DIY : Something Up On My Door

I have this one habit, that could be perceived as being creepy - that is peeking at the houses while I am out and about - be it a car ride or neighborhood walk or even a TV show - if there is a house I am sure to give it a good look. When I first came to US, one of the first things that I started noticing - besides clean roads and lush lawns was the wreaths hanging on houses - on most of them anyway. That is one thing you wouldn't see much in India - you dont hang stuff on doors there other than may be nameplates. But I loved the tradition nonetheless.

A door hanger was the first thing I thought of, made, hung up - in this new house. I know that be it design or decor or organizing - door hanger isn't really the first thing you need. One doesn't really need it either. But for me, somehow it was important to have something up on my door. A feeling that without it, it isn't home yet. Freak! I may be!

I had base wreath and many wreath making supplies in my DIY stash. But for reasons unknown I didn't make one in advance. I wanted one that is close to nature and I love the look of magnolia leaves or olive leaves on the doors - Like this one above. But they were way out of budget and I needed one quickly. That is when I spotted this basket on clearance from Home Goods. I just got it home without any clear direction.

It is funny that making a wreath was one thing that forced me to unpack my decor/craft stash faster than expected. A thorough search brought out these faux yellow leaf stems, a bird and some dried flowers that were part of potpourri. The glue gun and the wreath hanger were the only other things I needed to make something unique for our door.

Only thing I did was to tuck the yellow stems tightly inside the basket and glue on the faux flowers and bird in place. Boom - you have your one of a kind door hanger. It could easily be wall decor - so it is safe to say that they might find a new place inside the home when season calls for.

Here is a visual of our door from farther -

So that is how this pretty ended up on my door. What do you have one your door? Do you make DIY or buy them? Spill all about your door secrets here, I love to hear them.

Cheers,
Anima

New House : Entryway Tour

"First impressions may be wrong but they are nevertheless important" 

- David Hicks

If what the famous interior designer Hicks said is true, our front doors and entryways have a tough job to do. They have to deliver beautiful first impressions to the guests and at the same time serve us - those who live there right and well. Historically a foyer is the transitional space that allows the flow between the outside world and the home be as smooth and calm. And when I started thinking of our entryway, that is the feel I wanted to achieve - that it be a threshold where you leave the stress, heat, humidity or cold vibes and transition into the safety of our home.

Many of us are lucky to have a dedicated foyer - but those who don't have one still can carve out a small niche to serve as the entry station. For me the small corner by the stairs is that niche. I had pinned images and drawn out plans well in advance here - we had about 3 months of time to plan from the time we chose the model to the time the house was built and handed over. I wrote about my inspirations here a few days ago. So truth be told I had plenty of time but a meager budget. But I believe in David Hicks here again. He said -

" Good design is in no way dependent on money. Spend minimum of money and yet gain maximum of effect"

So that is what you are going to see here. I haven't used a lot of furniture pieces or decorations and those bare decorations that are there could be easily changed out for season changes and mood swings. But yet it is functional and suitable for our family and how we live. That is the goal right.

Before we proceed to the current view here is the before shot of this corner.

First thing I did was to create a mood board. The primary elements - the hooks, the shoe rack and the mirror was chosen before hand and art was chosen for its colors and perfection.

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 And here is the after :-)

The art here is a free printable from Burlap and Blue - Linda creates beautiful yet minimal printable and shares free versions from time to time. If you are looking for some colorful budget friendly art - do check her out. The big frame is  from Target  that I had from years ago and  smaller one is from IKEA ( the art in there is an old calendar).

Is the space going to stay this way? Probably until the one year warranty period is over - I would love to wall-paper it or cover it with fabric or even some unique stencil? Choices are plenty and imagination wild . Let us see.

So that concludes the tour of this small entryway. Hope you enjoyed. Do throw in your thoughts and suggestions, it is a pleasure to hear from all of you.

See you soon,
Anima

Our Starter Lawn and Entryway and then a Garden Party

It is hard to believe that we are already on the fag end of 2016 summer. With all I know, August will pass in a flash and schools would re-open and we would be celebrating yet another Halloween. While all these seem routine, for us everything is new. It has just been two weeks in this new home of ours, and here I am celebrating a Garden Party already :-)

Please join me on this fabulous party hosted by Ursula of Home Made By Carmona and be inspired with some outstanding outdoor spaces.

Now, a very hearty welcome to all those who are new over here. I am Anima, formerly a software engineer with no clue on what was going on around me - turned mother, home maker and a design enthusiast and student. I live in Aldie, Virginia with my small family in a sub-urban builder spec home. We moved just a couple of weeks ago and this is a story of our newly laid out starter garden.

Well, I am not really sure if we can call our lawn, a garden yet, because it is still in its initial days, with a number of patches yet to turn green. Have you ever imagined the amount of work it takes to build those lush green lawns in the neighborhood homes? I never really thought about it until we were thrown an almost golden lawn at our faces and asked to water it, nurture it and turn it into green. It is scary for a black thumbed one like me. .

As of now, we are advised to water it, given the temperature twice a day. Early mornings are the best time to water, so we start around 6 and it goes on until 8 and evening we do it around the time of sunset. Ours is a fairly large backyard that is open to neighbors and while we are not allowed to dig or build on it for initial months when it is under warranty period, all I could do to feel at home was to set up a few plants in the front entry. And that is what I did. A little curb appeal doesn't hurt anyone right? How do you add a little pretty when there is no much budget or time? Let us find out.

The front Door - As I said earlier - there are limitations on me as how far I can play with the things around here - so anything I add must be cosmetic. What better way to decorate your front door than a cutie wreath?

I made this pretty and functional planter with the help of a tutorial from Home Depot. If you are not aware, they conduct weekly workshops for small DIYs which I have found to be very useful. This was supposed to be house number display plate, but since I do have house numbers displayed prominently on a number of spots, I just turned it to be a welcome message board. More on that in another post - that is when I figure out how to put that up on our vinyl siding ( Couldn't find a suitable hook - and drilling is a non-starter with my husband.) Any help there from you would be highly appreciated.

Here are some of different angles of the yard and some close-up shots for your entertainment. :-)

Here is a glimpse of the street.

And some pinwheels - must have for summer right? Even though they magically disappear when ever my little one is out and about :-)

With that we conclude this impromptu garden tour. Please do come back to enjoy some of my easy, frugal tweaks to get this builder spec home into one with charm, personality and character and lots of love and happiness.

And before you go, do check out all these wonderful spaces.