Decorating for Fall

Happy October, dolls!

I don't think I'm alone in my love for the Fall season and everything that goes along with it. There's so much to love: the leaves changing colors, mums on the front porch, crisp air, the state fair, boots and scarves, Halloween and we all know my fellow millennial females love a good PSL (that's a Pumpkin Spice Latte for those who don't know).  As you're likely aware, at the BDH we take decorating for all holidays very seriously.  While I didn't end up putting up all of our Fall stuff (our surfaces were feeling a bit crowded), you can check out 80% of it in all its glittery, pumpkiny glory in the photos below.  As always, the 7 ft black Halloween tree is included!  If you're new to the blog and want to see what we've done to decorate for Fall in years past and are interested in a quick and easy DIY Fall mailbox swag tutorial, you should click here and here and here.

 

And to think, this is the big pumpkiny mess where it started:

 

Thanks for checking in and as we say in the South, happy Fall y'all!

48 Hour Sunroom Makeover!

Hi Dolls! Our latest project was a little bit of a crazy idea. On Friday, we decided we wanted to completely revamp our sunroom... by the end of the weekend. Yes, really. We had been thinking about redoing the sunroom for awhile, but to do it all in 48 hours was a lot to bite off. Somehow, we pretty much completed what we set out to do in that time, with some minor exceptions. This was the room before the makeover... read on for the reveal photos at the end of this post!

 Here's our crazy to-do list:

1. Empty the room (completed Friday night)
2. Move the sunroom couches (which we love) to the living room, sell the current living room sectional on Craigslist (completed Friday night)
3. Tape and paint the room light grey (the color we chose is Glidden Silver Reflection) (a much needed change in our house full of earth tones) (mostly completed Friday night, but we ran out of paint when we were 95% done - ugh! - so we finished Saturday morning)
4. Find a new white couch (completed Saturday & for a great price... AND we found one with zip on cushion covers, so it's washable!)
5. Find new chairs (completed Saturday afternoon - got two for HALF OFF from At Home)
6. Build a very large rustic coffee table (Ross completed Sunday morning - it took him 4 hours and only $60 worth of wood & looks almost exactly like the Restoration Hardware table he modeled it after!)
7. Stain/distress the new coffee table (I stained/distressed Sunday night, Ross spray painted then installed hardware we picked out to make it look more rustic. Distressing wood is my new jam! I'm obsessed!)
8. Paint the existing black end-table cream (I completed Sunday morning while Ross was building the coffee table - it took less than an hour and I used paint we had on hand)
9. Buy new decor/source unused on-theme decor from other rooms in the house (I completed Saturday afternoon - surprisingly I had a ton of pieces that worked already)
10. Buy, cut and stain 3 large wood beams for the ceiling (still not done - the wood place Ross likes to use doesn't have weekend hours)
11. String and add crystals to the existing chandelier to soften it up (I completed Sunday and boy was it tedious! I love the crystals, which I bought at an antique shop in Lake Placid, NY in early July. I added smaller crystals I already had to make them dangle. Lots of stringing!)
12. Buy a new rug (completed Saturday - bought it at At Home, its so plush and comfy!)
13. Sell old rug (completed Sunday)

Drumroll.... here are some photos of the finished package! We're so happy with how it turned out! It's just so calm and serene now and a welcome diversion from all of the browns, tans and golds we have throughout the house.

 

If you're thinking we're crazy - I agree with you. Somehow though, we finished all but item 10 in just 48 hours. In the weirdest string of events I'd ever seen, we had EIGHTEEN responses to our craigslist ad for our brown sectional Friday night alone... what the whattt? We ended up selling it to a sweet couple from Clayton for full price (a price that was clearly too low based on the # of responses we received, but more than we paid for all of the supplies, the new couch, chairs and decor to redo the room combined).

If you're thinking 'haven't they redecorated this room before?' - you're right again. This room has fallen victim to redecorating attempts more than its fair share of times, probably due to the fact that we've always kind of piecemealed it and never really started from scratch to achieve a cohesive look for it. But all of that is in the past because we've now got it exactly how we want it & couldn't be happier. Point of the story: if you think a room in your house needs a revamp, this weekend is as good a time as any, don't be afraid to cram a lot of work into a short window and if you sell your unwanted items on Craigslist, it might pay for the whole makeover!