Category: Home

New Bed + Bedding (our best quarantine purchases!)

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Being in a constant state of quarantine for the past 6+ months and the foreseeable future has really made us think about what we want to upgrade in our house and what we can live with and what we dont want to live without. One thing that had been on our minds for months was whether or not it was the right time to purchase a new bed. We’ve had a queen-sized bed (in good condition, just not my style) and even though we always dreamed of having a king-sized bed we never thought our primary bedroom was big enough for one. One day I took the measurements and realized IT WAS big enough! My sister coincidentally had purchased a new mattress around this time and had been raving about it. When we visited to help her move apartments we instantly fell in love with it, too. It was firm, but soft – and very comfortable. After a few stressful months of not sleeping particularly well on the old spring mattress (the pandemic, fears of losing our jobs, the administration that is running this country and just general fears of an uncertain future) we started looking into finally upgrading to a king-sized bed. It has been very clear to me in these uncertain times that prioritizing our health needs to be a the forefront. Purchasing this new bed definitely falls into this category, amiright?! After a ton of research we landed on a new frame and memory foam mattress and because of the size increase, we had to purchase new sheets and a duvet cover as well. We kept as much as we could (rugs, curtains, queen pillows, throw blanket, nightstands) because it really isn’t in the budget to makeover the entire room 🙂 We’re super happy with how the room turned out and we’ve been sleeping better than ever! See below for links to everything in the room.

King Frame in Charcoal, Green Tea Memory Foam Mattress, Queen Pillows (purchased a few years ago at IKEA and I believe still sold in store but not online), Throw Pillow, Bedding in Gray, Throw Blanket (purchased a few years ago but linking similar from Costco), Moroccan Diamond Rug, White Curtains, Nightstands

A Dining Room Story

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As I stated in my last blog post, we’ve been in our house for six years now. Over those six years we’ve done quite a bit of painting, decorating, re-decorating, furniture arranging and furniture re-arranging. I tend to get bored with furniture arrangements after some time, so my solution is to move everything around into a new configuration, so the space feels new and fresh.

I was recently gifted an old wood dresser that belonged to my dad and before that, by grandma. I initially had thoughts of replacing my not-so-well-made IKEA dresser with this new-to-me family dresser. When Luke and I moved the dresser from the garage into the house I instantly knew it had to go in the dining room to act as secondary storage on the first floor of our house #smallhouseproblems. Storage has always been a pain point for us, so this seemed like an easy solve. Luckily the dresser fits right into the space – and bonus points that the dresser hides all our extra belongings, therefore making the overall space look more put together. Win win for the Copeland’s!

I’ve always been drawn to more eclectic looks with pieces that have meaning and history, over a newly purchased item, so it should be no surprise that I’m happy with how this space has transformed over the years. See how this room looked just a few years ago.

Dining Table/Chairs | Rug | Curtains | Lighting

HOME TOUR: Updated Master Bedroom  

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Over this past weekend while Luke had a guys weekend in San Diego, my sister came over and we got to work on a little master bedroom makeover. I had recently purchased a new set of sheets and a duvet cover, while my sister helped me choose the curtains and some of the accents to complement the bedding.

I always try to keep our master bedroom on the simple side. I opt for minimal decor and try to keep clutter at a minimum. The only decor we have in our bedroom is a framed watercolor on my nightstand from a trip to Paris and two framed photos from our wedding. We each chose our favorite photo from our wedding and have them placed above our respective nightstands. The goal for this space has always been to create a comfortable and relaxing environment. This room after all is our one place in the house to escape for some peace and quiet. This room also gets the most natural light in our house and I wanted to keep it light and airy. I love how it all came together!

(see sources cited and linked at the end of this post)

A while ago we removed the mirror closet doors and installed a new shelving system in the closet, embracing the open closet concept. It turned out that it was a little too open for our liking, so I installed a curtain rod and placed white curtains on both sides of the closet. I love that we can now semi-embrace the open closet, or pull the curtains together to close it off from the room. It’s all about having choices my friends!
duvet cover | sheet set | accent pillow 
 throw blanket | picture frames | nightstand | rug | curtains | wall color: Valspar “Drizzling Mist”

Adventures in Closet Makeovers

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This past weekend Luke and I decided it was as good a day as any to tear our closet apart and install a new closet organization system. We foolishly thought all we had to do was take down the old closet and install the new one… haha. It ended up being an all-day adventure. We started with removing the clothes, unscrewing and prying off all the boards attached to the wall, patching up holes, re-painting the inside wall… AND THEN we were ready to install the new system. We purchased a shelving track system. First you anchor the hanging tracks in the top of your closet and then you hang the standards off of those. You then determine your layout and place your brackets, racks and rods. All sounds pretty easy, right? Well it should be, but I anchored the hanging tracks upside down and didn’t figure it out until we were finished. OOPS! After we corrected that mistake the rest of the project went smoothly. Upon completion we decided to cool it on the house projects for a little while – it’s felt a little non-stop with the constant tweaks we’ve been making. If you’re interested, here’s the closet organization we purchased.

