Birds of a Feather...

I think peacocks are a beautiful bird. I had the pleasure of seeing a peacock in person while on vacation in Hawaii. The bird is so royal with their colors of green, blue and gold!

I've decided to use a peacock palette to decorate my dining room. I had so much fun finding items to go along with my room at my favorite store, HomeGoods. I also found a few items at Pier One too. Here are a few pics of my finds:

Peacock Feathers, Cynthia Rowley Gold Vase, blue/green glass sculpture, and Broyhill silver serving tray from HomeGoods.

Peacock inspired plate/patter made in Turkey from HomeGoods.

Abstract Peacock painting from HomeGoods.

Jasmine scented candles from Pier One.

Lamps, silver Domaine peacock statue, and peacock picture from HomeGoods. Feather lampshade decorations from Pier One.

Ottoman from HomeGoods.

Closeup of feather lamp shade decorations found at Pier One.

I'm most excited to have my talented friend, Alexis, upholster my chairs. I took a trip to South Philly (Philadelphia's version of NYC's fabric district) and came across a beautiful chenille fabric that I will use on the back of my chairs. I will accent  the back of the chair with silver nail heads as well.

Fabric for dining room chairs.

Here is a sample of what I plan to do with my dining room chair with the fabric and the nail heads.  The only differnce is my chair is not curved like this one, it has a square back.

 

 I can't wait to get this project going, it will transform my furniture and give a custom look to the room. I'm looking to do an accent wall with wallpaper. I have not found the wall paper yet, but I will keep you posted. I'm thinking of something silver and maybe with a light geometric print.  The painted walls will be a misty, silvery grey. We will also add crown molding and I'm playing around with having raised panels to this room as well. But as the project unfolds, I will keep you all updated.

Besides decor, we finally added some molding and trim to the house.

Crown Molding added to the two story foyer and boxed wall trim work added.

We also had the ceiling painted a bright white in the hallway.

Right now we're not able to paint because it was suggested to hold off on painting until we have our floors replaced.  So once our walls are not that ugly flat white, the trim on the wall will pop. My idea is to place mirroring art images in these spaces and to contrast the inside of the square with a darker paint color.  I think we'll be using some type of beige or neutral tan on the walls and maybe a darker darker grey inside the box. I'm also going to have a cornice made by my friend Alexis for the foyer window. My idea for the window treatment will look similar to this one:

 

Fabric swatch of what I'm thinking of using for the foyer window treatment.

We'er also getting a quote to get the basement finished too.  I think both the painting project and the basement may be culminated by the spring.

Here are some more pictures:

Zgallerie linear chandelier that I plan to purchase for the dining room.

Lamp I purchased at Pier One for our master bedroom.

Up close pic of  the lampshade decorations found at Pier One. This is the floor lamp in my daughter's room.

 



Example of Alexis' work making cornices

Floors Update

Thanks everyone for all your comments and suggestions too. I spoke to Advanced Flooring the sub-contractor Ryan works with and this is what they told me:

1. They will be replacing the carpet in my daughter's room.
2. They will be replacing all the hardwoods.
3. They are waiting on an outside contractor/inspector to examine the issue with the creaking.
4. As for the other floor issues, they're going to need to pull up the carpet again and investigate. They will also assess the carpet to see if that too will need to be replaced.
Finally,   they're not sure if its the material, the sub-floor or the installation as it relates to the hardwoods. I only wished that if it's not the material that we could save some of the hardwoods so that I could use that to finish my family room and not to kill anymore trees (yes, I'm such a humanitarian...lol).

So, either way, it looks like my creaking floors will greet all my guests for Thanksgiving next week. There is good and bad to that, as my SIL stated, now I don't have to worry about folks messing up my new floors.

Happy building and decorating!

Nursery Unveil!

Finally, here are pictures from my daughter's nursery.

Dresser and Changing Table.

I love Etsy!  Nothing like a personalized clock.

Am I setting myself up?  This sign was a great $3 find at Ross. This is on the front of her bedroom door.

HomeGoods door hanger. Every baby needs a robe, right?

Our reading corner.

Toy chest.

Another Ross find!

Target changing table, a closer view.

HomeGoods Poodle Nightlight.

This fun little storage box will hold more books!

Paris stand from Marshall's and pearls a gift from my sister to my daughter.  Mirror from HomeGoods!

Another Etsy item!

Gallery wall.

Target glider. It has a matching ottoman in the same color. It's extra comfy!

Ceramic Eiffel Tower piggy bank.

Do you hear, what I hear?

So  awhile back I said that during our 10 month inspection it has been concluded that our hardwoods would need to be replaced based on creaky floors.  Well, here it is mid November and guess what? The floor has not been replaced and now I have sunken floors under my carpet too. Can you say that I'm feeling a little pissed right now!

I think we've been more than patient and now I'm starting to lose my coolness.  The truth is I had a contractor come and look at my floors and he said that the flooring is quality--otherwise, it's good stuff, but that the sub floor that Ryan Homes uses is CRAP. He also stated that just about everyone in our community (or those of us that bought Ryan homes) will have a flooring issue because the sub floor is made of OSB (I don't know what that is), which according to the contractor is more like a "floating" material where floors are not able to be full nailed down to, hence the creaks. How many of you have creaky floors--let me know, and sound off here!

In other news,  I will keep you all posted on what is going on but let's hope that this situation gets remedied fast or as R. Kelley said, "I may catch a case."

Happy building and decorating...