Everything Home Magazine

I am so excited to announce that I will be a writer for the brand new Everything Home Magazine! It's a monthly online home decor (& more) magazine written by your favorite bloggers & Instagram friends. I will be the contributor for the Room Renovations column. (Pinch me... In case I'm dreaming!) I've known about this for a while and still can't believe it is really happening! It's an amazing opportunity that I am so blessed to be a part of! Many of you may not know this, but I have a home decor Instagram page @jillykay. You can follow along if you love all things decor. Click on the link in the right sidebar to follow!

I am honored to be a part of this talented group of contributors! It is going to be an AMAZING magazine featuring so many familiar faces in the Instagram & blogging communities. Follow us on Instagram @everythinghomemagazine to meet the editorial team, get exciting updates & to see all the hashtags to use to get the chance to be FEATURED!

Collette and Daraka are the editors and take care of all the behind the scenes work for the magazine. Thank you both for all your hard work! Thank you Collette for dreaming this up. So excited to see your vision come to life!

Those pictured above are the monthly contributors. Each and every one of them are amazing and have a very unique style. I am blessed to call them friends!

I was thrilled to be asked to write for the Room Renovations column. Room renovations make me giddy every time I see a room transform. I have a passion for all things DIY and love to see a room become a beautiful and usable space. Be sure to tag your Instagram before & after pictures with the hashtag #EHroomreno for a chance to be featured. I'll be looking for them!

I love that the magazine will be featuring those that own small businesses as well! Do you own a small business or have an etsy shop that you would like our readers to learn about? You can advertise in the magazine! Send an email to everythinghomemagazine@yahoo.com for more information.

Our first issue will be available on November 1st! You can go to the website to enter your email address to have the digital magazine delivered right to your inbox. Keep checking the Everything Home Magazine website, facebook page and instagram for updates!

My home office makeover

Hi everyone! I am so stinkin' excited about my latest DIY project! My husband and I just finished with my home office makeover. I spend a lot of time in here working on my Young Living Essential Oil business, so I wanted it to be a pretty and relaxing space. Mission accomplished!

My office wasn't bad before (pictured above), but I had a vision in my head that I wanted to come to life. I kept the same paint color, Sherwin Williams Mindful Gray, on the remaining walls and put up shiplap on the focal wall behind my desk.

My amazing and very handy hubby put up the shiplap. I am a very awesome woodworking assistant, though! hehehe :) We used maple plywood underlayment from Lowes. They were nice enough to cut it into 5 and a half inch strips for us. That saved us a TON of work! We started with a thin piece of molding at the top since my ceilings in this room are angled. We marked the studs in the wall and penciled in lines so we would know where to nail with the nail gun. We used very random placement with the longer boards and filled in with the shorter boards. Nickel's were used as spacers... I'm still finding them in the carpet! lol

I used Sherwin Williams Antique White for the shiplap wall. I went with this color because it is the same color as the trim in the rest of the house. I ended up deciding to leave the nail holes at the last minute... I LOVE the rustic look of the holes. I was going for an old look for this project.

Earl, the amazing faux stag mount came from one of my favorite online home decor boutiques, www.paintedfoxtreasures.com I could seriously decorate my entire house with their items. Go check them out! They are very sweet ladies too!



I am so thrilled with how this project turned out! We put the shiplap up in a day, start to finish and it completely changed the room. This may be my new favorite room in our home! Only thing left for this room is installing hardwood floors. Hopefully, this will be soon! Thanks for reading!

Outdoor fireplace!

Hi everyone! I know it has been a very looooong time since I have blogged. I have really missed it! I've had several messages asking for details on our outdoor fireplace we had installed two years ago. When we bought the house 4 years ago, it was a brand new home that was just built. We loved everything about the house except the back yard! It was nothing but a big hill!

