Back Porch Dreaming with Arhaus

Living in the country, for me, means living outdoors. Our front porch was somewhere I always gravitated towards, swinging on the porch swing....

Now that we have a barnyard full of animals and a seriously beautiful barn to stare at, I am finding myself (and the rest of the family) spending more and more time on our back porch. 

Each spring, I try to move things around from how I had it arranged the previous year. All the pieces have stayed the same, but rearranging them, brings them new life. This spring was our first time in years buying something new and BIG to add to our family of outdoor furniture. And it was a game changer....

This dining set is not only gorgeous, but so comfortable....it may be coming inside for the winter! Ha, kidding....maybe! 

Our back porch/ deck area is broken into 2 distinct zones. Now that I have claimed this larger deck to be our outdoor dining space, our smaller upper porch area needs to change. This is what it looks like for now.....

Things I do like are the "shutters" and hanging ferns. This little table set is no longer really needed now that we have the larger one. 

And opposite this little dining set is this lounge.....

This is more of the feeling I want in this upper area. I actually do use this quite a bit to read. However, it is lacking in the comfort level. Adding in this old rug and a blanket and pillow has helped amp up the coziness that I crave, but I've been dreaming up some other options. 

Have you ever looked into buying outdoor furniture?? It's so exhausting! There is a furniture store that I have always admired and love looking at online. However, I didn't even realize until recently that they also carried outdoor furniture! And now I am a mama on a mission! 

Have you heard of Arhaus? They are a furniture company who is designing some amazing products, that are so beautiful. From sectional sofas to the most amazing rugs (and you know I'm a rug person!) to anything else you need to complete a room. The company's commitment to our planet , by developing unique and functional pieces out of recycled natural resources, and never using wood from endangered forests is what seals the deal for me! 

I have picked out 3 items that I can't stop dreaming about.  

Starting out with that amazing rug!! Hello!?! It has fringe! And is black/ white!

 Then, I would want 2 matching sofas...I've thought about a sectional, but having 2 sofas gives me more rearranging options, and I can just picture them facing each other...what a great place to take naps!! (And it's called the Wyatt, so we HAVE to have it!!) 

And lastly, that table! I love me a table that is a signature/ statement piece all on it's own. This one reminds me of our table in the coffee room that is my favorite item we own.

These three elements remind me so much of the inside of our home. And I really like when our outdoor spaces are just like that, a reflection of our style. I would be adding in some other items that are our style also...feathers, an outdoor dreamcatcher, pillows, lanterns...  

Arhaus is currently having their Anniversary Sale, I hope some of my dream items can become a reality. Do yourself a favor, and go to their website...you can click here....and do some dreaming of your own. 

These are the last few weeks of summer, and we plan on getting the most out of them as we can. But having a cozy porch this fall is also very exciting!

Follow along on Instagram and Facebook to see all of our daily life here on the farm! And stay tuned for a late summer tour of our home. 

A gift from my husband

Welcome to Irishman Acres....

Ever since we started traveling to the Rocky Mountains and seeing big beautiful ranches they have out west, with entrances announcing their farm or ranch name, I've wanted a similar sign hanging at the end of our driveway. This will help in giving directions to our home now...." turn into Irishman Acres!". 

My handsome husband finally listened and for Christmas this past year, I got it! He designed it and had local metal workers make this large heavy thing! It definitely didn't fit under our Christmas Tree! 

Most women wouldn't be as giddy as I was getting a huge metal sign. My husband knows me so well, and he was just as excited to give this gift as I was to receive it! 

We had to wait until spring to install it at the end of the driveway. The ground had to thaw....and then it was too muddy with the spring rains.....and finally, PROGRESS! 

I wasn't home at the time, and probably a good thing....anytime there is heavy machinery, ladders, and our boys involved, I should not be around!! HA! 

We are loving this new entrance to our farm. Baileyhusband says that he would like to add another pole across the top to steady it even more, I'll let him decide that, sounds like a lot of scary tedious work to me. I, however, do have plans of adding some landscaping around the base of each side. I'm picturing a lot of perennials that bloom in every season. Some iris for spring, lillies and daisies for summer, and mums for fall. I will update here when that is done, hopefully later in the summer/ early fall.

 In the meantime, you can follow us on our Facebook page. Or on Instagram.

Would love to connect with you there! 

Our Farmhouse Laundry Room

I'm so excited about doing laundry.....said no mom ever. But, I will tell you that this update to our messiest room in our home will make it easier to bear. 

I started thinking about ways that would make me enjoy seeing this room 546 times a day. It's our family's entrance/ walk-thru each time we come home. It's where all of life's stuff gets stored (and washed). And I hated it. It was too loud. 

