Love is in the air!! How is it already Valentines Day this week? I swear I just put the Christmas tree decorations away. This Valentines Day I went a little overboard. With our kitchen remodel happening right smack dab in the middle of Christmas I feel like I was robbed of my decorating bliss. Literally we only had a tree. Plus February is extra special this year. The love of my life is turning 30, we are finally on the other side of the trenches of motherhood (my baby is turning 3) and my house is 90% finished. So much to be giddy about. So I thought I'd share a little love with my readers and give you some tips on infusing some Valentines Day Style into your home! Here are my go to tips this Valentines Day :

You guys we have reached the light at the end of the tunnel! Man does it feel good to be able to cook again. I have also never been so excited to do the dishes in my life. Week 6 of our kitchen remodel has officially come to a close and this week was a big one. The marble countertops were installed, all the light fixtures were hung and the sink now works. Hallelujah. All thats left to do it install the cabinet pulls, backsplash and crown moulding on the uppers. Thanks for following along on this crazy journey. It means the world to me to be able to share my designs with you all. And be sure to keep checking back to see pictures of the (hopefully) finished kitchen reveal!

I'm past due on a renovation update of our kitchen. Weeks 3 & 4 zoomed by and everything went exactly as scheduled so we were all set for cabinets delivery this week! And oh my gah I have never seen so many boxes in my life. The kids are enjoying themselves with this box utopia, I on the other hand and wondering how to heck we are going to install all of this and clean up in 5 days?! Oh and unpack, place and install all the appliances that are being delivered on Friday. I know I planned this to be completed by Christmas... but what the heck was I thinking?! Our Christmas tree actually looks ridiculous sitting on top of floor covering, surrounded by cardboard kingdom. So to distract myself from my sudden urge to purge ALL OF THESE BOXES, I wanted to share with you all the other fun details I have planned for the surrounding spaces. The whole first floor just feels so open now that wall is out, I added on some more design details to the front living room and back dining/playroom to make the whole house more harmonic. First up, paint colors! It's no secret that I have become smitten with the all white interiors popping up all over Instagram lately, but I always stayed away from white since my walls were so jacked up and white is not at all friendly with drywall bumps. (Think about how your 30 year old butt might look squeezed into those white jeggings you wore all the time in high school... the cellulite would have no where to hide!) But now that my walls are all smooth and toned (unlike my butt) I can totally paint them white because my walls no longer have flaws. The entire back of the house will be painted BM Chantilly Lace in Eggshell for the walls and Satin Pearl for the trim. Here are some similar looks in this color:

Week 2 of our semi DIY kitchen remodel has officially come to an end (well about a week ago). The wall between the old kitchen and dining room has come down along with all of the popcorn ceilings. We debated on keeping the old ceilings and scraping the stucco off but ultimately decided they had to go since we needed to get in there to run new school lighting. The floors on the other hand were a nightmare to take out!! The plywood underlay was screwed into the subfloor which made it impossible to get up without a fight. But Tom worked his magic until every last chard of ceramic tile was smashed and scraped. We are officially living with just subfloor and the kids think they are going to fall thru the ceiling every time they hear a squeak. Good times;) All has gone surprisingly well minus Niagra Falls coming through the basement when we tried to relocate a pipe. Len the Plumber came to the rescue on Black Friday which cost us a pretty penny, but luckily I am one smart cookie and factored those hiccups into the budget... dare I say we might be able to pull this off on time and on budget? Im still waiting on all of our lighting and other goodies to arrive so be sure to check Instagram on our progress! Here's a little behind the scenes action of all the demolition.

This week is the week. All of my kitchen obsessing is finally coming to life! We are currently in the process of ripping out our old kitchen and knocking down some walls! I wasn't going to blog about the whole process but when I was designing the kitchen the past few months I can't tell you how many little questions I had come up. I thought I had it all figured out design wise but I really needed help figuring out how to make all the details work. There were so many amazing blogs that I came across that made all of those tough decisions we had to make so much easier. So here comes the long winded design plans with some pretty (ugly) before pictures: Charli was kind enough to help take us on a tour of the house before we tore it up to help you visualize the changes we are making. And yes we are replacing all of the popcorn ceilings while we are at it. My heart couldn't be happier about it.

Enjoy these super ugly before images...

Summer might not be over just yet, but I can't help but get excited for fall and the fresh beginnings the season brings. Back to school time is my absolute favorites, add in some falling leaves and a pumpkin spice latte and I'm one happy Mommy. And now that the kids are in school I can finally focus more on those changes that I was talking about last post! I am going to be taking on several interior design projects this year and I can not wait to share them all with you! Tracy and I initially started this blog to share our journey in Mamahood while our kids were little and we spent our days at home. And lets be honest, I just needed the creative outlet and blogging was the perfect way to feel like me again! But Tracy's photography business has been kicking major girl boss ass and she has to step away from being a part of Olde Town Style. I really couldn't be more proud of her and all of her hard work. The girl takes some amazing pictures that you can drool all over here.

As for me, as I wrap up my final year in design school and start making moves to start my own Interior Design firm, I'm going to be testing the waters with some E-Design projects as well as my own home renovations. I wanted to share with you my latest home project I have been working on because I'm just too excited to wait for the final reveal!

This space is bright and airy and will be opening up into a newly remodeled kitchen. The natural light in here is so good that I want the design to be consistent with that bright aesthetic. I'm so inspired by Monika Hibb's home and all of her neutral rooms. Especially her dining nook here:

Easter is such a beautiful holiday in so many ways. This year we wanted to do something extra fun with our little people to help remind them of why we celebrate Easter. Gorgeous florals, personalized eggs, and a touch of the beloved bunny come together to make this Easter one to remember. We’re celebrating Jesus, the risen King and the beautiful spring that makes all things around us new!

