Christmas Ideas issue (out on newstands now!). I’ll share photos soon!

So all of this leads us to today. This is the current state of the office:

It’s a total mess.

This summer, Ryan moved back in. The boys needed some space and so we moved them into their own rooms which meant Ryan’s office up there became a bedroom. Plus, we work together and it makes sense to be in the same room.

The not so wonderful part is that form vs function issue.

You may notice there are now three computers. My humungous one is fantastic and what I work on, the smaller mac (my old one) is for the kids, Ryan’s is on the other side on this gorgeous table that I love and gave up so he could use it for his desk (the true sign of love, perhaps).

I’m not a fan of the mat under my chair, but the floors were getting scratched so function wins.

We pulled in a console table we weren’t using in the living room to hold all the printers, paper, wires, modem, ugly things that are just necessary. Again with the function.

The files and garbages and piles of stuff is just life.

And I am switching out the brackets on the shelves for gold ones but only made it through the first shelf.

Even with all of this ugly/practical/messy mess, it’s still my beloved favorite room. I like it better when it is clean and pretty, but the feeling is still the same: it’s my place to be creative.

Do you have a favorite room in your house? What do you love about it? Is it how it looks? Or what it means to you? Or how it makes you and your family and guests feel?

Maybe you need some encouragement and visual inspiration to help you on your way to loving the home you have. If so, you will love, love, love Melissa’s newest book, The Inspired Room. You guys, it is so beautiful.

Her style is so good (and the photos!), but so are her words. She’s such an encouragement and wise and practical in her approach to creating a home. You will read this book and feel encouraged to love your home and make it feel like you.

If you want to join in and share your favorite room, you can do so here and be entered to win $300 from Anthro! More details here.

You may remember a few weeks ago I posted about rearranging the living room. While creating the design board and editing the post photos, I kept feeling like everything was just so monotone.

Gray rug, beige sofa, taupe chairs, dark floors, dark coffee table, gray stone on the fireplace.

Now I’m all about neutrals, but part of doing them well is making sure you have a nice mix of contrast. Different shades, different sheen, different textures. I’m no decorating expert, but I’m learning to trust my design instincts and something felt off.

I looked around at my favorite rooms on my pinterest living room board and noticed a recurring theme:

White walls/ceiling (check)

Linen or white upholstered pieces (check)

Natural wood tones (check)

Light rug (hmmmm).

Maybe that was what our living room needed.

So I kept my eyes peeled for a light rug and found this one on sale for 70% off. I took the plunge and called it a birthday gift :)

The rug arrived this week and I couldn’t wait to unroll and rearrange (once again).

Everything was put back together and now looks like this:

After a few days of living with it, here are my thoughts:

1. Love the soft, cushy feel of the new rug.
2. Love the light color.
3. Not sure how well it will hold up with our busy household.
4. It was very inexpensive, so I don’t feel like it’s precious and can’t be replaced.
5. The zig zags are more brown than gray, but I think it’s okay.
6. There’s a lot of pattern happening in this room. Maybe too much.
7. The rug smells so chemically. It needs to be aired out.
8. The gray rug hides dirt and gives a nice, cozy texture, but sheds so much it was driving me crazy.
9. I’m undecided on which one is better.

So that’s where were at.

I’d love to hear your design thoughts … gray rug or light rug?

Sometimes a good furniture rearranging is all you need to make a room feel fresh.

Our living room is our everyday hang out space, where we watch tv and read books and our main entertaining spot when friends come over.  It is open to the kitchen with a wall of windows (that looks out onto our tiny backyard and neighbors you could practically touch – but we’re not talking about that) and has a vaulted ceiling which gives it a big, airy feel.

This room is a little tricky for furniture placement since there are no walls, but I keep trying to switch it up just to make our same stuff feel different.

So the other day, with Ryan at work, two of the kids at my parent’s house and the others occupied upstairs, I played furniture rearranging for an hour or so.

I’m not great at visualizing a space; I really need to see things in place to figure out if it works or not. That’s the great thing about rearranging what you already have – you just move it around until you find a spot where it works.

The couch was previously along the window wall, with the tufted chairs opposite and the thrift store leather (vinyl?) chair facing the fireplace. That setup worked fine (probably better than any other), but its been that way for months and I was ready for a change.

Now the sofa faces the fireplace with the tufted chairs flanking it. We’ve had the room this way before, too, so it really isn’t all that original. The only thing we haven’t tried before is that thrifted chair under the window.

