Happenings.

Good morning, and happy Monday (boo). 

Did you guys have a nice weekend? Our's was great, and packed with lots of family and socializing. I finished up last week with a few painting projects, and am headed out the door in a bit to work on starting a kitchen cabinet job. I have a few photos I snapped over the past few days I thought I'd share...

Here are our new kitchen stools, woo. I got them at Overstock. I thought they'd be more of a red-orange tomato-y color, but when they got here they were orange. I still really love them, though, and the orange actually matches the rug I bought last weekend for the dining area perfectly, so it all ties together magically and nicely. :)

I also got some more of the wire Bertoia lookalike chairs on Amazon. I painted them white, but I'm thinking i might paint them back black or dark gray again. I think I liked the contrast better before. What do you guys say?

I picked some gardenias yesterday and placed them on the table. It smells so good in there! 

I found those old bottles on the side of the road a long time ago... I still love them. 

We had family over last night for father's day. And look! We can fit more than 3 people in our house at one time! haha.

There's my dad... and assorted other family members. Look at all that food! My brother and I (ok, mainly him but I chopped things) made tacos for the fam.

here's my brother David, breaking in the new grill. (of course my dad came over on Father's day with a gift for us. :) a sweet new grill! Awesome.)

hope you all had a nice weekend... lemme know what you think about my chair color?

Room Service Atlanta | Jennifer Baggett & Liz Ballard

Every year, I like to donate my services to a great cause - Room Service Atlanta. A few of you may remember the first year, where I donated my painting services to help out my friend Lori May. The house was the Nicolas House which was in Grant Park, and I painted a tree and birds on the wall of her room. The following year, in 2012, I helped out by having Mycolor Inspired by Pantone Paint donated paint to the cause. This year, I donated by creating some artwork for the talented Jennifer Baggett and Liz Ballard. Here are some photos of their beautiful room. They really did a great job transforming the space, and the femininity of it is so much fun, I think. I love the lavender walls! 

(the inspirational quote artwork that is framed above the sofa was the lettering I did for them)

Beautiful Job, Jennifer and Liz! Head over to Jennifer's blog to check out some before photos -- you won't believe it.

Have a great weekend!

Outdoor Furniture Personalization!

I mentioned yesterday that Jordan and I were super-excited to have porches at our new house. For the past three years at the condo, we never had anywhere to sit outside that was private (actually, there wasn't a public space either - no outdoor hang out areas there), so if we wanted to sit out and have a drink or dinner on a porch, we went to Six Feet Under or The Republic in Grant Park, which was in walking distance of our condo. As fun as that was, we got to the point where we were really wanting somewhere all our own to sit outside. So, we're really happy that we finally have that! I told Jordan a few months ago, when we decided to make this house a reality, that I thought our number one priority should be getting outdoor furniture as soon as possible! One week in: done. 

I got it done yesterday, by going to some of my favorite spots -- World Market and Ikea. 

I bought the Square Bali Table from World Market for $150. They had the CUTEST little red vintage-looking wire-y chairs painted in a tomato orange that I was planning to pair them with, but by the time I had made my mind up that that was the combo I wanted, my World Market was out of the chairs. AND, apparently they were discontinued and nowhere to be found in Atlanta. I was kind of bummed at first, but immediately began searching for different chairs. I saw some metal cuties at Ikea, but when I went to the store, found them to be SO uncomfortable, and since we plan to be hanging out here a lot, I wanted them to be comfy for hours on end. 

I walked around the outdoors section at Ikea and sat in about 20 different chairs. This is something you need a friend to do with you, because it's weird. Anyway, I settled on the Hasselon chairs (for some reason they are not sold separately on Ikea's website, but they were sold separately in store for $45.)

I placed everything together to make sure it all fit nicely in the space, and it did! I knew though, that I would have to stain the arm rests on the chairs to match the table. I bought some American Walnut Minwax stain in a tiny container and stained the arms dark. The arms are already really rough, so they took the stain well, and it was a pretty good match! 

