Welcome to Home Made Lovely, an inspiring home tour series.

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Hi!  I’m Sasha and I blog over at Lemonade Makin’ Mama.  I spend my time there sharing about family, baking, faith, and celebrating life moments with gobs of photographs. My man and I have been on a journey to open our heart and home to anyone and everyone over the past few years, and have been slowly transforming an ordinary and slightly generic spec. house into a comfortable and homey space.  I absolutely adore Heather and her sweet heart, not to mention her mad creativity, so when she asked me if I’d like to join her home tour I was thrilled to say yes!  I can’t think of anything quite as fun as inviting you on a tour of my digs.  

Creating a lovely home means different things to many people, but the goal I always have in mind when I’m choosing anything or redecorranging the components, is making it a haven for everyone.  A year and a half ago, my husband took a job transfer that really motivated me to make our home a haven of rest for him when he returns at night.  It felt like a gift I could give him for working so hard for us each day.  Ultimately I want everyone who walks through our doors to feel that sense of love, calm and rest… I want every friend, family member and guest to leave refreshed.  I also try and make economical choices because I’ve got Pottery Barn taste and a garage sale budget.

When we first moved into this home, all of the woodwork was builder-grade oak, and the fixtures were unattractive brass. There was ugly linoleum and cheap carpet.  We loved this house from the minute we walked through the doors.  We’ve lived here nearly ten years and in that time we have added a window in the dining room, painted all of the cabinets, doors, and trim.  Replaced counter tops, painted, changed every light fixture and some of the faucets.  We have replaced flooring and the best thing we did was wall off the front room of our home with french doors, creating a more separate office/den/guest room.  Our children’s toddler sized hand prints adorn a corner of the backyard patio and we have made almost every family memory in this home. (You can see before photos and read all about our kitchen renovations in this post.)

We painted our island a rich gray-green, and  I can’t begin to tell you how much I love having it like this. I used liquid nails to adhere a piece of bead board and trim to the front of my dishwasher and we used a clearance light fixture with the lighting parts removed for a pot rack.

I covered pieces of foam core board with fabric and used hot glue to adhere it.  Then I placed them behind my dishes.  Easy, inexpensive, and I can pop them out and hot glue different fabric to them whenever I need a change!

Because our dining, kitchen, and family room are all one big open room, we made sure the colors don’t compete.  I kept the paint light and airy for nice flow.  I guess you could say that though I adore color and find ways of weaving it in everywhere, I’m also the queen of neutrals. We love having two pendants above our table.  We found inexpensive metal lights at Lowes and then sprayed them with primer, a copper color, and finally covered it all with oil rubbed bronze.  After they were all dry we lightly sanded them to show a bit of the copper through the oil rubbed bronze and we screwed Edison bulbs into place for a cozy feel.

There are pieces of me scattered in every corner of this house.  Paintings I did, pillow covers I sewed.  Mirrors we salvaged and framed to look like a window, an oar my son found me that we painted together, chalkboards we created from scrap piles, dozens of painted items that have been repurposed or tweaked and photographs of hundreds of memories, scattered throughout the entire home.  I know this is silly but I like to think that if something ever happened to me, my children would still feel my touch in every room.

Here is our office/den/guest space.  It’s tiny but it was a room without purpose for most of the time we lived here until last Summer. We hired a friend to build a wall and french doors, creating an actual room. (You can read about making perfectly striped walls and see a few before photos of this room in this post. You can see  our old trim work and doors before they were painted too!)   I love hosting family and friends so much.  My goal and hope is that they would be able to relax and unwind and feel pampered.  I heap the bed with good quality pillows, high thread-count sheets found at discount shops like TJ Maxx and of course, lots of textures and luxe bedding options for them. My children are frequently found reading on this bed-especially when I am on the computer.  I love that.  

Our family office.  You don’t want to open these doors.  Things really will fall out on your head. I should probably do something about that. 

Those antlers were a surprise gift from my extended family that live in Montana. I love them so!

