Weeks 2-3 in Photos

Like I said, we've been painting a lot. My terrific mother in law came down one Sunday and really helped us knock it out. It was amazing what painting the trim did to make the whole place feel clean! My sis in law and her man also came down and helped finish the second coat in the master which was a huge help!  So here is week 2 and 3 in photos.

Week 2 is just a bunch of stuff thrown in a room and Elmer's Glue covered walls. You can see the living room and master painted in the 3rd row. I was beyond joyed to start painting with color, although the KILZ effectively killed the smokey the bear smell! {hooray for small victories} In the top right photo I decided to spray paint the return air grill. I felt a little bit like Dexter tapping off his kill area. eek. 

Week 3 was much more fun. The movers moved all our large items in and it began to feel like a home. New appliances also made an appearance.  I sold the last fridge on craigslist after I opened it and felt like Puff the magic dragon had been living in there. I also got to start my favorite part of home ownership, layering pieces and styling. It is by no means complete but we are definitely heading in a better direction! 

Love ya'll! 

This Mint Green is New for Spring.

Hey Guys! I promise I'll get this blog thing down and start posting more regularly. But please forgive me, we've been a wee bit busy. Tax free in bridal world this weekend and it was a doozy. {Wedding gowns count as tax free in SC, I'm not complaining}
And when I'm not slinging wedding gowns like its my job I've been painting. Like everything. 3 coats per room. I'm over it. Also picking out paint colors was way more angst ridden and stressful than expected. I will never make fun of a bride who can't choose between two very close shades of blue for her bridesmaid dress. I couldn't choose between 5 very close shades of mint for the hallway. I have more paint samples than I will ever need, but at last we decided!
I knew I wanted to use Benjamin Moore paint colors because I have been absolutely obsessed with Palladium Blue for a while.

Its just a lovely shade of not too green, not too blue and a touch of grey. Perfection. I knew I wanted PB in our bedroom and automatically locked it in. PB led me to its darker neighbor Whythe Blue which was also Benjamin Moore's color of the year in 2012. It got nominated for the living room. 

 And then came the hallway. Thank goodness for Pinterest because I've been pouring through my past pins to try and find some thread of consistency to help me make the next selection. Thus the mint hallway was choosen. Oh but what shade. I didn't want it to be too little kid room. I also wanted something with a little bit of a grey undertone so the whole house would flow even with different colors room to room. I literally bought 5 different shades of mint and painted them all over the hallway to test for different lighting conditions and what not. In the end the winner was Lido Green. I'm in love.

The hall bath was a little easier since I've been obsessed with this wallpaper from Anthropologie for years. I think the mint is going to perfectly pick up the color of the butterfly wings. Haven't ordered it yet, but its on the list. Then MLW and I get to venture into wallpaper world. Oh boy. 

Matt's room came next. I struggled for a few days with wether or not to do a darker shade of Whyth Blue called Stratton Blue, but was worried that was too many colors off the same paint chip. But then I came across Owl Gray on Emily Henderson's Blog stylebyemilyhenderson.com. She is my fav HGTV designer and if she describes this shade as "This gray can do no  wrong. Ever. It's my favorite and best go-to gray of all time" then you better believe it is good enough for me. I'm not normally a fan of a "neutral" but I wanted this room to be more manly and I have a tendency to make everything just a smidge girly. {ok maybe a lot girly}

Our bathroom was another fairly easy one. I've always liked yellow bathrooms so I went with Weston Flax from Ben Moore's historical color collection. Its nice and soft and looks nice coming of the Palladium.

So the only rooms left to decide on are the two guest bedrooms and the kitchen. Eventually the kitchen is going to get a major overhaul so it will probably just have to chill for a while. It is nice to have all the main rooms DONE though. We are living less and less in a disaster zone. I've been absolutely thrilled with everything we've put up on the walls. It was like painting with candy after 2 weeks of painting with KIlZ {which works, but is like painting with Elmer's Glue}. My biggest tip to anyone else looking to pick colors is do your research! All of my colors came highly recommended by some of my favorite blogs, were all over Pinterest or had proven themselves to someone else. When it comes to paint, be a follower! 

Love ya'll! 

*All paint swatches from BM's website and purchased through Spectrum Paint in Mount Pleasant. We used the SuperSpec in an eggshell finish and couldn't be happier with the results.  They probably think I'm crazy, but I'm ok with that. 

Sweat Equity

Hey Guys, moving is exhausting! We have just been taking a few loads over in my car but I am plum worn out. We aren't officially moving in until the 29th, but it is fun to see some of our stuff in the new place. Makes it feel more like ours. The first time we walked in without the real estate lady (who was fabulous!- Georgieann with the Ed Hunnicutt Team) we both felt like we were doing something wrong sneaking around someone else's house. I especially felt this way since I hung out with the previous owner for about 2 hours while the inspection was happening. Her daughter actually has a successful wedding planning business here in Charleston and her son owns a restaurant. Its a small bridal world, but made me feel like this was the place for us since I work in bridal and MLW is a chef!

Also buying a new home means you pretty much live at Home Depot. I've been 5 times and we have owned the house for 6 days. I've also already had to call an emergency plumber at 10 pm on Monday night. I sold the fridge on craigslist and there was some major leaking that couldn't be stopped. Thanks to 24 hour plumbing services! Luckily I took a Tuesday field trip to Best Buy for some shiny new appliances that are on the way next week. I feel so adultish. I actually really enjoyed buying a new fridge. Weird.

