December 28, 2015

Most Popular Posts of 2015

Hi folks, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your friends and families! With New Years on Friday, 2015 has almost come and gone as have many blog posts. This first year in our home we have done so many projects that I've blogged about, so I thought it would be fun to take a quick walk down 2015's memory lane and revisit my most popular posts. Without further ado I present to you the top 5 most popular posts of 2015 (according to which I had the most traffic from readers). 

This is by far my favorite DIY project to date, so I'm glad you all love it too!
1. DIY Balustrade Coffee Table 

December 22, 2015

Christmas Tour 2015

I don't know about you, but I seriously can't believe that Christmas is only 3 days away. It feels like I just started decorating for the holiday season yesterday, and by the end of the week it will be all over.  This Christmas tour is long overdue, but I thought it was better late than never so thank you all for your patience. 

Last Christmas we had been living in our this home for only 3 months, and since we were newlyweds we had nearly zero Christmas decorations. Our sectional was delivered in mid- December so it was pretty hard decorating with no furniture. Our decor was very minimal, and if you didn't see it last year then you're really not missing out, but in case you want to see it for yourself you can see it here. 

When decorating this year for Christmas, not going to lie I kinda struggled. Our rug is technically gray, but looks more blue, so I couldn't help but to want to have a winter white christmas and compliment the gray rug with all whites and silver (sounds pretty, right?). This isn't just my house though, and so when Paul insisted that we have a traditional Christmas and have the color red all over, I couldn't say no. This is our second Christmas as a married couple so  it was very important that it felt very festive for him and that we begun building traditions together. Nonetheless, how about I stop talking and start giving you a tour. Come on in! 

December 16, 2015

Gift Guide: For Her

Today I'm sharing a gift guide that includes some bits and baubles for the ladies in your life. I hope you enjoy and find it helpful in your shopping!  
1. // 2. (second print // 3. // 4. // 5. // 6. // 7. // 8. // 9. // 10. // 11. // 12. // 13. // 14. // 15. // 16. // 17. // 18. // 19. // 20. // 21.

December 14, 2015

Weekend Recap: Christmas Brunch

I don't know about you guys, but it's really beginning to feel like Christmas despite the record breaking warm weather here in MI -61 degrees yesterday, can you believe it!? I'm sure not complaining! The past couple of weeks we have been getting our house ready for Christmas and finishing up some DIY projects, and this weekend we finally got to enjoy it by hosting a brunch on Sunday for my in-laws.

December 10, 2015

Christmas Buffet Shelves

 Last week I began sharing our christmas decor starting with our front hallway, so I thought I would continue this week by showing you our buffet shelves in our kitchen/dining area! Last Christmas, these shelves/buffet didn't exist so I had a lot of fun decorating them for the holidays for the first time and I love how they turned out!

December 9, 2015

DIY Front Entryway Paneled Wall

Over the weekend we tackled panelling the half wall in our front entryway and I can't believe the difference that it's made. It one of those projects that  when we were finished we asked ourselves, "why didn't we do this sooner!!" because we love it that much! It only took about 24 hours to finish, making this a very fast and doable project for others to tackle!  Keep reading to see how it turned out!

December 2, 2015

Christmas Front Entryway



 Now that Thanksgiving is over, Christmas decorating is in full force at our house. First stop, our front hallway. You may have remembered that this space is currently undergoing a makeover so it was easy to begin decorating here. Before it didn't feel like we had a front entryway at all, but now that it does I couldn't help but to fill it with Christmas cheer right away! 

December 1, 2015

Thanksgiving Recap





This years Thanksgiving was extra special to me for a number of reasons.  It was the first Thanksgiving in several years that I spent with my family, the first Thanksgiving with my family married to Paul, it was the first time I got to do a table setting, and since it was my first Thanksgiving in years with my family I was able to learn the family recipes . Unfortunately I was not that interested about family recipes growing up and,  therefore, I never really seemed to pay attention to my mom's cooking.  Now that I'm married and feel the need to know how to cook  and carry on the family traditions I'm trying to make up for all those lost times and hoard all of those recipes ASAP. That said, this year my mom did all of the cooking while I took notes and I got the fun part of being responsible of tablescaping! 

