Our house now a home presents- Spring home tour

I am calling it, it is officially Spring around here! Yesterday I had windows open, birds were chirping and it was 75 degrees outside! So today felt like the perfect day for Our house now a home presents- Spring home tour. 

My home is packed with DIY ideas, furniture redo’s, new builds, crafts, low cost decor ideas and a ton more I have done myself. As always I will link to any and all projects featured in my home at the bottom of this post. I have to do things DIY style around here in order to decorate my home. It is the only way I am able to keep costs low and fully decorate the way I want.

 

This gallery wall is making me itch to redo it. I have left it pretty much as-is for years now, maybe 4? I am not sure, but it has been a looong time since I changed it up. I like the bold contrast of black frames and light walls, but am finding myself craving a more simplified look with white frames. I should add that in the very near future (once the kitchen remodel is done) I am going to be painting the walls in the living room. They are currently a very subtle light gray, I mean blink and you will miss it color. So darkening up the walls slightly and adding white frames, maybe with some mattes that are colored wold really change up this gallery wall. Still deciding though, what do you think?

One thing I am not getting rid of is my coastal decor! I even tried to go easy on the coastal themed decor for this Spring home tour but as I was putting away the holiday decor and getting our my year-round items the shells, blue, and all things beach specific caught my eye. I could not help myself!

 

For this years Spring decor I did leave a softer color scheme, utilizing more white and gray. Once summer hits I will bring out more greens along with a few yellows and oranges.

So a few things have changed since my last home tour. I feel like I say this in every home tour, do I? The kitchen remodel has changed the flow of our home a lot. While it is not done yet there was some furniture finagling to happen before things could get going. The entryway from the kitchen into the living room was closed off, which meant the dining room table needed to go back into the kitchen. I will show that space in a little bit.

Now we have our big living room back! We did really like the smaller family room with the TV off of the kitchen, but with the wall coming down between those two spaces there is no wall for the TV to go anymore. So back into the living room went the TV. With it came the comfier sofa that is perfect for movie nights!

Another change eventually might be this coffee table. I adore the scale of it, this room requires a big table here. But the style and color feel off to me, I have not found something I like more so it is staying for now. The tree stump stools are a big hit in my house and online. Anytime I share a picture of them on social media or here I get messages asking where I got them. I will link up as many products featured in my home as I can. Since I DIY a lot of furniture and decor I will also share links to similar products.

This side table is the newest addition to our home and I am in lurve with it!

Here is the first peek that things are different around here. The wall to the left, right by the TV is where the doorway into the kitchen was. I had two awesome barn doors there. Don’t worry, I will be using them in a different part of my home. Closing off the entryway for the sake of opening up an entire wall of the kitchen was worth it. I also like the slight privacy of this enclosed gives us. It helps a lot with homework time, one child can be in the living room working, I can be doing dishes and Dale can be at the dinner table working with two other kids. Everyone has a quiet place to be.

I got through an entire holiday season with the turquoise herringbone back of this bookshelf. I had worried how I would make it work decorating wise, but have loved the pop of color.

Other than painting the living room walls the other big plans is to make built in cabinets on either side of the fireplace. I want to enclose the TV behind doors when not in use. Which to be honest is pretty often. We are not a big TV watching family, we do have music on almost all of the time but that is provided by the trusty GoogleHomes throughout our house. So having this hidden from view would be amazing to my decorating heart.

I am not able to claim these flowers as being real blooms, our weather is not there yet. So faux flowers give me that fix of spring feeling in my home until the outside catches up.

The dogs are happy with this layout because now they have their precious dog bed back. The dog bed is actually a very beautiful and comfortable daybed. I make the white cushions work with two dogs by wrapping the seat cushion in a duvet cover and the big white pillows are in white pillows cases. So every white fabric seen on the daybed is washable! It is the only way I could make white work with three kids and two dogs.

My fireplace mantel decor did not change much from last year. With the higher ceilings in this room and the larger than life fireplace figuring out the correct scale needed for mantel decor was a learning process for me. When we first purchased our home I put up a lot of smaller decor and pictures here, which was a mistake. It just made the fireplace feel cluttered. Now that I layer in more larger pieces there is a calmness to the decor that I adore.

Decorating a home will not happen instantly. This is something I was not prepared for, I wanted everything done right away! But now that we are over a decade into this home I see the beauty in the slower process of decorating. I have made design choices, renovated rooms and picked colors I would not have not had I jumped all in right when we moved in. Taking my time and getting to know the flow of our home, how our family uses each space has made it feel more “us” at this point.

Cozy touches like throw pillows and blankets make all the difference! I want people to feel comfortable in my house, put your feet up, relax, cover up with a blanket. I am all about casual comfort and I hope others feel that way when they walk into my home.

I know my kids and their friends feel comfortable in my home, behind this love sign there is a Nerf dart, because… kids…

The table runner on my coffee table is actually a curtain I found at a thrift store. It was still with tags on, but only one panel. Not exactly going to work as curtains, but folded nicely it becomes the perfect table runner and pop of color for Spring decorating!

