New House!!

Wow!  I feel like it has been FOREVER since I posted in my blog....it has been over a month I think! Well, during the past month so much has happened.  We have sold and closed on our old home and purchased and moved into our new home along with almost 4 weeks of renovation work being done while we were moving in and living here - ugh!  Of course, the reno project took much longer than anticipated and it has been trying, but in the end things came out even better than we had hoped!  

We did our project very budget minded and though we ended up well over budget it was a minimal budget by most standards to accomplish the amount of change that we did.  

In today's post I am going to show you the hearth room and breakfast room. They are 2 of the 8 rooms we overhauled on the main floor! 

Even though the kitchen is just steps away from these rooms there is just too much to go over in the kitchen to include it here so I will leave it for another date (although you will get a sneak peak in some of the following pictures :).  

Okay, so onto the room reveals: 

So here is what the "hearth room" (sitting area off the kitchen) and breakfast room looked like when we purchased the home (these were the pictures on the listing - we had a vision for what we would do with it!) : 

 Below:  is as it was when we walked into the house for the first time after getting the keys :)  It was shortly after this pic was taken the we began to paint this area. We left the wall color (Sherwin Williams Killim Beige) and updated all the trim paint, including the fireplace mantle and bookshelves, in Sherwin Williams Muslin (a very warm rich creamy off white).  All the trim before we painted it was basic white.  The trim is the same color throughout the entire lower level now as the kitchen cabinets which we also had painted. Muslin is a color we had used to paint the trim in a home we built several years ago and I always new I would be using it again - now was the time :)  It is a very warm color, but has green undertones so paired with certain wall colors it can change for sure. 

The next picture is after we started moving some of our boxes and purchases in that I was going to be using in this space. You can see the table base and bar stools in here.
You can see from the pic above and below how there is quite a contrast between the trim and the wall color. When you view our finished room pics below you will notice how the trim and wall color look very similar. It definitely helped to achieve the "warmer" and "relaxing" look I was going for.

Next is a serious of pictures that shows us hard at work transforming this room....we had our contractors add the wainscoting to the wall. This really helped to make the room look more "finished".  

Next we began to paint all the trim and the bottom half of the wall was also included in that trim paint color. My mother in law and father in law came over to help us get this room done. We painted two bedrooms upstairs, the kitchen, the powder room and the hearth and breakfast rooms ourselves. The rest of the home we had painted by a professional crew. We just couldn't do any more and were ready to be done! We did save a lot of money with what we did ourselves, though :)

 Above: My father in law painting the hearth room

 The built-ins with out the shelves - they were in the garage being painted :)

Above is my Craigslist table find (my 2 youngest boys were taking a break for some board game time together :) - I bought this solid maple table (round with leaf to make it oval) for $65! I then painted it with about $25 worth of Sherwin Williams oil paint in Muslin (#6133). I had been admiring a very very similar table at Pottery Barn for $800. I couldn't be happier with my money saving choice! :) You will see the finished product below!

Above: Friends and family taking a quick break for a bite of dinner.  I could not be more thankful to these amazing people that helped us make our vision a reality with our new home!  (pictured: father-in-law, Cliff, Teena, my husband and myself in the window seat of the breakfast room)

Above: here is a picture of the breakfast area and hearth room looking from the kitchen (which I will reveal the complete overhaul of that room in the next post! :).  We removed the lights from ceiling and replaced them with recessed can lights for a much cleaner look through these rooms. 

Now for the reveal!  Here are a series of pics from the finished product (or at least how it is finished right now - we don't have window treatments up yet and the built-ins haven't been completed).

Above: this pic is taken from the kitchen (same prospective as the one immediately above it).

My goal was to warm up the area. Lots of textures and soft warm colors helped me achieve this.  I also wanted a very livable space where everyone visiting and those of us living here would feel at ease in. As you can see the plan worked well for my poodle who has deemed the hearth room as his personal nap area!

