cottage and vine: 2011.10

Homecoming & Halloween

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Much of our weekend was centered around homecoming festivities for this guy.

The bow tie caused a little last minute drama, but he insists on wearing one. I must admit that I like the look. Pink to match his date's dress. Even better.

Pinning the boutonniere always throws me.

Great friends and memories - everything high school should be.

Do you have big plans for Halloween? This is the first year that I will not have a trick-or-treater (sniff).

It seems like yesterday when one was a nerd and the other Harry Potter.

Enjoy your little spooks. They grow up fast.

Happy Halloween!!!

Updating With Chairs

"I have so many hand-me-downs and have let my mother influence my style too much. How do I use what I have and make it my own?"

I often hear questions like this. Most of us were thrilled when we moved into our first apartment and rarely turned down freebies given to us by our families. Honestly, to this day, I rarely turn down furniture. Over the years we try to make these pieces work until one day we realize that this just isn't our style at all. Sound familiar?

Most of us cannot re-stock our homes with all new furniture overnight nor do we want to. Many of us have at least one piece of furniture with sentimental meaning and we just need to find ways to make them work with our style. Updates with paint, fabric, and trim detail can often let you showcase your personal style while still hanging onto family heirlooms.

Design Sponge

Recently, I had a client who needed help with a few rooms. We spent time going through each one and talking about simple changes that could be made to freshen up her home with minimal cost. She had a dining table that had been in the family for a while similar to the one above. She has a young family and wanted chairs that are kid friendly. Tolix chairs (or something similar) would be perfect for her growing family giving her a fresh look that works with her family heirloom all while standing up to daily "kid" use.

These chairs can be pretty pricey, but I did find a few lower priced sources.

Grandinroad

World Market

Overstock

This is probably the best deal going with 4 chairs for $190.

*****

Last but not least, I want to sincerely thank Lisa from the blog A Room With a View for this post. I really appreciate you for supporting my little store Lisa!

This is homecoming weekend so lots of fun in store. Enjoy your weekend lovelies!

A Colorful Home Renovation

Market left me with little time for blog reading and I must say that I have missed it desperately. I try to explain to my non-blog reading friends how inspiring blogs are and how you learn of trends much sooner than waiting for magazines to be printed. However, as soon as the dinner dishes were cleared, this girl would crawl into bed with the latest magazine to come through our mail slot.

I was so excited to see the November issue of Country Living for more reasons than the precious dog which happens to be my favorite breed. This home tour is full of charm.

The paint color is Ralph Lauren's Chocolate Souffle and works well in this entry with generous windows, white trim, and pops of red.

I'm not sure how comfortable these chairs are, but they look great with this orange table. The pendant light is from Design Within Reach.

Apparently game tables are very popular now. The company I worked for at market carries several and people were always looking for them. A multifunctional piece of furniture is OK by me - especially in a small space. The leaves fold out to make a wider table - there when you need it.

The wall behind the bed is lined with dry erase maps from Hammacher Sclemmer to encourage the son to dream big. I adore the use of color in this room.

It is so nice to see vertical stripes for a change of pace in the daughter's room. They are painted with chalk board paint. How great is that plaid blanket? I love that they used oil cloth on the bench which looks like this one.

The grosgrain ribbon and nail head detail is by far one of my favorite ideas in this home. Two sofas together in front of a fireplace is such a great way to work a living room. The mix in this room is just right.

These lanterns! Yes, Country Living has been getting my attention lately. Do you subscribe?

All images: Country Living - Kansas Colonial Home Renovation

My Favorite Room: Sarah of Pewter + Sage

Today we have Sarah from the blog Pewter + Sage here to share her daughter's lovely nursery. Welcome Sarah!

Hello! This is so exciting, I'm extremely honored and flattered to be hanging out here on Cottage & Vine talking about my favorite room. I thoroughly enjoy this series, and the rest of Rene's wonderful blog (she is so inspiring!)...it is so interesting to see and read about the spots other blogger's love in their homes.

My favorite room in our house is my daughter Maura's nursery (she's 13 months).

For a few reasons...but mainly because we spend so much great family time here. We love playing in her room, we enjoy quiet time together right before naps/bedtime here and I've logged countless hours nursing and rocking her here. It's also the room I've worked on most recently, so I would say its the best example in our house of my current style. I did something differently with this room from a design standpoint when I started putting it together as well; I really went for it. Like picked a color palette and thought everything through and purchased/gathered all the pieces in a relatively short amount of time and pretty much completed it (whereas all the other rooms in our house are like half done with lots of neutrals, huge to do lists and I now don't like some of the stuff I got for them way back when I started, etc.).

I love that this room is a mix of hand-me downs (like the crib) and new items (such as the Ikea dresser/changing table and Pottery Barn glider).

It's full of gifts from all the special people in Maura's life (love these ceramic birds from one of my best friends, hung them from the ceiling just next to her crib). The bedding was a present from her grandma and aunt.

In this room are also personal things of mine (and my husband's) I've saved over the years, which add that special vintage touch. (My aunt painted the Muppet's painting for me for my 3rd birthday, that's one of my copybooks from 1st grade and a pair of my baby shoes!)

Some antique finds (like these 19th century hand-colored botanical lithographs scored at the Brimfield Antique Show) give the room a bit of sophistication, while these old school paper chains (that we made for Maura's first birthday party last month and decided to hang from her ceiling afterward) keep it all light and fun and whimsical.

Really I just want to hang out wherever this girl is, but I guess it doesn't hurt if the room looks pretty good too, right?!

Thank you so much for having me, Rene!!! This was fun:)

*****

Sarah, what a charming nursery! The colors are so fun and fresh and the way you incorporated meaningful items adds so much warmth. Your daughter is such a cutie too, by the way! Thanks so much for sharing this space with us today!

You can check out more of Sarah's blog here.