House Updates: Reading Like a Book

We've been in our house for right at a year now.  Although I feel like I've barely made a dent, after looking at old pictures I've realized how blessed we've been this last year in our home.

I read or heard something the other day that "a house should read like a good book, you keep wanting more". I think that's really important to me, I guess I love the details.  Who doesn't love walking into a house and it being so good that you can't wait to see what's in the next room.  I remember feeling this way when I walked into decorator Lindsey Hene's ahhmazzzing home, oh my gosh, it so beautiful and unique.  Lindsey is who has helped me a bit with my house and talk about an eye for style, she definitely has a talent.

There's another good saying out there "the devil's in the details," I guess that's why I tend to over-complicate things (i.e. acrylic frame, etc.) and why I'll probably never be "done decorating" any home I live in.

BEFORE:: Here are some pics when we first went under contract...

My realtor and future-neighbor... we still have this Ballards chandy in the basement if anyone wants it...

I think the wheels are turning in my head here... Unfortunately we still have this chandy hanging at the moment... 

View into the kitchen...

The huge pantry that we didn't really need, this is probably when I decided to turn it into a desk...

View from stairs into the downstairs...

Boring white bookshelves.... I knew I wanted grasscloth wallpaper in the back of these but I was insisting that these stay white.  Thankfully decorator Lindsey Hene talked me into painting them dark...

AFTER:: Here are some of the updated pictures.... still a work in progress...
(Please excuse the pic quality as well, our house was really clean for our small group to come over so I went ahead and snapped some pics, the Mister didn't feel like moving out of the pics either)

This office is probably my pride and joy, because it was an idea I had the moment we walked in to tour what would be our future home...

(Animal head-Scott's Antique $35, filing cabinet-Ballards Outlet $35, Metal Tubs-Lowe's $20, Coke crates-Scott's Antique $8 each, Burlap/Nailhead Counter Stool- Ballards Outlet $250, Baskets-Homegoods, Picture Frames-from my wedding reception, Cake Stands-Juliska & Pottery Barn)


Here is a pic of my breakfast nook and bookshelves: If you know me, you know that I'm super indecisive.  My first trip to Scott's Antique I had 5 hours to shop and was completely overwhelmed.  Somehow I managed to walk away with a very full carload of items. Starting with the tables and chairs to this breakfast nook and this light.

 (Metal Table and garden chairs-Scott's Antique $600, Hanging Light-Scott's antique $150, White Chair and ottoman- Brownlee's Furniture)


Picture of our living room area, the 2 occasional chairs will eventually be replaced but for now they work and don't look terrible.

(Union Jack trunks- Outrageous Interiors $500, French occasional chair- Scott's $100, Mantle Nic-Nacs-Outrageous Interiors and Homegoods, Lamp-Homegoods $50, Skirted Table- Calico Corners Fabric, curtains-cream burlap from Joann's Fabric)


Better View of the bookshelves and Chairs... our bookshelves are finally pretty full, to the point that they need some editing and some styling(HELP).  People think I'm crazy for the white chair but who cares, live with what you love.

And the husband makes his appearance... planning to add some different pillow covers in pretty Schumacher fabrics.

 (Sofa-Bernhardt-custom ordered through Manoirs, big table lamp-Scott's $150, animal head-Scott's $35, blue chair-yard sale in Nashville $60, horse bookends-Outrageous Interiors, Apothecary Lamp-Homegoods $49, Side Tables-both Outrageous Interiors $275, artwork above sofa-Cozamia $70 plus framing & hanging $450, Rug-Garnet Hill).

 A view of our dining room with the new picture.  You can also barely see the mirrored table, vase, and painted staircase rail (painted same color as bookshelves).  I'm planning to buy mirrored buffet for this wall, then rotate the mirror so it's vertical, flanking it with some of my RCD Imari plates.  Ryan and I went to pick up this antique mirror one weekend, it's HEAVY and huge, (he has a scar to prove it), this is one of those things I hope stays in my family for generations along with my french chairs and artwork.

 (Mirror-Board of Trade $400, french chairs-Scott's s/o 4 $300 w/o fabric and recovering cost), farm table-Scott's $700 + bench, painting-Scott's by Cheryl Connelly $175, mirrored chest-Homegoods $300, vase-Ikea, Sunburst Mirror Homegoods-$80)


Ryan picked out this corner china cabinet at his first trip to Scott's, he was very proud of it...This picture is not staying here, I need one more in the same size and then I plan to put them in my navy blue powder room.

