Every year, even every season, there’ll be new trends that start. Based on the Oxford Dictionary “Trends” mean a general direction in which something is developing or changing. Everything from colors, products, styles etc. can become trends. What we’re interested in hitting on in this blog post are trending interiors. We’ll share the ones we’re loving most, even though there are definitely more than what we’ll cover!
Many individuals shy away from using trends. Why? When a popular trend starts to surface, it is used by so many people. An example of this is the farmhouse style that blew up the internet and left every vendor selling truckloads of white subway tile, andddd not much else. and then comes out of trend. A trend can become overused, leaving what was once a unique detail as something that everyone on the block now has. As time passes, something new and exciting shows up in the world of interiors, and now your trendy kitchen is stamped with “2018.” You’re now left with something that is not likely easily changeable, so following that trend comes at a high cost.
So why would we release a blog on new trends? Because they may have been given a bad rep, but they can also be classic styles/products/colors/etc. Often times trends are inspired by architectural history but revived and used in a fresh way. While it may be new to you, it might have been around for years (or centuries) and when applied properly, it won’t go out of style!
Stone Fireplaces
Stone fireplaces have been around for a long time but not always designed in a timeless way. The lighter stones with light grout is a classic design that costs a pretty penny but won’t go out of style and they turn out stunning!
Limewash Paint
This multi-toned wall detail has been popular for a few years now and used to add depth to walls, kitchen hoods, fireplaces. It used to be a tedious process especially with a traditional plaster (and still kind of is, let’s be honest) but now companies are making products that make the process easier and a lot faster.
Soffits
Soffits save money on cabinetry. But in 99% of jobs, we tear them out because we need extra storage. However, with the rising popularity of homes with 10′ ceiling heights or taller, a soffit can be a beautiful way to finish off a space. Too tall of cabinets can make you feel very small in a room (which can be uncomfortable). And I’m never a fan of stopping the cabinets a foot or more from the ceiling because it looks unfinished and collects a lot of dust (and decor)!
Towel Warmers
The towel warmer was first invented in the 1920’s. It’s come a long way and is still a luxury but now also looks beautiful too.
French Doors
French doors have becoming more and more popular and for good reason! They may be a little “extra” when it’s an interior space, but they add a truly beautiful and classic detail to a home.
FLUSH TRIM AND NO TRIM DETAILS
Minimal and clean details in home interiors are becoming more and more popular. Flush Trim allows for easy cleaning but also a stunning modern design. The no-trim detail on doors and windows is also becoming more and more popular. Both details make a classic and stunning impact on a home interior!
ZELLIGE TILES
Zellige tile dates to the 10th century in Morocco. It is a handmade ceramic tile that makes a stunning impact. The uneven surface and dimpling catches the light in a way most machine made tiles don’t. It can be bought with a sealed finish or unsealed and used in tons of applications!
So what do you think? Did you spot any details or trends that you love and could actually see yourself incorporating into a project? I would be on cloud nine to incorporate every single one of these things into my home!
When people come to our home, we get asked about our TV all the time! Our Samsung Frame TV is one of the biggest conversational pieces in our family room. We didn’t originally plan to hang a TV in this space because let’s be real, they are not aesthetically pleasing. Who wants a big black box on their wall 90% of the day?
We may not have wanted a black hole over our fireplace, but we eventually realized we did want a TV. It was right around the holidays when we realized how nice it would be to have friends and extended family over to watch Christmas movies. The rest of the year, we’re pretty much fine with snuggling in our bed with the kiddos to watch a movie! Anyway, I’ve been admiring the Frame TVs for a few years now, so I knew that if we were to put up a TV, this would be it. And really, it was the best decision to get one! They’re aesthetic and functional — the two things when paired together that I can’t say no to!
The best part about them is how easy it is to change the art or photos when you get tired of it. There are so many good ones to choose from! Some people like to share family photos, but I prefer paintings and other art in my personal home. Below you will find a list of my favorite vintage landscape art. These are ones I use in my own home! I added links to take you straight to the store. While the TV is an investment, the digital art is very affordable. They are something you and your guests will enjoy for many years!
This last one is the one currently displayed in our home. It’s very special as it reminds me of a painting my grandmother had in her home. I remember sitting on her lap while she rocked me and staring at the painting, dreaming about how peaceful it looked. I love the deep earth tones in this piece, and it brings together so many colors we have throughout our home as well!
