We love many things about our home, but the backyard has never been one of them. It’s small, sloped, exposed, littered with acorns and sweet gum balls, and not receptive to our efforts at grass growing. For the last four years we’ve hardly spent any time out there, preferring to hang on our front porch (we mostly just went around back to tend the vegetable garden and grill).

We can’t change the size of our yard, but we’ve always hoped to do a major renovation to make it work a lot harder for us. With June’s arrival, it seemed like the time was right, so I spent part of my maternity leave getting quotes and meeting with landscape folks. It was shockingly hard to get people to respond to our calls and emails! (I was like, do you KNOW how much money I’m trying to give you??)

Speaking of so much money… a few quotes did come back, and they were higher than we were anticipating. We had saved up a good amount, but just didn’t feel comfortable moving forward. So, we tabled the project last spring.

Then, early this year, we received an unexpected and generous gift from a family member. It wasn’t large enough to, say, make a huge difference in our mortgage (and we already feel good about our progress and plan there), but it was enough to make our backyard project a reality. We were SO excited to start the ball rolling again, and the best part is that though the gift was given with no strings attached, I think the giver would be very excited about where it’s going, because kids being outside is something near and dear to her heart.

As it is to ours. I’ll share more about our plans in my next post, but for now, I wanted to show y’all the before photos!

Mmmmm… so lovely :) Back with more soon!

P.S. A crane is coming to remove two of the trees today!! Stay tuned to Instagram Stories for an update.

Are you all planning to watch the new HGTV series Home Town tonight? It’s at 10 EST, right after Fixer Upper – and if you love Fixer Upper, you probably will love Home Town! They both have a sweet, talented, smart, very-much-in-love couple at the center; small town coziness; fun house transformations; and a Southern heartbeat. Plus, Erin from Home Town wrote my favorite Southern Newlywed interview ever, and has been one of my favorite blogs to read for a few years. (She writes a short note sharing the best thing that happened that day, every day – admirable!) It has been so fun to see the show develop on her blog, from the first covert mentions (before they could even talk about what was going on but it was obvious something was up), to the pilot’s debut last year, to the past few weeks building up to the premier. They are an easy couple to root for and it has been so fun to do so!

We also have some of Erin’s original art hanging in our home! Before she became an HGTV star, she was a wedding and social stationer. Though she’s now using her drawing and watercolor skills to help Laurel-ites imagine home renovation possibilities, she used to create house portraits for people like me! She drew both of our family cottages (that’s one of them under her pen, up there), and they hang proudly in our main room. Since we live far away from Maine, I love walking by their sweet facades every day. I’ll always be grateful for her talent in bringing them to life!

Join me in supporting this sweet Southern couple tonight, friends? 10pm EST – I’ll see you there!

P.S. I am going to Laurel next month – counting down the days!!

I am not one of those people who had the nursery tied up with a bow by the time their second trimester rolled around – in fact, we were still adding the finishing touches several months after our girl arrived! On time or not, I’m happy with how my vision came together, and on a budget of less than $500, too. Let’s take a little tour, shall we?

Not to start off on a negative note, but I used Jenny’s pelmet tutorial for the blue buffalo check curtains and MAN it was a beast. I don’t know if I was doing something wrong, but I wouldn’t recommend it. I will begrudgingly admit the pelmet is still on the wall and looks good a year and a half later, though, so I guess it worked out in the end…?

The dresser was a vintage find at the Raleigh Flea Market (I LOVE the color of the wood!), and the painting was a very special gift from one of my best friends – she made it herself after the wallpaper I was considering was discontinued! So talented!!

One of the main differences between my nursery inspiration and June’s finished room is the crib skirt. I originally planned to do blue toile like Jessie, and even ordered a blue toile skirt off of Etsy, but when it arrived it just didn’t seem right. A few months later I bit the bullet on a favorite Liberty of London fabric, and my aunt graciously sewed it into a skirt. The fabric itself was not exactly cheap, but it’s my favorite thing in the room and added the feminine note the space was missing!

That little cat is the first stuffed animal we bought for June, when we were in Paris and I was pregnant!

