Something that I have been dreaming of since before we even knew about this house came to life this week. I have dreamed of having three chandeliers hanging above our dining room table for the longest time now. What a silly dream right? It’s just something that I never thought I would be able to do because I never thought I would have a dining room that would have the space to do that in. We all have different dreams I guess & that’s what keeps the world going. Anyways I posted on Instagram [here] a few weeks ago that I was interested in getting [this] chandelier from Pottery Barn & someone so kindly told me about one that was almost exactly the same from Lowes [here] for a lot cheaper. So, once we got the ladder hung up [here] in the dining room, I hurried my little booty to Lowes to see what these lights looked like that everyone was talking about. I’m not going to lie when I saw them at Lowes I was a little disappointed. They were great looking lights & were basically identical to the more expensive Pottery Barn ones, but the finish on the metal parts were completely different & not the look I was going for. Instead of an aged brass they were an antique silver & I wasn’t a fan. So, right before I was going to call it quits & just pay more for the PB lights, I remembered who I was & what I did… a little spray paint & some altering & I had my dream chandeliers… 

All the heart eyes!! I want these lights on in our house 24/7, but they look amazing when they are off too…

So, now you are probably wondering what I did to the lights to make them more of what I wanted. It was actually super easy. This is how the lights came from Lowe’s…

The antique silver wasn’t bad, but I wanted more of an aged bronze/brass look so I chose to spray paint them with Rustoleum flat chestnut [here]. Want to know the best part of all of this? The lights came wrapped in the box with all of the crystals wrapped in plastic & only the metal parts were exposed so it made spray painting the metal super easy. They needed a little assembly as far as connecting all the inside pars together, but it wasn’t terrible. I also don’t recommend spray painting in your laundry room. You may think that you are being neat & tidy, but the overspray will make your floor sticky & the same color as your chandeliers. Or so I hear. Want to see how Jose made a light fixture out of our ladder? You can see his post on how he ran all of the electrical & all that good stuff you can see his blog post about that [here] & now the lights are looking a little more like this…

These lights are so bright in the dining room which I love because I feel like in our past dining rooms our lights were so dim. In these photos that I took at about noon today the lights were dimmed to almost off if that gives you any idea of how much light they put out with the three bulbs a piece. & yes, like I said before, I am going to give that ladder a wash of paint hopefully tomorrow, but you know I couldn’t wait to show you the light fixtures. Every time I look in the dining room it doesn’t seem real yet, I mean this whole dream house of ours doesn’t seem real. When will that happen? I’ll let you know when it sets in, but for now I will keep updating you on the progress of our farmhouse fixer upper daily. What do you guys think of our lights? Let me know in the comments below, find me on facebook, & chat with me on Instagram. xx

I have some fun and unique updates to share with you today in our farmhouse dining room. Things have been moving a little more slower in our renovation process the past two weeks with work, summer fun, school, jobs, & more, but we have been working behind the scenes on a few fun things. One of our MAIN GOALS for this farmhouse of ours during the renovation process was to bring it back to it’s original old charm by revealing the original bones of the house & adding in chippy antique details as we go. This week we added three antique details to the dining room that I am quite obsessed with…

Yup, the ladder that we had hanging in our last house as a “faux beam” is now hanging over our dining room table. We will be hanging [3] chandeliers from it. My vision for this long room was to have lights spanning the whole table to really bring a lot of light to the room & draw your eye all the way through the space. There were a lot of options on how to do this, but ultimately hanging the lights from a ladder was the winner. We hung the ladder by adding anchors into the ceiling & then screwing hooks into the anchors so that the ladder would be sturdy. After the hooks were in we screwed hooks into the ladder & connected chain from the hooks in the ceiling to the hooks on the ladder. Super easy. My plan for the ladder? I’m actually going to give it a little wash of paint because I don’t want it to stand out so much & I want the chandeliers to be the main focus. I can’t wait to show you guys the chandeliers! If you are following me on Instagram [here] you may have already seen a sneak peak of the chandeliers we chose. But you know I will be posting them soon here on the blog.

