New House Tour {With A Festive Flair}

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Finally! A {partial} house tour!

We’ve had so many requests for a house tour, and I had figured on doing one when the whole house was tidy at the same time, but that hasn’t happened once yet in the three months that we’ve been living here. Ha! 

So, while the kids were out sledding this morning, I grabbed my phone and snapped a few pictures of my favorite space – the living area where we spend the vast majority of our time together when we’re not outside. My apologies for the grainy pictures, but you’ll get the general idea.   😉 

The front of our house.

When I was choosing exterior colors back in the Spring of this year, I deliberated between a white house or a dark exterior. I tried to imagine how it would look surrounded by snow, since we have white stuff on the ground 3 out of 4 seasons.

At the time, we were living in a 758 sq ft. rental house, across the street from a little white house. In the Summer, it looked like an adorable cottage against the green backdrop, but during the Winter, it looked dingy and dirty against freshly fallen snow. 

This was the deciding factor in going dark! I love contrasting colors, and Royal Building Products Ironstone vinyl siding pops against the white backdrop!

This is the view opposite the front door.

We chose an open concept-style house because of how well it accommodates our family life. There’s ample room for our 6 kids to spread out, and plenty of space to have guests over (we both come from larger-than-average families).

I’ve also found that every square inch of your house gets used when you homeschool, so we opted for the most practical layout we could think of!

The front door looks like wood, but it’s actually fiberglass! Fiberglass can be textured, painted, and stained to look like wood, is much less expensive, and requires no maintenance. 

Sources

• Flooring: Twelve Oaks Country Chalet Luxury Vinyl Plank
• Wall color: Halo by Benjamin Moore 
• Cabinet and Trim Color: Simply White by Benjamin Moore
• Island and Hood: Rift Sawn Oak in a custom stain made to match the knots in the flooring (Rich Walnut diluted by 50% and mixed with a little gray)
• Backsplash Tile: Cloe Tile by Bedrosians 
• Rug: Wayfair

This is what you see when you walk in the front door.

The windows in our house are one of my favorite features! They let in so much light, and the view of God’s creation daily takes my breath away. The forest behind us is stunning, whether it’s coated in snow like today, array with the vibrant colors of Autumn, or bursting forth into green. 

The clock was a gift from my parents for our birthdays this year, and the chandelier is from Lowes. 

The bottom of the fireplace is a brick-look tile that we had painted Simply White by Benjamin Moore to match the trim and shiplap on top of the mantel. 

The mantel itself is an authentic barn-beam from a 220 year-old post and beam barn that was taken down by a local dairy farmer. I’m told that the beam originally came from a ship that brought European settlers to this part of the country. I’m not sure whether that part of the story has any validity to it, but I love having a piece of local history in our house, regardless. We had it cut to size and coated it with a thin layer of poly to preserve the original patina. 

We made the little wooden stars by picking apart clothespins and gluing the backs of wooden parts together.

The little trees and birdhouse were thrift store finds and upcycles, and the ornaments are from the Dollar Store. 

Brad made this stocking ladder out of two pieces of quarter round molding for the sides, and two dowels cut into thirds for the rungs.

I made the stockings out of tea towels, one tea towel per stocking.

This is the view from the mudroom, which is accessed through the garage.

We put a pocket door between the mudroom and the kitchen to close off the mess!

I chose MSI’s Alabaster Quartz for the counters, but I’m not sure I would choose that again. It stains and scratches quite easily, but I still love its lightness and durability. 

When we were building, we often got asked where the schoolroom would be. 

This is it!

I tried having a school room once, but we’d always end up working at the kitchen table or reading on the couch. I find this layout more conducive to multi-tasking, and we all love our Morning Basket time in front of a fire! 

We built our dining table several Christmas’ ago, and it’s held up wonderfully over the years. You can find the plan for it, here.

The chairs are from Ikea, giving us room to seat 10 people easily. We decorated them with little faux cranberry wreaths from the Dollar Store.

We kept our main floor bathroom simple and budget friendly by using an Ikea Hemnes vanity (which has a tremendous amount of storage!), and Ikea’s Sandane mirror.

I found the brass sconces lights on clearance at Lowes for $18 a piece! 

I went one shade darker on the walls of the bathroom with Benjamin Moore’s “Gray Mirage.” It coordinates beautifully with “Halo” on the rest of the main floor, and I’ve always loved how well greens, golds, and wood tones work together. Plus, this bathroom has a South facing window above the toilet, so it’s filled with natural light for most of the day. 

We went very simple and bold in our Master bedroom by painting the walls a warm black: Dragon’s Breath by Benjamin Moore. We have 3 windows in our bedroom, and the natural light helps keep the dark paint from looking gloomy! 

Brad and our oldest son built our bed using one of Ana White’s plans, and I gave it a coat of white stain. 

The bedding is a mix of things I found at Ikea or Home Sense. 

We carried the Twelve Oaks Country Chalet LVP throughout the bedrooms as well.

Opposite the bed are two, double-door closets, one for each of us, in lieu of dressers. The doors have magnetic closures and the handles are stationary, so you don’t need to turn them (perfect for aging, ha!).

The light fixture in our room is the most glamourous one in the whole house! It’s not typically what I’m drawn to, but I love the femininity it adds to an otherwise “masculine” color scheme. 

Vinyl roller shades help with room darkening and privacy. I absolutely love sleeping in a pitch black room! 

We put two, dimmable pot lights above our bed (as opposed to lamps on nightstands), and love them for reading and a gentle wake-up. I also love having a switch right next to the bed, in addition to the one by the door! 

Opposite the window overlooking our backyard, is a small en suite bathroom (I’ll share pictures for this one soon). 

I debated showing the inside of my closet or not, but after mentioning that we have no dressers in our house, it’s probably only fair to show you how we store our clothes!

I LOVE not having dressers! It frees up so much floor space, and there’s one less thing to collect dust and clutter. Instead, we partitioned all of our bedroom closets in half; one side with shelves, the other side with a rod for hanging garments.

(Yes, those are all the clothes I own! There’s still too many purses in my opinion, but my sister just gave me two, and I haven’t decided which one I’m keeping yet! Too many clothes overwhelm me, and I have absolutely zero interest in fashion (or fashion sense, for that matter!), so a simple wardrobe it is!)

I’ve written more about creating a minimalist wardrobe for a large family, here, if you’re interested. 

If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to answer them.

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