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November 16, 2017

Our Home Office Reveal | ORC Guest Finale


It's finally time to wrap up this One Room Challenge guest series and reveal our home office!  I love how it turned out!  When I changed my work status from part time to full time getting this space finished became a priority for me.  When I'm not at an event, I work from home so having a nice, functional space was a must.  I also have to keep lots and lots of marketing materials for work so storage and organization needed to be addressed as well.

If you want to see the week by week you can find all the details here:  Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four, Week Five, Week Six


The largest project was to add French doors to the opening so that I had the option of closing off the space.  As I stated in Week Two, this space was originally designed as a formal living room.  We really have no need for a formal living room and it was in the perfect location for a home office.  The opening was about 8 feet wide so in addition to the French doors we also had to add side panels to fill the space.  We looked at several door options, but ended up going with traditional French doors to keep with the look and style of the home.  You can see a before and my husband's DIY installation of the doors here.





Next up was storage.  There is no closet in this room, so I needed to create space to store my marketing materials and other office supplies.  These storage boxes and magazine files from Ikea work perfect on the shelves and I use every single one of them.  

We also decided to make doors for the bottom section of the shelving units to hide all the supplies.  We tried to keep the style of the doors the same as the front of the desk...a simple shaker style cabinet front.  The desk I also found at Ikea.  And besides the million pieces it comes in, I love it.  It's sturdy and has good storage space.  You can see how my husband made the shelving cabinet doors here.



And next up are a few before pictures so you can really see how far this space came.  The first two are right when we moved in.



This picture below was shortly after we moved in and painted the walls.  The space looked cute, but it really was not set up to work well and store materials.  The file cabinets facing out were not ideal either, but made the room look presentable. 


And I included this picture below to show you how some of the furniture looked before we painted it.  The shelving units we have had for over 16 yrs.  They are two of the first pieces of furniture we bought for our first home from Dillards, ha!  Originally, they were part of a three piece entertainment set and it had an armoire in the center of the shelves that stored our old tube TV.  They are actually really well made and have been moved around a lot, but they have held up so well.  The file cabinets were once black and we also painted those white as well.  They are from Pottery Barn and you can actually buy them in white.  So after I bought them in black and then asked my husband to paint them white only a few short months later, you can image the look I got :)  I cringe when I look at this set up below...it was sooooo bad!


And so much better below...




I opened up the front door when I photographed this room to bring in more natural light and this girl loved sitting and watching out the door.  

We also changed the light in the front entry, which you can see a peek of below.  It's the same lantern light that was once our kitchen at our old home and also over our breakfast table in this home.  When I remodeled our kitchen in the Spring ORC, I changed out the breakfast light with the gold lantern and we moved this light in here.  So it has definitely been around.  I still really love the look of it and I think we finally found it's permanent home (for now :)



And the finishing touches in this space were the new light, the artwork, rug and hardware.  I love how it all came together.  It's so nice having it finished especially being the first room when you enter our home.






November 14, 2017

Fall Into The Holidays | Dinning Room


Today is the final week of this fun holiday series!  I hope you've found some inspiration from this talented group, including:

• Katie of Miss Dixie • 
• Jennifer of Dimples & Tangles • 
• Pam of Simple Details •  
 • Shelley of Crazy Wonderful  • 

I have found so many great ideas from everyone and I love that everything is "doable."  This week we are wrapping up the series and featuring the Dinning Room.  With Thanksgiving right around the corner I thought I would share an easy tablescape.




I feel like I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but once again fresh greenery/flowers and fresh fruit are my decorating accessories of choice.  It is seriously so easy and makes such a pretty table setting.  If you have some basic tableware, like these white plates and wicker chargers, they provide a great starting point.  And honestly, I usually get my flowers at the grocery store when I'm buying my fruit and other groceries.


For this setting, I found the cedar tree clippings which are then great to transition into the Christmas season.  I spritzed them every other day and they actually lasted a good while.  I kept my place setting simple with a napkin topped off with a small clipping and twine.



I hope you've enjoyed this fun mini series to get ready for the holidays seasons which are fast approaching.

