Decorating Complete...For Now At Least

I have been meaning to publish this post for months now.   We moved into our new house September 1st and now in May we are finally feeling settled.  The newest addition to my decorating woes would be the nursery.  Which you will see in one of my photos below....it is a mess right now and for some reason I am being extremely indecisive about decorating.  This is very much unlikely me, as I am normally one to make a decision and get moving on it. 

Here is a tour of our new house.  One of the things I wanted to provide some detail on is our paint colors.  I feel like one of the hardest parts about decorating is finding the right paint color.  I wish I had taken before pictures of this house.  The entire house was painted bright yellow!  We repainted the whole house to make it more neutral.  Conveniently enough we had just built our house in GA and had really liked the paint colors we picked for the main areas in that house so we went with the sames ones here in Florida.  The color throughout our main area is called Kilm Beige by Sherwin Williams.  The darker accent color is called Latter by Sherwin Williams and is on the same paint swatch.  Being a very plain decorator I wanted to add some color to my office, bathrooms, guest bedrooms, and laundry rooms.  Under each picture I will write the paint color used.

The biggest challenge for us was finding a resale home in a devastated real estate market.  Unlike the Georgia market, Florida is much different when it come sto styles of homes and availibility of new homes.  When we lived in Augusta there was a huge inventory of new homes and we were able to build ours from scratch with everything that we wanted.  It took a little getting use to when we moved to Florida and everything was stucco, tile roofs, and tile floors.  I had Southern home withdrawals for a bit and wanted my dark hardwood floors, molding, and southern glazed cabinets to be converted to our Florida house.  Unfortunately in Florida those types of things really don't go with the houses down here.  When we moved to the Tampa area last July there was barely any new construction going on because the market was so horrible.  In Florida there are a lot of gated communities and "lifestyle subdivisions" to choose from that fit your needs.  When we started looking at homes I really thought we would never find something that we liked.  We literally looked at about 100 homes.  All of them needed work, many didn't have even the simple things we were looking for like granite counter tops.  Finally we came across this house and when I walked in John smiled at me because by that point he knew that I would like this house.  Now mind you I am a woman, and there are still a list of things that I would like to change with this house. But right now I have to say I love our home, I love our neighborhood, and we finally are settled and ready to add another beautiful member to our family!  Although there are days when I miss Boston so, so, so, much, my family, my friends, the seasons, etc.  I have to say I love living in Florida.  It is a relaxed lifestyle, it is nice all the time, there is no state income tax (so you get a raise if you move from MA), and the cost of living is half of what it is in Boston.  Yes, this is my sales pitch for everyone to move down here :)  Enjoy!

Front of the House

Grand Room: Paint Color Kilm Beige Ben Moore

Kitchen : Paint color Latte Sherwin Williams

Dining Room : Paint Color Latte & Kilm Beige Sherwin Williams (Yes I still have not put pictures in many of the frames in our house)

Sitting Area (That white couch is ruined now that we have Palin. For some reason she seems to migrate there to prop herself up and look out the front door)

Master Bedroom: Kilm Beige

Guest Bedroom: Paint Color November Skies Benjamin Moore

Guest Bedroom 2: Before emptied out for the nursery, Color Nantucket Breeze Ben Moore

Now a mess trying to figure out what we are going to do for the nursery!

Office: Paint Color Silver Sage Restoration Hardware

Lanai

Our Favorite Spot at Night to sit out and relax with the cool Florida breeze!