I like the placement this way for now. It feels cozy and open and different.

And the best part is that all it took was some shifting of furniture to freshen up the room.

Are you a perpetual re-arranger? Or do you feel bored of your same old room? Maybe try switching things up a bit for an hour and see what other arrangement you can make!

TUFTED LINEN SOFA: Yes, I still love it. Yes, it has held up really well. Yes, it will stain if you spill on it, so we just keep the kids in the kitchen with food. I am a big fan of the tight back and cushy down-filled cushions.

TUFTED SIDE CHAIRS: These were the first pieces of new furniture we bought for our house over 9 years ago. Classic style, comfortable, quality construction and fabric (I chose a mohair-look-alike in a taupy color).

WOOL RUG: Great color, very soft, hides dirt, love the texture it adds. BUT it sheds so much. So, so much. Even after a year. I would still buy it because it is a great price and looks great, but I’m slightly tired of the fuzz balls it creates.

INDUSTRIAL COFFEE TABLE: This one is from Wisteria years ago. It’s super heavy and I love the casters. This one is similar.

METAL SIDE TABLE: A great deal for a sturdy, but delicate side table.

WHITE FLOOR LAMP: Go ahead and get one or two or three of these for your house. They come in the floor lamp style, a desk lamp or sconces (which I have in my office). The cord is the best part.

PUMPKIN PAINTING: I painted this white pumpkin a few years ago on a canvas and pull it out each fall. I do offer reprints in my shop (although not as large, they are still wonderful!) Use code GRATITUDE for 15% off.

WOOD VASE: The natural warm wood color and modern texture of this vase is just so good. It is not water, safe, so either use faux branches or just wrap a clipping in a baggie filled with water.

BLACK + WHITE BLANKET: This wool blanket is such a classic and will work for any season. It was a splurge for me, but so worth it.

MONGOLIAN FAUX FUR PILLOW: Fluffy and fun and full of texture. And cheap.

BLACK GEOMETRIC PILLOW: I wasn’t in the market for a new pillow, but I couldn’t help myself with this one.

LEATHER PILLOW: I was in the market for a leather pillow. I’ve been eying these for forever and finally found one on ebay for a steal. It is soft and perfect. I wish it was a chair.

METALLIC GEOMETRIC PILLOWS: Again, so many pillows in my life. I just really love switching them out each season. It gives a whole new look to an otherwise neutral room.

BASKET: For corralling books and magazines and remotes and coasters, this basket tray is great for the coffee table.

WHITE CHUNKY KNIT THROW: More texture with a chunky knit throw.

Happy Fall my friends! Each season a bunch of bloggers join together to share fall decorating ideas. The tour is FULL of gorgeous – yet real life – homes with inspiration galore. Laura at Finding Home starts things off (see her home here) and we’ve partnered with Better Homes + Gardens as well! If you are coming from Michael’s home, welcome. Isn’t his home just the happiest place?! He does an amazing job of mixing patterns and color, while still keeping things clean. Love it. If my house is your first stop, be sure to click back to see what you’ve missed (start here).

This year, I have to say, I have been holding on to summer as long as possible and haven’t been quite ready for complete fall decorating with deep colors and traditional autumn colors. I’m sure that time will come as we progress into the next few months, but for now, I was going for a touch of fall with textures and warm/neutral colors, but still fresh and light. So I’m calling this my early fall home decorating.

Enjoy the peek into our home!

LIVING ROOM

Our fireplace lends itself so well to fall decorating with the cozy textures of stone and cedar. We usually keep our large iron stag head up there, but I thought I’d switch things up and display a painting I did of a pumpkin (proud moment).  If you’d like a print of the painting for your home, you can purchase one here (use code GRATITUDE for 15% off).

The linen couch is the perfect foundation for switching out accessories for any season. This time around a mix of textures and patterns leans toward a cozy, autumn feel.

SOURCES:
sofa / tufted chairs / wool rug / coffee table (similar) / side table / buffalo plaid throw / black geometric pillow / leather pillow / white geometric pillows / brass L (no longer available) / white pumpkin painting

PIANO

Last summer, I painted our old, dark wood piano bright white. I love it so much more now (even though the keys are so obviously aged-off-white).

SOURCES:
bench (Target, no longer available) / sheepskin / fall art print (download free below or here)

KITCHEN

SOURCES:
bar stools / gold dot pillow (Marshall’s) / striped bowls / striped dish towel (coming soon!)

