A COZY GUEST ROOM

I always want our guests to feel comfortable, welcomed and cozy when they visit our home. When we moved to a larger house in the suburbs of Phoenix we knew we wanted our home to be a place for family and friends to visit with ease. We also wanted enough space for our kids to have their own rooms. This new house is really the perfect entertaining house because it has a total of five bedrooms. With one guest room already complete, we decided to tackle our downstairs bedroom just in time for holiday visits. 

Our downstairs living spaces are designed with a mix of modern and traditional elements with a soft color palette. I wanted to transition a warm and tranquil feeling into this guest room all while staying true to our modern eclectic style. 

The first thing we did was upgrade our guest bed to a mid-century style wooden bed frame. I found this queen size bed at Living Spaces, and fell in love with it for its lines and the price. It's only $395 and they set the bed up in our home. 

Then I found my dream vintage rug from SFrugs.com. It had all of the colors of rust, sage green, blues and creams. They had amazing customer service from shipping the rug to the cleaning process. Finding the right rug for a room is a tall order because it sets the tone for everything else. When I told Ash exactly what I was looking for she found the right style and size rug for me the same day. Definitely check out SFrugs.com and reach out to her if you're on the hunt for something specific. 

Once those items were in place, I picked out a paint color to make the space feel cozier. I love the brightness of all white, but it was looking a bit too bare. I found the perfect soft green hue called "Retreat" by Sherwin-Williams. We used their Emerald line and went with a flat wash to keep it modern. We painted the walls three-quarters of the way up to give it a modern effect and also allow some brightness of the white to remain in the room. 

We furnished the room with a modern, distressed dresser from Living Spaces, and played up the brass accents by finding brass brackets and a marble shelf from Cost Plus World Market. I also fell in love with these black leather ottomans with modern brass legs, and decided to use them as side tables.

We found a live edge table for guests to set their bags on, as well as a distressed blanket ladder to display throws, plants and candles. Guest rooms always have at least one chair in them, and this rattan chair from Living Spaces was just the right size to fit. 

Max Wagner is one of my favorite photographers, and he recently opened a print shop where you can purchased beautifully framed prints of his work. I love the minimalism of this palm tree print, and thought the contemporary style balanced the distressed accents. 

The details of spaces always make rooms feel special. I found twig brass hooks to mount on the wall for bags and hats. I also found a distressed mirror from World Market and hand-blown glass vases to keep the cozy, homey feeling. Soft oatmeal color linen curtains rounded out the room. 

If you know me, lighting is my favorite part of decorating a room, and I found this light that is similar to my Jonathan Adler one on Overstock. We put a dimer to allow our guests to adjust the brightness. I had these a pair of ceramic wall mount pendant lights from Pigeon Toe Ceramics that I had not installed in our old house. I brought them with me, and I was able to install them in this room. They could not have been more perfect. 

I can't wait for my cousins to visit and be our first guests to stay in the room. Though I love my master bedroom, I keep finding myself wanting to spend one night in our guest room just to know what it feels like. Haha! I hope you enjoyed this makeover. Now it's time to conquer our family room! 

SHOP THE LOOK:
Bed
Bed linens
Throw pillows
Rug
Pendant lights
Marble shelf (sold out from World Market)
Brass brackets
Glass vases
Side tables 
Paint "Retreat" by Sherwin-Williams
Brass midcentury light
Blanket ladder
Candles
Dresser (out of stock)
Art work
Twig wall hooks
Mirror
Live edge table
Leather pouf 
Curtains 
Chair

Photos by Rennai Hoefer; This post contains affiliate links; Some items were donated for my use.

REAL TALK REAL MOM | HOLIDAYS

The Real Mom Series is back again, and we're all sharing about holiday traditions that we are either beginning or have already started with our families. I definitely encourage you to read everyone's stories because they are all SO different. Getting diverse perspectives is one of my favorite things about this series. The Effortless Chic, Freutcake, A Daily Something, Parker, Etc., Sacramento Street, Apartment 34, The Refined Woman. 
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What if sometimes you had a tree on Christmas and sometimes you didn't. Would it "feel" like Christmas without the tree for you? What if you ate ham on Thanksgiving instead of turkey? Is it still Thanksgiving? What makes it Thanksgiving afterall? 

When I sat down to write about this topic I thought I didn't have much to say because I didn't grow up with any traditions that we consistently did for the holidays other than the basic things such as opening gifts on Christmas, eating turkey on Thanksgiving and trick-or-treating on Halloween. That's all I have currently established for my kids too with the exception of also attending church on Christmas Eve. 

