Adore Magazine Double Feature!

Adore Home Magazine - one of my favorite sources for home decor inspiration - has TWO new issues out right now, and I'm in both of 'em! The cover on the left is the December/January issue, and I'm sharing some of my favorite finds on page 22.

What's even cooler, however, is that Adore's very first annual print edition becomes available today! Sadly, you'll be hard-pressed to find it in the U.S., but if you happen to be in Australia, it's available for purchase at quite a few retailers and online here. Since it's not available around here yet, I can't resist sharing the pages featuring my workspace. Although these should look familiar to you, it's still pretty exciting to see them all laid out and magaziney.

Anniversary Photo Gallery Wall + Custom Framing Discount

I was compensated by Framebridge for this post.

When we moved into this house about a year ago, I vowed I wouldn't be putting up any gallery walls. Our old place was rife with them, and I was over it. Well, today, I eat my words. Thanks to Pinterest, we've been taking a photo every year on our anniversary. An opportunity to try out Framebridge's online custom framing services coincided with our our 4th anniversary earlier this month, and so it seemed appropriate to finally put all these photos on display.

Read on to see our photo tradition, hear about my Framebridge experience, see more gallery wall pics, and nab a discount code for 15% off your own custom framing project!

Emily's Bright, Kid-Friendly Living Room

Disclosure: HomeGoods provided us with a free gift card.

For the last month, my Craftcourse partner Emily and I have been scheming up a light, bright revamp of her living room. Emily had already gotten some bigger furniture pieces, but as they say, the devil is in the details - particularly with home decor. When HomeGoods offered me a gift card to make someone happy, I knew this was the perfect opportunity to get the finishing touches on Emily's living room (and of course, make her happy in the process). You can see our inspiration in this post from last month. Well, we finished 'er up this weekend, and I've got to say that I'm feeling a little jealous of her new space!

Read on for more pics and details!

DIY Painted Pillows for Etsy Blog

Hi, friends! I'm super excited to be contributing a tutorial to the Etsy blog this week. I'm showing you how to make painted pillows using 2 techniques - a little hand painting and some stamping. I love love love how these turned out, and the possibilities are practically - if not literally - endless. Find the full how-to here!

Home Tour on A Beautiful Mess

Hands down, my favorite DIY blog is A Beautiful Mess, which is why I'm so beyond excited to have had my home featured yesterday! If you've been around here long, you've seen plenty of pics of my house, but it's nice little full-on tour of the latest updates around the house -- including the new wallpaper in the laundry room! Check it out, won't you?

Making Emily Happy + $100 HomeGoods Giveaway

My Craftcourse Nashville partner Emily is in the midst of a much needed living room makeover, and she's been begging me for help. I've been selfishly putting her off as I recently started a new day job, Craftcourse has been a handful lately, and together we've been working on decorating our friend Patrick's pad. Just when I think that Emily had given up hope on me, HomeGoods stepped in and sweetened the deal. You may not know it but today is Happiness Happens Day, and on Happiness Happens Day, HomeGoods has not only given me a $250 gift card that I'm going to use to put some finishing touches on Emily's living room (and in the process, of course, make her happy) but will also be giving away a total of $10,000 in gift cards to all kinds of people...maybe even you!

But first! Let's take a look at some inspiration for Emily's space. She lives in a traditional mid-century ranch house. She also loves some MCM, so we're staying true to it, but mixing in some serious color love. These are the rooms that are getting us excited. She's checked off some bigger pieces through some savvy shopping and Craigslist stalking, but what's really going to make the room is the styling details and art. This is where we're going to rely on a little DIY and some serious HomeGoods shopping.

Once it's all done, I'll be sharing the outcome. In the meantime, be sure to read on to find out how to get your own HomeGoods gift card to make someone in your life happy!

Top to Bottom, Left to Right: Source, Source, Source, Source, Source, Source

Now for the good stuff! You've got two ways to win your own own HomeGoods gift card. The first: share how you made a moment of happiness happen in someone’s life – no matter how big or small – either by posting a photo on Instagram or Twitter using #HappinessHappens and #HomeGoodsSweeps. Winners are chosen randomly and will be awarded $100 gift cards throughout the day today between 9AM and 5PM EST. Visit this site for a full set of official rules.

The second: enter to win right here on Fabric Paper Glue! Leave a comment below using the rafflcopter gadget to tell me know you'll make someone happy with the gift card sometime between now and Monday. I'll randomly choose a winner on Monday. Awesome, no?!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

House Tweaks: Living Room Record Station

In my first iteration of our living room, I had grand hopes of keeping a large plant alive...you know, because the blogosphere had somehow convinced me that I could. I'm embarrassed by how quickly I killed the thing. Around the time we bid adieu to it, Michael decided to take up LPs. In short order, he'd inherited his dad's LP collection, and we were in need of a home for this new hobby. Read on for more.

