Fake Books?

In my search for chocolate brown color schemes, I found this inspiration pic. Love everything about it, but check out the bookshelf. What in the world?!?!

As Soon As School Starts...

"You're a teacher? Wow, you must love having the summer off." Right. Actually, most teachers either work all summer (i.e. teaching summer school, tutoring, working another part-time job) or they are broke for three months. I'm working a bit this summer, but definitely have to rein in spending during these months. So, here's my "As Soon As School Starts" wish list. Good thing we live 20 minutes from IKEA! :-)

1. New Kitchen Light Fixture

Ikea FADO Pendant:

2. Shoe Storage

Would love to get two of these to put side-by-side on our front porch.

Ikea GREVBACK Bench:
3. Living Room Rug

Haven't decided on one yet, but here is the current favorite.

From Dash & Albert:

Or maybe this darker gray...

4. Curtains!! I'll wait on these until after we have new windows installed throughout the house. Fun to look though!

IKEA Vivan curtains for the living room: 

Living room window inspiration:

Just realized my blog has turned in to a way for me to manage my world of lists. Nice. Happy 4th of July! 

The Someday List

I guess all new homeowners have one of these. Some call it the 5 or 10-year list. We call it our Someday List because we have no idea when we'll actually be able to do these projects and if we'll even live in our house long enough to get to them. But it's sure fun to dream! And now, a few entries on our Someday List. I'll admit I've been collecting pics for our Someday List for awhile and can't remember where I got most of them. If I used your pic, let me know!

1. Butcher Block Island

We have a fabulous (huge!) island in our kitchen, but the tiled surface is dreadful for baking, cooking, etc. and it's really dark so it sucks a lot of light out of the room. I'd love to replace the top with sealed butcher block. Perfect for baking loads of Christmas cookies and it would look lovely with all the natural woodwork in our home.


2. Tile the Kitchen Floor

Right now we have hardwood floors throughout the main level of the house. They are in pretty good shape, but there are sections in the kitchen that look a little rough. We'd like to lay tile to define the kitchen area and create a more cooking/baking/messy-friendly space. I'd also like to install a nice wood transition piece from the tile to the hardwood. Isn't that pretty? If Andrew can build a canoe, surely he can build this, right?


3. Kitchen Backsplash

I love me a white tile backsplash.


4. Recycled Concrete Patio

Ok, so this might actually happen this summer, but I have a feeling it will be more of a Someday type thing. We jackhammered our broken sidewalk and steps and plan to use the concrete chunks to build a patio.


And the list continues...but I'll stop there for now.