A transitional space makeover - A layered moment between spaces.

This space right off of our entryway and behind our couch always felt a little awkward and unfinished. In today's video we're going to be adding in some simple pieces that make this space feel intentional and functional while styled in a collected and maximalist way that functions perfectly for our family. Although this space might seem like an area that doesn't need anything else added to it, this is the view that you get from our kitchen and you also get to see this area when you come down the hallway and you also see it as one of the first things when you walk in the front door. So I felt like this was a really important area to not overlook. I wanted it to look nice and styled, welcoming and give a cozy vibe to our home. We'll also be decorating this vintage secretary desk that's right off of the entryway as well. This is right next to our front door and I want to style it to make this space feel like a cohesive area of our home. I had this beautiful wooden bench sitting outside for quite a while now. It's very weathered and the paint is starting to chip off. I really actually love how this is looking so I just decided that I wanted to stain it to give it a little bit more of a richer tone and leave all of the chippy paint just to add some extra patina to this piece. I don't know about you all but every time I stain I end up not usually liking the first coat of stain that I do and that's what happened here. I used what usually is my favorite stain special walnut and it just ended up looking really gray on here because the piece itself was already so weathered so I went back over that and decided to use a walnut colored stain and I ended up really loving how this looked. One of the things I've been doing a lot of lately is looking through all of my decor books to get inspiration and also watching the Homeworthy channel on YouTube. It's really great if y'all haven't watched it. There are so many home tours that they do and you get so many creative ideas from there and one of the things that I noticed in both decor books and on the Homeworthy videos is that most people have something hanging off of the back of their couch. I'm sure to protect the back of their couch but also it adds a lot of interest so I decided that I wanted to get that look as well. In this case I'm going to be using an old curtain however my ultimate goal would be to find a beautiful thrifted quilt somewhere and put that on the back of my couch. I think that would just be the ultimate most beautiful thing I could do. What's also nice about this is I can switch it out throughout the seasons to give this area a different look and then it was time to bring in the bench. I really love how it ended up looking with the chipping paint and just staining it to warm it up a little bit more and I really wanted to add it to this space because it's the perfect place to sit and put your shoes on before you head outside. I always wanted a bench back here. I know most people use a sofa table behind their sofas. I didn't think that that would work in this space because I have my entryway table which is actually close to where I'm standing in this shot right here so I thought two tables might be a but adding a bench is something different and something that we'll use in this space. Now because I am a maximalist at heart, I felt like I had to bring something into this end of the bench and what better than a lamp and even better than that a lamp with a little table on it. This is perfect for when I'm heading out and I have a drink with me. I can set my drink down right here while I'm putting my shoes on so I thought this worked out beautifully and of course I also had to add some pillows onto the bench. In this case, I decided to add some light blue pillows and a beautiful floral pillow and I'm excited that I'll get to change these out seasonally. Lastly, to finish up the styling in this space, I decided to add a couple of vintage books onto this lamp table and a little faux potted plant on top of that and then just to add a little nod to spring, I added a milk glass bud vase with a tulip inside of it. Moving on to a little problem area that I have in this space is right here in front of the secretary desk. There is a hole in the carpet that was already here when we moved into this home and also we have the cords coming from the lamps that have to go this way to plug into the wall so I decided to solve those issues by adding an area rug that takes care of most of the cord. We do still have a little bit of it showing and for that, I'm going to be adding in a basket where we can leave our shoes that'll cover the rest of this cord and now this little problem area is taken care of. To keep the cozy vibes going in my home throughout the season, I've decided to start using smart plugs that are on a schedule so at 5 30 every evening, all of the lamps turn on and it just creates this perfect glow. Even if you're not home, they'll turn themselves on and by the time you get home, you'll be welcomed by the cozy ambient glow of all of your lamps. Now it's time to decorate the secretary desk. I'm really excited because this is going to be the first time that I've ever decorated it open like this. Our first stop is my decor studio which is just like my craft room where I keep all of my decor that's thrifted that I've found over the years so every time I'm about to start decorating a space, this is where I go and just look at all of my decor and I can get inspired by different potential looks so I just pick and choose the things that I think might look good together and I usually either put them in a basket or on a cart. After every season when I take all of my decor down, all of the stuff that's not seasonal comes back to this room and I rearrange it on the shelves so the other neat thing is