In the boudoir.

Alright, so we moved into our house just over a year ago now and I am embarrassed to admit that we still had not even unpacked the spare bedroom. It was basically just used as a glorified "storage room" where we would toss random things that didn't have specific homes and it didn't take long before it started spiraling out of control into one big mess. However, a week ago we decided that enough is enough and we finally got our act together and cleaned it out! I did a mini makeover of the room, and it's not nearly done yet, but here is a little sneak peek of how it's coming along:

 

We found a vintage wrought iron bed frame on Kijiji and I immediately fell in love with this coral and grey striped bedding from Target the second I laid eyes on it, so we are basing the decor of the room around those things. We gave a few feature walls a coat of mint-colored paint that I think really accentuates the color of the bedding.  The room isn't quite done yet, so I will be sharing some more photos later on, but for now here are a few inspiration photos that I have been liking:

What an incredible headboard, I have never seen anything quite like that! I'm also a huge fan of the bedside greenery.

Yes! Bold pops of coral! Cute idea to have the color of the bedspread carry out onto the wall art too.

I'm really loving this cozy New York loft space, especially the warm lighting clustered in the corner. I am thinking about how I can incorporate something similar into my spare bedroom.

Why is everything better with exposed brick? I am also really into the mint accent color. (Who's surprised?)

More photos to come! 

Xo, Stef

The New York Times, baby.

Last week we got on email with the subject: "Hello from The New York Times" and we almost didn't open it, we just assumed that it was junk mail. Luckily for us, we did open it and were pretty shocked when we realized what it meant. They found our blog while researching Wes Anderson-themed parties/weddings/decor because of this post on "how to throw a Wes Anderson themed party" and then they went through our blog and found photos of our homes and wanted to include them in todays' paper! We did a slightly terrifying phone interview and are thrilled with the end result!

The article is an homage to Wes Anderson, and our focus was on the decor of our homes! We are so honoured to be featured, and quite frankly are in shock!

Pick up a copy and check out the home section, or you can read the article online here. Make sure you scroll through the slideshow to see all of the photos.

XO, Erin & Stef

Erin's kitchen tour.

I spent the entire morning cleaning my kitchen and figured why not finally share a little peek into my home with you guys? I rent the second floor of an old home, and I spend the majority of my time in my kitchen. It's quite spacious, but there are lots of things I would change if I could. Just warning you, it is definitely my most colorful room in my home, and it's rather busy, but I love it and hope that you do too! There's a lot to look at and I have a very obvious weakness for dishes: glasses, mugs, plates, bowls, etc. You get the picture...

My busiest corner in the house!

Where all the magic happens.

I've been collecting all sorts of kitschy vintage knick knacks for as long as I can remember, but I've reached the point of slowly changing it up and parting with things. 

A peek into my semi-insane-o cupboards. How many cups and mugs are too many?

So that's it folks! Have a happy holiday Monday!

xo, Erin

Life lately.

 

Last week Erin shared what was going on lately in her life so I thought I should give you guys an update on what's been going on in mine. Basically as soon as the temperatures dropped here I have been in full-force nesting mode. It's crazy to think that we have already been at our new house for six months; that's half a YEAR already! Whoa whoa. Since we moved in at the beginning of summer, there were lots of decorating jobs and projects that got pushed to the wayside because I just wanted to enjoy as much time outdoors as possible and save those jobs for the long cold winter months. So now that those months are upon me it is time to get myself into high gear and get that stuff done! Here is a peek at some of the jobs (and other things) I have been tackling around the house lately:

It's a tad hard to tell in this photo I snapped for Instagram, but a few months ago I painted my hallway in my front entrance a pale minty pistachio color. I absolutely love it and recommend it for those of you looking for a pretty muted paint tone, it's called "Artichoke Heart" by Martha Stewart. I also finally got around to un-packing boxes of old photo albums, so I decided to hang up a little collage of a few of my favorites photos. I hung a big portrait of my grandmother, a Polaroid of my parents when they first started dating, some old photobooth pictures of Emery and I, and my favorite photo from our wedding day. It's a warm personal touch when you enter our home.

Another new addition to our entrance way is this gorgeous southwestern rug that my parents brought back for me from Arizona! Since most of my walls are either white or a pale tone, I wanted a nice pop of print and color for when you walk in, and this rug is everything that I wanted and more! They also picked up a smaller one for me to use as a wall hanging that I plan on hanging above my staircase.

 I was always sort of notorious for constantly arranging and re-arranging furniture at my old house and this house is no exception. However, in my defense, I had to move a few things around to make room for my Christmas tree, but I am actually really liking my bullet planter in this corner of my living room. 

