Over the past few months as we launched the A Beautiful Mess Podcast, he let me use his room and equipment to record since it has (more than) everything I would need. So next time you listen to an episode, you can picture me sitting in that pink velvet chair talking to Elsie over Skype.

This room in our house has always been Trey’s music room, and when we first moved in we painted a few of the walls black and added a rug we already owned to help with sound quality. Since I’ve been recording in the room, I can’t help but look around the space and feel like it needed a little makeover. There were a few functional upgrades I wanted to make in addition to making the space feel a little more put together. Moral of the story is don’t let me in your space unless you want me to try and redecorate it. Ha.

Here’s what I did:

-Clean and pare down stuff. The room had partially become a catch-all space (like a junk drawer) and had stuff we really didn’t need or use.

-Rearrange the furniture/instruments to create more space/flow. This mainly included moving the drums to the opposite corner and moving some amps and other items around.

-Added a small loveseat that is also a pullout twin bed. We often blow up an air mattress in this room for when nieces stay the night or as we need more beds (not often, but a few times a year).

-Decorate. I went with a green and blush pink palette. It’s the same green paint color (Behr Chard) we used in our living room and the blush pink is a color Trey wears a lot, and it felt nice with the green.

The room feels cozy and super functional and I’m happy to report that both Trey and I love being in the room. Success! I am thinking I am still going to add more of these foam squares to help the sound quality a little more, but other than that I am so, so happy with how this room turned out!

Thanks for letting me share my podcast studio—oh, I mean Trey’s music room with you. xo. Emma

Room Details: Green paint is Behr Chard, rug, loveseat, foam soundproofing squares, pink velvet curtains, pink velvet chair, plug in pendant light, guitar mounts, corner desk is a DIY. My outfit: sweater, jeans, boots.

Credits // Author: Emma Chapman. Photography: Janae Hardy and Emma Chapman. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop. Project Assistance: Ethan Randolph.

It’s taken me a few years to get our kitchen to a place where I feel really happy with it. Although there are still a few things I would change if I could/thought it would be worth it. I’ll tell you those, but first a walk down memory lane.

When we bought our home I LOVED how much space this kitchen had compared to the kitchen in our previous home (see here). Although I loved our little kitchen in our last house, I had too many small appliances to fit in the cabinets, and if Trey and I were both in there cooking it would get crowded pretty quickly. Our current kitchen is so much more spacious and I’m super thankful for it. But other than the space and general layout, I really didn’t like any of the aesthetic choices that came with our home. We pretty much immediately changed the countertops and added a marble tile backsplash. Eventually we changed the floors throughout our home. And at first, I painted all the cabinets white, but then eventually came back around to wanting the lower cabinets black and just the uppers white.

I. am. so. fickle.

But, I love it, so whatever. It’s just paint, OK.

There was a very old trash compactor in the spot where the mini refrigerator is now. I knew we would never use the trash compactor (I don’t even really know how it works, if I’m being honest). And I’ve always wanted a mini refrigerator for beer and wine, although honestly, it’s usually filled with La Croix and Bubbly most of the time. Ha. But other than our main refrigerator, which was a Christmas gift from Trey one year, all the other appliances came with our home. And I am counting down the days until we will have to buy a new dishwasher. Our current one is quite old and in the last couple months the display screen has gone out. Luckily, I know what to press to make it work, so I don’t need the display screen. But I feel like this is probably a sign to start looking at new dishwashers because the day of reckoning is near.

You’ll note I have the same wallpaper in the kitchen that I do in our dining room. Truthfully, this was a happy accident as I just ordered too much. But I like how it visually ties the spaces together.

So although I absolutely LOVE our kitchen, I said there are a few things I would change if I could, and here they are (other than the aging dishwasher). I think if I ever have the chance to choose a gas stove/range over electric, I would prefer gas. Yes, we probably could convert our current electric range, but I don’t know if it would really be worth the expense to me. Idk. Then, I don’t love the layout of our lower cabinets. I wish the corners had lazy Susan’s—I would like some pull out drawers and I would really prefer to have our trash and recycling bins built into the cabinets. Some of these features we could change, or we could completely redo the lower cabinets. But again, I don’t think it’s really worth the expense.

I do think I might swap out our kitchen faucet someday though. I just bought a cheap one when I got our countertops and I haven’t really been happy with it (I actually don’t remember the brand, it’s not something I researched or saved; it might have been American Standard, but honestly I am not sure). The pull down wand no longer tucks up into the faucet anymore and it’s been like that pretty much since we got it. Again, not really a major deal, but just a little annoying when you’re washing dishes or rinsing things.