BUTLER’S PANTRY

In between the kitchen and dining room is a little pass-through where we keep our coffee station. It keeps it accessible, but out of the way from regular kitchen activities. 

SOURCES:
coffee maker / milk frother / metal tray / striped mugs / coffee print

DINING ROOM

SOURCES:
table (no longer available, Restoration Hardware) / chairs / light / shelf / bar cart / striped napkins (coming soon!)

So there it is … the house all prettied up for fall.

FREE FOR YOU!

To help spread some autumn cheer, please enjoy this free art print. Simply sign in to the freebies library we call The Archive, download and print on your favorite white cardstock. I hope it adds an extra touch of fall to your home!

Thanks for visiting!

Don’t forget to visit the other gorgeous fall homes throughout the week.

First stops: BHG / Finding Home Farms / Liz Marie Blog / Inspired By Charm

Next up: Thistlewood Farms

If you’d like to take part in the tour, post your photos and tag them with #BHGCelebrate for a chance to be featured on BHG’s instagram and #FindingFallHomeTour for a chance to be featured on instagram.

Happy Fall!

To see our home decorated in seasons past:

 Fall Home Tour 2013 / Fall Tour 2014 Part One / Fall Tour 2014 Part Two

In December 2012, a team from Better Homes + Gardens came to our house to take pictures. It was beyond exciting. They shot both the office (featured in the September 2013 issue) and the kids’ playroom. We weren’t sure when they would publish the playroom, but it turns out, it made it into the June 2015 issue!

My kids have been waiting for this one to show up. It makes them feel pretty ‘famous’ to see themselves in a real life magazine. And they look so little!

If you haven’t gathered this, Ryan and I rearrange furniture a lot. Entire rooms, sometimes. So this darling playroom of December 2012 didn’t last that way for long. It morphed into Paige’s guest bedroom for a short while and then I painted over the stripes and moved Audrey in. Just last week we moved the kids around again and now each has their own room (no more cute boy bunk room, but some mini room makeovers are in the works) and Audrey’s room also had a few furniture changes. It’s a revolving door around here, my friends.

Anyway, the playroom looks super cute in the magazine. Maybe we should have just left it alone.

When I received my BHG magazine in the mail, these pages where nowhere to be seen. I had to track down a copy and apparently this article only ran in some issues. Maybe based on geographic location? Or something? I’m not sure how it works. Thankfully the nice people at Better Homes sent us a few copies for safekeeping. Because you know the kids want to show these pictures to all their friends :)

I feel so flattered that a professional magazine would deem our house magazine worthy. It’s pretty crazy, really, for a girl who grew up dreaming of living in a magazine house.

(Also, here’s a random story: I called to make a grooming appointment for Atlas and when I told the lady our last name she said, “Oh! I was just reading about your playroom in the magazine. I recognized the name and figured there weren’t many Lex’s so it must have been you!” How random is that?!)

Sweet, sweet summertime. I’m so happy this new season is upon us. We’re up here in the Pacific Northwest where summer doesn’t officially start until the kids get out of school mid-June, but we are just about mentally there. My kids (four of them ages 11, 9, 7 + 5) have stayed up much past their bedtime all week, we went out for ice cream last night and they have big plans for a new business this summer they can’t wait to get going on. All to say, we’re all ready. I need the lazy days and open windows, Ryan loves the warmer weather and flip flops, the kids can’t wait for all of it.

In preparation for the craziness that is our next few weeks before summer, I went on a decluttering flurry around the house. While I didn’t go quite to the extreme as last fall by completely quieting the house (a phrase lovingly borrowed from my friend the Nester), I still needed some space to breathe.  If you’ve been around my space of the internet for long, you know that I’m a neutral-loving girl. White. Black. Natural wood. Linen. Sometimes I add in pops of color (like in last year’s summer house tour) and stripes always make an appearance, but this year I just needed neutrals.  Lots of white. Lots of texture. Very little color. And it feels just right for our chaotic lives :)

LET’S BEGIN!

We live in a builder-grade home we bought 9 years ago. It was just about finished by the time we made an offer, so we missed out on making any design decisions on the fixtures/colors/lighting/kitchen packages. It turned out to be okay because we’ve found great joy in adding personality on our own to our otherwise regular house. We call it Making Builder-Grade Better.

