New Wood Floors!

An exciting addition was added to our home a few weeks ago...Wood floors!

Well, technically they are laminate wood. 

But they are beautiful and I couldn't be more happy with how they turned out!

And I got a great deal, so I am extra happy!

Like I said, we decided to get laminate wood instead of real wood for

 a number of reasons. When we actually learned the difference between

 the two, having laminate floors wasn't even a question!

Here are the benefits of laminate wood compared to real wood floors.

1. They don't fade in the sun.  Living in Arizona, sun is obviously something I can not avoid.

 (However, I do try my best. My mom refers to be previous 

room at her house, and even my house now, as a cave. 

 If i want to see the sun, I'll go outside :)  

Anyways, if I chose to have the shutters and windows open, I do not have to worry about my floors fading over time. Also, if I decide to add on to the floors I already have, I don't have to worry about the colors not matching due to fading.

2. They are stain resistant. When we were first talking to the salesman, he gave me a piece of the laminate and a sharpie. He told me to draw on the wood. I drew squiggles and colored in circles with the sharpie. He took a cotton ball with nail polish remover, and THE MARKINGS CAME OFF THE LAMINATE! I was pretty much sold at that point. I know somewhere in the way, way, distant future I will probably decide to have a kid and now I don't have to worry about them ruining my floors with markers and paint.

Side Story: The FIRST DAY of install, we decided to paint the laundry room before the floors went in there. We trailed some paint on our feet and on to some laminate that was already put down. (We couldn't keep it clean for 12 hours!) I got my nail polish remover and the paint came off the floors!

3. They are burn resistant. Also during the sales pitch, the salesman put a lighter to the laminate. It didn't catch fire and burn, but it did leave a black mark on the laminate sample. Again it was removed with nail polish remover. We have the wood around the fire place, so I don't have to worry about them getting damaged by the flames or smoke. Also the laminate won't burn up causing my house to burn down, which is a good thing :)

4. They are a lot harder to scratch. I won't say its impossible to scratch the surface, but its pretty hard. The laminate is coated with some type of magical gloss finish the protects the surface and it's pretty hard to penetrate it to the point to ruin the floors. If however, they do get scratched down the road, I have a 30 year warranty. I questioned the guy up and down about what is covered in the warranty, since most warranties are pointless in my opinion. Pretty much as long as I don't take a knife and carve into the floors, I'm good :)

5. They are cheaper than real wood. Laminate wood is literally half (if not more) the price of what real wood floors are. Obviously they don't feel the same, the laminate is more glossy and smooth, but I was not willing to pay the price of real wood, and honestly I didn't like my color choices. The ones that first attracted my eye were laminate.

 There are two options when choosing laminate. You can have a smooth solid surface (only for about 80ft then they have to put a connector in to start the solid surface again, if that makes sense...) or have the rivets to make it look like planks and resemble real wood. As you can tell by the pictures, we chose the latter.

6. They are super easy to clean. All you need is a swiffer with the wet pads and your good!

All in all, we are very happy with our decision, choice of laminate, choice of color, and outcome of this home project. We will be paying for it the next year or so, but it's worth it!

Before:

AFTER:

We got the floors throughout the whole down 

stairs, except the master bedroom.

We have gotten amazing feedback so far and I think the floors

 make the house look more open and bigger! 

What do you think!?

Finished Dining Room

The final touches to finish the dining room were finished this past weekend. 

I can happily say the dining room is DONE!

Now we need to have a dinner party :)

We re-did the WHOLE room, from flooring to wall colors.

How it looked when we moved in.

When we first moved in, we painted the dining room Revere Pewter from Benjamin Moore. This is probably my favorite color in the whole house. It is a simple, light grey color. It's beautiful!

We also used this color in the kitchen, hallway and up the stairs. It's light enough to be a neutral color, but still has the grey, cool, tones to make it a little different than a plain neutral color. 

We got our giant gorgeous dining room table from a family friend for free!

THANKS MYRA! We LOVE it! :)

The next thing we did to the dining room was paint the bar. 

We painted this to match the kitchen cabinets and to also get rid of the plain builder's grade cabinet color. The color is Beluga by Behr.

Myra also gave us all the stem ware you see :)

After all the painting was done, my biggest priority for the dining room was the windows. We had the DISGUSTING vertical blinds, but one window was bare. I did not like the thought of my creepy (possibly drug-dealing neighbors) looking into my house. 

I have ALWAYS wanted shutters. (I have been pretty much making 

plans to decorate my own home since I was 10, and shutters 

were definitely in those plans)

I am in LOVE with the shutters we picked. I chose white just to keep it neutral and have an open feeling. It also will match any decor and paint color if we chose to re-decorate down the line. 

We got our shutters from AZ Windows and Blinds

We also brought these shutters into the family room. 

Recently we put in hardwood floors downstairs, including the dining room. I always thought it was weird to have carpet in the dining room, so I was thrilled at the thought of having the hardwood make the dining room more elegant and formal. We got a great deal from Empire Flooring. I am very happy with how they turned out!

Aren't they beautiful!? 

Majority of the decorations in this room are from hobby lobby. 

The rug is from AT HOME

 (This one is 8x10, eventually I will get a 9x12 to fit the table better)

The finishing touches for the dining room included a new chandelier.

 There is nothing wrong with the one that came with the house 

except the color. I wanted an iron

 chandelier to match with our colors and theme. 

I was deciding between these two. Both of these are from Home Depot Online.

I have found that they have WAY nicer things online that they don't carry in the store. 

