Category: our home

Our Home in Lights.

~ emetroka ~ Leave a comment

If you’ve been following along on Instagram with our home renovations – you know that the ceilings have been a top priority. And ok yes, also the fireplace and taking down the wallpaper and, and and. But mostly the ceilings. We lived for years with our popcorn ceilings and lights that I hated in our previous home. When we finally got up the motivation to have the work done, I realized that they should have been our top priority to begin with. The ceilings you live with make such a gigantic difference in the feel of your home. So in our new home, they’ve been the first thing on the list. We removed popcorn ceilings before we even moved in (the dust it creates is – phew!!), the ceiling fans came next, and finally we decided we should just go for it and replaced the rest of the lights while we had someone coming to work on the house anyway. And let me tell you – I am so happy we did it. Our ceilings make me so happy now! So if you too are on the hunt for some new lights for your home – I’m here to share our picks. Maybe you’re ready to replace those boob lights that have been haunting your dreams?? I don’t know about you, but once I knew their nickname, I couldn’t bring myself to look at them for another moment.

  1. My favorite affordable Schoolhouse Light. We installed these in our old kitchen and entry and I’m just gonna say that you can’t go wrong with this classic. We installed them in the entry in this house and I love them so much. I also really love this one if you had a small hallway that you’re looking for. If you’re on the hunt for hallways – we installed these small ($10!!) acorn lights in our last house and I loved them too.
  2. Our beloved ceiling fans. The only fan I would put on a ceiling. We live in south Florida and neeeeeeeeed fans in our house. These blend into the ceiling and aren’t at all an eye sore. They pack a powerful breeze too!
  3. A ruffled pendant for over the sink. Just vintage style and cute.
  4. Flush Mount lights for over the island. These are right next to our rather eye catching table fixture. I wanted something to tie in with the pendant and the dining table light. I felt like these worked without being distracting. I didn’t want too many things hanging down from the cetiling and having flush mount lights over the island really opens up the space.
  5. A double light sconce for over our dresser. The only light that I really splurged on. I wanted something special for this little nook in between our bathroom and closet. This one is perrrrrfect. I thought that three lights would feel too much like a bathroom, and one light sconce wouldn’t fill the space right. I’m glad that I spent a little extra on something I felt was really perfect.
  6. Finally – our dining table light. I saw this on display at Home Depot and I was immediately like “YES” that’s the one. And then I chose the other kitchen lights to tie in with this one because I love it so much. It just fits the style of our new home, and I think it looks so pretty without being too MUCH for our open floor plan. I love the classic black chandelier that we put into our old house, but I just think this one goes a little better in this home.

There you have it! Our home in lights!

A Sweet Little Side Table Before & After.

~ emetroka ~ Leave a comment

I have a problem. It’s not life threatening or anything, but it’s a problem all the same. You see…I really love furniture. And we happen to live in a spot where people put furniture out on the curb all the time. For free. I call it Picking Day. Other people call it Trash Day. Every Monday in our neighborhood is Bulk Trash day. You can literally put anything out on the curb that you don’t want. And sometimes I get very lucky and find myself in the right spot at the right time and someone else’s trash finds it into the trunk of my minivan. This is only a problem in that we do already have a house with furniture so I often find myself shifting things around, making work for myself that I don’t NEED to do. It’s a problem, but perhaps I should call it a hobby.

I can’t even tell you how many things I’ve picked up on picking day. I’ve outfitted our house with these finds. But sometimes they need a little help. And that’s when my little hand sander comes in. Honestly though…Every time I sand something I say I’ll never do it again. It’s the actual worst. But I’ll also say that I never regret it once it’s done.

I did share about this on Instagram a few weeks ago, but thought I would save it here for future reference. Am I the only one who finds it terribly difficult to find something on instagram if I forget to take a screenshot in the moment?? I can’t be. Much easier to look at a website for future reference!

  • Sand with 80 grit sandpaper followed by 120 and 220 to smooth using a detail sander or a random orbital sander. I used my detail sander for this one with its straight lines but for a larger piece I would probably recommend an orbital. An orbital sander just has more power than the detail sander.
  • You may have to get in the curves, nooks and crannies a bit by hand. Keep going until you’re happy with the color and finish. Mine had these dark lines where the previous stain had seeped in very deeply. I just kept sanding until they were gone.
  • At this point you could apply a new stain in a different color. I liked mine as it was, so I next just finished it with clear matte polycrylic applied with a sponge brush. Matte means it won’t have a shine when it dries.

A note because there may be questions: I have tried the oven cleaner method on a couple things and it does work in taking off stain, BUT I feel that it damages the wood. It seems to sort of shred the wood finish while taking the stain out. Just stresses me out for my poor wood pieces. Not to mention all chemicals in oven cleaner. I prefer sanding because it freshens up the look while making it like new again. However, if you have a piece of furniture with lots of nooks and crannies – oven cleaner may be a good place to start for you. Curves and corners are notoriously difficult to sand! There’s also always citri-strip! You might have great results with that too! But for me – I have ended up having to sand even with other stripping methods. So you may have to do a combination of things if you have an orange-y gal laying around like me that could use an update!

Hope those tips and the process are helpful in case you’re not sure how to update your wood pieces!

A Summer Bed Makeover with Garnet Hill.

~ emetroka ~ Leave a comment

I’m about to turn in for the night, and since making the bed up with our new bedding gifted from Garnet Hill, I can’t help but pinch myself that this bed even exists in my house. Listen though, a cozy bed does not have to be expensive. Most of our bedding has been from target, Walmart or thrifted and it’s served us beautifully through years of wear. But if you’re looking to invest a little bit in your bedding, this stuff is quality. And it has the look I love for our house – modern cottage through and through. I just thought it might be helpful to have the links to these pieces all in one spot for future reference! And I love all of these picture so much I needed them to be here forever.

Let’s start with the heirloom quality Agnes quilt. Ours is in oatmeal but they have other colors too! I’m desperate for the blue for the boys’ room now that I’ve seen it in person.

Ok you guys, this Blissful Silk Quilt. It is such a dream. Silk on top, cotton on bottom. The visible stitching keeps this from feeling too fancy fancy. I think if I had to pick just one thing, it would be this.

The bengal stripe linen duvet cover and the broad stripe sheets in oatmeal are timeless classics that are going to be in our house until they get holes.

The French stripe lumbar pillows in slate blue are so cute, adding a little bit of contrast to this neutral bed. And lastly, the chunky knit throw has already moved to our corner chair, but it adds the perfect bit of cozy fluff to this bed moment.

It’s all come together to be such a sweet spot in our home! I hung up some thrifted hats to replace our kind of winter-y red wreath that was up before and now it feels like summer in here. ♥️