Living Room Progress

While I've posted pics of the fireplace progress in my family/living room (see post here), I was hesitant to post pictures of alllll of that room because it wasn't complete!

You've seen some of the pictures of the progress and I thought it would be nice to show you how it's been coming along...

I found the pillows, curtains and rug at my fave home decor store, HomeSense (only $399 for an 8 x 10 rug...not bad!). I fell upon the tables at Bowring and they so happened to be on sale for $199 each - also called the "Justin Coffee Table" (Justin happens to be my boyfriend's name, so it was a clear sign!). The floor lamp was picked up from the new Target store (on sale!).

Decorating a whole house is overwhelming, especially when it's your own. I'm forcing myself to work on one room at a time as before I was working on all different rooms and feeling like I was going around in circles, never getting anywhere!

My next project is the master bedroom...I'm a little embarrassed to show the before picture...but hey, it can only go up from here! I cannot wait to get this room started as its drab energy is killing me.

I'll post some inspiration photos later in the week and get this bedroom design project moving right along!

Bye for now,

Emily Grace

Christmas Arrangements!

I can't believe we are into the last month of 2013! Where does the time go?! Anyhoo, I am so excited it is December because I am a BIG fan of Christmas - especially so this year because I am able to decorate my first home!

This evening my mom decided to host a "Christmas Arrangement" party which turned out to be a huge success! Seven of us ladies crammed together in a garage filled with branches, boughs, holly, & soil and made our very own Christmas arrangements.

We each brought:

1. Container/bucket to make an arrangement in.
2. Boughs, holly, branches, birch tree branches, etc. (all cut from good ol' nature!) 
3. A small bag of soil
4. Decorative pieces like glass balls, sparkly twigs, spray painted branches, ribbon, decorative birds, etc. Whatever we were drawn to! 
5. Don't forget the wine! :) 

This is such an inexpensive project with a HUGE reward. These arrangements can be made for under $10. All it takes is a walk through nature and a trip to the dollar store.

Start by filling your container with soil.

Insert your "spillers" into the soil. The "spillers" are the boughs that "spill" over the sides.

Next, stick your "thrillers" (the decorative fun stuff) in the middle - or off to the side, your choice! These "thrillers" should be tall so they stand out from the rest of the items.

Finally, the "fillers" - Stand back and see where your arrangement could use some "fillers". Maybe add a bit more colour with spray painted twigs, some more holly, some Christmas sparkly items you may have bought.

I am soooo thrilled at how my arrangement turned out. There were moments where it was looking hopeless, but alas it all came together beautifully.

I hope this inspires you and becomes your new Christmas tradition like it has become for us! Here's what some of the other arrangements turned out like...

 Excuse the mess in the background, these pictures were taken in the garage!

Merry Christmas!


Bye for now,

Emily Grace

the Heart of the Home

Every home has a central location where people naturally gravitate to. When I began the design of my home a year ago I consciously incorporated that "heart of the home" into the house plans. I wanted a large space with plenty of seating, lots of natural light and of course a beautiful fireplace to gather around.

Cue the inspirational photo hunt on Pinterest and Houzz & countless hours spent mulling over different fireplace ideas. My natural indecisiveness DID NOT help, but I eventually narrowed it down to the photos below.

In this picture below I LOVED the architectural detail either side of the fireplace...which I ended up copying. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery!

http://bethesdastyle.com/

Living Room

Source House Beautiful

Source M.E. Beck Design Inc

Tiek Built Homes

So here's what went down. I took the pictures below to my contractor and said "I want this" and as simple as that and VOILA, it appears. It really was amazing to see my vision come to fruition. It took him just a couple of days to whip together the built-ins and mantle...amazing talent!

Wanna see the progress of it all?? 

Drumroll please for the finished product...!!!

And a little instagram shot taken the weekend watching Elf! 

Now of course there is plenty of work to be done with artwork, accessories, curtains, pillows, lamps, rugs, etc. etc. All in due time!


Bye for now,

Emily Grace

Happy Thanksgiving & Welcome Back!

Happy Thanksgiving!!! There are not enough words in the world to express my gratitude and thanks for all the wonderful people & good fortune in my life. I hope you all have enjoyed the long weekend and were able to spend some time with your loved ones.

First of all... I'm back! Sorry, I took a little hiatus there. Working a full time job and acting as the general contractor while building a new home chewed up every waking moment of my life. But the house is near completion so I finally have some time to blog again!

Slowly but surely I'll take you on a tour of my new home. To start, I'll begin with the powder room.

When I begin a design I always start with an inspiring photo and work my way backwards. There were two powder rooms that caught my eye...

Sarah Richardson Design

Source: Unknown

Next I like to identify what exactly it is that I am drawn to. The key elements were the following:

1. Chair Rail
2. Blue-Gray & Creamy-White
3. Silver details 
4. Black & White Photography 

From there, I begin my own inspiration board and start shopping! 

Here is what I came up with: 

1. Paint Colour: BM Coventry Gray   2. BM - Gray Mist   3. Light Fixture: Canarm Alexa
4. Faucet: Delta Dryden  5. Mirror: West Elm

Just to give you a little sneak peak of the progress it went from this.. 

To this! 

This week the powder room will be finished. Stay tuned!


Bye for now,

Emily Grace