everything always looks different and styled in its own way in this room which really inspires me. Sometimes I see the way that I just place things on a shelf and I'm like oh that's a good idea and that gives me an idea of how to decorate a certain area in my home so I really really enjoyed this space and it's a lot of fun it kind of feels like I'm shopping but I'm not spending any money so that's always a plus. I picked this really beautiful plaque up at a thrift store a while ago and I absolutely love it. I think that it's solid brass if not I guess plated brass I'm not sure but it's definitely heavy and it has that smell of like a brass or something like that and I absolutely love this. I think it is so beautiful. This side says meats and groceries on it and the other side has a name on it. This is so cool it gets my mind wondering where this could have been in the past. Was this at a general store here locally or is it from somewhere else not even close to us and someone just happened to bring it over here and leave it at a thrift store? I'm not sure but that's what I absolutely love about thrifting is finding unique things like this and just going crazy wondering where this item could have come from where it could have lived previously and I thought that this would be the perfect thing to add to the top of the secretary desk. In keeping with my maximalist theme that I absolutely love I'm also going to be adding in some potted plants up here. I'm going to start with this beautiful aged terracotta pot that has some greenery in it and then on the other side I'm going to be adding in a crock with some more greenery. Then I'll be adding in this white planner with this topiary in it and next to that I'll be adding in some terracotta pots. I always love to stack my pots and then the top one to angle it a little bit. I just think it gives it some interest and I really like how it looks. And then to add a cozy glow at night I decided to add in this light bulb. This is going to be behind all of the planters and at night it looks so beautiful. Stay tuned till the end and you will see what it looks like on. I wanted to add some more height so I decided to add a basket and just hang it on the wall. This brings your eye up higher and it looks so pretty when you look at it from afar. Now we're going to start on the shelves and I want these shelves to look really collected like there's just a bunch of different things in here almost as if you were at like a general store and these are just things that would be on the shelves. I'm going to start out by adding this cheese dome. I really like to use this when I'm decorating because of the glass it gives a nice reflective look. And next to it I'm going to be adding in this really cute vintage canister. I really really love this because I like the color of it. I like the little blue dots on it and then I really love the lid on it because of the wood top that it has. Now I'm going to be adding in this really pretty nutmeg illustration. I really wanted to use this because of the white background. It really pulls down the white that's in the planter that's on the top of the cabinet. And next to that I'm going to be adding in this super adorable little piggy. I absolutely love this little piggy. I love his little rain boots. Super cute. And then after placing the little pig down I realized that I would rather have it up a little bit higher so I brought a vintage book in to use as a little riser. And then just to add a little bit more interest to this shelf I decided to add another book kind of leaning on its side. And I also realized that I wanted the nutmeg tile to be up a little bit higher so I brought out a plate stand so that it could sit up a little bit higher and then I felt like the flow was much better on the shelf. And then to finish this shelf off and to add just that finishing touch I decided to use this little greenery wreath inside of the cheese dome. Again just to give it a little bit more interest. It's just something that kind of catches your eye when you're walking by. It doesn't look as plain as if it was just a glass. You kind of wonder what's in there so it definitely catches your eye. Moving on to the next shelf I'm going to be adding in this really beautiful crock. I absolutely love this one. I love the handles that it has. I love the brown and the more natural stone type color. It's always a treat when I get to bring this out and decorate with it. And next to that I'm going to be adding in this little copper bowl that is so cute. It's really small and just really cute. And I absolutely love the handles on it that are brass. So it kind of pulls down the brass that we have in general store plaque up top. Next I'll be adding in this I believe this is a spoon rest. I'm not really sure what it is. I just thought it was pretty when I saw it at the thrift store and I decided to pick it up. So I decided to use it here because again it'll pull down the white that we have up top and then in the nutmeg tile. And then on the other end I'm going to be adding in this really cute little basket of eggs. I really really love this. I love the detail that's on it. I love that it's like a metal and it has a little paper mache eggs in it. Again kind of giving the general store type vibe. And then since I just love adding in extra details and everything that I'm doing I'm going to be folding up this little piece of gingham fabric and just adding it to the bottom of the basket of eggs. Just adding in a little bit of extra detail. Next to the basket of eggs I'll be adding in this vintage oil lamp. Once again to bring in the reflective properties of the glass and then to bring down diagonally the glass that we have up top in the cheese dome. And then for a pop of green I'll be adding in some greenery into the crock and into the little copper bowl. For the last shelf