OK, enough about my kitchen. What about you? Do you have little (or big) features that annoy you in your kitchen? And what are your favorite features??? I’d love to hear! And thanks for letting me share our kitchen with you. xo. Emma

Room details: pendant lights, utensil holders (1 and 2), stand mixer, stools (I spray painted them— they were originally yellow), rug. And my top is from Free People.

Check out My Most Used Kitchen Utensils (and What I Got Rid of) and my Kitchen Must-Haves!

Credits // Author: Emma Chapman. Photography: Janae Hardy. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.

Somewhat unintentionally, our house has become more and more monochromatic over time. I personally love color, and always will. Ha. But when it comes to decor, at least for now, I crave simplicity. I want our home to feel calm and inviting.

I’ve also been going through a pretty major clean out phase as I’ve become more and more obsessed with the KonMari method. But, who hasn’t? Other than our garage (which still needs some work), I feel like I know where every single thing in our home is, what it’s for, and it all sparks joy.

Of course, this paring down of items is an ongoing one (or at least it is in our house). But I’ve found that I love it and it makes me feel so much more relaxed. And, it seems to creep into the decor of our home as well, as it forces me to edit things down to only what I love and feels right in a space.

I feel like you have to look back in order to fully appreciate the present, right? The blurry left photo is what our dining room looked like just after we purchased our home. We fell for this home almost immediately as we are in love with the open floorplan that is the kitchen, dining, front living room, and my office. I love hosting parties in our home as there is just so much space! Although parking is another matter.

Anyway, if you were to play “what’s different in these photos,” you’d probably note right away:
-The floors are different.
-The ceiling is a different shade (I stained it white).
-The built-in cabinet has been painted and updated.
-The chandelier is different.

First, let’s talk about that chandelier. This is the most recent change to this space. I had a more industrial fixture in this spot before (it was something pretty inexpensive I bought off Ebay) and I liked it but didn’t love it. And over time, I just felt like this is THE most prominent chandelier spot in our home and I decided I wanted something that made a little more of a statement.

I also wanted a light that came on a chain because it’s always bothered me how the spot where the light connects to the ceiling is not centered with the built-in cabinet. This just always felt a little visually wrong to me. Of course, it’s not such a major deal that I would want to replace the boards in the ceiling to move it, but with a chain I figured I could just have a sturdy hook and simply hang the light over a little so it was centered. We choose this chandelier and I LOVE it.

I still have the same dining table and chairs I’ve had since moving in. Our glassware collection is sort of always evolving a little, like I recently got those cute little face cups. They are handmade from Oaxaca, Mexico when I went with Thread Caravan on a girls trip earlier this year. I’m not a massive souvenir person, but I love sipping rum from these cups (they are meant for Mezcal).

I also love all the storage that the built-in cabinet in this room provides. I have a drawer filled with craft kits and coloring books that my nieces know as “the craft drawer” and Penny especially will ask what’s in the drawer as soon as she gets to my house.

I also do all my recipe testing and photography for our blog at my house, so I have space for all my different linens and other props. Trey and I also tend to host at least a couple larger dinner parties each year, so I have a LOT of extra plates and things for those parties that I store in this cabinet.

I can’t decide if I’ll host Friendsgiving in my home this year or if we’ll host it at the SGF Bnb house … I guess that’s still a ways away. But I love thinking about it, as it’s one of my favorite “blog features” we do each year.

I also have this entertainment/bar area set up in our dining room. Although I have certainly simplified the decor in our home, I still love to be surrounded by art, so this is one spot where I have a mini gallery wall.

This is also the space that holds our liquor cabinet and bar tools, record player and record collection, many of the cookbooks I use most often (this rotates all the time), and just a few other small items we frequently use. This is also where I store our annual photo albums.

Thanks for letting me share my current dining room with you! Now let’s see if I do this again in a couple years because clearly I cannot leave well enough alone. xo. Emma

Room Details: Chandelier/ Rug: Similar/ Dining Table: DIY / Chairs / Wallpaper / Liquor Cabinet + I added hairpin legs / Gallery art from: our mom, Clare Elsaesser, Vivian Strauss, and paintings in cabinet / Designing Indie. And just in case you are curious, my shirt is from Free People and my shoes are from Target.

I worked with Amazon Home on this refresh. Literally everything inside of the space is from Amazon and I was so pleased with the quality of the furniture and other items we picked out. Trey actually hadn’t seen some of the final selections until they came in the mail and as we were opening up the boxes and setting everything up he kept saying how much he liked everything and how modern it all felt. I couldn’t agree more. You’ll see we also filmed a little video of us putting the space together so you can see how quickly it came together once we had everything. And please note my very lazy supervisor in the video (my pug, Lovers). Ha!

Here’s that supervisor in action. As you can see, he was pretty pleased with how the space turned out too.

Over the summer, we had the canopy on our back patio replaced (from a local company, and it’s custom for the size of our space). The previous canopy had multiple rips, which leaked anytime it rained, a LOT of mold, and also this weird spot where water would pool and just get trapped. Trey and I also didn’t necessarily love the color or stripe design. This was just what came with our home when we bought it and we always knew we’d update it one day when we were ready to invest in a new canopy. So that made a huge difference in the space.

After the new canopy was in, setting up the space was pretty simple and only took one afternoon. Here’s a video of us doing it:

Other than the canopy, our only issue was we didn’t have anything for the space. So there was no seating, no cute accents, no atmosphere—nothing. We wanted outdoor furniture that felt modern in the design but that would also hold up well outside over the years. We also talked about getting a propane fire pit, which again we wanted to look modern and sleek. At our last home, we had built a little outdoor (wood burning) fire pit. Which is such a great feature to have here in the midwest because in the autumn and early spring (sometimes the summer too) it’s a fun thing to sit around with friends and just hang out. But I loved the idea of a propane fire pit this time around because it’s much easier to get going (you literally just press a button) and you can easily control the fire/flame. To me, it’s kind of like having a wood burning fireplace versus a gas fireplace. Although I love the idea of a wood burning fireplace, the truth is I would actually use a gas fireplace much more because it’s so much easier.

We also hung a lot of string lights to give the space a really fun atmosphere in the evenings, which is probably the time of day we will use it most. I also LOVE these giant Rivet planters I got in order to add a few plants to the patio. They have a really nice shape and a nice iron stand. Our backyard leads right up to a forest (we don’t have any neighbors behind our home, just the forest), so there is no shortage of plants around, but it’s nice to have a couple in the space too.

Below, I’ll list every item in the space. Trey and I are so happy with how it turned out and I’m so glad we finally made time to make this space our own. I can’t wait to have friends over for a glass of wine or a hot chocolate this season! xo. Emma

Room Details: Outdoor Couch + Chairs, Fire Pit, Rivet Planters, Throw Pillows, Outdoor Rug, String Lights, Copper Mugs.

Credits // Author and before photos: Emma Chapman. Video: Jared Statler. Music: Jeremy Larson. Photography: Elise Abigail. Project Supervisors: Lovers and Steve (our dogs).

Here is a before and after of this room. Since moving in, we updated the floors and I also hand stained the ceilings to lighten up the space (throughout the whole front of the house, not just this room). We also painted all the walls in our home white, giving it that blank canvas feeling. And obviously the most notable change is the DIY faux living wall.

My file cabinets used to be orange originally, but I added some temporary wallpaper to the front of them this year—a black and white floral design. Other than the living wall, most of the decor and other things in my office space are black and white because I’ve been really digging the boldness of that combo lately.

I do have a few REAL plants in the space. It’s not all fake. Ha! I also sometimes sit in that black chair when I’m needing to think something through or brainstorm and I want to sit away from my computer screen for a while. I got that chair at a flea market while on a gal’s trip to Kansas City a few years ago and I still love it.

I don’t have a lot of art up in my office because I feel like the living wall pretty much takes all your attention anyway. But there are a couple of things in my space right now that I wanted to point out. I’m a blogger, so of course I have a felt letter board. Ha. Right now, it says “Perfection isn’t real,” which might seem like a weird statement, but I dig it. I find this to be encouraging as sometimes projects, posts, work, life, etc., don’t turn out perfect and it’s easy for me to feel discouraged or blame myself and spiral into a little bit of self-hate. But perfection isn’t real, friends. It’s a unicorn. Great idea, but not an actual thing. So I try to remind myself to always do my best and strive to learn and grow but don’t sweat the tiny imperfections or let those things hinder me from moving forward in my work or my life.

And then I also have two of our trademarks hanging up in my office. One for A Beautiful Mess and one for Oui Fresh. I need to get our A Color Story trademark framed and put up there as well. Makes me feel like a real businesswoman.

Thanks for letting me share a little tour of my office with you! xo. Emma

Room Items: Desk, Office Chair, File Cabinets, Diffuser, Arm Chair + Rug/Vintage, Light Fixture. And the photo of Trey and I on my desk was taken by my friend Katie Day and I LOVE it. Makes me smile every time. Ha!

Credits // Author: Emma Chapman. Photography: Janae Hardy. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.

If you want to learn to weave, start here: Weaving for Beginners

You can see what this room looked like when we first moved in, as well as how we had it partially decorated before in this progress report post. Structurally, the room hasn’t really changed, although we did decide to replace the floors last year (so they are lighter now).