 My son didn’t really care what I did with his room and gave me free reign.  I chose some clearance-priced bedding in greens, blues and grays and now he loves it.  Tara from Between You and Me made his sign.  I believe it’s the best part of his room and pray that it inspires him to be a man who loves his God with all his heart.

Tween boy details like his old guitar adorn his walls.  I painted a special piece of artwork for each of my children’s rooms and the green truck I painted for JJ is now sold along with my other prints, in my shop.

Making over my daughter’s room was a recent project that I resisted but eventually loved. One thing that makes a house lovely are making special spaces for your family to retreat to, and her room was exactly what she wanted it to be.  A happy mix of oranges and pinks.  (Her full room reveal can be found here.)  We found her chair at the Goodwill for $14 but it was really dirty.  It took a few days of scrubbing but it was so worth it.  We painted her existing desk and the handles… and I made her memo boards and some of her artwork and pillows.  The silhouette of her face that hangs above her bed was cut carefully from card stock and mounted on some old wrapping paper.  I recovered her lampshade in scraps as well as some tin cans for pencil holders, along with recycling some jars and spray painting the lids the same color for her art supplies. 

(Incidentally, it’s never this clean.  Ever. Just so you know.)

Ava’s gorgeous room sign was lovingly created by the fabulous girls over at The House of Belonging shop.  It’s so Ava, and was the perfect finishing touch for her sweet little room.

Our bedroom is by far my favorite room.  Nothing speaks “haven of rest” to me, quite like this room.  We have a fairly large master bedroom and my tiny studio space is in a small offshoot, on the side of this room.  I chose a rich gray color to quiet the room down and bring a soothing tone.  The photographs above my bed were taken by me (also available in my shop) and framed in Goodwill frames!  I didn’t even paint them, as they were perfect the way they were. The pretty bedding was a rare splurge from Ballard Design and the sheets are from TJ Maxx.  The lamps were from Target, for Mother’s day last year. 

Itty bitty studio space…

That pretty much concludes our tour.  I hope it inspires you to make your space a haven of rest not only for yourself, but also for family and friends.  Sometimes it’s a simple as a coat of paint, using something in a new way, tweaking what you already have, or hunting for bargains.  It doesn’t have to cost a lot, or be perfect…  and sweat equity tends to go a long way. Thank you so much, Heather, for having me!  

Sasha

Our paint colors:

Walls are “Ivoire”

Cabinets and trim are “Creamy”

Kids rooms are “Fleur de sel”

Island is “Night Owl”

Table is “Navajo White”,  all by Sherwin Williams.

Master bedroom is “Stormy Sky” by Benjamin Moore.

hi! my name is molly & i blog over at the story of us.

random fact: heather used to be my boss ;) i once upon a time designed for her when she did blog stuff. LOVE HER. favorite job & boss ever! [i still dabble in digital design. you can check out my site here! end personal plug. lol.]this post is bitter sweet for me. heather asked me in the past if i would do this home feature, & i graciously declined. ha!  excuses: 1. you guys. my house never feels clean enough to photograph, let alone be featured on a rad blog like this!  2. before, i literally just had my handy ol’ iphone to take pics & that was a big no-no. well, turns out we’re moving! & soon [probably already moved by the time this posts].  my husband just surprised me with a fancy-pants camera [that i have no clue how to use].  annnnd, i’ve been wanting to photograph it anyways before we leave. so.all of my excuses are out the window.

my home.  this teeny, tiny 1500sq foot, 3-story townhouse. our first home together. our safe haven.  the place we became parents.  the place we lugged 3 carseats up & down the stairs.a place of tiny, collected corners, where every where i look, i’m reminded of a story. a place we have loved & will miss tremendously. plus, i have the worst memory known to man & i want to remember it here. so here i am, swallowing my pride, & posting this dang thing. i know i’ll be happy i did. here goes nuffin. thank you heather for having me! i love you. a lot.

