master bedroom plan

As you may recall from our town home tour, we need a LOT of furniture.  Currently in our bedroom we have a king mattress and box springs on the ground, a side table, and a TV mounted to the wall. That's it. And it's driving me mad. Thankfully, we're able to put must of our clothes on the shelves in the walk in closet, but we have a few boxes of jeans and t-shirts collecting dust in the corner. 

Usually bedrooms are easy for me - a few side tables, a nice head board, pretty bedding and you're done. But, this time I was having trouble pulling the trigger. I had decided on the bed, but was underwhelmed by the bedding selections out there and felt that not until I had chosen bedding should I chose my dresser and side tables. I needed the bedding to dictate the "style" of the room. (I always really wanted all-white bedding, but we realized with a french bulldog sleeping in bed with us, that wasn't a very smart choice.) 

After changing my mind hundreds of times, I literally dreamed of the below plan and have decided to go with it. I wanted something soft, classic, not too fussy. Here's what I've planned...

Bed & Headboard / Striped Duvet & Shams / Coral Pillows / Monogrammed Pillow / Gray Side Table / Glass Side Table / Lamps / Coral Throw Blanket / Dresser / Gray Rug / Coral Rug

What do you think?  I was nervous at first to put white bedding on an off-white bed, but have since come to terms with it. It's all relatively the same palate and I think opting for a gray-toned side table next to the bed, as opposed to a white table, will make it not as stark (the white dresser will be on the other side of the room). Eventually, I'd like to add more layers of pattern and color with some additional custom throw pillows (one can never have enough pillows) and drapes, but that stuff isn't as necessary right now.

I can't decided on a gray rug vs. coral. I think the coral would pop much more, but we'll see how Al feels about that much "pink" in the room. Has anyone seen any cute coral rugs? I'm not crazy about the one I found. I did get Al's sign off for the pillows and throw. I keep calling it coral and not pink so as not to freak him out. :) 

We've purchased some of these items, but not all of them. I'd love your thoughts. What do you want your bedroom to feel like? Do you buy your furniture first or your fabrics first?

weekend recap

Hello! How was the weekend? We were lucky (unlucky?) yesterday and were iced in with about two inches of ice on all the roads. Al's office was even closed! We had a very full and productive weekend before the ice hit. Here are a few photos...

We had our grill delivered earlier in the week and Al was like a five year old boy about it. He would go up each night when he got home from work to look at it and asked roughly 35 times if we could grill out on Friday. So we grilled out, despite some wind and cooler temps. It was worth it for some really fantastic burgers.

^^ Homemade baked beans too! Recipe here.

Saturday the forecast was good and it was looking to be our last nice day for a week or so. We started with donuts from a local joint we discovered, followed by a trip to the dog park, a grocery store run (where we bought furniture?), a few hours at the driving range, and then dinner and out with friends. That is one busy Saturday!

^^ I can't even describe how good these were. Truly tasted homemade. Don't worry, we didn't eat all dozen in one day...we ate them all in two days. :) 

A quick romp at Mutts for Miss Mayo. I can see already see this will be our weekend spot. She just loves it. 

And then something occurred that hasn't occurred in over six years. Al went WITH me to the grocery store. We tried to go a few times together back in New York and let's just say it didn't go well. But now that he's a grilling machine he had to come along so he can "pick out his meat". But the best part of the whole grocery store adventure is that we bought a table and chairs for the patio off of our kitchen. $80 bucks and I think they are pretty cute!

^^ Notice the salad to make up for the donuts. And thanks for the photobomb, Lil.

The sun was out so we headed for the golf course to hit a few balls. I'm not too bad after a few years off, but my form is just awful. Thinking I'll take a lesson this spring.

Dinner was at Public School 214, which we learned opened just three weeks ago. They've been in Dallas as long as us! Delicious food (homemade tater tots, deviled eggs, steak, mac and cheese, fish and chips) and fun cocktails. 

Sunday was cold, rainy, and after some post-dinner drinks with friends the night before, we all decided sleeping in was a good idea. Funny how we consider sleeping until 10am sleeping in, when just a few years ago that was soooo early. 

After we finally got up, we spent the following four hours watching Parks and Rec and hanging up our gallery wall. I'll give a few tips later this week for how to make it easy (it really shouldn't take four hours, we just took a lot of breaks...for donuts). We went from this lay out on the ground...

...to up on the wall!

And then I realized it was 4pm and I was still in my pajamas...

...so I did what any normal person would do. I held my dog and picked off my gel manicure. Totally normal. 

The rain never let up, but that didn't stop Al from grilling pork tenderloin for dinner. I'd say he's hooked. It's so fun to have him take an interest in recipes and cooking. He even marinated the pork all by himself!

And what a fantastic Oscars show to wrap up the night. I thought Neil Patrick Harris did a great job, although it felt like the middle of the show dragged on a little.  Not a whole lot of "wow" moments on the Red Carpet, unfortunately. My two favorites of the night were Rosamund Pike and JLo (minus her pink eye shadow). 

