I am so excited to talk about our new home! This spring, we sold our first home. We had loved making that home our own. It was the perfect house for us, but we were slowly outgrowing it...plus we were moving two states away, so we got lucky in a sellers market, and sold it in days. Finding a house, on the other hand, was tough. We lost several houses, but then got the luckiest when a younger couple was selling their beautiful home, and chose us to buy their house, even though we had competition with an all cash, no cap offer. I believe it's because they had young children and the house was made to raise kids in. We are just so thrilled to have gotten a house in this market.
This house is twice the size of our last one. It has one more bedroom, it's own dining room, an office, and a formal living room...all things we did not have in our first home. We brought all of our furniture with us, but the majority of it doesn't really fit into the space - it's either the wrong shape or too small for the space. But furniture is expensive, so we are buying it in stages. We started with our bedroom!
I had saved up for the last month so we could furnish part of our bedroom when we moved in. We wanted our room to be calm and bright, and my husband requested to have shades of green in it. We painted one of the walls a really pretty green (Behr Eucalyptus Wreath), and the rest a bright white. When it came to furnishing it, I've always wanted a king sized bed. After months of debating which one to get, we went with the
West Elm MidCentury Frame - it's so so pretty in real life and looks great with the green wall and hardwood floors! We went with
a Saatva mattress, which is described as "hotel like", and as a belly sleeper, I've really really liked it. I had had my eye on
this Crate and Barrel duvet, and I love the texture that it adds to the bed without it being an overwhelming pattern.
As a side story, prior to medical school, I was really into thrifting. That's how I spent my evenings and weekends when I was working full time - finding goodies at Goodwill and garage sales. Now that I have my life back, and 3 months off before starting my first attending job, as well as a house to furnish, I've really rediscovered that thrifting bug. But with having two small children and a husband who works out of the house, spending hours at the thrift stores isn't really a possibility right now, so I've become a hardcore Facebook Marketplace fiend! In the 6 weeks we have lived here, I've already found several amazing pieces for our house. A few needed a little love, some needed nothing, and I can't wait to see how they tell their story in our house. The overall "look" for our house is
transitional - filling our bright and airy spaces with a mix of old school charm with modern touches. That's the great thing about finding furniture and decor that's pre-loved - it doesn't need to fall into one design style, it just needs to fit the space.
So, we had the bed, the bedding, and the rug, but needed a few other items for our bedroom. Top of the list were a dresser, and bedside tables, and then also a big mirror, lamps, and art. I spent several weeks looking at different dressers on FBMP when I ran across a beautiful 9 drawer pine dresser that was selling for $120. I reached out to the seller immediately, and went to see it that afternoon. It turns out it had been a part of an estate sale but no one bought it, so the price was decreased and put on FBMP...where it promptly became mine!
As far as I can tell, the dresser is from sometime between the mid 20th century. It's made of pine, with
dovetail construction on the drawers. The hardware is brass, but we will get to that in a second! When we got the dresser to our house, I noticed the smell immediately. It smelled like someone's very nice grandmother. The dressers had a paper lining, which was easily removed. I then wiped out each drawer with a 50/50 vinegar/water mixture, which apparently neutralizes perfumes. I then put some baking powder on paper plates, and put them in each drawer, and then put the drawers back in the dresser. We didn't put any clothes in the dresser for a week, and by the end of the week, all the former scents were gone!
Now that it smelled new, it was time to update the hardware. Because of the very unique drawer pulls, it wasn't really an option to replace them because the stain behind the pulls was different than the rest of the drawer. So I removed all the pulls, soaked them for a few minutes in Dove power wash, and then used
this magic powder to remove all the tarnish. It was amazing how a few minutes of scrubbing could complete remove the tarnish!
Now she's sitting in our bedroom, and is mostly used as a baby changing table. I'm debating what to do above the dresser though. Across from it, above our bed, we already have a large piece of art (see below).
Our big mirror is going on the third wall of the room, and the fourth wall currently just has two windows (...that still need curtains). I initially thought another mirror, but we don't really need it since we have the big one on the wall. Then I was thinking maybe a gallery wall? Several pieces of art? I don't know, I feel torn.
I also bought two bedside tables on FBMP that need to be sanded and painted - they aren't a real wood so painting makes the most sense. I'm thinking maybe black paint and then gold hardware? We also need lamps for the bedside tables, I'd like two additional pillows in a green to go with the wall color, and
this blanket for the edge of the bed. Once Theo's pack n play is moved out, we also would like to add a chair and small table in the corner.
So while I'm excited about where we currently are, there's so much left to do!
paint: Behr Eucalyptus Wreath
*meow*
