Happy October, friends! Despite the fact that it's supposed to hit 90 degrees here in Northern Virginia today, I have fall on the brain. Fall is my favorite season - football is back, the trees outside are turning the prettiest shades of orange and yellow, and everything just feels cozier. However, it can be a little harder to get into the fall spirit when the temperature is above 80 well into October. So I thought I'd share some easy tips on how to make your home feel like fall (even when it doesn't feel like it outside). Read on to...
Category: INTERIORS
BLOG, INTERIORS
A NEUTRAL PATIO DESIGN FOR SUMMER
Hi, friends - it's been a while! Between work and planning for my upcoming wedding, things have been a little crazy lately. This week feels like the first time in months that I've had time to breathe, so of course it felt like a good time to finally get back to blogging. Here in Northern Virginia, we've been lucky enough to have pretty consistent summer weather since April. But between a crazy work schedule and lots of rain, I feel like it took me longer than usual to get into summer mode. Yesterday was such a gorgeous day and it...
BLOG, INTERIORS
10 STEPS TO A MORE ORGANIZED CLOSET
If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm really passionate about organizing. I have a very vivid childhood memory of cleaning and organizing my friends' playroom when I was at their house, and even during my messy years as a young child I always made sure my dolls were in neat rows on my bookcase (even if the rest of my room looked like a tornado hit it). Over the last few years, my love of organizing has become much more aggressive and intense. I love organizing everything, but closets are my favorite. There's something about the organizational systems,...
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DESIGNING ON A BUDGET 101: BEDROOM
When it comes to my home, my bedroom is my happy place. I've put a lot of work into making it a serene, relaxing, and functional but pretty space. There's a lot that goes into creating a bedroom that you truly love, and it can be more complicated when you're working with limited funds. But if I can do it, so can you! If you're new to the blog, the Designing on a Budget 101 series was created for people like me who want beautiful homes but have an extremely limited budget. I follow a lot of home decor blogs,...
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HOW TO STYLE A COFFEE TABLE
Happy Monday, friends! This weekend in my super exciting life, the highlight was the arrival of our new coffee table! We've had the same coffee table that I bought at a thrift store for $6 since we moved in together three years ago. I was almost sad to get rid of the old one because it was my first furniture DIY project. After I took it home, I coated it in white spray paint, got some 2x4s cut to size at Home Depot, and nailed them on and stained them gray myself. But between the fact that it didn't really...
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DESIGNING ON A BUDGET 101: LIVING ROOM
When Darian and I first toured our condo, the room that sold me on it was the living room. It’s not huge or grand, but I instantly fell in love when I saw the wood-burning fireplace with a beautiful white mantle. As someone who spends more hours on Pinterest and watching HGTV than I’d care to admit, I’d been dying for a mantle to decorate – and as soon as I saw it, I could already picture it draped in garland at Christmastime! So as soon as we moved in, decorating the living room was priority number one. Naturally, I...
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THE BEST PLACES TO BUY ARTIFICIAL GREENERY
Confession time: I have a black thumb. I think it started in high school. I bought a tiny bamboo plant from the flea market near my house and promptly forgot that it existed. A few weeks later it had already withered and died and I hadn’t remembered to water it once. Oops! It hasn’t gotten much better since then. I remember when the succulent craze got really popular, I was so excited. Finally, a plant that everyone said I couldn’t kill! Well, it turns out you actually CAN kill a succulent. After about my fifth sad, shriveled succulent, I finally...
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DESIGNING ON A BUDGET 101
There are very few things in life that give me greater joy than finding a great deal. So considering my obsession with interior design and decorating, it should come as no surprise that designing on a budget is one of my favorire things. I thought I'd use that as the starting point for a series I'm calling Designing on a Budget 101. Each post will focus on a different room or area of the home and how you can create a great design without breaking the bank. This post will focus on some of my best tips for designing on...