GIVEAWAY - BEADS!

I am on vacation this week!! We are in Florida with my parents and sister + family! I'm so excited for some R&R and maybe a little tan on this baby bump of mine. While I'm gone I thought it could be fun to do another giveaway - this time up for grabs....BEADS!!

Three strands of blue beads to be exact! I hand selected these beads at Scotts Antique a few months ago. Each strand varies in size, shape and color. They look beautiful grouped as I have done in these pictures or you could spread them around your house individually. 

I've long been a sucker for beads and have them layered all over my personal house and Bell showroom! So, you want some beads too? I thought so......

To enter to win these beads all you have to do is:

1. Follow me on Instagram: _courtneyshearer
2. Leave me a comment letting me know where you would put the beads in your house
3. If you tag a friend it's a bonus entry. 

I will pick a winner Sunday night and ship out the goods on Monday morning! 

All photos are my own.

New Laundry Door

I have a new door update in this whole, "let's turn a hallway into a mudroom" situation we have underway right now, but this time for the laundry room!  The hallway is about 18 feet long and has 4 doors (entry door not shown below) and the laundry room is roughly 10' x 12'  and has 3 doors! It's madness....doors EVERYWHERE!

It has been especially frustrating in the laundry room because this space has doors that actually open up into each other. With that being said it's hard for me to ever really complain about my laundry room because it's in a convenient place, has a laundry shoot (hello, YAY!!!), a big storage closet and a window.  So it may not be the prettiest (...for now ;)...) but I was lugging stuff down to a sometimes wet and always spooky basement in our last house, so all in all this space is a dream. However, when the entry door has to be shut to be able to access the storage closet, something has to be done. And that something was a barn door.

I love barn doors and Brent and I have long talked about installing one in this space. In my opinion barn doors are the perfect solution when you need separation but privacy is not necessary. Barn doors don't offer a lot in the privacy department, so installing one for a bathroom or a bedroom can get awkward, but the only ones needing privacy in a laundry room are the dust bunnies, making it a great space for a barn door.

With this in mind, we headed to Scotts Antique to find a door. We wanted something old and unique with cool detailing and figured Scotts would be the perfect place to find such a treasure. We dug around and mentally tagged several contenders. As we were walking around discussing the options we noticed a trailer off in the distance with doors inside.... And in that trailer we found what was quite possibly the ugliest door (in terms of color scheme) I've ever seen.

Now, at first sight this guy definitely had a face only a mother could love, but as we examined the actual details buried behind the red and yellow paint we realized this door was exactly what we were looking for. It checked all the boxes - it was old, circa early 1900's from Ohio and was oozing with unique + cool detailing, specifically in the form of a giant oval window with beveled glass. It was the right size and reasonably priced at $120 so we loaded it up and brought it home.

The official Before....

Once home we began the process of removing the paint so we could see what kind of wood we were dealing with. The door was painted differently on each side. One side was the yellow/red combo you see above and the other was a light yellow color. We started with the ugliest side and brushed on this Stripper all over the door. I don't know if you guys have ever used this stuff before, but it was fascinating. The thick paste is so strong the paint literally bubbles up almost immediately and then scrapes off. This took several rounds because there were so many layers of paint. For the other side of the door Brent tried a different technique. He used a heat gun to to melt the paint and release it's seal from the door. This approach was less messy and seemed to work better.

With the majority of the paint off, we began sanding the door. Interestingly, the light yellow side of the door had been stained at one time, so as we began sanding we were left with a really beautiful finish. The red/yellow side was fine, but the more we sanded the more of a light pine wood we got. I think it will naturally darken over time, but the other side was definitely prettier and, lucky for us, the side of the door that would naturally face the hallway!

The last step was using a razor to clean the glass and then windex-ing the heck out of it until it was all shiny and new.

Next, Brent got the barn door hardware mounted. We purchased this hardware from Home Depot. It was relatively simple and quick to install, but once we hung the door up we realized we would have to cut the backband (moulding that sits around the door casing) off because it was too deep and the door hardware was hitting it.  So, Brent cut it off and we caulked the space and will paint when we paint everything else to make this little surgery spot go away.

We could literally not be happier with the end results here. Not only does this door add so much life and additional interest to this space, but the door is truly one of a kind and SUCH an improvement from the way we found it. Plus, best of all, it functions like a dream and really makes the laundry room so much more efficient.

All photos are my own. 

Architectural Details - Foyer

After we finished up the mantle rehab in the dining room, we started seriously thinking about curtains for the space. I'll get more into the selection process of those later, but while considering options and talking through costs, we realized that because the dining room and foyer kind of bled into one another, the foyer windows would need to be treated too. But 5 single windows and a bay of windows was going to be a lot of fabric and the options we really loved were not inexpensive. THE STRUGGLE! So, then we started talking about treating the foyer as it's own space and doing something different on those windows. It could work as there was a slight floor height transition between the rooms plus two faux columns separating the spaces,  but neither of these elements felt visually strong enough to make this idea work. The concept felt forced and off.  

