Grey Likes Nesting

Blog, meet Sara and Rocky. Rocky and Sara, meet blog! You are going to love each other!

Sara and Rocky are insanely stylish wedding photographers from Dallas, Texas. They recently made their first home purchase—a perfectly sweet 1926 Tudor in a great part of Dallas.

And guess what?! Each week we will be having Sara and Rocky over for a little bloggy tea party to show off their latest home renovations and DIYs. We’ll follow them along their journey to creating the First Nest of their dreams, and hopefully we’ll all be inspired.

Here’s a little interview with the love birds.

Tell us about yourself! What do you and Rocky do? Where did you meet? 

We met working at a summer camp in East Texas about 6 years ago, but didn’t actually start dating until a couple of years after that.  We got married in July of 2009, and shortly after that we started our photography business.  Rocky & I are now full time wedding photographers, and we LOVE weddings.  We shoot mostly outdoor and destination weddings, and one of our biggest goals is to create genuine relationships with our couples.  Since we shoot a lot of destination weddings, we are able to travel a lot and experience new places together.  Traveling stirs our souls and we absolutely love experiencing new cultures. We also have an amazing goldendoodle, Samson, who we are obsessed with.

Is this your first home?

This is our first home, we actually closed on our house on our 3 year anniversary!  This is the 5th place we have lived in 3 years, so hopefully we will stay here for a very long time! I see our future babies running around in this place.

When shopping for a home what were you looking for? Did you have non-negotiables?

I (Sara) used to be in architecture and interior design, so I have always been VERY picky.  Since moving to Dallas around 4 years ago, I have looked on Trulia probably once a month (even though we were never looking to buy a home) just to see what my options are around the area. When we decided we were going to buy a home, I already had bookmarked this home on my computer 2 weeks before. When we saw this home in our favorite neighborhood, we had to have it.  We are very close to the Bishop Art District that has some of our very favorite restaurants, a very cool vibe, and most of the homes were built in the 20s!  We have lots of huge trees, tons of quaint houses, and we love the fact that we are a part of Dallas history.  Some of our non-negotiables: we had to have lots of natural light, the home had to already have some curb appeal, and we had to feel like we can raise our future family here.  We definitely felt like this home had great bones, it just needed a little TLC.

What’s your best advice for first-time nesters?

Don’t go looking for your first home to be the perfect home you have always dreamed of.  While that may actually happen, we won’t be able to afford our ‘dream’ home until we are probably 50.  So, knowing that we couldn’t buy exactly what we have dreamed of in this first home, we saw potential – paint does SO much, changing out electrical plugs and switch plates, changing out light fixtures, all these can totally change the look of a home…just make sure it has good bones!

What do you most love about your home? Your biggest challenge with your home?

Honestly, our favorite part about our home is the fact that we now have a home together that we will have our family in.  Our biggest challenge has been the fact that a 1920s home has had a LOT of people do a LOT of things to it.  So, once you start doing something to it, you have to fix any mistakes all of the people before you have made.  Sara’s dad has helped us with all of the bigger parts of the work we have done so far, so luckily he has known how to fix any problems that come our way.

Do you entertain friends? If so, how have you designed/ will you design your home to accommodate that?

Entertaining friends may be the MOST favorite thing we do.  We absolutely love having friends over to cook for, drink with, and spend quality time with.  If we could have a dinner party once a week, we would….and we might!  One thing we had started doing before we knew we were going to be buying a house is Rocky was building us a 9′ dining room table that seated 10. Before we moved into the house, we knocked down a wall between a small breakfast room and the existing dining room to make it one huge dining room!  The huge table is in there now, and it has to be our favorite room of the house.  We want our friends to come over and feel welcomed to share a meal with us.

What is your favorite bargain find?

Wellll, everyone don’t hate us but…one day Sara was on Pinterest and pinned the Herman Miller Eames lounge chair and talked about how her dream is to own it one day.  We had a dear friend contact us who was going to teach in Africa for several years, and told us she had a chair like I pinned, and asked if we wanted it while she was gone.  We said of course, not knowing if it was real or not.  She showed up at our loft with it, and lo and behold, it was a 1978 original chair in mint condition.  Our favorite piece of furniture in our home, obviously.

What has been your biggest splurge so far?  

