One Thanksgiving Table - Three Different Ways

Okay, up to this point I've done SO much gushing over the Caravan Shoppe, their prints & projects, and how much I love using their affordable, adorable ideas in my home...

Valentines // Birthday // Halloween 1 & 2 // Backdrops

that I thought it was high time for me to finally introduce all of my readers to the crazy-talented crew behind it all.

Melanie, Alma and Mike are literally the most skilled graphic designers, Photoshop pros and artists that I know. Their ability to create amazing works of art, prints and graphics in almost no time flat... amazes me. The quality of their work is always superb, and I literally have never met more genuine, happy, fun, hardworking people... maybe ever.  Melanie and Alma are two of my MOST favorite people to follow on Instagram as well. Just subscribe to their feed, and you'll quickly see why :)

Today I wanted to have the Caravan team stop by and show & tell you FIRSTHAND about their flippin' awesome Thanksgiving products, instead of me just blabbing on about them. ha! So they've come up with the genius idea of working a Thanksgiving table three different ways!

PS: Remember, that these prints take minutes to purchase, download and send to your local print store (like Staples).  Even if you see these ideas the day before Thanksgiving, all of them are still 100% doable, with no stress. Oh! And use discount code "houseofsmiths20" at checkout to get 20% off of your total purchase!

ENJOY!
.....

Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away. This week will be full of grand plans. Visions of handcrafted marzipan cornucopia centerpieces, counters full of desserts with five word names (salted caramel pumpkin chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese cinnamon frosting, anyone?) and children playing happily and peacefully with the latest Pinterest-inspired Thanksgiving day quiet time activity. It all seems so perfect. And then the week of Thanksgiving actually befalls us. The centerpiece ends up looking like a five-years-old’s first attempt at play dough. The over-the-top desserts seemed nice in theory but they all taste like a train wreck of fall flavors. And finally, the kids took five minutes to rip apart the quiet time pilgrim puppets you spent three hours cutting and gluing together.

Breathe.

Forget the over-the-top centerpiece, return to your tried-and-true pumpkin pie recipe, turn on Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving for the kids. And please, please do yourself the enormous favor of taking the easy way out while decorating your table. It'll look like you spent hours putting the party together, when in fact these table settings will come together with practically no more effort than a Mary Poppin’s snap of your fingers.

One Table, Three Ways

Perfect for:
Any informal and exuberant gathering. The illustrations and designs break the ice and bring out the kid in anyone who has ever wanted to draw all over the table. Ahem, you know, all of us. And of course, this is a shoo-in for the kids’ table.

Caravan product: Draw Together Thanksgiving Set - $8
- large black and white prints that can be used as table covering; has questions, prompts on it to encourage interaction
- placemats
- large black and white illustrations to hang on wall. This are perfect used as oversized coloring pages.
-  colorful napkin holders and place cards that can be used to hold napkins and utensils (or anything else that needs holding! Crayons! Pencils!)

What’s special:
The large black and white table covering and placemats are fun and encourage interaction and conversation. Finally, a table setting that works for adults and kids! So simple you won’t know why you’ve ever done anything else.

Accessorize with:
Print out the huge table covering ($7 per 3’ x 4’ print at Staples) OR print placemats. If using placemats, cover your table with butcher paper and tape the placemats over it with washi tape.
Make simple throw-together centerpieces out of fall colors with decorative pumpkins and gourds. Yellow napkins look lovely in the napkin holders. Make sure to have plenty of crayons and colored pencils on hand. Your guests are going to LOVE this. Remember to take pictures of all their table-drawn creations before you clean up for the night.

Cost:
Black and white posters print at $7 or less at Staples (for 3 x 4-foot). Napkin holders print in color 2/page (do on your home printer, or plan on about $1/sheet at a print shop). Placemats print at 11 x 17 in black and white at 15-50 cents each.

I Dream of Entryways + Elements that can Help your Entryway Rock

My eBay Collections were curated as part of a sponsored collaboration with eBay

Can I just say how much I love a great entryway in a home?

It's actually one of those super-important things on my list that will HAVE to be considered if we ever move into another house. No entryway - NO WAY!

Don't get me wrong, I'm still in love with our entryway makeover, and adore our little nook and all the new design elements and character this space has now...