November 13, 2015

Friday Favorites

Welcome to this weeks' Friday Favorites where I share things that I'm loving this week! It's been awhile since I've done one of these, but with Christmas fast approaching I just couldn't help but share with all of you my favorite Christmas pieces that I have seen so far this season! 

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

November 12, 2015

Mini Fall Tour


With winter fast approaching here in Michigan, I thought I should finally share with you a mini fall tour of my home. I have kept putting this blog post off for nearly 2 months now, partially because of laziness and denial that Summer is over, but now that sunset is 5:45pm and summer is long gone it was about time to pull the trigger on it before I begin talking about Christmas. I’m definitely more of a spring/summer person, but there’s something about the coziness of fall that I can’t help but love. I hate winter, but fall I like and therefore was very welcomed into my home at the beginning of September. The changes that I made within our home, were subtle with the intent to create a more cozy atmosphere. Come check it out!


November 9, 2015

Master Bedroom Detailed Source List

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Late last week I got home from Phoenix, AZ where I was for a week for work. It was quite exciting for me in that it was the first national trade show that I coordinated and attended, but come Thursday I was so eager to get home.   After being away for a week, my appreciation for our bedroom was at an all time high.  I slept miserable while I was away and was reminded that nothing compares to the comfort and security of your own bedroom and bed.  In light of being so appreciative our bedroom this week, I thought I would share a in depth source lists as well as answer frequently asked questions that I get on  Instagram!

October 27, 2015

Weekend Recap & Projects on the Horizon

I know it's Tuesday but I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and start to your week yesterday! This was our first free weekend this fall which was very refreshing! It allowed us to have a real date night and we also got some things started around the house that have been put on hold for awhile. The most exciting thing that we did was that we finally picked out the tile for our entryway makeover!! This was my first experience tile shopping and I hope it's the last one for awhile. Just like anything else in design, the color of something looks a lot different in store than it does in your house so we had to do a lot of buying of tile, bringing home to try out, returning of tile, and repeat. By round 4 I was pretty exhausted and was ready to just make a decision, despite maybe not loving it.  Luckily on our last attempt to find some tile at Menards, we came across a tile that ended up looking great in our foyer. Originally I did not want the tile to have the faux wood plank look, but I loved how subtle it was in the tile that we chose. This baby is getting installed this upcoming Sunday by my husband and his father while I'm away in Phoenix for work, so I can't wait to come home and see it, as well as, put a check mark next to this item on the house to-do list. 

October 20, 2015

Laminate Nightstands Makeover

Happy Tuesday! Last week I finally got back to blogging after a month hiatus and I told you all that I would be spending this week updating you on all of the projects that I have finished recently but never gotten around to blogging, and today is no exception seeing as I finished this project months ago (oops!). If you have been following my blog for awhile then you know that I have been working on my guest bedroom makeover for some time now, and if you are new, then welcome! I wanted the guest bedroom to be a space that was not only comfortable for guests, but also be a place that I could try out different DIY projects that I didn't feel comfortable doing in other rooms, including painting laminate furniture. I was very hesitant to paint laminate because, well, it isn't real wood and therefore presents its own problems.  I no longer was using the nightstands in the master bedroom, however, so I thought it was a great opportunity to try out this project in the guest bedroom. After all, they were nightstands that my husband and I bought during our college years for $45 each, so I thought there wasn't too much too loose if they turned out bad! 

Before I show you the after photo, I thought I would remind you what the expresso laminate looked like before! 

October 16, 2015

DIY Fall Porch Sign and Porch Decor

Happy Friday, everyone! If you follow me on Instagram, then you might of seen some sneak peaks of my new porch decor, but I thought it was about time to share it with you all on my blog! Last fall is when we moved into our house so our porch decor was very minimal and was limited to one single yellow mum. It was underwhelming, to say the least, so this year I wanted it to be really festive. In August, with fall fast approaching, I decided to make a 6 ft. FALL sign, and I love how it turned out! 