Probably the thing that has WAY upped the cozy and functional aspect of this room is the furniture. As you might remember, I had been thinking about getting a sectional for a while, but I was having a hard time committing. I liked how big and cozy they seemed, plus the layout of this room just felt right for a sectional. But I wanted something modern—basically the opposite of the whole your-parents-basement feel. Our sectional (and that super cute pink chair) are both from Joybird and we LOVE them. The fabric we chose for the sectional is pet-friendly, because we allow our dogs on our furniture. And we’ve had the sectional for over four months now and it still looks brand new. And we LOVE all the space. Even though most of the time it’s just me and Trey, we like laying down to watch movies in this room. We’ve also had a few parties (Super Bowl and to watch the Grammys) and we had a bunch of friends over, so the space was awesome for that as well.

We also had a floating shelf installed along the top of two of the walls. I have quite a large book collection and I sort of love how this shelf holds all of them, with some room to grow, but the room still feels very clean and minimal and the walls still had space for some photos. We also have our projector sitting on the shelf as well, making it almost hidden in the room.

We added a dark green accent wall that is directly across from the couch area. This is also where our screen comes down when we are ready to watch a movie.

 the DIY for the faux weaving that hangs above our couch on the blog soon.

We also have a mini gallery wall behind the couch that currently features pictures from our trip to Norway this past year. I’m going to share a little more about these pictures soon!

That’s pretty much it. It doesn’t feel like that much, but this room has come a long way since we moved in. See my empty house video tour here if you want proof. Ha. This is probably the most chill room in our house and we love it. Thanks for letting me share and if you have questions about where things are from I’m gonna link everything below but if I miss something just tell me in the comments and I’ll update it. xo. Emma

Sources: Sectional, Pink chair, White pouf and White pillows/Home Goods. Coffee table, Pink pillows, and Lamp/Amazon. Teal pillows, White throw blanket, and Copper Plant Stand (similar)/Target. Rug/Rugs USA. Cow hide rug/vintage, Magazine holder/DIY. I linked items on the green accent wall here. And you can read all about our projector and screen set up here.

Credits // Author: Emma Chapman. Photography: Janae Hardy. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop. Sectional and chair c/o Joybird.

I was super excited to work with Delta Faucet and The Home Depot on this room renovation. Elsie and I both love Delta Faucet and you may remember the pretty black faucets Elsie used in her Airbnb bathroom, and if not then check it out here. My goal was make our master bathroom feel more like us and also give it a little bit of a spa vibe. I was excited to use the Everly faucets and the two HydroRain 2-in-1 Shower Heads, they were perfect for our space! I was wanting something in the silver/chrome family as well as a design that felt sleek and modern (and a little bit like, well, a spa) and this totally fit the bill. The Everly faucets also resist water spots and fingerprints, which is definitely a bonus when it comes time to clean because they stay cleaner longer! I’ll share where everything in the room is from, but first here’s a few more looks inside the finished bathroom.

I’ve never shared a ton of photos of what our master bathroom looked like before we renovated, so here’s a little before and after for you. (You can see a few more peeks in my empty house video tour, around minute 6:30.)

The space is like a long rectangle with a double shower on one end and water closet (with toilet) on the other, plus a vanity space in the center. Compared to our last home, this bathroom is HUGE and the first two years we lived here we didn’t change anything about the space. We just enjoyed all the room and I plotted to change things out to be more our style later.

Here’s a few more pictures of the the bathroom before. It’s a bit tricky to photograph, so I’m trying to show you as many angles and details as I can throughout this post. Please forgive any weird/mixed lighting.

So as I said, we love how much space this bathroom has. It’s totally amazing to have two sinks and two showers and it makes getting ready in the morning with your spouse too easy. So, loved the space. But what we didn’t really love was how dark the room felt, and very, very beige. We also didn’t love the oversized vanity that was not our style and was so big it was easy to clutter up the cabinets and lose track of things. For how big the room is it felt like we weren’t really utilizing large portions of it, as we never figured out what to do with the space between the vanity and shower. And I never really loved the little half wall that separated the shower from the rest of the room. It just didn’t feel very intentional to me.

We plotted and planned and landed on lots of white, silver/chrome, modern features, and pretty details–plus we aimed to create our own little at-home spa oasis. (How many times will I say “spa” in this post … sorry, just trying to communicate what was in my head for this room. Ha!) And once the plans were in place, I hired my friend Ethan to help me and we dove right into this project.

Here’s a look at the room as we were in the middle of demo. What was going on in my head at this point? I was feeling very sore in places I didn’t even know I had muscles in, and kind of wondering if I’d made a big mistake and bitten off a little more than I could chew. But hey, it’s gotta get worse before it gets better, right?

Also, as a quick side note, remember that large vanity that was not our style? Even though we didn’t love it, it was in great shape and we knew that someone else would. So we donated it to our local chapter of Habitat for Humanity (for the ReStore). I mention that only to say if you’re planning a project like this in your future, remember to donate items when you can to places like HFH or other charitable organizations in your area.

I think we tiled for about a week straight. There’s a LOT of tile in this room. The marble-looking porcelain tile I used is from Home Depot and I really liked working with it. If you remember when we tiled our kitchen backsplash, we used a real marble tile there and I thought porcelain was much easier to work with. Of course, it depends on the look you want, your budget, and what the space will be used for, etc. But if you’re new to tiling I do think porcelain is awesome to work with and a little easier than stone.

We also used a manual tile cutter instead of a tile saw, like we did in our kitchen backsplash. We tried that out because I don’t own a tile saw and renting one for the amount of time we’d need to seemed intimidating. My thoughts? It’s pretty amazing how well it works on porcelain tile, and it’s super safe and not at all intimidating to use. But, I think you can be more precise with a tile saw for a large project like this, so ultimately that is what I would recommend. Now if only I had a time machine.

Meanwhile, we had a few items in the room that were not a DIY and we got those ordered and going before we started in on all that demo and tiling. First, I knew I wanted a marble looking countertop for the new vanity. But I decided to get a marble-looking quartz over real marble, as I wanted something super durable and that would hold up really, really well against any kind of stain, including water stains. And although our vanity is a great size with two sinks, it’s not a whole kitchen counter situation. So we were able to choose a remnant piece (left over stock from another job) that we had to cut to fit our vanity and sinks. I highly recommend this if the option is available to you.

Second, we decided to pull the trigger and remove the half wall that separated the shower from the rest of the room and replace it with one large pane of glass. I used a local glass company in Springfield, MO where I live and I love how it turned out. If you’re local and need a glass guy, email me because I would totally recommend the company I used. They were great!

I guess I won’t give you a total play by play but here is short list of everything we changed in our master bathroom renovation:

-New tile EVERYWHERE and learned that none of the floors or walls in our (1960s built) home are straight
-Moved the vanity lights to fit the new vanity and added new lights
-Painted the walls (color: Behr, Ultra Pure White)
-Painted the trim and washed closet door (color: Behr, Sparrow)
-Got a new vanity, (we used the 60-inch but this is the style) with new sinks and countertop
-Replaced old shower half wall with a large pane of glass
-Added new faucets, shower heads, matching towel racks, hooks, and hand towel rings
-Added small shelf units, artwork, and a plant to make the space feel like home
-Added about 100 baskets for storage; just kidding, it’s only 9 baskets total.

Only freaked out and felt overwhelmed about 3 times throughout … so pretty good.

Sources: Faucets/Home Depot, shower heads/Home Depot, tile/Home Depot, vanity/Home Depot, mirrors, and sconces/Home Depot, shelf units/Home Depot, baskets/World Market, Target, and TJ Maxx. Bath mat and towels/World Market. Black and white print/Randal Ford. Purple kilim rug/Ebay. Bathrobe/IKEA.The blue Lagoon picture taken by me on vacation two years ago. Let me know if I missed anything you want to know about!

Well, we’re at the end of this bathroom reno saga and I must say, I am so so happy with the overall vibe of our master bathroom now. It feels so fresh and modern, and just like a SPA. Ha, I had to get another one in there, friends! Thank you for letting me share. And do you all want me to give a tour of the space on Instagram stories later? Let me know, I’ll even show you the toilet if you really, really need that in your life. xo. Emma

Credits // Author: Emma Chapman. Project Assistant: Ethan Randolph. Photography: Janae Hardy and Emma Chapman.

Before I give you a tour of the room, let’s take a little walk down memory lane …

On the left is what this room looked like right when we moved in to our home about two years ago. You can also see a video tour of the house before we moved in here, if you want to understand the spaces a little better. So, initially the overall layout and structure of this house is what really made me and Trey fall in love with it. It has three bedrooms and two full bathrooms, so it was similar to our last home in that way; but it had WAY more square footage. This was great since I was planning to transition to working from home, so I needed more space for a home office. And I think the extra square footage makes the house ideal for entertaining, which we love to do. I’ve already hosted a few family holidays and also birthdays and other parties in our home, and it’s one of my favorite things!

So, the space rules. But probably the thing that we didn’t love about the house was most of the color choices in it. There was lots of dark wood and black trim/cabinets. Almost all the walls were painted a dark beige. And overall, due to the mature landscaping (aka we have lots of tall trees in our yard) and the fact that the house is partially built into a hill, it’s surprisingly dark inside, especially on rainy days and the winter. So, one big goal we’ve had throughout the house is to lighten it up without necessarily removing any of the features we love (like the wood ceilings in the front living spaces).

Here’s a mini tour of this room from last year. 

