Mint

Our bathroom has no storage (and it’s tiny) so we picked up these shelves from Ikea and organized our things within baskets. I’m digging it.

1: vintage woven basket from trampoline / 2: vintage blue basket from Confetti Garden / 3: magazine basket from West Elm / 4: Senegalese handmade basket from Connected / 5: vintage wire basket from Moxie Thrift

The house my husband and I bought last fall wasn’t the house we were looking for. In our minds, we were thinking a home built between 1900 and 1940 with tons of character, light, and a big backyard. It didn’t take long before we realized that kind of house in the neighborhoods we liked wasn’t exactly in the budget.

We bought a 1950s house with the right balance of charm, affordability, and projects. It has some pretty outdated features (popcorn ceilings, dark wood paneling, some carpet, and a kitchen that makes us cringe) but we love it. To pieces. The updating has been slower than we thought of course. Like a lot of first-time home buyers we underestimated how long things take and how much they cost!

One of the first things we started on was the sunroom, which I referred to as “a one weekend project” (as my husband likes to remind me). Two to three tubes of caulk, three gallons of paint, and four months later, the room is finally a bright white. We haven’t started the trim because at first I thought I’d want to leave it wood. But the reason I wanted to show you guys this room today is — LOOK what was underneath the carpet! We were positive it was plywood under there, but were so thrilled to find porch floor boards. This weekend we put insulation in the crawlspace underneath and started removing the carpet.

We envisioned the room with bold black and white tiles on the floors, lots of plants, books, a couple of comfortable chairs, and a kilim rug or two. But now that we have floorboards to work with, I’m thinking a painted pattern instead of tile, just like:

(spotted in We Own The Night)

More inspiration —

Bright bold rug and lots of books, Ford Wheeler’s home on The Selby; stand-out windows, plants, and vintage furniture, Nina Shen’s home on Design Sponge; Lori Dunbar’s painted floors on Design Sponge

Vincent C. Richel’s rustic wood shelving on Remodelista; a Kilim rug on The Brick House; plants from Air Plant Supply Co on Etsy

So excited!!

We’re making slow but steady progress on the new house. After the holidays, we hung a bunch of artwork on the walls, and presto — our new place really felt like home. I bought this piece from Michelle C. Moode at a printmaking conference about 5 or 6 years ago, and it’s still one of my favorite things I own. I love the combination of the stitching with french knots, the ink, and printmaking.

Most of our new-house projects have been of the non-glamorous, non-photogenic variety. We quickly realized that washing machine/plumbing problems and the busyness of the holiday season trumped decorating dilemmas, so our kitchen looks just like it did on the day we moved in, and we’re still working our way through boxes. But! We did make one big change… our dining room, which was inexplicably painted three different shades of white, is now a beautiful light gray with bright white trim. (You guys gave us a ton of great tips on the grey color, and we ended up going with Sherwin Williams’ On The Rocks).

And our ugly chandelier got a quick DIY makeover, which only took us an hour, some new bulbs, and a can of black spray paint. Voila!

We’re all moved in to our new house, but the settling in part… let’s just say it’s going slowly. Who knew it would take 4 coats of paint to cover wood paneling? Or that hanging blinds on, like, 20 windows could be so time consuming? But it’s coming along and with every unpacked box it feels more and more like home. Last weekend we hit up the Raleigh Flea Market to find a TV stand and living room chair. Let’s just say the flea market has been very good to me lately, and of course we came home with a few things that weren’t exactly on the shopping list. Above, a couple of vintage chairs ($35 each) and a standing lamp ($15) in our living room.

An old dresser ($30) which we turned into a TV stand with a shelf for electronics, and an orange knob I bought without knowing where it would go ($7).

Old salt and pepper shakers are good places to store paper clips and push pins! Sculpture, mine, and salt and pepper shakers were bought a few months ago and I’ve forgotten the price.

A little $8 snuff bottle which I couldn’t leave behind. It caught my eye a few weekends ago, and when I saw it was still available I had to bring it home.

Sweet little rusty pig, you. $5.