i have always loved the quote, it isn’t so much what’s on the table that matters, as what’s on the chairs.  and another great one, home is wherever i’m with you. as we pack up & move this place to another, i’m remembering that these are just things. my family makes my home a home & i’m so very thankful for the time we’ve had here :)with that, welcome!la-la-living room:small, homey, eclectic. full of thrifty critters & patterns galore! well loved couches [with holes from jumping barbie heels] covered in blankets & lots of pillows. [it’s no secret i am a pillow hoarder. is there a show for that?] i love color. & mismatched quirky things. & i’m weird.

find them here: antlers (sold out. boo.)/ rejoice always print/ bird lamp (sold out)/

floral heart print/ striped blanket & pillow

hello bunting/ be still & know print

dining room: let’s be honest, i’m no chef, but this is where most of the [top ramen] meals happen. kidding! scored that table for 50 bucks at some thrift shop & the rest was collected. that owl clock was given to me by my mama. i always say if there was a fire, i would grab my orla lamp shade & that owl clock first (after my kids, of course. heh.)

toddler chairs/ oral lamp shade/ knock off white eames chairs
downstairs bath: um, you don’t want to see my toilet, but here’s a tiny peek inside.

embrace messy hair print

striped shower curtain

the kitchen:
owl cookie jar/  fox embroidery/ most of the rest collected/thrifted.audrey & ellie’s room: so yeah, didn’t have it in me to clean it. forgive me? they’re six year old twins. & they’re messy. all! the! time! i gave up on cleaning this hoarder den long ago. hardy har har.

eden’s nursery: probably my favorite room in the house. she’s my last baby & i have so many fresh memories in here with her. rocking her, changing her, nursing her. it’s my happy place…& hers too.

forgive this old, grainy cell pic. she was alseep when i was shooting pics, so i scrounged up some oldies.

mostly thrifted/collected items in here, but the crib is ikea. rug is urban outiftters. and the la la love you printis etsy.

up the stairs we go to the loft! and the master bedroom!

my husband added on this loft a couple years after we bought it. i love it! it’s my office & sits right above the dining room table. it’s tiny & cozy. & it’s where all my design work goes down :)

cube shelf/ you have been given today print/ XO
master bedroom: our little bird nest high above the city. hah! three stories up! it never really got the attention it deserved. why is it that the master always gets ignored the most? my bed is never made! never ever. sorry, mom. & after 9 years of marriage, it still lays there on the floor. but all in all, my bed is thecomfiest & my absolute favorite place to be.

real/fake. heh.

her side/his side

sheets: striped-floral/ rug/ the best thing in life print (designed by me & given away free here!)

thanks for visiting my humble abode!
it was seriously fun to document this little place i’ve called home for the past 6 years. tear.
now onto the next adventure. muah! xo.

Welcome to Room Made Lovely, part of the Home Made Lovely series.

hello life made lovely readers! i’m paige from the spotted fawn and i’m so thankful to be able to participate in heather’s room made lovely series. with that being said, welcome to my kitchen.

we moved into our home a little over a year ago. this house was built in the 50s, and my husband and i have really enjoyed going toward a mid century modern look. we kind of feel like we are old souls, and typically enjoy things from an older time period. it is neat to think that many of these pieces have been in the fabric of others lives, other families who have sat down to a meal together, talking over the day, perhaps cleaning up another spilled drink, or yogurt that my son is dropping on the table. you cannot see a whole lot of it here in the kitchen, but the table and chairs are a good example of the kind of pieces that are in the rest of our home. the two eames style chairs are from mintykeen and the fold out chairs are from oldnewhouse. the table is from bingobox.

we have a dining table in the room right next to this one, but when it is just our family of five, we always find ourselves seated in this little spot. this print from alexander creative was one of the first things i got for the space, and the only thing occupying the wall for awhile. it is a frequent reminder of things we want our home to be about. we want to have our lives be lived loving Jesus, and in effect all of the other things would flow from that. it is a work in progress, but that’s what sanctification is all about!

slowly i’ve made some additions to the wall. this print is an enlargement of all of our fingerprints and some very elementary computer maneuvering by me as a gift for father’s day to my husband.