October 13, 2015

DIY Industrial Shelf


Happy Tuesday! A few weeks ago I blogged about a design board for our front entryway. Within the blogpost, I had mentioned how I wanted to create a DIY industrial shelf for the space and today I'm sharing details all about it.

October 12, 2015

Life and House Updates

Happy Monday, everyone and happy Fall! I seriously can't believe it's already mid-October! This is one of my favorite months, thanks to the beautiful weather here in Michigan and pumpkin everything so I'm definitely not complaining. It's been awhile since I've posted a blog post so I thought that I would jump on here and give you all a little update about life and our house. 

Simply put, life has been a little busy lately here in Grandville, but I wouldn't have it any other way. We have lived in our house for a little over a year now , and it feels like we are finally settled in and really start building roots in the area. The first 8 months or so of living here was spent working non-stop on projects, and since Paul and I both work in the house we were constantly in the house. Now, we like to spend a lot of free time being anywhere but our house and this past few weeks hasn't been an exception. Three weeks ago, we went on our first vacation since our honeymoon last June so it was very much needed. Paul's best friend got married in Albuquerque so we made a week trip out of it and went to Las Vegas, Arizona and New Mexico. Within the trip we crossed off several items on the bucket list including visiting the Grand Canyon, seeing the Hoover Dam, visiting Sedona and going on a hot air ballon making it a very productive and exciting vacation. 

View from flight as we flew over Chicago, thought it was pretty cool! 

September 17, 2015

Front Entryway Design Board

Earlier this week on the blog I shared various design ideas for narrow entryways. As I said on Tuesday, entryways are so important because they are first thing that you see when you walk into a house and therefore set the tone for the rest of the home. Often times they are overlooked, hence the reason that I have yet to really do anything to the space. I want to change that though, so Tuesday's post was inspired by my own search for a solution, so I thought today I would share with you my design board for the space. 

My vision for our entryway is something that is both functional and practical while also bringing that wow factor. Our current entryway is nearly non-existent so I wanted to come up with a design that clearly defined the space while also offering unique and glamorous touches. With that focus in mind, I came up this design board:

September 15, 2015

Narrow Front Entryway Ideas

 Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope you be all had a wonderful weekend. It's fall time which means watching football consistently on weekends has officially began (for reference my team is the Michigan Wolverines - Go Blue!) and while watching other games this weekend  I was able to catch up on some overdue blog posts, so this week I will be sharing several posts with you all. I'm not sure what I'm more excited about, the fact that my team won this weekend or that I  caught up on this blog of mine:)  

Enough about football, let's talk about the fun stuff and the reason you are all here. Today I'm talking all about entryway ideas, especially narrow ones. The importance of an entryway is often times overlooked, but this area sets the tone of the rest of the house so it shouldn't be forgotten.  When you have a large entryway it's easier to make the it its own space, but when its narrow it can be more challenging. Regardless of the size of the front foyer, it still deserves some love.

September 8, 2015

Headboards $299 and Under

There seems to be a lot of people in my life lately that have been redoing bedrooms in their home, me included, so I've spent quite a bit of time looking at headboards. When it comes to designing a bedroom, a headboard isn't a necessity in my books, but oh don't they make a room so pretty! While looking at headboards over this Labor Day weekend, I came across many that were both very stylish and more affordable ($275 and under) thanks to sales going on so I thought I would share them with all of you today! All the prices of the headboards below are based on queen sized beds but many of them come in other sizes. 

August 24, 2015

Fall Inspired Chalkboard Art



Does my post title really have the word "fall" in it, despite the fact that it's still August? Yes folks, it sure does, and I'm not one bit sorry about it. I came down with a fall fever a couple of weeks ago and I haven't gotten rid of it since, so this past weekend  I decided to finally embrace it and do a little fun project! Come check it out! 