*Before*
See that sagging rod on the top?
 The top shelf was starting to separate from the support board.
The boards, shelves and rods have been removed from the closet.
The closet walls have also been patched and the inside wall was painted the same color as the bedroom walls.
The paint has dried and the hanging tracks (installed correctly, haha) are installed, the standards were hung and the brackets, shelves and rods are all in the desirable positions.
*After*
The finished closet
See the empty space in the closet on the bottom right?
We left that area empty so we can place a little dog bed there for Gracie!

Home Tour: Our Dining Nook and Dining Room

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A few times a year I get tiresome of our furniture layout and on a whim decide to re-arrange everything. It usually happens out of the blue and without much thought at all. A few weeks ago I switched out some items in our living room and dining room to add more interest and love the results! I took my grandmas bench from the living room wall and slide it on the other side of our dining room table to create more seating. I also took our wood-top bar cart and moved it to the living room and placed bar stools on the ends. I basically took two pieces of furniture that weren’t being used, moved them around and now they get more use than they ever had. That’s a win in my book.

Dining Nook
Dining Room
Sources
Living Room: Wooden Cart, Picture Frames, Water Pitcher
Dining Room: Table and Chairs
– Photos © Holly Copeland –

Home Tour: Bathroom "after" photos

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I’m sharing these photos a little later than I had planned on. While the bathroom remodel was just finishing up, Luke underwent a planned eye surgery and ended up having a more complicated recovery than we both expected. His recovery consisted of him laying flat (face down) for two full weeks. My time was spent taking care of him and making sure his recovery went smooth… and not taking photos of our renovation 🙂 I finally got around to taking photos of the finished space and here they are! We’re very happy with the outcome. (let’s not forgot what this space looked like before)

– Photos © Holly Copeland –

Home Tour: Bathroom "before" photos

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These are the “before” photos of our upstairs bathrooms. Yes, we’ve been living with this awful green linoleum for the past three years. We always knew that remodeling these bathrooms would be a project we would eventually tackle, so when we bought our house we were OK with them because we knew it would be temporary. We have two bathrooms upstairs (one off the hallway and one off our master bedroom). What’s silly is that these pictures are actually an improvement from what they used to be… these bathrooms once had sponge painted teal walls and neon flower drawer handles, eww!

Sometimes it takes living in a place for a while to see what you can live with and what you’d like to live without. We’re happy to see these green bathrooms go & can’t wait to show you what they look like closer to the end of the week… So check back soon for the big reveal. Muhahahah!

Don’t go too hard on us with the photos below…

 

Home Tour: Our Black & White Gallery Wall

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I’ve always wanted a gallery wall in my house and over the years I’ve had a few. Those few were always miss-matched; a mix of photos, artwork, old frames and new frames (see here). I could never quite get the combo just right though. This time around I wanted to go with something simple, timeless and classic, something that wasn’t a hot new trend in interior design. I think I finally got it right this time! All photos are my own; taken from different places that Luke & I have traveled to.

I bought these frames from Ikea. 
 My favorite photo. Luke & I at Fenway Park
How’d this one get in here?!? Gracie was following me around while I was snapping photos of this project… She always has to know what I’m doing! 
– Photos © Holly Copeland –

Home Tour: Built-In Living Room Shelves

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It has been a dream of mine to have built-in shelves in our living room. See this post where I explain a little bit more about them. Although it took a little longer than expected to get this project completed (doesn’t it always??) as well as a few unexpected roadblocks… we’re supper happy with the final results!
The whole process was quite an ordeal and really made me question if I’m cut out for any future home renovations, haha. My dad came over one weekend and helped to remove all of the trim on the wall, the existing mantle and all the tile around the fireplace. We even installed new tile on the hearth. When the shelves arrived and were installed they were just so beautiful, I was starting to re-think painting them white (which was the original plan). We explored some wood stains and moved forward with the plan of staining them a dark chestnut. Well, I got about 1/3 of the way through staining and it looked absolutely horrible! The stain wasn’t soaking into the wood evenly, it was pooling up in some areas and soaking deep into others. It looked like a mess. I let it sit for a day, gathered my thoughts and eventually scrapped the whole idea of staining. I went down to the hardware store, picked up a gallon of white paint and painted THREE coats on the shelves. We now have the white shelves that we originally wanted, haha.
Truth be told, I think they look amazing and I’m very happy with the end results.
– Photos © Holly Copeland –

**Update: This project was also featured on Apartment Therapy!! **