Design Sponge Home Tour

You guys! 

Our home was featured on Design Sponge a couple of weeks ago! I have been an avid reader for years, so it was a dream come true to do a home tour with them. So much fun!

Read the full interview & see the photos HERE

Honey Do Projects

January and February always make me antsy.  The cold weather & staying indoors thing makes me go into full project mode. Which in turn causes me to pick up a paint brush. Or a pair of scissors... 2013 was the year of uneven bangs. January, you sly dog!

I am the "deemed" painter of the house. (barf)  Which I guess I can handle. Last year (which is crazy!) I painted all of the trim & doors in our house, our master bathroom and then the last day of December- Evan's band room. 

Oh and I painted my sister's huge play room. But somehow I am contemplating an accent wall in our bedroom. Sometimes I really wonder why can't I stop this madness? Why?!??

But a black or navy accent wall would look so good, you guys.

So while I have been riding that paint train, Evan has been knocking out those Honey Do projects like a champ. Having the electrician over for a quote? Check. Making a giant frame for a giant buffalo print? Check. Making a beautiful bench? Check!!!! I love it.

I really want to do more woodworking/ building. I did some for my senior show in college and it was so relaxing. In the summer it will happen! 

The bench is inspired by HomeMade Modern (best website ever) and the knit covering was made by my amazing friend Morganne. She can knit anything! 

The Buffalo print is huge (50x28) & required a custom frame. Which isn't the cheapest thing in the world. Evan just followed a couple of tutorials that I sent him and I think he knocked it out in 2 hours. Such an easy & satisfying project! I'm thinking about staining it a tad darker, but I haven't been able to commit to it, so that big beautiful beast will just stay there for the time being. 

Side note- I love waking up to a giant buffalo in the snow. It makes me feel calm. And then my sister told me that she thought it was weird because they are really aggressive? I'm not too versed in Buffalo behaviors, but I still like this guy.

We are still crossing things off our list. Part of that is the weather and part of that is just that we are full on project people. Supposedly we are getting snow, so you might find me in the paint section at Lowes! What do you guys do when you get stir crazy?

Music Mancave & Vintage Furniture from Charish

Vintage Furniture from Charish

I've finally convinced (after many years of begging and pleading) Evan to let me design his music room.  It hasn't been touched since we moved in because he wanted to make it his own. Nothing really stuck. It was cluttered, random, and didn't function the way he needed it to.

So before we really start working on the room, I thought it would help ease his fears of change and put together a design board. We are huge fans of vintage furniture so when I came across Charish I knew it would be fun to use their pieces to create something that Evan would love.  Charish is an amazing website where design lovers can buy and sell vintage furniture, decor, jewelry and accessories to one another. It's also incredibly addicting!

My husband works in the music industry, and when he's not touring, he is doing something with guitars. Or friends are over recording. Or they came over to jam. Basically what I'm getting at is that there are a lot of dudes being loud and artsy and they need a room to encourage that.

We've established that it needs to be a space that inspires creativity. But it also needs to reflect my husband's personality, gain my approval, and fit with our overall aesthetic.  Luckily, we are huge fans of mixing in the old with the new to create something different and interesting.  Evan loves collecting vintage guitars and gear.  He also has a lot of memorabilia, so the space really needed to compliment all of his loves. Including me. ha!

When designing the music mancave I immediately thought of a beautiful antique rug. Most of his guitars are a variety of wood finishes and his drum set is white. So the red and orange tones in this one would compliment all of his gear really well. Plus, every music room needs a slammin' Persian rug. The curved, gray midcentury sofa practically begs for you to curl up and write sweet heartfelt indie songs with a 5 minute intro. The green chairs bring in an unexpected hit of color, provide extra seating for friends, and make my designer heart happy because they are Milo Baughman.  I want to marry them. So, there's that... The coffee table brings in much needed texture and the Art Deco dresser provides storage for strings and guitar parts. What guy doesn't want to store his tools in an Art Deco dresser, am I right?!

The art is not only really fun and graphic, but helps tie in the green chairs. I really like the Farrow & Ball Lotus wallpaper because it provides much needed drama and is a little unexpected. It works with the rug because it's dark, but the pattern has a more modern feel so it goes great with the sofa. The pillows add some cheeky personality and hint at the whole music vibe without just yelling "THE ROLLING STONES MAKE SENSE BEAUSE IT'S A MUSIC ROOM!" Finally I had to use the Brass Starburst Chandelier because it's a total conversation piece. It's the first thing that you will see, and you are going to want to talk about it! Or I will talk to you about it and tell you stories about why it completes me and makes me want to weep tears of joy.