August 17, 2015

DIY No Sew Custom Length and Greek Trimmed Curtains

Alas, I'm back with more details with our guest bedroom makeover! Is it just me, or have I been working on this room for a really long time? I originally wanted this room to be completed in May, but obviously that didn't happen because here we are in the middle of August and the room it is still not completed. I'm not beating myself up over it though because although this summer has severely taken an impact on my home projects and blog posts,  the summers are short here in Michigan so we have been trying to enjoy it while we can. Paul and I both work from home so once the cold months hit, we are literally in our house almost all day everyday so it's been nice getting outside and doing stuff including our Wednesday night kick ball league (and surprisingly enough, it's more fun than when I was a kid)!  So although this room's progress has stalled over the summer I'm perfectly okay with it because making progress in the room feels just as good as when we're busy enjoying life. 

Ok so now onto all the juicy details of our latest project in this space which are these DIY no sew custom length and greek key trim curtains. Last year, I wrote a blog post on how to create these DIY no sew custom-length curtains so I'm not going to bore you all again with the same tutorial. Instead, today I'm sharing how I added the greek key trim to the border of the curtains without sewing, so let's get started! 


August 6, 2015

DIY Zippered Throw Pillow


If you follow me on Instagram, been to my house or know me in person then you probably know that I have a serious obsession with pillows! I love how easily they transform the look of a room and the sense of coziness they bring to a space.  The only thing I don't love about pillows, though, are the hefty price tag that sometimes can come with them. Now don't get me wrong I love Marshall's, HomeGoods and T.J. Maxx pillows and prices and I own quite a few, but their stocks are constantly changing and therefore are unpredictable, and when it comes to home design I often like to pick out the exact fabrics that I want to incorporate in a space. That said, when we moved into our house and I started designing our rooms, I wanted to pick out my own fabrics but I didn't want to have to pay the large dollar amount some fabric companies charge for custom pillows.  The obvious solution was then to sew them myself, only dilemma, I had absolutely no experience with using a sewing machine. Luckily, I stumbled across a tutorial from one of my favorite bloggers, Sarah at Life on Virginia Street, that gave me the courage and direction I needed to make some myself. So on Black Friday this past year I went out and bought a sewing machine at Target, taught myself how to sew and within 10 days I sewed my first zippered pillow cover and have been sewing them for rooms in our house ever since.

I've been asked many times for a tutorial on how I make my zippered pillow covers, so I finally documented it this last time when I was making pillow covers for our guest bedroom makeover. I'm still not the best at sewing, but that's the beauty because you don't have to be great at sewing to make these. If I can do it, I promise you can too! So without further adieu here is a step by step tutorial on how you can sew your own zippered pillow covers:

July 28, 2015

My Master Suite Retreat

  Last summer after Paul and I got married, we honeymooned to Maui and stayed in a studio condo that had the most beautiful lanai that overlooked the ocean. We were probably in one of the most beautiful places in the world, but funny enough, one of our favorite things we did while on the honeymoon was just stay in bed and watch HGTV since we didn’t have the amenities like cable or an inviting bedroom at home to do that. At that point, we were living in a tiny one-bedroom apartment that was filled with a bunch of mix-matched furniture that we both had accumulated over our college years, and frankly, it just wasn’t a space that either of us enjoyed spending a lot of time in. That said, after spending 12 days in this studio condo in Maui, we both agreed that we wanted to create a similar retreat type feel in the master bedroom of our future together home because of how much we enjoyed  the one on our honeymoon, but of course minus the lanai, ocean view and Maui sunset, or at least for now (A girl can dreamJ). Fast-forward to almost a year later, and we now have our together home and a master bedroom that we love. Come check it out and see the latest additions to the space, including a new beautiful accessory from Jonathan Louis, and how I make our master suite feel like a retreat!

July 26, 2015

DIY IKEA RAST Hack

About six months ago, Paul and I made a trip to Ikea where I picked up two rast chests. I had all of the intentions in the world to begin working on them ASAP, but of course they stayed unopened until about 3 weeks ago. The reason for the delay was because I was unsure exactly what I wanted to do with them. If you have seen RAST hacks before, then you surely know that the options are endless when taking on these hacks. Months ago I blogged about different RAST ideas, but I ended up not using any one else’s tutorial, and instead created the look myself. Truthfully, they didn’t end up perfect (then again what DIY project doesn't) but ultimately I love them and I think they look great in our room.

