(Corner cabinet-Scott's $300, cowhide under table-Scott's $200, painting-Scott's by Cheryl Connelly $100) 

 

A view from the dining room towards the living room. 

A view into our kitchen, usually not so much stuff on the counters but since I was getting ready for our disciple class to come over I had the plates and such out. The counters were white Corian with a white overmount sink when we bought.  Ryan and I both loved the look of Carrera marble even though you have to be careful spilling anything acidic or that can stain. Again, live with what you love! We also installed an undermount sink and a pretty new faucet.


Ryan and I celebrate our 2 year wedding anniversary in 2 weeks and we are finally buying a new dishwasher to celebrate... Woo-Hoo! Stainless steel dishwasher and fridge her we come!

This is an older pic but it's a little bit better quality... I still need to figure out what to do for curtains in my kitchen and breakfast nook. 

Anyways, that is a pretty good update to the downstairs of the house... This summer my plan is to start working on the upstairs, begin the process of updating our bathrooms by getting quotes, and hang things in our hallways.  Ryan's family has given us tons of football memorabilia from his dad and grandad so I figured since most of our house is girly that I'd re-frame and hang a bunch of football stuff in the hallways to man-up the house.


Quick fact: this was the 1st and only house we looked at before we went under contract. We had casually been looking at listings, and found 2 others in Buckhead that we liked but they ended up being short sales under contract.  This was such a good deal and great location that we made our realtor think we were crazy and put an offer in 2 days later.

We've been in our house exactly 13 months now and I probably could have moved a little faster but I guess it's kinda fun to envision what you want and hunt for it.  I think it's kinda a southern thing to worry about small little details, monogramming everything, or using family heirlooms.  I know my home isn't reading like a good book quite yet, but hopefully with time, work, and editing it'll get there...

Scotts Antique-May Finds

Clearly by now you realize how obsessed I am with going to Scott's Antique.  This month's anticipation was no different, I even had my friend "R" here from Nashville with me.  This month was a slow show and apparently a lot of vendors were at a show in Mass. but it was kinda nice not being so crowded.  Not to mention there were some great deals since the vendors' sales were also lacking.

I've been on the lookout for silver animal heads, I found some at Homegoods and didn't buy them and have always kicked myself.  Walking through the South building I spotted these from the fabulous Parker Kennedy booth.  This booth always catches my eye with it's Hermes Orange walls.

Do you spot those white resin deer & ram heads? LOVE. 

Or these silver ones.... although these are a little different than what I had seen at Homegoods.  So I went for the white resin (above) and I'm in love.

Not long after this I stumbled to my favorite plated silver vendor to check out his $5 bin.  To my luck I found a silver plated champagne bucket for $5! I've been wanting one of these to use as a vase, as a hurricane glass, or as a champagne/wine bucket.  This one is really tarnished but for $5 who cares? Plus it looks cool.

My friend "R" then spotted these really cool Kentucky Derby cocktail glasses.  I got 2 for now in the years 1981 (hubs bday year) and 1975 (100 year anniversary of the derby). These look great sitting on my bar tray.  "R" and I also went to the Ballard Design Outlet near my house where I got these cool etched glasses for $1.99! I decided to display Six-12-Ten because that's our wedding anniversary.  I also got the decanter on the far left at Scott's for $20.  The one in the middle was a wedding gift and the far right one is from last month's show.  The small bottle of unopened tequilla is from me and Ryan's honeymoon in Mexico. 

"R" was on the hunt for some green Majolica plates and an oyster plate after her trip to New Orleans recently.  We struck gold and found "Majolica Oyster Plates" She's planning to use some of the set on her wall around an animal head, it's going to look sooo cool.

"R" then stopped by the booth of the lovely artist Cheryl Connelly and fell in love with one of Cheryl's hydrangea paintings.  "R" wanted it in a bigger size so Cheryl willingly said she'd paint a new and larger one for her which we picked up Saturday.  Isn't it pretty?

When we went back to pick up the painting Cheryl said she had been slow and since it was Mother's Day weekend she would wheel and deal so we walked away for 4 more paintings. Yes, that's right, 5 total.  "R" and I are single-handedly keeping the lights on at Ms. Connelly's house this month. "R" got another small blue and white hydrangea painting and a small landscape painting.  I walked away with these 2 beauties...

Mister hubs holds our purse strings close to his heart so at first he wasn't thrilled but once he heard the deal I got on them and saw how good they looked he lightened up.  I think I walked away $275 for both (w/frames) and they really should have been over $600 for both.  I think Cheryl was feeling generous that day... or maybe she liked us because she knew we were suckers and will come back for more.  I'm already dreaming about a big painting she does for my master bedroom/bathroom.  It feels good to buy original art that you love, I also love the idea that it will hopefully be a cherished heirloom by my future generations.

