Around the House

Now that I get a fancy new paycheck, we've been doing some upgrading around the house. This post may not be that interesting to most of you (no Violet pictures, sorry) but I'm feeling a little dorky and want to show off some of the new things we've picked up.

First up, we finally replaced the ugly, outdated light fixtures that were above the garage and by the front door. Improvement? Much. Added bonus - my handyman husband did it all himself!

Before:  ugly, tarnished, gold.

After, by the front door.

And over the garage. Loving the lantern, and it makes cool shadows on the side of the house when it's on.

In addition to these, we continued to support our big box fixer-upper store and bought some new door knobs. The majority of the knobs downstairs had already been replaced when we bought the house, but our bedroom was still sporting the cheap gold look. And let me tell you, I had no idea how expensive door knobs are - what a ripoff! It makes me all the more thankful that the nine in the kitchen/sunroom were already done for us! It will be a while before we replace the ones upstairs. I just don't care that much. (No pictures of these, because even I'm not that interested in looking at them - I'm just glad they all match now.)

Matt also replaced our mailbox, because ours was mysteriously dented one night and the door kept falling open. Again, not exciting enough for pictures, but hey, it deserved a shout out.

Next up, the new bed! Here is the picture Matt sent me after the furniture delivery. Love! It's our first real bed. Now that we've painted and gotten the bed with new covers, the next step is coordinating the rest of our furniture (right now it's a hodge-podge of random pieces) and accent colors. But for now, we're resting comfortably in our new sleigh bed.

Sleeping tight!

And finally, here's the latest addition to our living room. We have a lot of wall space in our living room and it's so neutral-colored it could rival Switzerland so I am loving this new pop of color over the fireplace. I couldn't help but bust out the fall leaves on the mantel to continue the hue, and I love the way the painting brings out the other little touches of red we have around the room. Also, I have this general rule that when Matt and I both agree of something art/decorating-wise, we must immediately follow through, since who knows when that bolt of lightning will strike again.

Anyway, that's the latest from Casa de Loughman. Don't you love the way a few new things can transform your whole space? Have you done any sprucing up lately?