The French Sideboard

Oh, French Provincial furniture. I can never seem to get enough of it. My love affair with the Hollywood Regency decorating period started last summer during my Master Bedroom Makeover, and continues to this day. I can still occasionally be found surfing Craigslist for a cheap French Provincial piece to rescue. The serpentine fronts, the curvy lines, the attention to every detail on the piece...there is just no furniture style to match it.

Thus, this project. We have always have always had this "spot" in our kitchen nook/breakfast area that just. needed. something. I could never quite figure out what. The "spot" was basically just a big, blank wall between the kitchen and living room. Placing furniture against it would surely block the walkway into the living room, I thought. So, in my naiveté when we moved in 5 years ago, I slapped a large piece of canned wine bottle art on the wall and called the "spot" finished.

Then came the reading of the DIY blogs, Pinterest, and many, MANY DIY projects. Slowly, I realized how terribly I had finished the "spot." The "spot" had a clear purpose, and its purpose was to host a slim but long sideboard, with open shelves above it.

This is what I knew after reading all the Pinterest decorating things.

To Craigslist, I went. For months I scoured, searched, bargained. I couldn't find a French Provincial sideboard anywhere on the East Coast for less than $200. I started to think my vision might never materialize. The "spot" would always be useless.

Then, as usually happens if you search long enough (a fact which I tend to forget in the frenzy of wanting to finish a project RIGHT NOW), someone posted this beautiful, but desperately in need of a makeover, old girl:

I always name my French pieces (see Antoinette, Herbert, Amelie, and Charles), so we shall call this lady "Juliette."

DIY Z-Gallerie Inspired Ming Box

Like many DIY/furniture/interior design addicts out there, I get the Z Gallerie catalog each month. And also like many of the aforementioned awesome people addicts, I can usually afford to buy little to none of the beautiful products they sell. Thus, when I see something I love, I usually imagine how awesome it would look in my home, let out a great sigh, and flip to the next page. Such was the case when I saw these Z Gallerie Ming Boxes: 


Glimpse of Summer

Since I've been M-I-A for awhile, I thought I'd post some fun pictures of summer. Even though I haven't been blogging, we've still been doing all the summer things these past couple of months. We haven't gone on any vacations yet (Disney is coming up soon), but fun in the sun has definitely not been absent from our lives. Aunt Jamie was nice enough to invite us out to the Mowery farm for a swim back in July, and we happily accepted.

Some wet and wild smiles, coming right up!

First Day of School

I'm back! For now at least. My apologies about the blogging break, it's been a BIZZY summer of work and work play, so my time is limited. I am checking in today, however, because it's the first day of school for my babies, and these photos were simply too cute not to share!

It was quite a morning in our house, but not too chaotic for some nervous smiles for Mommy. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking...

Bashful boy.
He gets that honestly.