Home Tour, Southern Home Decor

January 22nd marked our one year anniversary of being in our new home. I must say a year flies by. It seems like just yesterday that we were moving…in the rain. Rain is the story of our lives. I think that it rains on any major day for us. So, it made sense that it rained on the day we were moving into our new home. Today, since we have been in our house a little over a year, I decided to give you guys a home tour and show all of my rooms and my southern home decor style.

By this time, I had planned on having everything perfect in our new house. I even had a professional photographer lined up to come photograph everything so that the pictures would be perfect. However, I never never let her come because I still do not have things in order like I would have hoped by this time. I guess I should have known from building our first house that it takes years to get things in order.

My Decor Style

Picking out furniture and decor is really fun for me. However, furniture and home decor is also expensive. As of right now, I need a rug for my foyer, living room, dining room, and bedroom. I also need runners in my kitchen. I am very in touch with the style that I like, but it is just a matter of finding what I want. Rugs, for example, are very expensive. Therefore, I want to make sure I buy the perfect one and make the perfect investment on one that I love and cannot live without so to speak. There are also several pieces of furniture that I still need. Thankfully, Christopher is a great carpenter and can build some of what I want and save us some money.

If you will notice…some vases are empty as well as my bread bowl and various things. Simple things like that are just empty because I keep forgetting to order. Also, some tables are empty. I feel like during Christmas everything seems so full but once I took Christmas decorations down I was reminded of what all I still need in terms of decor.

I do like for my home decor to mean something, therefore, I will not just buy whatever in order to fill a space. My husband gives me a piece of McCarty pottery (started out with Peters but I prefer McCarty) every year on our anniversary and writes the year and date on the bottom. One day, we can pass those on. I love sentimental things like that. Anyway, on to the home tour and my southern  home decor.

Side Entry from the Garage

When we built our home, there were lots of things that I loved and could have spent tons of money on, but I wanted to be practical. After all, this is the house that we will live in until we die. There are rooms that I could have made larger or more extravagant, but we are not extravagant people, so I went simple and again practical.

This particular room is the room you walk into when you come into our home from our 2 car garage. Connected to this room is the laundry room (which I will photograph later – it’s a mess) and our 1/2 bath. I completely changed the layout of this space from the original plans. Again, I was going for simple and practical. I made our laundry room smaller so that we could have a larger storage space under the garage. I mean..lets be for real…we do not need a huge room to do laundry.

A 1/2 bath at the entry was a necessity for us. We wanted a space for guests to go potty without having to go through our guest bedrooms to the Jack and Jill bathroom or our master bathroom.

My husband built the mudroom locker in this space. We used RH Hardware for our inspiration. I cannot stand clutter. I wanted a place to sit or hang my purse and just a “catch all” type area for when you walk in the door. Clutter goes for my decor as well…I do not like a lot of stuff sitting everywhere…clean and simple is for me.

 

 

Half Bathroom

I apologize that my lighting is awful. I think I decided to take pictures on the worst day possible. The natural light was not great and our house seems so dark with these pics. Anyway…the wall color is not pink but is actually almost white. I just wanted to clarify that – haha. This room is simple – a toilet and a sink. I did grey cabinets and neutral granite counters. My husband made the mirror. It is nothing fancy, but instead practical. The most expensive part about this room is the travertine flooring. I love travertine flooring but it is so expensive. So, I used this small space to incorporate it.

Kitchen

A large kitchen was one of the major things on our wishlist. My husband and I both love to cook and entertain so a large kitchen was a must have. We use to laugh and joke about our last kitchen and say that it was a “two butt” kitchen. This kitchen on the other hand, is large and spacious and will hold more than “two butts.” In my kitchen, I wanted classic and simple. White cabinets, grey island, and neutral granite counters. Again, nothing over the top but classic and practical.

One of the main things on my husband’s wish list was a nice cook top. So, we went with a commercial style gas cook top. I actually book and bake so two ovens was a necessity for me. Our microwave is underneath the counters which has worked out great for us. I did not want it sitting on the counter top.

The one thing about our kitchen that we knew we would have to modify as soon as we finished was the back splash. Our backsplash is travertine. It is really pretty…Christopher did it whitewashed it with grout. The downfall…I am now scared to seal it because it gives it a “golden yellow” finish. So, we have this piece of wood that we put behind our cook top when we could to prevent splatter on the backsplash. This is so unpractical so we decided early on that we would end up painting the backsplash the color of our cabinets.

 

Living Room

Another must have in this home was an open concept. We wanted to have our kitchen, living room, and dining space as one large open space. We made some modification on our original plan in order to have everything completely open. I must say that we love it like this. I can cook and still watch TV if I want or just be able to be involved in what is going on out side of the kitchen. Our living room space is simple. My husband built our TV stand. Again, it is inspired by RH Hardware. I do not love built ins. Our cabinet guy tried and tried to talk me into doing a built in for our TV. I just do not love them. I feel like all they are good for is having to put things on and I do not like lots of stuff sitting around.

We also didn’t do a fireplace in our living room because I cannot stand having a TV over the fireplace. It is too high to look at. I also didn’t want to sacrifice my windows for a fireplace. So, we put a small one in the office instead…and a real one outside on the back porch.

 

 

Dining Space

One of the things I liked about this plan before I started making major changes was the fact that it did NOT have a formal dining…that is right…did not. For us, a formal dining space is a waste of money. I mean, how often do most people actually use a formal dining space. I wanted to spend our money elsewhere. So, I extended our casual dining space (that is open to the kitchen) and my husband made me this super long table that seats eight people and looks right out over our covered back porch (and one day a pond and an in-ground pool).

As much as I hate to cover up these big southern style windows, I’m thinking we will have to. If you try to eat at the table during the summer before dark…the sun is so intense and in your eyes unless your back is to the windows. So…I will probably be adding curtains. I will not add blinds because I do not want to cover up up the windows.

As you can see my bread bowl needs filling with some decor and the table on the other end is basically empty. I know what I want there, I just have to order it. Also, the hubs built the mirror and I painted. He did all of the mirrors throughout our home.

 

 

 

My Office

Many of you may or may not know that I work primarily from home. I am a RN but I only work PRN. I do something completely different as my main job…and of course I blog. So, a home office was a necessity for me. Also, its a good space…If I needed some extra dining space for an event…I could easily setup a table for extra seating.

I have plans to add a nice chair to this room…but I haven’t yet. My desk was built in with cabinets by our cabinet guy. It is pretty simple but serves the purpose and gives me more cabinet space. I mean, you can use all the storage you can get.

Speaking of decor that means something, the map above my desk was a gift to us by my husband’s aunt. I told her I wanted a vintage type map of the Caribbean. While in Turks and Caicos (with us) she saw this and bought it for us. I thought my office was the perfect place for it…and it means something to us because we love Turks and Caicos and the beach.

Our builder made the mantel for us and I painted it. I love that it looks “old.”

 

 

 

Master Bedroom

I’m sure by now it is no surprise that our master bedroom is also neutral. I wanted our bedroom to be our “dressier” type space in our home. I wanted a fancy chandelier and big windows. I got both. I kept the colors soft and neutral as well as our bedding. Our master bedroom and master bathroom are my favorite spaces inside our home. Oh, and big southern windows were also a must. We live in the country so we actually sleep with the curtains open. I know, I know… a little freak…our dog did wake up one night barking hysterically at the windows and I just hoped she saw a deer and not a person peeking in…anyway..eek.

The painting behind the lamp was a gift from Christopher. It is a painting of my wedding bouquet. It was painted by Lauren Dunn who is an awesome artist. I had a booth next to her at a show Nashville and fell in love with her work. Again, this is a sentimental piece of decor.

I live in the south so it is probably assumed that I love monogrammed items…and I do…kind of. I am not that person that wants everything I own to be monogrammed…that is just not me. But, I love the velvet pillow from RH Hardware that has our initials. There are a few things in our house that are monogrammed and that is enough for me.

 

 

 

Master Bathroom

As we continue my home tour and southern style decor….we finally get to our master bathroom. Like I said, the master bathroom and master bathroom are two of my favorite “pretty” spaces inside our home. I wanted our master bathroom to be very spa like. The area where my tub sits is so dainty and has a relaxing feel. It is funny because this space is so tranquil but to be honest I rarely even take baths…like maybe once every couple of weeks. I am a shower girl. Lots of people want to know if I leave this window open and my answer is yet. We are surrounded by woods and family so I plan to leave it open. Hopefully no one is looking and getting their eyes full – ha.

Each of our vanities are spacious. Again, I did simple white cabinets and neutral counter tops. I recently wrote an Instagram post about bathroom counters. Having a perfectly decorated bathroom counter seems like a great idea. However, for me its just not that practical. I like having the things I used on a daily basis just right there. Everything is neat…but just on the counter top instead of in a drawer.

 

 

 

Finishing the Home Tour

Right now my guest bedrooms and guest bathroom is pretty empty. Those spaces are rarely used. Once I get them a little more “in order” I will post some pics. I hope you have enjoyed my very neutral southern home decor.

This spring, we are working on getting two bed swings made for our front porch. I LOVE being outside so I cannot wait to finish decorating and getting our outdoor spaces finished.

Also, I do still plan to have a professional photograph everything so the pictures are better quality. My house is not nearly as dark as it seems in the pictures.