This time of year has turned into my favorite season of all.
The leaves turn golden in the cool autumn breeze and others change, turn and spin on their tree branch until they mimic twirling tones of cinnamon and nutmeg. Together those leaves in all of their gorgeous tones, flitter and flutter to the ground, as if each one is in a slow dance with the earth below.
It’s a stunning season, don’t you agree?
The whole complete act of things falling apart so beautifully in Autumn reminds me of Bryant’s famous words, “Autumn…the year’s last, loveliest smile.”
Year after year Autumn has me smiling back. Grinning like a crazy fool, actually. You too?
{If you love this season as much as I do, then you will love that this post is linked up with those that are taking part in the Canadian Bloggers Fall Home Tour this year. Please make sure to visit all of the homes that have been involved in the tour this week by clicking on the links at the end of this post.} More pretty is always a good idea, right? RIGHT!
Around This Little Estate we clearly adore fall and as a result we are finding ourselves embracing our outdoor spaces even more so now that the weather has cooled and the nights have become shorter.
Times that are fleeting are easily ferociously savored aren’t they?
That’s why we have turned our new summer porch (See more here!) from summer ready to fall cozy.
There is no better time to curl up with a good book, a warm drink, and a cozy blanket than when the weather starts to cool down.
These days our outdoor space has turned out to be the perfect spot to enjoy a quiet cup of hot coffee in the cool mornings.
Which is great, because if you’ve been hanging around here for a while then you know that we are always up to something and a good cup surge of caffeine is always welcome.
Together with my handy hubby and our three tiny tornado children, we are always renovating, always pulling all nighters and always searching for the biggest hottest cup of coffee to warm us up and help us along.
We finished our new deck in the spring and unfortunately haven’t had as much time as we would like to really break it in this summer.
Hubby blames my constant design ideas and I blame the magical growing to-do-list!
So during these fleeting days of sunshine and warmth, we are doing our best to really enjoy it all!
A good book always helps to distract from that to do list, don’t you think?
We haven’t been able to get acquainted with our outdoor spaces because we have been busy gutting and rebuilding our indoor spaces.
A year ago we gutted this little estate of ours.
If you are new here and visiting from the tour, let me catch you up!
This space use to looks like this…
But when two dreamers and doers marry and build their family nest together. This happens:
And now here is the same space:
So come on in and take a look around. We cleaned up the power tools just for you.
WARNING: Don’t let these pictures fool you! If you stop by on any random day you will find these couches covered with folded laundry that the kids and pets will use as pillows until I finally put it all away two weeks later and there may or may not be a littering of toys, dishes and crafting projects on every square inch of these spaces. But alas, I regress….
#keepinitreal
#dontbelieveeverythingyouseeontheinternet
#pleasecallbeforeyouvisit
#PLEASE
To welcome in fall, we traded in our summer beachy style SEE MORE HERE for rich emerald green, deep gold and arrays of blue.
I love our DIY open shelving for it’s decorating versatility!
We can decorate our shelves for every season and need only shop our house to gather items that work with the seasons ever changing color tones.
If you look around our spaces you will quickly guess that I am in love with glass bottles. Luckily, since our three wild children have always been around decorated decor (or messy power tools!) they don’t care about touching things that aren’t there toys especially the laundry.
(TRUTH: Our four year old has been known to hide pizza crust or carrot sticks in the bottles instead of eating them like he is told to do! ;))
I find the easiest way to switch up our decor is to go from room to room in our home and gather things that will work as the spaces change for the season.
Hubby thinks this is awesome since it keeps me from spending our reno budget on pretty trinkets. Don’t tell him, but I agree.
These jewel toned bottles lived in our basement and did their job giving that space a nautical feel this summer. Most of them were picked up at thrift stores and junk stores or antique markets.
The candle sticks you see throughout our home are all purchased second hand and then unified with a coat of spray paint. (If you hang around long enough, you’ll notice that sometimes items get sprayed different colors throughout the year! The hair stylist in me, loves, respects and embraces the mighty power of color and paint!)
These pretty faux apples were also purchased at a little antique store and painted this pretty rusty tone. The frames leaning against the back of our DIY built-ins layer in some subtle dimension and were also unified with some white spray paint.
“Hello. My name is Bethany and I am obsessed with every kind of paint out there.”
For those of you who have inquired, we are working on a detailed tutorial on how you too can build a similar tv unit with shelving at your little estate. Stay tuned!
These black metal baskets are the perfect addition to our open shelving. Some days they will be filled with toy trains and tracks or the kid’s random art supplies; other times they will hold books or homework or things I put “in a safe place” and forget about. 😉 Ultimately, they are easy to take from one room to the next and they hide the messes perfectly.
Our family pet is a Boxer so when I spotted this little picture at the thrift store I picked it up and painted it’s delicate frame from red to white.
Are you noticing a trend yet?
Our couches are from Leon’s Furniture and can be found HERE they are so comfortable I like to “accidentally” fall asleep on them a couple of times a week. They are neutral but can easily get dressed up with textured pillows that perfectly add some color warmth and layers to this otherwise all neutral space.
The velvet blue pillow cases were $1 at the thrift store and the others were scooped up from Homesence Canada. The brown pouf was another thrift store score that I swear almost blew it’s stitching when I shouted, with all my force; “START THE CAR!” before paying 6 loonies for it!
This hand me down storage trunk hides extra warm blankets for movie nights which makes it the perfect addition to this space during the colder fall season. It’s not perfect, but nothing ever is when kids are around.
And that is cool with us.
Character over perfection is what we dig in houses and in people.
Three kids can wreak beautiful havoc in a busy home and so can the addition of two little kittens…
We introduced two pretty Siamese kittens to our family at the end of the summer and they fit right in with the chaos.
(More on them to come!)