Here is an image standing in the dining room looking into the foyer. You can see the columns I'm talking about. 

What happened next I'm going to blame on our new found love with all things Fixer Upper.  Brent said, what if we mounted antique brackets to the columns to accentuate them more. Not only would this add another layer of interest to the space but it would be a great way to visually separate the rooms without building walls. I loved the idea!

Lucky for us Scotts Antique Market was the next weekend, so we loaded up The Croix and headed out to find our brackets. We perused several options, but ultimately ended up landing on these beauties pulled off a front porch in Ohio. $200 for the whole unit (which we broke into two separate corbels). Not cheap, but they were much larger than a lot of the options and we liked the details. Not too plain, but also not too gingerbread house.

We got them home and separated them..... 

Next we knocked all of the loose paint off. We didn't want to mess with them too much, but we also didn't want paint shards falling on the heads of our guests, so we got them cleaned up a bit... 

And then placed them on the columns:

Once we identified the exact placement, Brent mounted them to the column and ceiling. Meanwhile Croix focused on an intense activity of loading and unloading his box whilst overseeing the progress. #management

With only one of the brackets up, you could already feel how well this was going to work....

and Boom...it did work! Like a charm!

Visual interest, check. Defining room boundaries, check. Another layer of charm and interest, check. This whole concept worked so well that I may even go nuts and wallpaper the foyer!

All photos are my own. 

Fake Plants and the People Who Love Them

I love plants but they can be tricky, tricky little beasts. I've gotten better at tending to my plants over the years but I still struggle to keep some of them alive. My two biggest areas of struggle are my succulent wall and any plant/flower I try to keep on our coffee table.

The succulent wall is hard because a.) succulents in general are just such divas, water them too often they die. Don't water them enough, they die. And b.) my succulents are housed way up high above the built-ins in my living room, so climbing up to them, water in hand and tiny boy child wanting to assist is a task all on it's own. As for the coffee table, the only issue here is Croix likes to touch, move, knock off, rearrange and play with any and all the things on the coffee table. So, putting anything with actual dirt and or fragile petals/leaves atop it is just a bad idea.

Lucky for me, I was recently contacted by Silk Plants Direct to try out one of their products. A fake plant that looks real, is not fragile and requires zero upkeep sounded like an idea I could get on board with. The website is full of great options in a range of sizes, price points and variety of plant. I finally I ended up choosing this plant with my coffee table in mind. When it came in the mail I was luke warm about it. The container was a little more country-eque than I prefer, but I fluffed up the leaves and arranged them to hang down around the planter like they do in the photo on the website. Once on the coffee table I was pretty happy with it.

While I was on the whole fake plant train I happened upon some great fake succulent options at Hill Street Warehouse here in Atlanta and at Scotts Antique!

Both had tons of options and you could buy them individually to create the fullness and arrangement you were looking for. I picked up a few and added them to my succulent wall.

Now, the wall is a nice blend of real and fake plants and I'm pretty happy with it.

Gone are the days when fake plants automatically equal tacky. There are and will always be cheap (looking) options out there, but there is a whole world of fake plants on the market that just make sense to incorporate sometimes. As is always the case, make selections for your home that works best for your lifestyle and maintain the overall vibe you are going for in your decor. In my season of life right now, faux plants are a lifesaver and I'm a fan!

All photos are my own. 

Our 2nd House - Year 1

Happy 1 year Anniversary to us and our 2nd home!

Here's a question: are you still allowed to refer to your house as "our new house" when you have lived there a year? I guess it just feels "new" to me because it looks almost exactly the way it did after we moved in last October.  While we have gotten some random momentum as of late, I often find myself feeling like such a slug when it comes to progress at the house. Here we are at the 1 year mark and we have made very little progress on the whole home improvement front especially as compared to the progress we made at our first house in the same amount of time. It's like, now that we have a house that we can actually stay in for a long, long time (forever?) I've found myself slow to commit to ideas or projects.  It's frustrating and exciting at the same time. I like that we are taking our time and thinking through things, but I also long to have a few rooms feel more complete and "us". We will get there I know, so in the meantime I thought it could be fun to acknowledge the progress we have made. Progress like...

Croix's Room:

OK, this was the first room we tackled upon moving in last Fall and for good reason! We were down to T-Minus 2 1/2 months until Croix's arrival when we moved in.

This is hands down the happiest room in our house and not just because of the tiny human that sleeps in that red crib. The space is bright, colorful and our one and only 100% completed space in the whole house.

