Creating The 2021 Mood...Board

Cheers to a new year! 

I could start this post by writing about how much of a dumpster fire I thought 2020 was. But literally, everyone and their cousin have already done that. So instead, I'm going to skip the negativity and actually acknowledge the accomplishments and shining moments that happened last year. 

To name a few; we celebrated Eric's sister getting engaged, Harrison turned one and had the cutest little virtual birthday party ever, found out we were pregnant with Baby #2, sent love and happiness to a handful of friends and family members who got married, many babies were born, Harrison learned to say a dozen new words and now has countless tricks, both Eric and I discovered we can work remotely without missing a beat, sold our first house, moved into our new house, and lastly, had a quiet little Christmas that might be remembered as one of my favorites. 

I am thankful. Every. Single. Day. 

Your word creates your world. So let's begin creating 2021 as the year we count our blessings, care for others, and just be kind. You want this year to be better? Then speak it into existence! 

So what am I creating for the year? Well for starters I'm creating an environment that is a reflection of myself and my family. Our new house is a blank canvas, and my goal is to transform it into a warm and beautiful space that's functional as well as a teensy bit funky. Planning the style for a whole house is a big task though, so I first took to Pinterest to help organize my thoughts. I created a "new house" board with sections for each room, and any color or decor inspiration that struck my fancy was sorted into its proper place. This was extremely helpful and let me look at everything as a whole.

After a while, I took all the photos I'd gathered and started getting in the mood. Mood BOARD that is! This is hands down my favorite part. Seeing a room come together piece by piece is like a gigantic design puzzle that technically has no "right" answer and a million different ways to solve it.

The first room I worked on was the kitchen. I've dreamed of deep teal cabinets for, like, YEARS. Teal cabinets with glam hardware and a bold backsplash. That's all I've ever wanted. And maybe it's because we've been married for almost 10 years and he's finally learned to trust my vision, or I've just worn him down, but Eric actually agreed with me when I showed him my idea. I want to remove a set of cabinets and swap for floating wooden shelves to bring in more tones from the floor, update the lighting, install hardware, and add a backsplash.

The white wall color will continue through the kitchen and into the living room since it's all an open space. As for paint, I'm following the professional opinion of Mandi from Vintage Revivals and giving her perfect white a try. White walls may seem boring at first, but it really gives us a lot of freedom to bring color and texture everywhere else without being overpowering. To balance the pattern of the kitchen backsplash, I really want to paint our fireplace black and flank it with built-ins. This will also help hide our tv when it's turned off since the whole space above the fireplace will be black as well. More gold light fixtures, a huge rug, and of course plants will all help tie this room together. 

In the opposite direction of the living room is the dining room, followed by the playroom. We've already purchased the gold chandelier and are keeping our original table and chairs. I would like to upgrade our little china cabinet for a larger piece and replace the red rug with something that has more color variations. For the walls, I'm really digging these inspo pics of a lower half painted white with a chair rail, and the upper half black...even the ceiling. 

The playroom is where all of the kid's toys are currently located, so along with a soft rug, I'd like to create a lot of storage with bookcases or cubbies. I have this wild idea to put up chicken wire on the walls so we can clip their artwork up to display, but we'll see. 

There are a couple more spaces downstairs, but I don't have boards for those...yet. So let's move upstairs to the master bedroom! Here I really struggled. I had all of these images saved with beautiful dusty green walls and was convinced that was the direction I wanted to go. But as soon as I started putting color on the walls, I hated them. All of them. Nothing about the greens got me excited, and Eric literally said "I don't really want to wake up to any of these colors." Thumbs down. 

So like Ross on Friends, I pivoted, and bought a rug! Figured that would be one of the more expensive purchases we make, and finding a color to pull from there would be WAY easier than randomly picking one from the deck. 

Even with it still rolled up but laying near our tossed pile of pillows, it's STUNNING! What was the lesson learned? Don't try to force something just because of a bright and shiny pic online. Trust your gut and go with what brings you joy! For me, that's jewel tones with mid-century modern accents. So as of now the wall color is yet to be determined, but we'll see if I can find those dressers I'm dreaming about. Someday! 

The last few rooms I have pulled together are for the kiddos! Of course, I'm super stoked about the nursery. The mood I'm going for is tropical boho. Just think pink, gold, and ALL of the pineapple decorations. This will be my first experience with removable wallpaper, so if anyone has advice let me know! 

For Mr. Harrison, I wanted to feature his current obsession with "vroom vrooms". Which translates to cars, trucks, trains, and pretty much anything with an engine. I still really love the dark blue color we used in his nursery, so that may come back, along with car decals, the red rug from the dining room, and an industrial light fixture to "man" it up a little more. 

Seeing all of these rooms come together makes me so happy! Now we just need to get to work. Especially since we're down to 1 hand with the number of weeks until this baby is scheduled to arrive (eeeek!). 

Check out all of our home improvements, by visiting the OUR NEST page.

Greenery + Glam Florida Dream Home

It's only the middle of April, and technically Spring, but these random days of toasty temps have me jonesin' for Summertime SO hard core! All I can dream about is our trip to Florida this coming July. The sway of palm trees in the breeze, squishing warm sand between my toes, relaxing on a tropical paradise while sipping ice cold Mai Tais garnished with fresh pineapple...

Heaven.

Could you imagine actually LIVING in such a place? Never having to leave, whimper "bye bye beach...", or make the depressing journey back up North? Well thanks to Douglas Elliman, I was the given chance to imagine my little heart away!

I was recently contacted by their Florida real estate team to create my own personal dream space featuring Pantone's 2017 Color of the Year; greenery. I'm currently OBSESSED with greenery and plant-life, so in the words of Barney Stinson; "Challenge accepted!" 

Since this is Florida we're talking about, the traditional solution would be to do something with a cool "coastal" or "seaside" vibe. Well. I am anything BUT traditional, and my vibe was groovin' to the tune of GREEN and GLAM! 

Curtains | Paint | Hanging Planter (similar) | Pothos Vine (similar) | Fiddle Leaf Fig (similar) | Snake Plant (similar) | Jute Rug | Hide Rug | Sofa | Lamp | Accent Chair | Coffee Table | Side Table | Agate | White Pillow | Pink Pillow | Gold Pillow

When decorating a space, one thing to take into consideration is how to enjoy it all year long. As I was searching for the perfect wall color, I knew it had to be something light and airy. Florida isn't called "the sunshine state" for nothing, the sky is blue, the palms are green, and what color doesn't accent those two any better than PINK!? I found a beautiful tint by Benjamin Moore, and paired it with ALL OF THE PLANTS! 

Greenery is such a simple way to breath fresh life into a room, which is convenient, because palm-leaf is SUPER on trend right now. Don't have a green thumb? No sweat! These patterned curtains bring in some organic whimsy, don't need watering, and look stunning behind that blue statement sofa with it's classic lines. Jute and hide rugs provide a level of texture, along with the metal elements from the coffee table, lamp, and accent chair. Finish things up with a punch of color via a throw pillow or two, and this room is as gorgeous as the tropical beach it resides on! 

Watching a room come together is SO SATISFYING! All the elements fall into place, you take a step back, and everything just jives. PS I've been fantasizing about curling up on that couch, watching the dolphins and mermaids play in the ocean, ALL DAY LONG! But I guess that's why they call it a Florida dream home, it's just that, a dream. 

Now excuse me while I go back to my IRL home in Ohio, where there are absolutely NO mermaids, and count down the days until Summer vacation. 



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