One aspect of having our living room back in here and removing the dining room table out is now the fireplace is seen again! The beauty deserves to be the star of the show in this room.

I should also point out that the other frequent comment I get about my home is all of the white I have. One person even critiqued me about my kids obviously not living in this house. Here is how I make it work, as I said before the daybed is fully washable, but so is the white sofa. Every single piece of fabric is a slip covered that can be pulled off when needed. I end up washing it about every two months or so. However the ease of not stressing about feet on the sofa, or food in here is worth the extra effort of washing it.

Oh, the rug in here is also an indoor/outdoor rug. I can literally take it outside and hose it down! Decorating a home needs to work for the family living in the home. My family is loud, active, we LIVE here. Our friends gather here, there is forts built in the living room, movie nights, summer bonfires, kids running through the house wet from sprinklers in the middle of summer. I adore and cherish these moments, my house needs to work for all of this life being lived in it.

The newest area in my home you have not seen yet is what was formally the family room; now we call it the morning room. You can see a sliver of the un-finished kitchen. The morning room now has full view of the kitchen and back windows in the dining room. It has ah-mazing light in the mornings in here! The entryway will have transom windows above the wood trim encased doorway. To say I am antsy for the kitchen to be done would be very true, I cannot wait to see it all shiny and new!

The kitchen cart no longer fits in the dining room. I will share more about that space once the kitchen is done. I gave a little hint of it in this Spring home tour but it is difficult to photograph without showing off the kitchen, which is really not ready to be shown off yet.

Not only is this morning room because it is off of the kitchen, next to the island where my kids eat breakfast but it is also where we get our coffee. Let me tell you, it is not a morning without coffee.

These cane chairs and the sofa work perfectly in here, it is a great little conversation area in between the living room and kitchen.

I also keep our fabric napkins in here and extra dinnerware. It is nice to have another food prep area. We have had a few get together here with the new kitchen layout and this kitchen cart works perfectly for snacks to be set on. Little things like that change the flow for the better!

This light gray sofa is all fully slip covered, keeping that high function aspect of my home top priority.

Ah, guys, the light streaming in here gives me all of the happy feels! Growing up in sunny Southern California I am all about the sun, most houses there have a lot of windows. So this feels like home to me to have so many windows and open spaces within the home. While this is not the traditional “norm” for Wisconsin the newer homes are starting to embrace larger windows and more of an open flow to the rooms. Since our house was built in 2000 we have had to renovate these featured to be included in the home.

It is hard to tell but the ceiling in this room is a light blue. In person the contrast is more obvious and pops beautifully!

Have I mentioned that I am so happy we started the kitchen renovation? I have talked about the work going into it, and how we had delays, but it will all be worth it! Even with it not done even just using the new layout is a huge difference. The morning room off of the kitchen and the dining room right there in the same space feels like the perfect use of space for this home.

We do not have a lot of room in the dining room. The pantry also had to be removed from the kitchen, it was not a walk in one or anything fancy like that. So now there is a narrow pantry cabinet in the dining room that holds our food. Big dream talk time, I daydream of knocking out this wall of windows and pushing it back about 6 feet to give me a more grand and spacious dining room. One thing at a time, let’s finish the kitchen first. But one day…

I always keep the table decor simple for the dinner table. I love drooling over the pretty and extravagant tablescapes seen online, but I want this blog to be as real as possible. While I will not share the piles of laundry, stacks of school papers and constant dishes in the sink I do not want to go above and beyond for the sake of “the right picture”. So this is as-is for my dining room table. We eat here, talk about our day, tell knock-knock jokes, gather around with friends and play Cards against humanity. Having tons of decor in the center just won’t work.

The hallway has stayed untouched for years. I love my wainscoting, love the shell gallery wall and the monthly pictures of each of my kids from their first year. Eventually I assume my entire house will finally feel “done” and I wont alter it anymore. That will be the sweet spot, where I can sit back and enjoy my home. However, I am not there yet! With a kitchen remodel happening, plans for an eventual master bathroom renovation, laundry room and basement I have a ways to go.

This whole mudroom nook and command center area works so well for our family! Now that my kids are a little older (11, 9 and one turning 8 on Sunday) I am trying to encourage some independence. So them handling their school things, paying attention to their schedule all help in bringing that independence out. Setting up the organization and space for each item from baseball gear, horse riding gear, backpacks, homework, musical instruments, coats and shoes does help them handle it aon their own a little more.

Sure I have to remind them to pick up their shoes, or clean out their homework bins. But they know where it all goes and do not need me standing over them or doing it for them.

As far as the Spring home tour goes I do not change up much in the bedrooms of my home. No one really has the time for that!

I just like to give a full home tour, so if any new readers come along they can see the majority of my home in one home tour.

It also allows me to highlight any projects done in the bedrooms. This small work space I created in my bedroom is perfect for my blog work. I sit here and edit pictures or write blog posts. I am also able to shut the door if need be to hide from the kids to get some work done. Since we do not ave a designated office in the home we have to get creative.