...but ideally, I'd like to have a mudroom, in an actual MUDROOM someday, and my entryway to just have it's own identity. ha! That being said, when you live in a smaller space, but you still want the luxuries that a bigger, roomier house has to offer, then you make compromises. Between a makeshift mudroom in our entryway, or no mudroom at all?.. I choose the first option; occasional coats and backpacks on the ground and all :)

In my wildest (yet still sorta realistic dreams) I'd LOVE an entryway similar to this one below. Breathtaking large front door with plenty of windows for light to pour through, overly wide in size, spacious, airy, encased in white chunky molding, a statement light that knocks your socks off, a fab entryway table, and even a small spot to sit more than one person, so that you can invite people inside... without having to always "invite them ALL the way inside." If you know what I mean.

 AKA: Welcome to my messy living room, dirty kitchen and unmade beds down the hallway. bleeeh.

Now if we're goin' full dreamer here, my all-time, would-die-to-have home entryway, would look JUST like this...

Collecting and Pulling it All Together - Finalizing a Girly Space

My eBay Collections were curated as part of a sponsored collaboration with eBay

Deciding on molding for a room, picking a paint color or narrowing down what bedding and basic furniture is going to be in a space, all usually come pretty easily to me. I feel like I've got a good, basic grasp on what items and elements need to be incorporated to fill a room or cozy it up.

But then there comes "the staging" aspect. Also known (to me) as the:
"Don't make me decide, there are too many cute things to choose from!" point.

OR

"Oh no! I added all the decorative things I liked, but am having a hard time laying stuff out or putting it together the way I had envisioned, so now it just looks like beautiful clutter!" process. 

I've ALWAYS struggled with this. Blog or no blog, I just have a hard time editing my rooms and picking final looks for my decor. I end up going about 95% on a project, and then just sort of lose steam and motivation to figure out the rest!

I mostly blame this on my love for style mixing; meaning that I typically want to incorporate lots of different kinds of design elements into a space... sometimes TOO many. What can I say? I just really like pretty things, design, decor and change! Saying something is "finished" seems so ... final... and the creative person inside of me jumps in immediately with "But switching that out for this would be awesomer!" or "Wouldn't it be cooler like this!?". haha!

I've been working on completely finishing our 6 year old, Aubrielle's room these past few months.

Mostly we've just been narrowing down exactly what both she and I wanted in this space. Because the square footage is so small, we've truly embraced the "simple yet significant" motto, and have been carefully collecting items, mostly just from around the house, but also some from the store, that would really help make strong statements or be useful, without feeling 'cluttery'.

Some of our favorite pieces so far have been this mini plug-in chandelier for a reading light, instead of a basic lamp, paired with a pink, whimsical canopy to make her sleeping space seem a bit more 'regal', and this chippy yellow chair that holds a few of her favorite stuffed animals and dolls.

Renting Realities & Solutions when it comes to Decorating

In the past couple of years as we've been blogging about all of the projects that we do around here, I've been quite surprised to actually learn how MANY of our readers RENT, versus own, when it comes to their current homes.

We have readers that we hear from who are constantly moving (and renting homes/apartments), due to having military lifestyles, a spouse with a job that requires them to be in different states or countries for various amounts of time, or even just because they have chosen to rent their home in a perfect location/neighborhood, instead of buy or own at the moment.

In fact recently, Homes.com launched their first rental app, optimized for mobile renters so that they can find listings a lot easier. 

If you're interested in checking it out you can download it in the app store.

There are lots of different reasons people want to, or must rent their homes, but I feel like there's ALWAYS been a common denominator between all of them. Typically, from time to time, most renters get frustrated that they can't make any big, significant improvements to their spaces; such as painting walls, changing floors, switching out lighting fixtures, revamping a space, etc...

While right now I don't have to deal with those limitations, there HAVE been times. I remember this feeling all too well when I was trying to establish a "cute home" for me and my little family, when we lived in ridiculously-hot Arizona for a few months while Cason was working.

Our apartment was teeny-tiny, and we had LOTS of limitations; down to what size the holes could be in our walls... so believe me, I know ALL about feeling frustrated when it comes to not being able to decorate how you really want to. BUT, I did my best, made due with what I had, bought a few different things that worked better in this smaller space, and despite the 118 degree weather everyday (I kid you not), I was pretty happy with what I finally came up with!

And yes, this is all of our stuff, PRE style-shift. ha! It's sort of fun to look back on it all :) We've come quite a long way!

That being said, I also know a LOT more now, than I did back then about adding color, storage and personality to a space, without actually having to add paint to a room or knock down a wall.