The goal was to make this look like any other room we have in our home....so the door can stay open and guests are free to enter without me being too embarrassed. And maybe, just maybe, the mundane chore of laundry will be a little more enjoyable.

 Remember the dark red walls? The barn tin wall looks so much better now....

Better, right?? And that huge laundry cart has SAVED MY LIFE! 

Now for the mudroom side.....We finally have all the mess tucked away behind doors! This is probably a no-brainer for most people. But we lived with open style lockers for so long that this in itself is a game-changer! 

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Baileyhusband built those doors for us using plywood and trim. Simple, yet very effective! 

Those leather handles? Yep, we got our DIY on and used scraps we had. I love the added color and texture they give to our plain jane doors and cupboards.

The hat hooks on the outside of our lockers had to stay. With 3 boys (sorry, honey I'm including you) living in this house, I desperately need to keep a place for them all to land....instead of the kitchen chairs! 

So this is what it actually looks like with ALL THE HATS...

Still a little busy looking, but I have to choose my battles around here. 

I brought in things that aren't usual laundry decor. I wanted this to be another part of our home that showed our style, but just so happened to have a washer and dryer in it! :) Art, plants, rug, even a pillow...... TEXTURE! 

Using mostly what we already had on hand....leftover white paint from our basement, one of my favorite prints from Vol. 25, macrame plant hanger, pillow, old window, leather scraps, vintage laundry cart, farmhouse bench....and only actually purchasing a new rug from RugsUSA (that was super affordable and is almost always on sale). 

We now have doors on the lockers, YAY!! We kept the cupboards above the washer and dryer, but adding the same leather handles as the lockers helped incorporate them into the room. 

Don't be afraid of re-doing a room in your own home that just is not working for your family. I will be honest that Baileyhusband was not on board at first, I just started painting one day. Of course, I needed his help on many things, so after he saw a little of my vision, and wanting to get this done quickly because of a party this weekend, he joined in and got it done for us! He also just wanted to make sure it was done right.....HA! 

This room doesn't scream at you now, it quietly whispers Welcome Home.

What is missing from any of these photos are all the muddy poopy farm chore boots that we all own. They are usually thrown all over this room. And guys, this room STUNK.  But bringing in this rug has helped (for now) to remind them to TAKE THEM OFF IN THE GARAGE....(said in a nice, non-yelling voice) 

Thanks for stopping by our little blog today, you can follow more of our day to day activities and farm life on our Instagram or Facebook. 

An updated Farmhouse laundry room: the BEFORE

I have shown our laundry room here before. And I remember being quite excited for it at the time. Let's walk down memory lane......

We built these open lockers with hooks for everyone. Put "hat hooks" on the outside of the lockers. I had 3 basket hampers to help sort the laundry that came with 6 people living here. 

We installed some old barn tin on one wall, while painting all of the others a barn red. I kept a large bulletin board to organize all of the kids' school activities. But, it did not stay this pretty.

And I did like this setup, and I was happy with this.......until I wasn't. Then I was NOT HAPPY with it every single day. Even when it was technically clean, which was not very often, I just didn't like that this was our WELCOME TO OUR HOME room. I have been fighting tooth and nail to get guests to use our front door when they come over. I'm done fighting it. And besides, this is the room that our whole family uses as our entrance. Shouldn't it be a welcoming room for us too? 
 My kids have TOO. MUCH. STUFF. Sports equipment, chore boots, school bags, and every single shoe they own ends up getting piled high in this room. The so-called lockers were spilling out onto the floor. I should have taken a picture of what it actually looked like on a daily basis....but I am too embarrassed. 

We aren't going to make MAJOR changes structurally, but this room needed something done to make me like it again..... I am craving light, bright, clean.

We have our big annual 4th of July party here on Saturday. And just like we always do....Let's start a project that we don't have time for??? But let me tell you how proud I will be for everyone to come through this more welcoming entrance. It's still a laundry room and mud room, but now it's pretty too! 

Stay tuned for tomorrow's reveal! 

What Summer Looks like around here

SUMMER IS HERE! 

Since today is the first day of summer, officially, I want to document what ours looks like. Owning a small farm is always at it's busiest right now. The County Fair is next month and we are bringing 5 of our last year's calves with us. So taking care of them, to get them "show ready", is a full-time job in itself. The kids have homemade projects to complete and show in front of a judge also. 

This time of year is really fun, because BABIES....

We had a record number born at Irishman Acres this year....8! And one Mama had a set of twins!! Now Baileyhusband has the daunting task of picking out this year's baby daddies and figuring out when to breed our cows. I told him that he is a cow pimp.. HA! 