You may have seen in this post when I updated you all on the fact that we finally pulled the trigger and had the floors redone. I also spent a few weeks staining the ceilings so they would look more like whitewashed wood. I am VERY afraid of heights so this was a big deal for me. These two updates have made a HUGE difference throughout our house and I think you can really feel it in this room especially.

The room has two main focal points; one being the piano. This is a piano that Trey grew up with from his parents’ home. Trey plays a little bit (he also plays guitar, some drums, and a few other instruments) and I always love to hear him playing the piano randomly in our house. Something about it feels really homey to me. There was really only one space in the house where we felt the piano could fit, but I think it works really well in this space.

I recently added the gold metal frames you see around the piano and I am still on the fence about them. Let me know what you think. My goal was to minimize the look of the vent that’s right in the middle of the wall there (why do vents have to be in the middle of the wall!?), but still allow it to serve its function. I also like how they fill up the space but still feel a bit minimal. But, I must admit, I’ve already painted them three times and I’m still feeling like maybe they aren’t quite right. Next, I’m thinking about painting just the frames white and leaving the inside part gold. Thoughts? I also had a friend (hi Holly!) recommend hanging some macrame over the vent instead as it could also feel minimal (same color as the wall) but still allow air to flow. So I guess I’m thinking on that option too. I’m a bit of a slow decorator if you can’t tell. I like to try things out for a least a few months before I fully commit. Thankfully, I have a pretty patient husband.

We also have quite a few plants in this room. I LOVE plants. Most of them of are real, but a few are fake too, as I don’t discriminate. I recently moved that plant that is hanging in the corner by the piano into this room. If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen that he was getting some yellow leaves and a lot of people suggested I move him to a spot with less direct light (he was in my office before), so now he’s in this room and I think he’s doing better. Hard to say yet.

I also LOVE this giant split leaf plant you see me with above. Two friends of mine were moving to Portland recently and couldn’t take their plants, so they let me come over and buy a bunch of them. I immediately fell in love with this one and I am SO nervous about killing him. Any tips for this kind of plant would be much appreciated!!!!

We also updated the door next to the piano, which leads to the laundry room and garage. The door was pretty standard and dark brown (almost black before), which really drew your eye to that spot and also I think made the room feel a little smaller. So we added trim (similar to this DIY), painted it white, and swapped out the doorknob to a pretty gold one instead. Although it’s kind of minor, I think it all makes a big difference.

You might remember this brown couch from the old ABM studio, if you’ve been following us that long. The leather works really well with our dogs (I let them on all the furniture in the house), even though brown is not always my favorite color. I was super excited to get this green rug, as I think it goes great in the space and makes a great companion to the brown couch.

Ethan recently built this coffee table. I was wanting something similar to this side table I shared years ago, but a different shape and size. I was thinking of having him teach how to make this on ABM. Would you all like that? It’s pretty fun! The plants inside are faux, so you don’t have to water them or anything.

I also love the pink and green throw pillows on this couch, I think they add just the right amount of color in this spot. There’s a photo above the fireplace where Trey is wearing a pink sweater and to me it just all ties together really nice.

If you had seen this room in my last update (here), you’ll notice that I changed out the mantle. It just needed something bigger to feel more balanced. I went with a dark mantel this time but have been considering painting it white. What do you think? Would you paint it white?

I love the green pouf we got as it makes a nice little reading or chill area by the fireplace. I added more candles and I’m excited to light them all some night soon as it just feels like the perfect hot chocolate and cozy socks spot for autumn.

And here you can see how this space connects to our kitchen area. I recently updated our bar stools by spray painting them copper. We have a few gold and copper touches throughout this space, so it just felt right.

That’s basically it. It’s honestly a pretty simple space but all the little updates we’ve been working on lately have finally made it feel like this space has come together—I love it! Thanks for letting me share and please do let me know if you have any tips for caring for any of the plants you see in this room, especially the giant split leaf. I am always looking to keep my plant babies healthy as I am no plant expert (not yet, anyway). xo. Emma

Other Sources: Cactus light (similar), Hanging planter/DIY, Pendant lights/Anthropologie, Curtains/IKEA, Bar stools (painted)/Target

Credits // Author: Emma Chapman, Photography: Janae Hardy and Emma Chapman. The portrait above our fireplace was taken by Elise Randolph. Project assistant: Ethan Randolph.

I am SO excited to share a little tour of our bedroom with you all today! So first, I have a confession. We’ve lived in our home for about two years now and for at least the first six months we had a few moving boxes that just stayed in the bedroom, almost becoming side tables by the time I finally got around to them. Compared to my very talented sister, Elsie (who is currently on track to decorate at least one house every year or something … do they have Guinness World Records for that kind of thing?), I am a slow decorator. I think I just like to live in a space for a little while before I change too much. Plus, you can ask my husband, Trey, but I tend to go through spurts of decorating. Like, I’ll update all the light fixtures in the house, but still manage to not complete any one room in the process. Oh yes, it’s clearly a very efficient process. I do LOVE decorating, it’s really so fun, but I just tend to be a bit slower to get around to it. But one of my goals for this summer was to finally work on our bedroom. We’ve made some progress over the past few years, like I did finally unpack those final few boxes, so I’ll share more on that below. However, I finally feel like our bedroom is in a place that we both really really like. It’s a great feeling.

I also got to work with Parachute on this tour. All of our bedding items are from Parachute, and I’ll link each item specially. One thing I love about their bedding, which you can read in the card above, is they don’t artificially soften (with harsh chemicals) their fabrics, but they are still plenty soft. As soon as I put our new sheets on the bed, that was the first thing Trey commented on—how soft they were. And I had already become a fan of their bedding because it is what Elsie has in her guest bedroom, which I stay in from time to time when I visit her in Nashville. They also just launched a baby collection with crib sheets, which I realize I have no need for at this stage in my life, but it’s SO cute on their site so I’m mentioning it anyway.

So before I inundate you with way too many photos of my bedroom (ha!), let me just share a few “before” pictures that are not all great quality, but at least you can kind of see the process.

When we first moved in, I took photos of the house completely empty (top left), but this bedroom picture turned out a little blurry because it’s a VERY dark room (which is great for sleeping, but not so much waking up—ha ha) and I didn’t use a tripod that day, which I should have. Live and learn. But you can see it pretty well in the empty home tour video I shared a little while ago; just skip ahead to the 5:50 mark if you want to see just our bedroom.

For a while, we put my macrame wall hanging above the bed, and although I love that piece, I read in bed a lot. So I always felt like I was tugging on it when I’d sit against the wall. Therefore, we moved it. We also recently got new floors through the house (see here for more on that), so that’s probably been one of the biggest changes to the space from when we moved in (other than like, actually putting stuff in the space).

I really love this bedroom. It’s a great size and although I miss our vaulted ceilings from our last house, it feels so spacious and has a much larger bathroom and closet, so I can’t complain. But the space really lacked perspective, and it didn’t really have a vibe or really much to say. So that needed to change. Our aim was to create a space that felt cozy but still spacious while also keeping it simple (not too much color and overly stimulating features), yet add some textural touches plus a little life. I kept thinking that I wanted it to feel a little bit minimal mixed with 1970s—so a minimal hippie, I guess. Let me show you a few different areas in the room so you can see what I mean.

I opted to add simple bedside shelves instead of side tables, plus we each have our own bedside sconce. I read in bed pretty often, I think it can help prepare your mind for sleep better than scrolling on IG (although I must admit I do that sometimes, too). But I love having my own light on my side of the bed so I can still read, even if Trey is going to sleep. Although it’s often the other way around, as he’s more of a night owl than me.

Above our bed we’ve hung a painting my mother made for us a few years ago. It’s a pretty special painting to me because my mom is a very talented abstract artist, but she mostly works in a lot of color. However, she made me a special (mostly black and white) painting upon request because I tend to decorate with a lot of black and white. I also really just love having abstract paintings in decor because I feel like they start to take on new shapes or meaning over time. I had moved this from our living room into the bedroom as I was working on that space, and I told my mom that during that process I started to think the painting kind of looked like a figure is punching up into the air, which I had never noticed or thought before. Do you see it?

These are our linen pillowcases, and I love having multiple shams and pillows on our bed. This lumbar one is so pretty! It’s Trey’s favorite, too. And even though we have quite a few pillows on the bed, it takes seconds to remove them and put them back the next day, and makes the space feel so much more luxurious, like a hotel room. Totally worth the extra few seconds, if you ask me!

To the side of the bed I added a small shelf for pictures to hang. Currently, I have a series of a geyser erupting that I took while we visited Iceland two years ago. Trey and I both really, really loved Iceland, so I love having photos from that trip around. If you ever get a chance to visit that magical country, you totally should—it’s just SO unique looking there.

We also added a few little plant babies to this side of the room, to add a little life. One of them I’ve had for a few years and the other is new, so fingers crossed I can keep them alive and thriving. I love plants, but plants don’t always seem to love me. Ha!

Both the dresser and the lamp are projects I shared on the blog as DIY’s, and they’re still going strong! The comfy throw on the bed is from Parachute, the copper planter is from Target, and the chair is from Amazon.

The beautiful flamingo print is from Arielle Vey, and I LOVE every single thing in her print shop.

