Fall Home Tour 2018

Oct 10, 2018

I'm so excited to share my fall home tour with you! Most of my decor is just fresh pumpkins and florals, but I have a few new items this year as well. 

Let's get started with the entry! Most of my decor is neutral, but I have traditional fall color on the front porch to blend with the Halloween decor I will be putting out this weekend. I wanted to fill these planters with fall color, but these ferns just look too amazing to move!






This is my absolute favorite photo! I just love the light colors, the lanterns, the cinderella pumpkins and the overall romantic look of the foyer. It's just magical at night when it's all lit up.








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See my last post for more photos of the dining room. I'll be setting my Thanksgiving table next month with richer colors.
















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Candlelight is a must for fall with the days getting shorter. 












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I kept it simple in the kitchen this year. I decided to let the baking I've been doing lately take center stage. 












Just piling on the pumpkins in the breakfast room!




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A pretty pink pumpkin for my bedside table. 





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Decorating the backyard to this extreme for fall is new for me, but we do spend most of our time out here.












Of course Mario has to make an appearance in my home tour!












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I'm so excited to have this backyard decorated! It's not just because we spend the evenings and weekends out here, but because we will be taking photos of my son and his date for their homecoming dance this weekend! I'm already mentally positioning them in front of the pool and on the patio stairs. Stay tuned for my Halloween front porch and Thanksgiving table!


Early Fall Tablescape

Sep 25, 2018

I say early fall because there is a huge difference in the way I decorate my table between the beginning of fall compared to Thanksgiving. It's hard to break out the dark autumn colors when the temperatures are still in the 90s! I do love the white pumpkins and greenery too. The urn was a recent Homegoods find, and I immediately knew it would be a great dining room centerpiece. I also bought these beautiful etched wineglasses I've been eyeing for months. They are big enough they can also be used for water goblets on Thanksgiving. Everything else were items I already had on hand with the exception of the roses and pumpkins I picked up at the grocery store. The eucalyptus is real, but it is dried so I can use it for years to come. I bought mine at Hobby Lobby for $10. It's such a great deal!














































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New Mirror for the Fireplace

Sep 16, 2018

Let me dust off this blog and show you something new! I have been so busy with work and the kids school/sports schedules that I haven't had a chance to update lately. Actually, I haven't been able to do a lot of things the past month. I'm hoping things will settle down by next weekend so I can put out my fall decor...and take a breath!

Remember when I showed you the new chandeliers? I had mentioned that I chose two of them before I even moved into the house a little over three years ago. This mirror is also something I chose back then, but just like the chandeliers they were out of my budget. The only reason I finally bought the chandeliers is because I found knock-offs. I recently happened upon a much less expensive version of the same Restoration Hardware mirror too. It is six feet tall, which is exactly what I needed for these tall ceilings. 




Here is it is before with the smaller mirror.




I absolutely love this mirror too. It's just so short for these ceilings. Thankfully, I have the perfect spot for it over the dresser in the guest room. That room has been getting a mini update lately. I'm hoping to finish up a few details to show you soon. 

Hanging the mirror was a bit scary! I had wanted to lean it, but my skinny mantel is only 5 inches deep. It looked odd perched on that tiny mantel so we decided to hang it. Thankfully, my teenaged son had a friend that spent the night when we hung it so between the four of us it wasn't too bad. It also frees up space to decorate the mantel!



Here a few different views of the mirror in the room. 

The previous mantel decor was way too small in scale for the mirror, but I didn't want the decor all tall. When everything is oversized I get the Alice in Wonderland feel of everything being too big. I was shopping for a client at Arhaus a couple of days after we hung the mirror, and I noticed these candlesticks extremely discounted (under $60 for both). I love the way they pick up the gray in the painting next to it. I was thinking of wood candlesticks, but I think these work even better. I pulled the orchid out of my "decor closet." Doesn't everyone have one of those? The orchid isn't ideal long-term, but it works for now. I probably won't change it for a while because between decorating for fall and Christmas I really won't need anything until January. I'm so excited to decorate the mantel for the holidays!


















