Hi friends!  Thank you so much for the love on my last two posts about the new house.  We are settling in well and have made a lot of progress with turning this 1923 craftsman into our home for the next couple of years.  Nothing is fully decorated yet though (except for the front porch because my priorities are probably a little out of whack, haha), I’m still working on finding homes for everything (clutter eeeeeverywhere), and the closet situation is overwhelming and I don’t know where to put all of our clothes.  I finally hung curtains in the Jack’s room and the girls’ room, but still need to hang them in the master bedroom and the living room and I think things will come together a bit more once that’s taken care of.

Virginia Home Update

Whenever we move I like to try to use what we have and make it work in the new home, but sometimes we need to bring in additional pieces for odd corners or spaces we didn’t have in the previous homes.  It’s fun to change things up on occasion too, and a little refresh is always nice.  I’ve shared the majority of these items on Instagram already but wanted to share the things we’ve purchased for our home that I’m really loving:

1.  Round Marble Dining Table for Breakfast Nook

I’ve always loved the look of a pedestal or tulip table, and when I found this marble topped Anthropologie table at Final Cut Georgia for $400 I knew it would be a nicer looking alternative to IKEA’s Docksta table.

2.  IKEA Hornsund Bench

We’re using this IKEA Hornsund bench for storage and as a Banquette in the breakfast nook.  (I’m writing this blog post while sitting on it!)  It’s the perfect height to use at a table and provides some much needed storage space.  It’s such a great alternative if you don’t have the budget for a built in banquette!  It would probably be really cute with a cushion on it too.

3.  IKEA Fjalkinge Shelves with 2 sets of drawers as kitchen storage

Storage and counter space are at a premium in our kitchen so we needed to get creative.  The fjalkinge shelves are amazing!  Nice and sleek looking and you can add drawers á la cart, which is what we did.  We bought two sets of shelves and they provide a nice place to store dish towels and random kitchen equipment and junk drawer types of things.

4.  IKEA Sandbacken sofa

We originally didn’t think our long mid-century sofa would fit downstairs so we have it upstairs in the playroom.  Then we decided to flipflop the living and dining rooms and realized a sofa would work with the new configuration.  I wanted something affordable and less noisy than our blue ikat print sofa (which I still love, it just dominates a room), and after searching online for a few days I settled on the Sandbacken sofa in lofallet beige.  It’s the perfect size for someone to sleep on too, and I like that the bottom cushion is all one piece so the kids can’t mess up all the cushions as easily.  It has clean modern lines and I think it’s a nice option for the price.  Looks very similar to some pricy ones I’ve seen!

5.  Wingback Chair Slipcover

I love my wingback chairs but I’m a little tired of the pink.  Or at least I was tired of the pink paired with our blue ikat sofa, the pink might work pretty well now that we have a beige sofa in the living room.  Anyway, I’d love to get them reupholstered at some time in the future, but now is not the time for that.  I bought these stretchy cream slipcovers on Amazon and they fit pretty nicely!  Sure, they’re not a perfect or permanent fix, but they really helped tone down the room and I’ve been happy with them (currently we only have one of the chairs in our bedroom.

6.  Rugs USA Blue Oriental Rug

After adding a beige sofa and putting a cream colored slipcover on the wingback chair our living room needed a pop of color.  We’ve had a cream colored shag rug for 4 years and it’s been great, but at this point it’s really dingy looking and has lots of crumbs embedded in it.  I’ve always been happy with my rugs from Rugs USA so decided to try a new one.  Their prices are so good and the quality of the ones we have from there is amazing!  (This is the rug we’ve had in Caroline’s room for 3 years and it’s beautiful and such a fun yet not-too-over-the-top way to inject a little color into a feminine room.)  I ordered this oriental rug in an 8×10 size and I love the navy color with accents of pink, yellow and lighter blue.  It looks so nice in the space and is great for hiding stains!  I opted to get the thick rug pad since the kids play on the floor all the time.

7.  IKEA Hemnes Daybed (pulls out to a king)

We got this genius daybed for Jack’s room and we are all loving it!  It’s a twin sized bed that pulls out to a king, so it’s perfect for when family comes to visit.  It also has 3 large drawers underneath and we are using those for Jack’s clothes since the radiator prevents us from having a true dresser in his room.  These are the mattresses we got, and you keep them stacked when the bed is closed and pull one over when the bed is pulled out.  They’re really comfy when stacked but firm if you’re lying in just one, so we bought a memory foam king sized topper that we will use when guests are here.  (There are lots of other options at IKEA, I opted for a thinner option since it’s Jack’s bed and I didn’t want them to be too high.)  Oh and this is the bedrail that we have so that Jack won’t fall out.  Also IKEA and while it’s not very tall it still does the trick and looks worlds better than traditional rails.  I let Jack pick out 2 sets of sheets while we were at Target (these “fun frenzy” sheets (skateboard/ball/headphone/radio/guitar/robot) and these whale sheets) and I chose these striped jersey sheets as an extra option.

8.  White Porch Swing

Our front porch just called for a porch swing, don’t you think?  I got our swing from Walmart and it’s sold out at the moment unfortunately.

9.  Kids Picnic Table with Striped Cushions and Umbrella

This kids’ picnic table is the sweetest!  The kids love eating outside at it and it’s sturdy enough for an adult to join them.  The blue and white stripes are so classic.  I make sure to pull the cushions and umbrella inside when it’s not in use so that they don’t get too faded by the sun.

10.  French Blue Bistro Table

 

This bistro set was one of my very favorite purchases!  So affordable (under $110 and free shipping) and beautiful.  It’s the perfect place to have a drink or eat a meal on the porch!

11.  Wooden Playhouse

Isn’t this the cutest playhouse?  I planted pink zincas in the window boxes and it’s just such a joy to watch the kids play in it.  It comes with a little kitchen on the inside and they’re always “cooking” each other breakfast.  I know lots of people do updates to this house and paint the wood white (and I’d considered it) but honestly I don’t have enough time to do that and I actually really love the brown wood color!

12.  Outdoor Area Rug

I like to think of a sitting area outside just like a sitting area inside…they really need a rug to help ground the space!  I bought this one at Target and I love how it ties the area together.

13.  Fire Pit

We certainly don’t need a fire pit right now but I’m so excited to use this in the fall!  Back when we lived in Maryland we lived in an apartment building that had a fire pit in the courtyard and we enjoyed sitting there, playing cards and drinking wine whenever we had to chance.  So excited to do so in our own back yard now!  I also like that it’s propane and not a wood burning fire pit.  Way more low maintenance that way.

14.  Large Sailors Knot Door Mat

I mentioned this rug in our front porch blog post but I’m still totally in love with it.  The large size is so unexpected and now I think regular sized doormats look too small!  I got mine at Final Cut Georgia but I’m pretty sure it’s this large one from Serena and Lily.

Have you made any updates to your home this summer?