Holiday Decorating

I was never one to go all out for any holidays before, but for Halloween this year, I made an exception. This was mostly because I was having a party and wanted everything to look really festive. But I unfortunately didn't make the decision to decorate the way I did until a few days before, and I really underestimated how much work it would take! My friend and former roommate Liz has always loved Halloween and had a lot of decorations on hand that I borrowed, and she came over early in the afternoon of my party to help set everything up. Like I had said previously, my kitchen was finished just before I had the party. Here are some pictures of how the house was decorated:

 

I spent a few nights cutting out all the bats for the walls. It wasn't actually that bad. I got the idea for the cutouts here:

http://www.laurenconrad.com/post/tuesday-ten-eat-drink-and-be-scary-halloween-fall-party-ideas
and that will link to the site where the pattern is. They were my favorite decorations!

Here's some pictures of the living room:

 

I would've loved to decorate my patio, but if you remember, this was the day we got that crazy snowstorm!

 

Not so Halloween-y!!

I was really excited to put up my Christmas tree this year! For me, I need to wait until December to do so. I hate how it's Halloween and straight to Christmas in the stores. I like to wait until Thanksgiving is done and I'm mentally ready to start thinking Christmas. 

When I first moved out of my parent's house a few years ago, I didn't have a tree in my first apartment. I strung some lights and came home to my parent's house to decorate their tree. At my next place, my roommates and I put up a small tree and lights on our back porch. Then, when I moved out on my own again, I needed my own tree. I found one last year at Lowe's for $15! I grew up always having a fake tree, so it never crossed my mind to get a real one. I moved that one with me to my first house, and it's made me feel like it's really Christmas. 

 

My mom gave me some Christmas bears

  

This wreath is real and it smells great!

 

I got stockings for my cat (shut up!) and I at CVS - they were $3.99 and came with a glitter pen to write on them. Much better than the $15 I spent at the mall a few years ago to get personalized stockings for my dogs.

 

The biggest challenge of decorating is storing everything when it's not in use. Sometimes it gets overwhelming - I have a whole house and not enough space for everything. Once I have everything a bit more organized, this will be a lesser worry.

The kitchen

Hello! It's been some time since I posted. I finally had my housewarming party! It was so nice to have people over to see all the work that's happened on the house. I'll post pictures of the decorating that I did (it was a Halloween party as well) because I was really proud of everything.

The Halloween party was my deadline for getting done what I knew I wanted to - and that ended with the kitchen, because I've run out of ideas for the other rooms and need a break. I really like my kitchen. It's small, and let's face it, it's not really the room I spend the MOST time in, but I still wanted to make it special. When I moved in, the previous owners took the fridge with them. I bought a new stainless steel top freezer refrigerator. I really wanted a bottom freezer fridge, but, my parents made the point that I could replace the older existing dishwasher with a new stainless steel one, and get a new top freezer fridge, for the same price as a bottom freezer fridge. Decision made! Here they are, both Frigidaire from Lowe's:

My house was built in the 60's, and some of the decorating in the kitchen showed that - most notably the large range hood over the stove. I have a drop-in oven, and it's on what I'll call the "peninsula" (not really an island as it's attached to one wall) and as soon as I saw the place/knew I was moving in, the range hood was the first thing I wanted out of there:

  

Gorgeous, isn't it?! It wasn't functional, as it would vent heat upwards and release it from a vent right below the ceiling, so it wasn't needed. My dad found an electrician to remove it. I made the decision to also have the main ceiling light removed (there is also a fan/light above the table area, to the left of this picture) because I wanted track lighting installed. That would be all the light I needed. My dad and I ended up at Denney Electric in Ambler, where we found all the supplies for the track/pendant lights. I liked working with them, but we did encounter some problems with items not being in stock. They were really helpful, though, with replacing/returning things and getting items in when they said they would. Here's what was done:

 

I was SO impressed when I first saw it. I think it opens up the kitchen and makes it look a lot more modern. The range hood was bulky while this seems light and airy. And I have yet to hit my head on these lights like I kept doing with the range hood! The electrician also installed a dimmer switch which has been great - the lights can get pretty bright (especially the small halogen spot lights) so it's nice to be able to use the dimmer. (I also need to point out the blinds on the window! They're perfect for the space. There were curtains there before. I'm not going to go that route right now, I'm going to leave the blinds there).

