Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Bedroom updates

Last year I finally talked my husband into upgrading to a king size bed and I wish we would have done it YEARS ago.  I knew I wanted a neutral upholstered headboard, so I started shopping around online and found one at Wayfair that I fell in love with.  The reviews raved that for the price, the quality was amazing, and they weren't wrong!

Upholstered Bed and Frame:  Wayfair  Similar: Wayfair (headboard only)

Here's what our poor room looked like before.  My husband's bed from childhood, the blah brown bedding.  The God awful brown and yellowish flower painting.  I was beyond ready to amp up the look of this room.

I love greek key, I love velvet, I love white! I LOVE how this room turned out.  It's so tranquil.  What's really funny is that my mom has a bizarre love affair with anything blue and white.  From clothing to accessories to home decor....to even clothing she buys for my child. He owns more navy shirts than any kid on the planet.  I kid her about it all the time so she was pretty shocked when I decided to go down the navy and white route with this reno.  

I love the lines of the bed.  Wayfair has a huge selection of upholstered headboards and beds, but I narrowed it down to this more contemporary shape without a nailhead trim or curved camelback shape.  It just seems to fit the space perfectly.  

I'll try to get a better picture of the full bed later, but I use a white quilt and a rolled duvet at the foot of the bed.

Agean Key Velvet Pillow: Wayfair; Blue Greek Key Lumbar: Marshalls (Elements by Erin Gates)
White Shams and Duvet: Hotel Collection from Home Goods
Velvet Euro Shams: Amazon


Blue ginger jar: TJMaxx
This room is still a work in progress, but I've been so happy with the bed and the bedding.  Who knew I would have such a love of navy and white?  Like most everything about me....I get it from my mama! 

Happy Tuesday! 
~Katie

Monday, March 26, 2018

Beckett's Star Wars Room

Beckett has never liked that his bedroom was on the bottom floor.  We moved his room downstairs from the third floor to the first floor when he was a toddler just because it seemed safer.  Unfortunately, the bottom floor is more isolated.  He felt that he was too far away and one day asked me if he could move is room to the top floor.  I gave him a deadline of a month.  If he could sleep upstairs in what my family calls "the princess room" (because it's so frilly and girly) for one whole month, I would agree to swap the rooms.  So, he found himself a calendar and a pen and marked off every day until a month had passed.  Then I had to break the bad news to my husband and my brother that they would be moving all the furniture in the guest room down 2 flights of stairs, and all the furniture from B's room, up 2 flights of stairs.  The 3 of us got a ton of exercise that Saturday and managed to move everything.  I only wished I'd done it sooner!  
Here is the tranquil, serene room that once was our guest room. 

Bed: Big Lots, but you can find it HERE; Mirrors: Kirklands; Bedding: Potterybarn Kids
Star Wars Artwork: Hobby Lobby;
Star Wars, Star Wars Everywhere 
These "Bs" were picked up at an assortment of places like Hobby Lobby,
Michael's, Ross, and Target 
Beckett loves his "B" Wall.  The lower black "B" is from his wall in his nursery and I just started accumulating them and thought a "B" gallery wall would be fun! He loves when I come home with a new one to add to the collection.  Plus...it's pretty fitting since we call him "B" most the time.  
Book ends: Target

Letterboard: Amazon

Desk Chair: Strobler Home Furnishings, Columbia, SC
Globe: Vintage; Desk: Vintage vanity
Stripe curtains: Amazon
Beckett kept asking for a desk.  His desk is actually an antique vanity I had inherited from my granparents.  It was already in the corner of the guest room, so with the removal of a few screws, it's now a desk that fit PERFECTLY in the space between the bed and the wall.  The globe was also from my grandparents house and I remember my Pa pointing out locations to us when I was little. 

Planet Mobile: Potterybarn Kids

Happy Monday!
May the force be with you,

~Katie

Letterboard Love

These letterboards have been a big thing for a while....I'm just joining the party late.  I bought one for Beckett's room, but thought it might be nice to have one for the kitchen so I could display some of my motivational quotes for myself.  


This 12x12" white felt and white frame letterboard came from Hobby Lobby, but you can get a similar 12x15" one here

~Katie

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Lounge Area

This area at the top of the stairs has changed more times than I can count.  I've had plants, stools, tables of all sorts and accent chairs in this space.  The brown storage ottoman is one of two in our living room that hides toys (basically just a vessel for light sabers and every Nerf gun manufactured), so I decided to move it upstairs and I think it looks so much better in this little nook at the top of the stairs.  I originally bought the round wooden mirror to replace the mirror in Beckett's bathroom, but it was just too small.