  

Mighty productive little weekend we put together. Wishing you an easy week. Here's hoping our friends in the midwest and East Coast start to thaw out soon! 

town home tour

We've been in our new home for almost two weeks now so I thought it about time to show you the place. Here are photos I took a few minutes before the movers arrived (i.e. not the best quality - I was too excited for our stuff!).  I'll go floor by floor (yes, we have multiple floors!) and show you the space and what we plan/need to do for each room. Here's our home tour...

First Floor:

When you enter on the main floor we have a small room to one side (my office), a powder room, and the front entrance and the garage entrance. It's hard to tell in the office photos because we already had some boxes in there, but it's the perfect size for a desk, a bookshelf, and a bench for Lily to look out the window. 

^^ One side of office

^^ Other side of office

^^ Powder room

Main floor To Dos / To Buy:

• Desk (done!)
• Desk chair
• Rug for office
• Shelf for office
• Lily bench/ottoman
• Lamp
• Rug for powder room
• Welcome mat
• Hooks/bulletin board/message board for hallway

Second Floor:

When you walk up the stairs to the second floor you enter into a large, open room which will be our living and dining areas. It also has a laundry room (which originally I wished was swapped with the powder room on the first floor, but now I'm liking not having to go down another set of stairs for laundry), kitchen, pantry, and small patio. 

^^ Living/Dining. So much light from those windows.

^^ Full size. Bless you.

^^ View of kitchen from "dining" side of living room.

^^ Kitchen

^^ View of living/dining from kitchen

^^ Patio off of kitchen. Lily loves going out here. We do have plans to put some chicken wire along the bottom just to be safe, but I'm pretty sure she couldn't fit her gallon head through it.

^^ Hello lover. Beautiful, beautiful pantry.

Second Floor To Dos / To Buy:

• Sofa (Done - not arriving until Mid March)
• Chair & ottoman for Al (Done - not arriving until Mid March)
• Living room rug
• Accent chair
• Living room coffee table (?)
• End table
• TV (Done! Al's Valentine's gift)
• Farmhouse dining table (Done!)
• Dining chairs
• Bar cart
• Bar stools (ours are too short)
• Patio chairs / table
• Patio flowers
• Get rid of arch lamp (anyone want it?!)
• Get rid of cement coffee table (anyone want it?)
• Red chest from our old entry way to storage
• Laundry room shelving/storage solution

Third Floor:

The third floor has our master bedroom with en suite bathroom and walk in closet, as well as a guest room with en suite bathroom and closet. The master is about 3 feet larger than the guest room - both are very good sizes and I can't tell you how excited I am to not only have two bathrooms, but two sinks in our master!

^^ Master Bedroom

^^ Master Bathroom (TWO SINKS!)

^^ Master bathroom other side

^^ Master closet

^^ Guest Room

^^ Guest Bath (Notice the linen storage. Mind. blown.)

^^ Guest Bath

^^ Guest closet (aka Christmas and coat storage)

Third Floor To Dos / To Buy:

• King mattress (Done! And never going back to Queen life.)
• King bed (Done - arriving mid-March)
• Dresser for master
• End tables for master
• Lamps for guest room
• Organize guest closet (it is currently the location for I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-this items)
• New towels and bathmat for guest bath (Done)
• Get rid of leather club chair (ugly and broken)
• Makeup storage for bathroom (so weird, the vanity has two sinks, but no drawers?)

Fourth Floor:

Our fourth floor is a fairly spacious roof deck! We love going up there during this nice weather, although I doubt we'll be up there in the full sun during the 100 degree summer months. Lily loves sprawling out and sunbathing up there while I read. The deck curves around to the left and has a faint view of the city skyline.

^^ Same thing as with our patio. I don't think Lily could fit through the fence, but we're going to put some chicken wire along the bottom just to be safe.

Fourth Floor To Dos / To Buy:

• Patio furniture
• Grill (so nice that there is a propane hookup built in up there)
• Outdoor rug
• Chicken wire around fence
• String party lights around top of fence
• Plants, flowers, herbs in pots

Some other things that we love about our place and the complex: 

• Under-stair storage in the garage
• Pool! (Bonus points that it is gated so dogs cannot go in it -- most frenchies can't swim!)
• Two off-leash dog areas
• Friendly neighbors with friendly dogs (Lily has so many new friends and they all romp around each afternoon)
• Great location - close to restaurants, several grocery stores, and an 8 minute commute for Al!

So that's it! Our humble abode. We're excited, if you can't tell. :) Willing to take all decorating tips and ideas. We are overwhelmed with all this space, but are adjusting quite well. I think it will really start to feel like our home once our furniture is delivered (6 to 8 weeks delivery time is so painful!).  

My step-mom sent me this cartoon from the paper last Sunday. It couldn't be more true. More space has it's pros and cons (and so many stairs!).