interior design

House Tour – Easy Easter Dining Room

| The Bee Life

Since it’s officially spring, and Easter is just around the corner – I wanted to share my spring-ready dining room, with a touch of Easter flair! I kept it a bit low-key compared to last year. House Tour - Easy Easter Dining Room
With the cold weather lingering, I’ve consistently buying fresh flowers to help warm up our home.  The flowers seem to instantly brighten up the room and I love the added touch.  The foiled gold eggs add another pop of bright colors, along with the green boxwood wreath near the windows. All the colors and warmth bring spring inside, when outside is a bit cold and grey.

What I love most about Easter decor is it is fun, playful and full of life – after all that is what the holiday is truly about!  What elements do you like to incorporate into your Easter decor?

Our Master Reveal

| The Bee Life

The time is finally here!! Our master bedroom reveal!

For those who didn’t follow along on my 8-months worth of updates throughout last year… It all started with our attic, even though it was a ‘finished’ space, it was poorly done.  It’s open feel, large bright windows, closet space and size made this an instant dream master retreat.  Since B is so tall, we ended up raising the ceiling 6-inches, but that basically became a complete gut job down to the studs. This wasn’t part of the original plan – but we ended up doing new electric, new insulation, new drywall, new blinds, closet doors, new everything – and B did 97.9% of it! This was definitely our biggest house project to date.

So without further ado here is our awesome master retreat including the seating area and my two closets, yes two, one for clothes, one for accessories. *grins* We’ve tried to DIY and make as much as possible, including the headboard, curtain rods, barn door, DIY night stands and reading table, painted and redid the dresser and shopped smart for other accessories but splurged on a few items like the fireplace, rugs and our chairs.

master-reveal-the-bee-life-10master-reveal-the-bee-life-6The black frames next to the bed hold the love letter B wrote and proposed to me with. It’s the perfect addition to the room and show casing that instead of hiding it in a box somewhere. We also tried to keep some of the original wood work, especially on the stair railing coming up, but opened it to give an open feel.

I had full intentions of sharing the closet space with B, but he insisted I use both of the closets upstairs (don’t worry he has two-closets on the second floor). So I kindly thanked him and told him he was creating a monster and then proceeded to work on creating my dream <organized> closets.

We would both be lying if we didn’t say we were proud of the way this turned out. It was everything we imagined and more and I love having our own little getaway from the rest of the house and world (Moz really loves it too!)

Go Us!

Latest Obsessions: Pillows

| The Bee Life

So lately I have been completely obsessed with PILLOWS! I want soooo many pillows. All of a sudden there is about 5-places in the house that I could name that need pillows to add that extra finished and cozy look. The dining room built-in bench, the bay window in the staircase, the office, the master and the spare daybed… not to mention the living room pillows could use a freshen up… shall I go on? I have literally been scrolling through screens and screens of pillows, hitting the ‘Add to Cart’ button, until I reach the end, check out my chart (because they all seemed like such a great deal) and it’s $150+ … click “save for later”repeat x5. *smiles*Latest Obsessions - Pillows - Neutrals 01 | 02 | 03 | 04

Pillows are the perfect way to spice up a room and add some extra flair without needing to refurnish the entire place. Pillows can also help personalize a space; whether it’s with a state, zip code, or even this fun bee pillow by French Laundry (above) – I’m obsessed!  The other thing I love about pillows is that they can add a level of subtlety when you mix a few patterns or fabrics correctly.  Pillows add a level of cozy and warmth to a space and can be the key finishing pieces, without you knowing! 

The other key to pulling in pillows and buying them is getting different shapes, large square pillows, long horizontal pillows or even larger body pillows to help build the space, (for example normal bed turned daybed).  Having different sizes also creates depth and dimension to your space making the space look larger and more plush than it might be.

Latest Obsessions - Pillows - Blues04 | 05 | 06 | 07

My go-to stores for pillows as you can probably tell if you’re checking out the links throughout are; Target (duh), Marshalls/T.J. Maxx (double-duh), Pier 1, Pottery Barn and Society 6. Although I usually start in the clearance sections first – because you can’t beat a good deal, especially if you’re using the pillows as updates to the space and are more likely to switch them out more frequently.  And as excited as I get about a pillow, I like to wait to see if my initial gut reaction of LOVE, is still LOVE after I see it again in the line-up of a gillion pillows. I also can’t usually resist a good 2-pack of pillows especially if they’re essentially the price of one, it’s a win-win!

