I Spy...

Our new shutters finally came in!

On a rainy Tuesday the nice man came from San Antonio and installed the plantation shutters in our master bedroom and the upstairs game room. Yay! We were so excited to take the paper blinds off that have been up since we moved in two Decembers ago!

Before game room (Tony took off the paper blinds before I got upstairs to take a picture):

After game room:

Before master bedroom:

After master bedroom:

Next up on our list is to order the shutters for our three bedrooms upstairs and get a sectional couch and flat screen for the game room. Right now the game room is just sort of a holding place for things we don't use. We want to make it a nice family room where we can have movie nights and just relax without messing up our living room downstairs. We'll update more when we find the right couch...whenever that may be with us two picky people. :)

Slowly But Surely...

We're decorating our master bedroom! So far we've painted the room, bought the bedroom set, acquired our beautiful TV that sadly now brings me as much joy as it does to Tony (see previous posts). Over spring break we're getting in the plantation shutters we ordered almost six weeks ago.

Today we stumbled on a pair of lamps that we both loved! This is no small feat considering Tony likes to have a big say in what accessories we get for the house. As much as it bugs me that I can't just get a pretty floral print (country boy's not so big on floral prints) I love that he really cares how our home looks.

Anyway, here's our nightstands before:

mine

Tony's

And here they are after:

mine

Tony's

Here's a night shot (sorry for the blurriness) of our bed and nightstands.

We still want to find some small mirrors and hang them behind the lamps to give the room some dimension as well as an art piece above our bed. Next on our list is to get the crown molding installed, find the perfect duvet and pillows for the bed, and get a couple of comfy chairs for the sitting area when you enter our room to the left. It's a slow process but it's just the way we wanted it to be to make sure we love each piece we get no matter how long it takes to find.

In other news it's the week before Spring Break!

Today I cooked enough meals and packed enough lunches to be set through Wednesday! Happy Sunday!

Living Room: The Project

Tony and I promised each other that when we moved into our house we would not go crazy buying up stuff for the house just to fill it up. We wanted to take our time, find pieces we love, and make our house feel traditional, comfy, and unique. I wanted to make sure we didn't just go to a box store, pick out an entire room set down to the lamps and pictures and bring it home. Something about the idea that 100s of other families across the world may have the EXACT same living room I just find odd. Anyway, we also wanted to make sure we didn't blow the budget and make ourselves prisoners of our new home.

So here we are eight months later still working on our living room. To be fair to ourselves, we've come a LONG way.

When we moved in all we had were our two couches from my previous apartment that were bought at a big box store. We picked out a chocolate/gray paint color for the room and spent our Christmas break painting. We also spent a few weekends driving down to the Pottery Barn outlet in San Marcos and found AMAZING deals for items that were on sale full price on their website. We got the TV stand, coffee table and side tables from there. We still had paper blinds because we had plantation shutters on order. At that point, we were here:

The coffee table wasn't in this picture. The big problem with this setup was the lack of a rug. With our little runner of a dog he quickly began to destroy our beautiful wood floors. So a month later we finally decided on a rug. We also rearranged the furniture to get a more "conversational" feel to the room.

Now, we're left with finding art work for the walls and window treatments. I know it's going to take a while to find art work because 1) I'm not paying a fortune for a print and 2) we're both picky people. Here's the window we're working on right now.

We want simple, long drapes that will just be for decoration. They'll hang on the sides of the shutters. Last weekend, Tony and I found a beautiful fabric and curtain rod that were at killer prices. My mom has started on the sewing process. Here she is in our formal dining room, a room that is also a work in progress for us. Baby steps...

They're ready to be hung but we haven't had the time to mount the curtain rod. A finished picture of the whole room to come soon!