the office/guest room

the office/guest room has been a blah room for me. when decorating, if there is a room or even nook in your home that you love... you continue to put all your favorite things there. at least that's how it is for me. i love the living room and dining room most of all. so naturally that is where all the good stuff goes. not that the other rooms are bad or something. is this even making sense? well anyway my point is that i've been ignoring this room. i should call it the brown room. there are a lot of fun little nick nacks and treasures in it but all the basic furniture is brown.

grant's parents gave us an antique desk and barrister bookcase when we were first married. we love them a lot but plan to at least paint the desk. i put some wrapping paper in the backs of the bookcase (not pictured) to give it some pizazz because we decided we didn't want to paint it. well grant decided that actually. and i'm fine with that. since this room also functions as a guest room, our sweet and awesome couch is a sofa bed. it's one of my favorite favorite finds. i will have to take a better picture of it. it's super retro looking. we bought it off craigslist about two years ago and scored pretty big with it. the owners told us that it had been sat on less than a dozen times and never slept on. they were trying to get rid of a lot of things and so we gave them $70 and drove away with this chair, two glass coffee tables (very hollywood regency and just perfect), the sofa bed and a box of old books. it was amazing. while a dining room chair, high chair and dresser are all on the project list before anything in this room.... i've been keeping my eyes out for solutions to cure my office issues. these pictures are from my instagram and i'm counting them as a "during" check in. since we've furnished the room, hung certificates and artwork, threw in an area rug and put some curtains up... it's definitely not in "before" stage.

first upholstery job

upholstery jobs just seem intimidating. i mean right? BUT, i've always wanted to try one because let's be honest.... they are always the best transformations. it's very satisfying to see a before and after that look completely different. so i figured that if i started small... there'd be less of a chance that i'd mess it up. 

p.s. i've tried to take good pictures of our living room and dining room at different times of the day and because i don't know anything about photography or editing... i just can't seem to get the lighting quite right. the light that comes through the windows washes everything out. but oh well, i'm no professional and you get the idea. i hope my attempt to upholster something small will inspire someone! this one was super easy. in fact, it was easy enough to make me want to try it out on the seat of a dining room chair... hopefully a post on that is coming soon. but knowing me, you can't count on anything (meh... must. get. better). linked up here.

behold... the ugly little bench stand thingy,

here it is in it's old, yucky scuffed up state.

before:

so we painted it white and stapled it right up.

(fabric is a thrifted pillowcase)

after:

what outside looks like

i made this wreath. i'd give a tutorial but i think it's pretty self explanatory. i'm still labeling this post in the diy/tutorial category though. i had all the supplies for this in my craft collection except for the wreath. and i'm not sure that is a good or bad thing. i could spend hours walking down every aisle in hobby lobby (which eventually converts to $$$$$). no wonder it's called "creative center", it really gets my creative juices flowing. i think it kinda makes me a bad mom too because the other day that is where trudy spent her afternoon nap. in the cart. while i mosied around. i think i might (finally) post pictures of the actual rooms in our house. i'm just trying to make a cameroonian hat for a wall and then all should be good. i tried the tutorial on design sponge but it did not work (which was really sad). so we shall see how it turns out, i just love anything with texture. i do not consider myself to be a professional decorator at all, however i love making each room a place that is calm, pretty and "barnesy".

apparently i like design sponge projects... see my first wreath here. and has anyone ever noticed that twine smells EXACTLY like cow manure? like E-X-A-C-T-L-Y. as soon as i pulled it out of my box the house smelled like my grandma's farm. linked up here.

so fresh and so clean.. uh

 

a collection of the flowers we've had in the house over the past month or so. wish i really knew how to edit so i could make these pictures look as pretty as they do in real life. oh well. it's easy to have fresh flowers in your house at all times when you grow them in your yard! it makes me SO happy. we have rose bushes everywhere that are blooming all over the place. so the yellow and pink roses up above are from our yard. we even have purple ones that smell uh-mazing. all the other flowers were purchased at trader joe's. best place for flowers. why? because they are so cheap! flowers are the perfect pick-me-up too. i can usually find some i like for under $5. putting flowers in our main room is so fulfilling, it just polishes everything and adds so much beauty. plus nate berkus says to have something natural/living in every room of your house. for anyone that doesn't have a trader joe's, i've found cheap flowers on clearance at walmart too. so go get some. put them in vase and then place them wherever you heart desires.

