Summer Tour of Homes

I’m so thrilled that Gina has asked me back for another year of fabulous tours on her Summer Tour of Homes. If you’re coming over from Organizing Made Fun or any of the other beautiful homes on the tour and it’s your first time here, let me just give you a big warm welcome and THANK YOU for stopping by to check out my humble little abode. For those of you that are new, you’ll find around here that things are very little fuss, and everything is on a budget. Our house is a pretty eclectic mix of all of the things we love and that really tell our story as a family. When you walk in, you will know pretty quickly who we are and our personalities. That means lots of photos (LOTS), lots of vintage, antique, and thrifted pieces with a history, lots of handmade and DIY projects, and most of all, spaces that are made for LIVING. So enough about me, come on in and I’ll show you around?

The last few months around here have been spent doing LOTS of yard work and finally getting our yard into decent shape after five years of living here, so not much has changed in our main living areas. If you’re an old friend of MFL, most of this will look pretty familiar.

I did give our barstools a new coat of bright paint and I am SO in love with them!! You can see what they looked like before here. These colors just make me happy and I find myself staring at them at least a couple times a day.

In the dining room, things are always moving around. I simplified the buffet and changed up the shelf just slightly.

Which includes this SUPER awesome vintage lunchbox I found at my grandparents house. I just love it’s chippy, beat-up goodness.

 

You may have noticed the “green” theme running throughout the house. My favorite way to bring in that summer feeling without constantly spending lots of money of fresh flowers is just lots of green. Moss balls and inexpensive faux plants from Ikea are some of my favorites.

(More info on this little DIY cabinet can be found here).

Of course, nothing says summer like things from the ocean. Our shelf that’s home to our sand collection and travel treasures stays pretty much the same all year, but when summer comes, it really fits right in.

 

And not a whole lot of change in the living room since the big overhaul at the beginning of the year. Except, the new (to me) coffee table OF MY DREAMS that I found a couple of days ago on Craigslist. I just want to roll around on it and hug it in all of its old, reclaimed wood glory! Oh, and there’s the dog. She really can’t be bothered to move from her favorite spot just for some photos.

And now, let’s head out to the backyard where we’ve been enjoying the fruits of all of our labor (and by “our” labor, I mean mostly my husband’s). By far, my favorite part of Summer is the nights of sitting by the fire and just hanging out, cocktail in hand.

Just a little summer tip for you: that is a Reese’s candy bar. If you’ve never had a Reese’s s’more, you are missing OUT!!! Go try it. You’re welcome

And finally, the space I’m most excited about this summer: our basement family room. It can get HOT here in the summers, so we spend a lot of time escaping the heat in our basement and watching LOTS and LOTS of baseball. This room has been on my list to finish since we moved in, but since it’s sort of out of the way, it has been really neglected. Basically, it’s the playroom/toy dumping ground. No more. After working on it a little bit in the winter, I finally just finished putting it all together and I’ll be sharing the full reveal sometime next week, but I thought I’d share a couple of peeks.

Well, that’s about it for Summer at our house. Thank you so much for stopping by!! Be sure to head over to the next stop on the tour, Addison’s Wonderland! And go take a look at all of the other beautiful homes on the tour (schedule is below). There’s SO MUCH inspiration for your home!