A Designer At Home

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How To Decorate Around A TV With Thrift Store Decor

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Hey there and welcome to today’s Thrift Score Thursday aka How I decorated around my TV with thrifted finds. It’s basically the same story whenever I decorate anything. I see a challenge in the space, I shop at the thrift store until I find things that fit. I keep shopping until I find even more good stuff. And then I find an arrangement with decent texture, sort of symmetry, and complimentary colors for the space.

Processed with VSCO

Processed with VSCO

The formula I used for the spaces beside my TV is:

Larger picture/art + Oval Basket with cross detail + Smaller picture/art + Round Basket + Sconce

I definitely try to urge everyone to embrace the basket. It’s quite possibly the most useful thing in the entire world. Just kidding, it’s not really that serious. But they do look so good in every space.

I think I’ve managed to share everything except for the round baskets up until this point. In case you’ve missed it, here’s what’s on the wall from left to right.

Custom Frame Family Portrait (minted), Aztec turquoise wall clock (Etsy), Oval basket with diamond woven detail, Newish round basket, Sconce with cactus candle, TV, Sconce with cactus candle, Oval basket with cross woven detail, Bubba’s 1st Birthday picture (in frame that came with the hubby), Round basket and Kilim print.

Now let’s dive into some fun. Here are my picks from the #thriftscorethursday feed on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFmurstqQIk/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFmkOW7Q_Vp/

 

Wanna Play? Here’s The Rules!

  • We want you to participate! Hit up your local thrift stores, craigslist, yard sales, estate sales, side of the road, anything! Thrifty doesn’t necessarily mean from a thrift store. We want to see your good deals, wacky finds and treasures.
  • Don’t feel like you need to save those finds for Thursdays! Yes, features are shared on our blogs and Instagram on Thursdays, but we’re all checking in on (and using!) the hashtag all week long. So, when you see/find it, feel free to share it!
  • Want to get featured? Add the #thriftscorethursdsay hashtag, Follow the hosts (@the_gathered_home, @primitiveandproper, @adesignerathome and @maggieoverbystudios) and tag a friend to play along, too!
  • Each week, Cassie from Primitive and Proper, Brynne from The Gathered Home, Maggie from Maggie Overby Studios and  Myself (A Designer At Home) will pick a favorite thrift score or two to feature! So please note that by linking up with #thriftscorethursday, you are giving us permission to share your finds via social media or on our blogs.
We have ourselves an awesome guest host today! Yay! Visit Bonnie to check out her thrift score and what she chose as features by clicking on her face below:
 TST-Guest-Host-Bonnie

All Instagramed out yet? I sure hope not! Because you’re not finished. Yup, you’ve got more thrift scores to look at. I know you’re not disappointed. Ha. Click on my beautiful cohost’s faces below to check out what they’ve scored and featured.

Thrift Score Thursday Brynne color

Thrift Score Thursday Cassie

Thrift Score Thursday Maggie

 

Curb Appeal Challenge Week1

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3 week curb appeal project a 1950's brick ranch front yard makeover. The plans a pergola, a patio, new plants and lots of paint

Story of my life: I enter a challenge, don’t finish on time, take a break then jump into a challenge for a different space before the previous one is complete. Oops.

Today is the first day of a fun challenge my friend Deb of Seeking Lavender Lane brought together a group of us to work on upgrading our curb appeal. Mine is bad. So this is a really good opportunity for me to shift focus on my home’s first impression. If you’re like me, you like to work on spaces you actually use first, but I don’t want to wait until we’re trying to sell this house to make it pretty.

Here’s what I’m starting with: *warning: things are about to get real*

1950's built brick home before a curb appeal makeover project

brick range in need of curb appeal attention

Desperate side yard in need of yard maintenance

Just.. don’t ask. Things were crazy this past year and this whole area was priority 1,000.

So anyways, I gravitate towards a cottage bungalow vibe when I look at homes online or when I’m driving about. But I’m also all about that boho. So that’s the style I’m after. If I were to get everything I want done to this front yard done, this would be the list:

  • Replace roof. completed just a couple weeks ago
  • Edge Lawn.
  • Pull the bushes out. Replace the bushes in front of the living room (far left) and the far right window with a garden bed full of banana leaf plants, azalea bushes, gardenia bushes, beachy grasses and hostas.
  • The middle window’s awning gets removed, a pergola put over this space to provide shade for a patio in between the porch and the garden bed in front of far right window.
  • On this patio put a small seating area and proper storage for the garden hose and front yard toys.
  • A solution for drying shoes.
  • The  other awnings stay but get a good cleaning and a new paint job. In the good ol’ 4 season state that Virginia is, we get hot summers these awnings help protect the temperature in our house from and they help protect the windows from high winds and rain that come with our hurricane season.
  • Paint the brick a cream/tan color.
  • Paint the porch, porch railings and front door.
  • A second tree will be planted in the right side of the yard to help provide shade for the bedrooms.
  • Remove the pseudo lattice and repurpose wood to make planter box.
  • Repaint the house numbers and hang them.
  • Replace and hang mailbox.
  • Replace chain link fence with wood fencing.
  • Fence in front yard with a white powder coated iron fence.

