Featuring: Life with a Dash of Whimsy.

I always love reading The Everygirl blog, especially their home tours.  They feature everyday homes, which is always refreshing -- the rooms are always beautiful, but attainable and totally livable at the same time.  They featured one recently that really caught my eye.  I studied all of the pictures in great detail because all of the little touches were just perfect.

But what made the whole thing even more special was that the tour featured the home of United States Army Captain Katie del Castillo.  Someone who serves our country and can decorate the heck out of her DC place -- yes, please!  Katie has her own blog, which is great so be sure to check it out.

(all photos via the everygirl)

Pretty fabulous, right?

(As a total aside, as I was typing this post, Justin was playing around on my exercise ball.  I look over and he's attempting to balance himself completely on the ball.  I could see what was about to happen from a mile away . . . and you probably can too . . . of course, he started falling backwards (like slow-mo style) and fell on the floor.  Anyway, you just had to be here to witness the awesomeness of it, but I am still crying from laughing so hard.)

Nursery Thoughts - Big Picture.

My thoughts for the nursery have evolved over the last 5+ months.  At first I was certain I wanted to do a dark navy nursery with accents of white, gold, and blush pink.  Something along these lines with dark moody walls . . .

Then one day I decided I really wanted a softer feel for the room.  Even though I still adore the look of a dark nursery, I thought as she grows up, maybe we can do something more dramatic, but she's a baby and maybe I should keep the nursery soft and light.  (And our bedroom, which I haven't shown on the blog, is Hale Navy so I hesitated having two dark navy rooms.)

So now I am thinking more along these lines, but I'm still liking the idea of gold, blush pink, and now light gray instead of navy as the main color (and possibly some navy in smaller doses).  

While the final color scheme is technically still up in the air, we've picked up a few of the bigger items for the nursery:

The glider (it's the West Elm Graham glider in dove gray):

The crib (the classic Jenny Lind crib in white).  This was really a no-brainer because both Justin and I slept in Jenny Lind cribs when we were babies.  Cue the awwwws.

The dresser/changing table (the Hemnes dresser from Ikea) with new hardware and

with anne overlays painted in gold:

Here's a sneak peek of the overlays painted gold (as well as a few other items too).  I think I may have a gold spray painting addiction!  

And Justin painted some test swatches on the wall this weekend.  Spoiler alert, we've picked the color (BM Shoreline), but it's not one of the swatches painted on the wall in this picture!  I'll do a more detailed post with all of the colors we tried since I think it's so helpful to see paint swatches next to each other.

So that's pretty much all of the big picture things.  It's so exciting to pull this room together.  Now on to all the fun details!  

Home Tour: Front of House.

On to the next part of our home tour.  In case you missed them, you can check out the changes we made in the formal living room and the powder room.  Today I wanted to show you the small changes we made outside to the front of the house.  The changes weren't major, but I'm really glad we made them.

Up first, we replaced the lighting.  The lights that were up in the front of the house weren't overly offensive (like other items in the house), but we didn't love them.  Here's what we were dealing with (since I was a bad blogger and failed to take before pictures of the front, this is actually the same light by our back door -- we didn't replace that one): 

So not horrible, but just not something we liked.  Instead of keep something we didn't love, we contacted Bevolo Lighting in New Orleans because we've always loved the look of their copper lights.  I sent them pictures of the front of our house, and they recommended a few style options for us and the appropriate sizes (at no charge).  I wish all house decisions were that easy!  

Per their recommendation, we got two of the French Quarter lights to go on either side of the front door.     

(As an aside, I really hate the sego palms on either side of the door.  They need to be removed, but we are just waiting to figure out what to put there instead.  Suggestions welcome!)  But back to the pretty lights . . .

Aren't they just gorgeous?  All of the lights are handmade in New Orleans, and Bevolo's attention to detail really shows.  

I also loved that they suggested we mix 2 styles of lights.  For the column on the other side of the garage, which you can barely see from this picture, they suggested the Williamsburg light.

During one of our recent trips to New Orleans, we swung by the Bevolo store in the French Quarter.  You can go to the back and see them actually making the lights.  How cool is that?  The lights in the picture are the raw cooper fixtures before they are oxidized.         

Replacing the lights really did spruce up the front of the house -- even our neighbors noticed them.  But we also decided to paint the door a high gloss black (it was previously a dark stained brown).  After getting a shiny coat of black paint, the door was just calling out for a lion's head knocker (purchased here).
  

So that's it for the changes to the front of the house.  Nothing major, but just a few key things that jazz up the curb appeal.

      

Guest Bathrooms - Initial Thoughts.

We've decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and redo our upstairs bathrooms.  One of them is off the guest room, and the other is a jack-and-jill bath between two other bedrooms.  Neither one of them is totally offensive, but they certainly lack any style.  It also really bothers Justin that they used wall tile on the floor.  I likely would have never noticed, but I could see how someone could go slipping and sliding on them, if they weren't careful.

