PB Knock Off Floating Shelves

Since we moved here I have been drooling over this photo and thinking that these shelves would look great in our kitchen/dining area. They are of course from Pottery Barn and cost $75 for one 4' shelf. 

Our shelves would need to be a little longer and we weren't prepared to spend $75 + per shelf. We found a great tutorial here on how to make floating shelves from hollow core doors and began planning our project. We decided to add molding to make the shelves look more like the PB version. It took Dave a few hours to build the shelves and I painted them the next day. It's a very doable weekend project and doesn't require many tools or materials. We used two hollow core doors ($20 each), molding, wood filler, a circular saw, clamps, a drill, a nail gun, primer, and paint.

We made our shelves 5'5" long and 10" deep. The total project ended up costing around $80 and we could have made a fourth shelf or multiple smaller shelves from the leftover door pieces.

 ...and we're clearly starting our Christmas decorating :-)

Fall Decorating

We are still very much in the process of hanging things on the walls and taking care of normal decorating in the new house. We've also been excited about Holiday decorating this year, especially since our daughter is aware of a lot more this time around. This was really our first year of doing any real Fall decorating so we started out small but fun.

When I first saw these numbered pumpkins on Pinterest they looked like they had been done with a Sharpie. However, Sharpies really don't work on vegetables apparently and I just ended up using some old acrylic paint.

A cute wreath and a few mini pumpkins in the birdcage...

 A few dried twigs and such on the mantel. Notice the lovely cords and the fact that the tv is sitting on top of the DVD player.....got a little work to do there :-)

Herb nesting crates with a few Fall decorative touches...

A drop cloth runner and $2 leaf placemats from T.J. Maxx...

...and a glass candle holder filled with split peas and red beans.

This arrangement is made from two dried bouquets from T.J. Maxx. One was $7.00 and one was $10.00. I used the contents of those two for this and for the flat part of the mantel.

It's definitely fun to get into Holiday decor this year and I can't wait to break out the Christmas stuff. This will be the first year we have actually had a tree and anything more than a few stockings and garland on the mantel!

Entry

We've been in the new house for about two months and we are loving it! We've been doing a lot of projects and I'll be posting more as we get different ones finished up. 

I've been looking at Pinterest a lot and getting ideas for different parts of the house since we moved here. Our entry has a small area for a table/something and we were trying to figure out how to make it fun but not too bulky looking. I found the picture below and absolutely loved the feel of the entry.

I found a mirror on sale at Kirkland's for $150 and started hunting for a good entry table. I liked the thin profile of the table above and how it didn't obstruct the mirror. I loved the Pottery Barn table below but didn't love the $399 price tag. 

Luckily we found a knock off on Amazon.com for about $110 and it was the exact dimensions of the PB version.

I added our old wicker trunk (used as a coffee table in our last AL house) to add a little interest under the table. I got the wall hooks for $10 at Hobby Lobby and the chair was an old one I had picked up at a Re-Store and refinished.

I put a few pumpkins in the bird cage for Fall and the wreath was a house warming gift from our real estate agent.

I'm really pleased with how everything came together and what good deals we found!

Painting Again!

I finally picked out the paint colors for the new house and, luckily, made it to the 40% off sale at Sherwin Williams last week.  The new colors are a lot different than the light/cool gray we did in our last house and this is the first time we haven't had any rooms painted blue. The colors we chose are definitely darker but we have a lot more chunky white trim in this house and I'm excited about seeing the wall colors make it pop. The nice thing is that the builder is going to provide the labor so, for the first time, we don't actually have to physically paint the house! Yay!

Here are the colors we chose:

Great Room and Kids' Bathroom: Sherwin Williams Relaxed Khaki

Master Bedroom: Benjamin Moore Kendall Charcoal

Master Bathroom and Laundry Room: Valspar Urban Sunruse

The kids' rooms will eventually get white v-groove wainscoting on the lower four feet of their walls and these colors will be above:

Nursery: Benjamin Moore Middlebury Brown

Our Daughter's Room: Custom Green

Rug Time

I have long been a fan of indoor/outdoor rugs for their casual look, decent prices, durability and how easy they are to clean. I especially love using them for dining areas. In my search for rugs to put in our new house I ran across some great ones (at great prices!) at Ballard Designs and Overstock.com. Make sure to click on the photos at Ballard Designs to see additional views and colors.

Ballard Designs

Geneve Indoor/Outdoor Rug

$29.00 - $229.00

Laney Indoor/Outdoor Rug

$19.00 - $199.00

Antique Letter Indoor/Outdoor Rug

$19.00 - $199.00

Navarre Indoor/Outdoor Rug

$19.00 - $199.00

Le Poeme Indoor/Outdoor Rug

$43.00 - $559.00

Suzanne Kasler Snowflake Bordered Sisal Rug

$39.00 - $109.00

Overstock.com

Alexa Indoor/Outdoor Rug (8' x 11')

$164.99

Courtyard Indoor/Outdoor Poolside Coffe/Sand Polypropylene Rug (6'7 x 9'6)

$150.99

Lighting on a Budget

There are a lot of us who like to mimic things we see in Pottery Barn catalogues. Why not? But, did you ever think about the fact that a lot of Pottery Barn products are actually knock-offs of higher end goods? I've been looking a lot at light fixtures lately and I thought I would post about how to get a high end look on a budget.

One day I was in a high end furniture store and saw a beautiful chandelier that looked similar to the one below. I had been drooling over the PB version for a while and was surprised that the one in the store was much more expensive. That's when I first realized that Pottery Barn copies higher end designs and that there are versions of the same products at all price levels (even over $20,000). The chandelier below retails at PB for $399.

There is a slightly smaller Home Depot 5-light version for $189.

Pottery Barn sells a beautiful track light for $159.99...

... or you could go for this Home Depot version at $25.78

Restoration Hardware has gorgeous industrial style pendant lights for $259 - $619...

...or you could get a similar look from this Lowe's Pendant Light for $49.97

This Kichler chandelier costs $600 - $700...

...but this Home Depot light retails for $179.00

We got this Home Depot chandelier for our dining room for $71.40. It looks great and I didn't have to feel guilty about the price tag. 

When looking for great lighting check out Craig's List, Ebay, and local stores. If you live in the Charleston area,  Charleston Lighting and Interiors in Summerville has three rooms of closeout and floor model lighting at unbelievable prices. The perfect chandelier or light fixture does so much for a room!