Tag Archives: yellow doors

Smitten Kitchen

Posted on by

0

As noted in a previous post, Ben and I had a good idea of what we wanted in a kitchen. Big, bright and white. We also wanted the table area to be to the left or right of island vs. having everything in a row. These types of homes aren’t easy to find, especially with existing homes. The custom plan we had designed for us filled this desire but we opted to not move forward with that plan based on lack of lots.

Luckily, we always liked the first floor plans of Robert Thomas where this kitchen layout was available. Then the question became the island. Similar to the table we wanted it big with some added elements. We opted to not go with a white island and instead chose the gray on our accent wall (darker than other walls in the house). From the moment it was delivered to the house we were excited.

I’d say that between the big decorative island, the double ovens, not bumping into Ben at every turn, not having a black stovetop that shows everything, extra counter and drawer space, white cupboards, lots of light, our big table, the roll out trash/recycle and flip drawer under the sink, that we are completely smitten with our kitchen.

20130820-213444.jpg

20130820-213501.jpg

We Got Benched

Posted on by

0

Given the fact Benji and I have been hanging out since I was 16, I’ve spent a lot of time at the Bushaw family dinner table. I used to love eating at the Bushaws. Debbie was an incredible cook and I was always amazed by how she had all four food groups plus dessert and things were always homemade. They had a way of asking for more milk with their glasses that I always chuckled at and the conversations were fun and lively. Even washing dishes was okay to do over there.

I also literally loved their table. Ben’s uncle Ron (married to creative icon Mary Gaye) made it for Steve and Debbie years before I came along. It was quite long with two benches instead of chairs and created a true sense of family and unity. I think that many years ago I knew I wanted a table like that someday.

Fast forward to the building of the new house and Ben and I agreed we wanted a BAT (big arse table). We thought Steve could maybe help us and told him our vision for salvaged wood. He found a great piece that was 88 inches long–a perfect length. We were developing a plan for next steps when Ben and I found a table and benches at the Elko flea market for $75. A total steal of a deal. We snatched it up and came up with a new plan. Ben used the existing benches to lengthen the 60 inch table to 82 inches. We then split the original piece of salvaged wood for the two bench tops. After sanding the dark stained finish off the table and benches–I’ve gotten quite handy with an electric sander–it’s back to more of a rustic, natural state.

We still have to find the right color stain to complete our BAT and find captain’s chairs foe the head of the table but all in all, it’s going to work out perfectly. And when the boys get in trouble or we call them in for dinner we can easily say “you got benched.”

20130818-223540.jpg

20130818-223559.jpg

20130818-223630.jpg

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

Posted on by

0

On my way home from work tonight I got a txt from my dear friend Amy that she was at Homegoods in Edina. I had just passed the France Ave exit and was making good time so I detoured for a quick visit. She had what should be their next tagline, “Homegoods has stuff I didn’t even know I needed until I saw it.” Genius statement.

I was in one of two areas of the store I don’t frequent much–glassware and dinnerware. And wouldn’t you know I found the perfect dinner and salad plates and bowls. Then I found the cutest white owl platters and bowls so snatched up a few. I realize the owl trend may be coming to an end but ever since I got an owl necklace in 2009 and named her Bianca, I’ve had a soft spot for this sweet fowl.

Ben approved of the purchase and then I said, “guess who’s coming to dinner.” He didn’t get it. Do you?

20130815-220736.jpg

Mirror, Mirror

Posted on by

0

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.

20130808-231459.jpg

Hang Ten

Posted on by

2

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.”

20130807-201731.jpg

20130807-201747.jpg

Life’s a “B”

Posted on by

0

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.”

20130806-231937.jpg

20130806-231954.jpg

A Tisket A Tasket–A Less Expensive Basket

Posted on by

0

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.

20130805-213149.jpg

20130805-213207.jpg

20130805-213219.jpg

Hello. Yellow.

Posted on by

0

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!

20130730-230840.jpg

20130730-230901.jpg

Home Goods at Home Goods

Posted on by

3

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!

20130727-231100.jpg

Pillow Talk

Posted on by

0

Let’s talk about pillows…I love pillows. Pillows are perfect and powerful. It’s amazing the inspiration I can get from one small pillow.

When I got my very first office in 2004, I was at Marshall Field’s and lucky enough to have Bill Payne, design guru extraordinaire, come in and ask how I wanted it to feel. At the time, the boys weren’t quite one so life at home was was chaotic. I told him, “calm, clean and serene” because outside of work was anything but. The next thing I knew he brought in some pillows and artwork that hit the mark perfectly. Citrus colors of yellow, green and orange mixed with shiny silver. Oh how I loved that office. I left Field’s/Macy’s in 2009 but was able to keep what was purchased for me and bring it to my next office at MSP. I knew I wanted to bring those colors into our new home office too.

Fast forward to November and I was at my fav store Homegoods and there before my eyes were two pillows I knew would be perfect accents for our new home office…even though we didn’t yet know where we were moving or what a house would look like. The power of pillows.

In December we went through a Homes by Tradition model home. They are the sister company to Robert Thomas Homes who are our builders but do true custom homes. We actually met with them last Aug/Sept with the plan of building with them but they didn’t have approval on their development in Inver Grove then, nor do they yet.

Any case, the master bedroom of that model was the pillow of my dreams–that one small pillow captured the look I knew I wanted in a new house…again though, we still had no idea what or where that might be. I hunted for that pillow with no luck. We even went to the staging company’s annual sample sale to see if it might be there but to no avail.

Fast forward to June when Ben and I went on a date that ended early. He suggested we go to TJMaxx/ Homegoods (since it wasn’t even 9:30) so I willingly obliged. So happened the merchandise assortment that night had a number of things we liked so I was feeling giddy and then…there it was…the pillow from the model. It may sound corny but it stopped me in my tracks and I just couldn’t believe it. Clearly, it was meant to be. I quickly grabbed the only two pillows they had and then saw them in green too. I had previously purchased some new bedding and thought these would march perfectly (they did) so I bought those too.

I love pillows. And i cant wait to see how the pillows we’ve got tie our rooms together. Pretty sure there will be a lot of pillow talk about it.

20130720-215652.jpg

20130720-215743.jpg