I've had the iron side table for a while, which came from Ross.  The velvet pillow is Elements by Erin Gates.  I'm obsessed over her line of pillows, rugs, lamps and candles.  The pillows are luxurious, down filled and absolutely beautiful!  You can find them at Wayfair.com and sometimes at Marshalls and Home Goods.  

I'm sure this isn't the last time I'll switch up this space, but for now it's a fresh look I can be content with for a while.  
~Katie

Monday, March 19, 2018

Real Life




I'm sitting in Beckett's room while he watches Home Alone for the 125th time since Christmas....it's March 14th.  His room is a disaster.  I have a list a mile long of things I need to be doing right now, but he's getting to an age where he likes to hang out in his room or play video games.  So....I take what I can get.  At least while he's in hysterics while Kevin McAlister throws paint buckets at robbers heads, I can laugh along with him between paragraphs.
Why am I telling you this?  Part of the reason is that on the 13 Acres Instagram page I posted pics of his room that I labored over for days, after taking each picture, fluffed pillows a little more and straightened a crooked letter on the B wall.  I'm telling you this because I look at the pictures I labored over, stressed over, edited and obsessed over and then have the stupidity to compare them to other Instagram and blog pics of beautiful interiors.  But then I remember....I'm not a photographer, I'm not an interior designer.  I'm a full time working mom who likes trying to make my home a beautiful reflection of the things that we like and enjoy.  I'm not a business, I'm not a brand.  I have loads and loads of laundry to catch up on and I absolutely hate trying to decide what to put in a lunchbox every week night that usually turns into a rotation of PB&J, ham sandwich, or chicken nuggets.  What I guess I'm trying to say is that I'm not relaunching the blog and Instagram page to grow followers or likes.  I'm doing it because I've missed the creative outlet it brought.  I guess that by painting you a picture of what a disaster his room is and how much I hate laundry and lunchbox planning, we are all human.  We all tend to compare ourselves to others, but never stop to think about how much of what we see is authentic or what it's like behind the scenes.  
My photography skills are a little rusty and I'm definitely out of practice with writing a blog post, but I'm going to keep on.  I'm not going to promise consistent blog posts and Instagram updates on the house, but if you're here and you're reading this, I'm ecstatic that you took the time to get this far into my rambling.  Those of you who commented on the Instagram post that you're excited I'm back made my.damn.day!!  
I've tried to come up with reasons why I stopped blogging and I trailed off for many reasons.  After a while, I realized I was blogging about a multitude of things that I really wasn't passionate about.  I think that was one of the biggest reasons I stopped.  I was getting on my own damn nerves.  I had spent hours of my life crafting things for birthday parties and wedding showers and trying to get the perfect pictures to blog about and pin.  Then I realized, Beckett really only vaguely remembered any of the parties so why on earth was I doing all this?  I can't even begin to explain my elation when he asked to have his 5th (and 6th) birthday parties at a local trampoline park where you basically show up, jump, eat cake and go home.  SOLD!  Last year he just wanted a play date at our house with one other friend.  Even better.  
Another reason I ran out of steam was the incredible feeling that I had to keep up. Through the years I watched blogs evolve, Instagram accounts improve, and basically just said, screw this.  I know comparison is the thief of joy, but I couldn't help but wonder why I was spending all my time doing this if it wasn't as perfect as I thought I could get it.  It became work and when it became work and took time away from my family, I was done with it.    
So why am I relaunching this?  Because for some strange reason I feel compelled to.  It's almost like a calling.  A shift.  A feeling like I need to RE-start somewhere.

So, for my first blog post in more than 3 years, I'm going to give you a glimpse of what his room actually looks like.  Unmade bed and ALL.  

Here's a little fun fact:  This is what the backside of Beckett's coverlet looks like in the Star Wars room.  I never got around to finding a coverlet to replace the one from his firetruck room, so I just flipped it over.  It's kind of a little reminder that things don't always have to look perfect.  I know that underneath, there is plenty that is far from perfect and I'm ok with that.


I love beautiful interiors, I love finding new things for the house that enhance what I've put together for this space that I've loved decorating since the minute we moved in the first piece of furniture.  I love trying to get the most beautiful images that I can for the blog or Instagram, but just know I'm probably swatting a 7 year old to get out of my shot and I've shoved paperwork into a drawer, or behind the sofa is a pile of laundry.  

I’m so excited to share all the updates and changes I’ve made to our space!  I’ll be updating our House Tour and Sources list with links to items that can be found online.  

It’s good to be back...and a little unnerving to hit the publish button again,...so here goes nothing! 🤞🏼

~Katie