Friday Five - Veronika's Blushing

It has been a LONG time since I published a Friday Five! To be honest, the last few weeks have been a blur. Now that we are moved into our new home, unpacked (though still lots of organizing and styling to do!) and a little more settled in, I feel like I can get back to this space. This week’s FF will be focused on our new home since so many of y’all have asked me to source some of the new purchases we’ve made!

Candice, my mom and I the day we closed on the house! My mom flew in from Toronto to spend Thanksgiving week with us since the kids were out of school.

The light fixtures/pendants over our kitchen island can be found here. For reference, our ceilings are 10ft high and the island is 99 inches long. I adore these pendants – they are 18 inches in diameter and make such an impact!
Our floating shelves styled for the holidays! Shop this photo here.

ONE
We got this antelope rug from Ballard Designs (10 x 14 size) for our new living room and words cannot describe just how much I love it. It does shed – and probably will for some time, but it is absolutely stunning and SO soft and comfortable. We purchased this rug pad for underneath it – we’ve used these under all of our rugs and love them. I was very lucky with the timing on this – the rug was delivered the day we closed on our home (as was the rug pad!) so we were able to set out the rug and position it how we wanted it prior to our furniture arriving the next day – it was so nice to have the movers arrange the living room and not have to move the furniture again if the rug had come later. A huge win!

I’ve been finding it challenging to identify rugs I love for other spaces in our home – we need a large one for our family room/playroom, our bedroom and the kids rooms. I don’t mind keeping the bedrooms rug-free, but the family room definitely needs one ASAP! We also need a new couch for that space. I’m thinking of getting this one with the bench seat.

TWO
Our new living room is much larger than the one in our last home, so we decided to purchase a larger TV for the space (65 inch) and use our smaller on in the family room/playroom upstairs. I have always wanted the Samsung Frame TV and it was on major sale for Black Friday and included a professional installation. I love the way it looks and we are happy with the picture as well! I plan to do a gallery wall around our TV again – similar to what we did in our last home.

THREE
We decided to go with this acrylic coffee table for our living room! I had looked at so many options and ultimately, this one felt like the right fit for the space given the other pieces in the room and its size. We already have some wood and upholstered pieces in the space, so I thought a table that disappeared into the room but was large enough to be functional would be the best fit. It doesn’t compete with anything else in the space and adds a different element as well.

Options we considered:

FOUR:
I didn’t love our light fixture in the master bedroom when it was first installed a few weeks before we moved in – I felt like I had made the wrong decision. But now the our furniture is in there, I really like it. It actually reminds me of Jillian Harris’ master bedroom. It’s quite large and makes a statement!

FIVE
I’m obsessed with our new dining space! Ever since we saw the floorplan of our new home, I knew I’d want to create a dining space that felt more like a breakfast nook. We never used our formal dining space in our previous home more than a few times, so I wanted something more simple and a space where we could eat and face one another.

We ordered this dining table in the 48 inch size (our builder generously let us use their RH member discount!), this DREAMY light fixture and these Serena & Lily Riviera chairs that I purchased for 25% off.

I LOVE our bamboo dining chairs, but since I have the bamboo counter stools and decided to use two of the bamboo armchairs in our living room as accent chairs, I felt it was too visually repetitive in such an open space. But the main reason for the switch is because I wanted wipeable chairs so I wouldn’t have to worry too much about spills and messes. I want us to actually use this space, unlike in our last home.

I’ve been asked what we plan to do if we ever want to host Thanksgiving or any other occasion where more seating is required. For an occasion like that, I would order an inexpensive and long fold-out table and use our Riviera chairs + the bamboo chairs for the sit-down dinner (we have six bamboo chairs and four Riviera chairs – we also have two ghost chairs should we need extra!) The table could then be stored away in the garage.

My best friend actually hosted Thanksgiving last year and used a table like that on her outdoor patio and it was lovely! You can cover it with linens and it looks fantastic. I’d also use it for children’s parties in our home – now that we have a backyard, a long table is necessary for events like that and I’d rather have one that is inexpensive and can be covered with themed linens that match the party décor.

Speaking of the Riviera chairs, these are an inexpensive outdoor option and I love the blue color! I haven’t thought much about our covered patio and our plans for it, but these chairs may be part of it!

WEEKEND NOTES
Our tree is up – yay! Thanksgiving being so late this year totally threw me off. I’m glad I put it up last weekend because I feel like Christmas is tomorrow. It feels so rushed this year and I like to have my tree up for a good six weeks when possible. I may keep it up an extra week this year to really enjoy it.

I joked with Kevin that we need to make sure the movers just bring the Christmas tree bag right into the living room the day we moved or I’d never have the energy to actually put it up. My mom was in town for Thanksgiving and she helped me do so much unpacking and organizing that by the time she left, I actually had the time and space to put up the tree.

We had a great Thanksgiving and I hope your family did too!
Our flocked tree is from Hobby Lobby.