Back to the grind

It has been well over a year since my last post and I am finally ready to get back to this blog. So much has happened in this last almost year and a half; I had my first baby, sold our first home, bought our second home and now have had my second baby. Life has certainly changed for the better most of the time but especially now with a newborn that steals all my sleep and attention it is hard to do things for myself. I love being a mother and being able to stay home to raise my kids but I am a designer at heart. Watching HGTV all day will only sustain me for so long. I am hoping that getting back to this blog will help me to connect with my designer self again and maybe lead to some work. So you heard it here first, I would love to get out there and do some designing or even consulting for people. Tell your friends and stayed tuned for more posts on the projects I have done around my home.

My family; Renny, Ada and Teddy

Before I jump in to my first project-the living and dining room-I want to give a little timeline and overview of the last year since so much has happened. February 1st of 2013 my daughter Ada Mae Mitchell came into this world only days after we had listed our home in Tempe on the market. It took 11 days to sell the house and only a few weeks to find our new house in Gilbert. We didn't end up moving until Ada was 3 months old. Adjusting to a newborn was a challenge during the selling and buying of a home and I do not recommend it but we love our new house and looking back it was the best move for our family. Especially since we found out I was pregnant with our second child when Ada was only 6 months old. It was not planned but a very happy surprise. April 6th of this year my son Theodore Allen Mitchell was born. Our family is now complete and we are happily settled in our home. It was a crazy year and now I'm ready for life to slow down.

Our new house is over double the size of our first house. It is 2600 square feet with 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a bonus room and 2 main spaces for living. Built in 1998 and not much has been updated since then so I have plenty of projects. My first project when we moved in was the living room dining room combination.

Shelving cluster showcasing my elephant collection.

It is the first room that you enter when coming into the house and since all of our furniture from the old house fit into the family room it was entirely empty. We knew it would become a great space for us to have the whole extended family over and entertain in. I decided on a very large sectional sofa so there would be a lot of seating and space for game playing. It took many weeks of searching to find a sofa that was not only affordable but wasn't hideous and luckily I found the one I had my eye on for a steal on Craigslist. I used the coffee table and rug we already had and purchased two floor lamps to flank the couch and add much needed light to the room. The room has tall vaulted ceilings and a huge wall to fill so I used the shelves we had in our old living room and displayed my elephant collection and a few pictures. By using this space to display a collection I was able to fill the wall and help make the room feel homey without having to cover every inch of space. P.S. sorry for the dark pictures, the large windows are great for light but terrible for pictures.

Living room

Dining room

On the other side of the room was space for a formal dining area. I had a vision of a big farmhouse table that we could fit the whole family at for holidays and gatherings. As always I have expensive taste but not the budget for it so many weeks of searching went in to trying to find a table. While searching my husband found a table top in the alley behind his work that was made of solid wood, very large and in the style that we were looking for. It was fate. He brought the table top home and we made the table of my dreams. In it's previous life the table had been a work bench so it had many gouges, nail holes, paint etc on it. We sanded the table, but not so much to remove the character from the blemishes, and sealed it with satin finish polyurethane. I found an artisan on Etsy and he made some bulky metal u-shaped legs for the table.  With a little elbow grease we were able to create an industrial modern table for our dining room for only about $200. To follow our aesthetic of industrial modern I would have loved to have purchased vintage Tolix chairs, however I didn't have $1000 to spend on 8 dining chairs. Fortunately, I found similar chairs on Overstock.com for a great deal. They came in almost every color and I chose emerald green to stand out. To finish my vision for the dining room I scoured thrift stores and antique stores for a chandelier. I found a rustic chandelier that had been painted white for only $75 at an antique store and its simple elegance rounded out the dining space.
Finally, I wanted to do something special to the set back niche at the end of the dining room. My first thought was to do some wallpaper but after contemplating the cost and labor I decided to just paint a design. I had all of the supplies already from previous projects and I created the paint color by just adding black to the current wall color. The design I created is actually mirrored in the lamp shades on the other side of the room. I like to do bold things in my design but it is important to tie it all together with a common theme. I couldn't resist the red clock I found at Ross, so to balance it out I chose simple vases and candles to line the table.

Dining room

A view of the whole great room.

Overall, my vision came to fruition and the space has worked beautifully for hosting our family and friends. Working on a small budget I was able to fill this big empty space, make it functional and stylish for around $1700. When it comes to decorating my own home I try to do it for as little money as possible and I am able to do that by re-purposing things I already have, shopping second-hand and online and putting in some hard work to create what I want when I can't find it. Of course spending a little more money is not always bad as it can get better quality but in my life, in the real world, that is not always a possibility. Limited budgets don't mean you can't have the style you want.