The Blog

You may remember my post last week with some pictures of our decor in the house in Virginia where we house sat for over year.  Here is another installment with some before and after photos of the dining room, kitchen, and office on the main level.  As I mentioned the other day, the homeowners were so gracious as to let us decorate to our taste.  We borrowed some of their furniture and mostly did small projects just to make it feel a little more like home.

The dining room, with homeowners’ furniture.

After, still with the homeowners’ table and chairs.  Simple accessories add visual interest in a bright orange, rust, and yellow color scheme.

A close up of the centerpiece – 4 identical vases given to us by friends, with yellow silk flower buds (our cat devours real flowers!), in a linear arrangement.

A view into the living room, with a glimpse of DIY sun-inspired artwork to tie into the orange palette.

Flanking the doorway, our antique trunk and vertically hung mirror with West Elm tree branch candelabra.

A close up of the candelabra.  Remember when my friend Dan and I made hand dipped candles for this?  Well, they unfortunately bit the dust.  Luckily, West Elm finally restocked their tapered candle selection online and I was able to get some well-fitting replacements.

On the opposite side of the room, a family heirloom antique silver tray table acts as a bar.  Frames above hold color coordinated collages clipped from a Charlie Harper calendar.

On the other side of the entrance to the kitchen, I hung arrangements I made of our wedding photographs.

Lastly, the homeowners’ china hutch holds our artistically arranged glassware.  Two extra chairs flank the piece for use during large gatherings.

In the kitchen, with the homeowners’ accessories and small appliances.

After, a similar layout but with our personal kitchen items, a new small rug from Target, and our kitchen table.

The table and coordinated shelving, accessorized with red and earth tone items, tie into colors of the small rug in the previous photo.

The shelving adds much needed extra storage and visual interest to the space.

The office, before, with the homeowners’ furnishings and personal items.

After.  I didn’t have time to stage or clean this room before documenting it.  This is the only room in the house we decided to paint because I used it so frequently. I went with a somewhat unusual color scheme for my taste — green, brown, and turquoise — in an effort to incorporate all of the green office supplies (lamps, mail holders, etc) that I had left over from college.  I sewed the lined drapes myself.  The fabric was the basis for the wall color choice — a soft chocolate brown.  Though I wasn’t in love with the colors by the end of our stay, I did love how the paint color made sitting in the room feel like swimming in a warm cup of hot chocolate.  A softer light quality may have helped the atmosphere but, it was still a nice room.  The furniture is a mix between ours and the homeowners’.

Accessories and art supplies on the shelving above the drafting table add pops of color to the space.

Overall, more small tweaks and additions made the space more like home.  Still more to come!