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. We hope by sourcing some of our favorite products, we provide value to you and your projects!
These days we are gearing up for more play, and playing with food, too! While Ashton is still primarily bottle fed, it’s been good to get some feeding essentials on hand for the occasional times when we experiment with fun flavors! If anything, it’s an opportunity to get him into his highchair so we can eat dinner without playing the baby version of “hot potato!”
I remember with Finley, we bought a set of plastic baby spoons and after just one wash, the colors faded and the spoons wore down so fast. Yikes! I wasn’t going to go this route again with Ashton, so I was super excited to find beautiful spoon sets on Amazon! The available colors change frequently, coming in and out of stock, so keep checking back if you love the color set we got, which is called natural and dried thyme!
I know these bowls are going to be a winner as snacks and meals become more common for Ashton! They are silicone which is basically my favorite material for everything (toys, dishes, bottles, etc.). It’s so easy to clean and doesn’t break! The bowls also have a suction bottom, so they won’t go anywhere when baby decides to try to clear off the table himself! They also stack easily for easy storage. And finally, of course I couldn’t resist picking a few different colors! We bought a few in the natural color and a few in the dried thyme to match the spoon set mentioned above! We plan to eventually expand our set with their silicone plates as well.
Another lesson learned the second time around – I hate cloth bibs! They get so stained, dirty, and I felt like I constantly had to keep on the wash to prevent leftover food remnants from growing mold! This round we invested in just one silicone bib and called it a day! While it’s a little bulkier around baby’s neck, it’s so much easier to clean! Ashton doesn’t seem to mind how it feels, either.
If you learn of any theme here, it’s that silicone is overly used in this household! We got rid of most of the baby toys as Finn outgrew them, so we had to pick up some new staples. What’s childhood without stacking rings?! These aren’t your traditional stackers that fit over a center post, which honestly threw me off at first. But after doing some playing, we found out you can stack the rings in all sorts of combinations, which is even more fun! Ashton mostly just loves to chew on them right now!
Ashton has outgrown most of his newborn blankets and swaddles! With the extra-long and rainy Spring, we needed something bigger and also something with some weight to it to keep him warm. This muslin swaddle is so soft, I definitely considered buying one for myself too! If only it came in an adult size…
If you snag any of these goodies, I hope they find just as much use in your home as they have had in ours! Can’t wait to see what the next few months bring with new phases and stages!
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. We hope by sourcing some of our favorite products, we provide value to you and your home!
Time flies with babies and it’s so crazy how quickly their needs and phases change! From introducing a bottle, to cutting their first teeth, and starting to engage in play. Here are some of my favorite products we started using with Ashton at 3-6 months old!
Some cute snap-on bandanas were a must during the early teething stages with Ashton! So much drool! Rather than changing clothes all day, these bandanas were so easy to switch out as they got wet! They are incredibly soft and I’m in love with all the colors! We picked some toned down neutrals like the caramel and olive colors.
Bath time became a bit more active in the recent months, and I wanted something easy to grab and soft to chew on! This silicone boat in the origami style was just too adorable to pass up!
With me going back to work, Ashton started taking a bottle, and these silicone bottles are a favorite! Easy to clean, and soft for holding. Of course…Ashton also loves to push them around a room and chew on them too!
We’re on the move a bit more often these days, and with Ashton still loving a pacifier, keeping one on a clip attached to the car seat has been a perfect way to prevent losing them! It’s funny how pacifiers have a way of disappearing! We picked up this wood one as well as a few silicone options!
Another on-the-go essential for us has been our Tula baby carrier! Ashton quickly outgrew his bamboo wrap, but this structured carrier has been our favorite for both babies. I used it with Finley until she was a few years old! Easy for front or back carries, and all set up with just a few buckle clips! I love the velcro pocket on the waistband for tucking my phone or credit cards away!
I am so obsessed with everything from this brand! From crib sheets to swaddles, toys to feeding supplies, they have the most beautiful colors and great quality products! These stacking cups have quickly become a favorite for both Ashton and Finley, who is now 6! The cups are great for coordination, but they are also such a versatile toy. They get used in all sorts of imaginative ways!
We’ve loved returning back to some of the staples we used when Finley was a baby — it’s so good to see things holding up to use and standing the test of time with what works best for our family! It’s also been fun shopping for new things because let’s face it – baby products are so irresistible and there are always new gorgeous things coming out! I hope you find some new favorites here for your family, too!
