How to choose your design style {Part 1: Farmhouse Chic}

I have always loved HGTV and would pay for cable even if that were the only channel we received!! As a homeowner and designer, I find a ton of inspiration and ideas by watching the shows on this channel. One of my new favorites - and probably some of yours as well - is Fixer Upper with the Gaines Family in Waco, Texas.

This show appeals to me for many reasons, but one of the top reasons is that Joanna and Chip work together and compliment each other very well - the strength of their marriage and family is portrayed in the show. And, the second is her design style - very clean and refined while still adding unique and classic touches from times past.

I have constantly put effort into our home to make it more clean and refined as well as organized. The light colors, the open spaces and the lack of clutter in the spaces she designs really, really appeal to my senses. Everything has a purpose. Her own farmhouse is also inspirational in that she has inspirational sayings hanging on the walls in every room.

So, what style would I say Joanna Gaines inspires? She calls her style Farmhouse-Chic. A little industrial. A little country. A little modern with its streamlined pieces. But, altogether timeless.

What do I love about this style? Mainly, the open and airy feeling and the unique pieces that make a statement as well as the fact that the chosen pieces serve for form and function.

How do you add touches of this style to your home? 

ONLINE RESOURCES

• Magnolia Homes: Many of the pieces Joanna uses on the show or in her farmhouse are also available for purchase. She also offers Gift Cards. WINK, WINK GARY CHEUNG. A few that I love include Metal Olive Buckets ($18 each), Tall Wavy Basket (from $58), White Canister Set ($38), Adjustable Stool ($145) and Bedtime Prayer Sign ($155) {Declan actually has a bear he received from his grandma that says this saying}     

•  Antique Farmhouse 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Farmhouse Wares: This site also offers unique soaps and pantry items such as herbs and other food items  (also offers gift cards) 

LOCAL RESOURCES

•  The Boutique by No Longer Bound where all purchases go to an awesome cause - to see men free of addiction and building a better life. Items available include custom built barn doors and custom built farmhouse tables. We have purchased a couple of signs from them and well as the Scrabble Letters to spell out Declan's name. In the future, we would love to change our Dining Room back into a Dining Room {Now a playroom} or a Sitting Room for Guest. If we opt for a dining room, we will definitely be saving for a Farmhouse table  from here.  

All monies go back into this program 

We have these to spell "DECLAN"

• Home Goods {Local}All of the items below were on sale at our local Home Goods at the time of this post. They had a large shipment from Broyhill. All of the items except for the furniture pieces were between $6.99 and $24.99!! What a steal!!! 

BLOGGERS TO FOLLOW 

City  Farmhouse 

Thistlewood Farm

Perfectly Imperfect  {She also has an awesome shop}

StoneGable {Lots of DIY Tutorials}

Live Creatively Inspired {Article}
The Farmhouse Porch {Has an Etsy shop}

How have we begun to add Farmhouse Chic to our home?

• Floating DIY shelves in Master Bath {Hubby DIY}
• Lighter colors in our Master and Master Bath {Master Bedroom}
• Board and Batten in our Master Bedroom {Hubby DIY/Photo to Come}
• Lighter colored bedding in Master - Purchased on Sale from {Pottery Barn Outlet}
• Stained Dining Room Table/Covered Chairs {In the works}
• Repurposed Dresser in Entryway {Dresser DIY}
• Pallet Wall in Entryway {Pallet Wall DIY}
• Handmade signs throughout our home {Myself and Boutique by No Longer Bound}
• DIY Coffee Filter Wreath in Half Bath {DIY}
• Storage in the form of baskets, wooden bowls (Heirlooms), Cedar Chest (Heirloom) 

Still in the works for our home are a redo of our dining room table and chairs {Summer 2015} and perhaps some more paint changes {Sorry honey!} 

I am the most excited about moving our playroom upstairs this summer. This new room will be full of industrial, rustic, farmhouse charm. The perfect place for a rough and tumble little boy to play - on rainy days that is. The rest of the summer, we will be making memories and taking adventures outdoors. 

Photos of Food We Ate (All of this deliciousness deserved its own space!)

