Redecorating, part 1

Tonight I spent awhile in Target looking around while Kevin was at home studying. I'm taking a week off the first week in July to work on home projects (organizing the basement, reorganizing the office, adding a few extra house decorative objects), so I thought going to Target would be a fun way to start visualizing some of the changes I want to make.

Here are a few of the items I liked (I only bought one thing just because I'm only starting to figure out exactly what I'm wanting and will likely get items from other stores, too):

OFFICE:

The first thing I found that I liked!  This fits the color theme I really like for the office - and I liked the size and that it is canvas

This was a no-brainer - I wasn't planning on purchasing anything tonight, but obviously this was something I had to snag!

Love this bulletin board 

Great curtains - color and pattern - for the office

Fun organization in good colors and patterns - sorry about the sideways orientation - tried to flip a couple times and gave up

Pack of 4 picture frames in various shades of teal

Not sure if I would need a throw in the office, but I liked this one

Throw pillow - I like the gray with teal - again, not sure if I would need in the office, but I like the color scheme and may incorporate gray with the teal

Cute, and cheap, clock

So, obviously I really honed in on the teal element of the office. I will definitely want to incorporate another color (probably gray or yellow), but I thought this was a good start!

LIVING ROOM:

Another sideways shot - I like the gray and yellow chair a lot! I don't think I would buy furniture from Target, but it's so cheap it might not matter if it didn't last that long.

This looked a lot more gray and yellow in the store - I think I would like this if I went with a neutral chair instead of a pattern

LOVE THIS for the living room!!!

And, just a random shower curtain I liked for the master bath:

What a deal!

Dillards has the Fiesta White deviled egg plate on clearance for $8.05 online! It's normally $23.  We have Noritake Colorwave for our everyday dinnerware, but they don't make a deviled egg plate, so I'm excited to get this in white from Fiesta! 

source

It's working already!

I love our sprinklers.  We haven't even verticut yet, and our yard is already looking so much better!

(Ground) Breaking News

We have a sprinkler system!!

We have been waiting for this moment for 2 years!

Kevin has a new toy!

Hopefully one of the last bare yard pictures in a while

Benton is not convinced this is a good idea!

Yard work, take two

When we bought our house two years ago, the yard looked like this:

We seeded the front and back yard shortly after closing on our home, and the front yard started to look decent.  The back yard?  Well, let me just say I'm glad we have a fence.  Here is a photo that, when zoomed, gives you an idea of what we were dealing with.  The fence is all the way stained now, by the way. :)

It has gotten a little better, but Kevin and I knew we were going to have an uphill battle (pun intended!).

As of this weekend, the backyard looks like this:

We rototilled the back yard.  The grass to weeds ratio was not great, so we thought it would be helpful to start over since we are getting sprinklers.  We will verticut the front and back yard prior to the sprinklers being installed (the end of August), and we are hopeful this will work much better.  The first time we planted, and the subsequent overseedings, we had to use hoses and regular sprinklers.  Oh, the muddy shoe nightmares!

The downside of starting the backyard all over again?

Benton is not happy with us.  

Bedroom updates

I realized in horror recently that I hadn't blogged pictures of our bedroom after we painted LAST YEAR!  I quickly took pictures of a few of my favorite accents, but I promise I will give the entire room its due soon.  

Photos in black and white from Spain: We traveled to Valencia, Spain together in 2008, so it's fun to see reminders of our time there.  

 

Ivory curtains I recently added to give more contrast to our room.  I love the way they look with the wood blinds!

EMHE this Sunday!

Tune in to ABC on Sunday (April 17th) at 7pm Central to see the Hall family (and our neighborhood) on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!  If you are in the Wichita viewing area, there is also a special at 6pm with local news coverage of the build.  Anyone interested in a watch party? :)

And, even though this is a ridiculously bad picture of the end of the press conference they had last week with the family, I felt lame to have another post without pictures.  So, enjoy our kitchen window screen!

Decorating, Outside Edition

Christmas Decorations 2010

We trimmed the tree! The nativity is out! The stockings are hung! It's looking like Christmas at the Reynolds' house!

We love our tree!  We have many ornaments that we've collected together since we first started dating. Every year, we get at least one new ornament (usually two or three, though), and we get sentimental ones for special occasions, too. 

Our First Christmas Ornament from last year

Our fireplace

Merry Christmas!

