Labor Day SALE and A Little Frame Makeover

I just wanted to pop in before Labor Day Weekend got into full swing to let you know we are having a big sale and to show you a quick project. Because I wanted to make sure our family room felt personal I wanted to add in lots of family photos. I put the chevron frames (I will probably eventually change those out for something a little bit nicer) above the sofa and then wanted to add some photos of Lillie and Lola on either side of the TV. I hunted through our stash of frames and couldn't find anything that worked so I decided to use some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint from Karla who owns Lady Butterbug to transform a couple of frames into something that would look better. I had two black ones that I liked the size of so decided to work with those.

 

The first thing I did was paint the frame in Paris Grey. I can't believe how nicely it coated the frame!

Then I rubbed some of the Dark Wax over the whole frame and ended up with kind of a rustic weathered wood look! 

I am so much happier now how these look. They blend much more nicely than the black frames did!

I had so much fun with the paint that I went ahead and painted my dining room chandelier! I'll show you that next week! Now I am dying to find a piece of furniture to paint with it. I highly recommend heading on over to Lady Butterbug and checking out all of the amazing Annie Sloan products that Karla carries! She is so wonderful about answering any questions you may have and even offers workshops.

And don't worry - I know you are probably sick of seeing the family room. Next week along with showing you the chandelier makeover in the dining room, I will be showing you Lillie and Lola's room and our kitchen island. And then after that the full kitchen! I finally photographed it and now I'm tackling all of that trim in our entryway and powder room.

I hope you all have a fabulous Labor Day Weekend!

Enter His Gates Prints in Color and Chalkboard!

Tonight we are introducing our "Enter His Gates..." print; the first of three prints for the autumn season. (I just finished the second one last night which will hopefully be available towards the end of next week and the third one I am still working on). We will be offering this first print in several different color options. The one of above is a tan and chocolate color on white.

When I showed you the other side of this room I had not yet put anything on this back wall. I was planning on getting rid of this dresser that Jon and I got at a consignment shop when we first got married for next to nothing. It was always just supposed to be a temporary option until we found the right thing but somehow it has stuck around for quite a few years. As Jon and I were organizing our clothes in our new room I decided it was time to finally get rid of it. Well, before it made it out the door, I realized it would work nicely in here for now seeing how I don't want to really spend any money or really fix up anything for in here yet until I decide what we are going to do in this room. 

We also have it available in a chalkboard print.

And a pumpkin color:

A chocolate color:

And my personal favorite, gray:

I hope you all have a fabulous rest of your Wednesday!

You Are My Sunshine Chalkboard

Just popping in to let you all know the You Are My Sunshine Chalkboard prints are now available (and the download too). If you look in the background you can see we've got the dining room painted! We ended up moving the clock in here where you can see it more. We also moved our farmhouse table in here where is works better than the first two places. Other than that, a mirror, and a couple of chairs though the room is pretty empty. Once we get a little more in here I'll take some proper pictures. We are planning on wallpapering in here eventually but for now we painted the walls above the chair rail Gray Owl at 75%. Below the chair rail it's the same Simply White as the trim. At some point I plan on adding some architectural detail on that part.

I'll hopefully be back later today!

You Are My Sunshine Print and A Peek of Lillie and Lola's Room

We are excited to announce we have a new print. One of the first chalkboard designs I showed here on the blog was "You are my sunshine". Recently it was featured over at iVillage and because of that we've been getting quite a few requests for it so I thought I would redraw it. It is available in pink in the 11 by 14 size.

You can get a little peek at Lillie and Lola's new room here.

We also have the new print available in yellow in the 11 by 14 size.

We will also have it available in a chalkboard print and download later this week!

I hope you all have a fabulous week!

Happy Sunday!

 

Here is the one photo I did actually get of Lillie, Lola and Evie all actually looking at the camera!  Well, technically Lola isn't looking at the camera but she's sitting still and facing forward at least. =)

Lola wasn't a fan of being in the basket so hopped out and gave me lots of entertaining poses. Unfortunately Lillie and Evie kind of sunk down in the basket so none of these came out.

 I hope you all have a blessed Sunday! I'll be back tomorrow with a new print and a peek of Lillie and Lola's new bedroom!

A Few Family Pictures

 

 

In the past I have posted quite a few "people pictures" from our time in New Hampshire each summer - you can see a bunch from last year (here, here, here and here) and the year before (here) and the year before (here). This year though I barely took any. As I've been making my way through the photos I took of my parent's house and Jason's and editing them for the blog I've found a few "people pictures". 

