7.22.2014

Stack House | Design Decisions

I'm so excited to share some of design choices for our new home! 
This process has been so fun

Curb Appeal: 
We have always wanted a red brick house with navy shutters, a red door and a porch! 
So when we chose the outside of our house we chose to have an elevation with a small front pourch. 
We almost went with a darker brick (like a brown)  as it is much more popular in our neighborhood but decided to go with our gut and do red. 

We chose Acme brick color Alton Bridge with cream stone. 
The lighter color is the trim, the darker color is the citing (which is very little) and the circle is the color for the gutters! 
This is a tad creepy that I snapped a pic of someone else's house but this is our brick color on a larger scale!  
The house will be built with a brown door + shutters but hopefully in the future we can paint them!
Also, our house was designed with a zig-zag 'chevron' looking brick patterned as a banner across the top of the garage that we nixed, we like to stay with a more traditional look for our curb appeal! 

Interior Finishings: 

Floors: 
We chose to do the entire downstairs minus the master bedroom in a red oak nailed down, hand scraped floors in the color 'brackish'. 
These are a little lighter than the wood floors we laid in our last home. 
We love wood so we want to be able to see the grain and knots throughout the floors. 

This is the best picture that shows the floors! Lol! 
For the carpet we chose 'Doeskin'. We will have carpet in the master bedroom and the entire upstairs!


Paint: 
For the overall paint color we chose Kwal's 'Coconut' for all the walls & ceilings + 'Pure Snow', which is the brightest white, for almost all the cabinets,  the baseboards, doors, ect. 
Coconut has a bit of a grey undertone. 
We are also using the Restoration Hardware colors from the 'Slate' collection as we used in our last house. I love ash, stone (which I did all my cabinetry in our last home), graphite and slate. We may go ahead and use Mega Geige by Sherwin Williams for Eli's new big boy room which is the same as his nursery now! If it's not broke... ;) 


Hardware: 
For the hardware we decided upon brushed nickel for all our door knobs, faucets, light fixtures, and any other hardware in the whole house. 

We chose a lighting package with very straight lines. We like this look vs. the scrolly look for our house! 
We are planning to install 3 new light fixtures upon moving in {entry + dining + breakfast nook}. We want a heavy antique bronze look to mix with all our greys! I want industrial with a touch of glam. Picture Jan Barboglio. 
{Mind you some of these decisions will be changed before we move in! LOL} 

We also decided upon square stair rail spindles vs. the swirly more popular ones as I am looking for all Modern straight lines! 

Kitchen:
For our kitchen we chose to do a white quartz counter top + beveled subway tile in the brightest white available. For the cabinets we chose to paint them 'Pure Snow' which is the brightest white. 
This is a pic borrowed from pintrest but it shows the beveled subway tile + counter top.
We like beveled tile because it adds such a pretty dimension to the clean simple design. 
White beveled subway tile + under cabinet lights.
We chose a stainless steal single basin sink. We also chose a square edge for the quartz counter top to give it that clean straight line look we are going for! 
We  chose to leave our island stained as it will break up the kitchen and the living room. Plus we think it adds something a little different and fun!

For the wine grotto we chose to leave the cabinets stained. We felt it gave the room a masculine + earthy feel that we are going for! We also chose to do a darker granite instead of the quartz. 
This granite had grey + brown which will coordinate perfectly with not only the grotto but the rest of the house as well.
Here we want to showcase the couple of Jan Barboglio pieces we have from our wedding!
Also, we are doing a full bullnose edge for the granite in the rest of the house (I didn't even know there were edge options... that was all Mitch...)

Bathrooms: 
 For the master bathroom + downstairs powder bath we chose to use the granite color  'Sparkling White'. We also chose to frame the mirrors with silver frames and add a claw foot to the cabinets!  

For the master bathroom we chose matte grey subway tile + bright white grout for our shower!
We will have 2 sinks with 2 framed mirrors with
stark white cabinets like this picture shows! 
I like the contrast in color! 
This is a random picture but it shows the claw foot look all our bathroom cabinets will have! 
'Sparkling White' Granite + the tile on the right named which is Millennium Slate Supremo 'Winter'
This tile will also be in the powder bath + utility room. 
For the 2 upstairs bathrooms we chose 'Luna Pearl' granite + grey floor tile. The top right in the photo below shows the selections. We will use the floor tile as the shower back splashes! 

Special Touches: 
Mitch is a handy man so one of the requirements to building our home was a shop. Since the lots aren't huge we decided to add a tandem 3rd car garage and build a wall with a door to close it in. So basically Mitch's shop will structurally be inside our house. 
He also added a ton of lighting to our house. He had the house special wired for Christmas lights and we will have a switch to turn them on and off (the things that matter to men...) 
We will have a small but cute and functional mud room that I love! 

Another fun aspect is that we had the house measured for custom plantation shutters. This is something I absolutely adore!
I'm not sure if we can do the whole house or just the downstairs at first but I am super excited it's even an option! 

We also have 3 window seats in our house! 
Lastly, I have started slowly buying decor as it goes on sale. I bought a giant world map wall tapestry for the focal point in the living room that I am so excited about! 
We will be changing up a lot of our decor but we are wanting to try to re-purpose a lot too! I am sending 2 antique chairs we own to be recovered for our master bedroom plus I bought a friends leather couch for our media room upstairs. I have been scoping out pillows for our mud room and dreaming of linen + studs. 
We will be selling a bunch of our current furniture too (master set + couches + rugs soon!) 
This will absolutely be a process and certainly won't be finished anytime soon! Luckily I love the proccess of decorating and cannot wait to see how all our stuff fits in the new home! 

I hope you enjoyed a little trip through the design of our new home!

***A lot of these pictures are borrowed from Pinterest***


Eli | 15 Months

My precious baby is 15 months old! 
I cannot believe that 1. he can possibly be that old and 2. it's been 2 months since we lost my mom. Here is a little update on baby E! 


He is off!
 Eli has the sweetest personality mixed with a bit of a strong will + fiestiness! Eli loves to give his momma lots of tight neck squeezes, leg hugs and wet kisses! He makes the "muah" sound when we ask for a kiss! He is beginning to be shy and either hides behind my legs or lays his head on my chest when he's feeling shy!
He's my cuddle bear, we snuggle all night 
He is associating words with meanings and knows 'orse' for horse {and can I mention that there are an alarming amount of horses all around that I never noticed until Eli pointed them all out...}, cow and will moo on occasion, bird, flower and will say shhhhh for sheep. We are still working on Pig because he seems to think it really looks like a dog! haha! Eli also says balloon, good job, hot, and a ton of other words!



Other than animals his favorite things are trucks and balls. He pushes his trucks around the house and makes a truck sound!


Kicking the ball 
He is my little climber! 






He is certainly becoming more independent and want to hold his own milk



He is a good little eater!
I work hard on his toddler meals! We eat very 'whole', no GMO's, all farm raised, cage free, grass fed, no nitrates, all organic... you know- the works. Yet, we still love chick-fil-a and he has been getting a whole lot of cake pops lately!
Like Julia child says," Everything in moderation, including moderation."

Peaches + Green beans are his favorite   

He loves to dance! His favorite song is "Hot Diggity Dog" on Mickey Mouse! 

Eddie Coker concert 


We were serenaded at the Eddie Coker concert but the picture of  Baby E has mysteriously disappeared! 
He is so funny! 
Where's Eli?  
He likes to 'Kersplat' on the floor and laughs! 
He loves his Little Blue Car - especially the wheelies! 

He has grown a lot lately and actually jumped up on the percentage scale significantly... We're  just happy to finally be ON it! 



And he is finally fully weaned. I let him self wean and about 3 weeks ago he called it quits! 
I'll write an entire blog on our breastfeeding journey (let me tell you it was quite the journey!!) 

Paci Hoarder

Eli is absolutely precious and is my pride and joy! 
He makes life a fun adventure. 
He is full of energy and I'm told all the time he is 'busy'. 






7.16.2014

Top New Stylist

This morning I opened up the weekly e-mail from my new company Keaton Row to find out I am the Top New Stylist! 
I certainly didn't expect that! 
As some of you may know I worked really hard to get into the Fashion Industry. 
I worked hours upon hours for free just to get a taste of what it is all about. 
At the beginning of my career it seemed to be a lot of struggle and strife. 
I was attempting to do it all on my own. 
Then I got pregnant with baby E. 
I felt like my career was over. 
I prayed, God, if you want me here, like I feel you do, show me Your way. 
I laid it at His feet. 
This is when it became easy. 
Jobs found me. 
After my mom passed away I began to pray again. 
Lord, give me something positive to focus on. 
That's when Keaton Row found me. 
I'm learning when I quit trying to carry it all on my own, God shows me His way. 
And His way is certainly above my way. 
So God, humbly, I thank you. 
Let this small success be a reflection of how great, You alone are. 

For as the Heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts. -Isaiah 55:9


Pinkspiration


Lately, I'm craving all things pink + ultra feminine! 

The other night I met a friend at a business meeting/social and Kendra Scott was set up selling for a discount. I had never bought anything from her line but the color was so pretty I couldn't resist. I did opt for the smaller pair as I was worried the larger ones would be too heavy! 
I've had this Essie Polish for 2 years now but it's such a great summer staple and it has lasted the test of time! 
Recently decided I needed more than 1 shade of Pink for my lips and while I was in CVS  I noticed this little baby was on sale! Score! The color is so rich + I love matte lips! 
Now this perfume is my absolute favorite. Me, my best friend Olivia, and every woman over the age of 75 go wild for this scent! It's a bit pricey so I save it for special occasions (I know, I know... I'm a cheapskate) But if I use it little by little I feel like I'm getting my money's worth! Lol! 
Hope you find some pinkspiration for the week! 
xx, 
Lauren 

Earrings: Kendra Scott 
Nail Polish:  Essie -Off the Shoulder


Fall Shoe Crush



There is something exciting about preparing for an upcoming season! 
{esp Fall + Winter as they are my fav!}
Here are my pick's for the Top Fall Shoes! 

I'd love to hear your favorite Fall Shoe Trends!! 
xx,
Lauren