Solid Frog

A wonderful blog full of beautiful photos..I could get lost HERE forever:

Home Tour- Danielle Oakey Interiors

After catching up on my weekly reads over at Made By Girl, I stumbled across this wonderful little blog and was immediately hooked.  Sometimes I wander around and get bored by what I see or read, but I got hooked and literally spent over an hour of my morning looking at the beautiful interior of Danielle's home.  As a new homeowner, it is sometimes very easy to become overwhelmed when trying to design a space but it was refreshing to see that Danielle has incorporated many thrift store finds and cost efficient solves into her home's design.  Let's take a peak...

First up is the den/living room area...a mix of my two favorite colors blue/gray and yellows.  And how about that credenza?  Talk about a statement piece!

This area is glamorous by all accords...the mirrors and lighting are so charming 

The master bedroom...which Danielle completed for under $600!  Can you even believe it?  The headboard is so chic and the nightstands are from IKEA (after a fabulous renovation of course).  I love the idea of taking a simply piece like the Rast dresser from IKEA and turning it into something wonderful with a little paint, new knobs and dedication

Lastly- a quick look into her daughter's room.  It's adorable and playful, without being over the top girly.  Definitely something she can grow in to and will love for years to come.  Those stripes are just making me crazy, one day I will have the guts to paint some in my home...when the husband okays it that is.

Adorbs right?  I love her home, and I love that she did it all without breaking the bank!  Totally my style and this just gives me the boost I need to finish up on our master bedroom and some other side projects that have been on my mind for months.  And head on over to Danielle's Blog to check out her creative interior design work!

Fly With Me

Check out these sweet prints from THIS Etsy shop...so adorable!  I may have purchased one of these for the newly designed bedroom...but dont tell the husband!

Master Bedroom [sneak peak]

not finished yet but thought I would post a little teaser...

 bedroom color before...ugly weird purple/brown color and everything blends in...

bedroom color after...Martha Stewart "wrought iron" wall color and new duvet set.  1/2 way there baby!

Freezing Cold

I thought spring was supposed to "spring" into action last weekend when we turned forward the clocks and celebrated the last day of winter.  This cold weather is so irritating for so many reasons but most of all, I want to open the windows in my home and wear all my new spring clothes.  Heres to wishing i was still on a beach in Jamaica right now with some great friends, ala Kate:

Master Bedroom [ in progress] PART DEUX

Remember HERE when I mentioned we were going to finally get around to making over our master bedroom?  Well, this past weekend I bit the bullet and got started.  I had been agonizing over what to do with the wall color (wallpaper? neutral color? black?) and finally made the decision to nix the wallpaper idea and go with matte, navy walls for the room.  Sounds dark, I know, and move people wouldnt dare paint all the walls in one room navy- but I loved the idea of having navy and wood tones together in one room, along with a bright pop of color from an area rug or other decor.  I pulled some inspiration from the below photos:

There is pretty much nothing I want more in my bedroom than hardwood floors...but it seems like that isnt going to happen anytime soon considering we would have to haul out all the upstairs furniture and store it somewhere for a week while the floors got refinished.  So, i decided I would just layer an orange or coral area rug over the berber carpet we currently have to get my look.  For the walls, I went with Martha Stewart (love martha) paint in Wrought Iron- which is below.  It is the perfect shade of navy, not too bright but not anywhere close to black. 

Once the painting is done, we plan to revamp the room by painting the remainder of the trim white, putting in some floating shelves to house books, and cool ceramic pieces I have found, and moving in the new dresser we scored for $60 on craigslist.  Before and After photos will follow in a week or so, when I am done!

DIY at home

Big moves over here on Broad Street...and by big moves I mean the husband and I really are becoming DIY masters of sorts.  A few weekends back my parents came to town to help us take down a random, ugly wall that the previous owners had put up in our home.  Their visit was a very successful one- with the wall coming down in less than a day and some other minor projects around the house getting done too.  Its always nice to hint that you want something done, go out shopping with your mother, and come home to find the project completed. Major props to my Dad and to the husband, who was his gopher all weekend (go-pher this, go-pher that).  Enough of the small talk though, lets get right to the magic of this wall coming down and how it did wonders to the inside of our home:

Lets look back at what the entryway used to look like (this little nugget seems to get right into all my pics)

And here we go with during and after photos:

 The husband getting to work nice and early on Friday morning after a long week in Ca and an even longer red eye flight home.

 Oh snap Patty found some old wallpaper behind the layers of paint. 

 The wall, almost gone- note their poses, and how they are all working so hard.

 Oh you fancy huh?  check out that beam in all her glory. 

 Down comes the wall, but the electric hanging from the ceiling stays for now

 nothing better than the the action-packed pup and his grandparents- all amazed by how much this opens up our house

After a few cocktails...we realized we have new seating for additional bodies.  And you can see the tv from the dining room!

Just another day of work for my dad...and another day in the rice fields for my mom (wtf is with that hat?)

 TA DA finished product.  Looks awesome- minus the discolored flooring.  That will be taken care of next weekend though by the husband.  All in a days work!

this is the after scene from the dining room.  you can just disregard the xbox 360 hookup that makes the mantle look like a mess.  Oh and my new cowhide rug makes its debut here!! check it!

So after all the hard work- we took the parents out to dinner at Maggianos to celebrate my Dad's birthday- do you think they had a fun time?

Happy Weekend

Ugh- what a long crappy week it has been.  I have been sick since Sunday and its finally starting to go away- but honestly this week felt like 45 weeks stuffed into one...didnt it?  Where is summer?!  My weekend will be filled with some painting, maybe a dinner date with a certain husband of mine, and a long ass 10 mile run in Central Park that will hopefully help prepare me for the half marathon next Sunday.  Why did I sign up for that again, who knows. HappyWeekend!

Hiatus [of sorts]

Apologies for my disappearing act over the last few weeks...between our fabulous mini vacation and my traveling for work, things have gotten a bit hectic and they dont appear to be slowing down.

Its been a busy few weeks over here though with some may-jah renovations going on.  My parents came down right after we got back from vacation and with their visit a large wall that seperates our living room came down, which really opened up the first floor of our home. Photos from vacation and the wall removal to come soon, but in the meantime, chew on these pretty dream bathrooms: