Hi All,

One of the reasons that my hubby and I chose this model of home to build was because we loved the open and airy feel of the entire floor plan.  In this little post, I will highlight what you see as you enter our house from the garage.  First, you pass through a mud room and as you enter the main house, you can look past the kitchen table (kitchen is to the left) and on into the family room.  We have 9′ ceilings throughout the entire house, except for the kitchen, it has a cathedral ceiling and the family room’s ceiling soars up to about 18′ (it is completely open up to the second story); the high ceilings really add to the open feeling of the whole house.

Here is the mud room as you enter from the garage:

And if you go to the doorway that leads into the kitchen’s eating area and turn around, this is what you see:

As you enter the kitchen eating area, to the right there is a little hallway with the powder room on one side and a coat closet on the other side and at the end of the hallway you enter the laundry room. You can see the hallway leading to the laundry room to the right in this picture.

I’ll talk about the powder room next.  The builder offered a pedestal sink and an oval mirror with a small light above it as their standard. We knew we wanted a little something more substantial in there as it is a pretty large powder room so after we moved in we decided to purchase a new vanity, wood framed mirror and light (from Home Depot).  Here are a couple of before and after shots for you:

 

Moving on into the kitchen’s eating area, as I mentioned above, if you stand at the mud room door and look through, you can see straight past the kitchen table into the family room. 

We purchased a new kitchen table, chairs, and hutch for this home and I wanted to make sure that the kitchen table didn’t get ruined because invariably, things ‘land’ on that table and it was just a matter of time before something sharp landed and scratched that pretty top.  So we ordered a table pad with leaves included from Affordable Table Pads. This table has 2 leaves and we were able to purchase the table pad with two removable leaves (with magnets on the edges so that the leaves stay in place when on the table).  I love it!

Here is a view from the staircase of the mud room doorway on the left, the kitchen table and the kitchen .

Next, let me tell you about the rugs that are under the kitchen table and on the family room floor. We went to a local carpet store (I’m sure that Lowe’s or Home Depot would do this sort of thing as well) and chose a piece of carpeting that we liked with a subtle pattern and neutral color and we had them cut them to a size (we provided them with the exact measurements) and they the bound the edges.  We found that this was much more cost effective than purchasing large rugs.  Admittedly, we had to choose pretty high-end carpeting because they told us that the binding holds up better on better quality carpeting, made sense to us, so we went with it.  We’ve lived in this house for 2 years now and our rugs still look brand new, I am so happy with how they turned out and the design we chose pairs beautifully with all seasons and with our decor. Here is a picture of the pattern and color we chose for the kitchen/family room rugs (the ones in the living and dining room are a slightly different color, I’ll show you those rugs when I write about those rooms):

The family room is one of my very favorite rooms in the house.  I love the open staircase, that wall of windows, and the height of the ceiling.  The gas fireplace serves as a wonderful focal point, and I have so enjoyed decorating it up as the seasons pass.

And a couple of shots from the other direction:

One of my major concerns when moving into this home was how in the world was I going to make this home look and feel warm with decor. I have worked diligently to *not* over decorate, but, instead to subtly bring Southern warmth and charm into our home with a touch of country but without the cluttered look that I felt I had at my previous home.  I’d love to change the paint color to a warmer color (nothing too wild, just like a sandpiper color or possibly a little darker), but other than that, I’m extremely happy with how things have turned out. 🙂

My hope in showing you these pictures of our home as a whole will help you to ‘see’ my crafts, groupings, and arrangements and how I’ve tried to bring them all together to create one complete decor theme.  By keeping the basic color of the furniture, rugs, flooring, and walls in more of a neutral pallet,  it lends itself to being able to accent with color or design for whatever event or season for which you are decorating.

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

**In crafting there are no mistakes just unique creations**