July 8, 2015

DIY Paneled Wall

I haven't shared a DIY project on the blog in quite some time, so I'm so excited to finally be sharing one with you! We have had this DIY board and batten panel wall finished for over month now, so it's about time to finally share details on how we did it! 

June 25, 2015

How to Keep an Orchid Alive

As I mentioned in a post the other week, we have owned an orchid for almost five months now and I'm proud to say that it's still alive. To me, this is quite the accomplishment seeing as I've never owned a plant before and orchids are quite fickle and not the easiest plants to take care of. They say you should own and take care of a plant before owning a pet or having a child, so I've taken my job as an orchid mom quite seriously. Okay, not too seriously, but I've tried hard to keep it alive. Although I'm by no means an orchid expert, I've had people ask on Instagram about how I keep it alive so I thought I would share those tips with all of you today.

June 15, 2015

Kitchen Reno Idea Board

The kitchen is really the heart of the home and right now mine is quite dated. Paul and I have been talking about a kitchen renovation since moving in last September, and we are finally getting to the point of making decisions on it. A while back I posted about the initial floor plan for our renovation, and this weekend we were able to visit some interior kitchen design places and really start narrowing our choices when it comes to the materials being used. There are things that I know that I want– gray subway tile with white grout, white cabinets, brushed nickel hardware, and adding an island. In my dream kitchen the island would be a warm dark wood and the rest of the cabinets white, but we are not gutting the entire kitchen and rather are rearranging the existing cabinets and are using an existing cabinet to help build the island in order to save money so we are going to end up painting both the cabinets and the island white. At first I was a little skeptical with all the white, but with new darker floors and gray subway tiles I think there will be enough warmth in an otherwise sterile white kitchen. This is such an important room so thus far it’s been a daunting process in deciding on all the aesthetics but after this weekend I’m starting to feel pretty confident.

June 9, 2015

Updates

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and start to the week! I thought today would be a good day to catch you up on things around here.  

Some of you may have noticed that projects have been going more slowly around here and the blog posts haven't been as frequent. Things at my day job have been really picking up lately, and all of my large projects that I've been working on for the last year are finally in the process of being implemented which means I'm in charge of overseeing a lot. Since I've been putting extra hours in at work, I no longer have as much extra time after work to work on some home projects. In addition, Paul and I both work from home so now that the weather is becoming warmer, once we both are done working we both want to leave our house since that's were we spend our entire day as is. The same goes for weekends as well. Since we are always in our home, weekends have been spent for the most part everywhere but inside our house. My parents were just recently in town and my in-laws have a cottage 30 minutes from us so we have also been enjoying quality time with our families as well. All this said, I can't promise that it's going to get a ton better at this time, just because we have many trips planned and we both really just want to be outside and enjoy this summer, but I do have a lot of things lined up. I also have several projects completed that I just need to find time to now blog about. I hope you will hang in there with me! 

 Now on to some things around our house!

1. Our Orchid child that we have had for about four months is still alive and looking rather healthy. I call it our "orchid child' because they say you should get a plant before you own a pet or have kids, and well this is my first house plant so i've been taking my orchid mom duty very seriously. Hah! I've had some people request a blog post on how I've taken care of it and kept it alive so I will be sharing that very soon!


June 2, 2015

Parade of Homes House Tour and Dream Builder

Happy Tuesday everyone! If you follow me on Instagram, then you might know that this past Saturday my parents were in town from OR and Paul and I went with them to some of the parade of homes in our area. I absolutely love parade of homes and grew up going to it, so it was so fun going with Paul for the first time.  Paul loves architecture and real estate and ever since we started dating he has always constantly looked at houses for fun. Me on the other hand, I grew up living in 9 different houses and grew up riding around looking at houses A LOT (even when we were on vacation) with my parents, so looking at homes has always been apart of my life. That said, since we both share a similar passion in houses it's definitely our goal to one day build a custom home that has all the bells and whistles and architectural details that our dreams are made of. This goal of ours is something that is definitely not in the near future, nor will most likely even be House #2 for us, but if life unfolds according to our plan (which we all know it doesn't usually work like that, but let's just be optimistic for the sake of it) it would be House #3! I'm 23, so I'm perfectly content waiting for years before accomplishing this goal of ours!

