Five Small Touches of Fall

I apologize for the decline in regular posting lately.  There are some projects in the works that I should be able to share soon.  I guess I am good at starting things but not always finishing them in a timely manner.  For now, I wanted to share a few more things I've done around the house to add small touches of Fall.

First, I found this doormat at Target a few weeks ago and just could not pass it up.  The size was too small for our front entry, but it works great at our back door leading out to the carport.

It makes me happy every time I see it.  I think it's the colors and the leaf motif.  It just screams fun Fall decor to me.  And it doesn't hurt that it color coordinates with the door fulfilling my strange need for things to match (which I am trying to let go of slowly).

Secondly, Seth and I bought some pumpkins at the local farmer's market a few weeks ago to put on the front porch.  It's nothing too fancy - we decided to keep it simple this year.

Maybe next year when we are more settled, we can spice it up a bit.  I think some height would definitely help so I'll have to be on the lookout for something to fulfill that need. Maybe some old crates or a discounted garden stool.  I also like the idea of spooky decor. Nothing with blood and guts but just a good amount of eeriness (is that a word?).  I like these ideas below that I found on Pinterest.  I think next year I'll try a raven/spider/insect theme.  

insect and faux bois pumpkins

LOVE the ravens

spooky hanging bats

DIY spiderweb welcome mat

cheesecloth banner

Third are a couple of new pillows I found on Overstock.  I got them for two reasons - 1) they have more Fall colors in them than our blue and green ones and 2) one of the colors in the fabric will surely coordinate with whatever color we finally decide to paint our front door (again with the matchy, matchy - it's a sickness).  

Fourth - I created a Fall tablescape.  Again, nothing too fancy.  I started with a burlap runner that I picked up last month on a visit to Collierville and some candlesticks and vases that I already had from West Elm.  I added some new green taper candles from Wal-Mart, some branches from one of our oak trees whose leaves had started to turn, a couple of orange owls that I picked up at Kohl's for 65% off and then another 20% off with my coupon, and some fake pumpkins that I found at Jo-Ann's and spray painted white and silver.

I guess I could have moved that step stool in the background.  But, hey, I'm keeping it real here.  This is how we are living - with boxes, tools, step stools, and bubble wrap all over the place.  

And....fifth.  While at the farmer's market this past weekend, Seth and I picked up a huge mum and a couple more pumpkins to dress up the mailbox a bit.  

Not a great pic with that shadow.  I said I was working on my photography but I didn't say I could control the sun. Eventually, I will learn what time of day I need to photograph each part of our house and yard to get the best lighting but I'm not there quite yet.  

So, with some simple, inexpensive additions we have added a bit more seasonal charm in our house.  It doesn't look like we're going to get a fireplace mantel installed before the end of October.  Maybe I'll be able to create a Thanksgiving mantel.  OH - and also for me a huge part of the holidays are the smells.  I bought the Apple Pumpkin fragrance from Yankee Candle (go to Bed, Bath and Beyond and use a 20% off coupon) and it is divine.  It makes our house smell just like Fall.  

What do you guys do to spruce up your home for Fall?  Do you have a favorite candle or fragrance that you use during this season?  Anybody decorating their porch with insects or ravens?

How We Deal with Paper Clutter

Seth and I recently got around to setting up our office organization system in the new house so I thought I'd share it with you.  For months in our first house, we used the dining room table as our "drop zone" and it was constantly cluttered with mail and receipts. If guests were coming over, we would scurry around trying to recycle, file, and shred as necessary until the mountain of paper was cleared and we could let people in the house sans embarrassment.  I'm pretty sure that the inspiration for our system came from Better Homes and Gardens, but when I try to find it on their website, I can't.  I saved the pages that I ripped out of the magazine for awhile, but I have since thrown them away.  Oh, well.

There are a two basic components to our mail organization system (I'll get to what we do with our receipts in a bit) - our "inbox" and our "action files".  The inbox is pretty self-explanatory.  All of our mail goes into our inbox.  Sometimes we are busy and every item of mail from that day goes into the inbox without a second glance.  Other times we sort through it and recycle the junk mail before placing the rest of it inside the inbox.

Multiple times a week we go through the inbox and place everything into one of our action files.  These are labelled "do now", "do later", "pending", and "file".  