Dim Sum with Gary's Family
(Sook Sook-Gary's Brother, MaMa -grandma, YeYe -grandpa, and PoPo - Gary's grandmother)

Since being back in the states, we have craved Chinese food - authentic, only available for the most part overseas, Chinese food. So, last night we had a wonderful meal cooked by hubby of curry, rice and egg {Kare Raisu}which we ate at the food court in his parents' building. The Kare Raisu we ate had an egg cooked- sort of like an omelette - in a pan with the ball of rice on top and then it was flipped over onto the plate with the curry. So, so yummy!!

This weekend (older post - we enjoyed our Dim Sum and our trip to IKEA this day) - weather permitting - we have planned a morning of Dim Sum at a restaurant a little further from our house and tea time at a local Asian buns and coffee house called Sweet Hut. Can't Wait!!! We have made a plan from now on to eat Dim Sum at least once a month and invite different friends along.

The day in Hong Kong begins like the day in most other places around the world with people getting out of the house to go to work. But, breakfast in Hong Kong looks very different there than in the States. You can get eggs and oatmeal and toast, but those aren't the most common items found. Our breakfast here wouldn't last long with all of the walking and moving one does in Hong Kong.

Breakfast of Noodles, Beef and Bok Choy with Egg

The most common breakfast at home or out will include Dim Sum, noodles, buns or Breakfast sets at restaurants. If I wanted eggs, I requested them at home or ordered them alongside noodles. You can find cereal and oatmeal in the grocery, but the "Americanized" food tends to be more pricey.

Dim Sum Common Dishes:
Dim Sum is the Chinese equivalent to our southern restaurants that serve food in dishes family style. The dishes are ordered and brought to the table where they are placed on a giant lazy Susan in the center of the table. This is a great way to eat if you are a Chinese food newbie since you will get to try a lot of different things. I love Dim Sum. It is a laid back way to eat, drink tea and visit with friends.

Dim Sum Table 

Congee

Chicken Feet

Pork Blood

I have actually tried most everything there is to try from Dim Sum, including the Pork Blood and Chicken Feet. I do not care for chicken feet as it really is all about the chewing and not really any meat. The Pork Blood actually tastes a lot like beef liver and has the consistency of Tofu. I like both tofu and beef liver so this wasn't a biggie for me.

Congee is a winter staple at our home and it is our equivalent to Chicken Soup when we are sick - Declan loves it! It is so easy and simple to make - only one cup of rice goes a long way. We often add chicken, mushrooms, ginger and scallions to our congee along with the water.

 Other Breakfast:
Buns are served as a Dim Sum dish as well as found as a take and go snack. This article tells a lot about the different types. {Buns}

We also often visited a Chinese Bakery for tea time or for a quick snack for Declan. This website has a lot of mouth watering photos of the bakery items we eat most. {Chinese Pastries}

My favorites are the Red Bean Pastries while Gary loves the Egg Custard Tarts. Declan often went for the Hot Dog or Sponge cake pastries. The Sweet Hut tea and pastry shop is where we find these in the Atlanta area.

Baked Goods (Chinese Buns)

Snacks:

Octopus Balls (Takoyaki)

Gai Daan Tsai (Waffles) 

Chinese Tea Eggs 

Hot Pot for Dinner:
Hot Pot refers to a way of cooking a lot of food in one pot with a boiling soup base. The water is kept boiling hot and items such as meat, fish balls, vegetables and other items are dropped into the pot where it cooks. You then take out what you want and eat it.

7 Layer Pot for Chinese New Year (Already cooked) Included Chicken, Veggies, Abalone)

We enjoyed Hot Pot for our Chinese New Year Meal with all of Gary's family. I will add more photos of family meals when I find them on the computer :)

Upstairs Playroom/Schoolroom (OlioBoard)

We recently transitioned our son to his very own big boy bed!! I know - it is a happy moment knowing he is still our little boy, but he is getting so big so fast!!

Anyway, while shopping at IKEA for his bed (full post on that coming soon), I had somewhat of an epiphany. We were strolling - well not really strolling - but squeezing our way through IKEA on Family Day when we stopped in the section where the hide a beds were. Now, when we first purchased our home and saw the staircase and how hard it was to move furniture upstairs we vowed to NEVER EVER own a hide a bed or a sofa bed as they are called sometimes.

But, on this day - we thought why not? And, here is our reasoning.

Having a little two year old involves having a lot of extra stuff - a lot needed, some probably not. But, as he grows, he takes up more space and so do the amount of items he needs.