And next up this week is my ORC Home Office Final Reveal.  I can't wait to share...I love how it turned out!  So check back on Thursday and let me know what you think.



November 9, 2017

ORC Guest Series | Week 6 New Rug


As I mentioned last week, the ORC Guest Series has been extended by one week, so instead of this week being the big reveal week, I will be showing you all the rug I found for our home office.  I looked f-o-r-e-v-e-r for a rug in here.  I couldn't decided if I wanted it to just sit under the desk and towards the front, or if I wanted it to extend back where my chair was in between the two work spaces.  I was also looking for something low pile and wanted to stick with the gray and white color scheme.


I finally decided on this grey and white Kilim rug and I've been really happy with it.  It's low pile and soft on the feet.  I decided to go with the 5'x8' size and not extend it to the area where my chair sits.  This placement allows me the option of having a chair that rolls and just rolling on the wood floor.




Above is a little sneak peek without giving too much away.

I'm excited to dress this space up and photograph it with my "good" camera.  I hope you'll check back next week for the big reveal!

November 7, 2017

Fall Into The Holidays | Living Room



Welcome back to Week 3 of the "Fall Into The Holidays" series.  This week we are featuring the "living/family room," so I decided to share ways to style or transition your mantel for Fall or Thanksgiving.  And if you don't have a mantel in your living room, this could apply to a console table or shelf, etc.

The first three photos are from our current home and the last four are from our previous home.  I included both homes so there would be more inspiration.  As you will see, fresh flowers and fresh fruit are a common theme in both.

First up is the mantel in our current home...




And below are pictures from our previous home...





Both mantels I kept really simple, as is my general decorating style.  Small touches that bring a Fall feel to these spaces.  If you are hosting Thanksgiving this year, fresh flowers or greenery and live Fall fruits are easy ways to spruce up your space for your guest and leaves time for you to focus on the FOOD!

For more great ideas checkout the rest of the group...


• Katie of Miss Dixie • 
• Jennifer of Dimples & Tangles • 
• Pam of Simple Details •  
 • Shelley of Crazy Wonderful  • 
 • Becky of This Is Happiness • 


And we will be back next week Tuesday sharing ideas/simple projects for the Dinning Room.

November 4, 2017

Fall Fashion Favorites & Nordstrom Fall Sale


Good Morning and Happy Weekend!  This week has been exhausting.  Not only did we have our normal busy work schedules and kids' activities, but with 3 late night Astros' games and Halloween, it was tiring, but so much fun too!!  I've been going to Astro games since I was a little kid and we've been taking our kids every season too, so it was so exciting to see them win!  So much fun for our city!

I recently ordered a few new Fall pieces that I've been really happy with and wanted to share.  I also included a few others on my wishlist that I love too.  I have the jacket, clutch and sunglasses and love all three!  The jacket is on sale for a great price...$65 and a really cute look.  The leopard clutch is a great accessory with so many looks.  It's priced well too at $40.

I've had the flats in my shopping cart for awhile now and they just went on sale during the Nordstrom Fall Sale going on now until November 12.  A great reason to finally purchases them :)

Here are a few other pieces from the sale...


November 2, 2017

ORC Guest Week 5 | Home Office Decor


Happy Thursday!  Welcome to Week 5 of the ORC guest series.  This week I'm sharing the artwork I decided on for this space.   My goal for this room was a calm, soothing space, so I needed artwork to possess those feelings as well.


This piece is from Minted and it's called "Away" and this is what the artist says about this print...

"Away" sets a calming scene set on the ocean where several sailboats can be seen in the distance. The crisp sky is soft and welcoming. My hope with any of my landscape work is to transport the viewer to a welcoming, dreamy memory of a familiar place. 

I love the colors and calm vibe it displays.  Below are a couple of iPhone snaps of the picture in our home office. 



I'm not sure if you've heard, but because of all the natural disasters that have happened throughout our country, Linda is extending the ORC series by one week.  So it looks like there will be two more weeks before the big reveal.

Things are really coming together in this room and I'm excited to share the finished look with you all, so stop back by next week!