Antique Weekend in Round Top

Remember the metal letters my sister got for me last fall while at Antique Weekend in Round Top, TX (see here). Well, in April, I was able to drive down to Round Top (Warrenton, actually) and spend the day shopping with one of my other sisters. It was exhausting but a lot of fun. We were only able to go for one day, and we hardly covered any ground at all. It’s such a huge event. Even though I’m sure I missed out on a lot of amazing items, I did manage to snag a few small pieces for the house.

I happened upon this chair that was tucked away between a few enormous pieces of furniture. We have been wanting a chair next to the fireplace, a great spot to slip your shoes off after walking into the house. We plan to recover the seat with some sort of fun fabric but leave the weathered look on the wood. I paid $15 for it. (The duck pillow was a purchase off of Fab.com)
 

 
I came across this camera (Kodak Brownie from the 1950s) about half way through our day. At the end of the day, I was still thinking about it and somehow managed to refind the little booth that was selling it. Alex and I have talked about collecting old cameras and displaying them around the house, so I decided to start our collection with this one. Original asking price was $45, but I managed to get it for $30.
 

 
I found a pile of old bowling pins outside of one of the very first booths we stopped at after parking the car that morning. On the way back to the car that evening, we stopped by again and they were all still there. I asked if I could buy just one, and the lady responded with “Sure, how much will you give me for it.” I had no idea how much bowling pins were selling for and neither did she, so I offered $5. SOLD!
 

 
 

Sharing a room

When Oscar, our youngest, turned 2 in December, we decided it was time to move him from his crib to a big boy bed. We also decided we wanted the boys to share a bedroom. So we moved Simon out of his blue room and into Oscar’s room. We had never painted or even really decorated Oscar’s nursery after moving into the house, so we were very excited to finally tackle this room and do what we wanted with it.

First, we moved all of Simon’s things over to let them get use to sharing a room before tranferring Oscar from a crib to a bed. Here is what the room looked like at that point:

 

As you can see, the room was a minty green color. It wasn’t a bad color, but not exactly one we would have chosen ourselves. So it was time for a change. After a few weeks, we went in with paint brushes in hand and changed the feel of the room completely. We are very happy with the end result.

Entering the room:

 
Light but bright blue:

 

 
Glow-in-the-dark stars:

 
Dressers:

 
Art desk:

There are still some small adjustments to be made and things to add, but we couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. The boys especially like the dark blue area with glow-in-the-dark stars. Originally that was a closet, but at some point it was changed to make the room a little bigger. Almost everything in the room was purchased at Ikea, including the bunk bed. I am a huge fan of Ikea for a kid’s room.

While doing this room, we also painted Simon’s old room (now the guest room). No more primary blue!! We haven’t done much else at this point, but I’ll post pictures as soon as we get it closer to where we want it.
 
 

It’s starting to look a lot like somebody lives here.

That’s because our living room walls are becoming less and less bare. Wahoo! We still have yet to tackle the gallery wall, but we’ve hung things on every other wall in the room and that makes me giddy with excitement.
 

 
The Etsy prints finally have a home.
 

 
And so do these wall shelves that we scored (totally free!) a couple of years ago. For now, we just threw a couple of things on them so that we didn’t have empty shelves hanging on the wall. Do you like that big white hand we found at Home Goods for only $10? Because I do. I love it!
 

 
Ok, now I know you are completely jealous. I mean, hello, look at how awesome these are. My sister scooped these up for me at Round Top flea market in Austin since I wasn’t able to go myself. We do plan to paint them, but just couldn’t wait to hang them.

Just getting a few things up on the walls has made the living room feel so much cozier. Exactly what I was wanting.
 
 

Gallery Wall Inspiration

There has been a lot of gallery wall talk in our house lately. We are gearing up to tackle the wall above the new bookcases. We want to fill it with a mixture of art and photos, but mostly old photos we’ve been gathering from our parents’ and grandparents’ albums.

I’ve put together a few images of gallery walls that I think are done really well. Hopefully ours turns out as nice as these.
 





 
And, just for fun, here’s one of the photos that I found at my parents’ house. I love this photo of my dad and me!
 

 
 

Fab Find: Map

If you haven’t joined Fab.com yet, I highly recommend it. And not just because I get credit if you use my personal invite and then make a purchase – that’s just a bonus. But because it introduces you to so many new designs and ideas that you haven’t seen before (or at least that I haven’t see before), and you can really catch some great deals. I visit the site everyday to see what’s new. I’ve wanted to buy much of what I’ve seen. I’m constantly yelling, “Alex, come look at this!” from across the house. But, I’ve managed to maintain self-control and just do a little cyber-browsing. However, last week I came across this map and just had to have it.