Seriously, go see Cheryl she is super accommodating to meet your decor needs (always back right corner of the south building at Scott's).  P.S. Cheryl Connelly's art is going to be featured in the movie that just finished filming in ATL called "Identity Theft" with Jason Bateman.

That's about all from Scott's, I was bad about taking pictures.  I did receive this lovely below in the mail from a Wisteria sale on One Kings Lane a couple weeks ago.  How fun!? Now my HB's, BHG's, and TH's have a home. Hubs can't seem to understand that you dont just throw away good coffee table magazines. 

I also found the perfect lamp for my skirted table.  This pretty was at Homegoods in Smyrna and only $49! The shade is burlap and we have a lot of that going on so it will eventually be replaced but works for now.

I moved the bar tray to my built-ins which looks a lot better. Ryguy and I are loving this corner lamp though.  Our living room is really starting to feel complete minus a couple new occasional chairs. For now we have some "fill-in" that work just fine.

This show can be chalked up to a success, I had a lot of fun with "R" and I even spotted a famous design blogger.  Yes, I got sweaty palms and weak in the knees when I saw her, I really wanted to go follow her around to see what she bought but refrained from being crazy.  Hopefully next month will be a better show at Scott's with all the regular vendors and I'll try and take more pics.  This week I'm going to try and do some more pic updates of the house, whoop whoop.

Art above the sofa: Check

I posted a couple weeks ago that I finally ordered Art for my living room.  Welp... after many random calls to Atlanta plastic companies and several out of the ballpark estimates later I finally took the plunge.  Apparently lucite or thicker sheets of acrylic are pretty expensive to have cut to size, who knew?  Not to mention, those little studs (called "stand-offs") are $25-$30 EACH. I'm in the wrong business...

Thankfully I found a great (and more reasonable) company in Duluth willing to work with me and I found the bolts/stand-offs online, 6 for $23 total. Wednesday evening my local handyman who works at Savvy Snoot came over to help me hang my project. Some sweat, selfish prayers, and 3 hours later it was hung.  This might not have been the easiest thing to hang but I feel confident this is the last time he will have to do this.

I love it.  I know it might not be for everyone but it looks so cool, very different and unique. I was originally thinking I would put something flanking each side of the picture but now I'm not so sure.  I can't take all the credit, I copied Baylor Says, she was having a similar predicament as me and her room needed a modern kick in the tush. Wa-La... She flanked hers with brass sconces which looks awesome but I can't decide what to do with mine.... What do you think?

The fabulous artist behind this "Night Peonies"print is Nancy from Cozamia.  If you're on pinterest or were on One Kings Lane last week then you might have run across her fabulous work.  She even tweaked my print to make the peonies less pink and more coral.

I think this will look really great once we get those other pillow colors with the peacock-navy and coral as anchors on the sofa.

I'm really glad I went with the acrylic frame, since my husband's big ass TV sits across from it I think it's nice to have something big but light and airy on that wall.

 

More to come this week on some new additions to our abode as well as updated pics.  We had our disciple class from church over so while the house was nice and clean I snapped some pics of everything.  My friend from Nashville also came down this past weekend for some antique-ing at Scott's Antique Roadshow so I'll give a run down on that too.

Living Room Revamp

So my friend Emily sent a text to me in a panic, it said the following:

E: "I need decorating help, are you around?"
Me: "Yeah"
E: "I am destorying my den...trying to find something that works"
Me: "Haha I'll stop by"
E: "Save me..."

What happened was during Emily's little girl's naptime she tried to move things around and rearrange.  When I walked in things were kinda all over the place.  Here are a couple of before pics...

BEFORE:

 Not bad, cute and cozy.  However the large wall is a big canvas, what do you do with that? A quick solution is a gallery wall, good idea however I tend to think these only look really great in a catalog or magazine.  Otherwise in real life things get crooked, off-centered, or the proportions and dimensions are all off, in other words they scare me.

These great bookshelves looked really cute but they weighed down that area of the room.  To the right of the chair is the kitchen table nook which automatically weighs down/anchors that side of the room.

So here is the solution, it's not completely finished but it still gives you the idea. (The pics above are older pics Emily sent me, I wish I had some from when I walked in and along the way.)

