Tag: house

Design Choices

~ kristalauren ~ Leave a comment

The past two years have been rough. Between COVID, much more alone time than usual, and quite a bit of sickness and loss, I think we’re all really ready for some bright spots. Mine right now is definitely our new home.

I’ve been excited to move now that we have a place to go to, and can begin planning on how to make our home a nice little nest for our family. I’ve been working from home for a few years now, so am stoked to have a home office to make my own. I know many of you initially bookmarked my account to follow for my crazy dating stories or even later on for my relationship with Robert, but expect a lot of interior design in the coming months — along with some stories about love and life sprinkled in here and there.

The Design Studio

Going to choose everything for our home was so much fun. Robert is super easygoing, and I’m pretty sure he thinks I am basically an HGTV design star. We bought our home while he was still deployed, so I had to go make some of the decisions without him. This ended up being fine because he thought it would be more fun for my mom and I to go together and spend hours upon hours looking at tile, flooring, appliances, and literally every detail that goes in to creating a home together. Did I mention my mom went to school for interior design? Growing up we always had HGTV on somewhere in the house, and would tour dream homes just for fun. When I was a kid I would talk about how I loved my parents’ “French countryside” furniture, and always thought I would have a sweet farmhouse of my own when I grew up. As with many things in life, things change, and I am steering clear of the recently popular “modern farmhouse” look, but I still think it’s so special that I became interested in this so long ago and am now finding my own footing in designing my own home. Going to the studio with her was so special and reminded me of all the times I went to look at beautiful designs growing up. It was also hilarious because both she and the designer at the studio wouldn’t give me their opinions on anything until after I said my own. We all quickly noticed I have a hatred for beige and love of all things cool.

Each of these drawers had different tiny tile samples or stacks of carpet samples. There are hundreds of options and it was so fun sorting through it all!

The design studio was a blast. The first time I went, I really went after a lot of what the model home had. After all — if it’s not broken, why fix it? Here is the palette of some of the items I looked at that first visit:

I’m surprised at some of the warmth I am seeing here, knowing what I ended up with.
I initially said I wanted a bright and light floor, despite always loving the dramatic rich chocolate brown. I looked at these choices, and quickly nixed the bright white, but thought I might go with one of the other three.
These were the final 2 bathroom tiles I chose between. I ended up going with the gray vein, as opposed to the warmer tone, because that’s just more my vibe.
I also considered doing a wood porcelain wood tile in the bathroom, but ultimately decided to do white marble.
And here is how I changed my selections the second time I went to the design studio. I chose a frosty white countertop, white cabinets, brushed nickel hardware, and still was going with the light LVP floor choice.

The model home definitely has coastal California vibes — a style I absolutely love. The more I thought about it, though, the more it just didn’t sit right with me. We don’t live near a beach, and I have always loved dark, romantic wood floors. I feel like the two things that are super “in” right now are modern and beachy vibes. It’s hard choosing things you feel will be timeless because trends are forever changing. For example, green or blue cabinets are going to be increasingly popular in kitchens this year, but that’s not something I’m going to want even a few years down the road. So I chose white with brushed nickel hardware. It looks clean and crisp, and will hide in the background and let some of the blue accent pieces I want to get shine. I also chose a white subway tile with white grout for the backsplash because it will allow for bolder design choices outside of what is built inside the kitchen.

Back to the Lab Again

Robert did come to the design studio the second time, and we changed things up a bit. Let the record show that he was the one who decided I should get the pricier countertops since we were already paying for labor and materials, and they wouldn’t be that much more all wrapped up in a mortgage. I changed our kitchen from being a frost white to being white with gray veins, and we solidified the beautiful white marble for our master bath. I definitely am excited about the change, even though what we had in place before was beautiful too.

I couldn’t shake the flooring we had picked, though. I love a nice bright home, but I have always been drawn to the rich dark floors. When we were looking at established homes, I always got giddy over dark floors with bright kitchens. I went back to the studio, once again, and did a complete 180 on the bright gray floor I had picked before.

The floor wasn’t sitting right with me, so I went back to the studio a third time by myself and switched to one of the darkest browns. I feel really excited about this choice now that it’s locked in.

Our home is incredibly open concept, which will make hosting super fun. I can cook and heat up food without being far from all of the action in the living room or breakfast table. We are a huge fan of game nights, so I imagine this will be an easy way to refill appetizers during an intense game of Settlers of Catan. Maybe me being away from the table for a minute will give someone else a chance at winning for once. 😉

I’ll give a good house tour as soon as our home is ready, but it takes awhile for the building process, so that won’t be until August or September. In the meantime I’m going to share pieces here and there, but am more excited to show the finished product all together.

