bienvenidos a la casa de rivera actuliza numero tres.

welcome to casa de rivera update number three! 

since we last checked in about a month ago, we have made quite a bit of progress. and by “progress” i really mean we’ve made a lot of fun purchases -most notably a craigslist $25 find that S promptly turned into our new kitchen table. with a clear vision of how we want our home to look and feel, we’ve been extremely mindful about each item we add to our home and i must say, i couldn’t be more satisfied with every item we’ve added thus far.

this month in home updates, we…

 

 

transformed a $25 table into our kitchen eating space || far and away the most exciting house development in last few weeks has been the completion of a dining table for our kitchen nook. using a combination of this and this as inspiration, S started building a base for the table, in hopes of purchasing a laminate top from ikea or a similar store. but he did us one better and after perusing craigslist one day, located the perfect 42″ round conference table in excellent condition for $25 (a fraction of the $150 ikea pricetag). he simply removed the top of the old table and attached it to the handcrafted legs to create a new piece. and what a gorgeous piece it is. i am completely smitten with it and i can tell S is pretty darn proud at the outcome of his creation (as he very well should be). all that’s left is to order these chairs which are currently idling in our west elm shopping cart.

ditched recessed lighting for the perfect floor lamp || with the logistics of installing recessed lighting in the family room a bit more tricky than the master bedroom, we started considering alternative light sources. S suggested a floor lamp and i got to work researching viable options. thankfully the arc style is very on trend right now so i perused a few home instagram accounts whose style i would love to emulate and happened upon this beauty from bed, bath & beyond. the best part is that with some unused store credit and one of the token 20% off coupons, we ended up purchasing the lamp for a cool $12. can’t beat that!

 

 

found the perfect patio dining set || first of all, let me just say that patio furniture shopping is a tedious task. for one, it’s crazy expensive (even the target brands!) and two, there seems to be only one or two standard styles both of which aren’t really the vibe we wanted to convey in/outside of our home. with all of that said, after plenty of google searches, we finally happened upon the perfect set from overstock of all places. it’s a mix of wicker and wood, with four chairs as well as bench seating, making it perfect for entertaining. when ordering items online (which is the medium in which we’ve purchased nearly everything for the house), there’s always a fear that what appeared on the website won’t translate in real life. but i can attest that this set is even better in person. we’re beyond pleased with this addition and even held our inaugural al fresco dinner last week. unfortunately due to the heat, that dining experience lasted all but seven minutes, but still, it’s the intention that counts. we plan on using it as much as we can once the temperatures cool.

re-framed wedding photos || one of the things i’ve become quite fixated on in terms of decorating our home is adding in gold and/or brass accents. i just love how they can lighten up a space and make it feel chic and modern, while still warm and welcoming. as you know from the last update, we added a pop of gold in our master bathroom by swapping out the knobs and eventually, i would consider swapping out other fixtures to incorporate gold in the remaining bathrooms and kitchen. seeing as the latter would be a bit more extensive and expensive of a project, one easy way i knew we could add warmer tones to our home was by opting for gold picture frames! in honor of amazon prime day, target recently had a store-wide sale of their own, knocking off 30% off nearly everything. we took that as the perfect opportunity to buy three 8×10 of these frames to re-frame a few of our wedding photos. i got so many questions about them after featuring them in my instagram stories and i must say if you’re considering purchasing one or a few of your own, i can’t recommend them enough. they look so much more lux than their affordable price tag. now that the photos are framed, all that’s left is decide where we want to hang them. in fact, that’s probably the next big project we’ll want to check off our list -finally plotting out what will go where on our stark white walls!

 

 

started re-landscaping the backyard || besides having more square footage and rooms to grow our family, the thing we looked forward to most in purchasing a new home was a backyard space. and now that the patio furniture has arrived, we’ve been really focusing on putting our personal touch on the existing layout and landscaping. despite the crazy heat we’ve been experiencing, my rockstar husband has insisted on putting in some manual labor in removing some of the existing trees. so as the yard slowly becomes a blank canvas, we’ve been visiting our local nursery for some advice on which plants will thrive in the conditions of our backyard. ultimately we’ve selected a mix of four varietals -an australian fuchsia (“wyn’s wonder”), golden euonymus, white lantana, and lavender. S has already planted a few of each and we plan on getting more as we go along (and assess how much room we have). i know our backyard space will be a labor of love, but it will also be a huge source of pride and enjoyment all year long.

added some greenery to the master bedroom || i featured this basket in last friday’s post, but i wanted to make mention of it again a) for the fact that’s it’s a great basket at a great price and you should order one or twelve of your own, and b) it looks really cute in the corner of our bedroom (see above). that’s all.

but speaking of the master bedroom…

i think the next project S is going to tackle is building a dupe of this west elm console table to occupy the space beneath the hat rack.

and finally, perhaps the biggest house update yet, our custom sectional is set to arrive THIS WEEK. considering the original time frame we received when we ordered it back in the spring, i had all but concluded that the earliest we’d be receiving it was labor day, but christmas came early and as long as we figure out scheduling a weekday delivery, we’ll be lounging on it before the weekend!

 

p.s. in case you missed them, here’s update no. 1 & no. 2

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