I really liked this breakdown from Homes.com that shows homeowners and renters alike how a room typically goes together.

So as a renter, how can you go about implementing these rules into YOUR space? Well, I have some ideas :) But don't worry, these apply to EVERYONE!

Dear Master Bedroom - You're cool with Coral, Stripes and Gold...Right!?

You know that moment, when you're walking through a store, or browsing through a boutique and you turn a corner, or take a far glance past something right in front of you, and immediately see... IT.

You know. THAT THING YOU HAVE TO HAVE.

Irrational thoughts start buzzing in your brain. You instantly put a price tag on said item that is WAAAAY more than you would ever dream of paying, JUST so when you actually hear or see the amount, you can justify buying it, because it's "much lower than you had thought it would be in the first place!" ???

As you can guess, for me, 90% of the time that "thing" falls into the home decor category. The other 5% is children's clothing and the leftover 5% is baked goods. Judge me not.

Really though. If you don't know what I'm talking about, or you have already rolled your eyes, just stop reading, because you probably won't be able to relate to the rest of this post.

About a month or two ago, while shopping at The Black Goose, I was busy flipping through fabric samples, trying to decide which of them would make a possible good base for our bedrooms "grand master color design plan", when Cason popped over casually with "THE ITEM" in hand.

After a small heart attack, my famous squeal of excitement and a good jumping/clapping episode... I snatched the pillow out of his hands and was all...

random dramatic photo that works great to explain this emotion;

thanks to Aubrielle's latest works.

I was SHOCKED that he actually liked the colors/design! I would have thought it was too floraly, too bright, too bold, too coral... you name it. But nope, he liked it because it was like nothing else we had in our house. SCORE!

I was 100% set on now using this pillow as the design inspiration for our bedroom, that is, until I saw the hefty price tag. SHEESH! Who knew that fabric could cost that much!? I can't remember the exact total, but I know it started with a 1 and then there were two numbers behind it. YIKES! Even with my awesome coupon I had at the time, I was doubting this purchase.

Halloween Entryway Decor

Sorry for the delay in posting, I know I promised some more Halloween decor reveals yesterday, but well, things just got busy...

Have I ever mentioned how Fall and Spring are my all-time favorite seasons of the year? Yeah... sitting in front of a computer sometimes gets in the way of me enjoying that with my crew.

Speaking of "my people", I got busted recording this little bird yesterday, singing her heart out. Just in case you didn't catch it on our Instagram feed... see below

Man I love that girl. She's been so patient with me and Cason as we've moved from one area of the house to another, finishing up projects and trying to get everything ready for the holidays. She even helped me shoot a few of these pictures, to show all of you our Halloween entryway decorations! I use a tripod and clicker, so it wasn't too technical, but she still loved pushing the button :)

2nd & 3rd Life Furniture + A Coffee Table Restyle

By now, it's obvious that I'm a BIG fan of 2nd and 3rd life furniture, especially when it has great 'bones'. Meaning, that just because a great piece of furniture is intended or built/finished one way, doesn't mean it has to STAY that way forever. Nightstand Makeover

$12 Entryway Table Redo

CD Cabinets Turned Bathroom Countertop Storage

That being said, occasionally we also have the issue of finding the RIGHT piece of furniture or decor to finish a space, and that's where the more extensive DIY portion of what we do comes in. When we were building up our entryway nook I realized that we were never going to find storage crates the exact size we needed them to be, so out of pure necessity, we figured out how to build some!
DIY Homemade Vintage Wood Crates

The same thing happened when we started working on my office in the basement. There was limited space and I had very specific needs for all of the stuff I wanted to store, so I knew that we were going to have to repurpose and rework existing budget-friendly storage units and build up around them.

Customized Office Creative Storage Built-In

2013 Home Trends We Love - Accenting with Animals

Ready for another one of our favorite 2013 home decor trends that we love?

Good, let's do this people!

In our last post we covered those 'Out of Bounds Blues' that we were crushing on, and in the post before that; Gorgeous Gold. So don't forget to check those out too.

  

I'm super excited about today's trend, because I think it will definitely "ruffle some feathers".

:)

ACCENTING with ANIMALS!

(know that I use the word 'animal' loosely. I'm talkin' any sort of living creature that isn't human)

Guys, what do you think? Can you dig it?

Well, WE love it!

Truthfully, I think I like it more than Cason, but he definitely doesn't mind it, so I keep bringing in these interesting creatures whenever I find one that catches my eye.