Before & After: Downstairs Bathroom

I realized the other day that I never shared a proper before and after of our downstairs bathroom. Not exactly a call-home-to-mom before & after, but we made a few small changes to keep it fresh and clean. The blue walls were brightened up with white paint, and although I'd seriously considered putting up some bold wallpaper, it quickly became evident that wasn't happening. See that big bump right above the tile on the corner there? Yup. No chance wallpaper is going on that.

Read on for some more changes and pics.

Workspace Upgrades

Kenroy Home provided me with a free light fixture.

We've now lived in our Nashville home for nearly 11 months. I got everything in order at lightening pace. For the most part, I've been pretty happy with all of my quick decisions, but not so much my office/workspace. After, you know, actually working in the space, it quickly revealed its shortcomings -- chief among them was that there wasn't enough storage for what is apparently an ever-expanding craft supply stockpile. Yeah, like for a war...a craft war. You can check out the office back in November here, and last month, I shared some changes that I made to help me work more comfortably. In addition to those changes, I made myself some new curtains, upgraded my light fixture, and treated myself to a serious pegboard situation to help alleviate my storage woes. Read on for more pics and details.

Patio Reveal!

The day has finally come, friends! My patio is complete, and the full reveal is on display over on the Home Depot blog. After tackling nearly every problem area in just a few weeks' time, I pretty much love our backyard and patio more than words can describe. There's also a healthy dose of DIY (complete with tutorials), so go check it out!

Patio Probs

If you follow me on Instagram, you may know that I've become pretty obsessed with my backyard. I did a count, and about 30% of my recent shots are either in or about my backyard. Oops.

I am participating in the Home Depot patio style challenge again this year, which proved to be just the motivation we needed to get our backyard in order. I shared my design plan early last month and spent much of March bringing it to life. It debuts tomorrow on the Home Depot blog. The whole shebang ended up being a wee bit more work than I anticipated. When we toured the house considering an offer, there was a lot of "Oh, we can fix that," or "That's just a [insert "simple" DIY job here]." Um, yeah...So like a lot of the things in this old house of ours, those things added up real quick in the backyard, so before the grand reveal tomorrow, I thought a full rundown of the problem areas was in order.

1) The window from our dining room to the back deck was begging to be turned into a set of French doors. Although one of the biggest of all the jobs, we had this one done before we moved in, so it was really no skin off our backs. You can see the wonderful, light-givin' difference this made from the inside here.

2) More of a whole house prob than a patio prob, but new windows were in order. The original ones were drafty as all get out. Most of the storm windows were missing, and half of them wouldn't open. Actually, all of them were nailed shut when got the place. It would have been great to have these done before the winter we just had, but we decided to knock it out before the hot hot heat of summer rolls around.

3) Although the house is mostly brick, some stucco repair and a serious paint job was needed on the parts that aren't. The difference isn't huge around back, but boy oh boy, it has made a ginormous difference in the front, which I hope to share soon.

4) In this little spot, there was about a 4-foot paver walkway to nowhere...and from nowhere, because this deck had no step. Not even one.

5) There was a cute little flower bed right at this corner full of super tall zinnias. The frame of the bed, however, was just a few boards that were rotting and falling apart. Also, true story: When zinnias aren't in bloom, they just sort of look like big weeds. So, yeah, I wasn't wed to this bed, its contents, or even its placement.

6) I hate lattice, and I hate it even more when half of it is missing.

7) The deck was atrociously dirty, so this bad boy was going to need a good power-washing and sealing to get up to par.

See...that's a lot of prep work for styling a few pieces of furniture, no? Be sure to come back tomorrow to see the transformation! It has easily become one of my favorite spots in (around?) (about?) our whole house!

Seriously Considering...Wallpapered WC's

Source, Source, Source

Lately, I've found boldly wallpapered bathrooms catching my eye like crazy! Big, bold prints seem to make these little rooms pop in a way that paint never could. Both of our bathrooms were in great shape when we moved in. I've made some minor updates, but I'm thinking that my downstairs bathroom might be a prime candidate for a little pattern. The room is decked out in great black and white tile, but there is a bit of wall showing that I think would look pretty phenomenal covered in a bold and bright floral motif.

Read on for more pics of beautifully-papered loos, and let me know if you think my little bathroom is a good candidate for some wallpaper.

My Loud, Laid Back Patio: A Plan

This time last year, I was planning an urban bookish balcony for my friend Jillian as part of the Home Depot Patio Style Challenge. I'm so happy to be participating again this year and even happier that I get to be planning out my own patio! Condo living can suck it right about now. I'm dubbing this year's vision "my loud, laid back patio."