Latest Obsessions - Pillows - Color                                                                                  08 | 09 | 10 | 11

What’re your favorite spots to get pillows?  Do you have any pillow rules? I’ve slowly started ordering a few here and there for the spaces I mentioned above. Yay!! 

For the love of pillows,

House Tour – Our Living Room

| The Bee Life

Hi friends! I wanted to invite you inside our home and give you a little tour of our living room!  It’s one of the rooms where we spend most of our time besides our master… yes I know… I still owe you all the official master tour, it’s coming, I promise! Anyways, back to the living room, since it’s one of the rooms we spend most of our time in, it’s one of the more finished spaces.  It’s also one of the spaces that I like to update and switch things around on the mantle, coffee table and even the picture frames. So here is the space just Plain Jane, no holiday decor – just normal life.
Living Room (2)Living Room (3)Living Room (1)One of my favorite parts of our living room is all of our old photos that we’ve incorporated into the gallery wall or through the mantle and built-in’s.  They’re pieces of our past and what make up our families and who we’ve been shaped to be.  Family is very important to both of us, so it’s nice to be surrounded by our loved ones, past and present.

It’s the little details we’ve been able to focus on and update (like the knobs on the built-in’s) still giving it an appropriate feel for the period of the house but giving it an updated feel. 

Hope you’ve enjoyed one of our most loved spaces!

DIY – Coordinates Sign

| The Bee Life

Remember our big attic renovation into our master suite?  Well the little details have still been a work in progress, as they usually are. But we are getting closer to getting the little details finished up. I am finally happy to share one of the last pieces to the gallery wall puzzle. It’s a coordinates sign that I made using old wood from our house and the renovation! IMG_4970IMG_4972I love the way it came out, the old wood is what brings this simple sign to life. The metallic silver lettering also pops on the wood grain with a nice mix of old and new. I wanted to keep it simple with the text and not do anything to fancy to really rely on the wood to pull this piece to life with the metallic accents. One of my goals for the gallery wall if you remember wayyy back to my Gallery Wall Inspiration was that I wanted to add color, textures, and different elements that represent B and I without it getting too girly.  I feel like the earthy wood grain in the coordinates sign helps balance the ‘girly’ along with pulling in the other wooden frames used on the wall.
IMG_4716IMG_4972For now the gallery wall is feeling pretty complete. There may be some additional pictures added below but for the longest time there was this awkward section where the coordinates sign ended up going, so order has been restored! And I am loving the piece of our home that we’ve been able to restore in more than one way.

DIY – Childhood Nightstand

| The Bee Life

I recently received my old childhood night stand from my parents house, but it was in desperate need of a little make-over, since I had last repainted it in high school to match my pink and orange room. *sigh* I still wish I had a pink and orange room…

Anyways, I digress. This was a really easy and low cost DIY because all it really needed was a new coat of paint, especially since in my dark teenage years I had written touching notes on my night stand like; “love sucks” and other cryptic messages. *smiles* So it needed a little sanding and fresh coat of white paint on the base.

Before

Next, I painted the fronts of the drawers, Naval by Sherwin Williams, it’s such a pretty color, I am trying to figure out what else I can paint with it. I was planning on replacing the knobs, but they were painted on from previous paint jobs, and I really didn’t want to deal with the hassle of trying to wrangle them off and potentially damaging the drawers, so plan B. Plan B was to spray paint the handles metallic silver, which I just so happened to have from a few other previous projects. I had to make-shift something to cover up the drawers, so some magazines and painters tape did the trick. It actually worked out pretty well and I only had to make a few touch-ups with the navy.
DSCN2140
To give this even more of an upgrade, I went ahead and added some adhesive/ contact paper ($5.99 at Target) into the drawers to make it pop!  Not to mention, over the years this little nightstand has seen some love, so it was looking a little rough. I decided to put the contact paper on the outside of the drawers as well, so that when you opened them there was an added pop. I did some simple measuring and cutting, this was even easier because the contact paper has measuring lines on the backside – this probably took me about 20-minutes to finish up.

Even though this is for a guest bedroom, I think it’s important and nice to have nightstands and all the essentials for when your guests stay over – that’s why I’ll be getting a lamp as well to finish off this look!

After

Before and After - the bee lifeI love the way it turned out, and I am sure this little night stand will have a few more makeovers in it’s lifetime.  The added detail of the contact paper on the sides of the drawers and inside, just upgrade the whole piece.  I may still try and get new knobs at some point, but for now this little $5.99 makeover will do the trick and accomplishes the task of being functional and matching within the space!  What I love the most about some DIY’s is that it doesn’t take a lot, to make a big difference – time wise or cost.

