Turning a Mirror into a Headboard

The office has been more of a storage room for the first couple of months in our new home. With the change in my job hours to nightshift, we bumped this room up on the list of to dos. This room will now serve the dual purpose of office & nightshift sleeping room. I am excited to have a cozy little nook to doze in during the day.

The walls are now painted a neutral grey rather than bright green. Last weekend we added roll down blackout shades and a light fixture that actually works. We finally sifted through and sold most of our excess furniture via Craigslist. And this weekend we readied the bed for all of my daytime sleeping by turning a mirror into a headboard (oh, and Ty's deer also found his place).

In our first house, this mirror was the perfect addition to our hallway. During Christmastime, we even used it to display all of our Christmas cards. In the second house, it was a great floor length mirror in our guest room. And in this house we are re-purposing it for a headboard.

The mirror already had the proper brackets in place which made this project super easy. I tied picture wire to the the brackets and it was ready to mount (the twine is just leftover from the card project!)

Then I placed the mirror behind the pillows to determine the correct height. I wanted the wood frame to sit above the pillows while the pillows covered the mirrored portion. Admittedly, I nailed three holes in the wall before I got the height just right. Maybe next time I will use a tape measure instead of eye balling it (duh!)

I love how it turned out. The room is small and so finding a way to have a headboard without making the bed stick out further into the room was essential. I love the contrast of the wood and the walls and the pillows. I also really like that this project was free and made use of a mirror that we really like but couldn't seem to find a place for.

This nightshift haven is coming together slowly but surely. We still need to install curtains, find a proper desk, mount the TV, and find some storage solutions for our office supplies. More to come in the next few weeks. 

Have you guys re-purposed any home items lately? What did you do?

Mid-Week Must Haves!

1. I really love this banana leaf art. 

2. This is a great DIY Marble Topped Console Table. 

3. I really enjoyed this wallpaper round up.

4. I really loved exploring this home. 

5. This Valentine's Day round up of free printables is just in time for the holiday. 

Have you stumbled on any great finds this week?

**Take a peak at other must have items here. **

Our Snow Day in Pictures

What a sweet surprise at the end of a long week: SNOW! I popped out of bed like a child on Christmas morning when I saw the flakes on the windows and immediately  ran outside with my camera to capture the white goodness before it melted away in the sunlight. Here's to our first snow in our new home, and to a day of rest.

Happy Snow Day!

Mid-Week Must Haves

1. This desk set up is perfect.

2. I really like this post from Zillow on the incoming and outgoing trends for 2015

3. This is an amazing story of a climber we really admire. 

3. I really enjoyed this house tour.
4. I shared this post on sharing a small closet earlier in the week.
5. This is a spectacular navy blue settee & these fringed pillows are great.

Have you stumbled on any great finds this week?

**Take a peak at other must have items here. **

How to Insert a Duvet the Easy Way

Ever try to put a stuff comforter inside a duvet cover and end up sweating and frustrated with a lumpy bed cover to boot? Well, I have and I dread washing my duvet for this reason. I recently saw this video posted on facebook where they teach you how to put a comforter into a duvet cover the "easy" way using this burrito method. Here is the original how to video as featured on the Meredith Vieira Show.

I just had to try it out for myself. My video is actually my fourth attempt to roll the duvet cover out correctly. I still will say that it came out better than the "stuffing it" method but it did take me a few attempts to figure things out. 

Here are a few tips to help you insert your comforter into your duvet perfectly the first time:

1. Roll from the top towards the opening of the duvet cover.
2. Tie or pin all four corners of the duvet to the comforter.
3. The tighter you make your roll the easier it is to stuff it at the end. 
4. Watch the final step before the roll out carefully. I ended up with a literal burrito several times with no way to unroll the duvet (although this did make for a good laugh!)
5. The roll out isn't as glamorous as it looks on her video but don't fear, a few shakes of your duvet and it will look gorgeous.
6. Use two people if you can. It will go quicker and the roll will be tighter(see 3)

What do you think of this method to insert a comforter into a duvet cover?