 All the furniture is slipped covered (happens to be my favorite look) which works very well when you have children (and we have 4 ranging from 16 months to 12 years old!). If it gets dirty you throw it in the wash and it's good as new :)

 Above: for the breakfast room and kitchen I used Behr Milk Chocolate in an eggshell on the walls. I have had a similar shade of chocolate in my last 4 kitchens and I am still in love with the color for this space. In this home especially it ties together the different surfaces (glass tiles on back splash, cabinetry hardware and two different granite counters). I also think it is such an appealing color in general in your cooking and eating area - who doesn't love chocolate! :)

Above: from the breakfast area looking back toward the kitchen. This table was my dream now come to be a reality while assembling this home over the last month!  I saw an add in pottery barn (see pic below)

 The difference? The Pottery Barn table and dining chairs shown above total more than $2400! I put my dining ensemble together for less than $450 - I am pretty impressed with myself and my ability to save this much money and still come up with a table that I even like better than the "inspiration" table and can seat 8 people! Only shown with 6 of the 8 total chairs :)

Above: My version of Pottery Barn's  Tivoli Extending Pedestal Table

Table - $65 (Craigslist find) solid maple table that I painted #6133 SW Muslin

Chairs- (Craigslist find) I purchased 6 fully upholstered parsons chairs for $125 and slipped covered them for $16 each in a Cotton Duck slip cover in "natural" from Wayfair.

Rattan Chairs - (Home Goods) I found these babies with pads for $99 each (PB runs $300 for same chair!)

Underneath my breakfast table I used an indoor/outdoor rug from Frontgate Outlet. It has the muted colors that I have used to accent my new home and it will make clean up a breeze! 

Windsor Tapestry Outdoor Area Rug- $119.00

On top of my table I put together a beautiful bouquet of flowers from the local grocery store. On sale I purchase the greenery and a dozen roses separate for a total of $10!  The salt and pepper shakers came with the white set of china I have had for 15 years.  I had never used the shakers before so I got them out of the packaging and with a permanent marker I marked them with a "S" and "P" for a fun and more casual look. I set it all on top of a bamboo lazy susan that I have had in very locations in my homes over the years (similar here) so it's easy to "pass the salt" to anyone at the table :)

Without the expense of adding a cushion to the window seat yet (I plan to invest in that a later after we recover from all the other "projects" we undertook!) I have gone ahead and put a collection of very comfy yet inexpensive pillows in for a great place to sit and relax (I actually had my morning coffee and began this blog post in this very spot this morning :).  All pillows were purchased at HomeGoods with the middle one found in the clearance section. I had to grab it because just looking at the words on it makes me smile (see below :)

Below: The hearth room was something I envisioned as soon as I stepped foot in this room. I knew what I wanted it to look like but wasn't sure I would be able to pull it all together. It is a collection of things that have meaning for our family and that is exactly what I wanted it to be. It is an extension of the kitchen and breakfast area and a wonderful place to read and relax or for guests to sit and have a conversation when entertaining. No matter what the space is being used for it is an area that I look at alot during the day since my kitchen opens up to it. That makes it the perfect place for putting things I cherish! 

Above: 

Chairs - Ikea

Slipcovers - Ikea

Rug - Garden Ridge (seriously the most comfy rug EVER - you just want to curl up on it and fall alseep! I love to sit here and read my daughter books and our fluffy poodle likes to curl up and take his naps here :)

Throw - Steinmart

Basket - Ballard Designs Outlet

Pillows - HomeGoods (clearance)

Candles - HomeGoods

Side Table (behind chair) - HomeGoods (clearance)

Lamp - HomeGoods (clearance)

Mantle decor - HomeGoods, Garden Ridge, TJ Maxx

(the horse is hand carved wood that our friends smuggled back from Cuba for us - it is a cherished piece to me for sure!)

 Above: On the opposite side of the hearth are the built in bookshelves that flank the pocket door opening into the family room. While I am not done with the shelving they will be much more about functionality for our very large family than for show.  We have a house full of readers and having our books easy to access right next to a comfy place to read is perfect for us. These shelves will also be filled with family photos and mementos rather than art or decorative filler. Once I get my creativity recharged again I will try tackling the layout on these!  :)

Above: I saw this wall art at HomeGoods a couple of weeks ago on clearance and it just made me smile. I suppose it could make different people think different things, but to me it makes me think of never giving up. It's like a personal statement that I WILL be successful in all I do - there is no other option. AND the colors are exactly the right shades for my kitchen/ breakfast area so I decided it mus hang on the wall in between so here it is :)

I hope that you enjoyed this tour of the inside of at least this part of our new home!  I have so much more to show you that I will work on posting over the next couple of weeks.  Now that we are finally starting to settle in I can take some time to do this. 

I will also try to tell you about any ways (and they are many!) that I helped to recreate much more expensive looks and my little DIY projects. I am not super crafty on my own, but I can copy looks just fine :)

Hope you are all having fantastic weekends!  

XO

Jessy