I’m continuing my home tour today with our sunroom! I finished my big project in this room – the painting – back in the summer. We spent a couple of months after that getting furniture and some final wall art, and then we didn’t get the fireplace working until right before Christmas. As always, we’re still making a couple of minor tweaks, but we’ve reached a finished state that I feel comfortable sharing here.
I don’t have a lot of before/after pictures of my work in this house. But I did get a few shots in the sunroom, so you can see the before color. It’s not terrible, but it’s not great. The room gets some pretty heavy shadowing through much of the day. A darker color just makes the room that much darker. We had a tough time settling on a color. I don’t gravitate naturally toward yellow and was really nervous about using so much yellow in one room. I wanted to make sure we settled on the right yellow. We actually experimented with light browns and green, too. Yellow was definitely the right choice.
[Disclaimer: Amazon didn’t sponsor me to write this post. The Amazon links are affiliate links. Thanks for your support!]
I’m a firm believer in decorating a home without breaking the bank. From making items yourself to scouting great sales and other deals, there are so many ways you can decorate your house beautifully on a budget. $10 and under throw pillows on Amazon are the perfect option for finishing out your living room, office, or bedroom.
Today I’m continuing my tour of my home with a peek at the master bedroom. Past peeks have included detailed overviews of the guest bedroom and entryway and mini tours of the kitchen wall art and powder room. As I’ve mentioned before, home decor doesn’t come naturally to me. It’s taken me years to feel comfortable sharing more than an occasional peak. We’ve come a long way with our “forever” home, and I’m having fun sharing it now.
The first step in the master bedroom was to paint the wall behind the bed. It was one of the few projects that I was able to do before we moved into the house. The previous owners had a light purple and gray striped wall and light purple curtains, which made the whole room look purple. It wasn’t our style at all so the paint color had to get changed and the curtains had to go.
As always, getting the new paint color on the walls (French Coast by True Value) and switching out the curtains made a huge difference. The rest of the walls are gray, which we like and have left as is for now. The previous owners left behind the blue and green rug in a different room, which brought together the blue, green, gray, and white color scheme in the room. I would never have picked out this rug myself, but the size is perfect for the space, and again, it worked beautifully for the color theme.
The bedding I picked out originally (an update for our nearly 10-year-old wedding present bedding) is now in the guest room. When we upgraded to a king bed, we also got king bedding. Aside from a few pillows and pillow cases, all of the queen bedding went with the queen bed, which is now the guest bed. I spend weeks picking out that bedding and was a little sad we only used it as our own for a few months. But the king bedding is actually a better fit for the new bed and the room as a whole. And we still get to enjoy the queen bedding in the guest room. So it worked out all right.
Needless to say, the king bed was a big upgrade. Neither of us had ever owned a bed like this before. Honestly, it’s been a bit of an adjustment for me because it’s so big. For several weeks, I felt like I had to climb into the bed. It just took some time to get used to it.
When we bought the bed, the model in the store was styled with really cute curtains. I assumed they came with the bed. They didn’t. So I assumed it would be really easy to order something similar online. It wasn’t. Most four-poster canopy bedding is weird, at best. You can either purchase mosquito netting (some listings are even labeled as mosquito netting, really?) or something fit for Buckingham Palace. Also, a lot of people leave their four-poster beds without a canopy, which makes no sense to me whatsoever. Of course, now the item I ordered is nowhere to be found, so I can’t even link it. I will if I ever find it again. I am very happy with what I did end up ordering, and it’s worked perfectly.
We bought the bench when we bought the king bed. We bought everything else while we were in our previous residence or even earlier. We have made a few small adjustments to the arrangement in this house, but the TV, TV cabinet, my dresser (the matching dresser which Jake used to use is now in the guest room), the nightstands, the massage table, and the wall art are all items we already owned. I did pick up the hampers because plastic laundry baskets on the floor weren’t cutting it anymore. Sometimes the little upgrades make the biggest difference.
The majority of the wall art and other decor items (i.e. the items on my dresser) are wedding photos, photos from my brother’s wedding, wedding gifts or other gifts, or pieces I’ve had since I was little. I also decided to display the black and white photos of the cats in here. They were in the finished basement in our previous residence.
Even with the huge four-poster bed, the massage table is still the single biggest talking point in our bedroom. We bought it as a Christmas present to ourselves, I think in 2012, because we give massages for each other all the time, you can pick up a portable massage table for a great price on Amazon, and we had plenty of space in our bedroom for said table. It’s been awesome. Every married couple should have their own massage table. Pick up a table for yourself ASAP.
Statement wall paint color: French Coast by True Value
Window curtains: Target (green)
King four-poster bed: Steinhafels (similar)
Bench: Steinhafels (honestly, I’m not sure if we have this exact bench, but if not, it’s very similar)
Four-poster curtains: Currently unavailable. I’ll provide a link if I can find something similar again.
Nightstands: Steinhafels (similar)
Rug: Came with the house. No similar link available.
Bedding: Crate and Barrel – duvet cover and pillow shams. We have these sheets but in blue, which isn’t available anymore. We have a duvet insert from Amazon.