 At this point, I couldn't tell you all the details that would comprise of our House #3, but we do know who we want to build it and we had the chance to see one his homes this past weekend on the parade of homes. The builder is Dave Dunsendang Homes and is located in the Grand Rapids area in Michigan and I came across him over a year ago on Zillow and have been in love with his homes ever since. His detailed craftsmanship is beyond swoon worthy and exactly what my dreams are made of.  He was actually at the house that he built during the parade of homes and I had a chance to meet him, and you would of thought I had met a celebrity by how I was acting and how excited and complementing I was about his work.  Besides his craftsmanship, I also love the fact that he is a custom builder that builds the house based off exactly what you want, instead of going off a handful of pre-set floor plans that can only have minor adjustments made to the plan like most builders do. That said, enough about talking about the his work and get to the fun part, the pictures! This house tour was a house from last years parade of homes and was built on a old orchid, swoon!!


May 28, 2015

Guest Bedroom Update and New Direction



If you recall, about two months ago I wrote a blog post where I shared the design board for our guest bedroom makeover. If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you may know by now that 1. I take much longer on getting rooms and projects completed than I originally anticipate and 2. I often change things around from the original design plan. That said, no surprise, the guest bedroom is no exception.  Today I will be sharing some of the changes to the design plan within the space and also an update where I'm at with the makeover.   Just to refresh your memory, here is the originally design board for the guest bedroom:  

May 26, 2015

Guest Bathroom Reveal

Months ago,  I blogged about the makeover plans for our guest bathroom and today I'm finally here to reveal the transformation thus far in this space.  I might (ok, probably will)  make some more changes down the road, but I thought it was time to do a actual reveal so that I could just leave this room alone for now and start focusing my attention elsewhere in our house and show you other things we have been working on recently.

May 18, 2015

Supermarket Sign


In our house we have slowly been getting things hung up on the walls. It’s been fun and rewarding to be patient finding pieces for our home that we really love. I first fell in love with the idea of a supermarket sign when I saw it on Fixer Upper in Jojo’s kitchen. I recently found a cute little etsy shop, RBT  Home Decor, who makes lovely rustic and beautiful treasures including a reclaimed wood supermarket sign and I fell in love with it right away.  After seeing that it was 47 inches wide, I knew I wanted to it over my DIY floating shelves over my buffet because I knew it would fit perfectly. I’m very happy with how it looks above the shelves and the love farmhouse charm it adds to our kitchen and dining area.

May 13, 2015

RugUSA Rug's Across Instagram


If you are on Instagram and you follow other home design type feeds, you may have noticed that many people, including myself, buy their rugs from RugsUSA. They are constantly having sales and always offer free shipping, so it's no wonder their rugs are so appealing! Today is the last day of their Mother's Day sale where they are offering 75% many of their rugs, so I thought today I would share some rugs that some of my favorite Instagram feeds and blogs use from RugsUSA. This is not a sponsored post, I just always see people asking where the rugs are from, and I'm here to today to help you with that answer! 

May 11, 2015

Wall Art Rules to Follow and Break

Since purchasing our first house 8 months ago, Paul and I have worked nonstop to turn this house into a home, as evident by the this blog and all the DIY projects that we have accomplished. The home is where the heart is so our house automatically feels like "home", but in order to make it feel "homey" we have focused on making the space better reflect our style. We have spent 8 months making this house better reflect our style, but the truth is, I can't exactly tell you what "our style" is. If I had to put a name on it, I think I would call it farmhouse coastal, but instead, my style is a byproduct of things I see and love on Pinterest, Instagram, or styles in my daily life that I try to mimic in one way or another or use for inspiration.  Although this is a great way to define "your style" and stimulate creativity, if you (meaning me) take it too seriously or are too concerned on doing things according to the rules it can be quite limiting at times. 

