#117: The Downside To Decorating One Room At A Time

We lately passed the one year anniversary of moving furniture to our beach house, so this week we are looking back on how we kept our sanity while decorating an whole house all at once. It made us realize that there are some flaws in our usual method of taking things slow and going one room at a time – so if you are struggling with your own home, we have some ideas. We are also recapping our trip to Chicago for the Domino Magazine Awards. Plus, I defend my take on navy cabinets and smart locks while Sherry buys something exceptionally ugly for our house.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you are reading in a feed reader, you may have to click through to the post to see the player.

What is New

Thanks again to everyone who voted us Best Renovation Journal (!!!) in the Domino Magazine 2018 Design Journal Awards! We are so flattered, humbled, and grateful. Please check out the other winners below, too. We are in strong company!
- The Best Hands-on Journal: The House of Wood by Jen Woodhouse.
- The Best General Lifestyle Journal: Bright Bazaar by Will Taylor.
- The Best International Design Journal: Hygge for Home by Reena Simon.
- The Best Interior Design Journal: Studio McGee by Shea and Syd McGee.
- The Best New Voice Journal: Emily Everyday by Emily Blanchard.
- The Best Small Space Journal: A Small Life by Melanie Gnau.
- The Modern Maverick: Yellow Brick Home by Kim and Scott Vargo.

We realized MOST of our “photos” from the night are in fact Boomerangs (you know, those short GIF-like videos like the one below) so your best recap of the event may be by checking out this Instagram post where Sherry posted a bunch of them that you can scroll through.

Also, here is more proof of Sherry’s explanation that flowers in trash cans are an actual thing.

Updates

That is the photo of tiling the duplex mudroom that had everyone wondering if we’d gotten a smart lock (which I ranted about back in Episode #113) but it is in fact simply this keypad lock which does not have any smart/wi-fi/Bluetooth features. Do not be fooled by the “SmartKey” descriptor in the listing – that simply means you can rekey the lock yourself to match any other existing Kwikset keys you have.
It is slightly larger than your typical door hardware, but we appreciate that it matches the rest of the doorknob in color (we went with oil-rubbed bronze, but if you buy the nickel or brass versions, the whole thing is that finish).
If you’d like the details on that gray tile we used above, here you go.

Also, in the top left of the photo above, you can see the cabinet color that I egregiously called “navy” back in Episode #111 (for source info on all the other tile in the photo above, click here).
But perhaps what I meant was that it is closer to “the new navy” as Apartment Therapy lately speculated after spotting a growing peacock blue trend.

(source)

Our cabinets likely are not green sufficient to be dubbed a true peacock blue (Sherry’s description of a grayed out muted teal might be closer), but we have used peacock blue a lot in the past (like in our last home’s guest room and dining room)
And lastly, if you missed the original discussion of solving our stinky house problem with a crawl space dehumidifier, you can catch it back in Episode #103.

Decorating A Whole House

chandelier / ceiling medallion / rug / bookshelf / curtain rod / curtains

It is been a little over a year since we first moved furniture into the beach house so it is been lively looking back at the process and the progress – like this is what the living room looked like the day that we unloaded the moving truck.

It is funny to look at what stayed right where it landed (like the coffee table base we got from a neighbor – which we later wrapped up off with a Hands-on concrete top) and what got moved around (like that art above, which now hangs in the front bedroom).
Here is another angle that demonstrates how we were able to shuffle things around easily. This is how the main bedroom looked right after move-in day:

And now it looks like this. The original bedding went into the middle bedroom (and got flipped upside down to calm the pattern a bit) and the original nightstands are now in the front bedroom, where they have more breathing room. Also, the blue rug that is in here is one that we picked up for the living room but once it arrived we chose we liked it better up here.

rug / bedding / nightstand / fan

We also mentioned in the podcast that we could vividly remember a few old journal posts where we deeply deliberated single decisions like a light shade, a kitchen rug, and even bath mats. Man there is “a lot of look” in this image below. Thanks 2012!

And like we said, we are working on a big before & after post of the whole beach house (here is a sneak peek below) but until then you can see most of the rooms in their final state (and all of the sources that you might ask about!) on our Shop Our Beach House page.

We are Digging

Do not look now, but Sherry’s watching Housewives in the mirror (it perfectly reflects our TV for her – ha!)

There is the NordicTrack Treadmill we got for our bonus room (we are considering it Sherry’s early Christmas present due to her newfound enjoy of walking). She still much prefers her walks outside, but when it is too cold or rainy she hops on here and turns on Housewives.
I noticed there is a code on the listing at the moment for “free expert set-up.” I would totally take advantage of that! It was such a pain for us to wrestle it up the stairs alone, and assembling it ourselves was totally doable, but it took about an hour and required two people at certain moments.

I am wearing one of the two pairs of Goodfellow & Co pants from Target that I picked up lately. They are the Slim Straight Fit Twill Pants in “moss,” which have detailing that is kind of like jeans (think rivets on the pockets), but I also got these Slim Fit Chinos in dark gray that feel a bit more like dress pants.
They are quite similar to the Goodfellow shorts I dug back in Episode #99.
And since I in short simply picked up an outfit off of a Target mannequin for this event, this is the blazer, shirt, and shoes I am wearing in that photo above. #fashionblogger
And because I know you do not care what I am wearing and want the details on Sherry’s outfit, here is her top, dark jeans, and shoes.

If you are looking for something we have dug in a past episode, but do not remember which show notes to click into, here is a master list of everything we have been digging from all of our past episodes. You can also see all the books we have recommended on our Book Club page.

And lastly, a big thank you to Grove Collaborative for sponsoring this episode. Sign up at Grove.co/YHL to receive a trio of Mrs. Meyers cleaners and a set of walnut scrubber sponges, or if you are already a Grove customer, visit that link to still get the free sponges!