Change & Patience

Spring is on its way and I am so excited!!!  It makes us busier at home and ready for projects.  (sorry husband.)  I've been craving changes around our house for a while now & one of the changes I've been wanting to make was to ditch our mantle and stenciling & to basically "undecorate" a bit:

{photo by Helen Norman}

I'll be the first to say that I love our mantle & the stenciling.  My husband, David, spent 3 days doing the stencil by hand during my last pregnancy.  (Don't you love how the biggest projects take place when you're 7 or 8 months pregnant??)    But I also love rearranging my living room.  (like a lot...  )  The sofa can go anywhere but on that mantle wall, and with 2 crazy boys- 4 and 2 yrs old-  I've been craving a more open arrangment and a more modern vibe.

So, a weekend or two ago... down came the mantle, and my (super patient) husband primed & painted over the stencil:

(with a smile....  I know most husbands would be filing at this point so I'm really thankful ;)

I would say the new look is much less "pretty" (and my photos definitely don't look as good as Helen's!) and feels more casual & relaxed, which is what I'm in the mood for.  I'm waiting on a lamp shade for my lamp & need to do some accessorizing so it feels a very bare on the sides/ corners for right now but I'll fix that later...  Here's a photo of it that I took just now & hope you enjoy the toy "styling" Justin worked so hard on this morning:

{Yes, this is how our living room really looks on a daily basis...  if you ever see it "clean" it means we're not home.}

I move stuff around all the time so I'm borrowing the tall glass floor lamp for my bedroom right now & I'll add in a glass table lamp we've had lying around.  I'll play around with end tables when I get some time (ha!) and then I'll probably rearrange again.  If I were to keep the sofa here permanently, I'd probably get a longer one, but I know it's not going to stay in one place  for very long.  I've realized that my house really only undergoes most of its changes during my 3rd trimester of pregnancy.  This "nesting" thing is no joke. 

{Thanks for the help Justin}

My dream plan is to do floor-to-ceiling windows all along the back wall of the living room & dining room with a small iron balcony across the back of the house so we're completely open to the trees behind us but that will have to wait a while. (maybe forever ;)

On another note, I did start planning our "dream" master bathroom & our contractor measured it yesterday for a quote, so who knows? 

Like I said, this nesting thing is no joke.

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