Lightened Up With Magic Linen

Spring is so close we can practically taste it! With the warmer temps already upon us it is the perfect time to lighten things up around the home. The easiest way to do this - textiles! We sure love the feel of soft velvet and fur over the colder months, but we can’t get far enough away when things start to warm up, (both of us style mutts happen to run hot)! Enter, linen.

We have the privilege of helping introduce a small, family run textiles company that prides itself in luxurious linen goods. Please meet Magic Linen - even a brief browse through their goods and we feel confident you’ll be as smitten as we are! With a couple quick swaps we’ve been able to transition our beds in preparation for the warmer months ahead. Take a look!

Funny thing - as our family has grown, so has the number of pillows on our bed! My minimalist lean is at odds with truly desiring a family home where our kids are invited to cuddle up for a Friday night movie or Saturday morning Sports Center. I had more pillows on this bed this past winter than ever before, and you know what? They got used hard! That was the whole point, after all. So when thinking about refreshing our bed for the next seasons, I felt compelled to retain the pillow count, even if my style preference is less.

A few extras that our kids can drag to the foot of the bed or the bench at the end doesn’t hurt one bit. And these feel so light and airy that I still get my visually lighter bed!

I already had the green linen duvet so all I really needed were a few pillow covers to replace the velvet and fur ones I’d had all winter. Aren’t those wood buttons sweet? Magic Linen sets itself apart by the details. (White pillow case)

(Natural and White Stripe pillow)

(Blue Lumbar pillow)

Across our bed I finally hung a family gallery wall that I started last October! I had those pictures taped there for months until I could find and save up for the right frames, (turns out the frames I wanted ended up only being $8.99 at Michaels). And with that, our bedroom feels fresh and ready for the reprieve from the steamy days ahead!

You know the best part about linen bedding? It can be wrinkled AND luxurious. Like unpacking your suitcase after a fabulous Greek vacation.

In our house, the bed is officially made for 30mins each day AT MOST. Caleb will only make it each night right before we get in it so that it’s perfectly smooth to settle into.

I wouldn’t mind starting each morning with the discipline to make our bed but honestly there’s no point because when we’re out of the house…

Our sunshine-loving pup will undoubtedly make himself comfortable no matter what state the bed is in (even curled up on the bare mattress in laundry day that hooligan).

Maybe it’s the dog with white fur or the fact that I love to accessorize our spaces with vibrant colors and warm tones, but I’ve always gravitated towards white or light bedding for our bedroom.

Plus a fluffy white bed gives me all the hotel feels…

I don’t even mind that our bed is perpetually unmade - somehow our new Magic Linen bedding makes it feel all the more inviting.

(White Linen Duvet Set)

There you have it! Couldn’t be happier with our Magic Linen bedding. If you’re in the market to refresh your own we suggest giving them a browse!

Cozied Master Bedroom

Creativity; Sometimes it’s inspired by a problem to be solved, sometimes it’s just inspired! This space has evolved over our 9 years in this home due to both. I would say it’s been one of the trickier spaces for me in our home, but a bedroom also offers the opportunity for a lot of low cost creativity. Six weeks ago this space wasn’t on my radar to do anything to; we are working on a bigger project in our living room, (coming VERY soon!), and with several large-scale design projects occupying upwards of 50 hours a week, I wasn’t looking to fill any remaining time. But when the opportunity to work with two of my favorite companies landed back-to-back, well, who am I to turn down a quick makeover?!

By quick, I don’t mean subtle. I really wanted to try a different look on in this room, and for the first time in a long time I did not draw up any sort of design plan. It was a feeling of warmth and coziness I was after and I pulled tangible elements together from there.

The process was made infinitely easier by Loloi Rugs where I found this plush ivory shag rug. The subtle pattern is perfect for my preferred simple bed.

While simple, this is my favorite bedding we have ever had. I knew I wanted an earthy green tone and had attempted to dye our white duvet using Rit Dye’s formula for Olive Branch. I had to double the recipe I found for such a large piece of fabric and it ended up much more kelly-green than I was hoping for. Cultiver Goods saved the day, though - their line of linen duvets come in the most beautiful colors all in the earthy undertone that I’m drawn to. Their ‘Olive’ set looks exactly as I had hoped when I had tried to dye my own. And bonus, it doesn’t have the telltale splotchy marks of a DIY dye job! Hah!

