NEW HOME TOUR: A PEEK INTO OUR FAVORITE PLACE ON EARTH
How people live has always fascinated me. My favorite part of the Louvre was Napoleon's apartments. My favorite part of the Museum of Natural History is seeing the Native Americans longhouses and tee-pees. I watched Downton Abbey religiously so I could live vicariously through them in Highclere Castle. While part of me longs for castle-life, I'm more than infatuated with life here in the suburbs of New Jersey. While it's nowhere near finished, it has been so fun to furnish and decorate a four bedroom house. The first few weeks were pretty comical coming from a one bedroom in Brooklyn. While we anxiously awaited our Ikea delivery truck, we ran around all of our empty and echoing rooms dreaming about how we'd fill them and bring them to life.
Thank the Lord for a husband who thrives on furniture assembly! After a bulk delivery from Ikea which filled our entire dining room with boxes, we spent weeks (possibly months, it's all a blur now) putting together piece after piece. I was starting to wonder if life could exist without step-by-step instructions and cam locks! But alas, over a year later, we have most of our furniture and have even started decorating.
I assure you, it doesn't always look this CLEAN! I wish it did, but let's be real...we eat dinner on our coffee table like the rest of the world! I hope you enjoy this home tour and I'll try to point out where things were from in case you're inspired! Most everything is from Ikea and Target!
Our living room is our oasis...the highlight being our light blue Ikea couch! It sadly looks like Ikea doesn't offer the same shade anymore, but here's a similar one!
Two of my favorite coffee table books (photography, stories, and design - yes please!): Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton (follow him on facebook if you don't already) and All in Good Taste by Kate Spade.
This "I Choose You" print from Southern Weddings shop sits below Chris and my favorite wedding photo and above our wedding album.
The lamp = Target!
I love the open floor plan of the downstairs, and we love how seamlessly the dining room and living room flow together. The couch and wall color matching was sort of an accident - a happy one of course! Looong story short, we picked the couch and wall color a few weeks apart without correlating the two at all...our subconscious must just REALLY love this color. Well, so does our regular conscious...our un-subconscious? Superconscious?
This is the view from the kitchen entrance...that door leads to the basement! On the left side (not pictured) is a coat closet and a half-bathroom (powder room?). To the right is a backdoor that leads out to the deck!
My happy place...our kitchen! We had ONE counter in Brooklyn and it was big enough for our dish rack only. This is paradise! And there's a dishwasher!!! Can you believe it?!
If you don't know this already, I'm a bit of a organization freak. If it involves alphabetizing, purging (eh hem, curating), or systematizing...I am your girl! I think I've been waiting my whole life to organize a spice drawer haha!! :)
All white everything, of course!
My "Preview Session" room! This is where my couples come to choose their albums, folios, canvases, frames, etc. The chaise is from Target, but I was lucky enough to get it on sale.
Ikea's Liatorp coffee table is perfect for showing off sample album cover swatches and frame styles!
Ahh the office...this is where I spend most of my days (not the playground). Because I'm at my desk so much, I decided to invest in an adjustable standing desk from Ikea! It turns out sitting all day turns you into a BUM! The nice part is when I want to be a bum, I can still choose to sit. The desk is electric and moves up and down just by pressing a button!
The guestroom!! The bed is from...you guessed it...Ikea!! It pulls out into a King bed so we can host our married friends from out of town!
I love the schoolhouse style lamp from Target!
The guestroom is decorated with some of my favorite old family photos.
Our bedroom! It's actually probably the most boring room in the house haha! We like to keep a really simple bedroom space so we can unwind from the day without feeling cluttered. There's a master bathroom and two closets, but that's about it. Our bedding is from West Elm!
And I'll end with a real labor of love - my closet!! Some girls wanted ponies, but I dreamed of having my own walk-in closet full of beautiful dresses! As a girl who grew up shopping at K-mart and thrift stores, I never thought that dream would actually come true! Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with cheap clothes. Half of what you see is from Walmart or Forever 21 haha! I completely customized the closet using Ikea's PAX closet planner, and it took Chris and I about a day to assemble and install it. We also happened to order right when all the PAX items were on sale, so the entire closet was cheaper than the cost of ONE dresser! Double-dream come true! :)
My tulle skirts are in heaven!
PHEW! You made it to the end!!! This isn't the entire house, but it's most of it. We left out the bathrooms because toilets, ew. We also need to finish furnishing the basement (our game & hangout zone complete with a dart board!) and backyard (fire pit coming this summer!), but we are so proud of the progress we've made so far! This house is more than anything we've ever dreamed of and most importantly, we LOVE filling it with family and friends! I'm a hostess at heart, so I look forward to cleaning up spilled wine from laughing too hard, loading the dishwasher after a great dinner with the family, and countless cups of tea with friends that just want to stop by and say hi! We look forward to backyard BBQs, Christmas parties, Sunday dinners, and eventually some rugrats to fill the halls with giggles and trouble! I said eventually Dad, no we're NOT expecting! ;)