A Little New Home Feature Tour

Recently I had the opportunity to look at some new homes in my area. I love looking at homes period. I never tire of it and am always critiquing as well as admiring all the aspects used (or not) in homes. Our area is fortunate enough to have some fantastic custom builders. Every year many of them join the Parade of Homes tour and the public non- home shoppers get to view their work. My friend is in the market for a new home and asked me to go home browsing with her this past weekend. I jumped at the chance. Here are just a few home interiors as well as a couple exteriors that caught my eye. I will warn you I did not have my camera on hand and I got many of these pictures off of the MLS listing. The result are pictures that don't come close to doing justice on how gorgeous these homes were IRL. Hopefully you will enjoy them anyway and see past the poor photos. Enjoy!



A lovely Cape Cod Style Home

I love the large wrap around porch on this one.

This dining room caught your eye as soon as you walked through the door. This belongs to the white brick home in the first photo above.

A fun combination of colors for these striped walls. This was just from one of the random homes we looked at that I did not get a picture of the outside of the home for.

I loved this mud room. A clever use of chalk board paint and molding. Perfect for a busy family!

This homes molding and doors as well as some cabinets were all painted a taupe color. It was very striking. This is the inside of that Cape Cod. This home was my favorite and I can't tell you how incredibly stunning it was IRL.

The kitchen of the Cape Cod. The picture falls short.

Another view of this incredible kitchen. Look at the cathedral molding in the glass front cabinet doors. Striking! Although the bones of this home were very traditional the finishes were contemporary at times. Notice the pendant lights and stainless steel sink with their contemporary lines mixed in with the traditional cabinets.

Sigh, this is the master bath of the Cape Cod. The cabinets were stunning and they had over sized crystal knobs on them. The claw foot tub speaks for itself. I think my friend and I may have just gasped out loud when we entered this bath. We both are denying this but I am pretty sure it happened!

Same cape cod home, a jack and Jill bathroom. They allotted plenty of storage above these pedestal sinks by custom building a medicine cabinet that spanned the entire wall area. It had three doors and a lot of shelf space inside. Very clever design and a great way to combat the no storage dilemma of the pedestal sink.

The home with the wrap around porch was fully decorated inside. It had
an upstairs lounge area. Out of the picture there is a wonderful kitchenette with bar.

The dining room of the same home.

This home had a lovely family room done in warm woods.

The kitchen of this home shared the same warm wood with the accent of a black island.

This is the master bathroom of the the white brick home shown in the first photo of this post. It was simply huge. It was also very striking with its black, white and chrome color palette.

You could do some ballroom dancing on this bathroom floor it was so expansive!

Below are just some random pictures from the homes we looked at. I have no pictures for the outside of these homes.

I love the glass feature up high in the doors.

The use of bead board above the hood of this stove top makes the area stand out. Painting it white and keeping the rest of the cabinets the warm wood tone also makes the area a feature.

Placing a tray ceiling above the island is a great way to expand the space in a kitchen. This kitchen had the most beautiful hammered copper farm sink. I could have sworn I got a picture of it but it escapes me.

The master bathroom vanity in this home made storage a feature by flanking the sinks with glass front cabinets.

One more pedestal tub. This time in copper. The shower was a walk through. It had doors on each end and took up the expanse of wall behind the tub area. You can see on the left how the hall on the other side is exposed. There was a shower door on that side too!

Hope you had fun browsing through some new homes with me today. Have a wonderful week!