Another thing we did to the dining room was add two antique architecture details to the entryway from the kitchen/sunroom area to the dining room. I had these two corbels lying around that I had no idea what to do with in this house until we started adding all the white chippy details to the dining room & I remembered these little chippy guys & had to incorporate them in some way. They fit perfectly mounted to the trim under that original beam of the house & almost seems like it was part of the original house as well. They really give the vibe of the rest of the dining room as well with all that chippy goodness.

I also love that you can see the mess in the front living room through the archway.. cardboard boxes, wall patch, &  just a glimpse of all the renovations going on up there. Hashtag real life. & I get a lot of questions about that stone wall. I don’t want to say it’s coming down, but I will say that it probably will be covered soon, but no worries… the beam isn’t going anywhere. In fact it will stand out even more soon. It feels so good to finally be hanging things in our farmhouse… it makes it feel more like home. What do you think of our ladder & corbels? I’m actually writing this at midnight after taking these photos & Jose is starting to hang the chandeliers & I’m already in love… can’t wait to show you!!! Let me know what you think in the comments below, find me on Facebook, & chat with me on Instagram. Thank you as always for stopping by my little blog & for following our journey. xx

Ps. This is what our dining room looked like before…

Take the tour & see the progress [here]

Living in a fixer upper is an adventure. & with every adventure there is the the good, the weird, & the weirder. One weird thing I am just now discovering is the strangeness of wanting to decorate for the upcoming seasons like fall & Christmas, but then you realize no room in your home is complete. If you have been following our farmhouse fixer upper journey then you know there are unpainted walls, no flooring in most rooms, no curtains are hung, no furniture is in the right spot, things are still in storage, & our house is basically a construction zone, but guess what? It’s still our home. In this season of our lives this is how our house is. Our house is one big fixer upper & we are enjoying the process. Our house is still filled with love, we still utilize the spaces that are unfinished, & we are still making our spaces meaningful to our little family. I hope if I can help you with anything here on the blog it’s that no matter what season you are in  in this life & no matter what state your house is in you can create meaningful spaces for your family. Don’t wait for your house to be “finished” or “perfect” before you make your house your home. & you all know I’m not going to let the first fall living in our fixer upper farmhouse pass without decorating it for the autumn season. This week I started in our little sunroom off the kitchen. Including the sunroom we have three living rooms in the farmhouse, but this is the one that we use the most now. I brought in a little fall this week & wanted to share this cozy space with you…

I love this time of year… even though we have had some hot days lately here in Michigan, the weather has been cooling off & as I snapped these photos I had the windows open & a breeze coming in & my new favorite candle burning, mahogany apple by Bath & Body Works [trust me, you need it!]. It really felt like fall which gives me all the warm fuzzies. For fall I brought in tons of cozy texture with these pillows from Farmhouse On Boone [Click here to go to her shop & get 15% off your order with coupon code LizMarie15]. I laid down one of my favorite rugs [here] from World Market & on top there is the coffee table that Mr. LMB made & a basket I picked up at HomeGoods. I blogged about that fall chicken feeder coffee table centerpiece [here] & it holds a lot of special meaning to me because it’s filled with goodies that creative people in my life made. My wonderful friend Holly from Hollyhocks & Hydrangeas [here] painted those amazing pumpkins on the rustic metal that I have in the centerpiece & I decided to hang a larger one she painted on our antique lead glass window in the sunroom window above the side table. I picked up the framed “gather” & “autumn” art from The Family Roost, & the pumpkins from our store, The Found Cottage. Sadly, I haven’t been able to find real pumpkins yet that I love so faux will do….. for now.

Something about fall that just makes every space cozy. As you see, I didn’t go overboard on the fall in this space. I kept it simple, neutral, & overly cozy because that’s what we need in this season of our life. I hope you guys never compare your season of life to someone else’s season of life & that you decorate your homes for everyday for yourself & your family & not others opinions. I had to come to that realization too. Our home is unfinished, but I’m not going to let that hold me back from being creative & creating a lovely cozy home for us. I hope you guys loved seeing our early fall farmhouse sunroom tour. Let me know what you think of it in the comments below, find me on facebook, & chat with me on Instagram. & as always, THANK YOU for stopping by my little blog.

