the end.

And there you have it. Our past life in California has been all packed up and the movers are coming tomorrow. Of course, it's bittersweet.



We have so many great memories in this house. And let me tell you - it's a gorgeous house. I've mentioned it before on here, but we rented it from our in-laws who owned it. We'll always be so thankful for their generosity for letting us live here (at a great discount!), but it's time to move on and really be on our own even if that means being in a one bedroom apartment for a while.

California has been great as well... the beaches, the sun.. but we are trading all that for a simpler life. One with a lower cost of living, four beautiful seasons and the amazing opportunity for me to go after my dreams.

But most of all, the saddest part of the move will be leaving my wonderful in-laws who currently live only an hour away. They really are my family and they are such an amazing support to both Matt and I. Although it is hard leaving them, I have a gut feeling we'll be close to them again in the future! Every time I see them I ask them when are they going to move to North Carolina ;)

Not sure if you are still with me after all that sappy rambling, but here are some pictures of the house through the years as I say farewell:

We moved in Christmas-time 2006, and almost all the furniture you see here came with the house. We just put up our Christmas tree!

[I have to admit, this decorating really makes me cringe now. But I had other things to worry about at the time, like planning a wedding!!]









I then went through a stage of many pillows and blue and green:



I never really liked the scrolly thing above the fireplace, so I finally replaced it with this mirror sometime in 2007 (I think?):



Christmas-time 2007 I decided it's time to paint our bedroom, so I did a pretty dark gray. I still love it to this day. This is right after I painted:



And here is the bedroom when I completed it:



One day in 2008 I got crazy and decided to paint the entire house from gold to greige. I'm still glad I did it even though we are moving. And the most recent pictures I have....










I case you are wondering, the majority of the furniture is staying in California because it was never really "ours"... meaning it came with the house so we didn't pick it out ourselves. And being an interior decorator now, it's time I start building a collection of our own furniture. We are bringing some of the furniture (our master bedroom bed, the dining room table, the couch) to save money. But I'll slowly be adding in more and more personalized items.

Next time I'll be able to post, I'll be living in CHARLOTTE! Catch you on the flip side ;)

our spaces

I took advantage of some great afternoon light and took some pictures of some of our spaces.

I realized lately that I don't share as much of the "work" I do in our home as I should. One of my goals is to start sharing more details... starting now!






My art wall in the upstairs landing. The dancer is a painting that was done by my great grandmother - I've admired it ever since I was a little girl and my parents gave it to me on my wedding day. I cherish it so! The red vase painting was done by my grandmother. I like to paint as well, and I hope to do it regularly someday to pass on the family "tradition".


Last week I got on a decorating kick and changed up the entire guest room. It used to look like this. Remember the prints? I decided I want to make it more "hotel like" and simplified the room. I re-did the room on a $0 budget; re-using things I already had laying around.

Mom and Dad - it's all ready for you!!!

edit: court commented and asked "I LOVE your bedside table in your guest bedroom!!! I have been looking for something similar that has clean lines but looks a little antique-like (has some character). Where did you get it?!"

The bedside table is actually a........ file cabinet! I found it at Target a while back on clearance. I took the file cabinet hook things out of it and now use it for a nightstand. It's made out of wood and leather and I love the masculine feel it gives.

side note: Some of you have written comments asking me about my camera. It's not actually my camera. My mother-in-law has generously let me borrow it for... well to be honest it's been over a year. She's so generous and kind :) I hope to get my own someday so I can give her her camera back! It's a Pentax istD L Digital SLR.

Found an Oil

Yesterday I stopped by the local Salvation Army. Oh man, did they have amazing furniture. I wanted to buy it all! But of course, I couldn't and didn't.*

But what I did find was a beautiful still life oil painting! There are so many things I love about it. It's a mint green with robins egg blue accents... it even has a little nest with robins eggs in it. It also has oranges [Orange County]. I like art that means something.

I almost didn't buy it - what was I thinking?? Then another shopper walked by, who looked like he knew what he was doing, and said "wow, great find". I walked straight to the checkout.