The Napkin Ring

Hello everyone. I thought I better get back on here and let everyone know that YES my blog is still active. I do apologize for my absence. Summer with three kids at home allows me little time to do my "me stuff". When I am not running them around or getting my occasional tennis match in I am usually rolling into bed at the state of barely making it before my head hits the pillow! Throw in a couple out of town vacations and well you get the picture. It is so kind of y'all to send me your kind words of enquiry and concern. Please know until my kids get back into school which is the end of August here, my blog posts will be random and few. I too can't wait to have the time to do more blogging. I really had planned on doing a tablescape post to share for Tablescape Thursday. I even pulled out a set of plates and some lovely napkins. That is where I got stuck. I really wanted some napkin rings to use for this tablescape. I realized I really don't have a whole lot of napkin rings. Come to think if it while shopping I don't even "see" any huge variety of napkin rings for sale. That quickly led to a mad online search for unique napkin rings. Surprisingly there are not a ton out there. Is the art of the napkin ring a thing of the past? I sure hope not because they are the absolute jewelry and bling to add to your table setting. . I was able to pull some lovely ones out of a hat or as the case would be off of some web sites and thought I would share them with you today. After all the napkin ring is certainly an integral party of the tablescape. First up are the adorable bunny ones above. Aren't they great? I think they would be simply fantastic in an all white table setting. They are indeed the ones I have chosen to purchase on my little shopping spree. These beauties can be found hopping around over at TheFrenchCountryFarm

Now look at these lemon ones! Oh fun and I can just picture them on an outdoor patio setting ala Tuscan style. They look pretty simple and I would bet could even be made quite easily. You can find these at SurlaTable

Parsley , sage, rose, mary and thyme............yes that is right herbs. I love the simplicity of these. They could be used on a table with a lot of texture and natural elements. I somehow can't find them again sadly. I thought I had saved each website I visited during my shopping time but alas could not find the link to these. I just had to share them anyway! Now the following napkin rings below can all be found at Neimanmarcus and horchow . These two sister companies definitely had the largest selection.

I just want to wear these on my fingers. Talk about some bling!

I love these coral ones. They are simply fantastic! Can't you see them on a table with grass cloth place mats and coral and sand center pieces? Maybe some drift wood just for fun?

Chiffon pom poms, what fun! Seriously though as soon as I saw these I immediately thought of some hair bands I used to put in little Miss Whimsy's hair when she was smaller. In fact I am pretty sure they still sell these very hair pieces as Target! I may have to go buy a card of them and use them as napkin rings. Stay tuned!

Beaded beauty in green. This dragonfly certainly has a lot of detail to it. It is pretty.

Crystal chandeliers in napkin ring form! I would love to see these on black napkins. They would be stunning. I can see them on a black and white geometric pattern inspired contemporary table. Tre' Chic!

Last I found these crystal flowers. I thought they were quite feminine and pretty. I like how they placed it on this butterfly embroidered napkin. These were also at surlatable

Thanks for joining me on my napkin ring scouting trip. Which were your favorite? It is hard to choose isn't it? They have inspired me to make some of my own napkin rings. This might just be a fun project to take on. You know with all that extra time I have had on my hands these days! Have a wonderful week and stay cool.

Oh What a Bit Of Paper Can Do!

For today's met Monday I thought I would revisit my first Met Monday. Over the course of my blog, which is still relatively new, I have been asked repeatedly about the harlequin pattern on the back of my bookshelves. Is it painted? Is it Wallpaper? Is it distressed? Since this post was originally done way back when and way before many of you had joined me on a regular basis I had shared the story of my bookcases. Today I am re posting the post that explains how these came to be as well as my powder room ceiling. So to answer your enquires......IT IS WALLPAPER!
One double roll did it all. What impact for thirty or so dollars.

The powder room ceiling after and below before.

I thought I would start my first Met Monday with a project I did a couple years back when we bought this home. I am one that definitely believes in the saying "it is all in the details". I especially think this is true when you are decorating your home. The detail can be large or it can be small and subtle, whichever it is, it is the one thing that can make a room "sing". I think usually it is something a bit unexpected. This particular project really began with a double roll of distressed harlequin wallpaper. I had bought it for my powder room ceiling. Upon returning home with it I quickly realized I needed it and HAD to have it in my bookshelves as well. It is one detail I have been very happy with! The before bath picture already has the walls painted red. But you can see the white ceiling. Kinda blah. That powder room just needed some bling. So I added the harlequin paper. Ever try to get a picture of a 3' X 8' powder room ceiling? Not the easiest but you get the idea! The picture of the built in book case is a bit more obvious on the before and after! Enjoy! To See more wonderful Metamorphosis Monday projects visit Susan at betweennapsontheporch.