For a couple of years now, I’ve had this somewhat plain lamp and lampshade that’s sort of made its way to several different rooms. It turns out that this lamp was just waiting to be used as a nursery lamp and needed a little extra help. So, here’s my DIY lampshade tutorial on how to make your plain old lampshade a little bit fancier.
When we bought our home over the summer, I knew one of the things I would love the most about owning a home was decorating it for Christmas. This time of year is my absolute favorite and I’ve loved getting to start traditions with Matt in our very first home together. Here are a few pictures! 
For two years, I’ve been working on this living room travel themed wall collage and I’m so excited it’s finally done! Matt and I decided a while back that our souveniers from trips would be prints from local artists or scenes from the city we were visiting. We also love to take photos of our travels, so we knew we wanted to create something that could incorporate our collected prints and photographs. However, for this collage, I did buy that Florida print from etsy and the framed quote in the middle was a gift. These wall collages are a lot more work than I first thought, but I’m loving the outcome. Also, I learned a few tricks along the way. So if you’re thinking of making a similar wall in your home, I hope this helps!
I learned firsthand this summer how stressful a move can be, especially a local move to your first home. Add to that an international trip, some unexpected home damages to handle and the start of a school year…and you’re looking at a very stressful few months. But, I found a few things helpful as we were prepping to buy, packing and unpacking. Here they are! Ps. door mat in cover photo is from Target.
1. When friends or family offer to help, let them. Our family and friends offered to paint, drive furniture, move us, pack our stuff and unpack our stuff. I felt weird about accepting so much help, but then I realized that’s kind of a pride thing. In truth, they made our move happen. My aunt unpacked my kitchen, my father-in-law painted our house & our friends moved all our stuff. I was left feeling so grateful and inspired to help others in their time of need. Continue reading
Since purchasing our home, it’s been a whirlwind of moving boxes, furniture, slight annoyances, repair men and visitors. We’re trying to get adjusting to owning a home, but it’s sometimes a lot to wrap your head around. We are finally ending this busy streak we’ve had going for about 4 months and I’m really excited to refocus our life a bit. More about that in a future post. 😉 But for now, I’m working on decorating (one of my favorite things to do) my living room. Here I’m sharing my living room inspiration and a few of my favorite resources for things like hanging artwork and paint colors we love. Happy decorating!
If you’re in your young twenties, you know that trying to put together a home (or apartment) is all about the hand-me-downs, deals, refinished garage sale finds and IKEA hacks. And that’s where we’re at. Honestly, it’s a great place to be. I have a really eclectic style, so this is my kind of thing. I love the challenge of taking things we’ve had, things we’ve been given and making them work for our space. So, most of our home projects have centered around this idea. By the way, I don’t know if anyone else has noticed how great it is to do a home project together as a couple, but it is! I mean, it really teaches you a lot about the other person and both of your strengths or weaknesses. For example, I am really terrible at following directions or instructions that come with a project…so that’s usually Matt’s job. And he’s really good at it.
So, a few weekends ago, my husband and I finally got started on our latest IKEA hack. We chose small, inexpensive dressers that we intended to use as nightstands. We have a small space, so we are always looking for more storage and these gave us exactly that. Last fall, we used a bigger IKEA dresser and turned it into our current dresser. For these nightstands, we wanted something that would match the bigger dresser well and not break the bank. I was really impressed with how much storage these IKEA dressers have provided and I love that they were just plain old unfinished pine wood. No extra steps to prepare the dresser, just assemble and paint or stain. So, here’s how we turned a $35 IKEA dresser into the cutest nightstand that can be used in just about any room. Continue reading