Now as for color...the kitchen, as you can see, was a simple, light tan. That's no good! I'm all about color! And I love, love, love green. It's my favorite color to paint in rooms. The living room in my apartment was painted a light sage green so I thought that would be a perfect idea for the kitchen. Enter apartmenttherapy.com and pinterest.com - they brought lime green into my life! I had to try it. What else I had to install...chair rail. As I've walked in my block, a lot of the houses in my section have chair rail in their kitchens, and it looked so pleasing. Thanks to my dad it was an extremely easy thing to do. 

 

(pre-paint)

It really gives a nice, extra touch to the room and makes it look a little more polished.

Here is the final result:

 

I have to admit that I didn't like it AT ALL when I first saw it. My wonderful dad took an afternoon to paint while I was at work and I walked in and was really disappointed. The green was so...GREEN. But as the night went on, it really grew on me. I think it's really unique and it's turned out to be just what I wanted. The bottom part of the wall was also painted, even though the color is a bit similar to what was already there. 

Here's another view:

 

The entire wall around the window/back door is green. It didn't make sense to do the chair rail in such a small spot. 

My thought about the kitchen is that I hope people say "Wow, I wouldn't have though of that, but doesn't it look GREAT?!" rather than "Man, what was she thinking?!" I hope I accomplished that.

I'll update again soon with pictures of the Halloween decorations, the items I've used to decorate the kitchen normally, and my beautiful kitchen table!

My bedroom

Ah, how nice it's been having a half day today! I haven't taken any time off since I moved and it was great to get a lot done - running errands, cleaning, doing laundry. Sometimes I feel like I haven't really gotten time to enjoy my house because I'm away from it a lot. I find myself missing my apartment because it felt like home, but I know I need to give myself time to make my house feel like that too.

I had to make my bedroom feel exactly the way I wanted to - like me. Comfortable, sort of stylish, and, if I'm being honest, it's usually a little messy! The reason it took me so long to do this before & after was because I wasn't taking the time to give my room a nice cleaning. I finally folded and put away all the clean laundry and cleaned and dusted all the surfaces. It's not done-done yet, but I'm so happy with it.

Here's the before:

 

Nothing wrong with the color, just not my style!

Here's what it looks like now:

 

this picture I took with a flash so the colors look brighter - not sure where all the orbs came from. Maybe I have ghosts!

 

I LOVE my bedroom set and I'm obsessed with my bed! It's a Sealy pillowtop and I can't wait to climb in every night...and I really mean climb in, as it's really high off the ground! I looked around a bit and knew I wanted something that felt a bit more grown up than what I had before. I found this set at Raymour & Flanagan and the mattress is from there too.

 

I got the comforter at Target and the small orange pillows at Bed, Bath, & Beyond. Something about blue, gray, and orange I love - I've been on an orange kick lately and I really like the color. Not so much for clothes but for bedding, it's great! 

 

I found the flower pictures at Marshall's, I believe. I thought they'd be a little small but they look perfect above the bed. I didn't want anything with color to compete with the orange accents.

 

Here's my dresser. If I'm being honest, about half of my clothes are in there. You never realize how much you have until you have to move it and have your friends unpack it :) It was really obvious then that I have a lot of clothes. But I love them all! How can I try to get rid of anything?? The rest are in the extra bedroom or in the closet. One day I'll downsize.

 

Notice the ceiling fan? That wasn't there when I moved in and it was a great addition to the room. I haven't used it much because it got cold out pretty much as soon as it was installed, but I'm looking forward to the Spring when I use it a lot.

I love, love, love my bedroom. I love navy, I love gray, and it all came together so well. My dad was wonderful and painted some floating shelves for me that we'll install in the next couple weeks. Once that's done I'll post an update to show them off.

