Dudes, I got birds.

Early on, I teased about a special wallpaper I had found. Well…drumroll…

The photos really don’t do it justice, but I now have a fine and feathered accent wall in my Powder Room. Because it is a relatively small space, doing the entire room would have been too much. But I fell in love with this wallpaper. And it is even more exquisite in person. It glistens.  It looks so much better in person that my husband’s case for me to upgrade to an iPhone five just got some major support.

It might not be this, but it really looks exquisite and adds a huge pop to the room. I love it.

(For those interested, this  job was done by my beloved painter and paper hanger, Gary Pisarcik.)

 

 

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Back Patio–The Before

When we first moved into our house, we had an extremely long driveway, with a hot tub at the end, and a stone back patio, covered in old pots and things like stone angels and non-working fountains. The old owners left their patio furniture, as well, which was a rusted dark green metal.

We had room to pull up to our back door and garage and park about 8 cars in our drive (I exaggerate not) but no real back yard to speak of.

Right before the baby was born we took on a major project: we had a back yard built. Keystone Gardens tore up the driveway, removed the hot tub, dug, put in soil and sod and built us a real yard. They finished the project on a Wednesday. I went into labor at 4 am the next day. While I was in the hospital, we had super Fence install an aluminum fence that looks like wrought iron.

While I was recovering from my c-section, my dad and husband planted 50 mums around the property, even using stones to create a real cabbage patch, and all of a sudden the dilapidated area looked beautiful, fall-like and lush. We had fuschia, lavender and burnt orange mums and it was so bright.

However, our back patio has remained kind of rough.

This weekend I got an idea: I wanted to update the back stone patio, now that it is enclosed in our nice new yard, and it is where we have our grill, in preparation for spring. However, I have to do so on a very tight budget. I was very inspired by my much sought after lit peace sign and just ordered 15 feet of grape vine from ebay to try to make my own version of a cb2 inner peace wreath.

I went out to the patio this weekend to analyze the space. I threw away cracked and dirty pots (left over from the old owners) and scrutinized the metal furniture. I found some new dining sets online for under $400, but I felt like that was still out of my current budget.

Here is what the patio looks like now.

The more lounge-like set below is from our the front porch in our old house.

It’s all a bit junky. And a bit tired. But I got an idea.

It involved gold spray paint. And cost me $36.

My husband I got to work.

And I went on Overstock and found what look like really nice outdoor seat cushions in Navy and white. I spray painted the pots that I was able to salvage and saved some glass ones in bright cobalt blue. This is the before. I still have more painting to do, more pillows and accessories to add, and a wreath to build, but I am quite excited for the after and a summer with a nice, bright, updated back patio. Stay tuned…

A very feathered surprise…

What’s better than having a strength symbol in your home?

MANY strength symbols.

So while our kiddo bathroom is slowly transforming into a bird sanctuary (with the peacock rug and birdcage light fixture)

I have decided to add some very feathered wall paper to a surprise spot in our home.

It looks a bit like this…

and where it goes…

you’ll just have to stay tuned.

(Image via)

 

Powder Room

 

When it came to decorating my powder room, I was really going for a look that was a little bit zen, a little bit animal print and a little bit “stop being so ugly.”

It previously had the same horrendous linoleum floors as the kitchen and a light/fan that I can’t even refer to as a fixture because to me it was a no more than flat piece of plastic filled with dust that gave off minimal light. Not attractive, no.

So let me show you our powder room now, as I take you on a little tour. Right off the kitchen here is our back entrance. The week my son was born we built a back yard and fenced it in, but that’s another story for another day. Now, the entrance leads to our yard and the door you see straight ahead leads to our garage.

Now look to the right. That’s our very snowy view from the back door and our new yard. I love it so. 

Now look to the left. You will see our powder room. It is small, but no longer an eyesore. 

 

Most of the decor in this room is from my main squeeze of a store, Home Goods, including this fabulous mirror, the hand towels, paper towels and waste paper basket. 

The mirror is very cool and gives the small room some dimension and an ethnic vibe. 

You know I love me some purple. And let me tell you something kind of funny. My mom gave me that black and white reed diffuser, but inside it is oil that I received from a friend for the holidays 6 years ago. It is the best smelling oil ever (I believe it was pomegranate vanilla and from Target, and I have never been able to find it since, but it is still going strong! How cray cray is that?!)

In keeping with the zen theme the painting above was given to me by my grandparents and works well on the Benjamin Moore Feather Gray wall. 

This light fixture was a saga. And it still is not perfect. But it is a great improvement. And it is a fan/fixture in one from Home Depot and I can’t write anything more about it without getting anxiety.  Oh, hay animal print. I love how the leopard is now accented with our gorgeous new floors.

And there you have it. For a 90 year old house, I’d say this powder room is not too bad at all. A little zen, a little animal print, and a little I get to be my good ol’ lazy self and not have to walk up the stairs to go potty. Win for all!