Decor
The Magazine Rack that Could
Is it completely weird that I have been looking for a magazine rack for over a year? It isn't that magazine racks are difficult to come by, but a good-looking one for a reasonable price, is. Which, sadly, is exactly why I have been storing all my magazines in a basket in the living room. Now, […]
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January 16, 2014
Decor
A Passed-Down Piano
This home is full of interesting angles and indents when it comes to the walls, especially in the great room. The wall in the living room (on the opposite side of this wall is the reading room) has been a little tricky. We always thought it would be a prime spot for some bookcases, but […]
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January 14, 2014
Decor
The Nursery Gets a Rug
The area rug for the nursery arrived in the last 24 hours, so the corners are still a little curled, but the rich color is a stunner! It's the Bursa wool rug in merlot (currently sold out) from West Elm. We had actually been going back and forth getting the 9x12 navy one for our […]
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January 9, 2014
Decor
The Art of Gift Hiding
When I was growing up, after I uncovered the truth, you know the truth, and suddenly came to the realization that all of our Christmas presents HAD to be in the house somewhere--I got curious. I never remember hunting for them or anything, but I might poke in my parents' closet with a terribly pounding […]
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December 12, 2013
Decor
Decorating the Front Door for Christmas. Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.
We decked the halls (okay, just the front of our house) really early this year. Back in July, Home Depot contacted me and asked us to participate in their Holiday Style Challenge this year. They sent us a room full of mystery boxes containing more Christmas stuff then we knew what to do with and […]
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November 14, 2013
Decor
The Beaumont Coffee Table
It's interesting moving into a new house and trying to make your not-so-old (actually pretty new!) furniture work. Our living room has 99 problems and the coffee table was definitely one. One that we felt like we could address before adding a fireplace and window--which we still hope to do within the year. The coffee […]
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October 31, 2013
Decor
Shopping the House for the Living Room
We came to terms with something about our new house this weekend: we just don't have enough stuff to furnish the whole thing right now. Our new house is 1000 more square feet than our last house (which was 1000 more square feet than our apartment before that). When we moved our stuff into this […]
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October 7, 2013
Decor
5 of our Favorite House Purchases to Date
Let's say these are our favorite functional purchases, and not necessarily the ones we love just because they look good, like the Clare Elsaesser print in our bedroom. Completely different post. The pieces we wouldn't want to live without again. Ready? First, the Ikea shoe cabinet by our front door. I can't tell you how many […]
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June 12, 2013
Decor
A Guest Book for the Home--Would You?
Chris and I love to have people over a couple times a week. Greta goes to bed pretty early, and Chris will cook up a storm and we'll talk or play games (or watch The Bachelor/ette--guilty!). Since we moved into our house 2+ years ago, we have been brainstorming a way to keep a record […]
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June 3, 2013
Decor
Copy-Cat Whitewashed Coffee Table
I've been on the hunt for a coffee table for the living room since we sold our round collapsable one. We've been making due with our plant bench--but it looked a little silly and heavy for a coffee table. I discovered West Elm's Box Frame coffee table and loved the airiness and simplicity, but $350 […]
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May 24, 2013
Decor
New, Cheap, Modern + Traditional Wall Lamps in the Bedroom
Back in 2011, I gave two lamps a major makeover for our room, including making the shades from scratch. They still work great, and actually, with our bed higher (we recently put our box springs back in place after one of our support slats broke. oh dear) those really big lamps might have finally been […]
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May 20, 2013
Decor
Where To Put Curtains On A Window That has An Arch
I found this picture of the living room from exactly one year ago. Crazy, right? The living room just keeps evolving. But today we're specifically talking about those curtains because this window has been a struggle to dress since we moved in. As you can see from the photo above, I felt like the rod […]
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May 10, 2013
Decor
The Lily has Landed
What can I say, yesterday was like Christmas. Our countertops arrived--more on that tomorrow, exclamation point--and our new couch arrived. Our "old" one, the Klippan from Ikea, we have had for about two years. Ikea discontinued this longer model and all the slipcovers that accompanied it and we were ready to invest in a higher […]
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April 3, 2013
Decor
Flokati Pillows At Every Price Point
I have created mood boards for budgets from $200 to "unlimited" and with that, I like to keep decor classics filed away for every price point. This round-up that I've accumulated is just too good not to share. I present to you--Flokati Pillows from $18-$1620!! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 To be completely fair, […]
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March 29, 2013
Decor
Spring Has Arrived in the Dining Room
Read between the lines. I got it! If you follow me on Instagram (do!!@chrislovesjulia) you saw that I was debating picking up this, apparently, very popular rug from Ikea that was marked down to half off of $250 in the as-is section. $125 is a great price for a nearly 6'x8' rug--especially a hand-woven wool one! […]
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March 14, 2013
Decor
The Lily and Lessons In Chronic Couch Purchases
We have been married almost 4.5 years and we just bought our sixth couch to replace this one (that is still needing a new home): We knew this Klippan wasn't going to be a forever couch, or even a 10-year couch when we bought it--but I never imagined we would be on number six. Granted, […]
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March 12, 2013
Decor
Happy Habitat Eco-Throw Giveaway!
**Giveaway is now closed. Congrats to our winner, Whitney, who said, "Beautiful throws! My favorite would have to be the Coral & Cerulean Trellis throw. We are working on our basement "man cave" and I'm pretty sure it needs that dose of sophistication. Also, Cerulean was my very favorite crayon growing up. Ha!"** Remember yesterday […]
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February 12, 2013
Decor
A Good Throw's Job
This weekend, Greta's room got another dose of whimsey: You can see from Greta's original mood board below, we were planning on adding a bold pink throw with pom poms to the bottom of her bed. But, when the pelmet box changed from green cub print upholstery to plain white velvet (among other changes the […]
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February 11, 2013
Decor
Trimmed Out and Butterflied.
We ended yesterday's post saying we decided to trim out the grasscloth wall. Luckily we were able to get most of it trimmed out on Saturday after we finished wallpapering, but I had to finish spackling holes and caulking before giving you the full reveal. Here she is: We used the same simple trim […]
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January 22, 2013
Decor
Figuring Out This Fiddle Leaf.
Last August (mmm summertime), we got our hands on a second-hand bench that we cleaned up and stained and it became the hopeful home to four potted plants. Today, one remains--wah wahhhh-- and we moved it to a new home in the kitchen on the upper open shelf. It looks like it is on its […]
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January 8, 2013
