Miss Me?

I know it has been quiet on my little blog for awhile.  Sometimes life gets a little crazy....and this just so happens to be one of those times.  I hope to be back soon!

Break the Bank vs. Cheapskate {PB Lattice Lanterns}

Break the Bank:
Pottery Barn Lattice Ceramic Lantern
$39-79

Cheapskate:
Home Goods Lattice Lanterns
$9.99-14.99

Don't you love a great find!

Fireplace Reveal

Oh man, oh man....I had no idea what I was getting myself (and my husband...and our contractor...and our bricklayer) into!  I had a grand idea of how my handy husband could easily replace our hideous tile on the fireplace with gorgeous tumbled travertine in a weekend.  He was not so sure so I went ahead and found someone that would do it for a pretty fair price.  Long story short, what we found once we did some demo was not a pretty sight!  Our fireplace was not framed right, the actual fireplace was not installed straight or flush and the contractor even found an old DP bottle sitting in the chimney.  Thank God we have never actually had a fire going....we would have probably burned our house down! 

Because of the way the fireplace was installed, they were not going to be able to put the travertine tile on part of it because they were smaller tiles and would buckle up when they tried.  My options were to either leave it with part of the fireplace surround not covered or build up the hearth so that it would cover that area.  I choose the more expensive option, but I am so thrilled I did now that it is complete. 

The process in pictures:

UGLY builder creation:

 Our contractor ;)....

Building up the hearth:

Finally finished (horrible iPhone pics...sorry):

We picked larger 16 x 16 tiles for the top and had them cut down to match the pattern of the smaller tiles:

Before (with all of the old decor from last year):

After (lighter and brighter):

You can see the new paint color, although these pictures are terrible and it looks really yellow...it is not.  When I break out the good camera, I will post more pictures of the room.  Can you also spot the new bamboo shades?  I love them...more on those soon!

Up next for this room...hardwood floors!  Buh-bye ugly carpet!

Linking up at:
http://typeadecorating.blogspot.com
http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/2012/04/wow-us-wednesdays-62.html
http://micheleravendesigns.blogspot.com