around the house

It's been a while since I posted photos of the house, and now that I actually have something to show, I thought I'd share! As most of you know, it takes me forever to make decorating decisions, hence the fact that we were in our house over two years before I made the move to put anything on the walls and get curtains.

The fireplace mantel in our family room is humongous and has been a huge design challenge for me. It's really deep and the ceiling is high, so the space is just big. If you put anything small up there, it just looks funny. So I've been pondering what to do, and think we found a pretty good solution. My mom and I found these cool glass vases at a store here in Corvallis. They fill up the space nicely and go well with the rest of the room. I also like that I can fill them with different things depending on the season. I'm thinking I need maybe some branches with red berries or something for the holidays. The other addition to the space are these two sconces that we got from my grandfathers estate. My mom says that she remembers these hanging in every house that they lived in when she was little. I love that they are a family heirloom and it's special to be able to hang them now in our home. I think my grandpa would be happy.

Most of our energy has been put into our front living and dining room space, which is kind of funny since that's the room that we spend the least amount of time in. But it is the first room that people see when they come in and we wanted to make it welcoming.

Cory's mom gave him this trunk back when he was in college, and I love it as a coffee table/storage space. The piano was mine when I was younger, many hours of practicing on that! I hope that someday Cole might want to learn to play as well.

Our friends Mike and Gem gave us this table as a wedding present. Mike made it himself. Isn't it amazing? What I actually love the most about this table is the fact that Mike and Gem live in a tiny apartment in NYC and I can just imagine him working on it in their kitchen. So sweet and so meaningful. This is a piece that we will have forever.

We found this lamp at an estate sale for $15. It needed new wiring, so Cory figured out how to do that, and now it works perfectly. We looked it up online, and it appears to be circa 1930s. The refurbished ones online were going for $125, so I think we got a good deal.

We bought this couch and the matching chair from The Inkwell in Corvallis when we first moved in, and they were sitting bare for a long time. I found these pillows and the throw at Brown House, and they ended up being the inspiration I needed to get started on the room. I love the pop of orange, especially since most of our house is neutral.

The dining room table is also a piece that we also got when we moved in. We found it at an antique store in Portland. It's from India, made out of Shesham wood. The chairs are a hodgepodge of different styles with different color fabric seats, which I love.

Yay for curtains! I can't believe that we went for so long without them.

Another estate sale find. We got this frame for $25 and then got a mirror put it in. We're still looking for a piece to go under it. Some sort of table or sideboard.

I got this print on etsy.com. I just thought it was pretty and adds a nice holiday touch.