The yard, landscaping, etc has always been a huge passion of mine and has become kind of another hobby for me. Mowing our acreage, planting and watering our flowers....and making sure our porches and patios are pretty and cozy (of course). 

Our back porch/ deck has finally received some TLC in the form of fresh stain, and new furniture! (Just don't mind the broken umbrella! It still does the job of keeping us shaded :) And we've already spent a lot of time out here. Even in the morning with my cup of coffee, there is not a better view of our farm than on this porch! 

I looked high and low for an affordable, yet SOFT, outdoor rug. And ultimately used what I had stored in a closet. I've had this rug forever and was gonna throw it away, why not just use it outside? I'm not sad if it only makes it this year out here, and it was FREE! I do bring it in if it's gonna rain, but not a big deal at all. Making our back porch cozy and inviting makes me want to spend more time out here, and draws us all out to rest at night after the chores are done instead of just heading inside to watch TV. 

Our playground is next in my project list, it has not been touched this spring yet as you can see. Our annual big 4th of July Party is coming up and this will look a lot better by then. As well as our sand volleyball...the weeds sure have taken over! 

Our farm is getting something that I never knew I always wanted....a greenhouse! It's actually a gift for our son, Wyatt, he is extremely passionate about horticulture. He and dad are building this (when time allows) and I will definitely be documenting the process here on the blog and can't wait to see it completed! 

In another post, I will show our vegetable gardens that Wyatt has planted and is tending to daily. I'm so glad he is so passionate about this and getting a greenhouse will help him start his seeds even sooner. 

And soon, I will also be posting a summer tour of our home, I realized so much has changed around here and cannot wait to update our Home Tour tab at the top of this page. 

I hope you all are having a great start to your summer....

How to Style Your Shelves

                      

I've recently come across Laurel and Wolf , an online interior design service, and I was challenged to show off a "Shelfie" and how I designed it. I thought that it sounded like a great post to reveal one of my personal shelves we keep in our living room. It's a place we showcase all of the graduates on both sides of our families....so basically all of our nieces and nephews. This is getting so full, however, that when the next one graduates I may be finding somewhere else to display them! 

I was given this awesome graphic to follow if you are new to styling shelves:

So now I will break down how mine were done....

STEP 1: TAKE INVENTORY

These are all of our beautiful nieces' and nephews' senior pictures. I usually use frames that I have on hand, and I love mixing up the finishes. Wood, black, and silver are my favorite mix. Which leads to step 2....

STEP 2: CREATE A COLOR PALETTE

Along with the frame finishes, I used the colors that are naturally found in our home....blue, green, and cream. It keeps the shelves from becoming too busy looking even though they are completely filled. These colors were brought mostly with books. 

STEP 3: BEGIN WITH BOOKS

Books add that level of interest and height to our shelves that are sometimes overlooked. Whenever I am doing styling at home or at someone else's house, I always include books. And in this case, I use them stacked by color. 

The basket of books houses most of our proof albums we get from photographers, it's fun to keep them handy to look back through. Baskets are a great filler on shelves, and a handy catchall when cleanup is needed quickly....ha! 

STEP 4: ADD IN ART

The "ART" in this case is our actual photos of the kids. So this is the part of it that gets tricky for me. I like to mix up the colors of frames, the height of the pics, and because I'm a glutton for punishment and am a little OCD....I didn't want any siblings or same family members being right beside each other. 

I added a picture of our wedding day to the top for height, and because of our large family and all the pictures we have of them, this is the only place we have to put a photo of US. (also, the church we were married in has so much meaning to me, and is showcased beautifully in this picture. The books next to it are bibles that belonged to my parents and a hymnal from this church)

Almost done! But you can see that there is something missing. It needs some fillers and some softness. 

STEP 5: TURN UP THE PERSONALITY

Feathers and lace....two of my favorite design accessories. 

STEP 6: TAKE A STEP BACK

Look at your shelves, do they tell the story that you want them to? Is there something missing? I see that there is something missing on the top shelf. I added in some nests after these pictures were taken for this post. But I am always moving, rearranging, and tweaking everything in this house. 

I have the cutest little rattan boho shelving unit that I picked up at a garage sale earlier this month, you can see it on our Instagram. I cannot wait to style those. 

And by the way, Laurel and Wolf's Pinterest is a new obsession of mine. And this new to me website and blog is a great spot for ideas and inspiration! Please click on over and see for yourself....

I'm off to more baseball games today, I think this busy part of summer is almost over. I have some fun posts planned for the next couple months and, hopefully, if I'm organized enough I can keep this going throughout the school year. 

Thanks for coming onto this little blog of ours, and reading the random thoughts of this busy mama who loves her farm and is obsessed with design!