Home Design Cool

Hello all! I hope your weekend was a great one! Ours was jam packed – we did a ton of family stuff, I got to hang with friends quite a bit and we went to a couple Fourth festivities as well. It was one of those weekends that is exhausting but leaves you feeling so incredibly blessed. I am a lucky lady.

So I didn’t have time to do much DIY this weekend but I did finish up a small project I started last week. This one started one way (a bit of a fail) and ended up another – I was determined to salvage it because I loved the look.

It all began when I found this platter at Target a few weeks back:

I think it was from the Nate Berkus line? I loved the arrow design in gold and knew I could recreate it for cheaper. It wasn’t too bad at $25 but my constant “Pushaw, I could TOTALLY do that for cheaper” usually wins out. And one day on a HomeGoods trip I found a large platter on clearance for $8 to try this myself – score!

Then I got started making my DIY stencil. I used my trusty FrogTape® to do it – I cut a piece long enough to span the whole platter, then laid the tape down on a cutting board:

I just cut it freehand – this is not a time to be picky. There are times when I want something to look “perfect” but most times I like it to look a little more organic, so the different sizes and spacing didn’t bother me at all.

It only took me about 15 minutes to cut them all out – it was actually quite soothing. :) Sometimes I love a detailed project like this, it calms me.

After my “stencil” was done I laid it across the platter:

It was going to look so good!

And then I realized the paint I was using wasn’t going to work. It was way too thin and didn’t stick right at all – I was SO bummed. I mean, come on – it was going to look so similar to the other platter. And mine was even bigger! But…fail.

I was about to scrap the whole thing but I realized I could use the arrow design somewhere else to add a little somethin.’ Arrows are HUGE right now, right? I was at a jewelry party yesterday and bought an arrow ring. I see them so much lately.

Anyway, I have a little pen holder in my office that I thought would look cute with a little embellishment so I decided to try the stencil there:

My arrows were spaced out so I had to tear the long strip of tape up and make them work closer together.

I used gold Rub n Buff and it took no time at all to add a little bling:

I only did every other panel because I didn’t want it to get too busy. I flipped the tape every other one so some go up, some down:

I love it! I have a few gold/brass accents in here so it ties in nicely. I didn’t realize till after I was done that it is the same look as my FrogTape trash can too:

So there you go – quick and easy and free. I was determined to put my little arrows to use somewhere and I think this is a sweet little spot. I have to say I must have pulled that tape off of the surfaces at least ten times and it still stuck at the end and didn’t tear apart even with the delicate design. I was quite impressed.

Have you incorporated the arrows in your home at all? Are they still trendy? Usually I get on the trends way after the fact but I’m thinking I’m still good on this one. ;)

Hello my friends! How are you? My sister-in-law and nephew have been here all week and this is our last day with them. I’m excited we have a sunny day (I think ALL day) to do something fun!

In celebration of two anniversaries recently – ten years in our home and my blogging anniversary – I’ve been sharing the progress of some of the rooms in our home over the years. By the way, I totally forgot about my blogging anniversary when it hit – six years at the end of May. Whoot!!

I ALWAYS struggled with our dining room. I don’t know why. Part of it was that shortly after we moved in I marched myself to the furniture store and bought a complete set of dining furniture. I liked it OK – but I wasn’t madly in love with it. I just wanted to fill the space. Now I know better and would wait it out, but you know how that goes.

Long ago I added molding to the walls (with Liquid Nails! No.) and jazzed up the ceiling:

I also recovered the seats of the chairs almost immediately to add some color to the room. It was very beige/brown.

You’ll see here that this was my gold and red phase as well. Ah yes…

I still wanted some more contrast so I changed up the drapes and added a solid red to the bottom:

Then things just got crazy and I painted the whole room (the entire. room.) brown:

You know, looking back, I don’t hate it. It was dramatic and pretty – I say you can go dramatic in two rooms safely – the powder room and the dining room. Or all the rooms, it’s your house.

I always struggled with the fact that this room opened up to our two story living room so I just added a piece of trim down the wall to separate them. Probably a major design crime but you know, I like to live on the edge.

But the thing is…it was DARK. Shocking, I know!:

I didn’t mind it much till we had new floors put down after a water issue. Then it was positively cave-like. Dark on every surface in the room and I couldn’t take it anymore.

A new idea formed in my head over time that I talked about here. I was tired of not using this space. I wanted to make it more functional and change up how we used it.

So the DIY built ins began:

You can see the synopsis of how my Dad and I built them here. It wasn’t hard, just time consuming. It took me forever to get them finished – eight months total I believe.

