A Sneak Peak

Alright. Guess it's about time I showed you some of my house, since I've talked so much about how I love interior design, refurbishing/refinishing/painting anything, and DARED to have an opinion on decorating with color (like I actually have some idea what I'm talking about!). My house is nothing spectacular, but I like it and like I said, I feel really blessed to have a nice home. I've decorated most of the house to some degree, but it's not done yet by a long shot. Being a stay-at-home mom means you give up something (cash!) so I have to take it slow and as the budget allows. That's actually a good thing because it makes you really think through any purchases/ideas and greatly appreciate each individual aspect of the rooms.

So, we're just going to start at the front and go in just a little for today. I'll get you in the front door, at least:)

Ready?

Ooops! Wait...gotta tell you I also have before pics so you can see how I've changed it up since moving in. These before pictures were taken right before we moved in. I just rushed through taking them and I'm so glad I did now. It's fun to look back and see how it used to look versus now.

Alright. Here we go.

Here's the Foyer:

It's a good thing I don't really see color when I go into a place for the first time...I see bones and potential!





Lighter and brighter! Let's play "I Spy". Can you see a project still in the works?

I love the foyer space and was thinking of putting my French Provencial Sideboard here in place of the round table, but decided instead to put it in the shop. The top portion of the walls are a custom color I've used in all three of our houses. It was a happy accident! The closest match I can find is Behr "Sensible Hue". The bottom under the chair rail is Sherwin Williams Informal Ivory. All the trim in the house is this color. It still needs a rug in here. That's a high ticket item. It'll be a while.



I was sooo over red by the time we bought this house. Repainting the dining room was on my "asap to-do" list. Can you see the faded floors where there used to be a rug in here?!


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This is how it's looked up until about Christmas.



I've just moved this around to try and fit in the love seat that came out of the playroom. I love having it in here. It's my favorite place to sit and drink my coffee in the morning or read a good magazine/book.

We have done so much to this house. The first thing we did was to rip out all the old engineered, faded and water damaged (we think there was a waterline leak in the fridge at one time) hardwood and carpet. That was replaced with solid 3" wide .75" thick plank oak flooring (grade 2 - rougher and with character-i.e.worm holes and knots). I wanted to replace all the carpet with it, but the hubs insisted on having carpet in the bedrooms.  I love dark stained floors, but since I knew I couldn't afford to re-stain when "dark" was out, I went with a more classic "Provencial" color. Trendy is fun with low cost items, but I'm not trendy on high ticket stuff. I want a style that's going to last.

The curtains I made just this past fall. My favorite thing about this house was that window, but it's also a huge energy loss. So, I found some remnant fabric I loved and put an inner lining of flannel with an outer lining in cream - pinch tops. There are two layers. The heavy outer ones that can be pulled in winter at night and the inner light-weight that can be pulled in summer to block sun or for just giving some privacy. Hanging these babies is NOT easy! Those are eleven foot ceilings (and I'm scared of heights!).

I normally plan for a while before I go through with a color scheme in a room. I had tested about five different greens when I found some pillows one day at Tj Maxx and loved the color. So, I spontaneously walked next door to Home Depot and had them custom match some Behr Premium Plus Paint/Primer to them. Would you believe it only took two coats to cover that garnet red that was on the walls?! I'm starting to want to lighten it more (though in the same color family) so I'll probably be repainting this room before too long. Want to see my inspiration? I LOVE this mural and think I'll do something similar:

via House of Turquoise

I also plan to make slipcovers for the dining room chairs soon something like this:

I don't remember where this picture came from.

 I'm determined to make my own farm table like this. We are just not formal people and with three boys, I need a bomb shelter for a table!

Again, I have no idea where I got this from. I just saved it to my idea files prior to blogging. I want my top just a little rougher - not just made looking, but I love these legs!

Well, you're in the door now! Maybe since everything has greened up now and hubby just cut grass tonight, I can get an outside shot to show you next time as we progress on through to the family room.

Miss Bee