Author Archives: nataliebushaw

Mirror, Mirror

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One of our best purchases of all time dates back to the days of Marshall Field’s. I worked in the corporate office for many years and it was always fun to walk the fifth floor of the store–furniture! The decorated rooms, furniture and furnishings were always fun to look at and in most cases dream about.

During one particular clearance event, prices were literally slashed on many items and I completely scored on a side table and a giant, gorgeous and chic mirror. We ended up having it in our finished basement at our West Pond house but always felt it was so grand and beautiful that it needed a prominent place in our next home.

Since our gathering room is full of windows, we imagined it in our foyer hallway, upstairs hallway or bedroom with the real vision of the hallway.

We placed it on the wall above a fantastic sofa table we picked up as part of a trio of goodies (sofa, coffee and side tables) with a shiny silver bowl from Ikea. It definitely hit the mark. Well, actually it didn’t hit the mark bc Ben missed the stud in the wall by 1/4 inch resulting in a fairly large hole in our brand new house. Oops.

The sofa table and mirror looked great but lacked a complete look. As I sat and stared at it for a couple minutes–boom!–it hit me–the silver bowl needed lemons and the topiaries we’ve had for years would be perfect. But where were they? After hunting through virtually every Christmas tub, at 11:30 pm no less, we finally located them and…yep, perfect.

Super excited about how it’s coming together (I still need to buy lemons). Once done, I think this mirror will definitely be the fairest of them all.

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Hang Ten

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Ben and I are very blessed to have incredibly creative women in our lives when it comes to their homes.

Between my Mom’s great taste and Ben’s Mom’s unbelievable knack for creating the most amazing spaces and places–see photo of their farmhouse–we’d like to think some of their creativity rubbed off on us. We really loved having Debbie help us with ideas and suggestions on our two previous houses and miss her influence this time around but we hope she’s smiling with what we’re creating.

My aunt Caryl and Ben’s aunt Mary Gaye are also fantastic with decorating, and ideas and really know how to pull a room together. Mary Gaye so happens to be the most creative person I know and has made some of our most favorite things in our houses since we were married.

I’m always amazed by what she comes up with and how she knows just the most perfect thing to make.

So, what a fun treat and surprise it was to get ten personalized hangers with our colors and a monogrammed “B” from Gaye Gaye when Ben’s Dad came up on Sunday.

Such an extra special and unique touch as we make out house our home and now I can’t wait for guests to come over sap I can say, “let’s hang your coat.”

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Life’s a “B”

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The foyer. Never an easy spot to get right but sets the tone of the insides of ones space. Our foyer isn’t quite there yet but I did find a little inspiration tonight.

In June I spotted a gray bench at, where else but Home Goods. It was modern with a rustic base plus it had nickel nail heads, which I’m loving right now. I envisioned it in the entry or our master bedroom but given the bed we ordered, the foyer is the spot.

We placed it against the wall when you walk in and opted to put one of our big black clocks (from where else but HG) above it. Truthfully, I think we hung it a tad high but tonight I realized my fav pillows, meant for the office, would be perfect, add the color pop needed to compliment the door and add a little height. It worked and l have to say both look über cool when you’re standing at the front door looking in.

Next up was figuring out the adjacent wall. We’ve got a little collection of the letter “B” growing and one night while at HG we found a great picture of a “B.” We scooped that up in a hurry and found the perfect spot also in the foyer.

So far so good but the next spot needing help was the wall to the left of the door. I’ve tried several pieces there but none left me enamored. Then tonight when Logan was doing his neb and vest in the Bonus Room, it came to me…the ladder with pics of the boys.

Moved it downstairs to its spot and after lots of time tinkering to find the right accent items (I ended up stealing more of my office-allocated items), I was satisfied. The ladder thing creates a good compliment to the bench and pillows and the letter “B” on the other wall.

Add in Bianca the owl–yep, from HG in May–and I’d say life, or in this case the foyer, is a real “B.”

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A Tisket A Tasket–A Less Expensive Basket

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We’ve moved into the house and now comes time for decorating and organizing and getting things in their respective places. So. Much. Fun.

We went from having ample storage space in our kitchen and bathrooms in our West Pond house to having very little in our Twins Court twin house. As such, we had to get quite creative using strategically placed dressers and covered baskets for things like towels and toiletries. It worked and we adapted but boy, oh boy, am I loving
more drawers in each of the bathrooms, and having two linen closets in our master bath and another in the hallway.

I like to compartmentalize items in little tubs for things like nail polish, extra supplies, lotions, perfumes, etc., and for the longest time I’ve managed with a myriad of sizes and colors. This time around though I wanted to be extra organized and consistent in closets for a streamlined look.

If you’ve ever shopped the toiletry aisles for things like this, you’ve likely noticed that retailers tend to gouge you on the prices. Logan and I went to Target tonight and found a few standard white bins for $9.99. Yikes! A few aisles down I found something even better–and the same size for $2.99. Plus, they were white with gray. Perfect! I bought them out of both the small and medium sizes and instead of paying $74 paid $27. Benji couldn’t fault me for that purchase. (And it saved a trip to Homegoods.)

It pays to look in different departments for as the saying goes, a tisket, a tasket, you’ll likely find less expensive baskets.

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Hello. Yellow.

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It’s officially a Yellow Door World for us as today the house we built officially became ours. (Well, and the bank too, I suppose).

We had our “House Acceptance” meeting at 10am and the closing at 11am. After some waiting around for the money to be wired and the final difference payment from the lender to the title company, we picked up the keys at 4:55pm.

The yellow door makes this house for us and completely embodies the idea of a “yellow door world.”

The idea of a yellow door hit me like a ton of bricks back in March (I might have shared that previously) and as probably also noted in an earlier post the color we chose was Decisive Yellow. The color name itself pretty much sealed the deal but it wasn’t until last night (Monday) that we got to see it on the door.