only recently have i discovered how much i enjoy hoop art. the world map i purchased from vintageinclination and the retro typewriter is from missymackcreations. for the other two i used some amy butler fabric i’ve had stashed for just the right purpose, and a vintage handkerchief stretched over white linen for the other. i stitched a couple of pictures on to the hanky because i love photography and want pictures somewhere in every room.

we have four chairs always seated at the table with this little stool in the corner to pull up at dinnertime. on this wall i used the idea from rachel at smile and wave to use an old time card holder for a chore chart. the time card holder is from lackluster. my girls really enjoy moving their cards when they do their chores each day. and on the small wall next to it i used an old style carpenters ruler to mark the kids heights as they grow. i’ve always loved that tradition, and think it is such a special thing to have on your wall throughout the years you spend in a house.

when you enter the kitchen there is a metal file drawer that holds various papers that filter in and out. this is from snapshotvintage.

next to the stove are the glass ball jars that hold chore money - to give, save, and spend. an old vintage scale i picked up regularly houses bananas, and small vintage jars and a heart shaped rock line the stovetop.

when i took some of these pictures i still had some valentine decorations up, as you can see hanging over the dining table. before we moved into our home, we had a few large projects done that we knew we wouldn’t want to deal with down the road. we painted all the rooms, we changed all of the light fixtures, and we had subway tile installed in the kitchen. i am a big fan of subway tile. this little spot overlooks the next room, and a lot of natural light filters in from the back windows.

the wildflower print is from thewheatfield. and again, i love to be surrounded by photographs.

you might be asking yourself, “what is that gigantic silver tube?” to which i would reply it is an extremely large water filter. on either side of its imposing self, you will see a teapot that i covered with strips of fabric and mod podge, small glass bottles of vintage glitter, and a leaf that my daughter brought me in the fall with a discolored portion in the middle in the shape of a heart.

the light fixtures over the sink and the one over the breakfast table are from lampgoods. as a matter of fact, i think all of our lights are from there except for the one hanging in the middle of our kitchen which is from bluemoonlights. i think that light fixtures are such a beautiful and important part of our home. our home is small and cozy, so the lights within it are minimal, but it brings the space to life, and creates a warm and inviting atmosphere. 

the refrigerator is probably our favorite part of the kitchen. when we moved in our other fridge was an inch and a half too tall. so close. seeing as how we had to take the plunge for a new fridge anyhow, we decided to make the most of it and get one that looked the time period that our house was built.

thank you heather for the opportunity to share some of our space! have a joy-filled day and come visit me sometime over at the spotted fawn.

Welcome to Room Made Lovely, part of the Home Made Lovely series.

Welcome, welcome, welcome! First off let’s tap our fingers on the keyboard in a round of fingerplause for Heather for organizing such an inspiring and fun guest post series Home Made Lovely. I mean come on! Who doesn’t love to take a sneak peek into other people’s homes?! The whole fly-on-the-wall-thang. Personally, I get my fix via local open houses, model tours and of course House Hunters on HGTV. And don’t even get me started on home decor magazines. I think my husband finally cut me off at 10 subscriptions. Guess I should open up a nail salon with the stock pile I am accumulating.

Ok, back to the task at hand. My name is Honor and you can find me almost daily at Home Heart Craft (Home is Where the Crafts Are). I specialize in a certain species of DIYs. The kind that take less than an hour to complete and cost less than $25 in supplies. Can I get amen to that?! Holla!
I also muse about being a mother of two munchkins, a perpetual re-decorator and how to avoid being a hot mess in the kitchen. Check it out sometime, I’d love to have ya virtually stop by. You don’t even have to get out of your pajamas or curl your hair.

When Heather invited me to be a guest contributor on this series I was seriously honored (ha ha, I know very punny). But in truth, I was happy to be able to have a platform to share my (and my husbands) hard work. A girl has gotta brag some times, right?

