December 22, 2014

Mini Christmas House Tour


Happy Monday, everyone! With Christmas only 3 days away, I thought I would share a couple of photos of how I decorated for Christmas! With this being our first Christmas in our house and still getting situated, the decorations are very minimal. I didn't want to spend much money on holiday decorations seeing as we still have furniture and other home related items to purchase. Even with the insignificant amount of decorations,  I still love how it turned out and am so excited to be spending our first Christmas together in our own house! 

December 19, 2014

My Friday Favorites

Happy Friday everyone! I wasn't able to get around to writing a blog post this week due to being swamped with work, Christmas shopping, and hurrying to get our coffee table built in time for Christmas, but I thought that I would at least share a Friday favorites today. Many of the items I chose for this week could also double as great presents if you are still in need of some gift ideas.

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December 11, 2014

Family Room Design Board


Since we moved into our house, I have been in the process of coming up with a design board for our family room, which has been both a fun but daunting task. Within the last three months I have probably created 30+ designs on my computer due to the fact that I'm a somewhat perfectionist but also am a very indecisive person at times, so it hasn't been until recently that I feel like I'm officially set on a design plan!

The family room is the most used room in our house, so when coming up with a design plan it was important that the design was both practical but also a design that we both liked. Paul's only requests for this room was that it was comfortable and did not have much gold accents, which was something that I could easily do. Here is the design that I'm finally set on: 

December 8, 2014

No Sew Custom Length Rivta Curtains

Today I'm going to show you how I made these $40.00 custom length no-sew curtains for our family room! 

December 4, 2014

Laundry Closet Makeover


In my two month update blog, I showed you a picture of our laundry closet makeover, however I didn't give much detail about it. That said, I thought that today I would go over in more depth all that we did. I apologize in advance for the limited pictures and instructions of how Paul built the shelves. I was out of town for work while he did it, and we did this project before I decided that I was going to start a blog! 

December 1, 2014

Sherwin Williams Paint Picks for My House

Happy Monday, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and wonderful weekend! I mentioned in my two month update blog how we have been focusing a lot of our time on painting lately, and that is still the case as we go into our third month of living here. That said, since we are currently in the painting phase, as I like to call it,  I thought that this would be a great time to talk more in depth about the Sherwin Williams paint colors that I chose, and the steps I think are important to take when choosing the perfect paint color for your own house.

November 26, 2014

How to Hang Z Gallerie Naples Bowls

Progress has been made and we have finally gotten around to hanging our first piece of wall art, the beloved Z Gallerie Naples Bowls! Since these are tricky to hang, I also included instructions on how to hang the naples bowl!

November 24, 2014

Master Closet Makeover

A few weeks back, we finished a very important makeover in our house, the master closet.  When we bought the house, the master closet lacked functionality and did not maximize space by any means. I own an unhealthy amount of clothes so it was important that we built a space where both of us could fit a lot of our wardrobe. We did the whole makeover for under $100, and it ultimately was well worth the investment. 

November 21, 2014

My Friday Favorites


Happy Friday everyone! This week has been a busy week filled with work, home projects, Christmas decor shopping, staying warm in this much unwanted early winter that Mother Nature decided to give us in MI, and a lot of other fun things. Luckily we have been able to get a couple projects done during this work week, but after a long day of working inside the house I usually tend to want to get out, so progress is going slower than desired. Everyone keeps telling us that Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is a house, so instead of getting anxious and stressed over all of the projects that we have to or want to do, I’m trying to stay positive and appreciate all of the projects that we have done so far and plan to do very soon! Early next week I have some fun projects to show you all, including some DIY projects that you can do to spruce up some old furniture, but for today I’ll be showing you some of this weeks favorites. Let me know what you think in the comments section below!

Favorite Room
I absolutely love this room! Between the white, grays and dark brown accents, I'm absolutely googly eyed over this! Also, check out that chandelier! This will definitely be an inspiration for one our rooms in our house! 

Favorite Christmas Chalkboard 
Since we don't currently have a TV hung over our mantel (because we are building an add-on to the mantel before we hang the TV), I wanted to add something festive on the mantel for the holidays. I found this chalkboard idea and love it!

I have been in love with this coffee table for months, but the price tag of $1200 doesn't coincide with our budget. Luckily enough,  I've been able to get free design plans and built up enough courage to build my own next weekend (of course with the help of Paul by my side). Guys, I'm so excited, you have no idea!!
Favorite New Beauty Item: Benefit Cheeky Sweet Spot
I have wanted to try out some of Benefit's boxed blushes for awhile, so when I saw this blush palette that came with six of their statement boxed blushes I had to have it! The color payoff of many of these blushes is great! My favorite shade so far is Bella Bamba which unfortunately is a discontinued shade in their boxed blush collection. I used $9.00 of my Ulta Rewards Dollars when I bought it, so I ended up getting this for $27.00 which is an incredible deal seeing as ONE of their blushes usually cost $28.00. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who is in need of new blushes, or is like me and likes trying new products all the time!