The other side of the bed is even more exciting. So first, you can see that I moved the macrame hanging over there, plus it got a trim sometime last year. Originally, it was a curtain I used for a closet in our last house, but since then it’s become more of a wall hanging. So I decided to cut the bottom edge so it would feel more like a decor piece rather than a curtain. And speaking of ropes, can you spot them all in these photos? Yes, I guess our bedroom has a little bit of rope/macrame theme to it. I created the hanging light fixture that is above our bed, and we also have a small hanging shelf with plants in the corner. I bought mine but you can also learn to make your own here. The tree stump side table is also a DIY project.

And the giant green and cream weaving is something I commissioned Rachel Denbow to make us. Originally, I had planned to hang it above our fireplace, but after having it there for a few months it just didn’t feel right. So it now has a new home in the bedroom where I get to see and enjoy it even more, so that works out!

Elise helped me photograph this space, so of course I made her cheese it up with me for a photo. Thanks for letting me share our bedroom with you all! xo. Emma

Credits // Author: Emma Chapman. Project assistant: Ethan Randolph. Photography: Elise Abigail and Emma Chapman.

But there are a number of factors that make the space surprisingly dark. First, we have quite a few large, mature trees in our backyard and even a few in the front. We had one removed last year (it was dead and very close to our garage, so one good ice storm could have knocked it into our house), but don’t plan to remove anymore unless they become unhealthy. But the main two factors are we had very dark brown wood laminate floors throughout the house, and second, in the main living areas we have wood ceilings that aren’t really super dark, but make the space much darker than if we had traditional white textured ceilings or something.

I thought about the floors forever. Basically, I felt a lot of guilt around getting rid of (and buying new) floors since ours were in good shape and likely pretty new. But they were the exact opposite color I’d want if I had chosen them. And then the wood ceilings were a real struggle. The ceilings were really something that caught the eye of both Trey and I when we first saw the house. But after living with the ceilings awhile, I guess I started to feel that the rustic, yellow look just wasn’t something I really liked all the time. I think it’s kind of like when you see a friend wear a really interesting cut dress, but then you try it on and it’s just not right for you. That’s how I felt about the ceilings; they are cool, just maybe not something I really wanted. But changing them would be a much bigger commitment than buying a new dress.

So Trey and I talked about these things for a long time, basically the last few years. And we finally decided that if we felt this was the house we plan to stay in for a long time, then we might as well really make it our own (on a timeline we can afford, so not everything at once).

First, let’s talk about the ceiling. I got a quote from a contractor we love to work with and after realizing how (mostly) simple the process was going to be, I decided that I would just stain the ceilings myself. I still don’t know if the wood on our ceilings was ever sealed. I’ve had multiple people look at it with me, including a few professionals. It seemed like it wasn’t sealed, just raw wood. However, I guess none of us believe it since that seemed kind of lazy. Still, it did look good, so I can see why the last homeowner left them that way. So I decided to just test a few pieces and get my process down on staining it. I wanted it to look kind of whitewashed, so you’d still see all the wood grain, but the overall tone/look would be softer and whiter. My friend Mara sent me a link to this house and immediately realized that’s pretty much what I was envisioning.

Our ceilings are 12 feet high at the tallest point, so I have to work on a (rented) scaffolding as I stain. I am doing the whole thing by hand, with stain sponges and rags, because I have more control that way and it’s hard enough to get it looking even when you’re sort of working upside down. Plus, I’m pretty afraid of heights. I just try not to look down when I’m doing the higher parts. I’ve been using Minwax water-based wood stain. They have a clear tint base you can add colors to and I added a white shade called Marshmallow (it’s a cooler white). I’m currently halfway done and probably will just need to rent the scaffolding for another week to finish it up soon. I’m overall really happy with it in person, but I think in photos the effect is much less noticeable. Sort of an optical illusion in that way, I guess.

Here you can see a side-by-side comparison, as I’m only half done so far. I think once I’m totally done it will be hard to even tell a big difference, but as you can see, it’s there! And it makes the space feel a little brighter and less warm/yellow-y.

We had the floors redone by our contractor and his team. The flooring I choose is this in San Marco Oak and I am REALLY happy with it. I actually can’t believe it took me so long to do it because I am seriously over-the-moon happy with the floors. They make the house feel SO different. And in case you are curious, we donated our old floors to our Habitat for Humanity ReStore, as a really large portion of them were in great shape and uncut. So they could easily be useful for other homes or a few rooms, at least.

So that’s a little update on our house. If you follow me on IG (@emmaredvelvet), you may have seen lots of peeks of the house while it was in progress. And I’m hoping to finish the ceilings this coming week, so maybe I’ll post a few more from my perch on the scaffolding or something. Thanks for letting me share! xo. Emma

Credits // Author and Photography: Emma Chapman. Photos edited with the A Beautiful Mess actions.