I’ve been wanting a map for the walls, but just haven’t found one that I thought was quite right for us or our budget. This one is from The Future Mapping Company. I love the bright colors, and the size is great (about 4 ft x 2 ft). It was reduced to $29 on Fab.com. And with my $10 of credits, it was only $19 + shipping. Not too shabby for wall art that will cover a huge space. I’m hoping to hang it above the couch in the living room, but if it doesn’t work there, we have plenty of empty walls to fill. We are on a roll with wall art. I mean, we haven’t actually hung anything yet, but we’re getting there.
 

Shut the front door…we finally hung something

Most of this week was spent oohing and awing over the new living room wall color (I’ve told Alex a million times a day how much I love the new color). But we managed to stop admiring it long enough to finally hang something on the walls. Well, not quite on the walls, more like on the fireplace above the mantle. That still counts though, right?

I mentioned a couple weeks ago (read here) that we had finally purchased a mirror for the living room from World Market. And now, we finally hung it up. Yay! Go us!

Here’s a little before shot of the sad, empty space that we’ve been staring at for so long.
 

 
And here it is a little less naked.
 

 
Did you check out the awesome wall color? Alright, I’ll shut up about it. I guess I’m just too easy to please.

For the most part we are very pleased with the mirror. We weren’t quite expecting it to be covered in shiny gold thread, but we are getting use to it. At first, I thought we’d be sending it back for sure, but it’s starting to grow on me. Now, the thing that I want to change is the color of the brick. I’ve never been a fan of the color, but I just don’t know if I have it in me to paint over brick. Don’t get me wrong, I love the way painted brick looks, but will future potential buyers love it too? Not that we plan to sell our house anytime soon, but you never know.

What do you think, paint the brick or leave her be?
 

Just a little eco-friendly vanity

Over the past week, we’ve continued working on the living room, but it’s going to be a slow process. A lot of little steps need to be taken before we can actually start painting. So no mind-blowing “after” pictures this week. However, between sanding and wood putty, I did manage to make a long awaited purchase for the room.

Alex and I have been on the hunt for the perfect mirror to hang above the mantle in the living room for over a year. Due to the lack of windows in the room, we knew a mirror would be a good way to help bounce a little light around the room. After buying all of our new furniture last year, I found a mirror at World Market that I thought was a good option. But it was only available online and that always makes me hesitate. I really like to see things in person to know for sure what kind of quality I’m getting. However, I hadn’t really had much luck in my search, and I couldn’t get that World Market mirror out of my head. So, I showed it to Alex.
 

Not only was it the right size, price and color, it was also made from recycled magazines! Eco-friendly is always a plus. Unfortunately, my dear husband never manages to muster up enough excitement about these things, so even though he said he liked this mirror, I could tell he wasn’t in love with it and continued my search. A few months later, Alex asked me, “Whatever happened to that World Market mirror?” You can imagine the look on my face. I quickly went to the website and found that they no longer had it available. WHAT?!?! That was it. I was done. No more mirror shopping for me.

Now lets fast forward a year. I’m back at it. Searching high and low for the perfect mantle companion. And to my surprise, what do I find? World Market has brought back the mirror that I thought was gone forever! I tell Alex the good news, and we decide this must be a sign. It’s meant to be. I search for an online coupon and find a Free Shipping offer at Retail Me Not. Over $20 worth of savings! Works for me!

Now we are just waiting for the mirror to be delivered and keeping our fingers crossed that we will love it just as much in person. I’m a little worried it’s going to look very small in such a large room, but we’ll find out for sure very soon.
 

Etsy Finds

I know I’m not alone when I say that I love Etsy. I could spend all day browsing through the various Etsy shops. This week, I’ve gathered a few items I think are pretty darn cool.
 

Here is a dresser made of salvaged wood from an 1800’s barn. I love the use of old wood in a modern design. Unfortunately this shop doesn’t currently have anything for sale, but have no fear, you can also buy the same items here.
 
 

I just love these hanging vases from wendyjung. With so many different items that could be placed in them, it’s an easy way to change up a room from season to season.
 
 

I want one of these very badly!!! When I look at this not only do I see a gorgeous piece of furniture I see the best possible solution for junk drawer organization. Think about it, paper clips in one drawer, pens in another, rubber bands in yet another. I could go on and on. I’d have the most organized office ever!! This shop has plenty of other apothecary cupboard size options as well.
 
 

Isn’t this adorable? What a cute idea from Ruff House Art.

If anyone has recommendations for Etsy shops that I just have to check out, let me know. I love a good Etsy find!