I haven’t posted any pictures of what our entire house looks like since we moved in and it was empty. I thought after over a year and a half of living here, it was time for another house tour. I always love seeing how homes and their decor evolve over time. I took these pictures in November, but with Thanksgiving, finals, Christmas break and all that the holiday season entails, I’m just now getting this post together. Our house has been tweaked a little in several rooms since these were taken though, so this is not 100% what it looks like right now.

Our House Tour — November 2012

Foyer Before:

This is our foyer now:

The aesthetic of this room is one of my favorites in our house. I like that it has a good mix of traditional, contemporary, and cottage/farmhouse. I love that it has pops of color, but the color isn’t overwhelming (like in some other rooms in our house). I love how light-filled this room is. Because of the amount of sunlight this room gets, it has the most plants of any room in our house (although almost every room in our house has at least one plant — only the bedroom and laundry room don’t). It is also the most multi-purpose space in the house — foyer/entry, dining room, and Drew’s office.

Curtains are from Pottery Barn Teen (looks like they are on sale right now!), plant/console table we built ourselves, dining room table is from the Nashville flea market, dining chairs are from Drew’s mom (originally belonged to a family friend), rug is from Target, baskets on the console table shelves are from Target, milk glass on console table, small white cabinet and desk chair are thrifted, Drew’s desk is from Craigslist, black lamp was given to us by Drew’s mom, Self-Portrait woodcut is by me, other art are framed engagement photos taken ourselves, and the glass jar candles on the table and console are from our wedding.

Things on our to-do list for this room: sand and paint the little white cabinet (I like it white, but the paint is old and chipped/peeling), sand and either stain Drew’s desk a darker wood tone or paint it (I’m not a big fan of blonde wood), hang art above Drew’s desk, and create a little entryway/mudroom area right inside the door (on the side with Drew’s desk) with a little bench, a mirror, and maybe some coat hooks or something.

Looking from the foyer into the living room before:

Looking from the foyer into the living room now:

Living room before:

Living room now:

Couch and loveseat are from Compass Furniture in New Orleans, television/media cabinet is from Target (can’t find a link for the same one), black coffee table was thrifted years ago (it used to be in my bedroom in my parent’s house), white bookcase is from IKEA, painting was a wedding gift from my sister and her husband (by New Orleans artist Adam Hall), gallery wall photos were taken by me, curtains I made out of drop-cloths, crocheted blanket was made by my mother and I (directions here), most of the couch pillows were made by my mother, “Give Thanks” pillow from here, light blue pedestal side table from Nadeau in New Orleans (love that place!), cream and white damask throw, wire basket (filled with yarn on bookshelf), and wooden @ symbol from TJ Maxx, floor lamp is from Lowe’s, silver table lamp is from Compass Furniture (scored it for $15 with a Living Social Deal!),  8×10 area rug from Lowe’s (scored it for $15!), glass candy dish and basket (on the floor at the end of the loveseat) were thrifted, basket (with magazines in it behind the french doors) was a wedding gift, painting on the bookshelf was a wedding gift (painted my Drew’s mom’s good friend and my 8th grade teacher!), globe was mine from when I was little bought for me by my Mamaw, and the chalkboard message board was from our wedding (originally from here).

Looking down the hallway from the living room before: (This hallway, right off the side of the living room, runs all the way down the house. The kitchen is the first door on the right, my office/studio is the second door and then at the end of the hallway is the laundry room. At the laundry room, the hallway turns to the right with the bathroom straight ahead and our bedroom to the left.)

The hallway now:

Hallway bookcases are from IKEA, little cabinet of drawers was thrifted on a vacation in Savannah, GA, LOVE painting was a bridal shower gift from my friend Tonya, streetcar cross-stitch and ROWLAND sign (made out of photos of tools) were gifts from Drew’s mom (both made by her), small country scene painting was a gift from Drew’s mom (painted by her friend/my 8th grade teacher), the rest of the pictures are either wedding photos (by Stephanie of Stephanie’s Photography), small paintings my me, or random things like framed fortune cookies, a painted piece of wood (not sure why that’s up there actually), or prints collected over time (a couple are from our honeymoon).

On our to-do list for the hallway: we actually bought paint last summer to paint this room and still haven’t done it (a light grey color, to still keep it neutral, but lighten it up and break up all the tan in this house) so we need to get on that, we’ve thought about extending the frame gallery down the wall on both sides because we have a lot of art to hang, but still haven’t decided if we’ll do that for sure or not, and I really want to find a pretty hanging light fixture for in here (maybe thrifted and refashioned).

The kitchen before:

Our kitchen now:

Kitchen rug is by Dash and Albert, checked hand towels are from Target, green utensil holder is actually a plant pot from Hobby Lobby, glass pasta jars, ceramic apple and stool are from TJ Maxx, artwork above the sink is from here, cookbook holder was a wedding gift from Target, baking station cabinet is from Nadeau in New Orleans, small table on the other wall was thrifted.

On our to-do list for the kitchen: curtains! This room is seriously lacking in that department. I want to make some roman shades as soon as I find the right fabric. On the wall with the small wooden table, I would like to find or make a cabinet of some sort that has better storage than the current situation. I would love to have a cabinet with an open shelf or two to display my cookbooks and pretty kitchen things. We are also thinking about making some sort of a hanging spice rack to go on the wall between the pantry and the windows. We don’t have a lot of storage in here and we need a better way to access our spices (right now they are piled up on one tiny shelf inside a cabinet and they are overflowing and hard to get to).