Beginning Again in 2015

On the first day of the year, I talked about casting a vision over 2015. For me, this year is about more than just setting goals or creating a giant to do list (although we have one of those). Over the last week or so, I have prayed over this year and looked back over the last one. Here are three things that I want to focus on this year: 

1. Enjoying & Resting in all 2015 brought.

Enjoying time with friends. Enjoying my home. Enjoying my job. Enjoying life.

2. Being intentional with my time and my year.

For me this means slowing down enough to see God act and move where He is present. It means prayerfully and carefully choosing the things I invest my time in. It may mean saying No to great things in order to say Yes to other things. 

3. Making relationships more of a priority than the home they take place in. 

This one is the hardest of the three for me. I will stress myself out to the max making sure the house looks perfect and feels comfy for guests. And while the intention is good, sometimes I need to just let it go, dust the socks off the couch, and sit with a friend and a cup of coffee more than I need to "pick up." True confessions of a house loving perfectionist!

The hardest part of casting a vision (and then posting it for everyone to see!) is that I know I will fail. There are moments when I will find my self knee deep in a list of to dos, completely exhausted and not enjoying my day. There will be times when I say yes to more than I can handle. There will be days when I find myself preparing my house rather than my heart before guests arrive. This is hard for the perfectionist/want to do it "right" side of me.

I had a gentle reminder this morning that I want to share with you for those days when you feel like everything is out of whack: We don't have to wait for the calendar to turn to begin anew (SRT). Each day is a new opportunity & a new space to begin again. So if you find yourself half a month into 2015 and already dipping out on your gym time, eating a box of chocolates and thinking I'll just try again next year, please remember its not too late. Tomorrow is a new day and a fresh start. 

Have you had a chance to think about your vision for 2015? What does it look like?

Mid-Week Must Haves

1. This before & after kitchen remodel from The House Diaries is to die for. 

2. This art would be great in a kids room. 

3. These tips on how to update a bathroom from Censational Girl are well, sensational. 

4. I needed these easy chicken recipes to keep us healthy while I work the nightshift.#planahead

5. I have really been into Danish Modern furniture lately, and these chairs are some of my favorites.

Here's to my last week as a dayshift nurse. Sunlight, you've been good to me. 

**Want more of what you must have? Take a peak at other must haves here. **

10 things I learned on my Trip to IKEA.

1. Make a list, Check it twice. Once you enter the madness of the Ikea store, your brain goes into stimulation overload and everything you thought you knew you wanted is usurped by everything you think you need now that you are in the store. Creating a list keeps you focused. Their website also has a great link for creating shopping lists.
2. Go with one objective. When we went to Ikea, I had half-way planned out our office and so in the midst of searching for stuff for our Master Bedroom, which I had truly nailed down, I was distracted and constantly saying "well that could go in the office" or "we could do this." There are so many options once you are in the store, so I quickly felt overwhelmed when I was trying to decorate the office without true plans and a clear objective. After realizing that, we went back to our list (see #1) and focused solely on the Master Bedroom which I had completely planned for. 
3. Hydrate.
4. Expect a crowd. Wading through the masses is just part of the Ikea experience. Our second trip to Ikea was much more enjoyable because we knew what to expect.
   
5. Research before you go. There are lots of parts and pieces to achieve a higher end look of Ikea furniture. If you are looking at an Ikea hack, make sure you research all the parts and pieces necessary to get that look and add it to your list. Here are some of my favorite IKEA hacks here and here.
6. Bring a tape measure. I say this all this time but if you are buying a sofa, rug, window treatment, etc measure the area in your home before you go, write those numbers down, and bring those measurements with you. Make sure you know exactly what you need. In such a large store, stuff looks bigger/smaller than it actually is. Once you are in the store, check the measurements against those of your home. 
7. Make a day of it. The store is huge and you will definitely want time to think through your purchases, and find all the parts and pieces you need to create the look you want. This is not a get in and get out type of store (ladies, prepare your husbands appropriately)
   
8. Check sizes. I got ALL the way to the register to find that I had two different length curtains in my bag. Needless to stay I had to make my way back through the Ikea maze again to get the correct size. 
9. Become an Ikea Family member. Its totally free, there is a kiosk in the front where you can sign up, and you save money on select items throughout the store. For instance, we found a large floor mirror that was $20 cheaper with the Ikea Family discount right when we walked in the store. 
10. Have fun!!