There is one confession though, Nora’s bedroom is a little different from these pictures. Since they were taken she now has a guinea pig cage in the corner of her bedroom. Winnie and Rue are living nice and cushy, she is obsessed with her girls and takes such good care of them. Real talk, how do you make a guinea pig cage not look cage-ish?

Nora’s bedroom is proof of me needing to let go. This is her space, she is 11 now and craves that individuality and privacy. But oh man, she likes her clutter! She has tons of art supplies and books all over. Drawings, poems she wrote, stories she is working on, little dried flowers she wants to sketch. It is all just sitting around her bedroom as decor.

As long as the room is not actually dirty I have released the control and let her have the clutter. She seems to enjoy it and gain comfort from the clutter. Which is the complete opposite of me, I am easily affected by my surroundings and if things are cluttered or disorganized it throws me off.

As of now she is still liking the bugs and pink theme to her bedroom. She happily has friends over, hosts sleepovers and gossips about boys under her butterfly wall art. I know the time will come that she will ask me if she can change it up. We revamped her bedroom a little about 2 years ago and she had a lot of opinions about it. Collaborating with her on it was a lot of fun.

My boy’s are the ones that are probably more ready for a room makeover. I did their bedroom about 4 years ago now, built in the bunk beds, made a ton of custom art and furniture. It has worked wonderfully for years. However now that they are 9 and almost 8 the transportation theme feels a little juvenile to them.

The problem is my oldest son Caleb is a very organized and responsible child. He likes things a certain way and dislikes messes, they stress him out. My youngest son Gavin likes chaos and hates cleaning up. He regularly complains that his back hurts in the morning, I ask him why and he says “Oh, I found a rock under my blankets this morning. I think I was sleeping on it all night.” Yep, rocks in his bed, dirt on the floor, balls being thrown against the wall. He is all chaos and Caleb is all calm.

My boys compliment each other well, they are the right kind of different that allows them to be adorably close with their relationship. They honestly are the best of friends. But how do I adjust their room for an older look when one likes clutter and mes and the other likes organization? Do not even get me started on decor or themes. Gavin wants a baseball themed bedroom and Caleb wants a mature bedroom with no theme.

Any words of wisdom on how to  make this work? Other than moving to a 4 bedroom house. Believe me, we considered it (for reasons other than just decor and each child having their own bedroom) but we have lived in this house for so long it feels perfectly like home. My kids have never lived anywhere else, it would feel wrong to call another house our home. Eventually we may finish the basement with some egress windows and put both boys downstairs in their own bedrooms. Our home is 2,000 suqare feet and we have exactly that in basement space so it would turn our home to double it’s current size. Eventually that is our plan, the long term game plan.

For better or worse, this house is our home. We adore it so much, I am so proud of it but at times it does feel like we are bursting at the seams with it. Which is why I have taken it upon myself to make every inch of it work for us. Utilize the hallway as a command center, knock down a wall to make the kitchen larger, create a mudroom nook in the laundry room to help organization… all of those DIY projects help our home work for us even more.

 

I will let you know that these outdoor pictures are from last year. While it has warmed up beautifully here, we do not have green grass or flowers blooming yet. The trees have little leaf buds and that is about it. I will be sharing a separate outdoor home tour once everything becomes green and lush.

Looking at these pictures are making me really look forward to full time spring and then summer! I am not a winter girl at all. Before moving to Wisconsin the coldest temperatures I had felt was probably low 60 degrees. I am a sand between my toes, sun kissed skin, beach bum California girl. We have such a great life here in Wisconsin, extended family, amazing friends that live just down the street. But winters make it hard to deal with for me. So when there is just a hint of Spring I become like a kid on Christmas eve, the suspense for full-blown spring hits me hard.

Another thing I am eager to move along is our kitchen! Here is the first official view I am sharing on the blog of the new layout. Now walking in from the front door I can see the dining room, all of those beautifully big windows and my backyard. I also can see part of the island (which is not done yet). The layout makes my home feel so much bigger. It is also really nice to have more view of the backyard. Before just the little window in the morning room was all we could see into the yard from the living room. Now we have a wall of back windows! We also have a ton of work to do on it all still. I am hoping to share an update next week on the progress as well as a few of the finishes. But later this week I am rolling out the newly remodeled bathroom  and that comes with a whole new round of DIY blog posts! So there is a lot of content to share right now!

Whew, I try not to get too wordy with these home tours, but I feel like I was just having some girl talk today. I like explaining the hows and whys of my home. I do put a lot of thought into the decor and style. Most importantly though I put in a lot of thought to the function of it all, making the entire home work for me, husband, three kids, two dogs, and of course don’t forget the two guinea pigs. Being mindful of the use of space, our needs and wants has ended with us having a home filled with DIY decor, furniture redo’s, renovations, low cost decor and all with a coastal and casual feel! Also, because this is Our house now a home presents- Spring home tour I had to add lots of flowers, greenery, hints of nature and pops of color. Spring I am ready for you!