Pottery Barn | It's Great To Be Home

Safe v. Brave

July 21, 2011 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 51 Comments

Today I’ve been on Pinterest, pinning light fixtures like it’s going out of style. You see, our dining room looks like this right now:

Actually, it looks like this:

We knew the day would come when our lovely dining room set would go to it’s real home (with my uncle’s son) and, my friends, that day is here.

So not only do we need new dining room furniture (I’m thinking this table, not sure yet about chairs), but we’re springing for a new light fixture. The current one is going to live at the flip and mama’s gettin’ a new chandelier!

But I’m having a bit of a dilemma. Hubby has given me the go-ahead to order one of these chandeliers.

The brave girl in me is dying for the drama of that crazy Edison chandelier. Can you say conversation piece? Jason said that he wasn’t sure if our house was cool enough for this fixture, so of course I reminded him that our house will never be cool enough if we don’t add pieces like this. But now I’m scared.

And the other part of me that plays it safe thinks we should go for that gorgeous capiz chandelier. It would look fabulous, and I know we would love it.

So what’s a girl to do? Safe or brave?

The Flip: Staging Sources for the Master Bedroom

January 18, 2011 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 10 Comments

Thanks for your awesome feedback about the master bedroom! Staging it was a fun project to tackle since I kind of got to pretend like it was my own home and add in some things that I’ve been lusting after, like the upholstered headboard and frame. (I want to steal it!!)

Here are the sources we used for staging (with links where possible and while they last):

upholstered and tufted queen-sized bed frame – World Market, Draper Upholstered Headboard in Oatmeal (P.S. I just saw that furniture is on sale up to 50% off at World Market until the 23rd!)
duvet cover & shams – Pottery Barn, Grand Embroidered Duvet Cover & Shams in Porcelain Blue
8 x 10 blue chenille rug – Pottery Barn, Chenille Mat in Porcelain Blue
tray-topped nightstands – Overstock, Tray Top Bunching Table Set (actually end tables that are part of a set along with the coffee table seen here)
silver-based lamps – Home Goods
starburst mirror – Michael’s, Christmas present from my mom
zebra pillow – Bed Bath & Beyond, Safari Animal Zebra Printed Placemat in Brown, DIY’ed into a pillow (see below)
pendant with drum shade (not pictured, but you can see it here) – Overstock, Indoor 6-Light Classic Chrome/White Shade Chandelier
greek key sheet set (not pictured) – Garden Ridge
duvet insert – Ikea, from my home

And here’s all I needed to make that cute little zebra pillow out of the placemat I scored from Bed Bath & Beyond for only $3.99:

That’s just the placemat, a seam ripper, fabric glue and some pillow stuffing – talk about an easy project! (If you’re interested, click here for another post where I DIY’ed some placemats and napkins into pillows using a sewing machine instead of fabric glue.)

Anyhoo, that’s it for the staging sources! If I left anything out or you have any questions, hit me up in the comments!

The Flip: The Master Bedroom, Then & Now

January 17, 2011 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 28 Comments

So far we’ve toured the great room, dining room, laundry room, and the jack ‘n jill bathroom – next up is the master bedroom!

Here’s how it looks now after a few tweaks and some staging:

And here’s how it looked when we bought it at the end of September:

The room is a great size and had a vaulted ceiling, so that was a great starting point. In addition to new paint, crown molding, bamboo floors and a few other upgrades, we also closed off two doorways – the sliding doors leading to the enclosed patio (which has since become part of the great room) and a door to the master closet (there is another entrance through the bathroom so the second door was overkill). Closing off the doorways gave the room a lot more usable wall space, which I always think is a great thing!

Here are a few more shots of the finished master bedroom: