a velvet persuasion

visiting lil sis this weekend was eye-opening!  who knew her little 2-bedroom townhouse held the masses of treasures that it did to fill a significant portion of the new home!!!

we had a combined Happy Birthday Chris party with a housewarming on Saturday night - and with my mom and aunt unpacking and arranging all week, together with Bernie and Deb's handiness around the house - it looked amazing!

even though they have some great amazing furniture  - jeff and cover are still searching for a few key pieces to fit in with their new decor.  I am trying to convince Cover to get a tufted velvet chaise or settee for the sitting space in their bedroom, or for a sitting area in their massive office.  As much as I'm a huge fan of greige - some color is needed...

the original inspiration, from Lauren Liess of Pure Style Home:

here are some other inspirations:

Lonny Magazine

Nate Berkus

Crate and Barrel

Urban Outfitters

my good friend Allison's house

oh my I love this one and was extremely sad to find that the $495 pricetag was for a rental... at Bridge Furniture and Props

Urban Outfitters

I'll be on the search for some pillows for myself in the meantime...

home improvement anxiety

Last weekend I spend 20+ hours between Friday night and Sunday night doing a little DIY weekend... self torture intended initially to encourage and inspire Jimmy to start volunteering to be so proactive as to want to help strip paint. 

it ended up involving wayyyy too much solo time (he got stuck at work conveniently) looking straight up while I fixed cracks, primed, and painted a ceiling, + 3 rooms-worth of flaking paint removal and trim painting, + a staircase update.  what in the world was I thinking, and was it my mother, or maybe my mother-in-law, that I thought I needed to impress?  "were are you going to find your charm without a little crack here and there?" should've been my mantra and I could've avoided all the nonsense.

 

yes, that is the edge of a moustache left over from our awesome Mexifest stuck on the fridge.  i can't part with it

On to the meat of the subject: our staircase to the basement, which can seem quite daunting..that is, until we added our sick rumble strips!  {grrrrrrr!}  Jimmy's taken measurements for new handrails on either side too.

Piper was more than a little anxious about the new black enemy invaders on her steps though, and each trip to the basement now requires our coaxing from the bottom of the stairs! ha.

 

 obviously i never obtain tremendous amounts of entertainment from my neurotic 75 pound canine.  i'm not laughing at your five-minute descent into the wonderful world of the basement, Piper, i'm just not that cruel.

Duh part deux

A while ago I did a post about Duh, my favorite home decor store, that happens to be in Pensacola.  {see it here.}  Another trip to the store, so I have some more inspirations for you!

Once again - disclaimer that these photos were taken with an iPhone camera!!! very blurry. But I still love looking at them!

 

I love all the taxidermy!  ... it is a fine line though... I have recently raided our hunting camp for some deer antlers that are now proudly displayed on my bookshelf.  That is about as close as I can justify getting to taxidermy on Windsor.

The Foyer Mirror Search

My good friend, Laura, who lives in Raleigh, recently bought her house-house with her new husband!  This is not a starter home, this is the real deal.  And, along with a real home comes some real space!  So, she has a void in the foyer (sorry so blurry!) that is begging for a mirror.  She has preferences for a gold mirror, but nothing crazy or boring....

So I have compiled a bunch of my favorites!!  A lot of these are from Duh, my favorite store in Pensacola, or Richard Tubbs here in Birmingham.  Some are from different other blogs (sorry for negligent credits, I have had these in my favorites file for so long), and a few are easy to buy straight from favorites like Ballard Designs, which has some great, affordable mirrors!

Duh

notice Kee!  I love this one!

Richard Tubbs

Ballard Designs

(love this one!)  Find it here

and finally, ideas from other fabulous homes!!!

as far as I'm concerned, the bigger the better - look hard to the right but this one could be IT: simple and the perfect statement!