We had originally planned on putting a pool in. We had a couple of pool companies come out and draw up some plans, but found out we had a big easement on the back of the property. We also found out that the pool has to be several feet away from the back of the house... Our pool was going to be really long and skinny. Not what we were wanting. We went back to the drawing boards and decided that an outdoor fireplace would be perfect! We absolutely love it!

Here are a few pictures of the "backyard hill" we had to work with. Yikes! As much as my husband and I love to do DIY projects, we quickly decided this one one we needed to leave to the professionals! We hired a great company to do all the work from start to finish.

Our covered back porch was great, but we wanted to extend it by adding stone all the between the fireplace and the patio. My husband & I brainstormed our ideas for the space, put a few things on paper & met with the company. They loved the ideas we had and followed them exactly!

I thought I had some pics of the first days of work, but couldn't find them. They basically dug out of the hill, laid a concrete pad with giant rebars to support the weight of the fireplace, laid the stone pavers, and created a drainage system behind the fireplace & rock seating area.

The fireplace was brought in three pieces. I was jumping for joy the day it arrived! It was exactly how I wanted it to look like.

Once it was set in place, they began building the wood storage boxes. We had tossed around the idea of having a waterfall on each side, but decided on the wood storage boxes in the end. Glad we made that choice. Love how it looks when it is full of wood!

Next came the sod, adding the outdoor furniture we picked out and decorating! They were still cleaning up their messes and washing down the patio when I was decorating for Fall! I couldn't wait! 

One of my favorite times to enjoy the patio is at night, fire going, happy lights on, music playing... Ahh... So relaxing.

Now, we need to start thinking about phase 2 of the project. We would love to add landscaping all across the back fence. Thanks for stopping by! Maybe it won't be as long between posts next time!

China Hutch Makeover!

Hey there!  I am excited to share with you a project that I have completed for our dining room!  I purchased a smelly old china hutch on Craigslist for $60 and my husband couldn't believe I would even think about trying to make it pretty.  It was BAD!!

I used Annie Sloan chalk paint for the hutch and used her brushes as well.  The thing I love most about using chalk paint is that there is no prep work, other than giving it a good cleaning.  No sanding or priming at all!  I wish I could find my before picture.  It was pretty pitiful!

Here she is all finished!

I used Annie Sloan chalk paint in the color Old White.  I also used a coat of clear soft wax and used the dark soft wax to accentuate areas that I distressed.  I went ahead and invested in quality Annie Sloan brushes in different sizes & also her wax brushes.  They make all the difference for application!

Here's a close up that shows some of the distressing I did using sandpaper.  I LOVE the old look!

I left all of the original hardware on and painted right over it.  I didn't want the hardware to stand out too much from the off white finish.  I sanded down the pieces to age it a bit.

I love having a place to store my china and some pretty accessories.  Thanks so much for stopping by!  I'd love to hear from you!

Christmas Home Tour!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!  I thought I would jump on the Christmas home tour bandwagon, since I love looking at other houses decorated for Christmas.  I enjoy decorating our home, and you will see that I am a fan of simple when it comes to decor.  

I'll start the tour with our living room.  I decorated the stair railing, the mantel & the tree.  I love how our living area opens up into the kitchen so the tree can be seen from all angles.

A close up of some of our ornaments on the tree.

I used garland on the mantel and added battery operated lights to it.  The white sparkle trees are from Hobby Lobby.

A view from the kitchen.  Our living area and kitchen are basically one big room.  I LOVE the wide open feeling!

I used garland, battery operated lights, and flowers to decorate the staircase railing.

The Christmas decor flows right into the kitchen.  I only have a few decorations in here.  I like to keep the counters clutter free for the most part.

View from the living room into the kitchen and eating area.

Now on to the entryway.  I decorate the balcony and the entry table.

I keep things REALLY simple in the dining room since there is a lot going on in there anyway.  I threw some jingle bells on the antlers... That's it! lol

That's it!  I hope you enjoyed the tour of my home decorated for Christmas!  May you all have a blessed holiday season with your loved ones.  Merry Christmas!