New Fabrics: Check!

While looking for pillows, of course I made the usual rounds on Etsy. I respect people's craft, and the fact that they're trying to make a living. That being said, if you can sew yourself (or have a family member who can) it's much more cost effective to make them yourselves. I used Etsy and some design blogs for fabric inspiration, and came up with these three. What do you think?

Premier Prints- Chipper Twill
this will go vertical instead of horizontal

Premier Prints- Zoom Zoom River Rock

Premier Prints- Gotcha Twill

At $7.50/yd they were a great deal. Fabric.com is my #1 stop for purchasing fabric online. Definitely check out their selection if you're in the market for some fabrics.

First post on this topic

Pillows For Our New Place

Although we'll only be in this condo for 6 months, I still want to make it feel like home. It's important not to break the bank, since there's no telling what the style of our next place will be like. Our home in Nashville was pretty traditional, I used a lot of red/blue/and white to accent our open living and dining area. We mixed up our furniture a little bit, by using our bonus room furniture as the main pieces in our living room. The brown sectional is modern and fits the space nicely, and we're also using our leaning bookshelves.

our sectional-- picture from Rooms 2 Go website

our shelves-- but we use them separate on both sides of the TV

In the essence of saving money, I've attempted to use our more modern accessories and decorative accents. I loved the pillows that we had in our bonus room, but the colors are too deep and saturated for our current living space. I've decided to make some on my own (and recover the bar stools which are nearby). We have white walls with dark cabinets and dark hardwood floors, so I'm going to try and stick with a modern, neutral palette-- maybe even adding some pops of metallic. Here's some of my inspiration fabric-- what do you think?

all product links can be found at http://pinterest.com/missse06/denver-condo/

Early Fall Decorating

I'm always excited for the approach of a new season!  As the nights have gotten cooler, I acquired the itch to start decorating for the upcoming autumn season! We had a blast this summer, with so many fun memories, but I'm looking forward to everything ahead of us this fall. Football, cider, and crock pot meals await & my house needed a little sprucing up. 

During summer, our great room (living/dining/kitchen) is decorated in shades of white, red, and blue-- with an almost coastal motif. Now I've swapped out the red and blue, and added in bits of warm neutrals and browns. There's even a couple pops of orange (we're Georgia fans- it's hard to add orange to a room!).

Sometimes our mantle can look so stark, even with decor on the ledge. After seeing an image on Pinterest, I decided I could easily do some DIY bunting myself.  The bunting was super easy to make and cost relatively nothing, since I purchased the fabric in the remnants section of Joann's. It really warms up the space and gives a fun pop of whimsy! 

Here's an image of our mantle.  

Please disregard husband's sub woofer, sub woofer cord, and enormous surround sound box.

Close up of the fabric, sage ticking stripe (used sideways) and neutral paisley. Strung with brown string. Wicker pumpkin purchased new from Joann's. Pumpkin people are a college-house gift from my mom. 

Clock from summer clearance at Kohl's, carafe and poppy bouquet from Joann's. 

Have you spruced up your house for fall? I'd love to see some of your decor. Post your link!

Before and After: Part II Master Bedroom

It was a close call- but master bedroom won the contest with 6 votes, followed by kitchen with 5. I'm sorry to say this, but the before and after will be less than life-changing. Since we just moved in last Monday, there's still some decorating that needs to be done. But you can definitely see the main idea!

Here's the before of our master bedroom. Lovely plantation blinds and tray ceilings. But beige, beige, beige. The ceilings and the walls were painted the same color, which made it all feel like a closed in beige box. Yucko!

{Please excuse the chair and dresser in its' box}

We decided to paint this room a calming shade of grey-blue (Rhino by Behr), which really made the white trim pop. Also- our painter suggested that we do something with the Rhino on our ceiling. He ended up painting the vertical part of the tray Rhino as well, with white on the other parts. Our brown-black furniture pairs perfectly with the light gray walls, and my mom bought me the West Elm bedding as a birthday present.

The TV will be hung on the wall, and we'll display photos in black gallery frames with white mats. Don't worry- I'll post pictures when it's 100% done. But I know you all were excited to see even a little bit of the new place!

This is the bed we wanted to buy, but couldn't fit it in our car with all the other Ikea goodies we picked up! Click "goodies" to see a source list for all the new things in our bedroom.

We love our master bedroom, and I've been sleeping so well since we moved in. What do you think of this "after"?