My office/studio before:

My office/studio now:

My desk is from IKEA, desk chair is from World Market, white bookcase is from IKEA, baskets are from Target, tufted pink chair is from World Market (on sale right now), rug is from Target, curtains I made from Heather Bailey’s Pineapple Brocade fabric, white pedestal side table is from TJ Maxx, easel is from Hobby Lobby (I stained it darker), pink curvy glass lamp is from Home Goods (got it on vacation years ago in Charleston, SC), standing lamp is from Target, table printer is on is thrifted, shelf brackets/wood shelves from Lowe’s, big white ornate frame is thrifted, tiered cake stand was made out of thrifted vintage plates for our wedding, elephant print from this Etsy shop, Live Simply print from this Etsy shop, green elephant piggy bank is from Urban Outfitters (on sale now), jewelry stand was a Christmas gift from my little sisters years ago (was from Urban Outfitters), and all the artwork hanging everywhere is by me.

On our to-do list for my office/art studio: goodness what isn’t on my to-do list! This room is a wreak! Since this is my studio, where things get sewn/painted, etc. it is a catch-all for incomplete projects. There isn’t enough storage, so I don’t have places to put everything (which is why things are piled up in the corners!), so tackling better storage/organization is on my to-do list. The curtain rod needs to be hung higher and I need three curtain panels instead of two. I want different curtains anyway, these ones are too colorful/busy for me in this room. (I actually just made new curtains for this room this week that I need to share soon! I also had Drew move the curtain rod up) I would also like to put nice wooden blinds in this room instead of the cheapo plastic ones that are in here. We hung the shelves on that wall right after we moved in, before we really knew what we needed in this room. They aren’t anchored into studs (the walls in this house are crazy), so I’m afraid to put too much weight on them (I’m scared my sewing machine will topple at any minute! ) and they aren’t really very functional. I’m thinking about taking them down and DIYing a whole wall of built-in bookcases along that nook area. I actually already hung a different painting in here (that fits the scale of the room better) above the white bookcase on the other wall. I had to hang that clothesline up to hang up paintings that I was working on for one of my painting classes, so now that can be taken down. I do want to hang up more of my artwork in here (in a more professional looking way), but the walls in this house are crazy and I can’t get any nails into the wall by my reading chair, so I need to come up with a different way to hang things there. Right now this room just looks like an explosion of mess and color, so I’d like to just work on everything about it. (I also took this picture right as I was heading into finals, so excuse a little of the chaos for that reason alone)

Laundry Room before:

Laundry Room now:

The curtains in our laundry room are the same ones that used to hang in my freshman dorm room (originally from Wal-Mart), the laundry basket I’ve had forever (I think it came from Wal-Mart when I was in middle school), the ironing board and cover are from Target, ladder from Lowe’s, vacuum cleaner my mom bought for me several years ago (originally from Sears), my dad bought the washer and dryer for me (they were from a friend from our hometown that used to live in New Orleans –she was moving from New Orleans and didn’t need to take them with her), the deep freezer is from Lowe’s, the rug and the wire baskets on the shelves are from TJ Maxx, and the shelving Drew and I bought from Lowe’s.

On our to-do list for the laundry room: I’m just so happy that our apartment has a laundry room! The shelves were the best thing we ever did in here, they add so much extra storage room for everything — lightbulbs, toilet paper, paper towels, tools, iron, candles, batteries, laundry stuff, cleaning products, etc. Even though they look messy, they are actually organized pretty well. I do think we could pare down our cleaning products a bit though so they didn’t take up so much room. This room is tight, so eventually I might need to add some other forms of organization for things stacked in the floor — like leftover wood scraps and paint cans. The bi-fold doors in here need to go back on my office closet (they got broken when we had guests staying in there). I would also maybe like to add some cheery artwork to the walls in here. Other than that, this room is functional as is.

Bathroom before:

Bathroom now:

Shower curtain from Target, creme-colored rug from World Market, coral-colored bath mat, flower painting, towel rack, and magazine rack from TJ Maxx, and still-life painting and houses plant pot from Drew’s mom.

On our to-do list for this room: everything!? We haven’t really done much in here. I bought the magazine rack to cover up a drywall patch, but it needs to be organized a little better. I want different artwork, but haven’t figured out what to do in here (its a bathroom, so it gets a lot of moisture that would ruin most artwork). This room overall really has no direction. I need to figure out the artwork, then go from there. My favorite thing about it right now is the plants. They give so much life to this room (quite literally, but they also add a cozy factor that makes it feel like a real room rather than just a functional space).

Our Bedroom before:

Our Bedroom now:

Headboard made by us from an old door, floral pillowcases made by my mom, sheets from Target, coverlet/bedspread and lamps from TJ Maxx, dresser from Drew’s childhood bedroom, curtains from the pergola at our wedding (originally from Target), rug from Target and stitchery made by me (in the hallway coming into our bedroom).

On our to-do list for this room: sand/stain/refinish Drew’s dresser (I want it all back to the original wood). FIND NIGHTSTANDS! Nightstands have been on our list for forever! Since this room is small and they have to fit underneath the overhang from the headboard, they have to be a really specific size and I haven’t found the right ones yet. Hopefully soon! I would like different artwork on the wall with our engagement photo on it (the wall with the guitar leaning against it), perhaps some botanical or watercolor prints or sketches. I would also like different lamps, but since these are perfectly functional, I probably won’t get new ones unless they are a super great deal. Overall, I think this room just feels a little blah. It just needs a lot of little tweaks.

—————-

It is so neat to look back and see how far our house has come in the last year and a half! We’ve still got work to do though!