Fireplace, “Mantel,” and Clock, Oh My!

Tags

clock, family room, fire, fireplace, fireplace wall, floating shelf, hanging shelf, mantel, mantel decor, mantel spacing, t.v. stand

I took a little hiatus since we were having friends over this past weekend, we have been busy putting stuff away, organizing, putting together some new furniture, and shoveling all this darn snow we have been getting!

Ray found the PERFECT floating shelf to act as our ‘mantel’ and the clock looks so cool right above!!  While researching the average mantel height, I found the norm is between 54 and 64 inches.  Our fireplace is only about 44.5 inches high (where the tile ends), we did not want to put it too much higher than the 54 inches.  The fireplace itself is only at 32 inches (stops under the tile).  My friend suggested to cut out cardboard/paper and tape it to the wall to get an idea of where to place everything.  This is the picture with our cardboard rendering lol.

At first I felt there was a lot of space between the shelf and the clock, but when I put things on the shelf, it looked much better.  The shelf has about a 10 inch depth, so that also makes a difference in the spacing between the tile and the shelf.  This picture was taken from sitting on the couch looking up a little.  After Ray hung the clock and the shelf, I was ready to decorate the ‘mantel!’

Our first fire!

We bought the last two pieces from Burlington Coat Factory, we had a gift card and they have a nice little home section!  It is not matchy matchy, but I think the pieces look nice around each other.  I purchased the wheat and curly sticks in the vases from Michaels. The one thing I didn’t take a close up picture of is the vase with limes inside (my husband actually picked this out in Target)!  We have a green stripe in our rug and we want to use that as an accent color in the room.  Did you notice something different in the full picture?  We also got a new t.v. stand!  We have been using the old tan one, that doesn’t really go with the room, look at the difference!

Old:

New:

I am really loving all the black furniture (shelf, coffee table, tv stand, mantel shelf).  It is all coming together!

In my next post I will be posting pictures of the coffee table on the new rug, that matches the runner in the hallway and our ‘foyer’ console table update.  And as soon as we are finished with the closet/dressing room, that will be in the following post!  We already have the one wall done and we just have to purchase the corner shelves for the other wall and another section with some shelves and a little more hanging area.  I would like to organize my clothes by type or season, something like that, I just don’t even know where to start!!  Thanks for reading, and I will be posting again soon!

Purchases and Preparations

Tags

amazon, amazon prime, bed side lamp, clock, clock above fireplace, coffee table, decoration, family room, interior design, large wall clock, rug, runner, staging, touch lamp

We had a wonderful weekend with family, so glad to see some of my aunts, uncles and cousins from my dad’s side.  We celebrated my dad’s sister’s birthday and a lot of our family from Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, and Florida all met up in Toms River, NJ to celebrate.  Now on to more house preparations!

We previously ordered a rug, and didn’t like it, sending it back and ordered another one (fingers crossed it fits better).  We also ordered a bunch of other furniture and decor, I am really excited to share!

I think this is my favorite purchase so far, it is one of the coolest clocks I have seen in our search!  I am really excited to hang it above the fireplace!  I used Amazon for most things since I got the Prime account with free 2 day shipping on tons of items.  This is called the IMAX Hotel Wall Clock.

This is the coffee table we ordered.  Ray and I had a lot of deciding to do because we like very different things, but we came to an agreement on this one.  I do like the funky angles, and I am glad the picture is in front of a gray couch, so we could see the color combo we will have.  Finley rectangular coffee table

The rugs we ordered are way different than anything we originally looked at.  I think we both like this design because of the colors, and for some reason we are liking the more contemporary/modern patterns.  The runner will go in the foyer which is connected to the kitchen, so it won’t be in the same room as the family room, but I like the idea of tying in the same pattern and using the colors from the rug to decorate. Sorry for the screen shots, I was having issues saving them on my laptop.

We ordered a plant stand for our lamp that will go next to the couch.  The cushions come up really high so we need something a little taller than a traditional end table.  Coaster square plant stand.

I ordered this lamp for the night stand next to the bed.  I thought it came with two, but no… just one (they are similar to ones I found at Bed Bath and Beyond but they were sold out).  I will have to order another one to even it out.  Versailles Touch lamp

So many exciting things going on!  We will be purchasing the closet equipment this coming weekend.  Using the Martha Stewart closet organizing systems at Home Depot.  Measuring is all done, pieces are chosen, now we just need to purchase and install!  I will be posting pictures after we receive the items and get them in the house!

Happy 2014!

Tags

2014, closet room, decor, decoration, design, house, house decor, house plans, house updates, new year, plans, projects, purchases, resolution, snow, snow storm

It is bittersweet to say goodbye to 2013, but I am happy to have a fresh year, start anew, and plan everything out.  Some things we would like to do in the house are finish the closet/dressing room, maybe replace the tile with hardwood in the family room (if time/money permits), change out the gold sliding blinds in the family room, and get up window treatments in the rest of the house.  For 2014 events we have my cousin’s wedding in April in Oklahoma, so we plan on doing a vacation around that.  We might possibly go to Texas first to visit friends and somehow end up back in Delaware.  We would like to do either the Hamptons or Cape Cod this summer to visit family (we didn’t get to go last year because it was the year of 5 weddings – including our own).  September 20th is Ray’s 30th birthday, which I still have to plan (any ideas?).  I wouldn’t mind doing holidays at our house since we don’t have a large immediate family, so we will see how that goes, in 10ish months haha!

For my personal goals, I would like get back to healthier eating and working out more often. I just have to stick to it. I WILL search for an elliptical machine that we can put in the basement to go along with the home gym.  I will start a workout schedule and hold myself accountable.  I purchased a month of healthy frozen dinners from an Amazon deal, hoping it will make eating a little more convenient.  I hate planning and cooking multiple meals.  Usually we just do a ton of chicken on the Foreman and microwaved chicken just tastes weird to me.

We got a lot of snow Friday, which made for beautiful pictures.  Ralphie has a blast playing in it and I was lucky enough to work from home and not have to drive in it!  Ray still had to work with a 2 hour delay, which helped because he had A LOT of shoveling to do.  My car is still not cleaned off, didn’t really need to do it, so it shall stay that way until at least tomorrow haha (Ray’s car stays in the garage since he leaves first in the morning, lucky).

We had a wonderful New Year’s celebration at a friend’s house.  We played Cards Against Humanity, until it got a little more crowded.  Then played Left, Right, Center, which was a really fun dice/gambling game (that is more fun when you win haha).  I am glad we were able to celebrate somewhere other than home, like the last few years!  Next year I think we want to go out, pay some money, do an open bar, dress up, only if we can find friends that want to do the same!  This was Ray and I’s 6th New Year’s celebration and we have never done the open bar experience, so we hope there will be some interest next year!

I hope everyone is having a good start to their year! I am excited for what is to come, and I will be productive! (being optimistic by not just saying I can be, but I WILL be!)