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. We hope by sourcing some of our favorite products, we provide value to you and your home!
I’ve been wanting to add more types of content to the blog for some time and one thing I’d love to share more about is our home and lifestyle, favorite products, etc. Well Ashton recently hit three months old, so I did a little round up of our must-have and favorite baby items that helped us survive the 4th trimester! Enjoy!
Our first kiddo Finn never really took a pacifier, but Ashton does! I’m obsessed with all of the fun color combinations and perfect tones of these rubber pacifiers!
These muslin washcloths are perfect! They come in a large pack, so we only needed to purchase one. They are great for morning face washes and nighttime baths! Ultra-soft and a lovely texture. We also purchased the coordinating burp cloths and swaddle towels (which doubled as a blanket for a while, too!).
Knotted gowns are super functional for all of those constant newborn diaper changes. We had a handful of them in all different colors!
Newborn mittens can always be a bit of a pain, but we loved these ones! The Velcro made all the difference for getting a snug fit and not losing the mittens all the time.
Velcro to the rescue again! Along with mittens, slippers and booties always seem to fall off babies. Not these ones! The Velcro ankle strap holds them on nice and snug and it’s been a wardrobe staple for our Winter baby!
Ashton is starting to get more interested in toys and this silicone ball has been the perfect introductory toy. Lightweight and soft, it doesn’t hurt him when he accidently knocks himself with it because of that newborn lack of coordination. It’s easy for him to hold and will serve as a good teether too!
My babies always seem to have skin issues, so a natural-healing balm is a must-have for us. We love the Baby Bum brand and continue to use them for other products like sunscreen, too!
Hoping this round up is useful for those of you expecting or in the midst of the newborn days! I know some of these will continue to be staples in our household for the months to come!
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. We hope by sourcing some of our favorite products, we provide value to you and your home!
All images in this post are by the talented Jade Averill Photography
Have you heard the news on Instagram? After waiting over five years for the “right” time, our family has finally purchased land as the first step in the journey of building our own home. It’s been a long ride and today I’m finally feeling ready to share more about this part of our lives. I know many people are always curious about the homes of interior designers. I’m often asked to share photos of our home, but quite frankly, I never share this because I’ve never really had a true home of my own. A designer’s nightmare, right?! So today I’m going to share way too many details about our history of “homes” and just why this project means so much for us moving forward.
MY FIRST APARTMENT
I lived with my parents through college. I attended a local community college for three years before transferring to the university. Before moving, my husband and I were married. So as newlyweds, we drove off to our first “home” and rented an apartment while I completed my final year of school. Our small, very brown (brown carpet, brown paneling, brown cabinets!) apartment was our first home together. After about six months, we found ourselves very sick from black mold toxicity and all of our personal belongings and new home gifts from our wedding destroyed. So we started from square one. We were transferred to another apartment for our remaining few months of our lease. After those couple of months were over and I was done with school, we packed up so fast and left town!
POINT YOUR FINGER SOMEWHERE ON A MAP…
We weren’t sure where we wanted to go next. We stayed with my parents for about a month and then I landed a few interviews over on the west coast. For a few days, we dreamed of living on that side of the state. Nothing came of it though, and we sat staring at each other in the hotel room wondering where we were going to live. At the time, going back home to Spokane seemed like the worst possible choice. We wanted change and adventure. We started throwing out names of cities to live in, and I offered up Denver, as one of my best friends and her family lived there and I had visited a few times. Connor agreed, so we went home, packed a suitcase, and off we drove.
MOVING THERE, THEN HERE AGAIN
We made arrangements to live with my friend’s family for a few months so we could explore the city to see if it was right for us, get jobs and find housing. After about four months of living out of a suitcase and a storage unit, we purchased a townhouse and moved in. It was very nice and we felt pretty proud of it. It was in a little suburban neighborhood with nice shopping, good schools, and yet our mortgage was cheaper than any apartment we could have rented there. We lived there for about six months and then it happened…the homesickness kicked in.
We missed our families, the lakes, and holidays together. Despite having incredible jobs and a few friends, we were so lonely. I think it was on Easter, another holiday alone, that we took a bike ride and one of us brought up the conversation neither of us wanted to confess. We started asking ourselves, “what was so bad about Spokane?” And within a ten minute conversation, it was decided upon. We were moving back home. We called our parents right then and it was like a whirlwind of emotions. Excitement to return to Spokane, but total disappointment of leaving our jobs and city life. We moved back home within a month.
