DIY Spring Curb Appeal

Now that spring is here, does your home’s exterior need some freshening up? Boost your home’s curb appeal and make a good first impression with these easy weekend projects.

Add Plants and Flowers

One of the easiest and most impactful things you can do is add greenery and flowers to your home’s exterior. Whether it’s adding a garden, some planters or window boxes, these can all freshen up the look of your home. Do your future self a favor and plant native perennials which will be low maintenance and return year after year.

Make Your Front Door Pop

Boost curb appeal by making your front door stand out. Opt for a bold color that coordinates with the other colors on the exterior of your home. Hint: Blue and wooden doors are in this year!

Take Care of Your Lawn

Lawn care is a big part of maintaining curb appeal. Regular mowing, raking, weeding and watering will go a long way in keeping the exterior of your home looking nice.

Add Lighting

A dark entryway isn’t very welcoming. Change out light fixtures for ones that are brighter and fresher. If you need additional light, add string lights or solar powered lights and lanterns. Remember to light the path to your entry as well with some lights along the walkway.

Upgrade Your House Numbers

Quickly and easily update the look of your home by changing out your house numbers. Choose a style that coordinates with the exterior of your home, but is also bold enough to stand out and catch the eye.

Add New Door Hardware

For a quick and noticeable upgrade, replace your door’s existing hardware with something new. Choose something that contrasts with your door’s color, such as nickel hardware on a navy door or black hardware on a yellow door.

Most of these projects are fairly easy and inexpensive, but can go a long way in creating some major curb appeal. What are some of the exterior projects on your list for this spring?

Decorating For Spring

Spring is almost here! I love the change of seasons and the optimism it brings. The longer days, warmer weather, and beautiful colors inspire me to start fresh and tackle my to-do list. A new season is also a great time to switch up your décor. Add bursts of bright color, energetic patterns, and lively springtime motifs to your home to effortlessly transition it into spring. Freshen up your space for the season and give your home (and yourself) a mood makeover with these ideas:

Choose a springy color palette 

One of the easiest ways to change the look and feel of a space is to paint. Choose a springtime color such as a soft violet or cerulean, and paint the whole room, or even just an accent wall. Choose accessories, curtains, and upholstery to coordinate with your new wall color and it will feel like a brand new room.

Decorate with florals and greenery 

Artwork, throw pillows, bedding, and curtains with a colorful floral or bold green leaf print, as well as succulents, greenery, and flowers in a fun vase, will bring spring into your home, making it feel fresh, bright and cheery.

Choose light, airy fabrics 

When switching out your bedding, throw pillows and curtains, opt for lightweight, seasonally appropriate fabrics such as linen and cotton. These fabrics will help lighten up your space and make the room feel fresh and comfortable.

Add an eye-catching area rug 

Choose a coordinating area rug with a fun color and pattern to complement your décor and add some softness to the space. It’ll also provide some warmth for those chilly early spring nights.

Decorate with nature-inspired materials

Create a relaxing space to unwind in by using items made with natural materials such as sisal, wicker, grasscloth, and wood. These materials add texture and create a cozy, casual feel- perfect for relaxing.

A few simple changes in your décor can make your home feel fresh and new again. What is your favorite way to decorate your space for Spring?

Cold Weather Home Styling Tips

I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly ready for it to warm up! The taste of spring we got last week was amazing and I can’t wait for winter to make its way out of here! While we wait for spring to arrive, let’s talk about decorating your home for the cold.

Layer

Layer! Layering isn’t just for clothing. Layer in textured bedding, throws and pillows in materials such as velvet and faux fur, to turn your space into a cozy spot to get away from the cold. You can also layer your window treatments to help keep out drafts. Heavier, thicker drapery panels over sheers will help keep out the cold while still letting light in.

Color

Add color! It’s stark and cold outside, and adding cheery color will brighten up your space and your mood! Add pops of fun color into your space with a bright colored throw, boldly patterned pillow, and colorful art and accessories. Plus, these colorful items can transition into your spring and summer décor.

Light

Hang mirrors and add lighting. While daylight is limited, maximize the natural light available by hanging a large mirror on the wall or over the mantle to reflect the light and make your space seem lighter and brighter. When the daylight fades to night, light the way with lamps, string lights and candles.

Greenery

Add plants and flowers! Bring nature indoors by adding greenery (real or faux) and fresh flowers. These add vibrancy to your space and create the illusion of being outdoors while you stay warm and cozy.

Do you have any favorite cold weather decorating tips? Let us know in the comments!

- Kerri

What Not To Do When Creating A Gallery Wall

I didn't realize some of these frames were crooked until I was editing. The perfectionist in me is literally twitching, haha

     I had every intention when we started this gallery wall that I was going to write this fabulous "How-To" for big gallery walls. Um, three days and roughly eight collective hours later, I realized I was so naive. So just like How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, I'm reverse how-to(ing) this. 

    I started this process quite awhile before we purchased anything for it. I'd like to think I did the first few steps correctly. I picked a frame that was simple and would be uniform across the entire wall. I picked a few big pieces that we would work around. Finally, waited for wedding photos before beginning because I knew I wanted it to be all about us. 

    Then, Michaels had a HUGE sale on the frames I wanted. We went to two separate stores and still ended up with two different colored frames. A dark wood and a white. I decided to come to terms with this, even though I knew I will eventually want all the same shade. Luckily, the Belmont frame from Michael's doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. 

    So, now that we've cleaned out both of the Michael's of their remaining white and dark wood frames, we headed home happy. Ok, I was happy. Alvin was agitated that he went to decor stores after a work day. As soon as we got home, the high of the deals had me instantly moving our coffee table to make room on the floor to start creating the layout. 

