fall tour {2018}

Hey hey friends! 

We’re thrilled to be here with our Fall Tour 2018 today! Before we get started, we’ve also partnered up with some other fabulous friends so be sure to check them out for some pretty eye candy, too! 

• Our Fifth House
• Thistlewood Farms
• Lolly Jane
• The Inspired Room
• French Country Cottage

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As much as I have been in denial about fall, {how is it September?!} there is something strangely appealing about it. I’m in the minority when I say that I’m a summer gal, and I think there’s been a change in me over the past few years… mostly, because we have a pool now and I do relish in long summer evenings with fireflies and friends.

But there’s no denying that the sun has begun to shift in the skies and the leaves are already beginning to fall off our favorite front yard tree. 

I’m really an anything-but-winter gal.
 

Of course, it doesn’t help that I decided to ditch coffee, {my one true love} for about a week now. Yes, I know. It’s one part health, two parts teeth whitening. I was basically drinking it all day long, so come talk to me again when the weather gets cold, and I’m waking up the kids to catch the bus in the mornings. And by waking up the kids, I mean Jamin, because I won’t be leaving my bed. Surely I can scale back to a happy medium. 

Like I said, warm weather gal. 

If you’re new and just stopping by today, I thought I’d quell my ramblings to tell you a little bit about us. We’re Jamin and Ashley Mills, and it’s here where we share our adventures of raising a family and running our design firm in Nashville. We basically uprooted our family two years ago and purchased this little 1976 fixer upper. We completely gutted the inside to make it a home that we love. We’re entering year three of our adventure and truly adore it here.

So I’ll be sharing a few before and afters along the way, in case you’re new here. 

We don’t believe in the dream home. We believe in your home, and creating what works for you, and what you love. There is no such thing as perfection, and please know, that to capture these shots, it took me a few days.

We live in reality with homework and laundry and dog hair… just like anyone else. Do don’t be fooled into thinking we’re clean all the time, Y’all. 

If you came to our house in the middle of the day, we’d bake some cookies, make some coffee, and throw some laundry on the floor so that you might sit and chat for a while. At least it’s clean, right?

This is our main level entryway, and we love that it opens into one big room for our family. Once upon a time, when you opened the door, it looked like this: 

And we loved taking it to this:

Our main great room area now contains our sitting area, kitchen, and dining area. It can get crazy in here fast, but we do love that we opened up those walls, and raised the ceiling for so much more space. 

When we showcase how we decorate for fall we know our home truly embodies Spring, if anything. We’re definitely color people. So we love to cozy it up with warmer things like metallic tones and deeper shades when Fall begins to roll around. 

Once upon a time, our kitchen looked like this.

And we fell in love with all the potential we saw in this space. 

It’s definitely a main gathering area for our family, friends and guests all around. The hub of our home. 

It truly feels like a breath of fresh air. We love our little flea market find stained glassed windows paired with the new windows from Window World.

We’re smitten with jeweled tones and layered textures for lots of personality and interest.

Because when you can spiff up your china cabinet… why not?

Dressing up the table for special occasions kind of reminds me of my childhood. The table always felt special when it was covered in my mom’s creamy tablecloth and dishes, especially in the dining room. We try to do that with anything we can, now… just because our kids love it so much. 

This is probably one of our very favorite before and after angles.

We adore the way that taking out those walls and raising the ceiling just did so much for our space. Light and bright is what we love!

We brought in a few more pillows for some richer color and some fun little accents as a nod to Fall. Just simple changes here and there.

Total side note: Emerson {our daughter} was thrilled when I brought out a few antique books with her name on them. ;}

Every angle just makes us happy. 

I’ve always been a bit of a painter and decided I wanted to do something fun of the kids over the fireplace. I was thrilled to add this one – it adds a splash of color and also hides our TV. I guess you could say this little juxtaposition {a summer painting with pumpkins below} is me raising my proverbial fist to the changing weather. For what it’s worth, it felt really stupid with the fireplace on in the middle of 90+ degree weather, but we can all pretend it’s cool outside, right?

