eclectic entryway gallery wall.

i really love our entryway.

guests step off our front porch into this cozy little area of our house, with stone floors and light grey walls.  i have had a beautiful green buffet from my favorite antique store that i bought last summer, but it's been pretty empty other than that for the past few months.  over the summer i've been trying to finish it up!  i still have a few projects in the works, but i was eager to complete this one.

i have a thing for gallery walls (if you can't tell from my house).  i love, love, love them.  most of mine are full of pictures, but i wanted a really eclectic one for our entryway in a giant blank space we have above a little bench.  it was really important to me that it represented our family and all the things that we want our home to be about.  

i tried a few different things and hemmed and hawed over what i wanted it to look like.  i changed it a few times (ok: you guys do NOT want to know how many nail holes are in this wall...yikes) and ultimately came up with this:

and i just love it.  i wanted it to be full of things that say "us" as we welcome friends and family into our home.  i love color, words that are special to us, different textures and pictures, so this wall just really makes me so very happy.  here's a closer look at all of the pieces:

i knew from the beginning i wanted this verse displayed in our entryway; it is such an expression of our family and what is most important to us.  i've been wanting to try my hand at embroidery for a while now: yall, i used to faithfully cross-stitch when i was a little girl.  i think i started a million different ones and never actually finished any of them, but see?  i was a grandma at like age eight.  and i loved it.  so in an effort to return to my stitching roots, i ordered this pattern off of etsy, transferred it with dressmaking paper to the embroidery fabric and needled away.  it's definitely not perfect, but i love it.  and now i want a new embroidery project...definitely addicting!

this is one of my favorite parts of the whole wall.  i found these little typography porclein trays at nordstrom for ten bucks.  i seriously love them (and the "c" just happened to be yellow&turquoise...it was so meant to be).  i knew i wanted to put mine on this gallery wall, so i just glued a ribbon loop on the back so i could hang it in the middle of a frame. check them out; they're so cute!

there's my ikea kvill frame again; this baby is plastic and only like four dollars, but i love it and want one for every room.  this one displays one of my favorite family pics that was taken last fall by a great photographer here in maine (cait wilson photography; check her out!  she is awesome!)  i love how my coral sweater and bella's coral shoes match my "home sweet home" print.  i know; i'm such a nerd.

a while ago, i found this strip of wood in our garage in a scrap pile and i grabbed it as fast as i could.  i love how it looks weathered and the little knot hole in the end just adds character.  with just a coat of paint and some cursive writing in bright paint, i knew it was just perfect for my wall.  i thought and thought about a word that i wanted to describe the mission of our family and what captured us, and finally i landed on "love".  when i was single, if anyone asked me what i looked for in a man, i always said that i wanted to find someone who "loved jesus and loved others".  when i met nick, this was totally his heartbeat (and the verse he had on his myspace page... yes, myspace...i know, we are old!)  i want our home to be a place where people feel loved; not just our girls, but all who enter.  

i found this plate at tj's on clearance a couple of years ago for like three dollars: score.  it's perfect for the vintage-y theme of our home.  the photo above it is one of my favs taken by my dear friend of amanda kate photography; if you're in dallas, look her up!  you will not regret it, friends!!  i wanted to do something different, so i took the glass out and just used scotch tape to stick the photo to the wall in the middle of the frame.

if you've been following my blog for any amount of time, you know that i love lace and i love doilies.  i've refered to my decorating style as "funkified grandma"; it's totally true.  i love decorating with embroidery hoops to add pops of color and also some variation in shape and texture.

i'm in love with all things katie daisy and her etsy shop, the wheatfield.  i have a few of her prints in our home, and wanted this one for our entryway (for obvious reasons).  my sweet sister surprised me with it for my birthday last year, and i was so excited!  i love the color and cheerfulness that it gives this wall.

there you have it, guys.  an eclectic entryway gallery wall with so many things precious to my family's heart.  i love this sweet little display.  i am a firm believer in decorating with things you love, items that represent you and what makes you happy.  this is a perfect example of that for me.

because home should be sweet.

anthropologie teapot lamp knockoff.

my heart stopped a little when i saw this lamp almost three years ago:

{source}

my mom and aunt had come to visit me in dallas right after bella was born.  we spent one afternoon browsing stores at an outdoor shopping mall and we went in to anthropologie just so i could covet everything in the entire store.

and then i spotted the most perfect lamp in the entire world.

i gasped and showed my mom, who promptly told me i could make my own (to which i scoffed).  but due to the hefty price tag, it looked like i would have to if i wanted the most perfect lamp in the entire world anywhere near my home.

so, i started collecting white china.  goodwill.  homegoods.  the salvation army.  i found the most perfect pieces and then they sat.  in our basement.  for two years.  i was just too scared to drill through any of them and have them break.  thanks to google, i actually found out that other people had made their own anthro teapot lamp knockoffs and found a few good tutorials.  i read, researched, figured out my plan of attack.  and yes, this happened over the span of two years.