Creating the layour was messy work. 

    After creating a beautiful layout that I adored while it was on the floor, I measured the width and height to give us some parameters on the wall. We used painters tape to mark the height parameters but I decided pretty quickly that I wanted the gallery to be a bit wider than it was on the floor. In my excitement/Friday night exhaustion, I didn't think through the problems widening it might cause. This is mistake #1. 

    So we put them all up, roughly where they were on the floor. I say roughly because mistake #2: we didn't measure between the frames as they were on the floor. Not that it would have mattered since I widened the space anyway. Are you following this domino effect of mistakes?  

All the frames at the bottom were driving me nuts! 

    Frustrated and tired, we call it a night. In the morning, it becomes obvious that there are weird gaps that weren't there before. That afternoon, I try rearranging it a bit. Just moving frames a bit to the left here, a bit to the right there. But overall keeping the same design as had been on the floor. Mistake #3. I should have realized that the shape on the floor only looked that good because of the width parameters. The only thing we accomplished on day two was creating lots and lots of little holes in our wall. Seriously, it looks like someone took a machine nail gun to it.  

End of day 2, contemplating my life decisions. JK, I was trying to solve the puzzle.

    So on day three, I decided I still loved the height. And I picked two edge frames that I wanted to be the furthest points. Then we moved nearly everything else around. We ended up with two fewer frames than originally intended because once it was on the wall, I liked having the negative space. Here's the final product! 

So what can you learn from this post? 

1) Don't take shortcuts. We were so tired we thought we'd just hang them up "roughly" where they were on the floors (Actually this was Alvin but he was doing the hanging so I didn't want to fight him on it). Taking this "shortcut" ended up costing hours in rearranging times.

2) Use tape to mark parameters or even the shapes of each individual frame. It would have taken quite a bit of time to use tape to mark each individual frame (we have sixteen on this wall) but it's also going to take quite a bit of time to fill in all those holes from us moving the frames around.

3) Do your style research. I had a hard time finding a similar gallery wall to mine, in that we used clean modern style frames but did a large asymmetrical layout. However, if you're interested in a mismatched farmhouse wall or a super clean uniform wall, there are a lot of examples out there that you can browse through. Find what you do and don't like before starting to hang things. 

4) Don't be afraid to rearrange it. Sure, you may end up with a few holes. But those can be patched up! Accept that you made a mistake the first (or fourth) time around and just tweak it until you're satisfied. 

5) Know when to stop. This is especially tricky for perfectionists like me working on an asymmetrical gallery wall. Just know, that it's probably never going to be "perfect". But once it looks pretty to you, stop. Then just enjoy your beautiful work and photos! 

Shoutout to our wedding photographer Erin, of Luxe & Pine! We adore our photos so much we spent hours working on a gallery wall because we couldn't narrow down any further which ones we wanted framed and up on the wall! 

What's Up Wednesday: Style With Confidence

     Boy have we been busy! I haven’t had the time to devote to this blog as I would like. So I don’t have any well researched piece for you today. Instead, I thought I would give you a glimpse into what I’m working on and give you tips on how to do it yourself.

     I have a super fun home styling project I’ve been working on this past month. This family is practically starting from scratch and hired me to help them make the few pieces they do have match the look that they want to end up with. Their old pieces are pretty traditional while they want to steer towards a modern boho feel. I swoon!

Step 1: Create A Mood Board On Pinterest

     Luckily, this client had already started the first step, which is to create a Pinterest board for each room. This helps you find patterns in the things you’re drawn to. Hopefully this will help you and/or your stylist know which direction to go once it comes time to purchase new pieces. 

For privacy reasons, I did not share the client's board. This is a board I quickly created as an example.

       In my example, you'll probably notice some recurring themes and colors. Obviously grey sectionals have my heart. Other common pieces are white faux fur pillows, ivory rugs, and minimalism. Three out of four shown inspiration photos have plants. Three out of four have modern coffee tables. Three out of four have simple gallery walls. These are the types of patterns you can use when creating your room idea boards.

Step 2: Create A Room Idea Board

     After thoroughly studying the client's Pinterest boards, I created some room idea boards on Polyvore. It’s not a perfect format but I find it easy to use and I love that if they love something you have on the board, it includes links on where to buy it. I’m sharing the sunroom board because A) I just adore the feel of it and B) They did too and ended up buying nearly everything in it.

     These idea boards are also great for referencing when you’re out and about and stumble upon something you love! If you aren’t sure how it would fit into the space you’re working on, you can simply pull up the board and compare it to the pieces/feel you have going. It seriously cuts back on the impulse buying and helps those who are unsure how something in the store will suit their room.

Step Three: Search For The Pieces

     Final step: Shopping! And lots of it! These boards are a reference point, but you may not love everything in them. For the dining room, the client loved the feel of the board but we ended up purchasing different chairs for seat comfort. You'll also probably want a bit more than what's in the board. These are reference points, not final rooms. 

    Here's a list of the places I suggest this client shop in order to create the modern boho feel in her space. She doesn't like a "matchy matchy" look, which makes bargain hunting perfect! But it still allows for a few splurges. 

Stores I recommended to achieve this style:

Port of Raleigh

Zartiques

Wayfair

Craigslist

Facebook Marketplace

Target 

HomeGoods

     Hopefully by following these three steps, you can confidently revamp any space! Or if you’re not the DIYer when it comes to revamping your space, you could always hire a stylist to help you!