Decorating

Christmas Spaces Tour: Our Mid-Century Modern

December 4, 2018 by Tanya 7 Comments

Hello friends!

It’s that time of year when life seems to go into lightning speed mode as the holidays approach, and all I want to do is turn on my Christmas lights and make cocoa!

As simple as I hoped to keep things this year, being the first year in our “new” to us home, a 1978 mid century modern home, I may have not stuck to those plans entirely.

Are you feeling the pull to fluff your nest and make your spaces in your home as warm and cozy as possible?

I am excited to be part of this Christmas Spaces Tour with some great blogging friends who are SO creative! Make sure you take a moment to stop by each of their beautiful blogs and see what they are up to 🙂

My Christmas space to share today is our Living Room in our new home. We bought our house this summer and boy has it been a whirlwind of projects and more than one night falling asleep with your painting clothes on! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Christmas, Decorating, DIY, Farmhouse Style

DIY Frosted Paper Magnolia Wreath

December 2, 2018 by Tanya 16 Comments

I love wreaths.

And I didn’t realize how many I had (similar to the shock when you survey how many craft supplies you have amassed or what your hoard of furniture to paint looks like) until we moved this year.

Knowing that I could make more, and some of them had been stored haphazardly with skate boards leaned against them and a Barbie dream house crowding them out in our garage, I let some of them go.

It was really freeing, and yes I have a couple things looking back thru the exhaustion of the move and unpacking that I kick myself for getting rid of.

But, alas, armed with a glue gun, some paper and a few other supplies, I was able to replenish my wreath hoard this weekend.

I kept thinking about a magnolia wreath, and I knew I wanted to use this kraft paper cardstock I picked up when it was on sale.

So this is the version of a DIY Magnolia Wreath that I came up with.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Christmas, Craft Ideas, Decorating, DIY, Farmhouse Style

Christmas old + new

November 26, 2018 by Tanya 2 Comments

Sometimes sprinkling a few new treasures along with our favorites sure does refresh what we already have for the holidays.

The excitement of unpacking the boxes of ornaments, some Bing Crosby playing in the background, and the anticipation of the events unfolding in the weeks to come.

And could I just say that I hope it snows? Can’t you see those beautiful trees topped with snow?

Yes, that means my little car will be sliding around and I will probably regret my request if we get too much!

But there is something so magical about waking up to a snow covered wonderland outside.

I love Christmas, and while I have tried in our new house to keep our decor a bit more minimal, I kind of went all out this year.

More on the full living room and entry soon, I can’t wait to show you how pretty this tree farm is!

And a few of my favorite things…. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Christmas, Decorating, DIY, Uncategorized Tagged With: Christmas, christmas gifts, DIY, twelveOeight, uncommon goods

Our new home office + how to faux wallpaper your walls

September 10, 2018 by Tanya 12 Comments

Hello gorgeous, I have missed you!

We have spent every waking moment (when not at work) working around our new place painting and getting fix-its done before the rainy weather arrives.

I’m saving a few things for winter that are inside that desperately need a redo, like our kitchen that is getting a much-needed pantry.

Our circa 1978 main bathroom Farrah Fawcett may have feathered and sprayed her hair in.

And navy blue Corian kitchen counters that will either become butcher block or brushed concrete.

These are huge decisions and some of them are taking me a while to decide on.

So I keep pinning and sketching, and probably over-thinking (tell me I am not alone in this) and I have come to the point that I wonder if just going with my gut on each will be the winner.

I’m not usually one to err on the safe side when it comes to my home, I like to be a bit adventurous and try something new.

But since a bathroom remodel and kitchen counters are pretty big commitments I am ok with giving myself the time to figure out what I really want.

One decision that was SUPER easy to make was to try a beautiful new wall stencil for a quick spruce-up in our home office just off the kitchen.

I was provided some stencils to try out and share my experience with by Stencil Revolution and I couldn’t be happier with the results.

We are seeing wallpaper everywhere right now, and while I love the idea of creating an accent wall with wallpaper, the cost and difficulty of removal has always turned me off.

We had this desk at our last house, added a “new” $5 goodwill wood chair, and lots of plants with a few things we already had. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Decorating, DIY, How To Decorate

Modern Bohemian Master Bedroom progress

August 15, 2018 by Tanya 18 Comments

Have you found yourself smitten with a color immediately and you can think of nothing else than it being on your wall?

While we are barely making a dent on the to do list at our new place, I had to eek out some time to make the master bedroom feel relaxing.

I wasn’t going to do what I did last time, and that is decorate and re-decorate every room five times over and leave the master bedroom lackluster for so long.

Not this time.

This time, I saw the color. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Boho Style, Decorating, DIY

We bought a house + our living room reveal!

July 21, 2018 by Tanya 4 Comments

For the past ten years I have rented the home we lived in.

It was a lovely home with lots of memories, but we were ready to begin a new chapter.

So we looked a lot online first, and wanting to keep the kids in the same school limited our area.

The real estate market right now is pretty fierce here in the Pacific North West, and more than once we found something, scheduled a time to look at it, and it went pending before we could see it.

We realized that we would need to know exactly what we wanted and be ready to submit an offer quickly when we found “the one.”

Only actually walking thru two homes, the second we immediately knew was what we were looking for.

We found a mid-century modern home built in 1978 on 1/3 of an acre. A huge piece of land in our area, with all the space we need and lots of room to grow and add on if we want to someday. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Boho Style, Decorating, DIY

DIY faux tiled laundry folding station

February 21, 2018 by Tanya 13 Comments

I am sure you have heard the story of the frog in the boiling water.

You know…

When things begin he is just a frog living his frog life and finds himself in some water.

In this case it’s a laundry room, not a pot of boiling water, but the analogy is accurate.

Over time, and stuff, and more time, and lots more stuff, our laundry room had become a messy place that you could barely step into.

It was a pot of boiling water and I was tired of looking at this less than inspiring space.

For a while now we have talked about building a folding station on top of the washer and dryer.

So after a bit of planning, and two different wall colors, we have the folding station done, a pretty new wool rug on the floor, and the ideas for shelving are coming together.

Squeal, I am SO loving this space now!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Decorating, DIY, Farmhouse Style

Romantic farmhouse style master bedroom

February 11, 2018 by Tanya 4 Comments

Hi friend, this post has been a long time coming.

Not only because our master bedroom was in desperate need of a makeover, but also from the five of us taking turns with a couple nasty colds the past couple of months.

We appear to be on the mend, the sun is out today, and it’s time to share (finally!) the progress we have made.

Since most of us are never really “done” and I kind of think that is part of the fun, watching our homes change and evolve, I will share with you what is done and what I am working on.

Before there was a giant treadmill in the bedroom, and to say it was gathering dust would be a fair statement. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Decorating, DIY, Farmhouse Style

How to make a wooden wall sconce-fixer upper style

October 27, 2017 by Tanya 5 Comments

Remember the left over pre-fab white bead board from the back of the farmhouse church pew?

Yep, we found a way to use the last of it.

I have wanted to make something I can hang these Mason jar holders on for quite a while, but to date have just incorporated them on the dining table, porch etc…

So when we saw these metal hooks at the store recently, they made me think of the chippy white Mason jar holders, and well, the rest is another DIY that used everything we already had on hand sans the hooks.

What I really love about a project like this is

I did not have to buy very many supplies
I was able to use leftovers from a previous project
I had enough Diet Pepsi on hand to complete the project without running to the store (WIN!!!)

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Decorating, DIY, Farmhouse Style, Thrifty Living Tagged With: DIY, Farmhouse Style, shabby