Shopping at your own house.

I had the best week hanging out with Hallie.  We had been dreaming of cranking out all these crafts while we were together....being all prepared with materials ahead of time, produce cute shoes, barrettes for Nora, shirts for us...okay, none of that happened. 

But...even better, we spent a lot of time during the week shopping around in her own house and changing around most of her downstairs.  She mentioned that she wanted some help with bookshelves...well, once she asked that, the floodgates opened.  Furniture started moving, books started flying, treasured items poured out of the woodwork, and we had an absolute blast.  I couldn't have imagined anything more fun, really.  They have so many meaningful pieces that they have collected in their travels or that have been passed down through the families, and it was so fun to learn about so many of the pieces and then seek a prominent and perfect place to display it.


Living Room Before...

Living Room After:

We moved the two matching chairs into the family room for additional seating in there.  We thought more chairs would be needed for the living room, but we really ended up liking it as is.  The upholstered chair was a treasure that she found when we were antiquing in Columbus, and it was fun to place it in a more prominent spot.  We broke down the books into fiction/non-fiction, and then arranged them on the beautiful bookshelves that Randy built for them.

They had such cool pieces, we tried to display them on the bookshelves wherever we could.

I adore the stirrups that David picked up in Korea.  

And the elephants....oh, adorable elephants, I love thee.

I love this piece of Hallie's.  It was in this corner, and we just added some interesting candlesticks, a beautiful piece of art, and my favorite...her collection of unique rocks in a pedestal bowl she found on one of our shopping trips in Columbus.

I am envious of Hallie's green thumb.  She has found a spot with perfect light for all her little guys.  She found this great farm table in Columbus as well.  We put her leather stools under the table for additional seating when needed. 

 pretty lady...

her great gardening books...

love this little guy...

Kitchen - before:

 Kitchen - after:

Hallie plans to hang these stunning copper pots above the other set of cabinets....gorgeous!

In the kitchen, we really just found new homes for most of the glassware - see dining room pics - and cleaned stuff off the counter tops by making room in drawers.  Again, they have such pretty pieces it was fun to pick some out to be displayed on top of the cabinets.

Look at this beauty that Hallie's family picked up while living in Holland.  I would drink tea everyday if I had this!

These glasses, from Hallie's childhood, had been on top of the cabinet with all the other glassware/serving pieces.  They were only brought out for serving ginger ale when the girls were sick.  Those sweet glasses would definitely make me feel better...

Hallie did a masterful job cleaning off the counter tops to utilize drawer space for all her utensils.  Thanks to inspiration from Krissy, we picked up these bottles for olive oil and balsamic.  Everything is more fun to use when it looks pretty, don't you agree?

Dining Room - before:

Dining Room - after:

Hallie wanted a place to put all the glassware that resided on top of the kitchen cabinets.  We stole a bookshelf from upstairs and after Hallie's TLC and mounting brackets, it looks great and isn't going anywhere!!  I loved Hallie's idea to keep all the silver on a low shelf so her daughter could play with all their baby cups.  Genius.

Family Room - before:

Family Room - after:

These pieces were serving as nightstands in the master bedroom.  They are pretty tall next to their bed, so Hallie had mentioned wanting to get different bedside tables.  She put together a beautiful frame arrangement on this wall, and the tall pieces were PERFECT to compliment the frames and serve as an area to display more of their pretty pieces.

We added one of these pictures and the plant to the corner to pull it all together...You can see this corner at the back of the house when you come through the front door, and you can't go wrong with the greenery!

One of my very favorite pieces of Hallie's is this Vegas table.  Before it was tucked in the corner of the living room, so we were so happy to find this new home for it where it is prominently displayed!  She has also been on the hunt for a new rug.  She had this smaller rug by the back door, so to add some color to the main living area, we just layered the rugs for now.  It gives a nice pop of color.

I think this bookshelf is what started the whole week of house projects.  Hallie wanted some help with bookshelves, and that led us to go crazy with a plethora of changes.  What a blast...I am so honored that Hallie let me help her in this undertaking.

This is a little nook off the family room that leads to the Master bedroom.  Her daughter's toys had been in a clear Rubbermaid in the family room, so we organized the bookshelf to allow for space for these inexpensive crates from Target.  They assumed the role of holding toys in a disguised fashion. 

For one final project, we reorganized the office a bit.

Office - before (Hallie had already hung the two pics before we started organizing) -

I mean, if I could just figure out how to come up with wireless EVERYTHING, I would be a billionaire.  Do all the cords associated to computers and all our wonderful tech gadgets not drive you crazy?  (there will be another post about this soon)  We tried our best to wrangle the cords and get them more out of the way since they are a big attraction for 9 month olds!  We then re-arranged the small shelf so that the contents are out of sight unless you are at the desk.  We found some fun things to put on the shelves and called it a day!

Hallie - thanks for the best week.  Paddy and I can't wait to hang out again.  I can't wait for you to be my master art installer when we move :)