Home Tour: The Entry Way

As I mentioned in this post, I will be doing a home tour and inviting you all in to have a look inside of our home! I will aim to have these posts up every Monday until the tour is completed.

My husband and I purchased our 3 bedroom/2.5 bath townhome {actually, we bought a corner lot inside of a gated subdivision and it was built and completed one month before we got married} in February of 2009. We have lived here for one year and nine months. We enjoyed the process of picking out our custom selections like our hardwood floors, deciding on our paneling and crown molding placement, and also somewhat designing our kitchen in terms of selecting our cabinets, backsplash, and granite countertops. We also got to select the types of cabinets we wanted in our bathrooms, along with the tile, and all the aesthetic finishes as well. This has been a great starter home for us and no matter how beautiful, or how much larger, our next home may be, this one will always be the first place that we called "home" together as it has held so many wonderful "firsts" for us - and our little girl.

Without further adieu, welcome to our home! Step inside!....

Although I have yet to decorate for fall, I hung this wreath on our door last week. Since October in Atlanta still hasn't brought about many days of very cool weather, I've been waiting for November to show signs of briskness before I cozy up our home with some fall decor.

On the floor in our entry way is this rug that I purchased from {? - I can't remember}. Probably because I purchased a few different rugs, from a few different stores, before deciding that this one was "it"! I loved the pattern, the warm rich tones, the size of it, and how nice it felt under my feet!

Inside of our entry way is a bench adorned with some pillows on it. This bench was the first piece of new furniture that we purchased for our new home. I wanted the entry way to have a bench not only because it's visually pretty, but because it allows us, and our guests, to have a place to sit for taking on and off our/their shoes.

I hung this tassel on our coat closet door to bring some color to the all white facade. A small, inexpensive embellishment sitting pretty on a door handle....

When we moved in, I wondered what I would do with the huge long wall on the left. The builder of our home didn't do a model home of the floor plan that we chose {which always gives you nice decorating ideas} so I mulled it over for a while. I found a very large, pretty picture and hung it in the center of the wall, and placed a sconce {that holds candles} on both sides of the glass picture.


My color scheme was originally earth tones but I started to pull in color here and there and saw how it brought to life our place. I love the piece below on the right - a ROSS find for just $10.

A full view of our entire entry way...

We have a little nook by our staircase where we placed a desk. It was the perfect spot for it to go. Many envelopes have been addressed there!



If you spotted the black wall sconce with the floral arrangement on it, here's a close up....

Back to the desk area, and more pictures of it...

The door that you see below on the right is technically our "pantry" but in all actuality, it's a very large space, that goes all the way back under our staircase, and we use it as storage. It's where our board games are, it's where we store things like lightbulbs, batteries, etc., - it's where I put my holiday decor, my many white ceramic dishes, bins that have Ilah's birthday party decor inside {!}, etc. It's a great space to have!

On top of the desk are pictures of my husband and I {a few from when we were dating, and one of us on our wedding day - and a few pictures of our little Ilah}....

Originally I hung a mirror where the below two pictures are, but decided to move the mirror to the dining room and bring some color into the below space....

Above the back door {that leads to the garage} I hung this florentine accent piece...


Next to the desk area is our downstairs half bathroom....

I bought the bronze hand-towel holder and placed it on the wall next to the pedestal sink...


So now that you're out of the bathroom {so to speak}....

I hope you've enjoyed the tour thus far! Next week we will see the kitchen!

Have a great Monday!!

Decorating Backyard for Fantastic Home design

Have narrow backyard? Make it as little garden, so you have a lot of advantage, and make your home comfortable. The first advantage is make sure that light enter your house easily, second, air circulation will better. Back and front aperture will guarantee cross ventilation happen.

Garden in the backyard also can become running away area, moment to escape from day to day work. Garden backyard makes our privacy increasing, not like front garden. You can unify backyard garden with kitchen, so id there is a party, guest can take food I the kitchen, then walk to garden to enjoy both of garden and food.

For example, below is picture of backyard garden:



That garden above, garden backyard decorate with small pool made from natural stones. The pool not too deep, and decorating with water spraying. And there is path, seem like float on pool. Pool positioned higher than land surface. Overflow water patches water canals that surrounding the pool.

Because there is space limitation, choose small plants. In this example garden, yellow clump plants (Neomarica Sp.) and Japanese grass. At corner of garden, Yang Liu plants planted. Yang Liu plants perfect for small garden because the physic feel light and waving. And finally, for pool resident, there is water plants.

Archiquarium. A Modern Swedish Fish Tank By Karl-Oskar Ankarberg.

At the Home Fair Exhibition earlier this month in Stockholm, the Swedish Aquarium Leasing (Akvarie leasing) company debuted something very unique - a spectacular modern aquarium, designed by Karl-Oskar Ankarberg, known for his collaborations with Orrefors glassworks.

The new aquarium named Archiquarium is something really special for both aquarium and design enthusiasts. The spectacular aquariums are reminiscent of ultra-modern architecture, rather than traditional aquariums. The clean rectangular shapes and surfaces are hallmarks of modern Scandinavian design.


above: the frame is made of solid sawn wood, aquarium glass and Corian®.

Archiquarium is the work of increasingly high-profile designer Karl-Oskar Ankarberg. When the sketches were presented to the Aquarium Leasing AB, they quickly decided to go ahead and produce a prototype - which was presented to external design agencies in Karl-Oskar's booth No. AO4: 53 on the Home Fair, 7-10 October.







Aquarium Leasing AB leases and operates aquariums in over 2000 workplaces in industry and public sectors so that people can enjoy the serene spectacle that is the aquarium's signature. The company is based in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmo and Copenhagen.

Giveaway Winner!

Sorry I'm a day late posting the winner of "The Paranoid Parents Guide" giveaway. It slipped my mind! Congratulations to.....

Contact me at MarriageToMotherhood@yahoo.com to set up shipping!

I wish I could give everyone who commented on this giveaway a copy of this book. It's pretty inexpensive so I encourage all of you who commented about how much it would benefit you, to purchase the book. Again, it can be found on Amazon here for just $10.17.

Vac From The Sea. Electrolux Turns Marine Debris Into 5 Vacuums.

Vac from the Sea is a project initiated by home appliance maker Electrolux, aiming at raising awareness about the immediate need for the world to take better care of plastics and support the heroes that do.



From Electrolux:
The environment is a concern and responsibility of everyone and marine plastic pollution is an issue much too big to just leave to politicians. Electrolux is in the homes of millions and can help raise awareness and affect many consumers. Plastic is the main raw material when making a vacuum cleaner. From a sustainable business point of view, Electrolux relies on an increased global supply of recycled plastic.

A limited number of vacuum cleaners will be made from marine plastic debris – harvested from the Pacific and other sites where the plastic problem is immense.

Below is the "green" Ultraone vacuum by Electrolux followed by 5 of the vacuums produced with the debris garnered from the aquatic environments (individual images below courtesy of inhabitat)





Depending on the local plastic situation the gathering of plastics will vary – from diving among coral reefs, clean-ups closer to shore to scooping up plastic directly from the water surface. The vacuum cleaners that are to be produced from the material gathered will be put on display for the world, decision makers and consumers to see.



At this point, there is no plan to actually sell the units produced. Separating the plastic cocktail is a great challenge and plastics in the ocean tend to act like sponges for other toxins.


The locations where plastic will be collected are in the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea and the North Sea.

The gathering of material will be documented on their site.

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