NEW PLANS TO BE MADE
We literally had no plan from there. We moved in with Connor’s parents. After a few months, it was time to get jobs and find our own place again. We started renting from my grandma at her vacant house. We thought it would be just a while before we would buy a house and renovate. Shortly after, we found out my childhood home was literally listed for free if someone spent the money to move it off the lot (yes, you CAN move houses!).
We started dreaming! How amazing would it be to buy some land and set my childhood home on it? After moving every few months, it felt like the perfect symbolism of growing roots and finding home. We started planning. We talked to the banks, we drove for hours looking at land every weekend, and I started on the floor plans for phasing out renovations and even a plan for an addition we could add on some day. I spent months working on all of the logistics and then…things changed.
AN OUT-OF-REACH DREAM
The banks were nervous about funding a house move. Connor decided he wanted to go back to school for nursing. I found out I was pregnant with our first child. All at once, the doors closed and this journey had come to an end. We switched gears and started house hunting instead. Nothing seemed to stand out and nothing came close to the dream we had almost created. I didn’t want to put a dime towards a home we weren’t excited about. So we decided to stay at the rental and make it home for a while. We would settle in for a few years.
I started nesting and we painted the house and set up a garden. There was only so much we could do with a rental so instead we invested in some new furniture pieces, curtains, etc. We ended up living there for about two years, which was the longest we had lived anywhere for the last 4-5 years. We had planned on staying longer, at least until Connor was done with school, but then another wrench got thrown in the plan.
THE SWITCH-UP
My grandma needed to sell the house. At this point, we were knee deep in parenthood, school, and financially just looking to save every penny to prepare for buying a house. My parents decided to buy my grandma’s house in hopes that we could continue to rent from them, but the banks said that wasn’t an option. So then, it was decided that my parents would move to that house, and we would move to their house to rent. A little switcharoo! So in the middle of winter, we were literally swapping places.
We’ve been renting from my parents for the last year and a half and while we are once more close to reaching a two year mark of living in the same place, we also once more prepare for another move. At this point, things are looking up. We’ve been working hard and saving money to acquire that dream of living on acreage. However, with the real estate market being quite insane, it no longer makes sense for us to renovate. Our plans now point to a new construction home, which will hopefully begin after Connor completes school later this summer. My parents recently sold the other house and have moved back into the home we are renting from them, and Connor and I are back to determining our next temporary house while our true home gets built.
FINDING HOME
Nowhere in my adult life has ever felt like home. I’m turning 28 this year and at this point I’ve never felt the feeling of home since I was 18. We’ve managed to settle in to each place we’ve lived, but it’s never truly been “home.” When we were younger, the constant change felt adventurous. It felt like that was what we should be doing as young adults, newlyweds, etc.
But as we got older, and especially after having our daughter, each move was a heartbreak. It was pulling up her roots again and again, and that’s what made me ache. Although those houses were never my home, they were hers. It was all she knew as home in her life this far. The pain made me work harder and harder. I couldn’t stop and it made me sacrifice just about everything to get to the point of claiming a forever home for us. For her.
MAKING CHANGES
Last month, we took the first step toward that home I’ve dreamed of for our family. After a pretty short period of searching for land, we got our dream property. It checks all the boxes on our wish list and more! It feels so surreal that after so many years of waiting, the time has come. The timeline for our construction has yet to be determined, but one step has been taken. And that’s all that matters in this moment.
I can’t wait to share more about the property and our plans for design and construction. But tonight, I just felt the need to share this story. It’s probably way too in depth and most people will care only about the future posts of sharing plans for the home. But I know some of you have been listening to my story. You are curious about what has led up to this new chapter of our lives. And I wanted to share quite honestly that the process of getting to this point has not come easily.
LITTLE STEPS & BIG SACRIFICES
It has never been our ideal situation to live with our parents for periods of time, say “no” to occasions of going out with friends, and certainly not to keep using one of our cars that is literally destroyed from when it was stolen from us, totaled, and then returned. But we’ve happily, and sometimes not so happily, made these sacrifices because they never compared to what we were working toward for our family. I’m so thrilled to put this all behind us now. And I seriously can’t wait to share the process of this journey!
I’d also love to hear from you…
What would you like us to share on our journey? What would you like to learn about the planning, design, or construction process?
