Backyard Beautification

We've lived in this house since 2008, and I remember dreaming of having a table to eat outside at.  What a difference 7 years makes.

 Would you believe I got those 2 (one pictured) gorgeous black urns from my neighbor who was throwing them out??  Made of concrete/plaster, they were crumbling a little but I sprayed some sealer on and they are doing the job!  Can't wait for the boxwood to grow into a beautiful big ball!

Here's when it was all decked out for a baby shower I threw,  with lights on all the evergreens.






Whenever I see someone else's beautiful home, I remember it wasn't built in a day.  I started with one pot of flowers many years ago!

Happy Decorating!
Lauren

Fall Front Porch

 My purple petunias have finally died off from the heat, so I'm getting ready to spruce the porch up for fall.  Thought I'd share my last year porch decor and get excited about new things for this season.  Nothing says "Welcome" like a pretty porch! (and some trick or treaters:-))

Family Room Before and After 2008-2015

I was digging through the archives from 2008 to find a true before picture of my family room.  We had just moved in, and plopped down our old stand alone TV, Ikea shelves for kids toys and threw up a Christmas tree.  I wasn't a fan of the previous owners green paint colors, but lived with them for much too long.

It took me FOR-EV-ER (insert Sandlot kid here:-)) to decide what to do with this space.... and it wasn't until after I redid my front room in Navy and bright pink (and my husband was ok with it--phew)  that I felt confident I could pull off some pink in the family room as well:-)


Sometimes when its hard to pick a color scheme, the fall back is really quite obvious---- choose your favorite colors!!! You already know you love them.  The key to not making this room look dark or dreary or cray cray, is by using the colors in small doses and having correct scale patterns.   I can't believe it took me so long to fix up this room, since it's the one we're in 99% percent of the time.

I have to include this next pic so you can see my Ikea curtains that I stenciled in coral. I looked everywhere for fabric but couldn't find the look I was going for so I made my own:-)  And it's not a great picture but the kitchen light fixture also got replaced (overstock), and it looks 10x better in person!

More things to still tweak/update:

New side tables by sofa and chair.
Throw away love seat and get new chaise or spindle chair.
Get Rug & new carpet.
Address right side of fireplace.
Floor lamp by chair.
Address TV wall (yes I'm a fru-gal, no cable just bunny ears;)

Kitchen still needs major updating but I'm not dwelling on it.

I'm working on my master bathroom decorating as soon as I finish the new roman shade I re-did in my kitchen.  So glad kids are back to school so I have un-interrupted time to work on my projects!

Happy decorating!
Lauren