May 4, 2015

My Parents Guest Bedroom Mini Makeover


Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and that it was as beautiful and warm out where you were as it was here in MI! Two weeks ago I was in Oregon for a week for work, and since I work for my father I stay with my parents when I go out there. Almost two years ago my family moved from MI to OR and since then they have bought furniture for the guest bedroom but they never got around to decorating it. My mom figured me being out there was a perfect opportunity to do a little makeover on it, so we did just that! 

April 27, 2015

Oversized Wall Clock Sources


Happy Monday, everyone,  I hope you all had an amazing weekend! My weekend consisted of catching up on some much needed sleep and hanging out with Paul and doing some of our regular weekend activities which includes things like going to Lowe's, tacos at the local downtown market, Saturday Redbox movie and pizza making night accompanied by one $2 crossword puzzle lottery ticket for each of us (unfortunately neither of us won). I know it doesn't sound too thrilling of a weekend, but we prefer simple weekend staples like these.  Anyone else feel the same way?   Last week I was out in OR for work and my family lives out there too so I spent my extra time hanging out with my parents, sister and brother-in-law, and canine family members.  I took a week break from the blog to spend some quality with all of them since I hadn't seen them in 3 months and I figured  you would all understand:)

Since starting my Instagram account months ago, the number one question I get regarding where I've bought something is , "where is your clock from?".  I get this question at least on a weekly basis, so I thought I would share details where I bought it along with other sources to similar looking clocks that are also more affordable.

April 17, 2015

Friday's Favorite

Happy Friday everyone and welcome to this week's Friday Favorites where I share things that I've been loving this week! This week's favorites are all from Target's new Lilly Pulitzer Line that launches this Sunday, April 19th! I honestly couldn't be more excited for this line to come out! Anyone else extremely excited?  I have loved this designer for years but have not loved the price tag that comes with the Lily Pulitzer name, so I only currently own one thing from the regular line that I bought during their semi-annual sale.  This new line from Target, however, is much more affordable and in my price range so I'm trying to narrow down what I want to get from this line because I know it's going to sell out at fast, and well, let's be honest I would take one of everything if I could. I will be out of town on Sunday in OR, but I've already called the local Target store and luckily they will be carrying the line!  I'm curious to see how many of the items are carried in store because it seems like quite a bit of it might be online only, but either way I will still be waiting Sunday morning for the doors to open at the OR Target. I know, sounds a bit extreme, however   the line is only being offered from this Sunday through May and from my experience with other exclusive designer lines Target has carried before, items don't stay around for long! Below I have listed out some of my favorite things from the line.  The total line consists of over 200 items so here is the link to where you can find everything that they will be carrying which includes home, kids, beauty, and women clothing items. 



April 8, 2015

Kitchen layout and Style Poll


Happy Wednesday, everyone! On yesterday's blogpost I shared images of our kitchen and talked a little about the exciting future plans that we have for the space. I mentioned how we wanted to rearrange some of the cabinets to better utilize the space, however, there is a good chance you got lost in my longwinded explanation so today I'm here to show you some visuals of what I was talking about! Luckily enough, I came across a free home designer program that allowed me to not only  create a visual for all of you, but the program even let me choose different quartz countertops and wood finishes so it was even extremely helpful for me to do this in order to play around with ideas. Let's just say it was a win win situation for everyone! 

April 7, 2015

Kitchen and Exciting Future Plans

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! For those of you who follow me on Instagram, you might have seen me in the past talk about wanting to make changes to our kitchen one day, including painting the cabinets white! Well I'm excited to say that I've been able to talk Paul into that idea and we have started making plans for a kitchen renovation that we plan on starting this fall. When we bought our house we knew that we would want to eventually change the kitchen because it doesn't utilize the space very well and nor does it have the aesthetics that we want. So that said, within the kitchen renovation we want to do more than just paint the cabinets, we also want to reconfigure the current layout of the cabinets using the existing cabinets, add an island, replace countertops, appliances, sink and floor, and add hardware. Pretty much do the whole shebang! I seriously couldn't be more excited!! We plan on hopefully doing a lot of it ourselves (and maybe the help of family members) in order to reduce the cost of the project. We aren't starting the project until the fall so that we time to save for the renovation while also giving us plenty of time to make decisions on all of the finishes. Also, we want to enjoy summer without having our kitchen torn apart! 