Our dining room is now connected to our living room. We love that we ended up taking out the walls in this space to open it up to connect both spaces.
Now to host our first party!!
We recently upgraded our space by adding this gorgeous full wood table. To me it screams modern farmhouse and I love every little detail about it, including the X shaped legs, the chunky top and its lovely square profile and the gorgeous pattern on the table top. To see more details you can check the Claira table out HERE.
I’ve always loved hosting parties and know that I go that gene directly from my Mama. She never hesitated to invite families into her home for a meal, even though she already had half a dozen kids of her own to prepare meals for.
I love that.
“Build a longer table, not a higher fence.”
Now that our space is free from a table saw and this pretty Leon’s Furniture table sits in it’s place, we can finally add the leaves to this table, send out word that we have cleaned up the laundry piles and swing open the doors to this place.
In an open space like ours we like to keep our seasonal decor simple. We opted for a pretty navy, green and gold floral runner to center our table. I stitched it up one afternoon and love how the colors unify both spaces.
The candlesticks on our dining table were also mismatched but became a family with a couple coats of white spray paint.
Bet you called that one, didn’t you?
The pretty green snow ball flowers, and baby ghost pumpkins are a natural addition to the table and make reference on our tablescape to the bounties that autumn brings with it.
Our side server is just an arms reach from our table and holds extra napkins, vintage linens and our most favorite bottles of cheer.
Who is coming over already for our first dinner party in this newly renovated space!?
Our DIY painted cabinet is hard working as well and is always ready to offer up long curved banana split dishes or pretty pie plates to assist with dessert.
Once we finish our kitchen, we will REALLY have to host the biggest party ever. Perhaps an open house is in order? Maybe a Christmas open house? I told you about the laundry issue, so clearly we are besties now. Remember to RSVP, k?
I’ll serve my famous fall sun brewed tea and world famous (ok, family famous) butter tarts.
In the meant time, I’ll share their recipes here soon!
Now, only a few more tweaks and our long awaited kitchen reno will be ready to share and enjoy.
This fall weather has me dreaming up a hot menu of classic favorites right now so I cannot wait!
Thank you for coming along with me while I shared our home today! It’s been a year in the making and I’m so happy to share with you a few of our finished spaces dressed up for this sweater wearing, boot loving, tea sipping, leaf crunching season.
If you are new here, or visiting, these posts about these spaces may interest you!
Now, on to more fall decor!
All these lovelies are Canadians and know how to embrace all that is fall! They know this season is fleeting and that the great white north winter weather is on it’s way. So pour yourself a hot cup of something you love and get ready to be inspired.
The Canadian Bloggers Home Tour !
Each day, a new group of Canadian bloggers have shared their fall decor. Visit each home tour by following the links from the days below.
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
Albert Camus
Laurie Dickson
September 30, 2016 at 11:56 amThis was gorgeous!!! this is my first visit to your blog and I must admit I have no idea why it's taken me so long, I love all of it, your beautiful outdoor space and the stunning reno, WOW! I'll be back to properly stalk all of the goodness! I adore that pop of yellow sprinkled in your living area, the perfect touch!
-Jen -
September 30, 2016 at 1:58 pmThis is gorgeous! We just recently finished a big home reno as well and it feels so good to just decorate and not worry about all the building and construction dust! Your home looks beautiful and your porch is stunning! Looks like a fantastic place to spend an evening. PS – My five year old puts food under her pillow. I can relate to the carrots in bottles — LOL.
Jo-Anna@APrettyLife
September 30, 2016 at 2:49 pmOH my, your fall home tour is amazing! So many beautiful fall touches…you have a gorgeous home, and I can tell you love it very much! Lovely
Jen @ RamblingRenovators
September 30, 2016 at 3:09 pmBethany – your home is gorgeous! Love how welcoming and homey it feels. It's a great entertaining house. But what I love most is that each of the spaces feel like they've been there all along. You're really transformed it in a short amount of time! Hope you get to enjoy it with lots of family and friends this Thanksgiving weekend.
Heather
September 30, 2016 at 3:50 pmYour space is amazing! I can't believe what you've done in the living area. It's so pretty I just want to plop myself down there next to your laundry pile and hang out!
Shauna@Satori Design for Living
September 30, 2016 at 3:55 pmYour home is absolutely stunning! I laughed out loud when I read, "Hubby blames my constant design ideas and I blame the magical growing to-do-list!" The same thing happens around here. I look at our finished outdoor living space and think I'll use those new lounge chairs, but everything I want to get done in a day takes over. I'm working on that.
Tara @ Suburble
September 30, 2016 at 5:42 pmBethany – your home is gorgeous! I love how cozy your porch is, and that beautiful green glass vase in your tablescape – LOVE it! Your home is so cozy and inviting – great job!
Krista thehappyhousie
October 1, 2016 at 3:31 pmYour open living and dining space are gorgeous – as is your welcoming front porch. What a transformation! Isn't it fun to look back at all you've done?! Beautiful fall tour, Bethany!
Lindi Vanderschaaf
October 2, 2016 at 2:26 amYour home looks beautiful!! I LOVE the Tablescape and the front porch. Just lovely!
Ariel Garneau
October 2, 2016 at 12:21 pm1) I grew up with Siamese kittens! I LOVE THEM!
2) I actually kinda dug that space before! It's not everyday you see a mid century pink room! You've done a fantastic job bringing it into the 21st century though 😉
3) that porch is exactly what I need. If only I had the space!
Christina @ TheDIYMommy.com
October 3, 2016 at 3:21 amOh so gorgeous as always, Bethany! There are SO many things that I love here. The porch is so cozy and inviting – love the hobnail teapot! Your living room is divine, especially the shelves. Your dining room is gorgeous too – love the new table! Thanks so much for sharing!