furniture update: the yellow room

I know it's been a while since I've shown you room updates -- in the summer, most of my attention goes to the garden. But I have some projects in process, and one of them recently reached a milestone.

After three years of no bedside stands, then cool but not-quite-right bedside stands, in the yellow room ... we have a winner!

I found these beauties at Cost Plus World Market, which recently re-opened a store in the Twin Cities. (Conveniently, one freeway exit from my office. My wallet has not been pleased. You'll see more CPWM soon.)

The space between the bed and the wall is about 12" at the pillow level, but only about 10" down at the floor level due to the baseboard and the bed frame. So that narrowed down the choices considerably.





The black legs are perfect for this room, which is a mix of woods and black accents (rug, wall artwork, candleholders, curtain rods).



To finish off the room, I'm still looking for the perfect headboard and nightstand lamps (either tabletop or wall-mount). But, making progress!

opinions please: new curtains!

I'm 99% sold on these new curtains for my living room ... what do you think?

Official deets: Ivory/white, semi-sheer, with jute stripes that look like gold from afar. $20/panel from Cost Plus World Market.

Replacing: the ivory floral sheer curtains that came with the house.

I love the idea of stripes in that room, as well as how the curtains fit the white and gold theme in a more neutral way. I'm less than enthused about the mismatching stripes when the curtains are closed (for me, that's 50-75% of the time). But is that enough of a dealbreaker? I haven't found anything else I really love.

find your prize

Fellow home blogger and college friend Meredith and I visited Hunt & Gather (famous for "find your prize") yesterday ... to celebrate her new house!

I found a new (old) crystal drawer pull for the desk in my dining room, some Valentines's Day cards, and about a hundred other things I sadly couldn't bring home.

I also picked up some pillow forms at JoAnn's for my other new favorite things ... Pillow cases from Zara Home. I found them when I was in Paris for work last November and they've been mocking me from their folded perch on my bedroom chair ever since. It was time to put them to good use, brightening up my living room couch on this icy, snowy weekend.

Prizes found.

decorating: summer into fall

Chilly weather is here, and I've slowly been replacing summer/neutral decor around the house with fall and Halloween pieces. 

I keep the same pieces on-hand from year to year (most came from my mom and our collective PartyLite stash) but I try to do different arrangements each time. Here's this year's versions!

Dining room table: silver bowl and hurricane shade --> wire apothecary vase with fall leaves and pumpkins

Dining room window nook: dried hydrangeas --> rosemary plant (has been outside all summer), red candlesticks & fall flower arrangement

Desk: mish-mash of summer wedding invites --> two of my favorite leaf-shaped candle holders

Kitchen corner shelves: Twins baseball memorabilia --> white and orange ceramic pumpkins

Front porch: blue jars and swirls --> pumpkins and jar candles

Living room: added leaf tealight holders to existing tablescape, and a big bowl and leaf coasters to the coffee table 

two-year anniversary: the house now

Two years into living in the little farmhouse, a lot has changed. You can see the whole transformation here... but for those of you who have been following the transformation all along, here is an up-to-date tour of the house, top to bottom!

Kitchen

Dining Room

Living Room

Stairwell

Yellow Bedroom

Blue Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Bathroom

Basement

Front Porch