I've found some fun ones at places like Target, HomeGoods, Down to Earth and Joss & Main. I've noticed that I tend to stick to animal figurines that are all one color, and cute (of course). Oh, and you'll also see me doing a happy dance when I find one of these little guys that serve more than just their sole purpose of hanging around and looking cute. Like for example, if it's a vase, watering pitcher, candlestick holder, etc...

So, without further ado, here are some different ways that we've chosen to display our newest animal accents around our home. For those of you who think this is silly (which is the best part about it for me) maybe it will lighten your feelings towards the trend and help you embrace the animalistic decorator inside of you (rawrr)... and for the others, who already love it and just need ideas on how to incorporate this fun new trend into your space, enjoy!

2013 Home Trends We Love - Out of Bounds Blues

We're back with another post about 2013 home decor trends that we love. It was pretty entertaining looking over everyone's feedback and opinions about our last topic: Gorgeous Gold, seeing if you loved it or hated it.

Mostly, I felt like the consensus was that a lot of you were willing to try a little of anything in your spaces, as long as it wasn't overkill. AWESOME! I love that attitude! Hopefully you'll feel the same about this next trend... which I think is a little easier to embrace, and also something that a lot of you might already have incorporated into your homes already.

 

Out of Bounds Blues

You may be asking yourself, what qualifies a blue as, "out of bounds"? Well, to me, it's shades of blues that don't get used quite as often as some others, that have made their way into the home decor and fashion world a little more lately.

While aqua, baby blue, navy and even turquoise have become the new norm, it's

Peacock, Mint and Aquamarine/Teal that have really caught my eye these past few months!

These vibrant, happy, unexpected blues and blue/greens are quickly becoming some of my ultimate favorites! At first I was a little weary to start adding these bolder shades into my home, because we're surrounded by lots of lighter blues and true greens, but after I took the plunge, I quickly realized how well these new shades complimented the colors that I already had!

2013 Home Trends We Love - Gorgeous Gold

This past month I've been thinking a lot about a few of the 2013 trends that we have embraced and used in our home this year. From gold accents and unique shades of blues, to bold wallpaper and funky little ceramic animals. Most things that sound a bit odd at first, but in the right settings and amounts can look really awesome with lots of different styles and in almost any space.

We already wrote about and shared a couple of trends that we love in our latest Homes.com article and it was so fun, that I thought I'd share a few more item suggestions for each of our additional favorite 2013 trends, and also examples of how we've implemented them in our own home!

 Today, we're starting with Gorgeous Gold.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5

If you haven't noticed (how could you not) I'm a bit obsessed with all things gold right now. There's just something about throwing a flash of warm metallic in a room that makes it seem classy and interesting. Isn't it funny how gold has come back around?

The fun and different thing about 2013's gold trend, is that it can vary quite a lot. You can find decor accents that are more of a brighter yellow gold... or those that are a deeper, brassier color. What this means, is that depending on your existing decor, you can definitely discover a fun table, vase, or decorative accent that works best for you.

Not all gold accents are created equal, in shade, quality or finish - so, to each their own!

PS Target... I love you

Do you sometimes have those days, when you think to yourself...

"Self, today sucks... let's go wander around Target,

looking at pretty things till we start feeling better."

What? YOU don't? Weird.

Target is like my therapy.

I'm pretty sure there's something mysterious in the air that makes you lose track of time, your worries (and your budget). Their popcorn is DEFINITELY laced with something dangerously addicting, and don't even get me started on their in-store Starbucks drink offerings.

Talk about a diet downfall

:(

That being said, even if I manage to resist that salty corn popped goodness, and overly sweet scrumptious cup o' yum... I still seem to spend way too much on things I don't need, but reaaaaally want. Can I get an AMEN!?

So... I'm sure you can imagine my utter shock, surprise and excitement, when I stumble upon end caps like these every once in a while... 

Eeeeeee!!!

I don't know about you, but shiny, pretty things with a 70% off sign in front of them, sure turns my "not-so-great-day" into a SUPER one. After a little jumping up and down, furious hand clapping and squealing... I started piling things into my cart.

I can't quite recall the exact phrase that my 7 year old muttered out from under her breath to her twin sister, but I think it was something to the effect of... "Mom is so crazy about decorating stuff, why is she making that noise?"

To be honest, I think I was more excited about this clearance pile because it had a lot of things that I had been wanting for a while, but just couldn't justify paying full price for.

