Basement Bar and Mancave

A few months ago, we previewed the work Rob had done on his basement bar.  I'm so excited to share the completed product!  He has done a great job turning the basement into his dream man cave and turned a pile of 2x4 boards into a beautiful bar.  We still plan to add a back bar (already started) and a wood plank wall (which will cover those pesky TV wires).  Check out his hard work below!

I love the color Rob chose to stain the the bar tops and brackets.  He also added trim to complete the look.

I love the contrast of the dark bar top with the stone.  In the back he built drawers and cabinets into the bar!  I'm so impressed by his craftsmanship! 

He even made one of the cabinet spaces into a drawer for a trashcan:)

Of course, we had to get some things on the wall.  Rob is a huge fan of Huey Lewis and has an autographed cassette tape that we framed.

It fits perfectly by the stairwell.  Rob has had the Coca-Cola mirror sitting in storage since I've known him, it was a great addition to this wall!

Our basement is also decked out with anything related to the Florida Gators, including this cooler!

Last year, I found a Calendar that had photos of Vintage Florida Gator Football Programs.  We took the photos we liked and put them into matted frames for some more wall decor.

I love the retro look of the programs!

At first I was hesitant about adding this bar area to the basement.  I felt the same way about the projector screen but I'm happy to say that we have had a lot of use out of these spaces!  They are great for entertaining!  

Formal Living Room

We have been in the house now for 10 months with a lonely looking formal living room.  Literally - lonely and completely empty.  We have been blessed to have furniture that we love throughout the house but our formal living room held nothing.  This is the first room people see when they walk through the house and it should welcome guests into our home.  However, most people thought we had not moved in yet!  Luckily, we had a recent furniture delivery.  The room is starting to fill up and I could not be more excited to share it!   

We went with a love-seat and two accent chairs for the room.  Most of our furniture is neutral and we decided to add some pop to the room with the chairs!  I second guessed the chair pattern (as I obviously love gray and beige everything) and almost called to change the order.  Rob talked me into committing to the pattern and I love it!

Here is a close up of the love seat - and I love the pin-tuck detailing :)

Fudge wanted in on the action. 

The chairs back up to our entryway.  We recently added that mirror and will want to add a small table soon.  

The texture is awesome too!

Now that we have furniture here I am feeling a little more complete.  But of course, I want to keep adding and we'll get there.  Placement of our furniture helps us in figuring out what else we will put in the room.  For now, I like to sit up here in the morning, enjoy a cup of coffee, and admire our new furniture!  

Tell me what you think - did I make the right choice with keeping the pattern on the chairs?

Fall Dining Room

I am the worst!  It has been a few months since my last blog post as we have been quite busy.  Rob started his new job in June and I decided to follow suite and applied for a new job too.  After applying, interviewing, and receiving a job offer, I am excited to say that I am now working in HR for a company that I truly believe in!  That being said, I have been focused on learning the in's and out's of my new job and the blog and decorating the house fell to the back burner.  But I'm back!  We have started to work on a few updates here and will be excited to celebrate the upcoming holidays for the first time as home owners and newlyweds!  Many updates on the blog to come but check out what we have been up to!

So, this may be a few days late but I wanted to show you our Halloween dining room!  Although there is only one element tied to Halloween so we will keep this as our Fall/Thanksgiving setup until the Christmas decor comes out.  

We kept the dining room table pretty simple.  I'm still not ready to commit to a tablecloth because I don't want to cover the wood detail of the table. 

I found these beautiful gold accented candle holders and just added a few fake pumpkins to accent.  I originally had real pumpkins on there but was afraid they would stain the table.  I can just store and use these pumpkins for years to come! 

The buffet is one of my favorite things to decorate!

I'm so happy we purchased the glass cloches since they can be updated for any season.  Again, I had real pumpkins in there but the glass started to fog up - eek!  So I replaced with a fake pumpkin and a candle.  I had an 8x10 canvas so just took some gray paint and wrote 'Trick or Treat'.

The feathers in the growler were a last minute add on.  They were part of a birthday bouquet I received and I just plucked them out and threw them in as an accent!

I love our fall tablescape but I'm pretty excited to get Christmas decor going!  I usually wait until the day after Thanksgiving to start but we celebrated Christmas in temp housing last year so I feel like we can make up for it by starting early this year!  How early is too early?  When do you plan to start Christmas decorating?