I chose the first one because it was more elegant. 

I like the curves on the other one, but it had a 

mid-century, mid-evil feel to it and that wasn't what I was going for.

Old Chandelier 

New Chandelier

We are extremely happy with how this whole room came together!

Downstairs Guest Bathroom: Before & After!

Here are the before pictures of our downstairs guest bathroom. 

Everything was builders-grade and at least 20 years old. The toilet was pretty short (we are convinced little people used to live here) We pretty much changed everything and upgraded it to look like a whole new room that I am not embarrassed for guests to see :)

After:

Our first step was to take everything out and paint the room. I choose a light neutral color. I didn't want the room to feel too small, so I felt a light, neutral color was the best way to go. I also wanted a color that complemented the red accents I planned on putting in the room. 

We painted the room Muslin by Benjamin Moore

I really wanted to get a nice sink. I have always 

wanted a vanity that doesn't look like a typical bathroom vanity, 

but more like a piece of furniture. 

I found this one online at Home Depot and was nervous to

 order it without seeing it first, but when i got it, i was very happy!

It's beautiful and fits our French/European theme well! 

Ryan also learned how to replace a toilet! 

Now we have a toilet that is new, clean, and for an average sized person :) 

You can't really see the color of the paint in the

 pictures, but trust me, its gorgeous! :)

We are still deciding if we want to get a medicine cabinet 

or just fill in the space from the old one. I don't want that corner to look too crowded. 

Mirror from AT HOME

Light from Lowes

Faucet from Lowes

"Bathroom" toilet paper stand from Hobby Lobby

(66% off :) ) 

We still need to get a little mat for the sink

Towel rack from Lowes

Towels from Kohls

Floral wall decor from Hobby Lobby (66% off!)

Eiffel tower stand from Hobby Lobby

Frame from Joss & Main

Plant from Hobby Lobby

This picture is what inspired my decorations for this room. 

I loved the pop of red! We got this beauty from Kirklands.

This has quickly become one of my favorite rooms that we have re-done! 

Summer Lantern Swags!

Here's a fun summer craft I came up with this weekend!

I had lots of florals left from other projects, and 

created this "Lantern swag" to tie to the top of lanterns, candle sticks, 

and more for a fun pop of color!

I am excited to make more for 

future seasons, especially fall! :)

DIY: Spring/Summer Floral Arrangement

DIY SPRING/SUMMER FLORAL ARRANGEMENT!

I saw a beautiful floral arrangement at Hobby Lobby,

 and instead of paying $169.00 for it, I 

decided to try to make my own!

I bought all the florals at Michaels. 

They are currently having a 70% off 

sale on all their "spring stems"

I bought the pot a while ago from

 Hobby Lobby when it was 50% off.

I love how it turned out! 

It brings in beautiful colors 

and a summery feel to the dining room

SUPPLIES:

6 (or more) Floral Stems (I chose dahlias)
2 (or more) Greenery for filler
3 (or more) decorative spring colored beaded stems

1 decorative pot
brick of floral foam (cut up to size of pot)

• 

  hot glue gun
  scissors
  towel (to protect table)
  floral stem cutters
  butter knife (to cut foam)
  
  
  STEPS:
  
  
  

  1. Lay out all supplies and cut the floral foam to fit inside of your pot
  2. Start by cutting one stem at a time to desired length. You can put the foam and stem in the pot to see how high it will be. Make sure to cut the stems at different lengths to give it a more layered and natural look.
  3. Start placing each stem into the floral foam.
  4. Once the floral stems are in, start placing the beaded stems between the florals. Work with it until you have it how you like it. 
  5. If needed, use the greenery to fill spots that may look empty so your arrangement is full and lush from all angles.
  6. Hot glue all stems into the foam.

  
  

  

  It's hard to see in the picture, but all the stems 

  are glued to the foam to give them extra support.

  
  

  7. Place foam with everything attached into your pot. At this point, you can hot glue the foam to the pot. I didn't do that incase I wanted to use the pot again for another arrangement, I can just switch out the arrangement for whatever season. If you don't glue the foam to the pot, put the foam in and crumple pages of magazines and stuff it around the foam until the arrangement is center and supported enough so it won't move around.

  8. Lastly, use fake moss to lay over the foam and the crumpled paper so you can't see them. 

Impulsive new bed and dresser purchase :)

So it all started when Ryan decided he wanted a new, taller, dresser.

We decided we could move our current dresser upstairs

 and get a new one for the master bedroom.

We went to Mor Furniture, where we have purchased all our furniture

 so far, because they have a clearance section where they sell the floor models and returned

 furniture that they can't resell for AMAZING prices. 

When we walked into the room, we saw the most beautiful bed 

ever. It is a big "mansion" bed with gorgeous detailing.

It matches great with our other decor and fits with what we want our room to look like. The 

gorgeous detailing also matching the drapery in our room! 

At first I assumed there had to be some major damage

 because I figured it would have already been bought

 since it was only $280 for a KING SIZE BED! 

We sat there for a while contemplating since we don't need a 

new bed because we bought one only 1 year ago!

We decided to think about it while we walked around the store

 because Ryan didn't see any dressers in the clearance center that he liked. 

And of course the one he found that he liked and that 

matched his height requirement was the matching dresser to 

the bed in the clearance center.

After much deliberation, I caved and agreed to get the

 dresser which meant, of course I wanted the matching bed. 

I know it was a complete unnecessary purchase, but I decided 

we should treat ourselves since we both work hard :)

And here is our new bed and dresser 

:)