p.s. for anyone that asked about our fancy drapes, you can read about them in our tutorial here. new projects coming soon!

p.p.s. i realized that i never said which onesie grant helped sew a few posts ago. he did the grey polka dotted square. see it again here. and thank you friends for the sleeping/baby advice. we planned on using a pack & play (still need to get) or a moses basket that i found a while back. the moses basket would sit all the way down on the floor and our bed is high so i wasn't really liking that idea. i don't think i'd mind the nap nanny but i'm wondering if that may be too big for our queen bed......? i'll figure it out! can't wait to show off the nursery soon... we're almost done. 

the table

we found our reclaimed wood off craigslist in the east mountains of albuquerque. we had a limited quantity with all different lengths and thicknesses. grant laid out all the wood and without any instructions, designed our table 100% from scratch. including the idea of putting our rusted hardware on the outside of the table. i am still amazed at how he pulled it all together. there were so many little obstacles he dealt with because every board was so different. because the wood was probably milled near one hundred years ago, each piece bowed in different directions... some had knots that required sanding the underneath just to make it so that they all laid flat. so much work went into each board. each piece has so much character.
one big concern was making sure that the table was sturdy, especially since the wood cracked so easily because of being so old. grant pulled some tricks here and there and by the time we flipped the table over... we just laughed because it was SOOOO heavy and definitely DEFINITELY stable. :) he had to call a friend to help load it into the house from the garage, i could barely lift it from the ground.
we are buying a clear vinyl tablecloth to put over the table for meals. people always ask about getting slivers. we didn't want to sand the boards down because that would take away from all the reasons we bought this type of wood in the first place (color & texture). those flowers are from my birthday (aren't they so pretty? and ginormous?!) i'm so excited to have this table for the coming years. and i think the best part is that it was built by grant. makes it so meaningful. i love to just sit and look at it.

this post was linked up to multiple link parties but with all the errors that went on, they were erased.

 so now i don't remember which ones i chose!

this table has been featured here:

rusting the hardware

i think i've mentioned on here before that grant and i have always wanted to make a barnwood table. we've been obsessed with antiqued/weathered wood forever, it's that gray color mixed with the raw-ness of the wood that has us so attached. we've actually been done with the table for a few months now but we're just now getting around to posting it. anyway so when we went to buy all the hardware, we realized that we couldn't be adding shiny silver brackets and bolts to an old antique table.... i mean that would just be silly! so grant did all this research on rusting hardware and then rusted every little nut and bolt that we used. ya... kind of a process. and i'm not even talking about how hard it was for him to make the table. buying old wood is not like buying new wood. maybe he can explain later how hard it truly was. either way... we have a beautiful table now! :) here is a little video on how to antique hardware. the last part is the best "full reveal of the table... coming soon!" dun dun dun.

we've linked this up to a few parties...
funky junk interiors
chic on a shoestring
craft envy
tatertots and jello
a vision to remember
at the picket fence
flamingo toes
diy showoff

custom drapes tutorial

so in our living/dining area we have some sliding doors. i had been trying to find some drapes to go there and was getting pretty discouraged. i didn't want anything too trendy because... well i just didn't. i wanted a pattern that i could look at forever and always love, not something that is just cool for right now. with all the rustic and masculine details around the area, i felt we really needed a floral pattern. in the beginning i just wanted some plain white drapes with black stripes. sounds easy enough to find right? no. not at all. drapes are hard because you can either buy custom ones that cost a pretty penny, or you can find some that are trendy and cheap at stores like world market, target or home goods. but even those stores didn't have that. there was a time a few months back where you could show me any drape (from a typical chain store) and i could tell you exactly how much it was and where it was from. i did so much research. so i started off with an ikat pattern from burlington coat factory. they were yellow and gray and were a great deal. i came home, put them up and then sat on the couch. and stared. and then felt unsatisfied. i did this with 8 different drapes. i was smart and always kept the receipt and packaging though. i had a routine down. i would let each of them hang for a day and then i'd return them. by the time i got to the 8th pair, i was so done with looking for drapes that i threw all the packaging away and told myself to just be happy. they weren't cheap but were quality. and what pattern did i go with? plain white. which made the room feel totally boring.