Almost all of the art you see in our home, {besides the vintage poster over the piano, and the ostrich in our son’s room} has been painted by me. You can see some of our prints available for purchase in our shop here!

Needless to say, the fact that we always have to do things a little earlier, kind of help get us in the festive mood.

At least that’s how we look at it. 

We always wanted a piano, and as soon as we moved here, we purchased one. Because when in Nashville… you might as well become musical and things. 

Leading the way upstairs, are the main sleeping quarters. 

I have no idea why I just said sleeping quarters, but since I’m giving a tour, it felt official. The ideal plan {and we shall see} is to add a master off to the left of our kitchen. But for now, our younger two share this space upstairs. We took it from this: 

Yes, that red was burning my corneas… to this: 

At first, it was a space shared by all three, while we finished the basement, and might have been my favorite space ever.

Now it’s shared by the younger two, a boy and girl – and they still love it. 

Once upon a time, the tiny closet looked like this. 

But now it opens up into our oldest’s space, with a shared closet. We bumped out the wall to make more space. Eventually, the boys will share this closet, with their rooms on each side. So it works out nicely for in the meantime, and now. 

Aiden’s room was once upon a time, this: 

And now it’s this…

He loves his space with layered texture and fun vintage vibes. We hand painted the back wall using FrogTape to give him some plaid fun. His room is the one in the house that just kind of naturally screams Fall.

This is our master {for now}. We hope to eventually give our daughter this space, while we move to the master addition. 

Such a change from the first time we laid eyes on it!

I think one of the reasons our house sat on the market for so long, was because of the master.

We decided to {again} get rid of the tiny closet, and bump it out, working within the footprint of what we had. 

You may have noticed the stained glass windows downstairs in the kitchen. This is their sister.

We found them at the flea market and they quickly became a big part of our renovation process. 

We live in a split level house, which I never thought I would really enjoy. I have to say though, we adore the layout and that it feels so nice and open. I guess along with the outside last winter, you could say that phase two was our basement renovation. 

I use the word basement/garage intermittently, and yes, we do have plans to eventually build a little carriage house on our property. {We have a lot more phases up our sleeves – here’s the one going on now – so stay tuned.} But y’all. We have come a long way from the before. 

The first time we laid eyes on this, we were pretty positive there was most definitely a clown in the crawl space. It’s now our favorite spot to gather on a rainy day or quiet evening and play board games/watch a nice movie together. 

 

Who knew we’d turn a space where we’d seen spiders bigger than our heads, into one of our fave areas of the house? You can read all about it here along with those lovely LaZboy chairs.

You can find more details on the link above, but we love these double barn doors and how we can close them off to the rest of the house for plenty of space, and a little quiet when needed. We designed them for our friends at Artisan Hardware and they built them for us.

There’s always a sleeping pup, somewhere. ;}

I have a small studio area on the other side of the wall, which I absolutely love. This was the before: 

You can see more of the details for that space, here!

We turned this space into a much-needed catch-all for our kids and all the things. It’s been a real game changer. We think the Jefferey Court tile alone makes the space

Also, when said children saw the photo below, they got onto me for “letting the bugs in”. Our middle also gets onto everyone about leaving the lights on. I’m a big fan of her policing skills, to be honest. #doingitright

Outside, you’ll find out handmade hideaway. It’s one of our very faves and you can find the original here + this version here. 

Psst – be sure to check out our incredible reader versions on instagram with this hashtag, here. 

There are so many incredibly talented people out there!

Check out more of our side entrance makeover here!

We know that this post was a lot, but it’s really fun to share the before and afters, for any of the new fabulous people here, along with a few things that make our home so cozy. If you’re still reading, you’re amazing. 

Be sure to check out out journey here {with the entire adventure from beginning to now}. 

If you live nationally or close by, we offer both e-design and local design help. Be sure to contact us here!

Thank you so very much for stopping by today. Be sure to check out our other friends participating in the tour, too! Oh and those lovely lanterns are from Kichler our favorite lighting source.

• Our Fifth House
• Thistlewood Farms
• Lolly Jane
• The Inspired Room
• French Country Cottage

Have an inspired day!