We haven’t really splurged on any one big item, but in the first month of living here we have knocked down and patched up the dining room wall, closed in a door, put hardwood floors in the only room that didn’t have them already, painted our entire home white, switched out all plugs and switches and plates, patched the wood floor where we tore the wall out, built and changed out our mantel…..okay you get the point.  So maybe we have splurged.

What projects are in the future?  

Rocky is going to build us a hanging credenza on one of the big walls in the dining room.  Our attic is large and unfinished, so one day we want to finish it out and turn it into our office.  We want to landscape with some awesome plants and build a deck in the backyard. We will eventually redo the kitchen and 2 bathrooms as well.  So, ask me in about 5 years what we have splurged on and I am sure I can give you a long list!

Check back next week to follow along with Sara and Rocky and see the first projects they’ve tackled in their home!

People, this home tour is ON FIRE. It’s amazing. Do not judge me for my serious inability to cut down on the number of photos I’m including. They were all too good to let go.

Meet Kim and Scott. AKA. Adorable attack. They are serious DIY-ers, have this too cute blog called Yellow Brick Home, and paint pictures of pets. Your pets, their pets, everyone’s pets. No joke.

This is their 700-square foot Chicago abode. It’s everything you’d want from hip, city-dwellers. Complete with a cute dog, obvi. Keep reading below for a fun Q & A with Kim.

As you’ll see, Kim and Scott have art all over their home. It’s fun, unique, and colorful. Love it. Plus, their chalk wall in the entry way is a way steal-able idea.

This is their uhh-mazing studio space. I want to drive all the way to Chicago and steal that peach chair and keep it forever.

About this lovely patio, Kim says it is “a very important part of Chicago living, since it basically expands our small living space by a whole extra “room” during the summers.”

What’s your best advice for first-time nesters?

We live in a small home (less than 700 sq. ft.), and we’re constantly challenged by the size of a room, storage and ways to make our place feel bigger. With that said, we know that every decision we make might not work, but you have to try, right? We’re not afraid to fail (was the wall color a big mistake? Maybe, so try again! It’s just paint!), and we’re very hands on. We think that rather than be paralyzed with fear, just take small steps to make your house feel like you. Gather inspiration from your favorite blogs, magazines and even catalog mailers – there’s no right or wrong way to do something when it comes to your own style! And take your time; it won’t happen overnight, and that’s okay.

What was your biggest purchase for the home? How did you justify the expense?

We wouldn’t say that there is one item in our home that stands out as a splurge, but some items might seem a bit more pricey when put into perspective. For example, Scott couldn’t believe I spent almost $200 on 4 silk curtain panels (for the living room), when we have just as beautiful, crisp white panels from Ikea for $20/ea in other parts of our home! Along the same lines, we’ve just replaced all the venetian blinds in our home for more practical, energy-saving honeycomb shades. While they may not be the most exciting purchase, they’ll save us money in the long run on cooling and heating.

Where is your favorite place to relax in the house?

At the end of every evening, nothings makes us happier than to curl up on our couch and just be. We’ll catch up on Netflix (our current obsession: Breaking Bad), have a glass of wine and sit back with our four-legged kiddos: Jack, Maddie and Libby.

Do you entertain friends? If so, how have you designed your home to accommodate that?

We absolutely love hosting friend gatherings! One of the reasons we fell in love with our home was the open concept kitchen/living area. We have a round coffee table to encourage our friends to gather around, play games and laugh. Scott and I can be in the kitchen – just an arms length away from the living room! – and pour drinks, make sure there’s enough food and still be in the same room with everyone else. On warm nights, we have a small patio to gather and enjoy the Chicago summers.

All images shot by Kim, with the exception of the top image from Gooch Too Photography.

This week has been slightly manic, but I didn’t want to leave you hanging all weekend. Prepare yourself because we have a fun line up next week.

Hints: It includes this home tour….

…and a rad giveaway from our newest sponsor, STYLEVISA!

Go and enjoy your weekend, and be sure to come back Monday to get this party started!

Images: Pinterest, The Lennoxx

New York watercolor artist Caitlin McGauley is basically my new favorite discovery of the millenium. I’m not trying to be dramatic, really, I just can’t help myself.

Her use of bright, fresh colors is just what you’d hope for in something beautiful to hang on the wall. Her illustrations are feminine and luxe.

I want every single print. All of them. I’m thinking I’ll settle for just 3 and put them in thin gold frames side by side.

Here’s a little glimpse, but you really should visit her site for the full picture (you’re welcome for the pun):