At first I felt sad thinking about the fact that there was no baking tradition, special book I read, or football game I played, and that I haven't implemented that for my kids. But then I was realized I was feeling sad over expectations of having and doing certain things that come from things and people I don't even know. They come from Pinterest, they come from other families, they come from movies and magazines...I realized that being fairly "tradition-less" was a gift that my parents have given me because it has really freed me to not have major expectations for the holidays. 

Sadly, the word "tradition" is often met with the word "expectation" in this day in age, and specifically in the United States where we have so much. Whether it be a child expecting to always bake cookies every Christmas or an adult making their kids bake cookies, I don't want to pass down the expectation of always doing that just so a holiday can feel like a holiday. 

Instead, the "tradition" I would like to pass down to my children for the holidays is to simply contemplate the holiday they are about to celebrate and then celebrate how they want. Maybe it's throwing an insane birthday party for Jesus's birthday that's decked out with glitter and neon colors and maybe the next is to pick a family to give gifts to. All I know is that this year we plan to trick-or-treat as a family, host a yummy dinner for our extended family for Thanksgiving and this Christmas we may try the polar express. I just hope my kids experience the holidays for which they were intended and that is to have a blast on Halloween by being creative and eating candy, taking a moment to think about all they are thankful for and on Christmas celebrate the birth of their Savior Jesus Christ. If we bake cookies, watch a holiday movie, sing song and happen to ice skating that's so great. I'm all for it, and I think that's awesome that other families do those fun activities. I just hope that isn't the sum of traditions that make the holiday, but, rather, the holiday that brings about the acts of celebration. 

Photo by Rennai Hoefer

FASHION ICON HALLOWEEN COSTUMES

Halloween is on the horizon. Do you have your costume? If you don't I have three simple and affordable ideas to consider thanks to Savers. Last year, we partnered to create a Pinterest costume, unicorn emoji costume and a Starbucks frap costume. This year all of my costumes pay homage to some of the biggest fashion icons of our day.

First, we have the one and only Rachel Zoe. Big round sunglasses, pink lipstick, black and white boho outfit and a lot of jewelry. That's all you need to complete the Rachel Zoe costume. So simple, right?! Of course, if you don't have long blonde hair like my intern, Lauren, then you may need to get a blonde wig. 

Next we have my personal all-time fashion icon, Alexa Chung. Her iconic preppy tomboy style is unmistakable, so a polo buttoned to the top or even a shirt dress like the one I am wearing is perfect. I tied a denim jacket around my waist to add some tomboy casualness to the dress, red lips, short brown hair and funky shoes. 

Last, by not least, the lovely Iris Apfel is most known for her round glasses and over the top layers of jewelry. You always see her in long sleeves and pants too. So, we found a white wig, sweater cape, jacket, slacks, loafers and loads of jewelry at Savers to complete her outfit. 

Be sure to visit your local Savers for all of your Halloween needs including brand new costumes and Halloween decor!

Photos by Rennai Hoefer; product sponsored by Savers

HOME DEPOT STYLE CHALLENGE REVEAL

Welcome to our spooky chic living room thanks to the amazing Halloween decor selection at The Home Depot. I have had a blast decorating for the most creative holiday that we have. It's Elle's favorite holiday, and this is the first time I've ever decorated for Halloween in our new home.

I wanted to stick with whites, grays and black because it really complemented the current style and decor of my living room. The thing with decorating for holidays is that you usually leave the decorations up for a month, so you want to make sure that you love it all that you never tire of it. I was able to create a space I love and my kids love because of variety of products The Home Depot has in their store.

My favorite products from were the skeletons, spider webs and lights. During the day it's chic and at night it's spooky with glowing spider webs, flickering lights and smoke. 

To see the rest of the space and read my process of how I created the room, be sure to visit The Home Depot's blog, http://blog.homedepot.com/spooky-chic-halloween-mantel-decorations/.

Photos by Rennai Hoefer; products used were provided by The Home Depot.

HALLOWEEN CHIC PEEK

Halloween is getting closer, and stores like The Home Depot already have a plethora of decorations to choose from. But, if you're like me, you might not get too excited about decorating the inside of your home with orange, purple and black. So, I've partnered with The Home Depot to share how I do "spooky chic" in our home. Here's a peek, and tomorrow I will reveal our living room. Stay tuned!

Photo by Rennai Hoefer