As it relates to the door itself, we wanted something a little different than the standard options in that the glass would have a grid in it vs just a straight sheet of glass. This didn’t surprise our builder after the other unique requests we’d made. Thankfully, they were open to accommodating us, for a price, but even still it wasn’t easy to get.

For weeks and weeks the house had a temporary front door while everyone else’s door was placed early on in the process. It actually started to seem like they forgot to order it but it turns out it was on back order.

The unpainted door arrived on Thursday and it was just what I’d hoped for with the grid but I knew the color would make or break the house. Peter was hoping for it to be painted Friday but as luck would have it we had to wait out the weekend.

Last night the boys and I drove to the house while Ben was at his Master’s class and I could hardly contain myself. One look at that door and I smiled and said, “Hello, Yellow.”

It’s perfect. It makes us smile. It’s cheerful and it’s exactly what we hoped for.

Next up: moving day comes Thursday and we expect to feel pretty settled by Sunday minus our bed which won’t arrive until next week.

Welcome to our yellow door world!

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The Grass is Always Greener

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Lots of houses are going up in our development. In fact, the 22 lots sold within two months of going on the market. Unbelievable really, given the supposed market earlier this spring.

While houses are popping up and driveways are done and some of the landscaping is completed and families are moving in, it still hasn’t felt–or looked–quite like a neighborhood yet given the dirt yards. The only two houses with grass have been the two models and while they look pretty, it’s been hard to get an idea of how the ‘hood will really look…until today anyway.

Our house is in a cul de sac and when we came over tonight, the two houses to the left of ours, the house on the right AND our house all had sod.

Our yard in the back looks much bigger and the front looks beautiful and complete. In this case, it’s true what they say, the grass is always greener.

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Wide Open Spaces

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Our second house was a classic colonial two story and pretty traditional with formal living and dining rooms. I know many think we’re real formal people but not so much. 😉

Our living room looked pretty but the the only time it was really used was at Christmas for the tree and when I needed a quiet spot to talk on the phone. The dining room also was pretty but was rarely used and seemed to mostly be a puking spot for our now dead cat Maxie.

So we knew our next house would be more open and not have formal spaces. Rather, we wanted it to feel open and welcoming and have more wide open spaces.

We think we got pretty close with a decent-sized foyer and wide hallways and archways, and the gathering room and kitchen flow seamlessly together.

Add in our big windows with pretty, private views and we think we got the wide open spaces we were hoping for.

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Home Goods at Home Goods

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My family has a mad love affair with TJMaxx and Homegoods–it must be hereditary. My Mom and sis Amanda, aunt Caryl and cousin Christine, Stepmom and step sis Kristen, Ben’s sisters, his Aunt Mary Gaye and while she was here, his Mom Debbie was a real purveyor of the place.

It’s really a magical experience to go in not knowing what you’ll find and then spotting the most perfect item that can either inspire a room or complete a look. It’s rare for me to not go in and find something and frankly, I’m disappointed when I don’t (though I know Ben is relieved).

As it relates to the new house, Ben and I have had a vision of the look we’re going for a while and have been finding things here and there for months, steadily filling the front room of the house.

Between the pillow collection I’ve gathered as well as a bench, artwork, wall hangings, yellow planters, bedding, and other home furnishings, we’ve acquired a plethora of items that may not have a specific designated place but we know they’ll fit together perfectly.

Tonight’s trip was no exception. Item one was a set of photos perfect for the powder room. I have an idea of putting a black ladder in there for the towel rack and the images are black, yellow and white. Adorable. Next item was a gray mirror/cubbie drawer that we purchased in May for $79 but they had the same one “As Is” for $49. It merely had a few small chips that weren’t even noticeable. We’ll take the other back and save $30. Perfect. Last, item three was a club chair in yellow, gray and cream with grommets. It’s as if it was just there waiting for us to find it. Those pillows I wrote about on a previous post could be a fabulous compliment whether we decide to use the chair in the Gathering Room to go along with our new sofa and love seat or it could go in our master bedroom if we decide to use bedding option two instead of bedding option one. Either way, divine.

Oh, and not to be missed are the other two yellow pictures purchased in April for the kitchen. Appears they may be multi-purpose too seeing how great they look with the chair.

Our house is coming together with home goods from Homegoods and it’s all going to make our home good–or should we say great!

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Baby Got Back

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The back sides of things have always been important to me. I don’t know why but I like to flip over menus and see the back, I check out the back of business cards, I know what advertiser is on the back of a magazine (that’s considered cover four and goes for a premium price) and I will not buy a car unless the back end is adorable–my 1991 white Honda Prelude was the best.

So when it came to building our house, a decent looking backside was required. In the upstairs master bath we opted to do a big walk in shower instead of a soaking tub. The trade off was not having a big pretty window that looked out to the woodsy backyard. The other trade off we didn’t think about was how that window filled a big spot when looking at the backside of the house. Drat. We thought about putting a big clock up there to fill the space and give a little “baby got back” appeal but after staring at it long enough I’ve decided I like this baby’s back just the way it is.

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Let the Sunshine In

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The plan for each of the houses in our development called for a three stall garage with the single garage door having windows. Ben and I always thought that looked a little off and unsymmetrical. Why not have both doors with windows.

When we first inquired about doing so we were given a rather ridiculous price and felt a little defeated. Ben asked about it again at our home start meeting and they came back with a much, much less expensive price. It was a no brainer for us.

We knew the house would look better and give the garage a more consistent look. In addition, we had a vision of how uber neat they’d look when we got the straps and handles on and painted the rectangular panels gray. We haven’t had windows in our garage doors before and that’s exciting for us too. Talk about letting the sunshine in!

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