A more successful dye project in this space is the curtains! I risked perfectly good coffee and dyed our white linen curtains in a coffee bath. Super easy and no lingering coffee smell, either. I did both panels at the same time in a large plastic storage bin. I filled it most of the way with the hot bath water and then added 6 cups of black coffee. I stirred the coffee into the hot water and then added the curtains, submerging them all the way and then stirring off and on for about an hour. At one hour I pulled them out and rinsed them under cold water and dried in our drier! No dark spots or splotches - it really turned out so even!

Another fun DIY project in here was refinishing this cute antique rocker I found on Facebook Marketplace. Painting the detailed trim black gives it a modern touch but maintains its classic appeal.

The leather bench I made last year after crushing on it in this post by Cate! I can’t get over how scrumptious it looks against our Olive duvet.

Our previous bedside tables were vintage green metal filing cabinets that we mounted to the wall. I love green so very much and when I had this thought to do the olive green duvet, I knew the hunter green bedside tables would have to go. I found these walnut nightstands on Facebook Marketplace, (really my favorite online shopping destination these days), and I love how they tie in Matt’s walnut dresser and the platform bed, and allow my refinished ‘greige’ dresser to be the only black sheep. I don’t need a matching bedroom set, but I realized I had so many different colors, elements and finishes in the room that it felt a little hodge-podged. Tying 3 of the 4 furniture pieces together makes the space feel a bit more peaceful now that everything isn’t competing.

That mirror was a fun and final DIY to complete this space. I have been crushing hard on a similar mirror for over $400 from Anthropologie, so to make this one for $20 felt really good. Sharing how right here in a couple days, so stay tuned!

Final stop: unfinished gallery wall. I’m waiting until after this season of birthdays and holidays to get the frames, but in the mean time I couldn’t wait to get these printed moments up on our wall. I really try to show you our home as we live in it and the reality is we have unfinished projects peppered around. Like most everyone, we do what we can when we can and sometimes loose ends take a bit of time to tie up.

That’s it! This was such a fun transformation as it involved a couple new items, but a lot of found used pieces and DIY projects. Our home feels so much more personal to me when we can tackle some things ourselves, or recall the adventure of how we found a particular piece.

On that note, I’ll share how I made that raffia mirror later this week for anyone interested!

Thank you so much for stopping by!!

Celebrating Christmas ||Our Holiday Home Tour

Suddenly a great company of heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests!"
Luke 2:13-15
 

Christmas is our favorite birthday to decorate for. There is no other birth celebrated world wide, year after year, as Jesus' and it gives me butterflies just thinking about it! The Lord has given us so much to celebrate and that excitement inspires all kinds of creativity when we decorate in honor of His birth. This year has been much more simple but every bit filled with joy. There's been a lot less emphasis on DIY projects which has opened a lot more time to spend with family and friends. A solid trade off from my perspective! Still, our 'Christmas home' feels the most personal this year and is my favorite our home has ever felt over the holidays. It just feels like home, and not some big transformation as it's felt in years passed. I've been looking forward to welcoming you all 'in' today and I hope you enjoy peeking around!

Right behind our front door is the ol' thrifted spoon rack we made when we first moved in 6+ years ago. Above it hangs a framed print from Urban Outfitters and a small pair of trees. The entry way gets messy fast so this area certainly doesn't need more!

Heading down a short flight of stairs takes you to our basement family room! Some of the first pieces we found for our first Christmas together end up down here, like the wooden J-O-Y train and tin sleigh where we keep Christmas cards. Although my style has evolved and changed since 11 years ago I still get excited to see those pieces year after year!

Back up stairs to our somewhat open main floor! Quite a bit has changed in here since the Fall and our shoot with HGTV Magazine, (more on that another time!), and I debated how to combine a 'what's new' post with a Christmas tour, but we'll skip all the new stuff for now and save that for the new year. How's that sound?