Since they are secondary bathrooms, I really want to keep the look neutral and timeless (and budget-friendly).  Based on the images I've been pinning, it's obvious I have a strong preference -- I am heavily leaning towards mostly white bathrooms bathed (no pun intended) in white subway tile.

I can't decide whether or not I like the look of the tile on the ceiling -- I've been waffling.  I do for sure like the look of the dark grout on the floor.

Bringing in a few hints of black could help break up the white.  I like the simple thin black trim in the shower here.  I'm not a huge fan of the dark fixtures -- seems a touch heavy for me, but some polished nickel would do the trick.

This bathroom still has the subway tile, but I am digging the dark floor and dark gray vanity.  (Maybe we do something like this in the guest bathroom; and something more along the lines of the others in the jack-and-jill?)

This shower a great way to keep an all white tile space interesting -- use different sizes of tile with some well-placed trim pieces.  I am really loving this look (and the fixture is fabulous too).

Speaking of fabulous fixtures, this bathroom is amazing.  White, black and brass -- yes, please!  Of course, our guest showers aren't that luxurious, but maybe we could do something similar.  I absolutely love this look.

We were supposed to go check out various tile options this past weekend, but poor Justin ended up with a stomach virus Friday night (complete with a trip to the ER for IV fluids).  We first thought it was food poisoning, but it was definitely a stomach virus because I caught it Sunday night.  I also ended up with my own trip to the ER.  Thankfully, Justin and I are both on the mend.  
          

But back to the guest bathrooms . . . Part of me thinks I should branch out from the white subway tiles since it's in our master shower and our kitchen backsplash, but it works so darn well.  I hate to mix up what I already know I like.  What do you think?  

Home Tour: Formal Living Room.

First up on the post-renovations home tour, I showed you our powder room.  Next up is the formal living room.  I also refer to this room as the "sitting room" because I tend to refer to our main TV room as the living room.  Regardless of what you call it, this room is currently my favorite room in the house for any number of reasons.

Just to set the stage here, when you are in the entry way, this room is directly to your right and the formal dining is to your left.  Since it's one of the very first things guests see when they come in, I wanted the room to make a statement.  I decided early on that I wanted to stretch my comfort zone a bit and go bold in this room.

This is a picture of the room from the real estate listing.  It may be bold in its own right for different reasons.  (Obviously, we have slightly different taste than the previous owners.)

We started with a blank slate (well, a yellow slate actually).  And here's how the room looks today.

One of the reasons why I love this room so much is because it came together so easily.  I didn't really have a vision for the room when I started (besides bold choices and mixed prints), which is different than I how normally decorate.  But for whatever reason, my lack of a plan totally worked in this room.

I knew right away I wanted jewel tones in the room.  Every time I considered something else, my mind went back to jewel tones.  Then one day, Justin and I were at High Fashion Home and they had furniture displayed in various mock-up rooms.  One of the rooms was fabulous with a deep teal color, and as soon as I saw it, I knew that was the perfect color for the space.  Thankfully, the employee knew what color it was (Benjamin Moore Stained Glass).  And that's how the wall color was chosen!

We had the Ethan Allen chairs that were in our old living room recovered in a neutral linen.  Since the walls are darker, I wanted the main furniture pieces to be lighter.  You can't tell from the pictures, but the chairs have a subtle pattern on them and tie in nicely with the couch, which is from Macy's.  I may recover the vintage ottomans (a craigslist find) at some point, but I am currently digging the rose pink.  I am also considering painting the lamps (a Homegoods find) that are sitting on the end tables (another craigslist find, blogged about here), but haven't been able to commit to a color quite yet.  In the meantime, the tan color is working just fine.  And see that awesome vintage brass pharmacy lamp?  I got 3 of them on craigslist for $25 total -- yes, all 3 for $25!  

The "brass" shelves are an Ikea hack that made its way around the blog world (i.e. the Vittsjo shelves spray painted gold).  It's probably not a great solution for something that's getting a lot of use, but these serve only one purpose: to look pretty.

The shelves hold all kinds of goodies.  Some highlights are my grandfather's books; Justin's grandfather's books; an antique print from a Paris trip; some other vintage finds, and of course, some Target gems.

It took us three tries, but we finally nailed the rug.  Surprisingly, this was really the only element in the room Justin had a strong opinion on.  He was definitely on board with the leopard, but he was pretty picky with the look of the leopard print.  Thankfully, he has excellent taste, and we found a carpet that we both loved and had them cut it to specific dimensions for the room.  It totally makes the room.

While I was taking pictures of the room, my two favorite helpers/modelers were assisting.

When we moved in, this room had no overhead lighting.  We added 4 recessed lights and a center fixture by Visual Comfort, which I have loved for a long time.  The overhead lighting makes such a huge difference in the space.

So, I think that's about it.  Did I miss anything?  One thing is for dang sure . . . this room has come along way from the floral couches it started with!