Details Make a House a Home

It has been 3 weeks since we got the keys to our house! It has been full of lots of projects, hard work, and nothing but joy in all of it! For those of you who didn't read it, I posted some of my inspirations and ideas a few weeks ago of projects I wanted to do. http://biggestlittleblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/happiest-friday.html

I love details; I feel like all the details are what make a house a home. Personalized touches that make your house uniquely yours. I just wanted to share with you some of my favorite details in my new home!!!

My entry way! I have always wanted a cozy and inviting entry way. I blogged about a picture that inspired this in the link above. The shelf in the original picture was pottery barn and hundreds of dollars! Instead, we went to home depot and got 2, 6 foot long boards, molding for the edges, white paint and hooks. We built the whole shelf for under $30! I still want to play with decor for it, but I love the shelf and its super sturdy so all my guests can hang their coats and purses with no fear of falling! The bench will be perfect for little feet one day; walk in, take off shoes and coats...kind of like an entry way/mud room idea.

My dining room is one of the rooms that is uniquely our style, and not for everyone. We had a good friend who is an artist come and mimic Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc pig on our wall. For two foodies, we LOVE our dining room. If nothing else, it has become quite a conversation piece when people come over.



I love our family picture wall down our hallway. I have pictures of us both as babies, our families, travel we have done, etc. It is full of all the people we love and tons of memories. Eventually, I want the pictures to cover the entire wall.

I adore how my office turned out. I work from home so I wanted an office that was going to be calming and comfortable. We have this cute nook that had a built in desk and shelves so we painted the whole thing white to lighten it up. I love butterflies, (http://biggestlittleblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/rainbows-and-butterflies.html) and my sister sent me some beautiful prints she took that I framed and hung up. We took some puddy, and added three coats to flatten the wall from texture. I then painted three coats of chalk board paint over it. We then took some molding, painted it white, and framed the whole area out. I love my chalk board, I think its useful but also adds a lot of character.

What are some of your favorite details of your home?



Happiest Friday

Buying a house=no fun. Closing on your house=so much fun! 

We get the keys to our house next week after the longest year long process in finding and finalizing everything. We went the short sale route and if you have a good living situation and can wait it out, it can be worth the wait...however, be prepared to wait. 

Now that we are closing I am getting so excited with projects and furniture and cannot wait to get in and start doing stuff. 

I have a beautiful entry way wall like this and I found this picture on pintrest as my inspiration. I found a bench last weekend in my shopping adventure, it is wood and long like the above expect it is deep and the seat part opens to put umbrellas or scarves in. I love the idea of having an entry way bench so when I walk in the door i can take my shoes off, hang up my purse, etc. For the shelf, my mother in law took me to home depot and we bought 2 six foot long boards that we are going to paint and then put a decorative molding on. We also founds some really cute hooks like the ones in this picture to hang on it. I will take pictures of this project and post later for you all to see! 

Here is another pintrest inspiration. The house has a beautiful build in desk like the above, expect bigger. Since I work from home, my desk needs to be a very calming and inspiring place that I enjoy being in. Right now the desk has just regular stock cabinets and three walls. I want to paint it all white like the above and paint and frame in a chalk board on one of the walls. Again, I will post more on this project as I do it! 

Here are some of my recent and exciting purchases from last weekend! 

I got an Ethan Allen accent chair! This was originally a $1550 chair that I got on sale for $325! I couldn't even find a target or world market chair this nice for under $325.

My target guest bathroom shower curtain. I got the teal one and I will pair with white towels, white bath mat and white accessories. My mother in law got me a beautiful teal bowel for the counter to match the curtain and pull more teal in. I want a teal trash can too.

We have a pretty huge living room and a big sectional so when I stumbled upon this over sized coffee table it was love at first sight. I got the coffee table, end table and matching buffet for my living room. they are big and solid and I can't wait to put in my new house. 

We close next week and I am just over the moon excited. I feel very blessed and lucky. Thank you in advance for all my family and friends who are helping us.