I'm going to be adding in a collection of some of my favorite copper pieces. We're going to start out with this beautiful teapot. I absolutely love the patina on it and I really love the white ceramic with the blue detail in it. This is going to pull all of our copper together. The copper bowl that we have on the second shelf and then as you can see on the side of the secretary I have two little hanging pieces up and those two are both copper as well. Next to the teapot I'm going to be adding in this coal scuttle. This one again has the white and blue ceramic on it. It also has a really cool lion detail on it. And now next to that I'm going to be adding in this really pretty pitcher. This one is awesome because it also has brass on it and this one's really cool because of the handle that it has on the back and then it has a handle where you could hold it on the top as well. And last but not least I'll be adding in this pitcher as well. And once again this one also has a brass handle to it. And I personally really love that all of my copper is all patinaed differently. Some of them look a little bit more brownish. Other ones look like actual copper. I just really love the differences in all of these. One of my absolute favorite ever thrift finds is this adorable little wicker bell. I found this for 25 cents at a thrift store and honestly it's always the little details and the small things that make me the happiest. I really love this little bell. Now moving on to the desk part. I really wanted this to look as if you could sit here and actually write a letter out to someone. I decided to start with the lamp because what is a desk without a desk lamp? So a while ago I decided to buy a box of cards from a thrift store. I was hoping to find some really neat vintage ones. I didn't have such luck. I found some older ones but none that were really really vintage. But I decided to go through them and choose some of my favorite ones to put here at the secretary desk. And really I just grabbed an assortment of them just so I would have enough so that they look substantial inside of this little basket. On the other end of the desk I decided to add in some more vintage books. And then I have this little jar that I've had for a super long time. I think I found it at a thrift store a while ago. I'm not even sure where I ended up getting it. But I've had it for a while and I always like to stick pencils or pens inside of it. In this case I'm just going to add in some pencils into it because I don't have any aesthetic or pretty looking pens. I will definitely be on the lookout to find some that are nicer so that I can put in here instead of pencils. But for now you get the idea. I want this to look like a stationary desk. Again like you could sit here and write a letter to someone. So I'm going to need to find some pens to put in here. And then I'm also going to be adding in this really pretty glass jar with some eucalyptus in it. Once again the reflective properties of the glass plus the green I just feel like it really freshened this area up and really added a fresh pop to this corner over here. Now again it's all in the details for me. So like I said if this is a stationary desk where you're going to sit down and write then you definitely need your cup of tea beside you. So I decided to bring out this beautiful saucer and a little tea cup. I absolutely love the print on these. They're kind of like a farm print. There's a scenery with cows and a little calf and then on the teacup you have horses and then again on the inside you have the cow with a calf. So cute. I absolutely loved these when I found them at the thrift store a while ago. I had to pick them up. I've had this bentwood french bistro style chair for such a long time. Unfortunately I only found one at the time. I would have loved if I would have found four to use at my dining table. But since I only found one I had to pick it up. It was only ten dollars but I never had a space for it. Until now I decided to use it as a chair for the desk area and I think it looks absolutely beautiful here. It goes really well with the color of the bench as well and then of course to continue on the cozy vibe I decided to add in a pillow and this just so happens to be the other one of the curtain that I used on the back of the couch so it matches that perfectly. And now to finish this space off I decided to add a floral arrangement here to the corner. This is right off of the front door and obviously on the side of the secretary desk. I'm going to start out by adding this really really cute little heart stool. I absolutely love this. I was so excited when I found it at a thrift store a while ago. To that I'm going to be adding in this basket. Again the color goes perfectly with the chair and with the bench as well so it kind of just brings it all together. I'm going to be adding in this little dusty green colored pick. This matches the eucalyptus pretty perfectly so I love that it brings that color over to this side as well. I'm also going to be adding in these really pretty picks with blue little berries on them and then I have one pick of these white flowers that kind of drape over. That's going to be it for today's video. I hope that you all enjoyed coming along with me to transform this little transitional space that was pretty much nothing before. I can't believe the transformation. I am so happy with how this turned out and we're already using this bench so often. Every time we're going to head out we sit here, put our shoes on when we come home, take our shoes off, put them in the basket. It works perfectly for our family. So again thank you for being here. If you enjoyed this please leave me a comment down below. Give this video a thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe if you're not already subscribed and I will see you all in the next one.