a few weeks later, my sweet bf jess came down to visit. we were doing some shopping at marshall's when we noticed a really cute and classic floral pattern... in the form of a duvet cover. can you guess what was on the fabric? yes, big beautiful red flowers. grant came in to check out my cart (i guess we like making decisions together...  i mean it's our house not mine). and then we came home with the duvet hoping we could figure something out. here is what we did-

step 1: we ripped the duvet straight down the middle. took the left plain white drape and laid it on the ground. then we spread out one of the duvet sides on top of that drape.

step 2: we placed it exactly where we wanted it and then pinned it down. we were OCD about straightening the fabric because we didn't want any air pockets between the drape and duvet cover. and by OCD i mean straightening it like every 20 seconds.

step 3: pin all four sides

step 4: sew it all! way easier than i thought it would be. it's just sewing 4 big straight lines.

step 5: do the same thing for the other drape. we made sure and lined up the pattern just how we did with the first drape so that when they hung next to each other they would be fairly symmetrical.

half way done...

this was not the cheapest way to do it, however they look great and i love them.
i'd give a better end shot but i can't have the table show because that's another post!

 

this tutorial is linked here: (go check out all the fun projects!)

chic on a shoestring

crafts keep me sane

the girl creative

debbiedoos

no minimalist here

between naps on the porch

its so very cheri

they're on drapes, wall hangings, the doormat and canvas

my grandma loves roses. i'm not sure if the love is for actual real roses though, especially closed buds. it seems that the love and obsession is for open roses. big open roses. my mom has the same love too. it's like anything with a rose print just tugs at their hearts. and lucky me, i love them too! i painted the one above. i was thinking about how many roses or just red flowers there are around our house and it made me really miss both my mom and my grandma. i wish they could come and see all of them. i wish they could just come on over and we could eat yummy food and watch some westerns. like true grit (which i loved by the way, jeff bridges did a great job... i'm not sure who else could attempt to live up to john wayne). living away has not been hard for me at all these past few years. i have thoroughly enjoyed living in new places and learning different cultures etc. but now that i am so close to bringing another person into our family, i really miss mine.

anyway one of my friends told me about the rug company "dash and albert". as soon as i checked out their collection i fell in love with the rug below. that was over three years ago. i just never wanted to put that beautiful piece in an ugly apartment. i've had the rug as my background on my phone forever. it's just so perfect! i feel so lucky to finally own it. it makes me smile every time i come in the front door.






oh and the "B" is for barnes. just wanted to clarify that for shalynna. she once thought a different "B" in our house was for brittany. i was really embarrassed. i would never do that!

sneaker peeker cheeker weeker beeker teeker

we haven't hung pictures up yet and i'm a little nervous about that. the wall that we are hanging them on is humongous and it's such a big beautiful empty canvas to work with.... it just makes me nervous. and it's hard finding collage patterns for our pictures. ya know? we did end up finding a lamp. we sort of gave up on the image we had in our head. we found one that we both are happy with though. a steal at target for $40 and it does the job perfectly. i'm still on the hunt for a big big rug to go under our bed, i think i mentioned this before but our whole house is tiled. it really wakes you up when you have to pee five times a night because the ground is freezing! i've gone so neutral with colors in the dining room, kitchen and living room... i wanted our room to be very colorful. rugs are just difficult for me because all floral styles are either too trendy or too traditional. it seems i only like transitional patterns or moroccan styles. which is fine but i've got to mix some patterns here or i'll hate the room. anywho i did order our runner in the hallway from overstock and i absolutely love it. it's so pretty. so for the record, overstock is great in my book. great prices and great quality.

we did the fun pelmet box tutorial from little green notebook. it was easy and it looks beautiful. it really is a fun, cute and cheap project if anyone is wondering what to do for window treatments. we do so many projects around here and grant is starting to get at me for not taking more pictures (before, during and afters) so that we can show our creations (he is right, but i need to be better with taking pictures of anything and everything lately). we really love the "diy specialists" (according to nate berkus) from young house love. their blog is so fun to look through. we may or may not be jealous of them and all they have accomplished. very motivational for us.

since i spend hours studying design lately, my advice to anyone out there who is wanting to freshen up their space? PAINT IT WHITE. and yes those are all links so please check them out.