Downstairs bathroom

This, to me, is probably the least exciting room in my house. It's definitely the smallest! Here is what it looked like before:

 

It's pretty standard for a bathroom and there was nothing much I wanted to change besides the color. The paint in my bathroom at my apartment was sort of like the red in the tile floor, so I reused my red bathroom rug (which isn't in the pictures). I have some seashell pictures with the same red in them but I haven't made the decision if I want to hang them in there or not. It's so small I don't want the bathroom to be too crowded with stuff - stuff I only put in there because I needed a place for it. 

Here is what it looks like now:

 

I got the floating shelves at Kohl's and hung them ALL BY MYSELF which was a huge deal to me :) I put some things on the shelves, which may change. The first is a jar of seashells I add to every time I go to the beach and the second is a small candle with a shell on it. I was trying to keep with the seashell theme but if I don't end up hanging those pictures, those knick knacks might go. You can't really see it but I used an old basket I had hanging around for a trash can. It matches perfectly! I always am happy when I can use something I had lying around for a practical reason, rather than running out and buying something new.

The paint color is Valspar 1002-10B Painted Desert Sand. It reminds me of a chocolate milkshake. I helped paint a friend's nursery for their little girl over the summer and this looks like one of the colors we used. No wonder I liked it so much!

Eventually I'd like to replace the vanity in here...I wish it was the width of the room instead of having the space next to it. Maybe I'll replace the towel bar and toilet paper holder, but for now I'm ok with the ones that are there.

Upstairs bathroom

Before I moved I had a few ideas for colors, decorating, organization, etc. I've tried to put as many of them into play as possible but it's not always that easy. I was pretty lucky that my house was generally move-in ready. After helping my friends tear down wallpaper in their new house, I thought slapping some paint on the walls would be a breeze. I was half right!

This is what the bathroom looked like before:

This is an in progress picture (taken on the phone) that shows the old medicine cabinet:

And this is the final result:

 

I already had the brown shower curtain from my last apartment and I didn't want to get another one. I know they don't cost THAT much but in the interest of saving some sort of money, I wanted to keep it. I'm also a big fan of brown and I didn't think I could go wrong with a brown/pink combo.

This is the wall above the toilet. I found the small dress form hangers at Bed Bath & Beyond and I loved them at first sight. I had to have them and they had to be used in place of a towel rack. I could just hang my heavy towels behind the door and these would hold hand towels and the like...or so I thought. In the end these probably couldn't hold more than a necklace, so they became decorative. The plates (I know, random, plates in the bathroom) pulled the whole thing together. I found these years ago when helping my family clean out my Aunt Marge's house. My mom reminded me of them and they really complete the theme of the bathroom.

This picture, taken without a flash, shows the truest color of the walls. I'm trying to always use my brown towels in the bathroom. I have leftover blue guys from my very first apartment (a blue and brown bathroom...you see a brown theme?!) that usually get hung behind the door :)

 

I had to replace the medicine cabinet. I thought I might keep the old one and just paint it, but this one adds to the room and makes it look more modern. It was a great finishing touch.

We used Valspar 1002-1A Very Berry. We did NOT prime the walls before we painted and looking back, it was a big mistake! Two coats barely covered evenly and it would've looked a lot nicer with primer underneath. Oh well, ya live, ya learn!

I REALLY wish I could say this room is finished, but of course, it's not. There's still one thing I need to do, and that is paint the vanity cabinet. The white is a little dingy and a fresh coat of white paint will brighten it up. Eventually, I'd love to replace the vanity countertop (I need a bigger sink! and the color that is there is...ugly) and I would love a new bathtub/shower. You can't tell, but the "tile" on the walls in the shower is gray-ish with purple flowers and really, that will not fly. Someday...

Hope you enjoyed my first before and after post!

my first house!

Welp...I'm blogging! I thought this would be a great way to show off all the work I'm (and my dad) doing on my new house. MY house - how crazy! I'll post before and after pictures of the different rooms as I get everything done and any decorating ideas I might have. Happy browsing :)