and then, finally, last week my entryway buffet was getting a little impatient waiting for it's last decorating touch, which was to be my teapot lamp.  i mustered up the courage to tackle this project and more importantly, i enlisted the help of my oh-so-handsome handyman (hi, husband) and we began the project.

and you know what?  not a single piece broke.
aaaaand it was actually super easy.
also? i love it.

here is a step by step tutorial so you can make your own!  and save like five hundred bucks (okay, more like one fifty but you know me and my love of exaggeration).

anthropologie teapot lamp knockoff

materials:
* your china...teapot, teacups, creamers, saucers
(note: i recommend getting a ruffled or scalloped bowl for the bottom as your lamp base, otherwise you'll need to drill a hole on the side of your bowl base for the cord to come through)
* 1/4 or 1/2 in diamond drill bit used specifically for glass, ceramic or porcelain
* gorilla glue
* lamp kit

steps:
- after you collect all of your pieces, play around with them a bit to see what arrangement you like best to make sure you have what you need.  i ended up using two bowls, two saucers, a teapot and a creamer.

- now it's time to drill.  don't worry; just use a whole lot of patience and a gentle hand and it will be fine!  it also helps to enlist the help of a man.  this was definitely a team project thanks to my husband!  we drilled in our garage; it can be a little messy.  coil up a towel and secure your item in the center.  have a small pitcher of water next to you; you'll need to pour onto the surface of your ceramic item as you drill, little by little (the drill bit gets super hot and you'll need to keep the surface lubricated for drilling).  it took both of us to get the hole started to ensure that it would be in the middle (it will drift until it catches and begins to drill in the same spot).  nick went super slow and let the drill do the work; applying little pressure.  it will feel like you're drilling to the center of the earth, but just be patient... it will finally break through!  and you will probably cheer when it does, if you're anything like me.

- now's the fun part!  once you have all of your drilled pieces, you can begin to stack, wire and glue.  it was easiest to thread the cord from my lamp kit as i glued otherwise i would've had to thread it through all of the items afterwards.  i lined up each item, threaded the cord through and glued; stacked, threaded and glued, and so on...until i was finished the whole stack.  be sure to be super careful to get them as centered as possible; i wasn't paying attention to one angle and so my lamp is a bit crooked from the side.  ahhh well.

- make sure you wait 30-60 minutes for the glue to dry... i placed a couple books ontop to clamp all of the pieces together as it dried.

- next comes the lamp assembly.  simply follow the instructions that come with your kit.  first, you'll need to secure your harp base.  i read several ways that others did this, but i decided to just use gorilla glue to secure it to the top saucer on my stack of dishes.  super easy.  don't be intimidated by the electrical part of this; the kits come with really detailed instructions and i was able to do it on my own, on my first try.  which means: anyone can do this.  seriously.

- once you're done, add your shade (i chose a burlap drum shade i found at homegoods) and if you like, you can find a tiny teacup to glue onto the finial.  i think that is my favorite part!  sadly, mine wasn't completely dried when i moved my lamp; it fell and the little handle of my tiny teacup broke :(  oh well.  i guess it adds character...

- find a good place to display, plug in and admire all of your hard work!

i think this is my favorite project i've ever done!  it's vintage, eclectic and whimsical which sums up everything i love AND it perfectly completes my entryway buffet.
i can't stop staring at it.

cost breakdown:
lamp kit: $10
saucers, teapot, teacup, bowls: $20
lampshade: $20

anthro cost: $200
my cost: $50
happiness :)

let me know if you make one, too!  happy teacup finding :)

this post is linked to these *lovely* blog parties:

do small things with love
the shabby nest
liz marie
shaken together
diana rambles
five days...five ways
two girls and a party
diy showoff
creatively living
diy by design
the diy'ers
the shady porch
southern lovely

home tour {our kitchen}.

our kitchen is one of my favorite rooms of our house.  it's bright and cheerful and has lots of color.  and, nostalgia.  y'all know me and my nostalgia.

as i've written about before, my husband and i bought my grandparents old house a year ago.  it is just oozing with childhood memories for me, and the kitchen is probably the biggest room of sentimentality.  my grandmother loved to cook.  she was always in the kitchen working on a big family dinner, making breakfast for my sister and i, or baking some goodies to deliver to neighbors and friends.  it was super important to me to keep some of that nostalgia in our kitchen.  my girls helping me cook in this space makes four generations of women that have busied themselves in this kitchen.  now, that just makes my heart so happy.

my decorating style is vintage-eclectic.  i try to downplay it a bit in the main living areas of the house, because i want it to be an enjoyable environment for my husband too :)  however, since i am in the kitchen so much of the time, i figured i could kind of make that space my own.

we painted the walls a pretty yellow (buttercream, by better homes&gardens) and little by little i added some decor i liked.  still, no amount of beauty could avert the eye from our camp-ish, pine cabinets.  they darkened the whole kitchen and i was just itching to paint them!  since nick&i both work at schools, we decided our april vacation week, we would go to town on our cabinets.  and go to town we did.

