insta-tile

I'm obsessed with these new photos on my fridge. We were at our neighbors house recently, and I spotted these tiles/photo magnets on her fridge. My neighbor, Leslie, is SO creative —separate post about her house coming soon! She's an art teacher and full of amazing ideas. Well, after 4+ days straight of rain on July 4th weekend, we started to get crafty. I completely copied her and got a bit carried away...

These are all of the ones I had left over, but I will find a home for them soon...

Here's how easy it was...
1. 4"x4" white tiles (I bought mine at Lowes but I'm sure you can buy these anywhere. They were only $0.16/each)
2. Take your camera to Walgreens. They print directly from your instagram photos.
3. Mod-podge the photos onto the tile
4. Use thick double-sided tape and put wherever your little heart desires.

I'm telling you I got a little carried away, but I love standing in the kitchen and showing calder all of her aunts and cousins and friends. That never gets old. We love looking at these fun memories and snapshots of good times we've had. Well you should definitely try this. You'll might love it so much you almost fill your entire room with these tiles! I almost did I swear.

Kitchen with Sarah Otts Painting!

I've been thinking that our kitchen needed a little punch of COLOR for a while. Don't get me wrong, an all-white kitchen was what I wanted and what I love, but it just needed some colorful artwork to tie it all together. I wasn't sure what to do with the wall space above the island extension, so I put a mirror there for the time being, and was reliant on flowers or bowl of fruit to add the "punch of color."



So, Sarah Otts to the rescue! Sarah custom designed this painting for this space, and it's just the amount of color I wanted. It's also the perfect use of color — these colors flow throughout our entire house and this painting could work well in any room in the house. She's one of my clients so we trade often. I do her website and blog design and she does some paintings for me. It's a wonderful business / best friendship / relationship we have going on. Love you Sarah!

She nailed it on this one, and every other painting she's done for me! Check out her amazing work on her website and on her blog.
 

And since my designer eye can't ever rest,  now on to the window treatment. I'm still marinating on this one and have been since we designed the kitchen in August 2012. My husband loves to say "Rome wasn't built in one day" (he heard my mom say that and can't stop reminding me. Thanks Mom!)...but,  I have taken that to heart. Sometimes you do have to live in a space for a while, to decide what it is that you want.
 

I'll blog about this soon and show you what I'm thinking for the window treatment. It always helps me to think out loud. And Calder loves to think out loud too, especially when she walks around the kitchen. Like Mother, Like daughter!

Our New Playroom

I feel like with children, you are always rearranging things around the house to make their play area better. It has to work on an everyday basis and not drive you crazy at the same time — which sometimes can be hard to accomplish!

In our house, the den is the best place for Calder's toys. It's right next to my office and the kitchen, and it's in the back of the house, so you don't see a big mess of toys right when you walk in the front door. Before, this side of the den had a round table in the center of the room that we used as a breakfast table. BUT, it was in the way of her toys and there wasn't much space for her to move around and play. See before pics below.

I've been wanting to do this for a while, but wasn't sure what kind of rug I wanted. I finally bit the bullet and bought this stripe rug from The Land of Nod. I just love it. I put a thick, comfy rug pad underneath, so it's super soft for knees. And with my mom's help and design expertise, we rearranged the furniture. Mom suggested we put the round table in the corner. At first, I thought this was a crazy idea, but she was right (aren't they always)!

We moved the chest to the corner of the den. You can see it now (to the left) in the picture below.

Calder loves playing with her kitchen and digging through her toy basket(s) here. She loves to take all of the toys out of the basket, and then put them back in. That is our latest fun activity!  Believe me, this basket is usually empty and toys take over the room. But, that's what the "PLAY" room is for. The more toys the merrier!

And I love the new view from the kitchen and my desk. Wow, what a difference this made in our playtime with Cader-bear!

Do more of what makes you happy

Ok. I just fell in love with this room. It doesn't hurt that I adore ping-pong and I'm pretty good at it if I say so myself. :) You see, ping-pong actually runs in the family. My mom designed a "ping-pong room" in our house and recently changed it to a kids playroom. Mom put lots of antique racquets on the wall (how I wish I had a picture now!), but I do love the way Urban Grace put these monochromatic ping pong paddles on the wall. See what Urban Grace had to say about it...