Favorite Song/ Music Video: Blank Space by Taylor Swift

In the last couple of years, I haven't been as fond of Taylor Swift songs, but I have to admit, I LOVE here new song Blank Space and the music video for it.  She has totally redeemed herself in my eyes. I have been listening to it non-stop this past week.  My favorite line in the song, "cause darling I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream".  Also the house and estate in the video is absolutely gorgeous, I mean check out those bushes!! 

Well that's it for this week's Friday Favorites! I hope you all have a wonderful and safe weekend!
Let know what you think in the comments below, find me on Facebook, and see what I'm up to via Instagram!

November 19, 2014

Target Holiday Sale!

In case you haven't heard, Target's Christmas decor is all 40% off today ONLY plus FREE shipping! I have been unlucky finding stuff in stores because it's selling quick so I was very happy when i heard about this sale. Here is a couple of my favorites (link to items are below) !

2 Month Update

These last two months since we’ve moved into the house have been nothing less than crazy. Between moving across state, unpacking ungodly amounts of boxes, working, traveling for work, starting home improvement projects, suffering from projects gone bad (more on that later), and having the normal life stressors added on top of that, I must say it’s been an awfully stressful BUT rewarding two months. It’s been most rewarding in that in these last two months we have made enough changes that our house has finally started to feel like it’s ours.  Obviously it’s been ours since we signed all of the paperwork at closing, but when we moved in it felt like we were living in someone else’s house. The people before us had 5 young children, which meant not only were we moving into a house where a lot of memories were made, but also moving into a house that every wall (at child height level) had some sort of crayon mark, small handprint, dirt or dent on it.  In addition, they also had every single wall in the house, besides 3 girl bedrooms, painted the same exact latte brown color. Don't get me wrong, the house was in beautiful condition despite the few "character marks", and I even like the latte brown color in moderation. A house is a reflection of those who live in it, however, and therefore the house wasn't going to feel like it was ours until we started making it our own. The easiest way, in my opinion, to do that is by painting! The power of paint is truly unbelievable! It not only can transform a room, but it also has a vital role when it comes to design.  Paint sets the mood and feel of a room and the furniture and decor follow it's lead. That said, our efforts in the last two months have heavily consisted of getting new paint on the walls! It was important for me to get the walls painted in the rooms before moving forward with any design decisions (hence the lack of decor and furniture in some of the photos seen below). Also, I must mention that the progress that we have made in these past two months, however, could of not happened without the very generous help of my father-in-law. He is the man behind all of these beautifully painted walls, and we are beyond grateful for all the help that he has been in this transformation of our house! I will have a blog post later geared specifically to how I chose the paint colors and more in depth overviews of each of the rooms and what I plan to do with them, but for now I will just show you brief overview pictures of where we are at!

My Office
The first room in the house that got a face lift was my office! Paul and my father-in-law painted the room while I was gone for a 12 day work trip! What a great surprise that was to come home to! Also, the paint color is Sherwin Williams' Sea Salt which is a gorgeous light blue/green with gray undertones. 

Laundry Closet
Here is our beautiful new laundry closet. The paint color we used here was On the Rocks by Sherwin Williams. The house didn't come with a washer or dryer so our first project was to finish this space so that we could have clean clothes! It's the only room in the house that I can officially say is finished. Earlier I had mentioned suffering from a project gone bad. This was that project. While Paul was installing one of the cabinet doors, as he stepped off the chair he was standing on, the chair fell over and broke my big toe. If you have never stubbed or injured your toe, let me tell you, it is one of the most painful things ever!! It crushed the nail bed so bad that I had to have surgery on it and had to wear an orthopedic boot for 6 weeks. This Friday I get it off!! More details on how we created the shelves will be in a blog post soon! 

The Master
 In the Master we went with a darker taupe/gray color called agreeable gray by Sherwin Williams. I love the color but I love the new bed even more! The headboard is 5 ft 5" tall, and is AH-MAH-ZING! It was love at first site. Still not sure how I got Paul onboard with this purchase:) The pillows and toss blanket are ones that I already owned, so they will be here for awhile while I figure out what I want to do with fabrics, art work, and all of that fun stuff.

 Master Bathroom
 That master bathroom also got a coat of the lovely sea salt paint color. We also got all new hardware and lighting for this room, which also made a large difference! More details on that in a future post.

Living Room
The largest transformation thus far, has to definitely be the new paint in the living room and hallways. My father-in-law so graciously painted all of this room too.  

Note: if you have a wall decal that you want to paint over, make sure to remove it prior to painting. If you leave it on the wall, chances are you will be able to see it through the paint. Luckily they are really easy to remove. 


Proof that I wasn't over exaggerating when I said all of the walls where covered with dents. Thank God for spackling compounds! 


Old color on the left, new color on the right! 


Here is a picture right after the room was done! I was literally jumping up and down. It's absolutely gorgeous and completely transformed the feeling of the room. 

Here is another photo that better shows the true color of the wall. It's Accessible Beige by Sherwin Williams and it has the perfect amount of lightness and gray undertones that we were looking for. It's definitely more of a taupe than a beige. We bought a new sectional that comes in 4 more weeks, so until then this will be sitting empty!