Since I designed most of the inside, I wanted Robert to be able to do something fun — the exterior colors. I didn’t want to influence him too much, but definitely had some favorite color schemes. He ended up choosing one of my favorites, which was really exciting. It’s a really deep gray with sleek black shutters and a gorgeous bright red door. Here is a sample, and I can’t wait to finally show a picture of our actual home one day:

He did a great job picking this out, and I keep saying how beautiful an American flag is going to look out front.

There is still a lot to do, but this was a super fun (and long) part of the process. I can’t wait to be able to do a video tour of the first time we go in our house!

The 30-Day Minimalism Game

~ kristalauren ~ 6 Comments

Now that I have a house of my own, I’ve been trying to keep it clean and as junk-free as possible. I’ve been slowly getting rid of old clothes I haven’t worn in awhile, but it’s definitely a big process after moving all of my stuff in.

I got coffee with my sweet friend Melody yesterday, and she suggested doing something called the “30-Day Minimalism Game.” I was intrigued when she told me the very simple concept: get rid of one thing on the first day, two things on the second, three on the third, all the way up until you reach 30 days. By the end of the challenge — if you can actually complete it — you will have gotten rid of hundreds of things.

In all honesty I don’t think I can make it to day 30 because I really don’t think we have that much junk in our house, but I’m really curious to try and see how far I get. Go give my Instagram account a follow if you want ton see what I get rid of every day, and want a chance to take some of my stuff off my hands. I’ll be donating most of it to Purple Heart or The Salvation Army, but I’m always happy for a friend to get something they need, too!

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Here’s to decluttering my house and making some extra room for the things I actually use and to breathe. Day 1: Finally throwing out my old Brooks tennies!

First Week of Married Life

~ kristalauren ~ 3 Comments

I’m sitting at the kitchen table right now eating a sliver of dark chocolate and catching up on my emails — finally back to my usual routine. Something is different, though. Instead of being in my parents’ home at their warm oak table to do my writing, I am sitting at Robert’s cherry one. I am also learning to quickly correct myself from saying things like “Robert’s table,” “Robert’s living room,” or “Robert’s home,” to ours. So right now I am sitting at our kitchen table, about to write a little blog post about married life.

We’ve been married for 11 days now so I can’t really tell you all of the ins and outs of marriage, but I can tell you that yes, it has been different than being engaged. A question I have gotten since the moment we said “I do” is, “Do you feel different now that you’re a married woman?” At the time it felt the way it does when everyone begins asking you if you feel a year older on your birthday. No, obviously I don’t, is what we all think when we reach the anniversary of our birth. Not much changes from year to year unless it’s a milestone birthday like say, turning 21 and being able to sit at a bar. I digress.

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Saying our vows

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Our first moment as husband and wife. 🙂

The day of our wedding was wonderful, but there wasn’t a major change in my relationship with Robert right that second. Sure it felt good adding a wedding band to each of our hands, but then we focused on having a nice time together on the dance floor and visiting with loved ones. The big change came after the wedding — I finally moved in with Robert!

I had stayed at his place a lot in the past, but I never moved all my stuff in or called it my own. When he first purchased his home I helped him decorate some, but I didn’t think of myself in the equation a ton. We painted the walls a few different shades of gray and got dark wood finishes for his bedroom set and side tables. I thought it was all beautiful, but very masculine. It’s been fun for me to move in and add little homey touches that make me feel comfortable too now. My favorite pieces are fluffy blankets and our little pink and blue Kate Spade vases, and I am sifting through wedding photos to add some nice frames to the mix.

It’s been fun making his our home a little more cozy, and the main thing I think I’ve learned so far is that there are a lot of sports on TV. Like, not only is football on 3 days a week, but each game lasts several hours, and on Sunday they have 3 games in a row. THREE! What?!  I knew that Robert really liked sports and watched them a decent amount, but I usually spent some of that time with my friends or family, so didn’t pay a lot of attention to how much is actually on TV. Luckily I am more invested than I used to be, as I have a fantasy league to look after — and I really want to win this year.

Tonight we are going to be making a Blue Apron meal, courtesy of my sweet friend Kirsten! One of my favorite date nights is spending time together cooking (well, me reading the instructions and Robert doing most of the chopping and mixing) and getting to catch up over homemade food. I’m super excited about evening 11, and can’t wait to write my next update. It feels good to be back. 🙂