Chandelier Input Needed.

I need some advice on which chandelier to go with in the dining room. I think part of my problem is that I am not used to the pearson chandelier, so it still looks different/off to me. What do you think?

Here is the chandelier we originally purchased for the dining room:


Here is the new pearson chandelier:


I know I will need to get rid of the lamps on the buffet because it looks to "shady" with the 3 big drum shades in that room. And that is totally fine, I think the lamps will look perfect in our bedroom (with their original white shades). Maybe something like this below without the big lamps. Sorry for the poor lighting (clicking on the picture makes it a little easier to see).


Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Guild Shop Chandelier.

Remember the chandelier from the Guild Shop I previously blogged about here and here?  Justin hung it this weekend!  I originally was going to hang it in our entry way, but after thinking about it some more, decided there may be better places where it would be more visible.  So we cruised around the house looking for other options.  Justin actually came up with the idea to hang it where we did.  And he was totally right -- he's a keeper!  He hung it on our second floor in the little area between our kitchen and dining room (and right outside of the powder room).  Here's the view of it as you get on the second floor.

I love the touch of glam it adds to an otherwise boring hallway.  In case you're curious, that archway over there to the left is where the powder room is.

This is the view from the opposite direction looking into the dining and living room from the kitchen.  If you look closely you can see Justin lounging in the living room admiring his handiwork.  (It's like a game of Where's Waldo without the red stripes and glasses!)  And for the record, our kitchen is not sherbet green -- the lighting wasn't ideal.

We ended up just replacing the candle covers and adding some more crystal prisms (there were quite a few missing).   There's now a mix of the old crystals and new ones, but since I was able to find nearly identical crystals online, you can't tell the difference.

{Side note: see those flowers in the background by the mirror?  I recently went to the dentist to get my first-ever cavity filled and was pretty nervous thanks to a terrible wisdom teeth removal experience.  Justin had a gorgeous bouquet of tulips, hydrangeas, roses and lilies delivered to my office before I went to help calm my nerves.  Super sweet!} 

But back to the chandy . . . as Justin said, "it's pretty baller to have a chandelier in your hallway."  And I couldn't agree more! 

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Chandelier.

I have been looking for a mini-chandelier to put over our bathtub when we finally get some free time to do some minor renovations.

I came across this beauty tonight:


You've gotta be kidding me! As if the seahorses were not hideous enough on their own, check out the awful lampshades. Did a kindergartner paint those? And then it is like the designer thought the few crystals at the bottom would class it up. Simply amazing. This beauty can be yours for $1,199.91.

I did find the one below that I really like. It is not quite as colorful and expensive as the lovely seahorse chandelier, but it is a touch more glamorous, which is the look I was going for.

Home Tour: Powder Room.

Yikes.  It's been a while (thanks for your frequent reminders, mom and Ellen).  But let's ignore that and focus instead on the fact that I am finally getting around to showing you our powder room.  Who doesn't love a good before and after?

Basically, the before was a massive snooze-fest.  Complete with a bad brass and chrome faucet, a claw-like light fixture, pale yellow walls, two toilet paper holders (why?), and a toilet and sink that were undersized.  Needless to say, this room didn't do anything for us and needed some major help.   

     

And here's the after!  Bye bye snooze fest, hello gorgeous (if I do say so myself). 

Absolutely nothing from the old powder room stayed.  I'm all for re-using what we could, but in here, there was nothing worth even working with.  I knew right off the bat I wanted to do some bold wallpaper in this room.  If you can't be bold in the powder room, where can you?    

And for some detail shots . . .

My mom bought this vintage mirror and it was exactly what I was looking for.  She was sweet enough to let me have it for the space.  I love the detailing on the frame and the contrast the dark frame provides in the space. 

The light fixture proved to be more difficult than I thought it should have been.  Probably because I kept envisioning sconces in the space (that wouldn't fit) or a chandelier (which would require us to re-wire).  I also wanted to add a touch of brass in this room via the light, but wanted to keep it simple.  At the end of the day (and lots of searching), this fixture fit the bill. 

I struggled with what to put on the walls for two reasons:  (1) I didn't want anything to compete with the wallpaper; and (2) I was scared to put a hole in the beautiful paper.  I'm happy with my choice to go with simple black frame (that works with the mirror), which has a large white mat to provide some separation between the picture and the wallpaper (and only required 1 tiny hole).  Win, win, win!  The picture itself is one we took of a street in Paris right by one of the hotels we stayed in.    

As a bonus, here's a before shot of the hall that leads to the laundry room and garage with the powder room off of it (the door on the right). 

And here's the after.   You can't tell from the photos, but the wood floor and the handrail were all stained a darker, richer color.  And we replace the ceramic tile in the powder room with some fun black and white mosaic tile.  We still need to paint the laundry room, but that's a subject for a different post.

