Author Archives: Leslie

About Leslie

I think Habitual Rearranger fits me well because I am never settled on designs, colors, or placement of items in our home. I drive Bradley crazy sometimes, but I keep figuring out new and better ways of doing things! I am not striving to be profound or an expert on anything in this blog. It is simply a way to keep a record of all of my adventures - home and life - for me to reference and also for my loved ones to follow along. I am a born and raised Georgia girl. I don't think I would enjoy living anywhere except the south. Bradley and I spent six and a half years in our starter home and are now in our forever home, a 1970s traditional two story brick house. I love getting into all kinds of projects around our house, and I try to document all the dirty details here if for no one else than for me.

Living Room Coffee Table

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I finally found the vintage coffee table I’ve been searching for over the last year. The woman I purchased the dresser for this room from offered to keep an eye out for this table, but I wasn’t holding my breath because she had never seen anything like it before. Last weekend, I got an email from her that she had found one at a furniture re-seller in Atlanta that primarily deals in mid-century designs.

I fretted right up to the moment we got there when they opened on Sunday at 11:00 am, hoping that no one had purchased it overnight. Luckily not, and now it is mine! And for a fraction of what I feared it might cost. This table is skinny, half the width of our old coffee table, and it fits the scale of the other furniture pieces I’ve chosen for this room. The marble top ties into the round side tables, and the caned shelf ties into the sides of the arm chairs and the wooden end tables on the left side.

I think the only thing left to find for this room is a rug. We have been pleased with the Ruggable rug we got for the den recently, so I think we will go that direction again if I can find a pattern I like.

Den Updates

Holiday House Tour 2018

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I made a few changes to our Christmas decorations this year, mostly due to rearranging our living room and adding extra furniture over this past year. I finally replaced our artificial tree that we bought in 2007. The new tree has warm white LED lights and is a little shorter than our old tree. It is also narrower, so it fit perfectly between my new etagere and vintage dresser in the living room. Bradley really liked the idea of a garland on the dresser, so I ordered one from the same line as our new tree.

The smaller size limited the amount of ornaments I could use this year. I ended up only using our sentimental ornaments from life events and vacations. I also am enjoying the traditional red and green color scheme that I’m incorporating with my new wool tree skirt and whimsical tree picks.

Our new ornaments this year are from our trip to Charleston. We took a boat tour out to an island off Folly Beach where the Morris Lighthouse is located. We also bought an ornament at the Market that matches the one we got in Savannah years ago.

On the glass etagere, I sprinkled in a couple of nativities and mirrored trees.

The vintage-inspired-light-bulb ornament found it’s home on this shelf as well.

In the dining room, my decorations are very simple. I put my vintage ornaments in a vintage-inspired dough bowl. I also added my pair of brass deer to the bar cart.

In the den, I left Buddy’s pictures on the mantle and just added the banner I got at Target last year with a couple of nutcrackers that Bradley’s grandmother gave us years ago and some bottle brush trees from the dollar spot at Target.

Outside, in addition to hanging a wreath on each of the windows, I added a pre-lit entry tree to my front door vignette. The vintage sled came from Bradley’s grandfather when he was downsizing and the deer were from Home Decorators a couple of years ago.

To see my decorations over the years, check out my Christmas landing page.

We hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

Living Room updates

Office Redecorating

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We have been working on redecorating Bradley’s office since February and we are getting close to finishing. For years, his office has just been a collection of second-hand items that sort of just ended up together. He has recently been working equally between his desk and an armchair, so we decided to down-size his desk space and emphasize a lounging area in the office.

This was one of the only rooms in the house that I hadn’t repainted since we moved in. It was a nice soothing blue. Our new vision for the room centered around a warm, cozy mid-century-inspired atmosphere, so I brought home paint chips from Sherwin Williams in every shade of medium gray. We settled on Westchester Gray, and I love it. To keep a mid-century look, we chose curtain panels similar to the wall color from Tuesday Morning.

Bradley had always wanted an Eames lounge chair, but after seeing the Austin chair at West Elm, he decided to go with it in Chestnut leather. He also envisioned a wall with a television flanked by bookcases. I spotted the Antwerp line at Target and liked how the bookcases are airy at the top, but grounded by a couple of solid drawers at the base. It was also a good way to balance the budget for the room – spending a little more on items like the chair and a little less on the tv wall.

The rug is also from Target – the Kenya Fleece Rug in cream. The sofa is from Craftmaster and the end table came from Houzz. The round side table was a compilation of a base from a table we got from Tuesday Morning and a marble charger-turned-tabletop from Wayfair. Bradley had been wanting an arc floor lamp, so I found one at a reasonable price at Wayfair.

His desk at work is an adjustable-height desk, and he wanted to replicate that at home, so he ordered a motorized desk base from Amazon. The desk top was a custom piece from tablelegs.com made of walnut. One of our last hold-outs is a lamp for the desk area to brighten up this dark corner.

I’m slowly working on filling the bookcases. Bradley has a collection of old cameras so I used some of them sparingly. He loves bonsai trees, so I got him one I found at Walmart. The retro clock was a gift I gave him years ago after he saw one at one of our favorite little quirky restaurants – Aretha Frankensteins in Chattanooga.