We bought this home and moved in a little under two years ago with a nine month old girl and a baby boy on the way. Let me tell ya, diamond in the ruff. Slowly and surely we have been polishing our little jewel into a place we can really call home. The greatest piece of advice about the home buying and renovating process came from our realtor. He told us to live in the house for at least a year and take serious notes before we did any major or costly renovation. What a life (and checkbook) saver that advice was! The ideas I had about decorating and renovating have absolutely nothing to do with how we live our lives now.  Carrera marble countertops? Are you kidding me Missy! Have you seen the amount of juice, tomatoes and oranges this family explodes on a daily basis?!

So, we re-evaluated our renovating ideas and went with options that were durable, affordable and reasonable. And by we I mean I. The huz is kind enough to relinquish all decorating decisions to moi. He, in return, claims complete control over the garage and driveway. I think I got the better end of the deal, but don’t get me wrong. Reasonable doesn’t mean boring by any means. Creating character in our home is my number decorating one priority. Builder grade is a dirty word in my vocabulary. So with out further ado, I welcome you to our great room. It is, well…. GREAT! In my humble opinion anyway….

First up the kitchen/dining side, then onto the living room portion of the great room.

Isn’t this little industrial cart just to die for?! Pretty much all of our furniture is sourced from three places: Craigslist, The Vintage Marketplace and Urban Barn. This cart came from the Vintage Marketplace. To me, a home is composed of a million little stories.
Stories like how my husband was kind enough to pick up my dream pedestal dining table from an incredible craigslist score, only to have a motorcycle cut him off and the table flopped out top side down onto the street and skidded to a stop in the oncoming traffic’s lane. When he got home and I saw the disaster that was piled into the bed of his pickup I asked, ‘What in the SAM H happened!’ His response was ‘I though you liked the whole distressed, shabby chic look.’ So if there is a lesson to be learned, it is to TIE DOWN all your once in a lifetime craigslist finds, or else you’ll be like me dining at a table with road rash.

Dutch door, dutch door, oh how I love thee, dutch door. We are blessed to live in southern California, with year round 70 degree weather and cool breezes, so this sucker stays open pretty much all the time.

Can’t get more character then this. Rusty vintage pressed tin ceiling. Sourced from a local barn sale. My overall decorating goal is to use vintage building materials as much as possible. Now if only someone was tearing down an old decrepit barn down the street. But alas, living in SoCal does have a few downfalls. Barn wood in next to impossible to get. Unless you are willing to give up your unborn child, or a leg or your soul. Give up one of those and you can clad your entire freakin house in the lumber gold.

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The pot rack is a homemade creation made by my husband. The pot and pan set was a gift for Christmas. Just way too pretty to be stashed away in cupboards, so he fashioned me up something completely custom and awesome. Lucky gal.

I made this, I made this, I made this. Did I tell you I made this colander light shade yet, cuz I made it. In fact I made three of them. You can learn how to do it here.

I fretted over doing open shelving for a while. I wondered if it was going to look too messy or if I had enough dishes to fill up the space. Don’t know why I even thought twice about it because I couldn’t be happier with the decision to go front-less. I stashed the doors so if I ever change my mind I can screw them back on.
That about sums up my whole approach to decorating. Just go for it. Life is too short to not try it out.

Brother and sister deep in conversation about Mandarin oranges and why they are so dang yummy!

See told ya, road rash. I tried to cover it up with Spackle, paint and poly. Oh well.

We are a serious photo family. Not that we are serious in our photos, just that we are serious about our photos. The man and I agree that we want as many of them printed and displayed as possible. It’s not like we are trying to sell it, so why not? And why should the smiling faces of my cherub babies be stashed away? Pish tosh photo albums. I want a bajillion frames all over the place with friendly faces grinning back at me.

As you can see above, our living and dining and kitchen are one giant space. I love that we can rearrange at will. My industrial cart island is on wheels and the dining table isn’t all that heavy, so I am free to shove things around if the occasion calls for it. Like an impromptu dance party with my daughter to ‘I will survive’.

