Furniture Archives - Shalice Noel

We made it to Georgia and so happy to finally unpack and settle. We found it is easier said than done and taking one day at a time. Still searching for my Dyson Air wrap . . . Scroll below to see what I wrote on finding your home soul.

Finding Your House Soul

Reid and I love change and that’s one reason we move a lot. All of our homes have had character just screaming to be unleashed. However, we don’t want to move again! Now that we are in the new house, we need some time to discover the style of the house. Just like your individual style sense I believe your house has a sense as well. The fun part is discovering what it wants to be and bring your home interior to its highest potential.

Ok. I sound a little weird. But here is the practical advice. Try to keep the bones of your house intact. One, it saves you a ton of money. (More money for shoes.) Two, every house was designed by someone and for a reason, even cookie cutter houses. Yes, there are some badly designed houses and yes you can still fix those things. But it will cost you or it could even bring on amazing solutions. Three, every house has potential, you just need to find it.

When we first looked at our house, we wanted the white on white aesthetic we are use to in California. We asked for painting quotes thinking we’d paint everything. But as we lived in the space for the first week, the existing colors grew on us. We realized we like the cream on white now, plus we saved 20K in repainting! The lesson is prudence wins. Wait and live in the space before you do something costly. I know it’s easier to paint before your move-in, deal with the hassle and be confident in you design choices.

How do you discover your home’s natural style? Think of the time period when the house was built. What trends were popular at that time? Lessons learned; all trends come back. Take those outdated trends as your advantage and appreciate it, no matter the decade. How can you work with it? How can you express it better? Juxtapositions are the best way to express an outdated trend with todays style. So pair old wood paneling with a curved modern sofa. Pair big chunky moldings with slim black iron chairs. FYI, shiplap will be out soon, at least that is my own opinion.

This room gets so much use! Between the office and tv space, we are in here A LOT.

Family Room:

Master Bedroom:

Amazon linen duvet // Sheets // Bed // Small Lamp // Art 40 x 54 // Large throw pillow // Plants // Vase // Down Alternative Duvet // Lacoste Chevron Coverlet // Chloe boot dupes

Patio Table and Benches:

Benches in dark gray // Wicker Chair // Square planters

We love our outdoor area

Firepit // Teak Chairs // Sphere planters

Great Room:

Acrylic Table and Planters

Great room

I’m writing this the day we sprang forward an hour and the only thing that makes me happy about paying back the hour of sleep we gained last fall is the fact that we now have longer days ahead. Welcome Spring! With the coming of later sunsets, we are excited to enjoy time out on the patio of our new home. This is a first for us. None of our previous homes had any desirable outdoor space, so we cut new design teeth this season.

We learned five things while planning our outdoor living space.

1) Measure your area from deck / concrete edge. Sketch the area to scale and identify your traffic flow. Where is the door into your house?

2) Think design in terms of enjoying from outside as well as inside. We discovered how much is helps to by similar looking outdoor planters and placing a couple inside our glass sliding door and a pair just outside the sliding door. We were amazed at how much this brought the outdoors in.

3) Scale of furniture is everything. With so many outdoor furniture pieces on the market we were tempted to pick a big wicker looking sectional with coffee table and side chairs. You can easily buy these as a package deal and it’s definitely a good deal – if you have the area large enough to fill it. Thankfully, we scaled back a discovered it better to just buy four teak chairs with cushions and arranged them in a circle around a firepit as the coffee table. (I also might turn the firepit into a planter…just thinking about it.) Individual seating gives us a lot of flexibility. We sometimes bring the chairs inside to switch things up. If we had gone with large furniture pieces, our smaller than anticipated patio would have become crowded.

4) We steered away from matchy – matchy. Amazing how fashion parallels interior design. I found our dining table at CB2, on sale so quickly jumped on it. It’s durable and heavy which are two things I really liked about it. However, it didn’t come with chairs. Buying 8 chairs gets expensive quickly, so we landed on very cool benches that seat six and are stained ebony to coordinate with the grey tones in the table perfectly. The major win was finding the head of the table chairs. After researching chair options, I was drawn to bamboo or wicker style to contrast the contemporary design of our table. We found these grey, high back chairs with white cushions that paired with the table looked dramatic. Exactly what I wanted. The high-back chairs gives the large table an intimate dinning experience while the white cushions coordinate with the white cushions on the teak chairs. (I do bring the cushions in at night to keep them from getting dirty or I suggest covering them)

5) Lastly, we used small potted plants to finish off the look. These are reasonably priced to buy a higher quantity and add some additional greenery to your table scape. Our miniature sedums also add a personal touch at each dinner placing. Have your guest take one home.

When planning your outdoor space, think scale. Don’t be afraid to break away from the matchy-matchy pre-assembled furniture sets. Have fun. Relax. Take in the fresh air. Cheers!

Keep me posted on your patio life and comment on this post or on my Instagram profile. I’m still looking for outdoor lighting ideas and thinking about adding a buffet under our kitchen window. Oh and most importantly, we need a grill so Reid takes on more of the cooking!

Check out my takeover on the Liketoknow.it Home account!

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