Bedroom Preview

Our bedroom is finally finished after two coats of paint! I am totally in love with the color (Neptune Blue by Behr in eggshell), but it was my first time ever painting a room anything other than a neutral. Yep, even growing up I always had a white bedroom. My father designed our lake home to be very minimalist in style to showcase the structural elements of the house, meaning even the paint color was minimal, aka white. I love how the house looks, but I always have yearned to use color in paint. So, what do I paint the first two rooms I ever have the opportunity to paint? Beige (in the house my parents bought while I was in college to live in) and gray (our house's guest bedroom). Needless to say, I broke through that trend with this room.


More pictures to come when all the wall art is finalized (we're doing black and white photos of our Europe trips), the curtains have been added (a nice ivory to balance the color a bit), and ivory accessories. I love it, and Kevin really likes it, too!

I really do like neutral colors, but it's nice to have one room that really pops. I think the ivory contrast will also bring out the subtleties in the color more, too!

On a side note, it actually was kind of nice to remove everything but our bed in our bedroom. Kevin may disagree with me on this, but it allowed us to edit everything we have in there instead of just keeping things exactly the way they were. All of our furniture is of course back in the room, but I'm slowly adding back decorations.

Upcoming painting

Here is a look at what we are pretty sure we will be using for paint in a couple of weeks! I know, we've almost been in our home now for a year, but I really like to know for sure that I like a color and it's not just based on a season (otherwise, every spring I would have all brightly colored walls and fall would all be brown and beige). I also really wanted Kevin to like the colors, and he doesn't get as excited and motivated as I am for picking colors. Without further ado:

For the master bedroom:

Neptune Blue - our bedding is light taupe and cream, and we will be using cream accents (lampshades, curtains, and photo frames) to brighten up the room to counteract the intensity of the color.

For the living room, hallway, and guest bath

Sandstone cove - just a bit of warmth. To be honest, this is the color most likely to change. If we get the sample and it's not the right darkness, we may adjust.


For the kitchen/dining and master bath
Koala bear - a grayish hue with a tint of green (in case monitors make it difficult to see the green). We have a sage green curtain in our kitchen, so this will be a nice neutral to go with that without making it too matchy-matchy.



For our front door

New brick - our house is ultimate beige and portobello (light beige and light brown) with a beige color brick, so we're hoping this will give a bit of color to the house. Again, we are definitely going to get a sample to make sure we like it.


And, just for continuity, here is the color we chose for our guest bedroom that we've already painted. We LOVE how it turned out.

Dolphin Fin Gray

Photo credits: www.homedepot.com

Let me know your thoughts!

Guest room paint

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from painting our guest room over Memorial Day weekend. Kevin and I really like how it turned out. We wanted it to be a light gray to coordinate with the linens we have in there for the guest room now. It doesn't show up super well in the photos, but you can definitely tell it is gray in person. Someday, this will become the nursery, so it didn't have to be a long-term commitment to the color. We chose dolphin fin grey in an eggshell finish by Behr.

Master Bedroom

Our bedroom is an elegant space, and I am enjoying finding the perfect touches to add to it. I love our ceiling fan, and I can't wait to hang up some of our wedding pictures!

Our Bathrooms

Our main level has two bathrooms (one in the hallway and one in the master suite). Eventually when we finish the basement, there will be an additional bathroom in the basement. The hallway bathroom has red and brown for color accents (and will probably be painted tan or beige), and the master bathroom has blue and green accents (and will probably be painted a fresh green).

The Office

We're not sure what color we want to paint our office, but we have several wall decorations to hang in here to give it color if we decide to wait on painting in here. It's a nice room to pay bills, apply for jobs, and stay in touch with friends and family (and blog!)!

Be our guest

Our guest room is such a fun room because we have memorabilia and pictures of our family and friends. We're thinking of painting it a very delicate light grey to coordinate with our linens. If you are ever in the Wichita area, come on over! We love having guests. Kevin's sisters took turns this weekend staying with us, and it was great. My parents have also stayed with us twice.

Living room

Our favorite part of our living room is our fireplace. It's a gas starter, and I can already picture our Christmas stockings and decorations with the fireplace going.

Our kitchen, dining area, and laundry room

We love our kitchen. It has plenty of room for all of our utensils, cookware, and appliances.


Our laundry room is right off of the garage on the way to the kitchen. I love having it on the main floor, and it is a great location to do laundry while I'm cooking or cleaning in the kitchen.


Our dining area is off the kitchen, and it has access to the covered deck on the right of the table (see previous post).
We are planning on painting eventually. With all the house setup, it just didn't seem like a huge rush to paint since it was newly painted as a new-construction house. For the main area of the house (including kitchen, dining area, and laundry), we are planning on going with a tan or beige color to warm it up a bit. Otherwise, this area just needs a few pictures hung, and we will eventually figure out what type of curtains we want for the deck sliding glass doors.