Decor
Chandelier In The Living Room, or nah?!
Now that a lot of the major renovations are nearly behind us on the main floor (nearly!), I am turning my attention to furnishings and decor. It's true--for the most part I haven't made ANY of those decisions yet because I was so preoccupied making major decisions. (Although we did get this skirted sofa from […]
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March 12, 2020
DIY
"Why Is This Taking So Long?": An Update on our Renovation + A Hard Deadline
When last Friday afternoon rolled around, I had a lump in my throat. Looking around, there wasn't a lot of visual progress made in the house last week despite workers being on site every day. And being on month 7 of this (and 2 months over schedule), it's not all rainbows of positivity. That being […]
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February 10, 2020
Design
What's Modern Cottage Style Anyway?
In 2013, "Fixer Upper" first aired, and over the last seven years we've learned what a "modern farmhouse" looks like. Even city dwellers, small spacers, no yarders, and definitely folks without cows or chickens adopted Chip and Joanna's iconic style. They defined the genre. They also inspired all of us to forge our own path […]
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January 22, 2020
DIY
We're Moving Out Today
Our family is moving into a hotel for a couple weeks starting today. (Willow is coming, too!) We looked at Airbnbs, month to month rentals and a hotel that allows pets seemed to be the biggest bang for our buck this time. We were lucky enough to find one closeby that had two adjoining rooms […]
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December 2, 2019
Design
A Big Dining Room Update!
Our new large dining room is completely boarded up and dark, so I don't have a lot of photos of the actual space right now, but the insulation is scheduled to be sprayed this Friday, which means the electrical WILL be done by then. (I love a good hard deadline). The electrical has been turned […]
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November 25, 2019
cljcottage
Casual Friday: Magic Leaves, Influencer Starter Pack, A Fun show to binge, Nixing Stone & More!
Casual Friday
Casual Friday: Magic Leaves, Influencer Starter Pack, A Fun show to binge, Nixing Stone & More!
Happy Friday! I think everyone in our home is finally feeling better (Chris had pneumonia, along with Greta, and Polly was on the verge--they got her on antibiotics before it got worse) so we're going to try to squeeze in a lot of our pre-halloween fall bucket list activities this weekend! We're taking our annual […]
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October 25, 2019
Cleaning & Organization
Our Rich Brown Pantry Makeover!
This post is sponsored by The Adorne Collection from Legrand Over the last few days, we gave our pantry a rich BROWN paint makeover and got her organized and our lives are changed! Here's how it looked before. It was a terrible space to be in. No organization. A fluorescent light that was always left […]
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October 3, 2019
Decor
Our New Leather Chairs & 25 Fall Decor Favorites!
As soon as we sold our last leather chairs with our previous home, we started the hunt for new ones. It wasn't until 6 weeks ago, that we ordered two of these lounge-y top-grain leather chairs for the living room and then, boom, demo started unexpectedly. They've been wrapped up and then we finally I […]
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September 16, 2019
DIY
Should I Just Paint My Window Trim Really Quickly?
Famous last words. We were going to share after photos of the kitchen today, but the china cabinet we ordered arrived afternoon yesterday and we lost our ideal lighting before I could finish the other task I decided to start--painting the windows. The task of painting the window sashes black wasn’t even on the original […]
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August 15, 2019
DIY
The MAJOR changes underway in the REST of our Home + Progress and Renderings!
If you're following along on Instagram, then you're up to speed on our progress in the kitchen. If not, be sure to check out our stories and follow along - the short version is we have 1 week to turn our kitchen into a) something we can live with for a year or two (three? […]
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August 7, 2019
Decor
Our new caned dining chairs are here!!!
A few weeks ago, when I introduced our new table, I mentioned that I also bought new dining chairs but they hadn't shipped yet and I didn't want to risk putting them on backorder for too long by sharing them before they arrived. But now that they're here, I just want to plaster their picture […]
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July 24, 2019
cljcottage
Casual Friday : Our new table, painting progress and Celebrating progress, sex talks and more!
Casual Friday
Casual Friday : Our new table, painting progress and Celebrating progress, sex talks and more!
We no longer have a folding table in our breakfast nook and I can't wipe the smile off my face! This cerused oak round table was the first furniture purchase we made for our home and it's a beautiful one. For some areas, we're doing phase one furniture, but this table is here for the […]
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July 12, 2019
cljcottage
Look up, Ceilings Matter: A Study of 10 Incredible Ceilings and Why Every Ceiling Needs an Intentional Plan
Design
Look up, Ceilings Matter: A Study of 10 Incredible Ceilings and Why Every Ceiling Needs an Intentional Plan
Years ago, we were over one of our friends' homes (we had visited several hundred times, I'm sure) and I noticed that there was a light missing in their ceiling! I pointed it out and said, "What happened to your light!?" And they responded, "We've never had one there since renovating, we should probably patch […]
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July 11, 2019
DIY
A Candid Video Where We Talk With a Contractor about our Plans
The first task before starting any of our larger projects was finding a contractor. We talked to several, but timing and expertise were the biggest factor in who we ultimately wanted to work with. Last week, we had one (Austin Crystal, who many of you recommended!) into our home one morning (I wasn't feeling the […]
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June 19, 2019
Design
The 8 Options We're Deciding Between for Our Exterior!
Last week, when I talked about the 6 projects we'll be tackling in the next six months, one of them was windows and the other big ones involved the living room and our new dining/entertaining space. ALL of these effect the exterior of our home. After meeting with an amazing contractor last Thursday, things are […]
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June 17, 2019
cljcottage
Casual Saturday : What's In a (House) Name, Willow, An Inspiring interior paint combination, Weekend Sales and more!
Casual Friday
Casual Saturday : What's In a (House) Name, Willow, An Inspiring interior paint combination, Weekend Sales and more!
(via Amber Interiors) Does your house have a name? We have our own name for our home (that involves our address) but when we were trying to decide on a hashtag (#cljhouse represents our last home) we turned to all different sources. This article was a great starting point. "Once reserved for grand estates and […]
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June 15, 2019
Projects
The 6 Projects We Want to Tackle in the next 6 months.
What's the first project!? When are you gonna start!? Since the OG 2019 project list is no longer a possibility, we sat down over the weekend and made a new list! For this house! You heard us talk about all of our general plans in yesterday's video walk through, but here's where we'd like to […]
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June 12, 2019
Design
A House Tour Where We Tell You All of Our Plans
Last week, we shared a quick 6 minute house tour, with no talking. Just smooth camera work gliding in and out of every room in our new home. But! So many of you asked to hear more about our initial plans for each space (just off the cuff kind of stuff) so Chris and I […]
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June 11, 2019
Design
The First Video Tour of our New Home!
Monday we shared lots of photos (and feelings!) about our new home and now that we are officially in--we unloaded the last box at around 11:30pm last night--we wanted to share the very first home tour in our new house! Jordan shot this beautiful tour before all the boxes came in and due to popular […]
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June 5, 2019