But wait! Don’t go yet! Some of my friends shared their lovely fall living room areas too. You don’t want to miss these inspiring ladies homes…

| My Sweet Savannah | Ella Claire | Love Grows Wild | Liz Marie Blog | French Country Cottage

Dear Lillie | Shades of Blue Interiors | Miss Mustard Seed | City Farmhouse

Jennifer Rizzo Design | Jeanne Oliver | Rooms FOR Rent | Kindred Vintage

And today’s featured guest – A burst of Beautiful

This week I was blessed by so many gifts from talented friends that I decided to make a centerpiece in our sunroom with all of the lovely gifts grouped together. I am usually really early at decorating for fall.. I’m talking August, but this year it has been so hard for me to even think of fall decor as we are renovating the whole house. BUT that doesn’t mean I won’t be decorating for fall & this little centerpiece in our sunroom that I created this afternoon I’m sure is just the beginning of this years fall decor here at White Cottage Farm…

Isn’t it cute? Funny story, I actually own a bunch of authentic & old chicken feeders, but I found this new one at Home Goods for less than $12 really wanted to use it in some sort of centerpiece & today was the day to do just that. The lovely fabric pumpkins were a gift from one of my favorite blogger friends I got the pleasure of meeting last month, Laura from Junque Cottage. She shares the DIY tutorial for them [here]. She literally didn’t have to send those to me & she did.. why are people so nice? One of my other talented friends Holli from Hollyhocks & Hydrangeas painted that adorable little pumpkin on the piece of tin.. her work always amazes me & I think I annoy her by telling her how much I’m obsessed with her… but you can see for yourself [here]. & that sweet framed autumn burlap art is from Family Roost who is a vendor in our store, The Found Cottage. Seriously, I say it all the time but, I am surrounded by some seriously talented people & it makes me so happy. I have some REALLY bad days with our fertility journey & being surrounded by creativity & creative people brings so much positivity to my days & our home…

This centerpiece was super easy. I just plopped everything into my cheap little chicken feeder on the coffee table & it was instantly fall in this little space. The plants are ones I had from Ikea & worked great with all of my handmade items. Creating this little centerpiece today reminded me how much I love decorating for this season & just how much I love this season in general. I hope you guys are excited for some fall decor! I know that it’s early for some people, but I just hope I can inspire you in some small way for when you are ready to start decorating for fall. What do you think of my fall chicken feeder centerpiece? Let me know in the comments below, find me on facebook, & chat with me on Instagram. Thank you so much for stopping by my little blog today & for always making my days bright by sharing in my creative adventures. xx

I have a really exciting thing to share with you today. Why is it exciting? Simply because I was amazed by this & thought you would be as well. Ok, so this past weekend I got introduced to AllModern.com & no, this post is not sponsored, but I would NEVER have thought that I could shop on this website for our home just by the name. You know my style, a marriage between cottage & farmhouse. Well, after being introduced to the website I decided to browse the website & see what kind of things they had. Guess how surprised I was when I found the dining chairs that I had been hunting for for our farmhouse…

They are the fineview armless chair in antique white [here] & I’m obsessed. I wanted chairs that were not heavy & that still showed off our farmhouse table & these fit that bill. They were hugely on sale too which was a bonus. Want to know something equally as awesome? I ordered these chairs on Saturday night at like midnight & they got to our house on Tuesday morning. What is that? Amazing! We had dinner on the chairs last night & they are super comfy. Who knew that a site called All Modern would have something so perfect for our farmhouse? I would say the two negatives of these chairs for me is the white is super bright in person I maybe would have liked it a little more creamy white & the seat is not made for big buns, but comfy none the less. I was reaching there to find the negatives because honestly I love the chairs & think they are perfect. We will be getting to different chairs for the heads of the table, but for now I just placed the two extra white chairs at the ends.