It’s still pretty crazy to me that our home has graced the pages of three issues of Better Homes + Gardens (with a christmas feature coming out later this year!) because it’s truly nothing fancy. We’ve just loved adding our touches, changing out little things like switching out lights and painting all the walls and doing big projects like replacing the floors and updating a perfectly fine (but so blah) kitchen.  We’ve done our best to turn our house into a home.

SO COME ON IN!

Once inside, our piano sits nicely inside the stairway niche. I painted this old family piano last summer (it was a total pain, but I’m happy I did it). And Lindsay’s amazing artwork is just perfect over it.

Across from the piano nook is our dining room.

Like most dining rooms, it doesn’t get a lot of use. But when family comes for holidays or the kids need to spread out for an epic game of Risk, it’s just the space we need.

A collection of antique silver platters makes dimension/interesting/pretty artwork. You’ll see lots of old silver around our house – Ryan’s mom is the queen of thrift store shopping and she casts off all her goods to us. I know. Lucky me.

In the corner is this fantastic Target bar cart for a mix in metals. And my beloved book page wreath.

Moving on into the kitchen …

We changed the whole thing about a year after we moved in. I painted all the lower cabinets, Ryan added the beadboard backsplash and built-in seating, we extended the countertop and changed the shape of the island with new granite. And put in open shelves.

I’m asked often about what we think of shelves in the kitchen. We love them. All of our regular-use dishes and glassware are readily available and because we use most of the items, they don’t have a chance to get dusty. The top shelves need to be wiped down every so often.

I like changing up the shelves, adding artwork and lots of greenery.  The ipad mounted to the wall was Ryan’s genius idea.

Connected to the kitchen is our main living area. This is where our family mostly hangs out.

Our fireplace makeover was a fun project (that took forever) but adds so much interest to the room. And the stag (from here) just makes us happy.

Mixing patterns and textures, metals and finishes helps keep a neutral house interesting and adding live plants always keeps things feeling fresh and alive.

Last, we’ll head to our bedroom. The kids’ rooms, bathroom, laundry and bonus room are all upstairs and I avoid the mess as much as possible! Thankfully, our room is downstairs where things seem to stay picked up pretty well.

On a whim one saturday morning – actually, it was the morning Ryan and I were flying to california for the weekend and I should have been scrambling to pack my bags, but instead rearranged our bedroom furniture. So typical.  Anyway, I moved the bed against the window and now the blue wall makes no sense but I’ve been wanting to either plank the walls in here or paint it all white (no surprise there!) so maybe this will motivate that project.

Our bed (from Restoration Hardware – no longer available) and lamps (same) were two of our first purchases of real furniture when we moved in.  I like switching out the bedding, but usually come back to all white. There’s just something so hotel-ish about it.

(I still do print from my shop)

And, of course, texture.

Off our bedroom is a nice-sized bathroom that will someday be pretty like this.

So there you go, my friends! Thanks for visiting and chilling with me for a bit. I’d love to hang out again … you can SUBSCRIBE to the blog for future updates or find me on INSTAGRAM or PINTEREST.

Ready for more Summer House Tour inspiration?

Up next is Wendy from The Shabby Nest and you can see the full lineup here.

(Let me know if you have any questions on sources – or you can check out this source post and this one for most of the main furniture/lighting seen in our home)

We have no plan to redo our bathroom any time soon, but now that the rest of our main floor is looking all fancy with the new floors and white walls, I’m just itching to inject a little style into our master bathroom. And by inject a little style what I really mean is pretty much change everything.

Let me show you it’s current circa 2006 state:

When you walk in from our bedroom, there are two sinks on the right, a toilet room in that little area next to the wall, a tub and shower opposite and then our closet at the back.

Here’s the thing about our bathroom: it works. It’s clean. It functions just fine. But it’s just so blah.

So just like we’ve done with the rest of our house, I just want to inject a little personality into an otherwise builder-basic room.

Again, let me reiterate that there are no real plans to do the room, but in my imagination where my creativity just needs to do it’s thing, this is what I’m thinking:

I love the idea of making the vanity area more of a focal point, of tiling the walls all the way up with classic subway tile, adding tile to the floors and replacing the tub with a freestanding version. The colors, of course, would stay in the white, black, warm brown, mixed metals, neutral family – light and bright, clean and classic.

And just for fun, here’s a more detailed design board:

Can’t you just see the vision?!!!

A girl can dream.