Collector I am. I have quite a few collections started. Windows, ladders, serving platters…. design magazines. Can you belive that these ‘built-in’ bookcases came from Ikea?! I got it in my head one day that we needed built-ins. So the mister and I put our heads together to do the math for how many ikea bookcases and trim were needed. Four biggies and one half plus 80’ of trim. We nailed trim to the top, along the bottom and down all the seams. Just a little bit of trim does wonders.

I’m thinking busts are my next collection to start. He is a handsome little fella. Collections are another thing that really makes a house a home. A carefully curated assemblage of well loved pieces. Now that is heaven to a wanna be prop stylist.

Our cozy (and very bright!) reading nook. Fashioned from four ikea coffee tables with custom cushions, this is where our kids play pillow mosh pit, wave good bye to their papa when he’s off to work and cuddle up with a library book. This is a great example of what living in a space for a while before doing a major reno can bring. I never would have conceived of this idea if we had immediately demoed the space. And it’s one of our favorites!

And that’s all folks. Thank you for taking a tour of our great room. One more aspect of this space that I have found to be a great success is that there is NO TV! Gasp! I know, how dare I! But having no TV in our great room has done wonders for revving up our intimacy and overall family connections. We talk more, play more, get irritated less, learn more, cook more and just generally enjoy life more.
Don’t fret too much for me, though. There is a great big ol TV upstairs in the family room. I get my fill of the Real Housewives after the kids are bathed, put to bed and the mister has his back scratched. It’s just nice to utilize the whole ‘out of sight out of mind’, having the TV viewing area separate from our living spaces.

Hope you have enjoyed this tour and that it inspired you to perhaps incorporate more character into your decorating decisions.

Thanks for stopping by! XOXO Honor

Welcome to Room Made Lovely, part of the Home Made Lovely series.

Hello, I’m Carly and I blog over at Mason’s Roost. I’m a wife and momma to one, Mason. My husband and I are raising our little family in the same town we grew up in on the North Shore of Oahu. I’m excited to share Mason’s room with you, especially since it is the only room I consider to be complete and finished in our tiny home. When Mason was born we had a Dr. Seuss theme, but as he became a toddler I decided he needed a room that he could grow with.

My favorite thing about this room is that most of the décor was handmade aka almost free. It’s probably my husband’s favorite too! The first project I did in the room was the race track monogram. I had a few mishaps with the project but it was worth the trouble and I’m thinking it’s there to stay for a while.

Mason was born with a congenital heart defect and it has always been important to me for Mason to grow up being proud that his little heart was so strong and endured two surgeries. When I came across the heart print from Ork Posters I had to have it. Take Me to the Sea is from The Wheatfield and the USA map is from Rachel Austin.

Our friend of One Shabby Chick makes the loveliest quilts and Mason is the lucky owner of two.

My second favorite thing (remember, almost free was number 1) about Mason’s room is that it has amazing natural light from sunrise to sunset. It’s the brightest room in the house and by far the happiest.

The moose and the buck trophies are from Cardboard Safari. I made the arrows by wrapping embroidery thread around dowels and gluing cut out pieces of felt to the ends.  

Mason comes from a long line of fishermen. An obsession with boats must run in his blood. I knew I wanted some ocean décor for his room but I couldn’t find anything that was age appropriate and budget friendly so I decided to get crafty again. I used a styrofoam wreath and painted it white. Then I wrapped painters tape in sections (holding down the rope) and painted the tape red. The banner is made from mini note cards and twine.

Ruler growth charts were all the rage when Mason was born so of course we needed one of those too. I know this isn’t our “forever home” so I wanted something that we could take with us and use with future kids. All I used was a 6’ board, paint, and lacquer.

I see amazing rooms all the time and I get bummed out because I know everything came from Pottery Barn or Anthropologie. That’s great (trust me, it’s really great!) but if you’re on a budget, it can feel really defeating when decorating your home and making it something you love and something that you’re proud of. For those of us on a budget, it may take a little more effort, but we can have spaces that are awesome too!

Thank you Heather for inviting me to share Mason’s little room with you and your readers!