Most of that won’t get done but those are my goal. Beautiful front yards take some time to grow into their look. Follow along these next 3 weeks to see how much of this gets done and to see how my friends below transform their spaces:

Simple Nature Decor

Seeking Lavender Lane

The Deans List

Mom Home Guide

Curly Crafty Mom

My Life From Home

Lehman Lane

Knock It Off Kim

Paint Yourself a Smile

Our House now a Home

Vintage Eclectic Dining Room Decorating

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thrift score thursday12

Hello, hello! Today I want to chat a little bit about how I’ve begun decorating the table in our vintage eclectic dining room. You know I got the table and chairs just a few weeks ago in a bundle with a china cabinet. When my husband was in town he and the neighbor lugged the table into the house for me. The difference in weight of a particle board and solid wood table is a lot! There was some damage to one of the joints for the legs so I handled that and wiped it down. Then, the fun part, I had some fun decorating the top!

Naturally, I gravitated towards using my brass candlesticks and my favorite tapered candles of all time.

eclectic wooden table runner and decor

Also sprinkled in are a few Lepidolite stones and 2 brass thingys. I’m not sure what they are exactly. But they’re a pair and have a really pretty punched metal pattern. I just had to buy them when I saw them and I think they look pretty good here.

Honestly, the candles will make their way onto the mantle (coming soon!) soon. It’s not practical with my little guy having them this accessible, but I’m enjoying them while they’re here.

the look of fancy wood work without the power tools

And that’s about all I have to share today for my own finds. I’ve been spending my new found free time catching up on cleaning and some other chores that aren’t really blog material so the sharing is a minimal right now.

Here’s some of my favorites from the feed:

I always love a good unicorn sighting in the feed.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFXgHDTwDkw/

Shut The Front Door! That wicked cool teak room divider was scored for less than $10. Be still my heart…

I really just want to “ooh” and “aah” this shot for days. LOVE that rug for one, but that chair was found at the thrift store! So cool, right?

I spy some baskets that even I don’t have! And I have a lot of baskets. They’re some of the easiest things to thrift for in these parts. Kinda starting to wonder where @greensprucedesigns lives now…

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFeLawCRoBF/

The most unique brass piece I’ve ever seen. Yes. It is! I’m feeling especially attracted to him. Maybe it was all those years at the local kooky pet store with their friendly macaw.

And to wrap things up, here’s a beautifully boho bedroom I could spend my whole life in.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFVJV8ooWVJ/

Wanna Play? Here’s The Rules!

  • We want you to participate! Hit up your local thrift stores, craigslist, yard sales, estate sales, side of the road, anything! Thrifty doesn’t necessarily mean from a thrift store. We want to see your good deals, wacky finds and treasures.
  • Don’t feel like you need to save those finds for Thursdays! Yes, features are shared on our blogs and Instagram on Thursdays, but we’re all checking in on (and using!) the hashtag all week long. So, when you see/find it, feel free to share it!
  • Want to get featured? Add the #thriftscorethursdsay hashtag, Follow the hosts (@the_gathered_home, @primitiveandproper, @adesignerathome and @maggieoverbystudios) and tag a friend to play along, too!
  • Each week, Cassie from Primitive and Proper, Brynne from The Gathered Home, Maggie from Maggie Overby Studios and  Myself (A Designer At Home) will pick a favorite thrift score or two to feature! So please note that by linking up with #thriftscorethursday, you are giving us permission to share your finds via social media or on our blogs.

All Instagramed out yet? I sure hope not! Because you’re not finished. Yup, you’ve got more thrift scores to look at. I know you’re not disappointed. Ha. Click on my beautiful cohost’s faces below to check out what they’ve scored and featured.