April 3, 2015

Friday Favorites: H&M Home


Happy Friday everyone and welcome to this week's Friday Favorites where I share things that I've been loving this week! This week's favorites are all from H&M Home.  I don't go on H&M's Home website very often but the other night I did and couldn't believe how much stuff I loved! I know I'm late joining the game and many of you probably already love this store and I can totally see why! Not only do they have great looking pieces but the prices are incredible. What I was most surprised by were there pillow covers! As many of you probably already know from your own experience pillow covers can be very expensive, but some of the pillow covers they sell are $5.95!! That's like the same price as a Little Caesar pizza! The pizza is consumed in minutes though and the pillow covers I could own for years.  I don't like to eat my money so yes I often compare the cost of things to food:) 

It was hard to narrow down my favorites because I loved so much of it, but below I have listed out 8 of some of my favorite things! I haven't bought anything yet, but I definitely think I will be adding some of these pieces to our house given their prices and style! 

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

March 31, 2015

Guest Bedroom Design Board


Happy Tuesday everyone! I've been focusing a lot of my efforts in the family room and dining room lately and I thought it was about time to start putting my efforts elsewhere in the house. The next room that I've decided to work on is our guest bedroom. Between Paul and I we have a lot of family and friends that live out of town, so I thought it would be good to tackle this room before having visitors this summer. Surprisingly, even Paul was on board with me doing this room right now and told me, "Ya just get it done", so I officially have the green light to move forward with this project! 

March 27, 2015

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday everyone!! Welcome to this weeks Friday Favorites where I share some things I've been loving this week! Some I already own, and some I've just been loving! With warm weather around the corner, I can't help but gravitate towards fun colors, especially my favorite light aqua blue. That said, today I'm sharing a few things I've been loving in that color!
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

March 26, 2015

6 Month Update

Hi everyone! As of this month, Paul and I have lived in our first home for 6 months. During that time period we have gotten a lot done.  We still have a lot to do in the house, but I'm very happy with all of the progress that we have made so far in our home. That said, today I thought I would show you some before and current shots of rooms so you can see how the transformation is coming along. All of the before shots are from when the previous homeowners lived in this house. 

The Family Room Before:

Family room currently. I will be showing you updated pictures next week as well, because I have a new rug to show you all:)

March 23, 2015

Rug Ideas and Guidelines

Happy Monday everyone! Our family room is slowly but surely coming along nicely, and the next thing on the list to tackle is finding a rug. Originally I wasn't planning on adding a rug in our family room, but the walls, sectional, carpet, and coffee table are similar colors so I thought the space needed one in order to not only add a different color and pattern but to also help anchor the room. Paul was also completely against the idea too but I slowly was able to talk him into letting me get one!  That said, since I'm in the process of shopping for a rug I thought today I would share some affordable rug options that I have come across while shopping along with different guidelines to follow when purchasing a rug for a space.  



March 18, 2015

DIY Floating Shelves

Hey everyone! I'm so excited to be sharing these DIY floating shelves today that we built in our kitchen. We got this verona buffet  for Christmas and I decided that adding floating shelves above them would not only be super functional but it would also look great. We got a lot of serving ware and glassware from our wedding so I loved the idea of having them out on display rather than stored away in a closet or cupboard. These are easy to build and are a great project for beginner DIYers. The total cost for the wood for both shelves was about $34.00 which is a lot more affordable than any shelves you can buy in stores!

Also, I like giving credit where credit is due. These shelves are inspired by the Shanty 2 Chic floating shelves that many of you have probably seen circulating on either Instagram or Pinterest. I did, however, make modifications to the plan to fit my space accordingly and thought I would share how we built them! 

March 16, 2015

Going Bananas turns into Banana Bread

Happy Monday, everyone! As of tomorrow, It's a Grandville Life is 4 months old and during those 4 months I have predominately blogged about our house transformation and  DIY projects. When I started this blog my intentions were to also write lifestyle posts from time to time because after all my life here in Grandville, MI goes beyond just home design and DIY projects so that said, what better time to start writing these kinds of posts than now.