TV cabinet: Target (We bought it before 2010. I don’t have a similar link for you, sorry.)
Laundry hampers: Amazon
Massage table: Amazon
The black and white cat photo display features this frame. Most of the other frames in the master bedroom were gifts or pieces I purchased years ago. If you have any questions about any of the items in this room, don’t hesitate to ask.
[Disclaimer: A few of the product links are affiliate links. Thanks for your support!]
It’s not a secret that I’m a big fan of Crate and Barrel. I am always excited to get their catalogs in the mail, and I routinely share inspiration from said catalogs on my Facebook page. Of course, I love to browse the store as well. Jake and I registered at Crate and Barrel for our wedding and consequently, have been using a number of Crate and Barrel kitchen items for a decade now. Today I’m sharing my top seven staple Crate and Barrel kitchen items, which are a mix of older and newer gifts and personal purchases. All of these items are simple but high-quality and make food prep and meals a more enjoyable experience.
Essential Dinnerware
I first mentioned our Essential Dinnerware dishes in this post. As I had discussed previously, I am so impressed with how well these dishes have held up over the past 10 years. Originally, we received 32 pieces and have only had two break. We use them every single day, putting nearly the entire plates collection and many of the bowls through the dishwasher every week. After looking through the current Crate and Barrel dishes sets while writing this post, I would still choose the Essential Dishes because I really love simple white, round dishes. If you love the round dishes aesthetic, too, but want a bone china set, check out the Bennett Round Dinnerware collection.
Grand Hotel II Flatware and Serving Sets
When I was 23 years old and planning my wedding, high-quality, matching flatware wasn’t a priority. So we didn’t register for it. For years, it didn’t bother me that we were using an assortment of decent quality, mismatched flatware. It was functional and not ugly. It was only really recently that I finally bit the bullet and ordered the Grand Hotel II Flatware. I love the beaded detail and the weight is just perfect. It also matches the Grand Hotel II Serving Set, which we did register for and have been using weekly ever since. I regularly use it at social functions and put it through the dishwasher, and it still looks great 10 years later. I use the two serving spoons by far the most. If they were sold separately, I would order a couple more of each of them.
Swoop Serving Bowls
At the time I was creating a registry, I had absolutely no idea what size and type of serving bowls I would need. I was just finishing my undergrad degree and had never cooked for anyone besides Jake and my college roommates, which needless to say, was pretty basic cooking. For many years, I made do with our random wedding assortment. In the past couple years, I’ve finally slowly expanded our collection and couldn’t be happier with these Swoop Serving Bowls. I have two of each size. Honestly, I could get by just fine with two each of the medium and small sizes. I have used the large bowls, but I haven’t figured out what to serve in them on a regular basis. The medium size is perfect for popcorn. The small size is perfect for fruit, veggies, chips, pretzels, nuts, and crackers.
Teak Cutting Board
If you’ve never used a wood cutting board, you don’t know what you’re missing. Purchasing this teak cutting board (the small size) convinced me that I’ll never go back. I don’t mind using a plastic cutting board for certain types of kitchen tasks, such as rolling out dough or shredding chicken. But the teak cutting board is my go-to for all of my routine chopping, slicing, and dicing. Pick up the block oil so you can keep your wood board in top condition.
Stainless Steel and Red Nylon Measuring Spoons
I have no idea where I got my first set of measuring spoons. They were cheap plastic, and I lost the tablespoon before 2008. I don’t want to talk about how long I got by with the 1/2 tablespoon and three other smaller spoons. One day something snapped and I couldn’t deal with the cheap measuring spoons anymore. Needless to say, I should have bought Crate and Barrel’s stainless steel and nylon measuring spoons years ago. The set is high-quality and has more spoons that the average cook will ever use regularly. I love having a storage ring so the smaller spoons don’t get lost in the shuffle (or you know, the large tablespoon just disappears).
Bavaria Salt and Pepper Mills
My immediate family and I have slowly gifted each other salt and pepper mills over the last few Christmases. My parents, my brother and sister-in-law, and Jake and I each have our own set now, most of which are the Bavaria mills. (You may remember me mentioning them in this post.) Continuing the slightly nerdy food gift trend, I’ve also gifted refill salt and peppercorns. In the past, I have used the disposable grinders. They’re okay, but the grinding mechanism is never great and you have to keep buying new ones. I love having higher quality mills I can refill as needed. When I bake, I still use bulk ground salt. When I cook, I always use the mills.
Dish Towels
We registered for several Crate and Barrel towels and are still using them a decade later. Yes, they have some wear. It’s to be expected when you use them extensively and put them through the wash every week for 10 years. So many of their dish towel designs are classic with beautiful colors. The towels we registered for are most similar to the Cuisine Stripe collection. This season, I picked up the scattered leaves towel, 12 Days of Christmas dish towel, and embroidered guest towels.
[Disclaimer: I was not sponsored to write this post. The product links are affiliate links. Thanks for your support!]
Do you have any favorite Crate and Barrel kitchen items that you use all the time?
I’d love to hear about your favorite products!