My amazing aunt also KNIT this horse mobile after I showed her an exorbitantly expensive one I had fallen in love with! I have absolutely zero sewing skills, but it’s definitely a goal of mine to learn so I can one day make my niece or granddaughter’s nursery dreams come true. Gotta pay it forward :)

Let’s talk about one more project that may or may not have been worth my while. We wanted to have a line of scripture or a hymn on June’s walls, and while I considered a beautiful piece from Between You and Me or House of Belonging, I was scared off by their pricing. So I decided to make one myself, and while I am mostly happy with how it turned out, it was a lot of work! AND, I knowingly had to spell one alleluia wrong, because I couldn’t fit another L on that line!! Argh. Oh well…

Missing a few nursery-specific items you expected to see? June’s glider and changing station are both downstairs in our bedroom, because that’s remained our hub of activity for the most part. We also recently hung her baptism cross over her crib, and it’s one of my favorite additions!

I’ve listed sources below, but if you have any questions, ask away! I’m happy with how June’s sweet space came together, and hope you like it, too!

All photos by the very talented Nancy Ray.

Wall paint: Simply White by Benjamin Moore (were I to get a redo I would paint the walls Love & Happiness by Ben Moore instead) | Buffalo check fabric: Calico Corners in Blueberry | Twin bed: Craigslist | Pink pillow: Target | Blue quilt: Garnet Hill | Dresser: Vintage | Wooden frame: Target | Horse painting: Custom | Lamp: Target | Crib: Hand-me-down | Liberty print fabric: Alice Caroline Supply | Mobile: Custom | Sheep rocker: Pottery Barn | Faux sheepskin rug: Ikea | All Creatures art: DIY | Book bin and stool: Homegoods | Sunshine banner: Small Branches | Felt balls for garland: Gracie & Marie | Flush mount light (which you can’t see in these pictures, but is really cute!): Pottery Barn Kids

No one would ever accuse me of being the hare in the home decorating race. We take it slow around here, by choice and by necessity, and that’s okay. In the last year, we have made a lot of progress – new art over the mantel, new dining room chairs, a new rug in the living room, a nursery! – but there’s one room that always seems to fall lowest on the list of priorities: our master bedroom.

After upgrading to an (amazingly comfortable!!) king mattress a few years ago and buying sheets to fit it, we pretty much called it a day in our room. (I largely skipped over it in last year’s house tour.) But recently, it was decided that we needed to shoot something for work in – you guessed it! — our bedroom, and though I was a bit panicked at first, I’m so glad I finally had the kick in the pants to make some improvements!

For the project, we hung two large (16×20) prints of our wedding vows over our bed. Simply Jessica Marie did the watercoloring, and I absolutely LOVE how they came out! The softness of the technique means that the pieces read more as art and less as bold typography, which I think is appropriate — they are, after all, some of the tenderest and most personal words we’ve ever spoken. The prints were framed by Framebridge, and you can get a discount code in the Southern Weddings post!

To spruce up our shooting angle, I first added three velvet Euro pillows from Pottery Barn. (I hate to say it doesn’t look like they have our indigo color online anymore – but you might be able to try in store?) The total for the three pillow covers and feather fills was $150. Not cheap, but they are a far less expensive way to add definition than a $1,000+ wooden headboard! (I’m still hoping to get that bed eventually, but it will probably have to wait a few more years!)

The gold lumbar pillow is from Anthropologie. (The bedroom in this home tour helped me visualize the mix of pillows I wanted.)

I also added two brass task lamps from Target (on sale right now!). A little light styling and one adorable tuxedo cat later, and we were in business.

I think the best home decor improvements change how you live in your space for the better, and these, though simple, definitely fall in that category. We make our bed every day now, since it looks so nice all done up, and it’s way more comfortable to read in bed at night! (Plus, June loves climbing all over the pillows.) For years I felt like I had to wait for that dream bed to make any improvements in here, but I’m so glad I finally took the first step!!

All photos by the wonderful Callie of Nancy Ray Photography! This post contains affiliate links.