After I was finished with the design, I showed Evan and he really did love it. So it is totally approved.  Just imagine guitars all over the place and me in the corner hugging one of the Milo Baughman chairs to complete the whole deal. It was a blast working with items from Charish to come up with a design that is fun and super unique.  I am a huge believer in vintage and it's ability to take your design to a whole different level!

*This was not a paid partnership opportunity-I really just love Charish and love Vintage Furniture!

Bread Making-November

I've been working like crazy on a new venture with a dear friend (Lindsay from The Bungalow Nest ) called Coterie Creative and totally missed November here! And we will forget about missing baking an October bread. Can you count pies? I've made a lot of pies lately...

This bread is an Amish Cinnamon Bread & it is so easy. And super tasty. It makes a lot, so you can totally share with a friend. When I was thinking about a bread for November, I immediately thought of something with pumpkin. But lately, I have been burned out on pumpkin things! What?! I never thought that would happen! So my next thought was cinnamon which is such an amazing compliment to your early morning coffee. The top is a cinnamon sugar crust that makes you want to kiss a stranger.

I would've tried something a little harder and more involved, but I had one day left in November and really wanted to have this around the house! There is talk of freezing rain here, so this will be perfect for cold mornings. Just a warning to strangers walking down our street- I might bust out of my doors and plant one on your lips.

Chocolat Inspired Birthday Dinner

Have you ever seen the movie Chocolat with Johnny Depp? If not, go rent it now! It is one of my favorite movies in this world and recently I've forced everyone I love to watch it. There is this beautiful scene where she has an outdoor dinner party filled with the perfect music and company. I could live in that scene, I swear. 

So after talking about this scene for months, this birthday dinner had to happen. It was thrown together last minute, which I like to imagine would be exactly what Caroline Clairmount would do. I picked up some sunflowers, hauled the record player outside, and made sure there was a lot of food.  We talked and laughed in between candle light for hours. It was a perfect night to bid 25 goodbye. 

This nook behind our garage is going to get a lot of attention this year as the nights come faster and the air gets chilly. I am already itching to have an evening like this again!

Kentucky in Instagram

Kentucky you are a dream. Here's a little recap of some of the fun things we did and saw while taking our annual trip! I'm already missing it!

1. Cotton picking 2. Forever pumpkins 3. Jumping photos, they are the best. 4. More pumpkins. This time from an Amish farm 5. An amazing barn sale full of vintage and handmade. 6. My favorite barn I saw there. 7. Delicious local soda that tastes like Holiday Pepsi. Has anyone had that before?! I miss you HP. That applies to Harry Potter and Holiday Pepsi. 8. Bikes with flowers for the win. 9. Old bridges and a minimal closet outfit

Halloween Crow Wreath

Decorating for Halloween has always been high on my list. I am an October baby (actually tomorrow is my birthday!) and so it's near and dear to my heart. And although I love decorating for Halloween, I never seem to find the right wreath for our door.

That and birds seem to love to build nests in them. Hey guys, can you stop that? Thanks in advance.

Enter this Crow Origami Wreath. It feels a little creepy, and a little modern. So I am down with it all Halloween long. *Also side note, did you know that the comma after and (like- and, blah blah) is called the Oxford comma? I guess a lot of people get super fired up about it because some feel like it's not needed. I always use it because I love the controversy. So welcome to my controversial blog! Actually I just use it because I've always used it. So...

Crow Wreath!

 Supplies, yo.
-Black Ribbon
-White Ribbon
-Scissors
-Floral Picks
-Hot Glue
-Styrofoam Wreath
-Black Paper

I had the floral picks already, but I would say that overall this costs about $15! Which is a steal, I tell you!

I spray painted my wreath before wrapping it with ribbon, just in case something a little white peaked through. But that is totally optional.  All you do is wrap the ribbon around the form while securing it with hot glue.

 I did the same thing with the white ribbon, but spaced it out to get the stripes. You can totally opt out of the white ribbon if you are just going for coverage. I just wanted it to have a little more of a modern look.

Fold yo cranes, or in this case crows! I followed this video to refresh my memory and then just folded them while watching Vampire Diaries and other ridiculous tv shows. This can be a little time consuming, but by breaking it up it doesn't seem so bad. Plus, who doesn't love origami?!

After you have your cranes folded, you can stick the floral picks in them. These are metal so they stab through the paper relatively easy. Then place your cranes on the wreath. Every so often, I would hang my wreath on a door and stand back to make sure I was filling in all the gaps. Leave a small space at the top so you can finish it off with a ribbon to hang it.

There ya go! I would suggest keeping this bad boy inside if you don't have a covered entrance.  I'm in the process of making another one because of our whole french door situation. That and I really do have a thing for origami. Happy folding!