here's a quick before:

and the after:

i am in love.  seriously.  i can't believe what a difference a coat of white paint can make.  sure, our counter tops are dingy and we have appliances from the 1980s, but i just love my "new" kitchen!  the cabinet makeover immediately brightened up the whole room.

we used sherwin williams paint and primer; including a special kind of primer that allowed us to not have to sand.  bonus.  snowbound was the color we chose; two coats of primer, two coats of paint, and we allowed the cabinets to cure for 4-5 days before re-attaching them.

and now for a little tour... sorry, total picture overload but i wanted to capture the details.

view from the entryway

view from the dining room

glass canisters; flour, coffee & tea

my kitchen gallery wall

vintage shelf 

mason jar with flowers, and these sweet little apple/pear salt&pepper shakers i eyed for a while at my favorite antique store that my sister surprised me with at christmas; aren't they so cute?!

katie daisy print with tiny teapot and old fashioned creamer

vintage hankie bunting

vignette with pretty plates, vintage hankies, katie daisy print and a rolling pin/muffin tin that belonged to my grandmother

stove

"my cup runneth over" personalized china platter; great words to be reminded of as i cook 

i absolutely love my kitchen window looking out over our backyard

a friend sent me this willow tree figurine after i lost my dad; it symbolizes my sister and i with our dad, but also represents nick&the girls which makes me love it even more

i bought this brass container at a yard sale, spray-painted it white and filled it with artificial succulents

ranunculas from my plants and an antique creamer that serves as storage for our medicine spoons and droppers

chicken wire basket filled with fruit

i have a thing for mint green, so when i saw this breadbox at my favorite antique store, it was a must-buy

we saved the original brass handles... they have a twig-like look to them, which i really love

i apologize for the picture overload!  i really love my kitchen.  even on a rainy day, i can walk into it and feel sunshine.  i look forward to all of the meals and memories i will make with my girls in this very room.  recipes that i'll pass down, traditions that will be established and many, many special times ahead.

home tour {our master bedroom}.

let me just start off this post by saying: our room barely ever looks like this.  usually, the bed is unmade, piles of clean clothes are waiting to be put away and the girls blankets and dolls litter the floor.  

i do love our bedroom.  i have visions for a few things i'd like to change over the years... i found a tutorial for long, ruffled, white curtain panels i'd like to make for the windows.  our bedroom furniture (bedframe, nightstands and dressers) are from ikea.  they're too modern and dark for my taste, but it's what we have for now.  ideally i would love to find a scrolly, white antique wrought iron bedframe but i don't think they have them in a king size!  and i'd love to find nightstands and an old dresser at a yard sale to refinish myself.  someday.  there's also a large, empty wall to the right of our bed i can't wait to decorate.  i have several ideas in my head for a gallery wall filled with everything that encompasses nick&i.  but that is another project for another day.

nick told me yesterday that i'm obsessed with turquoise.  i really do love it.  and i also love the combination of turquoise and mustard yellow.  we bought our bedding at target years ago, and i love it.  i'd been trying to figure out for a few years what color i wanted to pair with it.  we decided to paint our walls a light grey (smooth stone by glidden).  the accents of turquoise in our room add extra punches of color throughout.

our bed is honestly the most comfortable place on earth.  i'm not even kidding.  we bought this pillow top king sized mattress from friends of ours who had just purchased it and didn't love it's softness.  i remember the first morning we woke up from a night's slumber on our new mattress.  nick said "we slept like a king and queen!"  it seriously is like sleeping on a cloud.  we used to look forward to staying in hotels to sleep in a king sized bed.  now i can't wait to get home and sleep in our bed.  i also love that on saturday mornings it is filled with two little girls, dolls and blankets.  we love bringing the girls in bed with us on weekends or snow days and all snuggling together.

view from the hallway

our bedding: dwell studio "foliage" for target

we bought a set of flannel sheets from target for extra warmth this winter!  love the turquoise ticking stripe

paper bag wreath and frame modpodged with paper doilies for texture

refinished lamp: spraypainted base and paper doilies modpodged to the shade

pretty pillows.  pom pom trim and fabric flowers: two of my true loves.

view into our half bath

yard sale table i refinished

i love the turquoise color, vintage accents and pretty crystal knobs

antique plates

an old shutter given from a friend, birds, thrifted frames and a pretty vase

turquoise accents

love our  bird & floral printed shower curtain: tj maxx

dresser and framed fabric

framed wedding photo and vintage creamer

love this vintage inspired photo of nick&i in this floral tj maxx frame

looking into the hall from our room

 there you have it.  our master bedroom/half bath.  i'll be sure to post updates of my gallery wall project and ruffled curtains whenever i get around to accomplishing those!

thanks for stopping by :)

* if you missed the first stop on our home tour, here is our living room and why i felt inspired to share our home.