 I also recently bought this print on Etsy and I totally love it! Found the perfect spot for it in a little minty nook in my bathroom. (Print for sale here)

 Many hot beverages have been consumed and plenty of time has been spent in my new kitchen. I have also been making excellent use of my gas cooktop, in fact I think it may be my favorite part of my kitchen.

 This past weekend I also had the privilege of meeting my new little nephew, Nash! My sister-in-law gave birth last week and and we all got together for a family lunch and to say hello to the newest addition to the family! He really is quite scrumptious.

There's nothing quite like a warm clean house, a glass of red wine, and old vinyl spinning on the record player on a cold December evening.

Oh yeah, I have also spent lots of time in bed sleeping. I don't know about you guys, but this cold weather sure makes me want to spend as much time under a blanket as possible...

XO, Stef

Christmas in the Thiessen home.

It feels like it was mere weeks ago that I did a post about Christmas in my home! That said, a lot has happened in the past year, but there hasn't been a lot of change when it comes to my Christmas decor.

 I put up my sad charlie brown aluminum tree, filled my terrarium with greenery and berries, and bought a bunch of balsam fir scented candles.

You can't set up your Christmas decorations without a giant mug of hot chocolate with a few too many marshmallows.

The mantle on my fireplace is the most festive looking corner in my house, with a new addition of Ikea star lights and Danish candle holders.

This photo was taken while decorating the shop, but I thought I'd throw it in for good measure.

Festive pretzels and nutella? Great combo.

I got some new bar ware as an early Christmas present and I love how the gold looks in my living room.

Sugar cookies galore!

More gold and greens around my home. 

Happy Holidays everybody! I hope you enjoy the last frantic few days before Christmas!

Xo, Erin

Home is where the...

I have spent the summer settling into our new home which basically consisted of a lot of re-organizing displays and trying to find the proper new home for all of my furniture and knick-knacks. It takes time to figure out exactly how you want to set up your new place, but I'm really starting to feel settled in. I would like to add a bit more color and art to the walls still, but all in all I'm very pleased with the progress. I will be sharing more in-depth room tours and before & after photos in the future once things are more complete, but in the mean time here are some peeks at displays and cozy corners around my new home.

Pyrex and enamelware display on my teak hutch in the dining room.

My vintage turquoise couch & chair set is still my favorite.

I'm still trying to find homes for all of my prints. This peachy one is currently hanging in the office.

So much pyrex, so little time.

Here is a little peek at our kitchen: this renovation was where the majority of our time was spent. My talented husband, Emery, literally tore out the entire old kitchen and built this new one from the ground up. This is my favorite room in the whole house and I absolutely looove how it turned out! More to come on that process later though... 

Words of wisdom hanging in my mint bathroom.

 My big shelving unit found a new home in my office. In my old place I had this unit in the living room but our new living room has a fire place so I moved this baby upstairs! 

We needed a bench for putting on our shoes in the entrance so Emery built this from leftover wood from our kitchen shelves! So good.

That's all for now! I hope that now that fall is here I will have more motivation to finish up the rest of the house! Until then...

XO, Stef

Backyard birthday.

This past weekend we celebrated Emery's birthday by having some of our close friends come over for a party in our (newly re-done) backyard. When we bought our new house it was winter and there was still at least three feet of snow on the ground so we didn't know what to expect as far as landscaping and yard condition... and unfortunately there wasn't too much going on. A lot of patchy grass and weeds was basically what our backyard consisted of. Sort of a bummer, but hey, that just gave us total freedom to create whatever type of patio, deck, or entertaining area we wanted! We decided that the best remedy for patchy ugly grass was to build a big deck (obviously we could have also re-seeded it too, but there are just so many big trees in our area that it makes lush green grass very tricky to maintain, besides Emery is a total sucker for a building project.) So we spent the previous few weeks planning and building in hopes that maybe, just maaaaybe, we would have the backyard up to par by Emery's birthday weekend. Sometimes it just helps to have a deadline, even if it seems slightly unattainable, ya know?

Well guys, low and behold, we actually pulled it off! The backyard looks so much better and is actually so much more functional for entertaining now! I am so excited that we were able to get this done in time to still be able to enjoy spending some warm summer days out here. We had our first party this weekend and we dusted off our old film camera to document the occasion. We listened to music, ate cheese, drank wine and hung out with close friends on a gorgeous August summer evening.

(Psst... Emery also got pretty much the best birthday present ever: we got a hot tub! So we also did some late night hot tubbing as well.)

 

 

  

 

 

  

   

 

 For some reason this ends up happening at all of Emery's birthdays, ha. 

All in all it was an amazing night. A big thanks to all of our lovely friends for celebrating with us. You guys are the best.

 XO, Stef