Hope you all have a great week!

 

 

Latest Obsessions: For the Home 

| The Bee Life

HERE’S WHAT I have been obsessed with in and around the home, especially since our master is nearly completed.  These are the things I am constantly looking for whether it be in the store or buried in a photo album.

Old Photos: Since the inception of the gallery wall in our living room, and the idea of using old, black and white photographs, (from years long before I was ever born) I can’t help but want to find more! There are so many hidden gems stored away that I know I haven’t found yet.  The last time I was home I insisted my parents dig out their old photos… And there is was, these beautiful wedding pictures of my grandma B, pictures I’d never seen before, pictures that took my breathe away (one pictured below). I also need to dig around in B’s grandma Dee’s pictures. I love making copies and filling my frames with family and memories that make up our history.

Table Top Clocks: I am over the wall clock, practical and useful in some rooms (like the kitchen) but not so much in other rooms. I LOVE table top clocks, vintage or modern, gold or silver, I’m probably going to start hoarding them and put one in every room! I just stumbled upon these gems at Target, $9.99 each, I’ll take one of each, please!
Clocks
01 | 02 | 03

Wooden Accents: With recent DIY projects, I find myself drawn more and more to custom wooden signs with hand crafted letters. I also love wooden frames that elevate the look and feel while tying in a natural element to the room and adding warmth. I have a specific DIY in mind to help finish off the gallery wall in our master, something similar below, only incorporating B and I’s initials or a special date or longitude/latitude.  There are also plenty of pieces like this found in stores, that have a custom, hand-drawn look for the not so crafty people!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/256254676/reclaimed-wooden-blessed-sign

What are you obsessing about lately when it comes to pieces in and around your home?

Gallery Wall Inspiration

| The Bee Life

As we near the finishing touches for our master suite, there is one wall that is completely random the room is also in need of a dedicated place to add a pop of color and make a statement (you’ll soon see the randomness when final photos are posted).

So I’ve been thinking… gallery wall! But when I go to look for inspiration I can’t find a happy medium of what I am looking for, since my ideal gallery wall is all the same, evenly spaced and matched up, like the one below.  A lot of the gallery walls I find are either simple and uniform (not what I’m going for in this space) or completely over done and just too much. Like I said, I want happy medium.

Generations of wedding days. Also like this layout for travel pics:

Here is some of my inspiration and my go-to places for finding the perfect mix of unique, personal, and colorful items for a gallery wall, especially if you’re trying to mix up the mold without over killing it!  Places like Marshall’s/TJMaxx/Home Goods are perfect to find different pieces and pops of color, I also love websites like Society 6 for unique pieces of art that’re trendy and different.  My friend Lucy; http://boundryandthorn.com/ also creates insanely cute floral letters and unique hand-drawn prints which truly give your gallery wall an authentic feel.  Another goal for mine is to have a mix of textures and materials, I’m thinking, wood accents, metal frames, or elements of gold to really pop and add dimension.

Gallery Wall Inspiration - the bee life
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I already have some pieces at home that’re laying around to help get this statement gallery wall started! I just want to be sure to have a good mix of girly and masculine, since it’s also B’s space, any hints or suggestions on how to incorporate that aspect into the mix?

My Latest Obessions

| The Bee Life

Taking a page from Andy Cohen’s book, HERE’S WHAT I’m obsessed with when it comes to home decor… because I have an entire master suite I am dying to decorate.

Neutrals – White and grey! More please!! I love creating a blank canvas to be able decorate and accessorize with pops of color.  Not to mention white and bright makes a room look 10x bigger, who doesn’t want their room to look bigger?

 

Floral Accents – This is my way to incorporate a little girly into a space without being totally overt with pink walls … like I would love to do. *smiles* I am completely in love with these pillows and they’re even prettier in real life – because they have flecks of gold in them. *swoon* The candle from Anthropologie also has flecks of gold and an incredible scent.

 

Navy and Gold – I mean… do I even need to explain? This is one of the most beautiful and classic pairings, in my humble opinion, especially when these colors are used as accents they can make a big impact, although if overdone not so hot.

I won’t lie – you’ll see a few of these beauties in our master suite when it’s all finished. What’re you currently obsessing over? That piece you’ve been eyeing have pinned AND favorited on your Pinterest board.


Product Links:
Neutrals: Unfinished Nights Stands | Upholstered Fabric Chair | Shag Rug
Florals: Pillows | Candle
Navy and Gold: Handsome/Gorgeous Frames | Ottoman | DIY Curtains