• Do Now - Items here are things that need attention within the week.  This file should be checked multiple times a week.
• Do Later - Items in this file are things that need attention within the month.  It should be checked weekly and items transferred to the Do Now file as needed.
• Pending - Items in this file are things for which we are awaiting a response (ex. rebates that we've mailed in but are waiting on the check).  This file is checked as needed and items can be moved to the File spot as needed.
• File - Items here are things that need to be transferred to the correct spot in our filing cabinet.  Ideally, this is emptied monthly.

The label template is from Better Homes and Gardens.  I printed the labels on cardstock and hung them with some raffia I had leftover from our wedding.  It's funny what random leftover wedding stuff I have lying around.  I guess it's useful at times like this.  This system has worked well for us.  The piles of mail on the dining room table, kitchen counters, coffee table, etc are now a thing of the past (um...for the most part).  I admit that I sometimes forget to check the files and organize things in a timely manner.  Our File section is usually overflowing before we finally get around to putting things in their proper long-term storage home.  But at least we're trying.  

As for receipts....ugh.  They are my nemesis.  I have an irrational fear that one day I am going to purchase something using my credit or debit card, the merchant is going to secretly charge me an extra $20, and if I don't catch it on my statement, they will just get away with their crime.  I was taught to always save receipts and compare them to your monthly statement.  Again, I will admit that I don't check every receipt every month.  But I do feel the crazy need to hold onto all of my charge receipts for a year.  This has come in quite handy when I have decided to return purchases after many weeks of owning them or when tax time rolls around and we need certain receipts.  At our first house I used this and each pull out drawer was for a different month.

The drawers were kind of small and sometimes the receipts would get caught as you tried to pull the drawer out.  So I am now using it for office supply storage (paper clips, erasers, pencil lead, binder clips, etc) and I came up with a new receipt storage system.  I decided to use two of the storage baskets in our cube (aka our Ikea Expedit shelving unit).  I just needed a way to divide them into 6 areas each to represent all 12 months.  This is where my good friend cardboard came into play.  It's free and we still have TONS of it around the house from the move.  I just created some dividers with the cardboard and we now have a new system.  

As you can see, my dividers aren't perfect but you can't see them when the baskets are pushed into the cube so I think it'll be okay.

There you have it.  It's a pretty straightforward system and it seems to be working for us so far.  We still have trim painting on the list and Seth is slowly working his way around the house replacing the cream light switches, plugs, and their covers so ignore those ugly eyesores in my pics please.  Slowly but surely.

The Neverending Stencil Story

Don't worry.  This blog post will not be neverending.  It was the stenciling itself that was neverending.  Actually, it has ended - finally.  But it felt like it was never going to end. Extra points if this image flashed through your mind when you read the title.

I actually wasn't a huge fan of the movie, but many of my friends and classmates loved it. I was kind of creeped out by it.  Anyhow...back to stenciling.  I have been in love with the idea of using wallpaper or a stencil somewhere in our house for awhile.  

a bold stencil

a more traditional look 

amazing wallpaper 

more wallpaper

feather stencil 

stenciled stairs 

chevron wallpaper 

graphic wallpaper

moroccan stencil

feather stencil again

I just love how stencils and wallpaper can transform a room.  So what room would I transform?  I narrowed it down to the guest bathroom or the entryway before settling on one focal wall in the entryway.  And would I use wallpaper or a stencil?  Definitely a stencil since it would be less expensive than wallpaper and easier than hanging wallpaper. I browsed around on the Royal Designs website and the following stencils caught my eye.  

I ran the options by Seth and we ended up ordering the stencil in the fourth pic - the Small Moorish Trellis Stencil.  And thanks to John and Sherry over at Young House Love we got 10% off (they have discount codes on their blog for great stores!).  

Next decision - what color of paint to use for the stencil.  I did want the wall to be the focal point of our entry, but I didn't want it to get too busy.  The wall currently has two mirrored wall sconces.  It will have a console table (which I have plans to paint a fun color), storage baskets, and some sort of art piece.  Since it will be pretty "filled" visually with furniture and accessories, I made the decision to try a stencil in the high gloss version of the wall color.  Here is the before picture.  

Sorry about that shadow at the bottom.  Not sure if that's my finger or what.  I am not a professional photographer.  Maybe I'll get better as I continue blogging.  Let's hope so for your sake.  

I started by measuring the wall to find the midpoint between the two sconces (aren't they pretty?) so that I could center the design there.  Then I carefully taped my stencil up on the wall.  I bought some spray adhesive that you are supposed to be able to spray on the back of the stencil and then reposition as needed, but I was afraid that it would leave a sticky residue.  I ended up using some blue painters tape instead, which I did have to change out every so often as it lost its stickiness, but other than that, it worked just fine.  Here is an embarrassing backside action shot for you.

