Today I’m sharing a new space in our home with you! One that I actually haven’t shared any of before here on the blog. Our back porch! It’s a great space full of potential, one that I wasn’t sure if we were going to be tackling this year, but we are getting ready to get this project in full swing, and I wanted to share the design plan and all the before photos with you first!
Summer for us means spending most of our time outdoors, but that doesn’t stop me from making a few simple seasonal changes to the decor around our home. Summer brings to mind the feeling of keeping things light and breezy. Laid back days, windows open (when there is no humidity), and that warm summer breeze blowing through. I put together this simple summer vignette showcasing some of my favorite things about summer.
Last fall I shared a design plan post for I wanted to finish our primary bedroom refresh. I had started working on our bedroom last year, slowly making changes, but also being intentional with my choices as I carefully made decisions as to how I wanted our primary bedroom to feel. I’m calling this portion of the refresh “Phase 1”, as I still have much I would like to do to add character and details to our bedroom. And while I haven’t crossed everything off my list just yet, I wanted to share the progress with you so far. So here is phase one completed in our primary bedroom refresh.
Before there was Pinterest and blogs, if you wanted to see more images of beautiful homes beyond just the snapshots in magazines than you would turn to coffee table books. Recently on Instagram I shared how I had heard about a follower who would gift herself a new coffee table book every year for her birthday and I loved the idea so much I decided to adopt it for myself. I think the hardest part is choosing just one, but that is also the fun part of looking forward to what book to choose for the following year. I glean so much inspiration from coffee table books, that I wanted to share my favorite coffee table books with you as well!
This tutorial is long overdue, but what can I say. Life happens, things get put on the back burner, and then I completely forgot that I never actually shared the process with you all. I love breathing new life into old or hand-me-down pieces of furniture. While I am no professional it has always been something I have truly enjoyed. Something about the process of seeing a piece that is worn out and bringing it back to life. I have learned a lot over the past twenty years of sanding down furniture, and while I am no professional, there are a few simple steps that I go by. Determine if the piece you are refinishing is real wood or not (If it’s not real wood than save yourself the heartache and just paint it). In most cases using an electric sander almost always works better than furniture stripper when wanting to get down to raw wood. And lastly, don’t skip over the “buffing” step! You can see where that step is in the tutorial below. So without further delay I am finally sharing how I refinished this FaceBook Marketplace find.
The hutch in our dining room is one of my favorite places to add a few seasonal touches marking the beginning of a new season. Every Christmas it’s the first spot I decorate adding miniature houses and tiny bottle brush trees. After the holidays are over, I remove anything that feels too “christmas-y”, I wipe everything down and display my favorite serving pieces I’ve collected over the years. Then once spring arrives I’m ready to add some pops of greenery back into my hutch. It always adds a breath of fresh air back into our dining room, so today I’m sharing how I styled our hutch for spring.
This time of year I’m always itching to tackle home projects. Or as we refer to them in our house – winter projects. We have been cooped up inside all winter long, and spring is still a few weeks out, I love to get some projects done around our home that either add character or help refresh our spaces. So today I’m sharing some of my favorite home projects we’ve done in the past that could be tackled in a weekend, in case you are itching to do a home project as well!
At the start of the year I take some time to sit down and write out some goals that I have for the new year. This list includes personal goals that I have for myself, whether it’s incorporating something new into my routine, or an area in my life I want to work in like – be less distracted by social media and embrace more of what feels meaningful in my life. Learning a new skill like – make sourdough bread (I’ve been working on this one!), and of course projects for our house. Rather than making different lists for each category or area in my life, this ends up turning into more of a brain dump kind of session, but one that feels completely satisfying because it gets all of my goals out of my head and onto paper. I’ve already shared our recap from 2023, which you can read HERE if you missed it. Today I’m sharing my goals for 2024.
I hope your new year has been off to a great start. Whether you are fully submerged in chasing after those goals that you set at the beginning of the new year, or find yourself slowly trying to establish new habits, I hope that you able to savor some of the stillness that comes with the fresh start of a new year. Before I share my Goals post for this year, and what I’ve been working on, I wanted to share a little recap on 2023 and some encouragement for you!