Bye, Bye Ugly Brick!

Heather Lahaise portrait of Remi, my wedding gift to Stevens

I know, I know, I know - I've been SUPER slack about posting! We have absolutely loved being married and being with friends that I haven't really thought about blogging.  Here is my first attempt to get better.

Forever ago, I posted about painting our brick fire place - click here for old post. I never re-posted about the finished product because we just finally installed the mantel last week. 

For a little refresher, here is the before:

My grandfather was in full support of us painting and changing the fireplace and walls but thought we should keep that garnet carpet. We are gamecock fans but everything had to go! (P.S. We still have the wooden fireplace mantel in the above picture.  Its a beautiful mirror piece from an antique dealer in Camden, just wasn't our style - if anyone is interested in in please let us know!)

Updated and painted bookshelf - Color Thatch Brown by Sherwin Williams

Last night we had our first fire of the season and in our new home!

This will have to do for now - I'll get a better before and after picture of the whole room.

Thanks for reading!

Monogram Madness!

While scouring Pinterest the other day, I came across this site for making interlocking monograms.  This easy website is truly a find!! I searched high and low for a site like this during wedding planning so I had to share. And its so easy! She has 3 different monograms and lots of precious colors & color combinations. The possibilties are endless and I'm ready to start creating more! For Chic Sake has lots of cute ideas for projects on their website!

My first project was making coasters for the den. I used some old photo frame coasters I had lying around. When you first print the image, it is a 9 x 13 but you can rescan it as a picture and size it down. These were printed wallet size, 9 to sheet, and fit perfectly in the frames!

I printed more in orange for my sister's upcoming bachelorette weekend but I don't want to spoil the fun for her so you will have to come back to view that project!

Can't wait to find more projects to make!

The husband better watch out because looks like everything will be getting a monogram!

Mix & Match

With the wedding over, I'm geared up and ready to work on a new project.  Mom taught me some sewing basics when she made made all of the linens for the reception - pillows, column ties & table cloths.  Now I'm anxious to tackle bedding for one of the guest rooms and for the master bath.  The master bath is now complete with a monogram shower curtain. We won't even talk about when I picked up curtain  had a slight bridal meltdown was shocked about the price and starting crying in the monogram store - word the wise, ask for an estimate before order!

For the bedroom, my thought is to continue the grey from the bathroom. Originally, I was thinking about adding another color such as yellow but I'm finding that I love the mix and match of patterns in one color.

Inspiration Photos:

(Cocoon Furnishings)

(West End - Evon Kirkland Interiors)

Our bedroom wall color is a pale greenish/blue and I would love to do the whole room in this color but I'm finding it hard to find this color in a fabric.

The only fabrics I can find in similar to the color are from Premier Prints at Fabric.com

The color is powder blue but fabric options

My other thought is to go grey

 These are my favorites:

The fabric hunt is on! Thanks for reading!

Mr & Mrs Walker

We are now officially "The Walkers" Here a few snapshots of our special day on Saturday.

Handsome Men

Lovely Ladies

Wonderful little girls

Best mom and sister a girl could ask for!

Getting ready....

First picture as Mr. and Mrs. Walker



More pictures & details to come! 

Although we have been quite busy with our new house - the blog doesn't reflect it! Sorry for the lack of updates!!
Here are some things that we have been up to:

- finish painting trim & baseboard
- refinishing the hardwood floors

- Stevens MOVING IN
- thank you notes
- painting the guest bath
- wedding countdown and final to-do's
- decorating ideas
- picking out carpet for den - goodbye gamecock garnet!
- cleaning
- positioning furniture (thanks mom & mom in-law to be!)
- setting up new appliances
- priming and painting the kitchen - no more Williamsburg blue trim!
- more thank you notes
- looking at design options for the kitchen
- buying new knobs for den bookcase
- filling & drilling new holes for the bookcase knobs
- new switch plates for ALL lights and outlets
- monogram curtain for master bath
- a week of camp - the best place on Earth!


We will get better on posting & with pictures! Thanks for reading :)

Master Bathroom Update!

Rumor spread that we revamped a bathroom and we are going to be featured in Columbia Metropolitan Magazine!  They are doing an article about DIY Projects.  The article is really praising Stevens on his work with the sink and the sconces on the mirror - got to love my handy man!

The house isn't exactly completed so I rushed to make the bathroom look like it!

Here is the staging that we did for the article:

 shower curtain will have a slate gray monogram very soon!

 view from the master bedroom

 new monogram! & flowers from our yard

 Thanks for reading and I'll post the article when it is printed!

Hooray, It's May!

We have a had a great couple of weeks full of weddings, engagement parties, graduations, beach weekends and more, but unfortunately I have lagged in the blog posting! We have done a few things around the house,  like a cute new pillow for our bedroom to match the master bathroom:

We have also been trying to find out what to do with our guest bathroom. 

 (Before)

We have stripped the wallpaper, taken down the frill and bow curtains, and its a blank canvas with black and white tile with a yellow sink & tile around the shower. 

Tried to experiment with some paint color options.  Green was no. Yellow had potential but not the look we wanted. My first thought was this fabric by Amy Butler:

I bought a few yards of it to make a roman shade for the window and had the desire to paint the walls a soft blue color but got a little scared that it would look to crazy with the rest of our home being so neutral. Back to the drawing board -  will post back about out what we decide to do!

One major project has been working on finishing the den.  It has been painted - click here to see how we painted the paneling. After painting our next challenge has been the bookcase.  We weren't sure how we wanted to utilize the space.   

One thing for sure was the gingerbread moulding HAD to go! It surprisingly came off very easily - except for the top. 

We decided to paint the trim and desk part the Sherwin Williams Alabaster White. But weren't sure what to do with the back of the bookcase that would go with the stain glass window. 

Because we wanted to be done and feel a sense of accomplishment, we painted the back of the shelf the same color of the trim.  And we both just feel kind of "blah" about it, I didn't even take a picture so you just kind of have to imagine here. A thought was to color the back in grasscloth but now we have decided to paint it. 

 Here is our inspiration:

(from Joy Tribout Interior Design - amazing stuff!)

I'm obsessed with the natural clean look. And look at the bookshelves - they become more like a display with the brown. The greens, tans, and brown are so peaceful and cozy to me and adding plates (that look very much like our china pattern), deer antlers, and naturals - I can't wait to start building this room! 

I bought a quart of Sherwin Williams Thatch Brown and am going to paint the back of the shelf tonight - be sure to check back in for updates! Once again, Thatch Brown came from the Sherwin Williams strip that we used in the rest of the house - seemed like a must when it came to choosing a brown!

Thanks for reading!!