Thrift Score Thursday Cassie

Thrift Score Thursday Maggie

Why I Quit My Day Job

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A journey seeking happiness, self worth and self discovery. When blogging isn't paying the bills and I quit my day job anyways

Why I Quit My Day Job

(and no, blogging isn’t paying the bills)

I wanted to veer of my usual path today to take off my decorating and DIY hat and just be a real person. Blogging is so fast pasted and spending as much time as I do to grow this little platform in hopes I can express my creativity, helps others see potential in their spaces, and most of all to chase bigger dreams, I oftentimes let the person behind everything here drift into the shadows. It’s hard for me to put a spotlight on myself, but I feel like what I’m going through can help any of you regular readers fully understand why things may be changing soon.

For the past 8 years of my life, I’ve been a Certified Pharmacy Technician. I’d never really had a whole lot of interest in working as a medical professional (sort of except for those few years I wanted to be a geneticist). I had spent my entire middle and high school years glued to HGTV, painting and rearranging/styling my room. But I chose to go the route of CPhT because they were advertising it as good pay, high demand jobs. Unfortunately that’s not really the case for where I live. Long story short, I worked a retail job for 4 years I loathed, then worked another 4 years at the local Air Force Base.

I spent 3 and a half years working as a contractor on base for very good money. But the good money was in exchange for absolutely no job security. The first time I was left without income was the month before my son was born. Then there was a second time that left me without employment for 3 months (that ate up our entire savings). I was finally brought on as a Federal Employee June 26, 2015. It was after a lot of drama, like getting skipped for a position for someone who’d been there for s shorter period of time. Witnessing alarming aggressive behavior from multiple employees towards other employees. Basically, a lot of never resolved incidents that led me to be uncomfortable in my own work environment. I always felt like I was gasping for air- the anxiety was eating me alive.

After a pharmacist flipped out on me for an honest mistake, I was pulled into the office and reprimanded by the OIC. And ever since then, she’s made it more difficult for me to work there. The most recent experience was the final straw for me. I told my civilian supervisor that if he wasn’t fixing it, I would turn in my 2 weeks notice. And he told me that he’d accept that as my 2 weeks notice. He gave me a final out date and I’ve served out my punishment for speaking out against my unfair treatment but working the crappy sections of the pharmacy.

Everyone keeps asking me what I’m going to do next.

Self Discovery, Seeking Happiness, and My Plan

why i quit my day job without a backup plan

Honestly, I have no concrete plan for what I’m doing. I’m seeking happiness and I’m trusting the pull God has put on my heart for a long time.

I’ve had a few pharmacy opportunities pop up, but I feel it weighing so heavily on my heart that it’s my time to move on from the field. I’ve never been happy doing it. And I certainly don’t want to be doing it for the rest of my life.

One part of my life that’s been hard is how I’ve missed out on so much of my son’s life so far. I saw the first 6 weeks of his life, but even then I was packing for our move and freaking out about having just lost my job (and my inability to product breast milk), these were incredibly stressful times. I wasn’t bonding and appreciating his existence. I want to do that before we’ve lost any chance of doing that. So today? I spend with him. And tomorrow? I’ll spend with him. The day after that? Maybe we’ll work something else out.

So is a “Stay At Home Mom” in my cards? Absolutely not. Even if I were to never work out of the home again, I’d be doing something. My passions for home are too strong to forget about. That’s why this blog exists, to share my passion with someone else out there.

Last year when I launched this blog and slowly ended my old blog, I told you all that this was the first stepping stone to becoming an Interior Designer. My plan was to start school Fall 2016 at the local community college for their Interior Design program. Is that still my plan? If we can make it work, definitely!

I got to see a little glimpse of what it’s like to be an Interior Designer in my area at the Coastal Virginia Home and Garden Show that I went to in February and it was something I’m still excited to be a part of.

So big projects may slow down. If you love those, they’re not gone forever. I’ll be catching up on the dining room and bathroom right now. Then I’ll be working on giving the bedrooms a facelift. In Between all of that I’ll be doing simple upgrades to the front and backyard. And eventually, once everything else is set, we’ll get around to doing some work in the kitchen and sunporch. Stick around for all of that, and maybe the occasional post like this one, by letting me into your inbox or following me on Facebook and Instagram. And if you’re ever curious about what inspires me, give my Pinterest a gander.

And if you’ve landed here wondering who the heck I am and where you’ve landed. Here’s a bit about me.

And here’s some posts I’d love for you to check out:

Thanks for being here! I hope you stick around 🙂

How we blend toy storage with our decor

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How To Keep Toys Organized While Keeping Style In Mind

A Boho Momma’s tiny home living room and playroom combo

For anyone who has been curious about the latest toy storage to enter our living room, today I can finally share the details with you! We don’t have a dedicated space for toys. Nope, no toy room, no play room in this house. With a 3 (almost 4!) year old, it’s definitely something we’re had to ensure we accommodate into our other living spaces. Most our his play happens in the living room and creative items are in the dining room.