Oh!  And we added the chandelier in the hallway.  I mean, why not?  Since we didn't want to redo the electrical to put it in the powder room, we did the next best thing . . . we put it right outside the door.  It's actually perfect there.  I love the way it totally glams up the hallway.  Some things just work out.  (In case anyone's curious, the wall color is Benjamin Moore Silver Chain.)

If it's something that would be helpful, I will do a post with the sources.  So what do you think?  Much better, right?        

Kitchen Crush.

I was recently cruising around decorpad and came across a stunning kitchen that was just too good not to share.  It has such a classic sophisticated vintage vibe to it.       

(photos: decorpad)

After seeing those pictures, I really wanted a more straight on picture so I could get more of that awesome chandelier action I saw teasing me in the first couple of pictures.  I hunted around decorpad to no avail and then came across it via my mad googling skills at House of Turquoise.

Here she is in all of her glory.

(photo: house of turquoise)

Wow.  Simple, yet so beautiful.

A few of my favorite parts of the room are the windows, the cabinet color (of course), the hidden appliances, the gold on the stove, the farmhouse sink, the cararra marble, the green crown molding, the faucet, the chandelier (obviously), and the suzani rug.

What's your favorite part?

P.S.  I'm currently in Cincinnati for work.  How can it be 90 degrees here?  I thought I would head north and enjoy some cooler temps!  But on the bright side, at least the humidity is extremely low.  And when I got back to my hotel room tonight (after eating a tasty steak dinner), I had a chocolate chip cookie waiting for me on my nightstand!  

Breakfast Room Light.

I just realized that I hadn't posted updated pictures of our breakfast room with the Calias chandelier from Z Gallerie.  It's been hung for quite some time, but I just thought about it because I sold our previous light fixture on craigslist this past week.  The new chandelier brings just the right amount of glam to the breakfast room!

 

Also, I'm in the market for a new centerpiece for the table.  Any ideas?  I don't want anything too crazy, but I need something a little more substantial.

Kitchen Lighting.

So I have been drooling over the Calais chandelier from Z Gallerie for quite some time now.  We were originally considering it for our sitting room off the master, but we were concerned it would hang too low.  Not one to be deterred, I convinced Justin to try it out in the kitchen.

It's not completely hung yet (we were just testing it out to see how it would look in the space).

The close up:

And what was there before:

What do you think?  The glass chandelier or the pendant?

Chandelier Love.

Recently, I have been eyeing Restoration Hardware's Pearson chandelier:

I love its simplicity plus the little bit of glam with the crystal at the bottom.

I pulled up the webpage about 10 times on Saturday to ogle it. Then, we went to a client's house for dinner that night and she had it in her dining room. I pretty sure that means it's meant to be, doesn't it?

Happy Birthday, Riley.

This weekend we got a bunch of things accomplished around the house.  We picked a paint color for the nursery, assembled the dresser in the nursery, revamped a vintage chandelier, reorganized my closet, and a bunch of other things (more on all of those things later).  But the most important thing we did was celebrate Riley's 9th birthday.

After our sweet Riley was so very sick last year on his birthday, I knew I wanted to make this year extra special since last year I wasn't so sure he would make it.  So he got tons of extra snuggles today, we went on a walk, and he (and Zoey) got to enjoy homemade doggie cupcakes.

Riley's cupcake eating style is to delicately lick the icing off first, then devour the entire cake portion in one bite.

And because they both were being extra photogenic this weekend, I can't resist sharing two more pictures of the two of them riding in the back of the car and sunning by the backdoor.

I am totally biased, but aren't they just heart-melters?  Hope you guys had a great weekend!  

Craigslist Loot.

I mentioned in my last post that I scored some cool finds on Craigslist last week.  But pics or it didn't happen, right?

First up . . .  a sweet pair of end tables.

Yes, I realize this picture doesn't include the pair, but, take my word for it, the other one is exactly the same.  They are flanking our couch in our formal living room.  And while we're on the subject of the formal living room, the whole room is coming together!  I'll share my design plan for the room with you shortly (let's just say it involves leopard, floral, dark teal, and brass).

Next up . . .  the matching bad ass (sorry, that's the most fitting term for it) credenza.  The piece is in amazing condition and deserves some fabulous styling.  I really hate that the light switch is smack dab in the middle of that dang wall.  It really puts a cramp in my style.   

Look how pretty she'll look when she's all dressed up.

(photo: design crisis, which is a great blog, btdubs)

But that's not it . . . I also found a vintage chandelier from 1913.  The coolest part about it is that it was from a landmark hotel in town.  As of right now, the plan is to hang it in the master bathroom.   