I had a design in my head all those months of thinking about it and a big part of that design was lights at the top of the bookcases. It took months to find something that was affordable but I finally found what I wanted in the outdoor section:

And now…I love it. This room is one of my favorites in our home.

I could not be more pleased with how it turned out:

It’s been about a year and a half since they were finished and they are holding up great. I’m really proud of Dad and I for tackling it. :)

Funny thing is, the plan all along was to put a coffee table and four chairs in here, but we moved our old kitchen table in here a year or so ago and it’s become my husband’s office in the summer months:

He has a basement office but can’t stand to be down there without natural light in the summer. So although his stuff laying around kind of drives me batty, I love that we’re actually using it. Many of you have suggested adding a more casual table back in here and the idea is growing on me. Plus, finding four matching (comfy) upholstered chairs is so dang expensive!

I can’t forget the other view of the dining area – it’s really more of a landing/hallway of sorts. I found this before shot of our stairs that I didn’t know I had:

And I showed you this more recent after here:

Such a difference! (Here’s the how to on pulling the carpet off of stairs.)

Many of you have asked how much I spent on the built ins and I’m not positive of the cost because we did them over such a long time. The kitchen cabinet bases were $320 total and the butcher block from IKEA was $130. I’m guessing we put in another $150-200 in trim and wood (I used basic pine wood for the actual bookcases). And the lights came to $140. So a rough estimate is about $750-800 for 12 feet of built ins.

I would have paid three times that to have them done. Easily.

So there’s a look back at what is now one of my favorite spaces in our home! It was one of my problem children before though. :)

Do you have a dining room? Do you use it? Have you considered changing up how it’s used?

P.S. Check out my tips on decorating bookcases in this post.

Have a great weekend!

Hello all! Well, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I enjoy summers SO much more the older I get. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that my kiddo is in school now so I cherish the long, warm days all the more. But part of it is that I just appreciate our wonderful outdoor spaces more after a long, hard winter. We all know this past winter was one of those times five.

My thing when hosting anything outdoors is to buy as little as possible specifically for outdoors. ;) I do have some outdoor plates, but beyond that I try to use items that can be used both inside and out. And even more so, I like to find ways to make regular home decor items work for entertaining. 

We plan to host a few outdoor parties this summer so I was excited when Kirkland’s asked me to showcase some of their items for a summer soiree:

I LOVE those drink dispensers and was actually quite pleased with them – some of these can be finicky – they drip and malfunction a lot. But these did great. And I love that there are two and a stand for both of them!

Here’s something weird about me -- now that I’ve given up soda I don’t drink caffeine at all anymore – I’ve never liked coffee or tea. But I tried this sweet tea that my husband loves and I liked it. It was really good. What is happening to me?? Liking both summer and tea now? I’m a whole new person. I’ve always thought the idea of sipping some iced tea on a hot summer day sounded so sweet and now I may just try it. :)

So as I mentioned, my favorite part of outdoor entertaining is figuring out how to make regular indoor home decor work outside. I used one of their kitchen decor items (this cute beverage bottle) as a vase for my hydrangeas: 

It has a lid that seals well but flips open like a vintage bottle – love it!

I used one of their hanging mason jars as a utensil holder:

No plastic silverware – just the regular stuff will do just fine. :)

A decorative box doubles as a napkin holder:

Napkins are always flying away in the wind so this was a perfect solution! The chalkboard part is just black vinyl stuck on the glass – super easy and works just great as a chalkboard! (I use a chalkboard pen so I can easily wipe it off.)

I have to talk about the chalkboard a bit more cause it’s adorable. Their drink dispensers come with the chalkboard labels on chains:

And even some chalk! :)

A decorative basket corrals the plates easily – this would perfect when using paper plates outside too. It keeps them away from the wind and the elements:

And the basket was useful in another way too – I was able to fill it up with most of  the serving items and carry them out and back in easily:

It’s the little things. :)

It’s been a while since I’ve visited Kirkland’s and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Everything was seriously adorable and the prices were fantastic:

Kirkland’s is offering $250 to one of you to spend as you wish at their store or online! That will go a crazy long way. Check out the other beautiful outdoor entertaining ideas at Beneath My Heart, Home Stories A to Z and Just a Girl as well.

You can enter the giveaway by using this Rafflecopter doodad below. It’s easier and more private than leaving your email in the comments. Have fun and good luck! :)

Kirkland’s partnered with several bloggers to raise brand awareness and all received compensation in gift cards. All purchases and content are on my own accord and reflect my personal opinion and style.