also... abby was the right one on the chairs (good job!). we ordered tolix chairs. those gosh dang tolix chairs. when i first fell in love with them, i found all these look-a-like styles and showed them to grant and he hated all of them. then he did all this research on the tolix chair and we basically fell in love with the real ones. so after that we could never get the real and beautiful ones out of our heads. then one glorious night we were at target. we finished our shopping, rang up and were walking out of the store when grant says "okay if you can guess within $20 of our total tonight (knowing that i never pay attention at the register and am easily distracted by different flavors of gum etc) i will give you a kiss on the cheek. predicting where this was going, i moan and groan... saying "no no no i hate this stuff. you know i hate these games." "and if you guess within $5 of the total, i'll give you a massage..." "AND if you guess within $2 of the total... we will go home and order the tolix chairs". immediately i'm trying to figure out how many items we purchased and then each of their prices. see the thing is, i just don't like having to think hard about something BUT when i do? i'm pretty good at figuring things out. so after totaling it up in my brain at least three times, i name my price. grant can't stop smiling and he says "crap". i smile and say "what! what! what!?" to which he replies... "did i name a prize for a guess that is only 2 cents off?" hahahhaha. yes i am amazing.

i loved all the advice on my relationship with the color pink. i think i've got some cute ideas for her room and so that is exciting. last night grant and i made a list of our top names. we found one that makes us smile when we think of calling her it, however it is most definitely a name that we could get a lot of weird looks from. i've been talking to my grandma a lot lately (on the telefono) and imagining her reaction to this particular name makes me laugh. while we know its our baby, and we can name her whatever we want....getting funny looks is never fun so we'll just keep sleeping on the list and i'll continue to drive everyone crazy by not telling them any names we like. he he

it's coming along...

so i tried to attempt an inspiration board for our living room. this is pretty much exactly what it looks like... but some things are a bit different. one thing i have learned from this fun project is that good things really do come to those who wait.

for example... who knew that ottomans were SO expensive!? geez louise. i had been looking everywhere. and i do mean everywhere. and then one day i walked into a thrift shop and there she was. a camel leather ottoman with a beautiful engraved design on the top. the store was having a half off sale so... my total? $2. and that sure beats the $65+ that i was finding everywhere.

second miracle... the green chair. i am obsessed with kelly green right now. i have been searching for the perfect green chair for about 3 months. i found a few online that fit what i was looking for and i really really liked them. however i didn't like the price. with all the deals that both grant and i pride ourselves on (any "thrifters" and bargain shoppers out there know what i mean) i couldn't stand to name all the prices we've paid for items in our living room and then look at an armchair in the corner with a cloud above it and $430+ in that cloud. and maybe down the road i could justify that (probably not) if we were doing something custom, but not in this case. ANYWAY so i was laying in bed last night checking my craigslist app (what i do every night... part of my nightly routine) and all of the sudden up pops a green wingback chair. i really think my heart skipped a beat. especially when i saw that the price was $60. we bought it earlier today for $50 and let's just say i'm one happy camper. again... good things come to those who wait. looking for an armchair is all i've done for what seems like a decade but it totally paid off.

third blessing... reclaimed wood. if we, as in grant and i, were a type of wood... we wood be reclaimed wood. we're obsessed! we've been planning forever for grant to make a barnwood (farmhouse) table. finding this sacred wood for a good deal? nearly impossible. it is truly a prized possession. we found (via craigslist) wood that was almost $1.50 cheaper a board than the average price we kept seeing. the wood is now in the garage just waiting to become a beautiful table.

in the beginning, trying to decorate seemed overwhelming. but now it has become such a treasure hunt and i think it's so much fun. i've tried to live by jonathan adler's ten commandments and things are looking good so far. he knows how to keep things fun.

since the room is not entirely done, there are still some things we're looking for. top on the list is a floor lamp. any suggestions for places to look? we'd prefer something industrial and so most stores carry nothing like that. i do love the pottery barn tripod lamps but the $$$? yucky. and by the way, i will admit that some things really are worth spending money on.

there are these certain chairs... that will soon be arriving... that were quite the pretty penny. took us two months to actually make the decision :) but hopefully they will be in our family forever, including their heirloom quality. any guesses on which chairs? here are some hints... they are all over the internet (unfortunately), they are as versatile as they come, they stack, indoor and outdoor....