 I brushed the stain on, and then rubbed a little back with a paper towel. I wiped up any dark stain spots I got on the white chair with mineral spirits and a paper towel. Easy!

I was happy to see that the stain I bought matched nicely.

see the difference?! I think the new stain really gives a much more upgraded look.

And here they are! All done and looking pretty:

I did a little succulent potted container on the table, too:

I also bought two of the Roxo arm chairs to sit across from the table and chairs:

I love the orange with our gray house. I need to find a cute little circular table of some sort to sit in between those, and also some cement planters with plants out there. Yay for summer projects!

New House Tour

Hi guys. Sooo, it took me forever to check back in with you. We have internet now, though, so I can be back into the normal swing of things. We're almost unpacked, too, which is feeling much better! 

I thought that I would take you on a little iPhone tour of the new house today. This house was a situation that I never thought would be the case for us; new-build, slightly on the more modern side, and in a neighborhood I've not lived in for a long time. But, we love it. It really feels like a dream-house, with porches on both the front and back of the house, a fenced in yard, a yard, and --count them-- three bathrooms (that's a lot for us!)! I always thought we'd be buying a house that needed work, and we'd be doing lots of renovating and tearing out and building back and such. It's crazy to have been able to pick out most of the finishes and paint colors and to call the house ours. 

Anyway, I'll explain more as we go along!

First up, Kitchen:

The builder/architect had already picked out the cabinetry (Its an Ikea kitchen as far as the cabinets), but I was able to pick out backsplash, countertops (within parameters of what he'd already sort of selected), hardware (I love the Martha Stewart handles and knobs from Home Depot) and light fixtures (as well as the wall color, which is Collonade Grey, from Sherwin Williams). We're enjoying all the cabinet space (and room left over!) and the new appliances. There's a pantry to the left of the kitchen, too. Storage! ah!

Next is the dining area, which is the only part of the house I have started actually decorating. I knew from the beginning that I wanted a farmhouse table and some modern chairs, along with a kilim rug layered on top of a sisal. I was able to find the table and the kilim at Scott's this past weekend, and was super excited. The chairs are in the mail (more wire metal ones like the two that are in front of the table here):

Obviously, the house still needs arranging and unpacking and stuff. Ignore the bikes in the dining area! hah. 

We also have temporary shades on all the window, as we are not sure what we're going to do about window treatments yet. So many options!

In between the living room and the kitchen is a little hallway that has an office for Jordan. I love the French doors and the little window above:

(obviously this still needs some unpacking! I built a desk for him the other day, but the shelf I bought was too big for the office, so I have to get another one for all his stuff).

This is the living room. It's a really large room (It was hard to capture on my iPhone) with lots of potential! I can't wait to get new furniture in here.  I have big plans for it!

Walls in most rooms are Extra White by Sherwin Williams. I went for the blank slate with all the white! It's light, airy and a nice blank canvas for me. 

This is the half bath downstairs

Pretty cool sink, huh? The sink was made by a local concrete artist, and the glass that is mixed into the concrete was found on our property site before building began. A token of what was here before we were. I also love the wood floating counter that it's on. 

 

This is the hallway leading upstairs.... to the bedrooms. There are three total - a master and two others. 

hallway

The laundry room is up here, too. And don't worry - we got a good old fashioned Maytag top loader! Those front loading stories were scary-- thank  you guys for the input! And thank you Lisa Scurlock for the washer and dryer rec. It's great!

This is one of the bedrooms which is going to be my office:

(A mess right now!)

the other bedroom:

and the hallway/guest bathroom:

I can' believe that i'm sharing it looking like this, but remember we've only been here less than a week! Here's the master:

I love the huge windows! It's a really big room, and we need a new bed, and new dressers. Ah, so much to decorate - so exciting.

And finally, the master bathroom:

I love the tub. :)

OK, that's it for now! Again, please excuse the fact that my house is not decorated and is still not unpacked!