Florida Living and Coastal Decor
As a transplant living in Florida, I don’t have the need for real winter boots…until I go back “home” for the holidays! Even though I typically only see snow once a year, depending on if we head back to Michigan or Kansas, it is still miserable to be unprepared and end up with wet and freezing feet! Regular boots just don’t cut it!
The topic today is how you can completely change the theme of your Christmas decor just by switching out your accents, as shown in the mood boards I’ve created below. It also includes how I would be decorating our new home for Christmas, in the off chance that we actually get moved in before Christmas day! I actually love all of these designs and would definitely try each of them out in the future!
“What’s it going to look like?” I’m very excited to share with you the answer to the most common question I have received regarding the renovation of our new place, aka the Bent Palm House! I’ve posted a few inspiration photos recently on my Instagram feed which highlighted some pretty big differences in my current decor and what I have in mind for the new house. It’s kind of funny to say this, but it’s almost like this house “spoke” to me differently. It was just begging for some “modern vintage nautical” charm. And that’s just what she’s getting!
the invention of pencil trees as Christmas decor is one of the best ideas ever. Especially if you’re a Christmas decorating nut like me and one of your goals in life is to have a Christmas tree in every room of your house! :D Since we’ll have less rooms in our new home, I’m that much closer to reaching my goal! Ahh the silver lining of downsizing! Haha! I’ll definitely be touching on the pros and cons of downsizing in a future post, but let’s just stay focused on all things pencil trees right now, because time is of the essence!
In my last post, I announced that we bought a new house and eluded to the fact that it will be quite a bit smaller than our current home. There are a few reasons why we are downsizing, but here’s the short answer: Being able to boat from our backyard in the very specific location we liked was more important to us than the size of the home. Now, if you’d like the long answer, keep reading!
I have some exciting, yet bittersweet, news to share with you all today! My husband and I have been talking about where our next home might be for the past couple of years because we knew our current (and first) home would not be our forever home. As much as we love certain things about our current home, our desire to have our boat in our backyard instead of in a slip down the road kept growing. So, after just a couple months of looking, we found a house that we are excited to soon call home!
Even most of us who love all things summer and beachy tend to get excited for wearing boots in the fall! But, if you live in a warm climate, socks and boots are not very comfortable or practical when it’s still 90 degrees. So, here are some great options for dressing your feet for fall if it’s still hot where you live!
I am so excited to show you my chinoiserie chic breakfast nook updates! While I’m happy with the light and bright transformation our breakfast nook (and whole house, for that matter) received shortly after purchasing our dated home, it’s remained mostly the same for the last four years. I switch out the pillows, wall decor and centerpiece for each season, but this time with the help of Ballard Designs, our breakfast nook is finally getting a makeover!
A common topic that I get questions or comments about is regarding my light and bright decor AND my giant fur baby, Summer. “How do you keep everything clean looking with a dog!?” Well, I’m pretty stoked to share that I’ve added one more trick to my bag, thanks to Ruggable and their amazing waterproof, stain-resistant and machine-washable rugs. Yes, you read that right. If this sounds like an answer to your prayers, I’m right there with you!
It’s definitely pool season in Florida and I’m sure the rest of northern hemisphere will be enjoying pool weather very soon if they aren’t already! Speaking of time by the pool, I just received the most perfect little additions to help create our blue and white poolside retreat from Serena & Lily!
One of the things I get asked the most is for advice on decorating with coastal decor. My first question is usually, “What kind of coastal decor do you want?”. Coastal decor is my favorite, but one of the fun things about it is how many different variations there are. Today I’m sharing my take on coastal cottage decor that doesn’t feel like your Granny’s house. No offense to Granny. :) We’ll call it “Modern Coastal Cottage”.
The change of seasons always call for a change of decor, but I think I’ve felt a little hesitant to make any changes to my living room because I was just really content with the neutral look I had going on. Also, our weather this past month has had a lot of ups and downs, so i think that played with my mood. But, I finally took a Saturday afternoon to switch out pillow covers, throws, side tables. decor and, of course, greenery! Come on in and check it out.
I realized at the very last minute that my husband and I were approaching FOUR years since the day we moved into our home! Since today is our four year “home ownerversary” I decided this would be a great opportunity to share with you how much our home has changed. It’s always fun to take a little walk down memory lane, isn’t it? I also want to highlight how so many of the changes we’ve made to our home are incredibly simple, not that costly, and mostly just involve new styling, but I’ll do that in some upcoming posts! Make sure you’re subscribed to my newsletter so you don’t miss them! ;)
I am SO ready for spring and I bet you are too! Granted, spring comes a lot earlier in Florida than for most of the country, but it’s all relative. ;) Today, I’m switching gears to fashion with the cutest espadrille round up that will definitely give you spring fever! I’ve been trying to be “good” and get my closet to a place that would make Marie Kondo proud (also see the link below) before I began shopping for anything, but I am really in need of some cute and comfortable shoes that are work appropriate!
I get lots of questions about my interior wall color, so I’m going to explain how I chose it and offer a bit of insight after having lived with it for over 3 years now! I chose to use the same paint color throughout the entire house because when we moved in the plethora of wall colors made it seem like the walls were closing in on us and the semi-open floor plan really called for some consistency in color. My vision for our house was for it to feel open, airy and for goodness sake to have all of the rooms flow together!
It’s the time of year when cleaning, organizing and purging just feels like the natural thing to do! I’ve made my way from room to room, space to space, slowly getting rid of unused items and organizing what is left. Today, I’m focusing on how I manage my excess throw pillows and covers, because most of us home decor enthusiasts just can’t get enough of them.
I'm so thrilled to be compiling this list of five of my favorite home decor items that I found on Craigslist! I'm thrilled because I am darn proud of sifting through all the white noise on Craigslist to find some real gems! Also, I'm proud that I lived to tell about it...just kidding, kind of.
Recently, I posed a question in my Instagram stories asking what topics you’d like me to cover. Many responded that they’d be interested in seeing how I transition a room from one season to the next or how to simply switch up the decor for a refreshing new look. I thought that sharing some mood board inspiration would help answer these questions!
New year, new layout! I got the urge to rearrange my living room furniture this weekend after I had packed away all the Christmas decor. Okay, maybe not all the Christmas decor, since I do still have a few naked Christmas trees lingering around that are waiting to be put up into the attic. Nevertheless, I am feeling much more refreshed with the transition to a very neutral style in my living room for the winter months. Spring comes pretty early around here, so I would consider January and most of February to be “winter”. ;)
This is something that doesn’t happen every day in Florida, even during the winter months! With lows in the 30’s, I thought I’d go ahead and document the rare opportunity we had to get cozy by the fireplace! Since Miss Summer didn’t quite get all of the spotlight she deserved in my recent posts, it is only fair that she takes center stage in this one. I hope you enjoy her expressions as much as I did! :D