The second level of the Ultimate Beach House has two large areas for more entertaining… a Game Room and a Theater.  The Game Room (seen below) was deep enough for a large seating area and a ping pong table.  We tucked Lee Industries drum stools beneath the ping pong table so the table could be used for other games, or even as a secondary dining area for kids.

 The ping pong table was a custom design I whipped up in a total state of madness at the last minute, and I think it turned out alright, all things considered.  The seating area at the end of the Game Room has two large Lee Industries slipcovered sofas, a leather ottoman, and a wall of watercolor prints that surround the television.  The paintings on the left are by Michelle Armas, who I had the pleasure of meeting in person when Leigh Ann and I were in Atlanta a few months ago.

It’s hard to mix art in a large open space, but after finalizing the exact location of the ping pong table I had this idea to hang wooden handled sandpaper paddles on the wall.  It was a graphic detail that didn’t introduce any more color, but just made sense and added interest.  I drilled the holes in the paddles myself, thanks to Billy the trim carpenter for letting me borrow his drill, and lined them up easily thanks to the walls being paneled horizontally.  I painted the ping pong table in Pratt & Lambert’s Seed Pearl & April Mist, and the bases are Golden Green.

Someday, I want to do this to our living room. How much fun would that be?

Oh, wallpaper, wallpaper, wallpaper

I'm in love with wallpaper these days. One of my friends hosted a party a few weeks ago and I couldn't get over her adorable wet bar. Thanks so much Celeste for sending me these pics! I'm dying to wallpaper a small room in my house (maybe a bathroom or the foyer)—if I could ever get around to it. I love how she did the ceiling too. These pics don't do it justice but hopefully you get the idea.

 

And here's a bathroom my mom did for a client in Virginia recently. I just LOVE this.

Wallpaper is Cowtan and Tout, Sevigney

Here are some other spaces that inspire me. There is definitely a bathroom theme going on...

I also these love rooms that experimented with wallpaper outside the BR!

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{all pics via celeste wildberger thomas, susan lesourd interiors and pinterest}

That's it for now. I'm nursing a cold from a long weekend in the Monteagle mountains but it was totally worth it. Such a beautiful, sentimental and FUN wedding celebrating one of my favorite couples in the world. See my post about Mar (now MAH!) here. Truly an "epic weekend" in the words of Abbey Mitchell. Congrats Mary Allyn and Stephen! I love y'all!!

XOXO

Atchison Home - will work for furniture

One of the fun things about my job is bartering; however, I rarely barter these days for obvious reasons—I work to help pay the bills! BUT, when my friend and occasional tennis partner (and now client) Taylor Atchison, asked me to design their new Atchison Home logo, I had to make an exception.

Atchison's is probably my favorite home store in the state of Alabama—and maybe the entire southeast for that matter. Seriously.  It's that great. I love to wander around their THREE-story shop and drool. Problem is, my budget doesn't usually (or ever) allow me to shop there, so bartering would be my only hope to owning a real "big-girl antique" Atchison's piece!

We've been working on several design projects, but the first one we conquered was the branding. They're changing their name from "Atchison Imports" to "Atchison Home," so they needed a new logo. They wanted to keep the same overall look of the Atchison Imports logo—it just needed some updating and freshening up. I also created a web version of the logo, since the square design didn't fit well with the new website. 

And here's a sneak peek of the new website (AtchisonHome.com) which is COMING SOON! Get ready, you'll be able to shop online and see everything that's in the store, online. This is going to be so exciting for them AND for anyone who lives too far away to visit! For now, you can visit their current website. I'll keep you posted once they launch the new site!

So...I brought my design team with me the other Saturday to walk through the store and help me select a piece of furniture. I've visited several times over the past few months and just couldn't decide—so I needed another set of eyes.

When I saw this beautiful armoire upstairs I knew it was perfect for our space. I immediately fell in love.

And here's how it looks in it's new home.

love the detail.

I took our old armoire (see post here) to a local furniture consignment store (High Cotton) because we didn't have room for it. It surprisingly made me sad to see it go. I loved that little piece—especially after I painted it—but this is something we'll have forever.

Gotta love a good barter!
 

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! HOTTY TODDY! I'm sure we'll get killed by Bama this weekend, but if you're an Ole Miss fan, you're used to losing so it isn't a big shocker!