Coveting Ikea

I've had an Ikea gift card burning a hole in my wallet since Christmas and I'm excited to finally head to Atlanta this week [for meetings]- which gives me the best excuse to make a trip to Ikealand! Here are a few items I plan to pick up for the house:

Our living room is in some desperate need of curtains. Ever since we got a new couch (light tan sectional -score from Craigslist!) I've been needing to bring some darker hues into the room as our walls are light too. I would love to use industrial piping for the curtain rods instead of something traditional and more expensive too and I plan to round out the dark tones on the couch through accent pillows and this throw blanket.

I am slowly making progress in our dining room by hanging art (pictures coming soon) and keeping a steady flow of flowers on the table. My plan is to swap out the light for something more fun like the pendant lamp above!

Another slow process has been the transformation of our guestroom/office/dog shelter. Just kidding about the dog shelter...but seriously with two crates it's beginning to feel like one. In my dream world we would have a mud room to designate for the crates, but that is just not the case and if I want the room to function beyond storing the dogs, it's time to move the guest bed out (no one stays there besides my sisters) and put our work desks in here. The room will need more storage and this simple shelf should do the trick.

I'm hoping to make my gift card money go as far as possible so I will have to save bigger purchases (like this and this) for another time :)

P.S. Can you tell I'm obsessed with neutrals and terrified of color?!

House Projects

I feel like I have 20 half-finished projects around my house and it is about to drive me bonkers. I'm talking mirrors that need to be hung, curtains that need to be sewn, shelves that need to be fixed and an office desk that hasn't been cleaned in 2 months.

I recently discovered the blog natalie creates and was inspired by her 25 by 25 project list. Her goal is to finish 25 projects by her 25th birthday and with mine 3 months and 6 days away (who's counting) I thought I better get started on my own 25 by 25!

Here are my first 10 projects to be completed by October 15th:

1. Clean and organize the garage.
2. Build a picnic table for the back patio.
3. Plant mint in the backyard.
4. Decorate the front porch for ideal dining and relaxing.
5. Paint and reupulster my desk chair.
6. Finish bar console with gold trim and wicker baskets.
7. Build a headboard for the guest room and reorganize baseball photos.
8. Get wedding photo printed and place in the empty frame in our bedroom.
9. Spruce up the bathroom with a new paint color (this, this or this) on the lower walls and add more artwork!
10. Organize desk for optimal work space and storage.

I'm sure the additional 15 projects will come to me between now and then, and I definitely want to include projects for others- not just myself- in this list.

xo

// Photo via Moderne Press //

Hudson Bay

Over the weekend Taylor and I went to my parent's for a quick visit and to see my granny since her husband passed away. While my granny is moving in with my aunt, she is in the process of downsizing her belongings and letting the grand-kids pick out any items she no longer has a need for.

While digging in her garage, a colorful blanket caught my eye. The thick stripes looked familiar, but the chances of it being a true Hudson Bay Point Blanket seemed too good to be true...once I pulled it from a pile my instincts were confirmed and the iconic wool blanket was mine! I've been gathering some design inspiration to figure out how I would like to use it in our guest room- which might be getting a make over in the near future.

Although I'm sad the blanket came with loss of a family member, I can be happy that it offer's a sweet reminder of my granny's husband. Have you inherited or discovered any family treasures that have been a design jackpot? I would love to hear!

// Top image from my Instagram (follow me @marilisa_martel). All other images via Pinterest //