Living for Pretty

We know about the plethora of good design and home decor items to be had at Ikea and Target, but there are a few that don’t get enough attention. One of them is H&M Home. We love them for their trendy fashion, but just like their fashion, their home decor is on-trend, full of simple basics and oh-so-affordable.  Many don’t know just exactly how great they are because their items are largely sold online. Stores have started sprinkling the wares in stores, but they’re still a big underutilized resource.

I’m particularly smitten with the tall brass crane. This comes in at over 13 inches tall – perfect item to add height and style out that bookshelf or tabletop. And it is made of brass, not cheaply brass colored.

And that hand-y candlestick holder? It’s such a unique piece that looks like you picked it up at Jonathan Adler for quadruple the price. It comes in at over 9 inches tall, a total statement piece.

The simple design of the trivet has me with heart eyes. Trivets are an often overlooked kitchen piece–we’ve gotten our act together with cute measuring cups and pitchers, but trivets have not yet come into vogue. These are a must in our house when serving that cast iron dish on our antique wood table. It also comes in brass for those of you that are oh-so-over the brass craze.

See some of my favorite items below.

The heart wants what the heart wants. When we saw this home my heart lurched.

The problem was that we weren’t looking, and I was still pretty in love with our current house. But there were a few things in our current house that we wouldn’t be able to fix. Our house didn’t have a garage, it hardly had a yard, and it only had one bathroom. On top of that, we are looking at starting a family in the next few years.  We love entertaining, and in our current home, the living areas and sleeping areas are butted up next to each other. I really like the idea of sequestering little ones upstairs, locking the doors and saying “see you later” (I’m joking, everyone).

Then this house showed up on my screen. I had been house hunting with my parents and thus the internet algorithm happened. After seeing a link on Nextdoor, I took a click and immediately texted Billy with an “omg – I found our next house”. We scheduled a viewing that night and we fell in love with the old character and the potential. We hmm’d and haww’d. It felt like middle school when you have a crush on a boy and you just want to write about him in your diary all day and draw hearts around your names. But we weren’t looking for a house. We felt impulsive. But it also felt right.

Here’s a look at the house in the state we purchased it in.

The Parlor /Living Room

Why yes, it does have a parlor, it is cute and where we will do most of our living. It’s important to me to fill this space with beautiful and comfortable pieces. I want people to curl up here, have long conversations and read books cover-to-cover. It is on the small end, but look at all that show-stopping molding and the real, working fireplace.

Those curtains were the first thing that came down!

The Dining Room

It’s got a built-in, which makes me all lovey eyed. The plan as of now is to make the build in the bar area and deck it out with barware and decanters. The door that goes into the kitchen is an old-fashioned butler’s door with heavy duty spring action that we were way too into.

The Kitchen + Laundry

This kitchen has a lot more counter space than our kitchen. But I can’t wait to gut and renovate… someday.  We’re dreaming of opening it up to the sunroom on the other side. But that means big dollar signs, so this is one of those spaces that will go through a phase I and phase II renovation. Good news is that it is way better than the kitchen our first house came with.

The laundry room is right off the kitchen. We’re playing with a few ideas of things to do with it. Will we keep as is and add some pantry shelving? Will we steal from it to make the half bath into a full bath? Will we kick the appliances to the basement? Only time can tell.   

The Half Bath

I’m pretty sure we’re going dark and moody in here. We can’t wait to have a bathroom on the main floor for guests so that we don’t have to scrub our bathroom everytime we have a get-together. Plus, with Billy and I on a similar schedule, it will give the morning some more flexibility.

The Sunroom

This sunroom was an addition, that based on the curved, bullnose drywall, makes me think it was added in the 90’s. It’s a space I’ve never thought about decorating before, and I’m all kinds of pin-crazy about it.

The Master

We are really excited for a bigger bedroom. With us and the dog on the floor the sleeping quarters can get pretty tight.

The Nursery

We are only calling this the nursery because there is a door connecting this room to the Master, which will be perfect for future-not-yet-conceived baby. For now, I’ll be putting a wardrobe and vanity in here and little sitting area. Billy and I do Barre workouts in the morning, and this gets such beautiful morning light, I can’t wait to have a large space to spread out in every morning.

The Guest Bedroom

A room just for guests. That we’re going to try really hard no to fill up with stuff. We’ll see how that goes.

The Bathroom

This bathroom. There’s not much to say other than it’s there. I’d love to rearrange it for a larger vanity with two sinks and rip out that tile. Add it to the top of the list!

The Yard

And last is the yard. Which is just big enough and glorious. Where you could build a fort or dig a pool. So much room for activities and bbqs!

Welcome to the girl cave! The one place where you don’t have to apologize for your pink, your tulle, your bows. This room has been a dream-come-true for me. Our bedroom is on the small end–we can fit a queen size bed in it and nightstands.. and that’s all, folks. This closet makes up for that. When we purchased our house this had two doorwarys, one connected to the master bedroom and one to the front entryway. It also had two small closets in it, which didn’t make much sense to me (see the original layout here). We closed off the doorway to the entryway and made this 100% closet. Billy has a small, reach-in closet in the bedroom that he’s happy with. I’ve offered to share, but I think he likes to keep a few things in our marriage separate.

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I love a bold, over-the-top interior saturated with color. Rooms filled with unique pieces that you can only imagine the story behind. They are ripe for inspiration. These bits of decor and furniture weren’t bought from Pottery Barn or Target; they were found, and they were hunted. New York Magazine, The Cut, featured interior designer Sasha Bikoff’s fifth avenue townhouse, which is full of pink, velvet, lavish features and color on color.

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If there’s one decor item that I’m obsessed with, but don’t yet have in my house, it’s wallpaper. I just go goo-goo-ga-ga over a room that’s perfectly papered. Let’s take the following papers for example: I love the little drawings of animals all over, their fine lines, their whimsical nature. Aren’t they swoon-worthy? 

Children come up every so often between my husband and I, and it’s almost always in relation to decor. I love that these whimsical papers are neutral in color (black and white is so classic!) so that they can go with either a little boy or girl and none of them read too young. There’s no surprise that the majority of these inspiration photos are of nurseries.

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