*see my previous post for specific paint codes*

The MIA SE's

Sorry I've been somewhat MIA lately. I had a super busy weekend, starting with both a bachelorette and shower for this lovely lady. Don't worry, I have lots of pictures to post later. But I will say it involved a little of this:

Mr. SE and I have been awfully busy with something outside of the wedding world. I've been hesitant to post because I didn't want to jinx anything. But on Monday morning we were here, buying this.

The SE's are now homeowners! I'll take my tax credit now, thanks. We're currently having the house painted, and we'll be moving over the next week. And for my Nashville ladies- I will be hosting a cookout sometime soon!

Closet Dreaming

If you follow me on twitter, you already know that our offer was accepted on the house. Friends, Mr. SE and I are going to be homeowners very soon! While the house is in great condition (according to our inspector), there's still some cosmetic changes that we'd like to make. This weekend you might just find us at the local Lowe's. Ps- it's way better than Home Depot. Oddly enough, the previous homeowners took all wire racks out of the closets. Problem? No. Opportunity? Yes!

Here's some closets I'm dreaming of....

Does anybody else get super excited at the chance to re-organize their things? The beginning of a season is a great time to take inventory of what you have, so you know what to shop for. Loves it!

New House, New Furniture

I'm home from work today because of this nasty bronchitis I can't seem to kick. I finally got a good night sleep, after we returned from the ER after midnight. So now I have an inhaler, cough syrup w/codine, steroids, and antibiotics. Holy Moses. I would rather heal by body naturally, but that just wasn't cutting it these past couple weeks. The frustrating part is that this happened just when I started my new job. It's a temporary assignment, and I'd really like to impress the department so they'll keep me on permanently after my assignment (3 months) is up. Hopefully this day of rest will help me recuperate and put me back on track...That's all for the recap of my ailments... Onto more pleasant things, like dreaming of decorating our new home. As you know, we purchased the Hemnes 8 drawer dresser for our bedroom. The master in the new house is larger, and I'd like to add another piece of furniture to our collection. This smaller dresser plus super chic mirror, is another item of the Hemnes collection. On the other hand, I'd like to put a large decorative mirror over the dresser that we already have and add a luxuriously large wardrobe to our room.

Ballard Designs

Y'all, I received the best catalogue EVER in the mail yesterday. Ballard designs. I mean, it seriously kicked Pottery Barn's butt. Granted, the prices aren't in my budget, they're definitely a lot cheaper than the latter. Every time I turned the page there was something else I started to lust over. Here's some of my favorites.

PB Basic Armchair: Basic?!?!

I want this chair. Why is it so expensive? I hate you Pottery Barn. I'm sorry, I meant I love you. But seriously, I hate you.

Palomas Nest

I'll go ahead and jump on the Paloma's Nest bandwagon. Mr. SE and I must have one of these for our ceremony. Because it will be Catholic (more on that later), the Deacon will bless our rings. This would be the perfect vessel for that!

And for after the wedding? This would look darling on a vanity (earrings or change), or next to a sink (ring bowl). At this price, I think we'll take one for every bathroom. What's your favorite Etsy find so far?
How darling is this "home" bowl? It would be perfect for a housewarming gift!

Vegetables, Finally!

Our microwave broke a while back, and GE wanted $75 to fix it. Excuse me, sir? I believe that's close to the price of a new one! Yesterday I hopped over to Target and picked up this little beauty (by Emerson). It was $85 and completely covered with graduation gift cards thankyouverymuch.

Now you know I have a penchant for Lean Cuisine Pizzas, but what you didn't know is that I LOVE VEGGIES! Last night I ate the most delicious bowl of Bird's Eye green bean steamers. Happy as a clam.

Nightstand Conundrum

Can I please have some advice for a nightstand? Mr. SE has a super thick mattress, so it's hard to find a stand high enough. There's a decorator's table on his side of the bed, but we're stumped on what to do with mine. I can't believe how expensive the tables from Target are..."shocking!"

