Home Decor Finds from the Chicago Burbs

Last weekend, Trent and I took a trip up to the Chicago suburbs to visit Haley and Dan. It was the first time seeing their apartment in Batavia, and we had a little time while we were up there to shop, and go to all the stores we only get to go to maybe once a year, like IKEA, World Market, Anthropologie, Crate & Barrel, and HomeGoods.

I made out pretty well, I have to say. We had quite the trunk full. Today I'm sharing my loot with you all! (And the links to where you can find them online for yourself).

First up, I picked up this fun frame from IKEA (in Bolingbrook) - the KVILL frame. I am hoping to put this one somewhere in the living room, but I am not sure of the exact location yet, so it's still sitting its wrapping on the side table. I think I may print one of our engagement photos to put in here....

You can find it online here for $4.99. I love how super cheap IKEA frames are! I also picked up two gold frames (also from IKEA) to flank the TV, since my Robin's egg blue ones are more for spring/summer. These gold ones are super stylish and perfect for the fall and winter months. These are the VIRSERUM frame, also $4.99 - here's the link.

I'm starting to bring some gold into my living room color scheme. I've been loving the gold, antiquey look lately. In the photo below, you can see that I finally found something to hang on my YHL Bee hook! Some pretty brass keys from World Market.

 

Love them. Haley picked up the same ones to hang in her apartment. I knew I had a random hook on the wall for something. Here's the online link, although I think online it's selling all three finishes - I just got the gold keys and they were $7.99.

My third new gold living room decor item is also from World Market. I was super excited about this one, and I LOVE it:

It's a gold mirrored coffee table tray! It looks super expensive, but was only $29.99. That's like the cost of a Target pillow.

I've been looking for a tray for my coffee table for quite a while now. I'm probably going to rearrange some books and all that jazz, but for now, I plopped it on here, and I'm pretty happy with how it's looking for the time being.

What's funny is that at the store, there was a little sticker by it that said "One of the Top Pinned on Pinterest." Of course I was curious and had to look up this tray on Pinterest to see what I found...

It was quite a popular pin! This one is my favorite:

Haha. Love it. Here's the online link to buy it. I also picked up a little giraffe jewelry holder at World Market, which I forgot to take a picture of, but if you search it on Pinterest, there is a set of the giraffe and an elephant one, which are both super cute.

One of my favorite stores that we got to visit is Anthropologie. We went to the new one in downtown Naperville. I just love that store, even though a lot of things in there are so out of my budget. We don't have one around here, so every time I go there I feel like I should splurge on a few things. Their home decor items are just so unique!

I picked up a few kitchen decor items - first, a couple of monogram mugs, which I have seen before online, and love!

And perhaps my favorite item that I picked up from Anthropologie is this plate, which I've had on my wish list for a very long time!

I just love the design. It looks so vintage and hand painted, and I love the colors together in this one.

Another unique Anthro item is this "K," which is actually made from an old book. Each letter is handmade, and it is an actual Readers Digest book:

You can get them online here.

Finally, at IKEA we also got plenty of practical items, like always. Baking pans and cookie sheets...and a new full-length mirror for the bedroom!

Not sure if I have a picture of our old one, but it was smaller than this one and leaned against the wall. We had to bend down to actually see our heads in that one, and it was definitely time for a new mirror up in here! It's simple and clear, and I love it. Trent hung it up this week. Its IKEA name is STAVE, but we like to call him Steve. You can get Steve online here - it was $40 in the store.

So that's most of my home decor loot from last weekend! I left HomeGoods and Crate & Barrel empty handed. I think I did pretty good though, right?

Anthropologie Faves

Are you as familiar with Anthropologie as I am? If you're like me, you drool at every unique, detailed, well-crafted item in the store. Unfortunately I don't even live near an Anthro store, so I'm forced to shop via the world wide web or visit on special occasions. Some of the decor items are out of my price range, but I assure you that all items are definitely timeless, amazing additions to any home! So many quirky and fun items and accessories - home and jewelry both! I'm hoping to do many more posts like this - featuring my favorite items from some of my favorite home decor shops. So today I'm sharing with you some of my Anthropologie favorites as of late. Go ahead, click on the links and pin/shop your brains out! I love me some Anthro.

left: Gila Euro Sham  |   right: Verdant Canister

left: Effervesce Stemless Wine Glass  |   right: Evening Blossom Knob

left: Hobnail Pitcher  |   right: Dauphine Pendant Lamp

left: Gilded Bunny Print  |   right: Gallus Pitcher

left: Mirrored Vanity Tray  |   right: Painted Amaryllis Measuring Cups

left: Palisade Dinner Plate  |   right: Rhododendron Chandelier

What are your favorites? I think everyone needs something Anthropologie in their home. I know I love my owl knob! On another note, I'm hoping the weather warms up a little soon..and by "warms up" I mean gets above zero degrees! Ha!

For the Birds

I kind of have a thing for bird decor. Birds are on my living room pillows. Owls are scattered throughout my kitchen. And lately I've been seeing a lot of cute bird-related finds in the stores. So I thought I'd compile some of these items right here. All cute. All very birdy.

Owl bookends from Z Gallerie - Set of 2 for $29.95. Not too shabby!

Love Anthropologie pillows. Too bad most are way out of my price range! Check out these birdy pillows here and here.

Bird Serving bowls from West Elm - Love the one with the bright yellow feathers.

Owl hook from Anthropologie. THIS would be so fun to have! *cough*Anniversary present*cough* Trent, were you listening? Ha.

These paper maché bird mountings from West Elm are possibly the most interesting home decor item I've come across in a while...I haven't decided whether or not they would be borderline creepy in person. However, I quite possibly would still TOTALLY get one.

Society6 has THE best pillows ever. The artwork on the site is so unique and so awesome. Check out this robin pillow here.

Lastly, I leave you with this amazing parrot figurine from Target which I have been obsessing over for the past few months and is no longer available online or in store. Tear.

Knobby Business

We've been thinking about replacing the knobs in our kitchen as of late. When we gave it a mini makeover back in 2011, We changed out some of the cabinet handles for new ones, but we left the knobs as-is (just cleaned and polished them up a bit), knowing we'd probably get new ones eventually. We're definitely not going to have these cabinets forever. Once we get the foundation fixed and are free to completely renovate the kitchen, we want to gut it and get new everything. But for now, we're stuck with old cabinets that need a little love.

So the other day, when I saw this post on the blog Young House Love, which mentioned an app where you could take a photo of your cabinets and then "try on" different knobs to see which ones looked the best - it felt like perfect timing! The app is Liberty Hardware's C-It Visualizer App - I tried it out on my iPad, and while it's of course not a perfect representation of what the knob will look like on your cabinets, it definitely gives you an idea. Let's face it though.. it's really more fun than anything :)
Here's one of the photos I captured:



I'm kind of obsessed with glass knobs right now so I tried a lot of those :) Trent's not a fan, though. haha.

I even tried the app in the living room with our TV cabinet. I've been wanting to replace those plain old boring knobs, too. And of course I tried glass ones again!


But I think in the living room it might be nice to have a pop of color, or even those knobs with the little pendants hanging down. I love the look of those, too.

We looked at the cabinet knobs in Hobby Lobby this past weekend and there were some nice ones. But of course I LOVE Anthropologie knobs. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Mother-of-Pearl Knob
2. Lisbon Knob
3. Gemstone Knob
4. Ripe Melon Pull

So many choices. Of course anything will be better than what is there now! So boring! We need some pops of color or interest. The hunt continues.

And actually, compiling the images of these knobs gives me an idea to Photoshop the knobs onto the picture of the cabinets! Duh. I just may try that now....

Owl-y Business

So, this is just a little fun post I wanted to do before I share about the kitchen and the hallway renovation stuff. Sound ok? Good. If you take a look at my header, you'll see that there is a cute little owl in the corner (See it?). Well, I happen to have a little collection going with decorative owls. As in, they're pretty much my favorite. And they are scattered around the house like little helpers.  

Allow me to explain:

1. This owl sits on one of the little shelves in the kitchen. It has a place for a candle behind it.

2. This white ceramic owl also sits on one of the kitchen shelves. He keeps watch over the sink I suppose.

3. This is my Scentsy owl! If you haven't seen it in action, here you go:

Isn't it magical?

4. This owl sits on the phone table in the kitchen and keeps all the notes and pens for important messages, to-do lists, and the like. What a little helper.

5. This one sits on top of the fridge and keeps watch over all of our food. It has a lid also - I believe it can be used for a cookie jar, or just to keep anything you want in there really. I haven't figured out what to put in it yet. I got it from my sister for Christmas.

6. I almost forgot about this little guy when I was taking photographs - this is a knob on one of our cabinets in the kitchen! It's from Anthropologie - You can get it Here. Trent got it for me for Christmas. It's so adorable.

So those are my owls! Hopefully my collection will grow and I'll have new additions to share..although I think it's getting kind of crazy already, huh? ;)