Well, there’s nothing like a party to really push you to get your house in order. This upcoming weekend, we are hosting a few friends and parents from the kid’s school for a dinner party.  It has really lit a fire under us to get things done.  Each month brings new home progress and it’s really coming along beautifully!  With the kids going back to school next week I can focus a little more on decorating. On my to-do list is to get a room completely done to share before and after shots on the blog. 

For this post, I’m going to highlight some of the items we put together on our main living floor. This is probably the area that has made the most progress.  You’ve seen the updates to the bookshelves and the first things we purchased in previous posts, but I’m excited to reveal some more details!

Let’s start with the wallpaper in the powder room.  It’s my favorite. I love to go a little crazy with a powder room.  In our last house {which was very old and in Philly}, I painted the walls black.  I still remember the day we did it – it was almost 100 degrees and we hadn’t installed the central air conditioning yet and the room felt like a tar pit.  To give it a little interest {and make Jeff’s job a little harder} we created thick stripes with matte and satin finishes.  It was subtle, but enough that people noticed.  For our new home, we decided on wallpaper for the powder room and so glad we did.

Now, since we had held off for so long on home purchases I wanted this wallpaper to be amazing. After searching social media and Pinterest for luxury wallpaper, I settled on this Shumacher pattern. Now, without much experience with installing wallpaper, I asked our contractor if he was able to do it and he said yes.  One day I stopped by to see the progress on the house painting and saw the wallpaper was starting to go up.  It was one sheet and looked nice.  Then I saw the next roll go up and it was not what I was expecting – in a bad way.  Long story short, we had to find someone else who specializes in high quality wallpaper.  I learned that there is a bespoke art of wallpaper and brands like Schumacher still operate that way.  It takes a skilled professional with experience to hang this just right, so do your homework before you take on a project like this.

I’m going to keep the room simple and let the wallpaper be the hero.  This gold mirror we installed has a fun shape to enhance the room.  A candle, soap dispenser and this pretty turquoise vase is all the room really needs.

Another item checked off our list: The Command Center! August is the first month I populated the calendar.    It’s going to get really busy once the kids school schedules are up but I love that it sits right in our breakfast nook.  We went modern for our table, but I have to say it’s really easy to clean. Exactly what we need with two messy toddlers.  The chairs we ordered are on back order and hopefully will arrive soon.  In the meantime we’ve been eating at the counter and sitting on very old folding chairs.  I love how it’s all coming together! {P.S., don’t mind the letterboard quotes, I was just at a Shakira concert over the weekend! ha!!}.

 

Wallpaper:  Schumacher

Mirror:  Uttermost {also similar here and here}

Candle:  Voluspa {larger here}

Vase: Home Goods

Clock: Ikea

Letterboard:  Home Goods { similar on Etsy here and here}

Calendar:  Home Hoods

Triangle Wall Vessels: PBTeen

Cork Board:  Target

Table:  Lippa All White Modern

Brass Standing Planter:  West Elm

White Planter: Ikea

Cowhide Rug:  Ikea

Paint Color:  Benjamin Moore Silver Satin

 

Shop Home Items: