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It's the middle of July, so what better time to share a little bit of our summer home.
I've been getting asked with increasing nudging on instagram when a little tour might show up that wasn't just my backyard. Admittedly, we don't spend too much time in here in the summer especially with the backyard transformation [The sharing of that project complete here will be soon. You know what soon means in my land. It'll show up, but who knows when]
I made time a couple weeks ago to get some photos done in the house and am finally posting them to share. There are a lot of new faces here, so welcome to our home. I'd offer you a beverage if you could accept it through your screen. Without a lot of words there isn't a definition for our homes style other than now I believe "COMFORT" because that's what I feel when I come home. I love changing things, styling and moving things around but at the end of the day, we are comfortable here and surrounded by the things we have chosen to live with.
Come on in!
You enter our home into the front hall/ foyer depending on what you like to call it. This barrel island has been a staple here for almost 10 years and I still love it.
I snuck home one of these awesome stump plants called an Aralia Fabian and it is loving it's life with the multiple windows.
Medium bright indirect light and low water. Keys to success in this case.
Instead of the normal fur collar, I traded a vintage african indigo to tie around the bronze statue. We have collected pieces of African art and history since we got married. I don't know why I love it so much but just when I think I am done, I find another piece that grabs my heart.
This piece was a shipping nightmare. Way way way before I owned a store and could handle all those logisitics I won this lady in an ebay auction and then had to arrange my own shipping from a real auction house. I was flying blind, paid more for shipping than I paid for the statue and ended up having a crane deliver it to the backyard of our first home. It was a nightmare than my understanding husband almost blew a gasket on me at the time but we can laugh about now.
The live edge skinny shelves in the front hall all year generally house black, white, glass and gold but in the spring and summer months they house our collection of vintage and antique bird figurines plus my collection of flower frogs. We have been collecting these birds for a few years on our travels. Some people buy spoons, postcards or even Christmas ornaments. We buy old birds.
And Emma loves looking at them at and chirping at them especially the first day I changed it up. She came downstairs and ran into the front hall getting ready for daycare and saw it.
"Oh mommy, wow, birdies, so many birdies. Oh Mommy. I like it."
Two year old approval works for me.
And into the living room.
I'll admit this room is on my "I might paint you this winter" list. Not because there's anything wrong with it but because I enjoy change and it hasn't changed in a long time.
And the black wall, keep, stay, wallpaper. All things rolling around in the bag of weird that is my brain.
This years summer textiles at home were very muted. There is so much blue at the shop I think I just wanted a blue break at home. I pulled out an old vintage floral pattern I've had for years [and wish I could find again] and mixed it with black, gold, white and moss green. [the moss green is the linen we carry in the shop and available here]
Old antique olive jars and shells. That looks like summer right?
Meh, the texture worked, it's simple and I love it.
The resounding words of loving what's in your home.
The goldenrod pillows from two collections ago found homes on our antique green chairs. The scrap fabric leftovers got turned sideways and made into pillows for us. I hate throwing out the extra fabric when there is a pattern so always try to make something out of it. I loved this pattern and thought it would be good for summer but also work well into fall with the burnt gold embroidery.
Plus those green chairs have such a presence, they can sometimes be hard to find a mate for fabric wise.
The summer mantel.
And we wander into the dining room. Simple. White, wood, black and fishing floats.
Summer and done.
With a peek into the kitchen. We bought that work table as an island from Ikea and I am in love. Our planned mini kitchen reno got a little held up waiting for replacement windows so that will be full steam ahead in the fall. A proper backsplash is in the works, some open shelving and that worktable will get a little hack as the top is fine but not the greatest surface for all the cooking prep.
Well that's it, that's all for today.
Thanks for walking around with me and until next time,