Happy New Year from OTS! How is it already 2016? Last year was a complete blur, I really think the more children you have the quicker time flies so I thought it would be fun to do a little recap of the blog the past year to help jog my memory! It has been such a fun year learning how to blog, branding and learning to balance it all with motherhood. Sometimes it all seems so overwhelming, but when I look back I have to say I'm pretty proud of how far we have come from dreaming about starting this blog over wine in the backyard, to actually making it happen! From styled shoots to room features here is the best of OTS in 2015! And as always thanks for reading, it truly means the world to both of us to have so many people love and support us in all that we do.

First up is the original style shoot we did for Valentines Day called Love Notes

During the One Room Challenge USA Rug Pad had reached out to me asking if I would review one of their pads on the blog. Being a brand new blogger I was beyond thrilled that they found me let alone wanted me to review product! And the timing really could not have been more perfect. I just ordered THE RUG. You know that show stopper of a Surya Zahara that I can't stop talking about... the kids were doing their usual laps around the house. I swear 5:00 hits and its like our own mini version of the traveling circus. The ring leader, Charli rounded the corner of the playroom, caught the rug corner that folded up beneath her, and BOMB. Face plant. That was the moment when I thought "Man I guess I need a rug pad."

As if on cue, USA Rug Pad contacted me that very same week to try out one of their pads and I must say there have been no more face plants ever since! But in all seriousness, it may be a tiny detail that most people over look, but rug pads are so important in not only making your space safe, but more comfortable beneath those tiny toes. USA Rug Pad is not only super affordable but made of all natural materials. Which is always a win- win in my book. Right now USA Rug Pad is holding a Holiday Sale for 20% off all rug pads. There are tons of options to choose from depending on your flooring types and needs, so be sure to head to their site to check out all of those options. Thanks for reading and thank you to USARugpads for sponsoring this post.

Welcome to Week 6 of the One Room Challenge! Can I just say how good it feels to not only have finished playroom but my first official design challenge completed?! For those of you jut joining in in the fun, the One Room Challenge was started by Linda from Calling it Home. She basically gives 20 designers 6 weeks to transform a room from start to finish.... and the results are just well AMAZING! Olde Town Style might be a brand new baby blog but mark my words this will be the first of many more design challenges to come. It was just so much freaking fun! And my kiddos actually love this space. Its so gratifying to see the people you love most enjoying the home you've created for them. I wanted this room to flow with the rest of the house with neutral walls and rustic touches. My designs tend to read super femme with causal elegance and I think this room achieves just that. So without further ado here is my One Room Challenge Final Reveal! Wahoo!

How is it Thursday already? And how are we almost finished up with the One Room Challenge?! So last week was a flop on my ORC post, between design midterms, witnessing childbirth and throwing a kindergarten Halloween party, lets just say that life got in the way. But the good news is we got stuff done this week! The accent wall is finally completed and I couldn't be more thrilled with how it turned out. Here is our step by step on how we went from blah to tah dah.

Step 1: Measure & CutWe knew that we only wanted our accent moulding to be 3/4 height of the wall itself. We have this weird little HVAC drop down interfering on the wall you can't see in this picture. It really drives me crazy and I didn't want to draw more attention to it, so we measured accordingly. Our squares are 24"x 24" and I think what makes them look so seamless is the longest cuts being continuous and the horizontal cuts setting flush in between. I tried to get Tom to take his shirt off for these pictures, but unfortunately he just ate a rather larger cheesesteak and was not in the mood for shirtless DIY pictures. Bummer

Happy Thursday! I can't believe its already time for this weeks #ORC post. With all of the pumpkin patch trips and design school projects this week seriously flew by. I wanted to have a tutorial on our DIY wall this week but since it STILL didn't get done well thats just going to have to wait until next week. This week I wanted to share our progress. All of our furniture has come in by now and I'm getting seriously excited about it! Here are some sneak peaks of the playroom thus far…

Hello! Welcome to week 2 of the One Room Challenge...I am participating as a guest this Fall and I have to say this is exactly the kick in the butt I needed to get my half finished playroom finished! For those of you just joining in, the One Room Challenge was started when Linda of Calling it Home asked 20 design bloggers to completely transform in just 6 weeks. Every Wednesday they post their progress and/or hold ups and give you a inside look at what designing a room with a tight deadline really looks like. Have you ever heard the saying "Great design takes time?" Well these bloggers seriously put that phrase to the test, head on over to Calling it Home to see for yourself!Ok so this week I wanted to post about my changes in the original design plan. When I first started dreaming up this space I wanted it to be very gender neutral so my poor middle child Leo could escape the pink that seems to creep into every aspect of his life... Sorry bud I tried but I just couldn't keep with my original monochromatic plan. I need some color in my life!! Plus I found my dream rug for 70% off last week on Rugs Direct and well that just means it was meant to be. I also picked up the perfect pair of play chairs from RH Baby & Child. I love the idea of moroccan poufs for seating but if I'm going to be completely honest with myself, the kids would like them way too much and then the old chairs would never get used. And I have to keep them in the design for budget purposes. Now all thats missing is storage, new curtains, artwork and accessories. Here is what I am thinking as far as that goes…

I am very excited to announce that I will be participating in my very first One Room Challenge as a guest participant. For those of you who aren't familiar with this challenge basically 20 fabulous design bloggers are given 6 weeks to completely transform a space they have chosen. They post weekly updates every Wednesday to share their progress, which always ends up in some super stunning results! I have been following along as a reader for a while now always dreaming about participating in my own challenge. Well its time to stop dreaming and start getting down to business!