Update: We sold this house in 2015 and moved to our current home. Take the new tour here.
We bought this home in March 2010 and have been slowly working on getting it decorated. I’m trying to remember that interior design is a marathon, not a sprint. We hope to live here forever, so I’m trying to make conscious decisions about what to change instead of jumping on the latest trends that I might regret later. I know that it’s impossible to not have trendy things since the idea of what’s in style changes so fast.
The house was built in 1996, so parts of it were updated by the previous owners and parts of it have been updated by us, but there are still a few walls covered in pink rose wallpaper, I’m not gonna lie. Those rooms are not on the blog yet! Maybe one day soon pink and green wallpaper borders will come back in style and I won’t have to redecorate. Until then, we have had nearly every single room in the house painted since we moved in. I’ll provide a paint chart at the end of this post for anyone interested in my colors.
Everyday when I drive up my driveway I’m in awe that I have been blessed to be the owner of this beautiful home. There is something a bit magical about this three heavily wooded acres in the middle of central Alabama. Every season offers a glimpse of God’s beauty in nature. In summer we get glowing wildflowers and dappled sunlight through the trees. Once a year the lightning bugs go CRAZY in our woods and the whole place is aglow with fireflies dancing all over the place.
In the fall, the tall trees burst into a hundred different shades of orange, yellow, red and brown. Fall is my absolute favorite time of year in this house, even though the amount of leafblowing required afterwards is IN.SANE.
We have seen several nice snowfalls in our short time in this house, which is a bit of a miracle considering it rarely ever snows here in Alabama too often. This one snowfall in 2012 was beautiful but shortlived. I love this night time shot of the house in the snow that I captured.
I’m going to let the pictures speak for themselves for the majority of this post. Most of these photos below are clickable and will open to the original blog entry so feel free to ramble around and visit each room for more info. Since we rarely use our front door, I don’t have a ton of photos of the front stoop. Here is one from the Fall with pumpkins and mums.
When you walk through the front door the DIY photo collage on a column is in the foyer. I made this from an old MDF column that I found at an architectural salvage place.
The stairs are just to the left when you walk in the front door. The living room is open to the stairway, which I love. I really opens up the space.
My husband made the coffee table from an old exterior door. It’s awesome having a handy husband!
Be sure to read my post about how to decorate end tables!
And to see my husband’s made-from-scratch end tables that he made click here:
How to stain unfinished furniture
The dining room is just to the right of the front door. It’s open to the foyer and connects to the kitchen through the butler’s pantry.
The dining room got a fresh coat of slate blue paint as well as a oil rubbed bronze spray paint on the old brass chandelier. That was one of the best things I could have done for that room! Spray paint is such an inexpensive and easy way to update old fixtures.
I also stenciled a design onto the back of the china cabinet to match the wall better. I’m so happy with the results of the stencil.
The Kitchen and Breakfast Nook got some paint and new crown molding, as well as an updated kitchen table after we moved in.
Before we moved in the previous owners updated the cabinetry and counter tops. They did a beautiful job.
Here is the kitchen looking through the butler’s pantry area into the dining room. The pantry, laundry and garage are through the door to the left. Since it’s where I enter the house everyday the butler’s pantry is my catch-all spot for junk. I’m trying to be more organized. Most days I lose the battle.
The sunroom is off of the living room. It’s a half-octagonal shaped room that lends a great view of the entire backyard. It’s one of my favorite rooms in the house. I’m sitting at the desk in the sunroom as I type this.
You might recognize my sunroom from this picture of my little boy that went viral on Pinterest last year. Here is the photo that gave me my Pinterest claim to fame. 🙂 My fifteen minutes was glorious! LOL
There is a small half bath right off the living area on the way to our master bedroom. I believe the previous owners had a wallpaper removal mishap in this room and fixed it by smearing mud all over the walls. It’s not exactly my style, but I don’t feel like scraping mud and starting over so it stays for now!
The master bedroom is on the main level. It got painted Sherwin Williams Retreat when we first moved in. I like the way it makes my light colored bedroom furniture really pop!
Operation de-darkify the master bathroom is complete as of 2014! Huzzah!
Moving upstairs, there is a large balcony area where we have a desk (we have a lot of desks in this house!), some bookcases and a small seating area. This is one of my most favorite things in the house. My husband made this window shadowbox for me as a wedding gift.
Garrett’s Big Boy Bedroom.
In 2013 we stripped the wallpaper from Garrett’s bathroom and gave it a completely new updated look.
Playroom is a FROG (finished room over garage). This is the perfect setup for a playroom, because when it looks like a hurricane hit it I can just shut the door and no one is the wiser. My good friend Allison from HalfofVAMH flew all the way down from Minnesota to help me paint this room. We went with a beach theme, and it’s perfect. It totally brightens up this windowless space.
The third upstairs bedroom just got transformed into my personal office space. It’s become such a wonderful place for me to be, create, hang out, craft, whatever I want to do. I love this room. It included all of my most meaningful things that was a lot of fun to design. I’m really happy with the way this home office turned out.
Last year we finished a huge basement remodel, so let’s move downstairs now!
We had board and batten installed on the steps to the basement. Here is the before and after of that project.
I used a bunch of leftover paint samples to make the staircase unique with different colored risers. Love the way this project turned out.
My husband scored some actual theater chairs from Craigslist that we are using in the room along with some more comfortable sofa and chair.
One of my favorite parts of the room is the crown molding. We painted both the wall and the ceiling and added rope lighting to give a nice ambient light in that room without having overhead lights glaring.
Also in the basement is a finished bathroom where we ride out the tornadoes.
That wraps up the basement. Would you like to see the backyard?
This is where we enter and exit the house most days. All of our guests get greeted at the backdoor, so I try to keep it decorated for the seasons.
Out on the patio is my Pottery Barn knock-off ladder chandelier.
Just steps away from the patio table is the swimming pool. This is where we spend our summers…
I thought the retaining wall needed some color, so we bought these pretty blue planters to break it up a bit.
So there you have it! That wraps up my home tour. I hope you guys enjoyed peeking into my house.
Here is a listing of the paints that I used throughout:
Foyer/ Staircase/ Living room/ Kitchen: Restoration Hardware Silver Sage
Sunroom: Sherwin Williams Seasalt
Dining Room: Custom matched color similar to SW Foggy Day
Powder Room: SW Latte (flat)
Master Bedroom: SW Retreat
Master Bathroom: SW Connected Gray
Basement Theater room: SW Smoky Blue
Basement Kitchenette: SW Awning Red with a few extra drops of black added
Basement Arcade: SW Latte
I wish that we could all sit around my patio and have a drink together instead of meeting online, but I’m still glad we are able to share this blogging community to connect. If you’re like me, you can’t get enough of home decorating and decor blogs.