Nashville Friends,

BEST NEWS EVER: Memphis is getting an IKEA. 

YAY! YAY! YAY!

Mid-Week Must Haves

1. This fringed wall art by Nate Berkus is amazing. I can't believe it is available through Target.

2. This detailed list js a great reference for organizing your wardrobe.
3. A good friend shared these sconces with me this week, and I think they are fabulous.

4. I am loving this black durie kilim rug.

5. This Mid-Century dresser is the bomb.

I hope you have a fabulous end to your week. 

**Want more of what you must have? Take a peak at other must haves here. **

Gallery Wall Love

I love a good gallery wall. I think they are eye-catching, warm and they just about make me swoon. I love how no two gallery walls are alike, and somehow even the order of the pictures says something about the person who lives in the home they dwell. The great thing about a gallery wall is that it is created over time. You don't have to have a ton of frames to start, and if the space allows, you can continually add to your collection - an ever growing art piece.

We have a collection of frames we melded together in our last house and I have been dying to hang them in our new house. I love reworking old things to fit into a new space. Originally, I had thought of designing a gallery wall around a TV, but as I stared at the blank black canvas of our guest bathroom, I just couldn't resist. Here is how we created an eye catching gallery wall in our guest bathroom (swoon.)

So where do you start? I asked a gal at West Elm who styles the store how she created their amazing gallery walls. Her take: Pick the biggest piece of art and hang it. Grow everything around that one piece. She doesn't measure, she just feels out the wall, the look and the space. And the results are amazing. I think this is great advice for you free-spirited individuals but for my type A self, this was a recipe for disaster (or at least a lot of extra holes in the wall). I compromised with kraft paper and some painter's tape.  

I traced each piece of art on the kraft paper and then cut out the tracing. I also penciled in which piece of art was which on the paper because many of the frames were similar sizes. Then, using painter's tape so that I wouldn't damage the fresh paint (FYI this black paint is SW's Tricorn Black and it is uh-mazing) I placed the largest art first and started placing and rearranging each piece of art until I found the perfect spot for each one. BOOM! Gallery wall magic.

The kraft paper also makes the hanging portion a breeze. Just measure the location of the hanging device on your picture frame and mark it on the kraft paper. Nail through that spot on the kraft paper and then tear the paper off the wall from around the nail. Fool Proof Gallery Wall Hanging in Minutes!

I love how the gallery wall turned out. It has been a great addition to turning the brown grout white and painting the walls black. I keep wandering back to the bathroom just to stare at it. This bathroom has come a long way and I am so amazed by the impact this easy-peesy gallery wall had on the space. Can you believe this is the same room?

If you are looking for a unique way to display your art collection, this is it! There is no right or wrong way to do a gallery wall - its all up to what you like. Share your gallery wall love in the comments section below!

Top 14 Posts of 2014

2015 is off to a slow start and I am enjoying the pace. Ty & I spent an evening with friends, followed by a restful day huddled on the sofa watching college football in between taking dips in the hot tub and reading. It was a great way to enjoy the first day of the year. How did you spend your day? I hope you were also able to ease into the year. In honor of the year that has past, here some of my most popular post from 2014.

1. Organizing the Home Office
2. Guest Room Reveal
3. Installing A New Vanity in Our Retro Blue Bathroom
4. Kitchen Renovation: How to Repair Plaster Walls
5. DIY Basket Art
6. Freshening Up a Kitchen on a Zero Dollar Budget
7. Kitchen Renovation: Budget Breakdown
8. Organizing Gift Wrap
9. One Year Blog-a-Birth-Aversary
10. Master Bedroom Inspiration
11. Our Journey to Financial Freedom
12. Video House Tour: Summer 2014
13. Freshening Up a Living Room on a Zero Dollar Budget
14. Craiglist Tips & Tricks

Happy 2015!