Anywho here are some photos to get you up to speed with our first week. (PS if you follow me on instagram you have prob seen a few of these, apologies for the duplicates).

First Home Depot trip...this was the most fun out of the other 4, mainly because I got a sweet deal on a mirror that I had been stalking. 

Cat walk of of mostly chairs and mirrors. We figured if we just piled it all in the middle it would make it easier to paint around?

 The leaking water line for the fridge icemaker. First Matt had to crawl under the house, that didn't work. Then I ran to Home Depot covered in paint and dirt and frantically tried to buy a cap. It was too big and too late to go back to the store. So then I called a plumber. The lady on the phone laughed at me.

Yay for buckets! All the plumber did was turn off my water. I didn't have a key or I would have done it myself! Thanks to many years of working at a barn I know my way around a water main. Alas having a key around would have been too easy. Luckily it was just a cheap service call fee. However, the water is staying off until the new fridge can get installed which is making cleanup a little interesting...

The man room got a coat of kilz and some new blinds which has made a huge difference! I still have no idea what I want to paint this room. 

 Hallway covered in Kilz, be gone Smokey the Bear!

By the end of each day I have been covered and I mean covered in paint and dirt. I used a brillo pad in the shower to get it all off me. Intense cleaning. 

Found this beauty at Page's Thieves' Market. So excited to spruce it up a bit and add it to the front porch. Also if you noticed my instagram hashtag #beesonthepooorch here is a sweet video to put that little gem into reference....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3wi9HWUIsY

 Family Love.  It's tough to get all four of us in a photo at once, but A for effort right?

And finally I found this chair at Feather Your Nest in Mount Pleasant and I love. It would be wrong to buy a chair and a church bench in the same day right? Right. For now I will just daydream about it hope someone doesn't find it before I can get back to it. Thats all for now! 

Closure.

We closed!!! MLW and I own a house.  She's kinda ugly right now, but her bones are rockstars. Apologies for poor photo quality yet again. I'm too excited to really edit these bad boys also it was raining. So, without further adieu here she is:

 Oh Hey House, Hey!

Front porch.

 Front door.

 Entry...

 The hallway.

 Huuuuge living and dinning!

 Our somewhat leaning screen porch and deck.

 Font half of kitchen..

And the other half. It's big.

Man Cave door, previously had a doggie door, which if you read the last post I was pumped about. However, I had forgotten that part of our repair addendum required a new side door. Woops. Somewhat tragic moment when I realized we had lost it. I think adding a new doggie door will be pretty high on our list of things to do. 

Side entry porch. Its so small and cute and adorable! 

More of the side.

Man world. 

Awesome closet doors throughout house.

Guest Bath.

 Guest room A.

 Guest room B. (wow that photo turned out dark. Bad Betsy, Bad!)

 Master bedroom. I guess MLW can start putting his clothes in a closet in our room again...sigh

 And the master bath!

 So that her folks. Love her? Me too!
Also this is my first post going "live." Blog, artsy and generally talented friends, I need your help! I know my blog currently looks lame. Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Love ya'll!

The Doors.

Nothing is better than doing a final walk through and discovering a few hidden gems....doors. We found a pocket door in the kitchen, a side door with adorable patio landing, and the best part a doggie door!!! Some corgi's lives are about to change. We went from living in an apartment with limited outside time, to a fenced in backyard with maybe too much outside time in this South Carolina heat. Corgi's have a lot of fur and its HOT ya'll!
 I am so excited for their lifestyle upgrade. Now they will be able to come in and out to their little darlin' heart's desire. So excited. We are all set to close tomorrow, but it's been a little bit of a nail bitter. Promise to update you on that later. For now, I hope these photos of doors excite you as much as they do me!

 The pocket door separating kitchen from living room. Sorry for wonky angle and poor photography.

And the side door with the wonderful doggie door! I'm a little concerned that Ernie might not fit through, but a little crisco on the sides of the door and thinking skinny thoughts should do the trick. Poor Ern, its hard to keep a slim waistline when your just so darn cute. Stay tunned...

Hippo me Happy

Heres the thing. I'm a little obsessed with hippo decore. Yes, I know they are Africa's #1 killer, but I have no intention of getting in a river with one. I see a hippo and I just think its happy. The happy hippo. 

I guess it started last year on a buying trip to Atlanta for VOWs bridal market with my insanely talented florist friend (more on her later). We bought a whole bunch of wedding gowns and then took to the streets to find a few nicknacks for ourselves. Thats when we stumbled into West Elm and I met her. My first hippo. My friend convinced me to walk away, but one cocktail later and I was back handing my credit card over. Here's her picture:

Isn't she awesome? Below is how she was first styled. Now she is just kinda floating off center on a random wall after a dinning room makeover, but we are out of this rental house by next month and I'm already scheming on where to put her. 

However, the tricky part has been that once I bought my first hippo I want more... "Waddle it Be" bookends? Genius Modcloth, Genius.

source

That Southern Charm

Hey Ya'll! Welcome to my own little daydream of design, homes, fashion and bridal. I dabble a little bit in them all, but mostly just want all aspects of everyday life to be beautiful. I work in a little bridal boutique in Charleston, SC but my heart lies with all things pretty and southern. I look froward to sharing what inspires me, makes me laugh (my corgis) and some real life experiences along the way! 

Spoiler: MLW (the hubs) and I just bought a house. Ack we are adults. Bring on the decorating! 

*source