Last year's tree was named Paul Pheiffer for it's tall, gangly awkwardness. This year I call our tree Rosemary Clooney for it's statuesque physique! Rosemary is the perfect tree for us this year as our decor ended up taking an unexpected vintage turn!

Well I said I wasn't going to go into 'what's new' but our vintage WWI army cot that I turned into a coffee table is hard to miss! This piece came up from the basement and suits the room much better spatially.

It's never really bothered me that we haven't had a place to hang stockings, but when I saw these vintage wooden accordian peg racks floating around I thought they'd make cute stocking hangers!

One of our first Christmas pieces was this advent which my grandparents gave us on our first Christmas. It's such a fun, tangible way for the kids to understand why we celebrate. They play with this set every day and I love to see their imaginations at work!

In the past I've stuck trimmings from our Christmas tree in every nook and cranny I could think of; it's fantastic free decor, don't get me wrong! But in an effort to stay truer to my style and decorate for the holidays in such a way that doesn't make me anxious over these weeks, I cut way back on the trimmings and focused on simple statements instead. A flimsy branch cascading down the side of the mirror here is the perfect whisper of the holiday coming and leaves plenty of room to breath. (Which, by the way, is all relative. I like a lot of room to breath in my home - it's an exciting time of life with lots of energy and chaos, but adding more 'things' to the mix makes me a little anxious.)

Taking a cue from Cate's recent eclectic Winter home tour, I spy a felt snowball! See it?

While I didn't share a series on holiday DIY ideas this year, I'm really excited with how our DIY Christmas tree skirt turned out! Our old tree skirt had begun tearing a bit last year and I looked for a new one in post holiday sales last January - nothing! It was the perfect opportunity to find or make something really unique but inspiration didn't strike until this past September when I came across a gigantic vintage Persian rug on Craigslist for $20! The reason it was so cheap was because it had been cut right down the middle, making two equal halves. While it was useless as an area rug, I loved it's colors and thought it would make a great Christmas tree skirt! After sharing to Instagram we've had the opportunity to collaborate on more attainable vintage inspired tree skirts with Etsy seller, IHeartNorwegianWood, who is selling them in her shop for anyone interested in something similar!

Moving on to the dining room!

Rather than garlands and lights as I've used in the past, I just hung up our kissing ball and filled in with some fun little pieces, like our antarctic friend keeping watch for snow.

Okay, quick side note: I love these Willow Tree angels below and they've been a slow growing collection over the years since I was little. Each angel represents a particular quality/characteristic, and girlfriend at far right is supposed to represent strength....it's never dawned on me that she looks more indignant than anything else! Hah!

For a simple table, I used a length of last years faux boxwood garland stretched across the table with collected vintage brass candle holders found over the year.

The rest of that faux boxwood went in the kitchen!

It doesn't take much for our cozy kitchen to take a festive turn, and a simple green and white plaid dishtowel from an antique shop finishes it off just fine.

Heading upstairs and our first stop is Shire's room! Last year I found this string of lights for $3 on sale and spray painted the cord gold. I'm not gonna lie, I thought it would be special to give her room a little extra glow for Christmas, but when I plugged this baby in I'm pretty sure the illumination from her window alone lit up the street! So it's a little bright....but she thinks they're fun!

Colin and Mason's shared room is just so much fun to decorate for Christmas - partly because it doesn't take much! The birch trees already look flocked with snow; it's kind of a year-round wintery looking room. Hah!

When Mason started asking 23 times at bedtime, (beginning in September), how many days until Christmas, I couldn't wait to hang this countdown in his room. It cuts our bedtime down by 37 minutes! Instructions for the DIY yarn wreath can be found here.

Our bedroom may as well be a tent plopped right in the middle of a Christmas tree farm because sleeping under this fresh wreath from Lynch Creek Farm tickles our nose every single night! 

Opposite the bed is a cozy cuddling spot where I love to sit whenever I've got a child in need of a snuggle. And whether we have a white Christmas or not, we've got snow capped mountains to enjoy thanks to the painting by my grandma!

That's the end of our holiday home tour! It's been such a joy getting ready for Christmas this year and getting to see so many others' Christmas decor styles! Thank you so much for taking the time to come by today; it's a treat to get to share our home with friends.