500 bonus points if you immediately thought of Elf

Chambre au Mr. and Miss SE

{muscleicious handyman for hire}

Mr. SE was such a fantastical boyfriend last night and put together our WHOLE Hemnes dresser! What a man! The dresser is enormous and came in two flat boxes. Read: lots of work on the consumer's part. Oh well, that's what makes Ikea so cheap and fabulous! So we started around 7pm watching the Bachelorette (obviously) and organizing the pieces of the dresser. We finished the dresser while watching 2 hours of Bachelorette and 1 hour of Meet the Newlyweds (and one large pizza from Papa John's).
The inside of the drawers are lined with cute yellow stripes. It really brightens up the black/brown exterior. This is Mr. SE around 10:30- so close to being done!!!
And here's the finished product in our room!!! I looks like it cost way more, and we're really excited about the end results. We may or may not be purchasing a flat screen for over the dresser- still deciding on that one. As for our nick nacks, some of those will be moving to other locations once we get more established in the apartment. The Eiffel Tower picture? Yea, I took it! What do you think about the finished look?

Weekend Update

Mr. SE and I arrived back in TN late last night. The wedding was a lot of fun, and we're glad we got to spend time with Mr. SE's parents. On Sunday we went to Ikea with FMIL SE and made out like bandits- as usual. I go into Ikea wanting one particular item and leave $500 poorer.

Anywho, here's the breakdown of what we picked up. I'll be sure to pictures of them in use once we put them together.

HEMNES MIRROR
We're going to be hanging this little beauty over the dining room table

HEMNES DRESSER
This will go in our room. Maybe soon we'll be adding a little TV on top of this lovely dresser.
ORGEL VRETEN LAMP
This is going in the corner of our room- eventually. Right now it's hanging out by the door.

Organize.com

I love this website. Granted I've actually never ordered anything- BUT I have been stalking for awhile. They have great decor inspiration for the Type A in us all. There's also a great blog {Mrs. Organized} that showcases tips and inspiration daily. As if the site wasn't sweet enough, there's a wedding section where you can pick up super cute gifts for the uber organized bride. Or maybe just a bride that you think should be more organized! My current obsession is this wine rack.
Such a fantastic use of space- love it!!!Do you have a home decor/inspiration site that you can't live without?

Curtains: Part II

Okay, here's the curtain pictures. As I shared before, Mr. SE and I decided on the double rod with thick curtains in front and sheers in the back. We like to keep the sheers closed during the day, and the curtains to the side. At night we like the look of them both closed. The brown sheers are great because they let in just the right amount of daytime light.

Sheers and curtains closed.
Curtains w/matching pillows. Thankyouverymuch. We found these pillows at Bed Bath & Beyond with the same material and colors. Love it!

Getting Blackout

This isn't about my obsession with Sauvignon Blanc. It's about our bedroom curtains- and a little tidbit I thought you decorating divas might be interested in. We previously purchased some cheapo drapes for Mr. SE's bachelor pad bedroom. But now that we'll be sleeping there together (and we're next to the apartment complex entrance), I wanted to purchase something nicer. Blackout curtains have always seemed like such a fantastic fantasy to me- especially with my migraines. I'm sure Mr. SE will be pumped that I won't be sporting any more eye masks while sleeping. The curtains I purchased claim to block 90% of light and a large amount of noise. Sign me up!!!!

First I went to Bed Bath & Beyond. Can I just say that I have an aggressive love affair with this store?! I picked up these Eclipse panels for $29.99 each. Obviously I had my 20% coupons on hand. I also had some things to pick up at Walmart, so I decided to check out their curtain situation. Walmart had some blackout curtains at a much better price, $14.97 per panel thankyouverymuch. Although the price was more appealing, I was concerned about the quality versus my BB&B lovelies. Which panel do you think is more expensive?

{the one on the right is my cheapo find}
Hooray!!!

Table a Deux

Here's some pictures from my special project! I spent the week leading up to graduation refinishing my kitchen table, chairs, and bench. As seen in my previous post, this Pottery Barn table was my inspiration. What I thought would be a quick little project, ended up taking much longer than I thought. BUT- the final outcome was beautiful and I'm so proud of my first refinishing project. Here's a before picture, along with what the table looks like right now. Since we're in day 2 of moving, there's still a lot of STUFF everywhere. Please bear with me, I'll include a prettier picture in a few days.

Table a Deux

Want this fabulous table for $30? I'll show you how later this week....
Ooh, that made you mad didn't it? I'm sorry about that. But I promise the final reveal will be worth it!

Gallery Frames

I'd really like to do some frames like this for our apartment. The shelves don't cost too much ($10 at Target) and the pictures can be changed out seasonally. I like the idea of doing bright photos to contrast the black frame and cream matting. Or you could do a mix of black & white and color. Is this just a trend or do you think it'll last?

Sorry I haven't been blogging much about weddings lately. I've just really had decorating on my mind, seeing as I'm moving next Sunday!!!!