Having dining chairs has been a serious treat this week because even though our entire house is a construction zone & our dining room is far from finished, these chairs make it feel more like a dining room & that’s pretty awesome. Like I said before we had our first meal in this room this week & I look forward to many more! What do you guys think of our dining room chair situation so far? I hope you liked this little update in our dining room & I just wanted to say thank you to you guys for being excited about the little things with me along this journey of our farmhouse. I can’t tell you how much it means to me to share this with you guys & have you share in our excitement… Thank you! Be sure to follow me on Facebook & Instagram for more behind the scenes photos & videos. xx

More dining room updates:

Dining room floor update [here]

Photo editing by: Tifani Lyn Photography

Happy September!! I  have not in the least bit started decorating for fall yet. I’m not that ahead of the game I promise. But I couldn’t resist some mums while I was at Home Depot the other day. & naturally when I got home I had to find a place to put the mums on our back stoop so what’s a girl to do? Well, I found a chair in our garage & an old wire basket & made something cute to plop my mums in… 

So here is the chair before…

I found it in our garage in a trash pile & knew I could do something with it. I just ripped the seat off & painted the chair in a mix of Maison Blanche creme de menthe & sugar cane. I love using custom colors on pieces because it makes them feel more exclusive & special. I know, dumb, but I love mixing colors & & it keeps things interesting. I had a random old wire basket lying around & I simply stuck that where the seat of the chair used to be. I didn’t even have to attach it because it fit so perfect. Match made in heaven..

I hope you guys liked my little flower pot chair. I think it’s quite charming on our little back stoop. I can’t wait to add some pumpkins to this space later, but for now I’m just enjoying these mums & my newly painted chair. Let me know what you think in the comments below & be sure to find me on Facebook & Instagram for behind the scenes & first looks. Thank you as always for visiting my blog daily & following along our DIY journey.. seriously ya’ll are the best! xx

See what some of my blogging friends did with Maison Blanche paint today too…

1. http://www.thewoodgraincottage.com/ 2.http://ablissfulnest.com/ 3. http://www.lizmarieblog.com/ 4.http://hymnsandverses.com/ 5. http://refreshrestyle.com/ 6.http://www.thegoldensycamore.com/

DIY window cabinet [here]

Like many blog posts before this idea came to me while wandering through Target with my cherry coke. The other day I went into the home decor section & on one of the end caps there were two of the most beautiful round baskets. You know when you didn’t know you needed something until you saw it & then all of the sudden it’s like how did I live without these things before? A thought immediately popped in my head… coffee table! I took the baskets off the shelf & started arranging them upside down on the floor & was getting some strange looks, but I knew right then I had to share this idea for a cheap & cute coffee table with you guys…

Seriously, I love these baskets as a coffee table & they make our sunroom look so good! The “DIY” is simply buying two round baskets like these I found on the interenet with my affiliate links: [these], [these], [these], or [these] & flipping them over so they can have a flat table surface. Does it qualify as a DIY project? In my book it does. I always find baskets like these at HomeGoods & Marshalls as well. A basket coffee table works great with any sofa & you could change it up with two or three different size baskets & really customize it to your decor preferences. A tray on top of the tables will make it an extra solid surface for your coffee table items like my staples coffee cups, books, & plants. The things I LOVE about using baskets as coffee tables: when done using them as a coffee table you can use them for their intended purpose of a basket, lightweight, easy to move, takes up very little room, great for outdoor & indoor use, super cheap, looks great with any style home, & there are no sharp corners for the littles. Again, I could keep going, but let’s just enjoy it…

From a basket….

To a coffee table…

My brain is now spinning for all the ways you could use a basket table… a side table, a taller one for a nightstand, square ones, oval ones, I mean I could go on. I hope this post inspired you in some small way. Also, for now I threw this rug I got from Target [here] in our sunroom, but I’m sure it won’t stay & I’ll put it in a different spot, but for now I do love it here because I do love this rug so much. What do you think of my DIY basket coffee table? Let me know in the comments below, find me on Facebook, & chat with me on Instagram. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog it means so much to me!

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Photos edited by: Tifani lyn photography [here]