Fall Home Tour 2021

Welcome to our fall home tour! I have been busy adding lots of warm fall touches to our home to invite in the new season. I love the colors of fall and I always think my home feels coziest during this season. This year I am joining with a talented group of bloggers for a fall at home tour hosted by A Stroll Thru Life. Thanks so much for including my home, Marty!

Let's begin the tour in the kitchen, the most popular spot in the house in all seasons. This is the hub of our home and the spot where the family, which includes our 3 sons and one super spoiled golden retriever, gathers every day. Our home started out as a traditional split level that we DIYed into an open floor plan home that suits our family's lifestyle much better than the original small and separated rooms did.

When it comes to fall decor, I am always drawn to classic colors. I love how the warm tones seem to glow in the late afternoon sunlight and I appreciate the copper pieces most in fall. 

I always enjoy creating a new sink skirt for the season. I used a harvest plaid tablecloth to make this one. I made the "curtains" from dish towels that I purchased on Amazon.

Our kitchen is open to our upstairs living room. I love how much sunlight this big window lets in to both this space and the kitchen and I look forward to watching the leaves change soon.

Next, let's head down the front stairs, through the front entryway.

The family room is just off the entryway and is the coziest spot in the house in fall.

Finally, let's head upstairs to the primary bedroom and bathroom. Yep, 

I decorate those for the seasons too!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I have also been decorating our cabin for fall and will be sharing that soon. I will hope you will stop back to see that. Be sure to check out the other homes in this fall tour for even more inspiration.

Next stop on the your is the beautiful home of Yvonne at StoneGable. You don't want to miss her lovely fall decor. She has been a favorite blogger of mine for many many years! 

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Summer at Camp Lucky Dog

As promised, I am here to share some summer pictures of our family's cabin in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate NY. This cabin has been in my husband's family since 1984, when his parents bought it with another couple.  We purchased it from them last year and have been working on it slowly to make it a place for our children to enjoy with us for many many years to come. I think you can see why we decided to name our cabin Camp Lucky Dog from the picture below!

The front porch is always a favorite spot to hang out. Billy recently asked me if I wanted to put a fresh coat of paint on the Adirondack style love seat that has been sitting on the porch since I came here and I said, NO! I love the chippy look of this. I love that it shows the history and all that vintage goodness. And I realized that that's my approach to everything about this cabin. Nothing polished, just a well loved place full of memories.

The green pine tree shutters are a new addition to the cabin this year. Billy built them himself and I love how much personality they add. We plan to add a window box to that upper window but we are waiting until we get a fresh coat of brown paint on in the next few weeks before we do that. We also have plans to widen those steps so the door is more centered and update the railing but we are holding off on that until the price of lumber comes back down to a somewhat reasonable price.

We added in an island of plants and flowers and a birch tree in memory of my dad. Little did we know when we planted that tree this spring that we would also be saying goodbye to another beloved parent in a few short weeks. Billy lost his mom this May and it's been a profound loss for us all, but especially him. She chose this house because she always wanted a front porch and spent many hours watching the hummingbirds on this porch. I know we will always feel her presence strongly here.

We tend to throw ourselves in a project when life gets hard, I guess it's a coping mechanism that has become a go-to of ours through the years. And so we decided to add a new island to the kitchen at the cabin. We had previously had a small, moveable island but it just didn't give us a big enough space to prepare food or a place to gather when the whole family is here.  I lamented for weeks over just how big to make it so it didn't overpower the room yet made better use of the space.

We gained lots of storage and now our garbage pails are built into the island. I'm very happy with how it turned out and the first weekend that I saw all of our boys and their girlfriends gathered around it, I knew we made the right decision in adding it.

The next purchase we are saving up for is a new range. In the meantime, it's fun to shop for one. We are considering either a Z-Line or Ilve 36 inch range in either white or red. We will switch over to a dual fuel range at that point because we prefer cooking on a gas stovetop.

We're also enjoying the banquette seating we added last year to the eating area. The advantage of working on a house that we have lived in for years is that we knew which areas needed improvement. Last weekend, this cabin was full of family and friends and we added a leaf to this table to gather as many people around it as we could fit. There's not much else in life that makes me happier.

There is a wide hallway that connects the kitchen area to the the family room.

The mudroom is a very hard working space in this cabin.

It's hard to remember what this corner of the family room looked like before we added this desk and shelves.

Finally, our latest project was the addition of this porch swing to the back porch. It's the perfect spot to read or take an afternoon nap. I can't wait to see what it looks like once the leaves begin to change colors in fall.

Thanks for stopping by today. It's hard to believe that we only have a few more weeks of summer but I am very much looking forward to fall at the cabin too.

One last thing, my husband started an Instagram account where he shares my pictures of the cabin that never make it to my main Instagram page. We'd love to have you follow along at Camp Lucky Dog if you'd like to see more of our projects and adventures at the cabin.

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Some Summer Decor

Happy Fourth! Today I thought I would share some of the red, white and blue decor that I added to our kitchen. We are home in NJ for the long holiday weekend because the 4th is my mom's birthday and I like to be able to spend time with her that day.

I've been collecting this patriotic decor through the years. This year I added some new dish towel curtains from HomeGoods.

The pennant banner was from Sur La Table several years ago. They have a slightly different one this year and, now that it is on sale, I ordered one for the porch at the cabin. I love the fun and festive vibe these banners add.

I made the sink skirt from a plaid tablecloth several years ago.

I'm burning one of my favorite candles in a vintage blue mason jar from Cultivated Candle Company. This one is their Greenhouse scent.

Their entire summer collection of candles is awesome this year and I'm having a hard time picking a favorite scent. The Coconut Palm is divine for summer.

We enjoy most of our meals on the back deck. This area overlooks the pool area.

I also set up a little sitting area on our lower level covered patio.

Finally, I thought I'd share the window seat in our bedroom with some colorful summer decor. Summer is always such a great time to read so I it always feels right to add some summer touches to this space.

We've been making lots of fun changes on the cabin that I am looking forward to sharing with you next. I hope you'll stop back to see it.

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