I used a foam roller to roll the paint in the gloss finish over the eggshell finish on the wall.

Above, I am trying to line up the stencil perfectly which was kind of difficult since I used such a low contrast scheme.  I later found out that the stencil has little triangular cutouts that you are supposed to use for lining it up and repositioning, but I'm not sure it would have helped me that much.  You have to be very careful about keeping it level and lined up though.  Trust me - if you ever come and visit, we can play a game of Spot My Stenciling Mistake.  It's kind of like Where's Waldo.  And in case you were wondering, my hair looks a bit odd and poofed up in this photo because I'm wearing a headband.  

After a long, grueling process we ended up with this.

It's pretty much what I had envisioned.  It's subtle, but definitely there (even more so in person than in these pics).  A part of me wishes that I had chosen a different paint color for the stencil to give it a little more contrast so that all my hard work was a bit more noticeable, but I think that's because the wall is currently empty.  Once I get around to painting our console table and adding art and accessories, I bet I'll be fine with it being so subtle.  It's been nice to watch how the sunlight coming into the house at different times of the day affects how visible it is.  I highly encourage anybody out there considering a stencil in their house to dive right in!

Wire Basket Storage

My next project was inspired by this photo on Pinterest (yes, another Pinterest project - Seth just LOVES Pinterest).

I thought it was a clever way to store clutches and scarves without taking up dresser drawer space (cause my dresser is bursting with clothes right now - it may be time for some purging).  I found three over the shelf chrome wire baskets at Marshalls for around $8 each (I had previously found some at Bed, Bath, & Beyond for double that so even with a 20% off coupon, they would have been more expensive).  I forgot to take a before pic, but they basically looked like this.

Seth used some bolt cutters to remove the "arms" for hanging the basket over a cabinet door since I wouldn't need them.  I filed them down with a metal file and then got to work spray painting them the same color as our closet chandelier.  

I spray painted some hooks that I found floating around in my toolbox to match.  That thing is nowhere near organized.  It's another project on my list.  

Then, I just predrilled some holes, screwed in the hooks, and hung the baskets up.

I filled them up in no time with just my clutches and winter hats and scarves (which I DO use in the winter, even in Tennessee, because I am always freezing thankyouverymuch).  If we had more wall space in the closet, I would have installed more, but we are running low on it.  I haven't shown you yet, but the whole back wall of the closet is being used for shoe storage.  More on that repurposing project when it's complete.

So there you have it.  An easy, fairly inexpensive storage solution for whatever might be laying around your closet or taking up dresser drawer space.

Inspiration for Our Front Door

Seth and I have known from day 1 of owning our house that we want to paint the front door, shutters, and wrought iron posts.  Right now they are a dark, dark green.  So dark in fact, that multiple neighbors have actually said, "Oh, the house with the black shutters" as we were pointing out where we live.  I have had to bite my tongue to refrain from saying, "Actually, they're dark green" because I really didn't want to appear too petty when I first met my new neighbors.

See?  The front door gets completely lost because it is soooo dark.  It's like a cavern.  Or a black hole.  It's just not doing it for us.  So I've been browsing pictures on houzz and pinterest and trying to envision different colors on our front door.  (The shutters and wrought iron posts will likely be painted a medium to dark gray.)

A nice autumn orange

 Definitely draws your eye to the door!

 Peaceful and would go with our interior color scheme

A soft buttery yellow

Another light blue/gray

A lovely orange

A bright yellow

I have pretty much narrowed it down to the above colors - orange, green, blue, or yellow. I have never liked the color red - although I do believe it makes for a classic looking front door.  We are going for something a bit more modern and "edgy-er".  Seth ruled out purple and pink.  :)  We are definitely not doing black as that would only make our cavernous door issue worse.  The house is white, so white is out.  

I do want the front door to tie in somewhat with our interior colors.  But that doesn't really narrow the above four colors down since they are all going to play pretty prominent roles in our decor.  Our next door neighbors recently painted their house cream and they have an olive green front door so I may shy away from green.  I want to be able to say, "It's the house with the   orange/blue/yellow   front door" when I give people directions and have there be no question about which house is ours.  

What do you guys think?  Should your exterior color scheme tie into your interior color scheme?  Do you like a bold front door or something a bit more toned down?  Did you factor in your neighbors' front door color when choosing your own?