On the Remodelaholic blog, I’m sharing the tutorial for this wood wrapped cube shelving unit. Cube organizing units are phenomenal storage pieces, but they look like storage pieces and I’m not a fan of how they look in their plain form. So I looked at the furniture I have, the furniture I like, and I came up with this solution.

wood wrapped ikea kallax cube storage unit - storage made to look like mid century furniture (DIY tutorial)

It’s been an awesome way to sort out legos from train sets from plastic animals from blocks. For the things he has a larger collection of, I utilize bigger baskets.

all the favorite toys are hidden in cute baskets

Sure, they’re not perfectly hidden. But in a space where there’s practically never toys about, it’s the perfect blend of our real life and our aesthetic.

My kid is a huge fan of garbage trucks. He watches the Youtube videos over and over. So naturally he’s acquired a collection of larger trash trucks, too. For that? I found this awesome ornate hardware wicker trunk that holds those and a few of the Green Toys trucks he has, too.

ornate brass details wicker trunk boho

And finally, we utilize heavy duty end tables with cabinet space for things like puzzles and board games. I’ve found really neat ones on Offer Up and local thrift stores.

I’m a fan of wood with brass details for the look of my living room, but also the large cabinet space. I have 2 dedicated to lesser used toy storage and 1 that I use in my pseudo “office” aka the white chair in my living room.

thrifted craigslist side table perfect toy storage with pretty brass details

And that’s all the ways I store toys in my living room. And where you can find the tutorial for the cube organizer I created. If you’re having to pull double (or more!) duty in your living spaces, furniture with storage capacity, cute baskets and adapting classic storage pieces to suit your style are a great way to go!

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How To Keep Toys Organized While Keeping Style In Mind - A Boho Momma's tiny home living room and playroom combo

Cute Little Boho Containers

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thrift score thursday12

YOU GUYS! There’s more than 10,000 entries for the thrift score thursday tag on Instagram– that’s incredible! What an incredible community, you all seriously rock so hard.

If you’re keeping up with the other things happening here on the blog, you’ll know I finally found a dining room table- yayyyy! But since I don’t want to beat a dead horse to death, you can pop in on this post to check out the story, details and a little snippet of what it looks like.

I’ve also recently scored some cute containers. Maybe for jewelry? I’m not sure what they’re for but they’ve got a really cool gypsy vibe about them and I love the whimsical detail to them. I figure I’ll leave them out on tables as a conversation piece.

hand decorated gypsy bohemian containers

unicorn goat palm sized container trinket holder

And now for the best part, my favorites from the feed!

There’s nothing I don’t like about this shot, but that cabinet steals the show. What a unique and fabulous piece!

Incredible lighting in front of chic art, isn’t that every home decor junkie’s favorite combo? At first glance the light is really cool, but then you look closer and see the staggered lights- love.

And these goodies from an auction. Obviously a theme going on here, but it’s all such good stuff!

 

Wanna Play? Here’s The Rules!

  • We want you to participate! Hit up your local thrift stores, craigslist, yard sales, estate sales, side of the road, anything! Thrifty doesn’t necessarily mean from a thrift store. We want to see your good deals, wacky finds and treasures.
  • Don’t feel like you need to save those finds for Thursdays! Yes, features are shared on our blogs and Instagram on Thursdays, but we’re all checking in on (and using!) the hashtag all week long. So, when you see/find it, feel free to share it!
  • Want to get featured? Add the #thriftscorethursdsay hashtag, Follow the hosts (@the_gathered_home,@primitiveandproper,@adesignerathomeand@maggieoverbystudios) and tag a friend to play along, too!
  • Each week, Cassie from Primitive and Proper, Brynne from The Gathered Home, Maggie from Maggie Overby Studios and Myself (A Designer At Home) will pick a favorite thrift score or two to feature! So please note that by linking up with #thriftscorethursday, you are giving us permission to share your finds via social media or on our blogs.

All Instagramed out yet? I sure hope not! Because you’re not finished. Yup, you’ve got more thrift scores to look at. I know you’re not disappointed. Ha. Click on my beautiful cohost’s faces below to check out what they’ve scored and featured.

Thrift Score Thursday Brynne color

Thrift Score Thursday Cassie

Thrift Score Thursday Maggie