He currently has 3 rooms in our home all to himself - his bedroom, his bathroom and our downstairs "dining room" which is his current playroom. Now, when he was a little tike - he was very easily entertained within the confines of the dining room space via baby gates. Now that he is a full head strong two year old, those baby gates are not doing their job. The result - toys EVERYWHERE downstairs. At the end of the day, most of the cars and trucks and trains have found their way into every room of the house.

Our extra bedroom is supposed to be our guest room, but we honestly have a bed in there and the rest is storage - clothes, baby bed and mattress, pictures we have no where to hang.  We have been purging and selling a ton and we still  have a ways to go, but we need to gain more control over our space.

We decided that we really don't need a fully devoted room just for guests (sorry family). We do occasionally have guests during the holidays, but that is pretty much the extent of it. So, getting back to that hide a bed. We decided we will sell the double bed and mattress and some other things we have in our guest room.

We will purchase an L-Shaped low profile sofa with a fold out double bed (whether from IKEA or somewhere else) and place it in the room. This will clear up sooooo much space. I will then move the trestle table and cubbies (hubby made these) from downstairs along with the cubby shelving (also built by hubby) into the room along with all of little D's art supplies, books, puzzles and toys.

If he wants to play downstairs, we will use the bucket system and he will be allowed to fill that bucket with toys to play with downstairs. At the end of the day, it will be filled back up and the toys will be taken back upstairs. This new toy room/activity room will also allow us to have a little quiet preschool area where we can work on learning activities and art activities. We may eventually hang a TV in there on the wall, but as for now TV is a limited commodity at our house.

Room Plans and Mood Board (via OlioBoard):

The above is my first attempt at using OlioBoard to create a Mood Board. I like it, but think using other tools can be somewhat faster unless you use all of the items from the downloaded brands they already have available. Some of the items shown here include:

1. A cute little chalk board/art area for the corner as seen on TheProjectGirl.com and her roundup of spaces from the Utah Parade of Homes 2013 {Definitely DIY}
2.  (2nd Option) Easel that can easily be for chalk or drawing 
3. Industrial shelving as seen on Beneath My Heart {DIY LOVE LOVE LOVE this look}
4. Floor Poufs - these have been popular for a while now, but I just haven't had the time to complete them - Summer project for sure using IKEA Signe Flatwoven rugs in various colors (I chose a red/sage stripe and a black/red stripe). These rugs were $2.99 each!! Of course, the stuffing will be pricey. I will save up my JoAnn's coupons for that. 
5. Pottery Barn Stripe Rug - Pricey at $299 for a 5'x8', but this will be in the playroom so I want something cheap. I have been wanting to paint a canvas rug for a while. Add to my list of Things to Do. 
6. Art Center- Love these rolling carts from IKEA at $30.00, but I already have a thrifted one from my favorite little spot. May repaint it a better color. 
7. Love Love Love the Smart Store system from The Container Store. I will be purchasing a few of these and the Sterilite containers from Target to store his ever growing art supply pile
8. To keep this room a little rustic and boyish, I am going to go for stripes, plaids and woodsey prints. I might even break down and take on the trend of paper mache animal heads on the wall. Maybe....
9. Art will be kept to a minimum because I want this room to be mainly functional. There will be a chalkboard/art roll as well as a magnetic center for letters, numbers, etc. Other art will include family photos, pallet board art (DIY), and maybe some vintage airplane or car paintings. A few of my favorite sayings I have seen recently on DIY signs include, "You are our greatest adventure", "Why fit in when you were born to stand out", "Every good and perfect gift comes from above", "A Little boy is the only thing God can use to make a man", "It was always you." 

So, I am sure my readers are tired of seeing the ever changing "Playroom" Posts, but this home is ever changing. Ever since beginning Dave Ramsey and vowing to pay off all of our debt within the next few years (our house will take a little longer), we have decided to stay in this home for a while and just make it work for us where we are. We don't need more space, we just need less unnecessary items and a little more organization. 

Not quite sure what we will fill the empty dining room space with once we move little man upstairs, but it will either take on its previous dining room roll or will become a keeping/sitting room where we can read or I can paint. 

Thanks for reading. Hope to have some updates and photos soon. Blogging is always the easy part. Finding time to tackle these projects is what gets put on hold. I would much rather be at the part with little D.