Kitchen

We have not painted the kitchen yet, but we plan to in the near future. The only thing that has changed is that we got a new dishwasher! When we moved in the current dishwasher barely worked, so as a house warming gift my parents got us this new beauty! It's been so nice having a dishwasher that is competent and does it's job right!

Guest bedroom
As you can clearly see, the walls in this room have not been painted yet! We lived in this room for almost 6 weeks while our Master Bedroom was getting finished up and while we waited for the delivery of our new bed. Now that we have cleared this room, I'm officially taking on this room as my project. I have a lot of fun plans for this room!

This weekend, I took the first steps of transforming this room. That is, I painted the trim with a fresh coat of white paint. I prefer to paint the trim before the walls, because that way I can paint over any white paint that I might of gotten on the walls during this step. 


The Basement
Here we have our workout corner AKA a solo elliptical! This is not just any elliptical, but rather has been keeping me fit since I was an early teen. I was the person in my family that used this most often, so when my parents moved to Oregon a year ago and they didn't have room in the moving truck to move it, they gave it to me. For the last year, it's been stored at my brother-in-law's house, so once we got a house, I was SO excited to get it here! 

We have not painted or made any changes to the basement and nor will we for a LONG time. Right now it's the only sitting area in our house because the living room upstairs is empty as we wait for our new couch to arrive. This furniture used to be our living room furniture in our old apartment, but makes beautiful basement furniture in this house!

Also, I have not begun decorating this area either. This is just stuff that I already owned and threw on a couch!


So there you have it! This is a longer blog post than I will usually write, but at least you have a better idea of where we are at! From here on out I will predominately talk about one project or space at a time, with other random things in between! Let know what you think in the comments below, find me on Facebook, and see what I'm up to via Instagram!

November 17, 2014

The Before




Welcome to It’s A Grandville Life, I’m Megan LaMacchia! In the last 6 months I’ve graduated from the University of Michigan, started a full time job, got married to a handsome man named Paul, and less than 3 months into our marriage we moved across state from Ann Arbor to Grandville, Michigan and bought our first house.  I don’t advise anyone to take on this many stressful events in such a short time period, but I must admit I wouldn’t change it for the world.  I’m a believer that everything happens for a reason, and I couldn’t be happier where all these events have lead me to, including beginning this blog. These past 6 months have been filled with one milestone after another, and now I’m ready for that milestone train to take an immediate halt (because of course that next milestone is having babies, and although Mr. L and I can’t wait to have a family one day, we are not ready to take that on anytime soon). Instead, I want life to S L O W down.  I want time to appreciate life, this new marriage, this new house and being the best wife, employee, and homeowner I can be. Being all of those things doesn't just happen. Rather it takes a whole lot of work and TLC.  That’s where It’s a Grandville Life comes into the picture. When I decided to write this blog it was just as much for myself as it was for others. I wanted to document this special time in our life and all of the projects we had taken on, while also wanting to inspire others.  Also, with my family living across the country in Oregon I thought them along with others might like to check in occasionally and see what Mr. L and I are up to. On this blog I will touch base on everything and anything including our house transformation, DIY projects, beauty, fashion, home design, cooking,  Friday's favorites, and everything in between. For the remainder of this blog post, however, I will talk about our house, because, well, it's new and exciting and when I do talk about our house transformation it's important for you all to see the before pictures.  That said, without further adieu here are the before photos of our house which are images from when the old homeowners lived here and some images from when we first took possession.

Here is a picture of our house! I must admit, it was a very exciting and proud day when we got this house. I never thought I'd be 22 and married, let alone buying a house!

Family Room
Here is the living room. One of the things that immediately made me like this house was the Cathedral ceilings. I love a bright house with a lot of natural sunlight, but then again who doesn't?  
Here is another view of the living room and entryway! Also, check out that fireplace that has so much potential:)

The Kitchen 
Here is the kitchen. As you will see in the next picture, this kitchen has some SERIOUS space to work with/ play with/ cook in/ eat in. Before we bought the house, I must admit, hubby and I spent many of hours in Home Depot dreaming about and planning out what we will one day do with this space.
 And there you can see even more space, which will give us plenty of room to one day add an island and make the cabinets in an "L" shape rather than it's current "U" Shape.

The Deck 
Here is the deck that's right off of the kitchen! We can't wait to have some BBQ parties here some day!

The Master Bedroom


I can't wait to show you  all the changes that we've already made to this space, and the headboard Paul let me buy!

The Master Bathroom 
                                                                  Bedroom #2 

This room is going to be our guest bedroom, so that said, I love the color pink but it's got to go! 

Guest Bathroom 

Bedroom #3
Look at the ceiling and window in this room! Take a guess at which room I turned into my home office:) 

Basement 

Bedroom #4

Bedroom #5


Hallway in the basement that leads to an unfinished Bathroom #3, and yes, I've already started thinking about the floor tiles and color scheme that I will one day want to use in there. 

So there you have it, the before pictures of the house! I can't wait to show you all in the next blog post what we have done in the last two months to start making it our own.