Mood Board Monday - PATCH NYC pillow inspired sunroom...

Pewter + Sage is hosting a special Mood Board Monday today. It's a collaboration with West Elm, so the inspiration items are some amazing PATCH NYC items. Looove them all.

Today, I picked the PATCH NYC pillow covers for my inspiration. So beautiful.

Actually, they were so beautiful and inspiring that I couldn't even fit everything in one "mood board." So, first up is the furniture...

1 - In my imaginary sunroom, the overlapping squares daybed in chocolate would face the large windows. [And, of course, the windows have a view of a luscious green garden.]

2 - On one side of the daybed, this sunflower bird bath would be used as a side table. The top would be fitted with a piece of glass to make it perfect for holding a drink as you lounge in the sun reading a book.

3 - No sunroom is complete without plants, so this topiary tree would be right at home.

4 - Two off white flip-top ottomans would serve as storage and a coffee table in front of the daybed.

5 - The sunroom would be grounded by this hand-tufted olive green wool rug.

6 - The sunroom is mixture of many different textures to help bring the outdoors in. This weathered wood floor lamp is the perfect fit for providing additional light in the evening hours.

7 - The large windows will be flanked on both sides by the Apex tower in chocolate.

8 - The seating area in the room will also include two modern weave armchairs.

9 - To bring a dramatic texture to the area, the coconut strips pendant will be hung above the seating area.

10 - For privacy, the windows will have bamboo blinds and rustic leather-top window panels.

11 - To wrap up the furniture, a side wall in the room will be home to this two-tier plant stand. The stand will also be fitted with glass to become a drink cart.

Next, the accessories...

Daybed - The daybed will be accessorized with three of the PATCH NYC pillows [in pear thistle, ivory rose and flax butterfly] and a bamboo/cotton plum throw. Above the daybed, there will be a collection of stepping stones from Home Depot. The stones will be arranged haphazardly, similar to a plate wall, but with a more rustic outdoorsy feel.

Chairs & Ottomans - The chairs will feature the slate pigeon PATCH NYC pillow, while the ottomans will hold a tray of lattice spheres.

Shelves - The shelves will feature a variety of items, from books to summer glass vases to volcanic ash sculptures.

"Drink Cart" - This beautiful yellow skies canvas will be hung above the newly fashioned drink cart. The cart will hold bottles of wine, water and other beverages to be served in the hammered acrylic drinkware in clover.

Considering the last item is a turtle garden statue, I probably didn't even need to label it as "random." But it would be a cute little accent to the sunroom to really bring home the ideas of nature and varying textures.

Hope you enjoyed the tour of my imaginary sunroom. Don't forget to check out the rest of the rooms at Mood Board Monday. [And if you want to check out my previous mood boards, click here and here.]

How I met my house...

Our Suburban Cottage is hosting a “How I Met My House” party today and I had to join in, because Mr. W and I closed on our house exactly one year ago today. :) So, here is how we met our first house…

About six months after getting married, Mr. W and I started to toss around the idea of buying a house. We spent hours looking at houses online, went to a few open houses here and there, and visited some beautiful new developments. After looking around a little, we knew we definitely wanted to buy our first home and that we definitely needed to get more realistic with our budget [thank you, mortgage calculator!]. So, we got a little more serious about it and contacted the real estate agents Mr. W’s parents had used.

We arranged a date to go see about six houses one Saturday. When the day came, it was a horrible, ridiculous blizzard and a few of the homeowners canceled the showings. The real estate agents said we could reschedule, but I insisted we go ahead as planned. So Mr. W, Mr. W’s mom, stepdad, and sister, my mom, my mom’s friend, and I all piled into our cars and off we went. Turns out we should have stayed inside where it was warm...

The houses we saw included one that I was terrified to go into the basement and one that gave Mr. W’s mom motion sickness because it was so crooked. As you walked around, the floor was seriously so tilted you felt like one leg was longer than the other. There were a few that were okay…I kind of liked one even though it smelled funny, had pictures hung right below the ceiling, and had a couple other weird things going on. Mostly I liked the big closets though [and that the floor was level]. Mr. W kind of liked one even though it had essentially no storage at all. Seriously, did the cold make him forget how much stuff I own!? I think he just liked that they had hot chocolate waiting for us. Anyways, moral of the story – we finished the day knowing that we would be looking again.

After that, our house hunt got better. Much better...

We had a trip to Dallas planned to visit my sister and brother-in-law and arranged to see six more houses before we left town. We were much more selective in choosing the houses for this day and all of them turned out to be a drastic improvement over the others we had seen. Our real estate agent even tossed one more house into the mix that just happened to have been listed that very morning. When she showed us the listing, we weren’t overly impressed by the picture on the flyer, but wanted to see it anyway.

[front view]

When we pulled up, the house greatly exceeded our expectations from the picture. And when we went inside, we were in complete awe. It was like our budget had magically increased by $30,000. We double-checked the listing and sure enough it was actually priced lower than some of the other houses we were looking at. Wowza! We loved it and knew we had to have it.

[family room]

In talking to our agent, we found out the house would be part of a huge open house tour over the weekend. We knew if we didn’t act fast, we would miss our chance. So, we drove to the closest office to fill out the paperwork to make an offer before we left town. This was at about 1:00 p.m. We made our offer for exactly the asking price. Yes, I know some of you probably think we were stupid. But it was the first day on the market and a grrreat deal. We finished up the papers, hopped in the car, and off to Dallas we went.

[kitchen & eat-in dining]

At about 6:00 p.m., we stopped at a Wal-Mart somewhere in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma and got one of the most important phone calls to date. The homeowners had accepted our offer! Hurray!!!

[master bedroom]

The whole process of buying our house went so smoothly it was almost crazy. We had no problems at all with the appraisal, inspections or negotiations with the homeowners. Everyone [and their dog] has warned us that buying a house will never, ever be this easy again. What can I say? It was truly just meant to be. It turns out the previous homeowner had a serious health problem and wanted to move closer to the hospital and his parents so they could help with the family’s two young kids. The couple was so relieved to have one less thing to worry about that they never even considered haggling about things like if we could keep the refrigerator or who should pay for the roof repairs. And we were so in love with the house that we probably wouldn’t have argued much anyway.

[was dining room, now living room]

So, there it is – our first home. The past year has been full of fun home projects and firsts – first night in our house, first birthday celebration in our house, first Christmas in our house, first everything. It has been a year of wonderful memories that will never be forgotten.

[bedroom]

[All pictures are from the real estate listing when we bought our house, because this is how it looked when we met. :)]

[was office, now basement rec room]

CB2 table ideas...

I'm pretty much obsessed with all things CB2. One of my favorite things about the catalog are the amazing table settings. They are all very simple, yet eye-catching...just what a table should be in my opinion. I also love that all my fave tables use white dishes, which happens to be what we have. It's a match made in heaven. :)

[I love the little bud vases and they are only $2.95.]

[Could the curved servers look any cooler going down the table? I think not, especially for $3.95 each.]

[My favorite part of this one are the duo placemats - described as "crossing the table to mat/mate two diners on opposite sides of the table." Makes me say "awww."]

Sorry the photos aren't the best quality...just consider it one more reason to go check out the catalog for yourself. :)