When I got home, I couldn't believe how perfect it was for my robin's egg blue console table.







Can you believe these pillows (on the couch) have been sitting in their plastic wrap in the garage for at least a year? I got them mega on sale from Cost Plus. I recently found them when cleaning the garage, and voila - they match perfectly with the newly painted console. I love when things just fit like that.

I have to admit, I love the softer pallet I've gone with in this room. The bright yellow stripes were fun, but just didn't fit. I think I'm moving it up to the bedroom.

*It's times like these, when I see so many great things while on a impromptu shopping trip that I want to blog about, that I wish I had a [really nice] camera phone. This brings me to the rug situation.... due to a couple of reasons, I am forgoing the rug for now and I think I may ask for an iPhone for my birthday instead. One main reason is because Charlotte has been having some post-surgery potty issues and I'd hate for a nice new rug to be ruined.

If I had a dollar....

If I had a dollar for every time I changed my mind, I'd be a millionaire billionaire*. I've been thinking a lot about rugs/living room/colors and decided against the bright yellow.

I know what you're thinking - what?!

When I got the actual [very large] bolster filler pillow from eBay, it didn't look so great with the bright yellow on that little couch... so I decided to go back to the basics. Neutral it is!

(Don't worry, it's not too tragic. I'm thinking of using the bright fabric and bright painting in our dark gray bedroom.)

Here is my reasoning: Instead of fighting the neutral theme that's already in the room, I'm just going to go with it. After all, neutrals are my favorite, and I especially realized that after looking at my inspiration pics over and over again (Literally, all the rooms are neutral. What can I say, I'm a boring chick).

And my reasoning part two: Someday we want to purchase our own place. Therefore, I want to only buy pieces that I know I can use in our future homes, something classic and timeless.

Here is the rug that made my change my mind:





It's simple, casual yet preppy - and see the color? I anticipate it blending nicely with my newly painted console.

I did some quick little mock ups of how the rug can work for us now, and in the future.

Now

- I hope to find a piece of artwork that is similar to my french girl above at the Rose Bowl flea market this weekend. I'd like something large and neutral to place on the console.

- I love this neutral fabric with a fabulous pattern.

Future

I've been dreaming up this future room for a long time. I can't wait until I can make something like this happen. Clean, simple, warm and elegantly casual. My favorite type of design.


*I know my indecisiveness can probably be a bit irritating for you, the reader. If I was a politician, I'd definitely be a flip-flopper. I hope this annoying yet real aspect of my personality doesn't shy you away from this blog.

The Reveal: Living Room [work in progress]

And now for the reveal.... what exactly did I use robin's egg blue for?

The living room console!

{paint = "Vintage Map" by Martha Stewart for Valspar}

I've been wanting to do this for a while... remember this post?

I'm slowly, and very inexpensively, working on updating our living room. This console is definitely a work in progress... I really want to change the wooden knob, but when I went to take it off, I found it's glued in.

Does anyone have any idea how to get our a glued in piece of wood??

I think I may have to saw it off, sand down the remnants and then drill a hole for the new hardware. That's on my to-do list.

See the white box? One thing I did was find a storage option for my husband's big, clunky surround sound receiver. I'll post more details about that another day.



When I go to the Rose Bowl flea market, I am going to be on the hunt for a large, neutral piece of art to place on the table. I don't want it to be too bright to take away from this lovely little painting my grandmother did (above). Aren't the colors so 70's? I love it.

Now for the shot of the room.....



This is a serious work in progress.

Things I've done:
- Paint room
- Hung light, white curtains
- Paint console
- Re-arranged mantle and coffee table accessories
- Added leaning mirror

Things to be done:
- Jute rug (for my birthday)
- Large art for console
- Make bolster pillow
- Hang the white curtains on the other side.

I have to be honest - in a perfect world, I'd create an idea board for myself and be able to go out and buy new furniture and accessories. But that's not in the budget, not now and not for a while. Each little project I've done has been around $20, and I'm definitely working with what I have.



I'm always open to suggestions for this room - like I said, it's a major work in progress, and done on a teenie tiny budget. One thing I am asking for for my birthday is the rug - I keep going back and forth about it- should I do something neutral, like an ivory jute or something graphic and dark?

The Perfect Greige - A Love Story

Can I just say - I LOVE our new color? I'm so glad I decided to paint... it was a huge task to take on, but it's so worth it. And honestly - it wasn't that bad! And my sore muscles makes me happy to know I'm got a good work out :)

Matt acted as photographer during this process. [Editors note: Matt doesn't paint. He doesn't like it and I'm not going to nag him to do something he hates. To be honest, he's not great at it and I'm a perfectionist, so it works out.]


Here I am taping - See all the scuffs? We really needed a new coat of paint on the walls.

Matt got some great shots of the during:


Here's the color!

Isn't it great? It's the perfect greige. I decided Thursday night at 8 pm that I wanted to go lighter than originally planned - so I ran to Lowe's (open til 10) and grabbed two samples. I painted those samples on the wall, and picked the perfect color.

The color: Woodrow Wilson Putty 6006-1, Valspar (Lowe's)

Weird name, beautiful color. It's one of Lowe's National Trust for Historic Preservation colors (I love that collection). Our wallets are glad we went with this color, too - it was only $17 per gallon versus $24 per gallon of Benjamin Moore (and that $24 is the cheap contractor's paint, not their good stuff).

I highly highly recommend Valspar paint. It's amazing quality; very thick and you really only need one coat. I always do two because I'm anal, but I could have easily stopped after one.

Okay, on to more pictures...


Char hung out and watched during the process.

And here are some afters. You only get previews for now because I have some plans up my sleeve for the living room decor and I'll share the full room after I'm done! :)






See this table? I just bought it from Craigslist. Can you help me pick a color to paint it? I plan on getting some antique drop pulls for it too. I also need a new lamp shade.

My final thoughts: I LOVE this new color. It's quite a bit lighter than I originally planned, but it makes the house so bright and airy. I think the new color brings sophistication, but I'm planning on bringing in some wimsy (like my new striped yellow fabric!).

Next weekend I'll do the kitchen & upstairs.

Ambition is in the air...

There is just something about spring that brings out the ambition in me. Last year in March, I re-painted the office. This year............ is a much bigger ambition.

I plan on painting the house. Yes, pretty much the entire inside of the house. Currently, there is this goldish-yellow-beige that covers the house:



At first I didn't mind it. Then I grew to prefer something else, then I just grew to dislike it. It's probably why I don't feature the house too much here on the blog. So I sent out a request to my in-laws to paint the entire house*, and they came back with a yes! It needed a fresh coat of paint anyway and I'm doing all the labor so it's a win win for them. I'm going with a "griege" - a grayish beige. I think it will be a great neutral, and won't blend in with the floors, furniture and drapes as much.





Currently, my contenders are Revere Pewter and Stingray (both Benjamin Moore). I'm planning on painting large swatches on the walls tonight, so I thought I'd make it official and post my plans today :) No backing out now!

Of course, I'll blog my adventure; the good, the bad and the ugly. I know my arms, back and core are going to be killing me in the next couple weeks, it's going to be a big, grueling job. The rooms I need to cover are:

- living room
- dining nook
- kitchen
- entryway/stairs
- tiny little upstairs
- upstairs and master bathrooms (maybe)

But by doing the labor myself will save hundreds of dollars and it will be a great workout. It will take me a couple weeks, but I've consulted a local paint shop and the total for paint will only be around $140 for the whole job.

And don't think the ambition stops there - I have a few other projects up my sleeve that involves a lot of DIY action, too. It should be a fun, busy spring/summer!

*My husband's parents own the home we live in and we rent it from them, which is why they get final say on house projects. They are undeniably generous and we are forever grateful to them for letting us rent this amazing home while we are in our poor early-twenties, newlyweds stage of our lives.