AFTER:

Yes, obviously these are crappy iphone pics and I didn't move the toys out of the way but look past these things. We split the bookshelves apart and flanked the sofa with them. We then moved the floor lamp that was next to the chair over to the sofa.  Moved the ivory table next to the chair and stacked some books with the table lamp on top.

We also styled the bookshelves.  I typically would have removed a lot of these books but Emily said her husband uses them often so for practicality reasons we left them all out.

I pulled little nic-nacs from here and there and also organized the books.  We put all of the pretty hardback books on top shelves where your line of sight is. All of the left over books that were paperback or had covers we grouped into colors.  I think this really gave a more organized and styled look with so many books.

Emily mentioned that she has 2 big boxes of old Reader's Digest books in storage, I swooned.  If you have never seen old Readers Digest books then you need to hit up google image because they are really cool and funky on the outside.

So the next plans for the room are rotate the mirror vertically to give some height on the wall, incorporate another pair of pillows in mustard chevron or stripe.  Also flank the sofa with either another floor lamp or change the floor lamps to 2 apothecary floor lamps. She also needs some fun art over the chair and table/lamp sitting area. Next week we might make a trip to Emily's storage unit, I hear she has some treasures hidden in there so we might take a look to see what we find.

All in all, these pics don't do justice to how great the space looks. It's very inviting and homey plus it feels more open with the bookshelves anchoring the wall across from the breakfast area.  I even thought it'd be great to go out on a limb and do a stenciled pattern or stripe on the wall behind the bookshleves.  Nothing crazy, I'd do it in the same paint color but a different finish like a high gloss so that the stencil/pattern is really faint where only natural light or a good eye picks up on it.

This whole project only took an hour or two and the best part was that we spent nada dinero $0. We simply rearranged and used what we had.  Funny how hung up we get on our own personal homes and spaces but then we go into someone else's and know exactly what to do. 

Anyways, I had a lot of fun and can't wait to see the continued progress, thanks Emily for letting me share!

Savvy Snoot

2 weekends ago Atlanta had a UFC series come to town, this is all I have heard about since the Jones vs. Evans match was announced. My other half is a huge UFC fan (so annoying) and made me spend my Friday afternoon at the Fox Theater for the live "weigh-ins". 

10 years ago to the exact day I had been at the Fox Theater for my senior prom, never in a million years did I think I'd be back on that same date 10 years later for a UFC weigh-in... I mean really?

Leaving the Fox we did stumble up a funky furniture store on the magnificant midtown mile with these awesome chairs outside.  They look like they are straight out of Candy Land, Willy Wonka, or Alice and Wonderland.  I've seen pics of these from a store in NYC and had to try them out myself...

As payback after the fights were over I forced Ryan to take me to the new Savvy Snoot location in West Midtown to kill time before dinner.  Savvy Snoot is mainly an upscale consignment & new  furniture store that has been in West Midtown for some time now but recently upgraded to a bigger space for their store and showroom. 

We saw these awesome mirrors, I'd love these in so many ways.  Flanking something, decoratively by themselves but they'd be really neat in a cluster.  Maybe 9 of them with 3 in each row, they were only about $65 each too.

These bamboo benches really caught my eye.  The bamboo was painted a mahogany color but these would be really cool as is or re-painted and recovered.

I was obsessed with this mirrored buffet.  It was a tad out of my price range but I would have loved to take this home, it was beautiful!

I have to admit, I fell hard for this oversized lamp.  LOVE.  This would never work in a home like ours, I feel like it needs a bigger space or higher ceilings but it is just lovely.  The Mister also liked this lamp. 

This gilver (silver+gold) side table was so cute.  I loved the tassle pulls and you can't see but it had very small nailheads as trim all over.

Tufted chairs are one of my favorite things, amazingly enough I don't have any in my home but I wish I had these pretties. They were pretty comfy too which seems unusual with tufted chairs.

I wanted this side table sooooo bad.  The price wasn't too bad (under $500) and it was so pretty.  I love the pattern in the woodwork.  Right as I was about to give Ryan the puppy dog eyes and ask for approval from him to buy he brought up a great point.  The things inside this chest aren't concealed because you can see through the woodwork.  (Sometimes guys can be smarter than ladies). This fact might not bother some people but it wouldnt work for us.  I think you could always line the doors with fabric panels too as a solution.

After leaving Savvy Snoot empty handed but with a full decorating-heart we went to see the new free people store in West Midtown and got a glimpse of the new Lulu store.  Having this in my backyard will be T-R-O-U-B-L-E but I can't wait.

If you are ever in Atlanta, definitely check out West Midtown, there are so many great home and design stores among other things.