See below:

Gold Wallpaper & Thoughts on Decorating with a Spouse

I promised I'd be back with a wallpaper reveal, and even though I just snapped these pictures really quick, and they're not the greatest, I still wanted to show you how our funky little accent wall turned out in the basement!

We ordered our wallpaper from Hygge & West. I literally just googled "Gold Wallpaper" and a few images popped up. I followed a couple of links, and about 4 or 5 in I found this little nugget.

I fell in love at first sight, and knew this bold pattern had to make its way into my basement.

Let me stop here and say... this stuff is expensive yo! I prodded around the internet looking for a coupon and finally found one that wasn't expired. I think I got 25% off of my order and free shipping, but still... I definitely had sticker shock when I realized how much wallpaper (in general) really is!  So, that being said, you can only imagine that the two rolls I DID purchase, were definitely being put up by a professional. 

We used Rick, who was referred to us by a designer friend, and he did an AMAZING job. Just glancing at his tools alone, was worth the fee of him coming out to put this gorgeous wallpaper up for us. I'm here to tell ya, Wallpaper'n ain't no joke! There's some serious science behind applying that them there patterned paper (especially the kind that isn't pre-pasted)! There was NO way that we could have done this project on our own. I would have been in a corner, curled in a ball, rocking myself back and forth if I would have tried.

As you can see, it's a little crazy, a lot different... and we LOVE it!

We've already gotten mixed reviews about it from friends and family. Some adore it, and some secretly hate it, saying things like... "Ohhh, that's... nice" or "I'm glad you like it!" haha! But one things for sure, it's a conversation starter!

:)

While we're in the zone of un-staged, not-so-well-lit pictures, I wanted to share our little bookshelf at the bottom of the stairs too! We purchased it from Joss & Main, and we're dedicating this spot to all of our family's memories. Project Life albums, Smash Books, bins of printed Instagram photos... whatever it may be. At Cason's request, we're pulling out all of our memories from the computer and our phones, and we're stashing them in one place so that we can have them readily available to enjoy.

Oh! Also, I wanted to address a comment we got on our last basement update post.

It was this one here:

Project Basement Makeover - Design Plan + Furniture Reveal & Advice

Peacock blue, coral, gold and floral... OH MY!

We've got  a bunch of our basement furniture all settled in and we're jumping for joy!

Before I show you anything more, I have to stop at "the sketch". If you've been reading along on our blog for a while now, then you know that before we start ANYTHING... we always start with a sketch. Cason drafted this one up, when we finally realized that we had saved enough money to start getting serious about making furniture purchases for this space.

While most of this concept stayed in tact, we still wanted a professional designer to draft up an exact idea of what we could feasibly fit into our space. Our goal was to get the MOST seating possible, without crowding the space or making it look too heavy. Even though we have small children now, we're making plans for preteens, that we know will want to invade our space later on.

:)

Like I mentioned in our last post, we used The Black Goose Design to help us with this. When Brooke and Emily came out the first time, to measure for our kitchen nook makeover, they also popped downstairs to gather a few numbers for our basement space as well. Since they already had the measurements on hand, they did a quick sketch of their own, including our ideas, of what they thought would be great for our basement space.

For those who asked before, designers from The Black Goose Design CAN help anyone in their retail store free of charge. You can bring photos of your space and they can help offer some general design tips and ideas, just for YOU! Then, if it turns out you need more help and live here locally in Utah, they're happy to come out to your home for a small fee. They will measure, give you more furniture position suggestions and even show you how to work with what you already have.

(pricing can vary by where you live and what you need help with)

Once we had all our measurements nailed down, it was time to pick out the fun fabrics, colors and decor I wanted to add. You can read about our design process in the last post, but here's how it all turned out with everything gathered together!!!

Who knew that those faux animal print ottomans Cason wanted so badly, would really work totally awesome in here? They're that perfect mix of eclectic and funky all at once! These ran about $300 each, because we opted for a larger, sturdier cube design, so that children and adults alike could sit on them. Plus, I loved the option to be able to choose form over 100 different fabric... yes, faux animal print being one of them. LOL

And the rug?... ***swoon*** It's perfect!

I was initially going to go with a coral color, but Brooke suggested this deep peacock blue, and I'm so happy with it! It definitely anchors the space and adds lots of movement. I know a bunch of you have expressed the concern with putting rugs on top of carpet; WHY?