Formal Living Room Decor

Good evening barbies! I'm pleased to report that the formal living room furniture and decor are coming together. This room, which my BFF has aptly dubbed 'The Lady Cave' is intended to be the female gathering place of the BDH, the site for bridal and baby showers and just a place to embrace your girly side (which for me is every side).

I got the Victorian sofa and chair from an antique shop near Smithfield, NC. They're in great shape for their age and I got a great deal on them. My mom sewed the curtains from 90 feet of fabric I got for $30 total (!!) at Morningstar Curtains in VA. I wrote about that fabulous little store in my curtains post - basically, it's full of steals, deals, great people and lots of custom drapes! The curtains are 18.5 ft each and a dusty pink color.

The gold mirror is an Italian antique that we picked up at the flea market for $40. The white console table was completely made from scratch by hubby, which he explained how to DIY in this post. My mom picked up the two chic antique chairs in the turret for me for a steal from a coworker. Lastly, the big gold frame above the sofa was an old painting (which turned out to be a famous painter... which I found out after I painted over it... oops) that I picked up at a thrift shop for $20. I hated the painting but loved the frame, so I painted over it and added our monogram!

Here are some pictures of the progress:

The picture on top is of our first dance at our wedding and in the frame below is my bridal bouquet, which my best friend had framed for me and I cherish very much. 

Gotta have the bridal portraits up in the lady cave! The gold sconces are also Italian antiques that we got for a steal at the flea market.

This was our coffee table at our first place. It was yellow oak, but we refinished it and distressed it to make it fit in with all of the antique furniture. A pig on a post and pics from our honeymoon and my law school graduation round it out!

Thanks for looking barbs! The last step is the wallpaper. After we wallpaper the room (I have a light pink trellis pattern picked out) I'll update you!

Shoe Closet!!

Have you ever heard the story about how the Taj Mahal was built? If you haven't, you should look it up. The cliffnotes version is that an Indian emperor built it to honor his wife. Not to compare my new closet to the Taj Mahal, but that's how I feel about the carpentry magic my husband just orchestrated in my closet.

He spent 2 weeks designing, cutting, measuring, painting and installing the frame and shelves for the closet. He's an engineer and very meticulous, so he took his time to make sure everything was perfect. I helped a little, mostly with painting, but he did 99% of the work on this masterpiece.

He finally finished it last night and I've had a giant smile on my face since. I stayed up late putting all of my shoes on it, which, to my surprise, didn't take very long. I couldn't be happier with the way they fit and with the way it looks. He's my shoe hero these days!

And here she is doing exactly what she was designed to do: holding my shoe collection!



Happy, happy moment at the BDH! Stay tuned for pics of the clothes closet when it gets done. xox!

submitted at:
http://www.creationsbykara.com/
http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/
http://www.astrollthrulife.net/

Loving Life in the BDH

Happy Spring barbies!

We just finished our second full week at the BDH and we couldn't be happier! We've begun to hang curtains, wall art and blinds. Hubby is working on the custom shoe closet, which is proving very time consuming, but I'm sure will be worth it. All of our furniture has now arrived! Hubby has hung all 16 chandeliers. We got the DIY canopy bed up - Ross made the frame and my mom and I (mostly my mom - I'm not great with the sewing machine) made the fabric canopy.

Our master bath, making progress:

This is what my shoe closet currently looks like. Hubby has been working on it for a little while now. It will hold 160 pairs!

 This is in the show closet - hubby made this for my necklaces. Earring, bracelet and ring storage TBD.

Our DIY canopy bed with and our baby girl - Toula. The first picture was taken before our nightstands were delivered but you can see them in the second image. We also made the upholstered headboard, which I posted about here.

.

 Close up of our new dresser.

 Close up of one of the nightstands.

Picture of our second level living room windows, taken from the upstairs hallway. I love this because it shows how wooded our lot is.

 One of the guest baths.

 Upstairs hallway.

 Looking down into the formal living room from the Juliet balcony.

Another guest bath. This one is black and white toile with light blue as an accent color. We all know how much I love toile!

Formal living room chandelier - one of my favorites.

 The curtains and bookshelf in the library.

The library again. The window is filled with our birthday cards, since we both had birthdays last month. We're still looking for the perfect chair for the new desk.

 Reading spot in the library.

 Formal living room aka the Lady Cave. :)

Standing in the hallway, looking through the wine cellar into the formal living room. We recently picked up this wine decor.

 First floor powder room - now with brown trellis curtain and blinds!

Side table in the family room.

Our new arm chair in the living room. We bought it because it's so much bigger and more padded than most arm chairs.

 Laundry room, now with blinds and custom curtain sewn by my mom.

Curtains in our breakfast room are up. They're blue and white damask to coordinate with the blue spode china in that room.

 

The security/home automation guy is here today setting up our security cameras, smart thermostats, alarm system, motion detectors and door/window break sensors. Everything can be controlled and viewed through our smart phones and ipad aka we can watch our puppies on our phones when we're away from home! The system is incredibly thorough and makes me feel so safe (as if the 24-7 Hasentree security patrol wasn't already enough - those guys are amazing!) AND it almost saves us as much money on our home owner's insurance every year as what it costs. Talk about a win-win!

And now, to enjoy it all with friends!