House Tour

We have really enjoyed making this house feel like our home over the last couple months.  I'm no home decor expert but I do want our home to be a welcoming and comfortable space, while still being functional and livable.  Nothing really special or Pinterest-worthy going on, but I'll share it here anyway as I document life.  Come on in and take a look if you'd like.  

Welcome!  Last summer I painted everything black (doorknobs, banisters, pantry door), and now this summer I was in the mood to paint everything teal/robins egg blue apparently.  I wanted a little color on the front door but nothing that translated "welcome to the Caribbean."  You know?

The style/look of the outside is not my favorite thing about the house, but it is freshly painted which is always a plus.

I'll try my best to capture the flow of the home with my small cell phone pictures taken from terrible angles.  (I'm throwing in some of the realtor pictures that were taken with the previous owner's stuff as they have better lighting and the nice wide-angle lens).  

There's a staircase when you walk in the front door, to the right is what we've named the "front room" and to the left is a formal dining area.  

It took me awhile to decide how I wanted to use this space.  It's a good-sized room that they used as a formal living area.

I decided a desk area would be good to help keep the kitchen counters clear of mail/clutter and that we needed more shelving since this house does not have built-ins on either side of the fireplace like our previous home.

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And I decided that I needed this chair.  I thought about having a cute child pose in it for the pic...but then I didn't want to give said child the impression that sitting in this chair is encouraged.  This chair comes with rules and is only for looking if you tend to have sticky fingers and dirty feet.    

It pairs pretty perfectly with the rocker from Reese's room (that also was painted teal over the summer).

The front room is useful for hiding some toys in large bins and allowing for toys to be out but NOT invading the family room.  That's a win-win in my book.  The front room leads into the family room.  

Realtor pics from previous owner:

If you go left at the front door, there's a formal dining area.  Right now I think it will function better for us as open space.  We need more room to run, not more room to sit.  It works perfect for our (newly painted teal) hutch!    

Cindy actually found this at an antique store near Blue Springs and helped us get it to our new place.  

I painted it with Valspar chalk paint from Lowe's.  I didn't love that process and still need to do some more sanding and waxing.  Too many steps for me!

I don't love the faux-paint of the dining room wall, but I don't dislike it enough to change it.  I do like it better with the teal furniture piece in front of it.

Realtor pic from dining room before:

Proceeding from the front room to the family room.

After purchasing some shelves and more end tables, I'm liking how it's shaping up in here.  Could probably use a coffee table, but again, I think I prefer the open space right now with the kids.  It is a little earth-tone heavy so I think we need some more pops of color...just not sure where yet. 

I do love monograms and using the letter K.  However, at one point looking from the front room to the family room you can spot up to seven letter Ks.  That might be a bit much.  

Realtor pics captured the lighting really well, much better than I did.  

They remodeled the first floor in 2013 (I think) putting in a new back splash and counter tops in the kitchen, getting rid of popcorn ceilings, and updating flooring.  There is still a strange-ish cutout wall between the family room and dining area of the kitchen, but other than that it's just the right amount of an open floor-plan.  

I tried to be very thoughtful of being functional vs. decorative so we put in a couple message center/command wall areas with places for jackets/bags/correspondence/etc. We now have three of these oil drip-pan things hanging in different places.  I love them!

The backyard has a nice deck off of the dining area with a newer sliding door that I love.  There are quite a few trees so the yard seems really private and park-like.



If you know us, then you know we aren't big yard people, but our last yard was mammoth.  We are thankful for this little yard!  We moved our play-set from the old house and I'm glad to have it much closer to the house actually.



Upstairs I did paint several rooms before we moved in.  Cade's room was yellow and I painted it gray.  It's the smallest bedroom, but if you have the loft bed, you get the small bedroom and he doesn't seem to mind.

Calendar area in the hall outside Cade's room.  No one really cares about this calendar but me.  It's part of my daily routine and it's somehow very therapeutic for me to add the date to the calendar every day. #crazyperson

Cade's room before from realtor pics.

Hall bath--was green and I painted it gray.

Reese's room is actually pretty good-sized.  It was blue (like a light 80s blue) and I painted it pale pink.  And I finally found a bedding (from Pottery Barn Teen) to match her letters that went with her crib bumper pads.

She has a neat little window seat ledge (that houses the many doll houses).

Reese's room before.

Collage in the hall.  Have to brag on Matt that he was such a trooper to hang everything up for me, despite having the busiest summer ever.  I hate being in transition and wanted things hung up right away and he was very quick to deliver!

The extra bedroom space has actually been a nice surprise.  This room is larger than I remembered it being and has caught a lot of things.  It functions as the guest bedroom, toy room, baby stuff storage area, and craft closet.

It was previously burnt orange but also became gray.

The master bedroom/bath is quite large and has easily become my favorite part of the house.

They had recently remodeled this space and added the barn doors. So cool!

Realtor pic of the bedroom before.

Kind of a left to right sweep across the bathroom.

There are times I want to just live in here.

The finished basement was a huge plus.  It is recently finished and is an open L-shape.

Matt is setting up a man cave/office space here.  He said he prefers that I not set it up for him, which is why our only unpacked boxes are still in this space.

Realtor before pic.

There's another sliding barn door to a finished storage room.

Matt and his parents built some really nice shelving in the storage room making it much more functional for us.  The pics don't do it justice, it turned out great!

That concludes the house tour.  You've pretty much seen every inch of it now!  We are loving having more space to spread out and especially some larger living areas.  We are beyond thankful for God's timing and provision in our lives with the purchase of this home.  We are thankful that God has blessed us so that we can bless others.