Here is my mom and baby Everly:

I tried to get a few shots of Lillie and Lola with Everly (I did get one good one so I will show you that one tomorrow once I get it sized for the blog). Unfortunately the rest pretty much all looked like this or even worse. Haha!

Calla and Lillie playing dress-up:

 Papa teaching Lillie to roll her tongue up:

And while the girls were outside playing the last night we were there we quickly got this shot:

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

New Sconces and our Karlstad Sectional in the Family Room

 

Yesterday I took photos of Lillie and Lola's room as well as of our new "You Are My Sunshine" chalkboards. Along with the chalkboard version of it we are also going to be offering it in two colors. As soon as we get them back from the printers we will be listing those in the shop - hopefully later this week and if not then we should definitely have them next week. So, I will have some nice colorful photos to share with you soon. Until then here are some more shots of our very neutral family room with our new sconces. They are a much better proportion than the ones that were here. (There is a before shot if you scroll down a bit). We intentionally did our family room and kitchen VERY light and very neutral which I know to some people will seem quite boring but we did this for a few reasons. First - I love neutrals and find them to be very soothing. Second, these two rooms (which are essentially one large room) get VERY little natural light so are quite dark. By doing them in light neutral colors it helps it feel much less dreary in here. And third, I wanted to be able to very easily change this room up seasonally and just in general. Which just some fresh flowers, throw pillows and even fruit in the kitchen we can add pops of color scheme quite easily. I cannot wait to decorate this room in December! 

We still have a a couple more things to add to the room like a rug and recovering the ottoman in a darker fabric but we are definitely getting closer to having this room complete. And I have changed a couple of things even since I took these photos the other day - I hung a large photo of each of the girls above the chairs on either side of the television and also switched out the small black frames on the oversized chevron boards for larger ones I spray painted white. They are still on the chevron squares, they are just now thicker white frames in the center of the chevron. I also switched out the mirror above the fireplace with the painting that in our den although I am leaning towards switching it back to the mirror.

Here is a close-up (sorry for the grain - as I mentioned the natural light in here is awful and I haven't discovered where I put my tripod yet - haha!)

Now that we have lived here a while and I've had time to stare at this brick every night while working on my computer and think about the different options for it I am leaning more and more towards whitewashing it. 

The trim, fireplace and doors are painted in London Fog by BM in a semi-gloss finish.You can read about that here.

 Here is a before shot where you can see the tiny little brass sconces that were there.

We got our Karlstad sectional from IKEA and I have to say so far we have been absolutely thrilled with it! I was a little nervous about it to start with. We ordered it that first week we moved in after I drove Jon and my parents crazy measuring and remeasuring and trying to decide if it was the right purchase or not and it came the following week. Before we ordered it I was quite torn because design-wise I knew it wasn't what I would choose, but we wanted to be able to sit a bunch of people comfortably and it allowed us to face both of the focal points (the fireplace on one wall and the TV on another). There was not a single other sectional we could find that was even close to being in our price range so that made the decision to get one from IKEA pretty easy. We were orginally torn between this one and the Ektorp but because of the meaurements and a few other factors including the fact that we thought this one would retain it's shape a little better we went with the Karlstad. Basically in the end for this purchase we decided to go with the functionality of a sectional over a "pretty" sofa and I am so glad we did! It is really comfortable and our whole family can all snuggle up on it together. We also can fit a surprising amount of people on it. And one of my favorite things about it is that because the fabric fits snugly it doesn't get wrinkly or messy looking at ALL!

I know a lot of people will think we are crazy for getting white but I love the way the white looks. It helps keep the sectional from overwhelming the room and even though it isn't a slipcovered sofa it is still pretty easy to remove the cushions and throw them in the wash. I know this because we already had a rather large spill while someone was eating dessert a few nights ago and ended up washing all of the covers on the seat parts. I won't name any names but let's just say it wasn't a female member of our family. =) It ended up being easier putting them back on after washing them than it was when we first assembled the sofa because I put them on when they were still a tiny bit damp. I know that regardless of that a lot of people will still think it's crazy to go with white but I figured it was worth the risk because if it ever does become too much upkeep we can always ask for one of the darker covers for Christmas to switch out with the white one. For now though I am really LOVING the white and just the overall sectional in general. And I have to say I can't believe I am saying that. I really thought it was just going to be okay  - something that was worth getting even though I didn't love it because it was going to be functional for our family, but I actually now love it.

I am basically done now with Phase 1 of our kitchen makeover so am hoping we will have a very sunny day soon so I can photograph it and when I do I will show you the this room from the other side so you can fully see the sectional.

 I hope you are all having a lovely week!