I snapped this pic back in June before we'd even bought the place, but as you can see, the deck is in need of a little maintenance but is otherwise a blank slate. We love ourselves some outdoor entertaining, so I want to turn this space into a great little laid back entertaining space. But keeping it true to my form, I want it splashed with loud colors and a mixture of bold patterns.

The transformation will be taking place over the next few weeks, and it won't be without its challenges. First off, we're undertaking some pretty big (but not very sexy) exterior renovations in the next few weeks (i.e. replacing the original windows and repairing and painting the extremely damaged stucco). There's also the fairly unsexy maintenance that needs to be done on the deck itself (ahem - may I have some stairs, please?). There's also the complete and utter lack of landscaping in our backyard. The patio of my dreams would have a beautiful pergola with climbing vines surrounded by beautiful trees and flowers. I'm just going to have to cheat it for now with some potted plants. Despite some of these circumstantial challenges, I've started gathering the pieces, ordering my fabrics, and dreaming up DIYs. I can't wait to see how this turns out. Fingers crossed that I pull this sucker off.

To see the full roster of this year's participants, check out the Home Depot blog.

Bedroom Built-Ins

We are officially unpacked, and it's such a wonderful feeling! We were down to about six boxes full of books that were awaiting a set of built-in shelves in our bedroom. I wasn't about to DIY this one, so a friend of a friend took on the project and did a beautiful job. Read on for more pics -- including a little before and after.

Tour My Place on Design*Sponge

I'm so excited to have Design*Sponge sharing a sneak peek of our house this week. Probably not a ton of new content for those of you that have been around here a while, but it's the first time pics of my whole house have all been in one place. I'm feelin' pretty proud about the progress we've made. If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know that we actually made a little more progress this weekend, so come back later this week to see what we've done to our bedroom!

Adore Home Magazine Feature

Check out this month's issue of Adore Home Magazine. ...And pay special attention to pages 52 and 53, where you'll see my headboard! Adore Home is chocked full of such bright, beautiful spaces and products, so I can't describe how excited I am to be featured along side such aspirational content!

Try This: Acrylic + Gold Accent Shelf for Design*Sponge

If you've been around here long, you might recognize this project from my workspace tour. Well, this week, I'm sharing how to make the plexi + gold bead accent shelf on Design*Sponge. Hop over to see the full how-to.

My Color Resolution Realized

A couple of weeks ago, I shared my plans to add some dramatic black paint to my bedroom reading nook. I had narrowed it down to a few options. In the end, the black was adventurous enough on its own, so I nixed the idea of a pattern and went with a couple of plain black accent walls.

I used Sherwin-Williams' matte Emerald paint in Tricorn Black. It's a beautiful black with a soft, velvety finish. ...Man oh man, is black paint dramatic?! I do love the way that it really shows off those angles, but I think it's going to take a few more days to fully get used to. Read on for more pics and to share your thoughts.

The Reading Nook + My Color Resolution

On Monday, I shared the current state of my bedroom reading nook and mentioned that I'd like to bring some paint into it somehow. You see, painting in our bedroom is tricky. There are eaves on eaves and angles everywhere, and because our bedroom is sort of lofted and open to the downstairs, the walls extend into the stairwell and even down into the living room. See. Tricky. Once you put paint on one wall, suddenly you're painting half of the house -- ceilings, rafters, and all. I actually love the white in this space and am mostly fine with leaving well enough alone, but I would love to have just a little something in this nook to set it off and accent those cute little angles.

Sherwin-Williams asked me to share my color resolution, and with most of the house freshly painted, my color resolution is rather small and involves the very absence of color. I'm thinking of bringing some bold black paint into this little space. I've narrowed it down to a few potential approaches for the wall around the little window:

• a simple black accent wall (image via Dyanne Wilson Photography)
• something bold and abstract like those brushstroke circles (image via Ferreira Design)
• something bold and geometric like those irregular stripes (image via Lonny)

I think I'm leaning towards the least exciting of the three options, but I'd love to hear your opinion on what I should do! Seriously. Help me.

Oh, and if you follow Sherwin-Williams on Instagram and/or Twitter and share your color resolution with the tag #mycolorresolution, you could win two gallons of paint! Check out all the details here.

Disclaimer: I'm receiving some free paint and supplies from Sherwin-Williams for sharing and making my color resolution a reality (yay!). All opinions are my own.

My Roadside Find Reading Chair

I've wanted a reading nook for years, and now, my friends, I have one! And the centerpiece of my bedroom reading nook is a chair that I found on the side of the road, loaded into my dad's truck, and gave a good makeover. Yup. Read on to see what this guy looked like before and a few more shots of my beloved nook.