And last but not least . . . I found a pair of nightstands for our guest room at an estate sale in the neighborhood.  P.S. Could this room be any more boring?  You can kind of see a tiny sneak peek at the color I'm painting the room in the upper right corner (it's Wild Aster by Benjamin Moore).       

So even though they are in no way styled, I'm super excited about these pieces!  And a shout out to my wonderful husband who is the one that has to do all the heavy lifting (literally) when I find something on CL that I can't live without.

5 things . . .

We are in the process of finally getting our official office set up at home, which means it will be tons easier for me to edit real pictures (as compared to the "fake" ones from my iphone).  In the meantime, here are 5 random things:  

(1)  This video of Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum on Jimmy Kimmel after the Oscars is freaking hilarious.  Justin and I have been singing the song for the past week.  It's so catchy.  Oh, and watching Channing at the end isn't bad either. 

(2)  When searching the interwebs today for a mint green paint color, I some how stumbled on this amazing baby mobile.  I have no need for a baby mobile at this point, but if and when we get pregnant, this may be the first purchase I make.  She has all kinds of different breeds, but of course I'm partial to this one.  Riley and Zoey are in favor too!     

(here)

(3) We are going to New Orleans soon and a trip to Leotine Linens is definitely in order.  I won't be able to afford anything, but I can drool at all the eye candy anyway.  

Source: leontinelinens.com via Emily on Pinterest

(4)  This amazeballs print from Black Crow Studios is totally happening in our dining room.  I can't wait to have it stretched so we can get it up on the wall.    

(5) I have found some incredible things from Craigslist and a nearby estate sale.  I'll have a post with pictures of my finds, which include end tables, nightstands, a buffet, and a vintage chandelier.  Thank you, Craigslist!   

Hope y'all had a wonderful weekend! 

5 things . . .

I know it's been too long, but I have to pop in to share 5 things about Justin in honor of his birthday today.  I can't have a blog and not even mention my husband's birthday!

 
(1)  He puts up with all of my shenanigans.  He listens to me talk about work, he approves leopard carpet for my closet and an ostrich in the entry way, he pretends to care when I show him pins on pinterest, he looks at the million craigslist links I send him, and even pays attention when I talk about design.  He used the word ikat the other day (and he even pronounced it correctly too).  Impressive.    

(2)  He can hang a chandelier like it's no one's business.  It must be all the practice I've given him over the years.  But regardless, he's good.  (And this year, he's proven his mad skills at hanging Christmas lights at our new house.)     

(3)  He works hard and is great at what he does (even if he is an IT nerd).  I'm proud of what a hard worker he is and how good of a job he does for his company.  And it's always an added bonus that he can fix my computer problems!      

(4)  He cracks me up. all.the.time.  There is not a day that goes by that he doesn't make me laugh.     

(5)  He's the kindest and most patient person I know.  Which is good, since frankly, I am generally neither.  Obviously, I love my husband.  But I also like him a lot too.  And respect and admire him. 

He deserves to be celebrated every day, but especially today.  Happy birthday, Justin!  I love you. 

Homeowners!

We're officially homeowners again!  We closed remotely, as previously discussed here.  Thankfully, our lender moved our paperwork to the front of the line and was able to get it all to the title company in record time so we could sign the docs before we headed out of town (and we would just have to fund the following day).  The only hiccup was that the sellers' paperwork was delayed because they were sailing off the coast of Florida and tropical storm Debby slowed down FedEx's delivery schedule.

But despite all of that, we closed and picked up the keys to our new house from our realtor on our way home from the airport!

(if we look excited but tired, we were.  we had been up since 4:45 am to catch our 7:05 flight!)

Of course we've been spending lots of time at the house.  Here's some iPhone shots from around our new digs.

Zoey's just chilling in the middle of the living room.

I love our huge crepe myrtles.  You can't really tell from the picture, but the flowers are pink and so pretty.  Not to mention the trees add such great privacy in our back yard.

Justin holding up our new entry way chandelier for size.  When you see the old one, you can understand why I was in such a hurry to find a new one!  

For those of you who are wondering, we've officially decided to go with white marble.  And don't worry, we will also be replacing those sweet cabinet handles. 

Justin was honing his MacGyver-skills and rigged up the hose to drain out our fountain, which is in desperate need of good cleaning. 

And my favorite of them all . . . sweet Riley and Zoey peeking out the backdoor.  

And I have to give a shout out to two sweet bloggers who I met up with this weekend.  First, Elz picked me up some amazing chocolate and almond croissants at the new Trader Joe's.  I knew we'd get along just fine when I discovered she was also addicted to TJ's mini peanut butter cups.     

Then I went over to Megan's house from Honey We're Home to check out her white marble counters.  It was so thoughtful of her to let us come check them out so we could see how they've worn before we made a decision.  Yippee for sweet friends met through the blogosphere! 

Hope your week is going well and you're ready for the 4th!