Matt and Lisa's House

Last summer my sister and I went to town decorating her first home she and her husband Matt had just moved into with their four darling boys.

I will tell you how we made our own art and accents that are shown in each picture.

At the front entry of their home we painted the wall inside the square of this frame with chalkboard paint.  We found the frame at the good will store. I love accenting main entrances with scrolls hung above.

Behind the front door is a rustic piece of black painted pine with an eclectic mix of iron hooks attached. A lime green lizard, an owl painted white and a horse along with a couple other non-character hooks.

At the home improvement store - I picked up these black square wall stickers. We applied them as diamonds for an accent wall in between the foyer and the stairs. Over the course of a year they started to peel but Lisa loved the look so much - we made them more permanent by painting the whole wall black over them and then peeled the stickers off. They worked like a stencil for us.

The first room you would see, if you were lucky enough to visit this fun family, is the living room.

Let me start with the canvas family photo -

I made sort of a gate or fence painted in a distressed rust color to hang the unframed portrait on. It made the picture of the family the main focus here. 

Aren't they pretty? My sister is 10 years younger than I am with tons of energy and she's so much fun!

We found this mustard color cabinet at a local consignment store and added address numbers to the bottom of it - '09 is the year Matt and Lisa got married.

We stole that blue chair from our mom's house and found the ladder for free behind the good will store (scary). The wall shelf above separates the living room from the kitchen so we filled that ledge with all kinds of antiques and funky accents. Lisa has super eclectic (I hate that word but I don't know how else to explain it) taste - she likes shiny golds and glitzy stuff but with me helping her decorate - I had to add a ton of 'rustic' along with it.

Vintage windows, crates, license plates, bottles, greenery and photographs are just some of the items we displayed here. I never got a great photo of the whole kitchen - we were always making food for the six+ boys or making drinks and party food for ourselves - along with doing my hair. (Lisa is an amazing hair designer.) We have huge plans for that space anyway and we are not seeking help from our contractor brother-in-law for that one. :) He's a seasoned home builder who thinks our ideas are going to cost way too much money - we'll see. That makes me all the more motivated to prove him wrong.

I did capture the dining area, though. The large mirror is a hand made piece that I put together with a set of mirror wall tiles glued to a painted piece of plywood. It's huge and heavy but fits the space perfectly. Notice the gold deer head on the checker wall? I gave that to Lisa this year as a gift for doing my hair. I found him at Z Gallery in SLC, UT.

Lisa loved the checkerboard treatment I gave my own personal breakfast table so we did the same to hers. You can see that post HERE.

And...of course, we made a message area on the end of the pantry cabinet for this busy family. Sheet metal and pine panted lime green and distressed. I like the hooks with hats hung there, too.

Ok...let's go downstairs to the family room. This space is chuck full of toys so you are only going to see bits and pieces of my projects and not a whole view..k?!

The fireplace already had that cool copper piece hung above the mantel. I painted some extra plywood we had left over black and hung it behind the copper art for bigger impact.

Bi-fold doors, found for super cheap in the damaged section at Lowe's, were painted and distressed in that same rust color we used throughout the house on other accents. They flank the fireplace. Above the entertainment center sits pictures of the cutest kids ever.

Above all the windows in the main living areas we added 1x6 pine stained in dark walnut. There was no molding around the windows so this was an easy way to make them stand out. This house sits on the east bench mountains in Utah and is surrounded by beautiful scrub oak. The wood accents on the windows could make you feel like you are in a mountain cabin as you look out at the gorgeous Wasatch front. Gorgeous views here!

Next year I will have the ultimate challenge of incorporating the biggest elk head you have ever seen into our design.....the kitchen re-no???? We'll see! Matt hunts and brought a prized possession home. The elk's name is Clark -you'll meet him next year.
(I am not a fan of taxidermy but just think - Abercrombie)

I hope you found some ideas to bring into your own space here.

Thank you Lisa, Matt and boys for allowing me to leave a little touch of my own in your lovely home. Miss you all like crazy!

 I have to share some faces here:
Mom (see her house HERE), Lisa, Me, Shauna (her hubby is the builder - I have yet to feature her amazing home) and Ryan. You can see his house HERE.

 Shauna, Brent (my older brother - you can see his house HERE) and Lisa with burgundy hair - no longer that way.

 Lisa, Me, Shauna and Ryan.

A goofy picture of us three sisters posing as Shauna (the one in the middle) - for some reason she never looks normal in pictures - it's a family joke. These are 2012 photos - Utah summers are the best!

We have another brother not shown here - he lives in AZ - he is so cute - and single :) If you are hot and so super nice - let me know...just kidding. I am not a match maker - just nosey about your home decor.

xoxoxoxoxo

A special thanks to my readers. My silly blog reached 5 million page views today. Almost two years old and I'm still loving this fun hobby. At home I feel like I'm just talking to myself all the time - numbers don't really matter but it's nice to know somebody has read my ramblings. I gotta come up with a great way to celebrate.

THANK YOU!

Sharing with: Common Ground, The Charm of Home, Funky Junk Interiors, Coastal Charm, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia