I have been saying for months now that I have a bunch of unfinished rooms, and that eventually I’ll show you my home, etc. Well, the fact is, this blog is all about sharing my home with you. That means finished projects and, at times, unfinished projects. As luck would have it, my family and I decided to clean the house this weekend (let’s be honest, it is very rare for our entire house to be clean all at once). So I decided to snap some pics and share our home tour with you, even though most of it is nowhere near what I would consider “finished.” I have a lot of plans for many of these rooms, but here they are in their current state. Hope you enjoy!
Oh, and I should mention, I did not take time to “stage” any of these photos as many bloggers do. I know staging makes for prettier photos, but I was just satisfied with the fact that these rooms were clean. That’s the best I could do with two energetic boys running around!
Let’s start with the front porch. You’ve seen it before, but it is one of my favorite things about our home. It’s a true “Southern” front porch, rocking chairs and all. My kiddos love to hang out here. My littlest guy is always begging for “por! por!” (that means he wants to go out on the porch).
This is what you see when you first walk in the house. Turn right, you’re in the office. Go straight, you’re in the kitchen. This little butler’s pantry area is between the entryway and the kitchen. (That’s such a silly, pretentious thing to call it. I know that’s technically the name for it but we giggle whenever we say it.) And as you can see, my boys love to decorate the refrigerator!
When you enter our home, the first room when you turn to the right is our living room/office. It’s in the middle of getting a face lift, but we’re getting there. Next up for this room is painting the walls, adding curtains and displaying artwork. And a bit of rearranging here and there.
Here it is from another angle. I should mention, this is the room where we spent the least amount of money in general. I’m talking hardly any money at all. Everything in here was either a gift (or purchased with gift cards), found on Craigslist, purchased on sale at Target or Overstock, or hand me downs from family members.
P.S. Check out this awesome chevron tray I just ordered for this room from One Kings Lane! Can’t wait to get it! They are having an awesome Decor & More event right now. Check it out if you get a chance.
The office leads into the dining room (below), which leads into the kitchen. I have a few plans for the dining room. At some point we’ll be getting a rug (I’m thinking of stenciling/painting one!), adding curtains and we will be painting the walls a soft gray. You can’t tell in this picture, but the walls desperately need to be painted. There are all sorts of holes that need patched, etc. And I apologize for not moving the booster seat. Like I said, it was just a miracle the house was clean enough to take pictures at all!
Next up is our downstairs family room (below). This is where we spend most of our time. It is also usually the messiest room in the house (aside from the play room), so I had to hurry and capture this moment while it lasted! That ottoman holds a ridiculous amount of toys, and by the end of the day they are usually spread out all over the floor. Next up for this room is paint for the walls. The pinky-beige color just isn’t doing it for me. But that’s low on the priority list for sure.
Remember the dresser that I refinished a few months ago? It found a home here in the family room. Our home is a split level, so the stairs to the right of the picture lead up to the kitchen.
Here is my boys’ room. I can’t even tell you how many hours I have spent in that rocking chair. If you are planning on having a baby, one major piece of advice is to invest in a good, comfy rocking chair because that’s where you will spend most of your time. My little guy still loves to be rocked (or “rock rock,” as he says) and this is where we sit for bedtime stories every night.
This dresser (below) is one of my favorite pieces of furniture in the house. I love the shape of it, but that’s not why it is special. This was my husband’s chest of drawers growing up, and it actually belonged to his great grandmother. As you can imagine, it wasn’t in great shape when we got married. (It survived a few generations, plus my husband’s childhood and worse yet, his college years!) But we didn’t want to get rid of it. This was one of the very first pieces I ever painted. I need to touch it up now that I actually know how to properly paint furniture, but I patched several cracks and chips in the wood and then painted it a creamy white color. I also replaced all of the hardware. Some of the drawers are a little hard to pull out, but I’m happy that we were able to use an heirloom piece for our sons, and refinishing this piece was a really fun part of putting together the nursery for our first child.
I’ve enjoyed sharing my home with you so far. Check back later this week for more of the tour!