Home Sweet Home

June 02, 2011

Home Sweet Home

I LOVE to make my House a Home. I haven't really had a chance to do that since we bought our home in April 2009. Yes, I have decorated, but I really haven't had time to put "My Full Style" into it.
I have had many requests lately to design interior arrangements (silk & decor); so I thought I would blog on what I have done. I will be adding posts for the showers, baby rooms, interior design, etc. photos on here soon! Until then, I thought I would blog a little on my home. Particularly my fireplace. I cannot take all the credit for this. I have to thank 2 people for inspiration in our family room. I will point them out and thank them for their wonderful ideas!
Today I took a trip to a step below Heaven...aka...HOBBY LOBBY! I went there with my friend to get some decor for her baby room and I was in a wonderland of design and fun! I had many business supplies to pick up and I also chose a few things for happiness! :)

Just to give you a heads up of my style for our home.....
Casual - Country - Chic - Outdoorsy - Natural - Airy - Cozy - The Schweitzer Homestead!!!!

This is our empty fireplace. Boring, Right?

When we purchased our home, this mantle was an orange colored wood.

My husband stained it to darken its look!

I purchased this mirror below from Home Goods last year. When I asked Sarah from "Simply Sarah Style" for guidance, she recommened a mirror above the fireplace also! You will see a link to her blog under "My Favorites".

Below I placed a tall arrangement next to the fireplace. The container is from Garden Ridge and the Grasses I found at a local craft store.The wicker and glass piece is from Target.

Rustic Frames are my favorite! These were on sale at Hobby Lobby. I took the glass out of it and dispayed it on the mantle. The glass I am reusing in a 11x14 frame that I have that broke.

These are my new favorite candles! They look so real when you turn them on and I won't burn our house down either since real flames are not involved! These are form Hobby Lobby but can be found at Target, Walmart, etc in various colors and designs.

The start of building the fireplace! I just randomly situated items and played with them. I have no rhyme or reason. I hear the "dos and don'ts" of design, but I like to follow what "my eye" does. Remember, I did not purchase all of this new! I have collected things here and there!

I Love Foliage! Ask my friends who I went to Punta Cana with! Every trip I take (tropical or to the lake); I am always taking foliage off plants and trees! The below side fireplace piece, I added three vines with light splashes of leaves. These are from Hobby Lobby of course.

I love the outdoors woodsy look!

Okay, I have 2 gals to thank for the below piece! Sarah from "Simply Sarah Style" suggested placing books next to the fireplace and placing a focal point on top. My friend Jill has a magazine stack at her home with a bird in silver setting on top and I absolutely love it! She also at Christmas had beautiful gold tealight birds setting around also. I was never a bird fan, but I LOVED this bird I found. Its Rustic and Worn looking. We actually have birds that have been living in our fireplace for awhile now so how fitting is this!!!
Also, I just set some books below. I love my collection of books. I wanted to set them ALL out, but it looked a little odd. I chose 2 old books of my grandpas and a few of mine!

I popped some greenery on the mantle ( 2 stems of it) and added some of my grandparents mason jars. I will show you next how I pop some color on here!

These shelves are to the right of the fireplace. You will see how I jazzed these up a little in the next pictures. I took the 3 top turquoise bottles and placed them on the fireplace. I also added some foilage to these shelves and moved some of these photos to a side table.

I moved the bottles in front of the open frame.

These added color into our family room! The bottles are from Meijer.

Almost Complete.... I am going to show a couple more extras before the end result of the mantle!

These doilies are my grandma's, collected through the years. I placed them on our coffee table and placed photos on them!

These are 2 of my favorite photos! My family when I was little on the left. Yes, in our Western Wear! Ha! My dad was a drummer for a country band so you can see him holding his drumsticks in the photo! I love my dad! Brandon's family is on the right on one of our beach vacations! Beautiful Sunset! I love photos, they are priceless memories!

I have a basket that we use for our.....

Zappers!!! Well, I was raised calling them zappers, but I think they are usually called the remote control, lol!
I love when I am quickly straightening up to throw them in this basket!

Here are a few quick photos I placed on them!

This is a curtain purchased from Target! My friend Jill who is an amazing decorater picked these out and told me they would look great it our family room! She has them in a beautiful red and chocolate for her kitchen! They are a Paisley pattern!