This room is getting closer and closer to how I always envisioned it. I would really love a tall built-in media center with doors that cover the TV next. My husband said we should go ahead and buy the biggest TV we would ever want so that we could build around it when we are ready. That makes sense, but I feel like I'm being talked into a new TV we don't need. He also mentioned we would need to put in the surround sound at the same time as the built-in. I feel like I'm definitely being played! Maybe the drapes should be next instead?



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Check Out My New Chandeliers!

Aug 14, 2018

I am so excited to reveal my new chandeliers! Our ceilings are so high in three of our main rooms that we needed very large chandeliers and an electrician to hang them...aka expensive! This is why I put it off for the three years we've lived in this house. Even though I didn't think we were going to install chandeliers this year I decided to go ahead and pick out the decor for each room of my house. It's something I do for my clients before I buy a thing. I realized I needed to treat myself like a client and have a plan for every room. That way I can go ahead and make purchases a little at a time without worrying I will make a mistake or went over budget. It turns out if I had just looked a bit harder I would have been able to find the exact lighting I had in mind all along at a fraction of the price of large retailers (not to mention my designer discount). Also, I found a highly recommended electrician that charges much less than many people I used in the past. It's a little disconcerting to realize I could have had chandeliers years ago, but I am happy to have them now!


Let's start in the dining room!



I think this chandelier was made for my furniture! The color, style, and size couldn't be more perfect. The funny thing is I kept coming across it in my online searches, but it just didn't look that great in photos. I had stopped by a local furniture store for a client and happened to see it there. I was instantly sold! I had no idea it was so substantial in person. The size of it still makes me take a second glance every time I walk past it. Honestly, it didn't look that well made in photos either. That couldn't be further from the truth. It is so well-made! The beads, mother of pearl and champagne finish couldn't be more beautiful.





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Here are tips for hanging chandeliers in rooms with high ceilings. Many designers will tell you to hang your chandelier 30-34" over a dining table, use a method of adding the dimensions of the room to find the height of the chandelier in inches you should buy, and to keep the width 10-12 inches smaller than the width of the table.

Throw all of that out! That's only good advice if you have an eight foot ceiling. I don't know a soul with an 8 foot ceiling! It makes no sense for us with new homes and skyscraper ceilings. Well, the configuration of the height of the chandelier is fine. When you buy a very tall chandelier you are also going to get unexpected width because most of them are made for foyers. It is completely okay to have a chandelier the width of your table. The reason why it is recommended to keep the chandelier width smaller than the table is to avoid your guests from hitting their head on the chandelier as they stand or sit. If you have taller ceilings you can easily just hang your chandelier higher. It also takes up the void of space in the upper half of your room. I prefer to use the rule of thumb of hanging the chandelier in a room without a table in this case, which is at least seven feet from the floor. In my case, I hung the chandelier six feet from the floor since the last 12 inches tapers in toward the table. The candles that are in danger of my guests noggins are seven feet from the floor. This isn't recommended advice I have seen anywhere FYI, but it's basic math. Once you research the why for the "chandelier rules" it is shocking how outdated they are. I hope this helps all of you with tall ceilings like mine!



Let's move to the foyer!




I absolutely love this chandelier! I picked this one out before our house was even finished three years ago today. Yes, three years ago today is when we moved into this house! It was very pricey at the retailer I saw it at all those years ago. After looking around recently I realized I could buy almost the exact chandelier at a much more reasonable price. I could not be happier with it! It is so dramatic and beautiful. The photo does not do it justice!





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The living room chandelier is also another one that I chose before we even moved in. I looked around to see if there was anything I liked better, but I always came back to this one. Just like the foyer chandelier, I found it for much cheaper than a popular brick and mortar store sold almost the exact one.



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I hope you enjoyed the new lighting tour! I am sure I will have more photos for you soon!