Living Room:

This room has seen a fair amount of love this year. From new furniture and textiles like the giant sectional, Love Sac and rug, to new pendant lights  and a TV niche to our most recent add - some custom doors for the built-ins. Overall this space is really starting to come together and we are excited for all the progress we have made! Next up - curtains! 

Back Patio:

Oooooh the patio project. This guy has definitely taken up a LOT of our time, energy, sweat and first bites (croix and the concrete debacle) this year. We are still wrapping up final decisions but overall we are feeling good about this space. It has definitely come a long way and I'm happy to report not only are we grill ready at this point, but as of Monday night our pizza oven can make pizzas too!

Dining Room:

The progress in the dining room has been both mental and aesthetic for us this year. The wheels really started turning for us when we made the decision to turn this big open room into our dining room as opposed to the formal living room it was was for the previous owners. Since making that decision we had our dining room table custom made from a guy Brent found on Craigslist, scored these beautiful wing back chairs from Scotts Antique and inherited a beautiful 100+ year old mantle from my PapaJack and Grandmother. It's been slow, but I think this room could really be beautiful and rich with texture and history once it's all said and done.

We celebrated our 1 year anniversary this year by welcoming in some house guests - my sister Candace, her husband Jimmy and their pup-daughter Piper! They recently made the move to Atlanta and are staying with us while they house hunt! It's cool to have the house and driveway full and I'm excited to celebrate all the fun things ahead - Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Croix' 1st Birthday with them right by our sides!

A lot has changed over the past year, but all in all we are proud of the progress we have made in the midst of our new normal (family of 3!) and can' t wait to see what all we can accomplish before year 2!

All photos are my own. 

I'm Feeling Blue

Last year, around this time I posted about the green color trend I was seeing in both fashion and interiors. I ended up hitting the nail on the head as I basically predicted the color of the year. Gosh that felt good. You know, being such a genius (toot toot <-----that's the sound of my own horn :) ). I decided I could use a confidence boost like that at least once a year so I'm going to make this trend prediction thing a tradition.

Back in the olden days I was always shopping....not necessarily buying, but always in and out of shops, just browsing around. Since the engagement/house buying/house remodeling/marriage/work and more house remodeling, I haven't had a lot of time to shop. Sad I know... But Saturday I had a little time to myself so I headed out to research shop.

As I be-bopped from store to store (this is how a girl shops when she's alone and not being drug encouraged to hurry through one store to the next), I noticed the emerald green hue still had a strong presence on the racks. It didn't take long to figure out this year was not going to be AS obvious as last year. However, the more I looked around I realized another color was popping up a lot too.

The color: Dark Sea Blue. I stole this name from Tory Burch, but it fits the color perfectly.

Tory Burch. 

To me, this color is a blue with a lot of depth and life. Much lighter than a navy but with the same regal presence. It's almost a teal, but not quite. It's a happy color, but a moody one. 

Saks. 

The above photo is an outfit from Marc Jacob's and shows this deep sea blue color-blocked with navy.

On Sunday Brent and I headed to Scott's Antique show. This show comes to town once a month and is always full of all kinds of goodies. But this trip my mind was on validation regarding my color thoughts....and I hadn't been in the door 10 minutes when I saw these.....

This fabric is a bit lighter than the "Deep Sea Blue" above, but you get the idea. A deep blue almost teal color. This fabric fits the bill. 

And then I saw these......

And it was like WHAM BAM, I might be on to something. I was seeing this color at every turn. 

With my color chosen I went in search of some rooms that were incorporating this look....

 House Beautiful. 

This color is used several times in this room. The walls are a glossy version of the deep blue while the fabric on the chair and the lampshade against the wall are sporting this hue as well. The color looks great with the rich dark floors.

Dark Blue/Teal cabinets..that's a bold choice. The color marries well with the white, stainless steel and the wooden beam, but painting all of your cabinets this color is a big commitment. 

Pinterest.

I love this. I really love dark painted walls, and I'm especially digging the color. Often times people are fearful of painting a room in a dark color, because they think it will make the room look too small and cave like, but when paired with lighter furnishings it can make for a dramatic, happy space. I also love, love, love when pieces of furniture/cabinets are the same color as the wall. It adds texture and depth to the space in a way that makes you look twice. 

So, there you have it....Deep Sea Blue. It's debut on the fashion/interiors scene hasn't been as obvious or strong as the emerald green color last year, but I think it has promise. It seems like a color that would work well popped in here and there or as the dramatic center of attention. It's elegant and fun and just screams Fall/Winter. 

Pinterest.

JLo's on board....what do you all think? Would you wear/decorate with this color? 

Unless otherwise noted all photos are my own.