Berties Build on a Budget: Our Happy Home

Ok, let's kick this blog off again! Now that ~~things have slowed down~~ I'm making this blog more of a priority it's time to get back to business and share our building experience with you all! I run into you followers once in a while and every time I do I get the, "when are you going to post to your blog again?!?!" So here is what I'm going to do. I'm going to do a finished space post today and next time I'll talk budget again. Everyone cool with that?

When designing the house my main goal was to make it a bright, airy and most important HAPPY! I wanted to walk in and simply smile and I'm pretty sure we've accomplished that. It is not elegant, it is nothing fancy, but we put a lot of special love and attention into many details in our home. The inspiration for our home comes from this gorgeous home out in Utah which was designed by Four Chairs Furniture & Design and featured on House of Turquoise.

I'm going to start with our Family Room if that's all right with you. This is such an important room to me. It is where after a hard day you can come home and kick your feet up. It is where we sit to play Battle Ship, Guess Who and a crazy game of Twister! And it is where we will decorate our Christmas tree as a family. We wanted it welcoming, warm, and comfortable.

Let's start with the fireplace. It was purchased through Woodland Direct. We weren't going for the woodsy feel as you can see, but rather a more modern clean look. We love the rock bed, the amount of glass and the heat it gives off. We wish it came with a blower and had less of a black boarder around the glass. One mistake we made was when we originally had it framed in, it was way too high. Mr. Bertie's biggest pet peeve is having a TV too high above the fireplace. Well when we moved the frame work down, we forgot to lower the beam support as well which caused us to still have the beam high and the TV higher. It's on our list of things to fix/change but that will be at a later date. The tile around the fireplace was a new product through Home Depot. I loved it the minute I saw it and hated it the minute we had to try and cut it down. You see the dimensions of the fireplace don't match up to the tile dimensions so we had to cut it. Let's just say it lead to a few cuss words.

My favorite one-of-a-kind details are the barn beam fireplace mantel and the barn wood used in the entryway and kitchen. These came from the farm I grew up on in Pelican Rapids, MN. One day last summer...let me reword that...one very HOT day last summer Mr. Bertie and I pulled barn wood from that barn. Someday it won't be there but I now have a piece of memory in my home from that barn.

We used 4 10" lag bolts to support the beam and chose not to cover up the bolts. I like rustic touch it adds.

Ok, so now let's talk about the custom shelving!!! This was one project I was jacked about and was lucky enough that my custom cabinet guy Jeremy with Hazel Hill Cabinets was willing to assist me in creating my vision. Pinterest is incredibly inspiring and so the idea came from this here. I love photography and I love my kiddos so I wanted to have a place to feature each of their beautiful faces. Mr. Bertie was nice enough to put puck lights above each picture so that at night they can still shine. We used MDF for the shelving and added dattos to make it stronger. We also framed in the middle square to add support. All in all I am incredibly pleased with how it turned out!

Below the shelving are 3 cabinets to store blankets, board games, DVD's and more. The reason we did the frosted glass is because our DVD and any other entertainment system people have these days will be inside the cabinet. We didn't want the wood to cause a weak signal for any remotes.

And now I want to share with you all my newest obsession, Bord! Jill Arnquist is the owner and the artist behind this incredibly beautiful furniture. I kinda want to be her someday ;) I respect any girl that's not afraid to get her hands dirty! She's located in Alexandria now but still serves the Twin Cities area. I cannot recommend her enough - inspiring person and stunning furniture!

I am very simple...less is more kinda person.

She has her hands on every aspect of her furniture from design, to cutting, treating, staining and fabricating those amazing metal legs. There are so many options that every piece she makes is unique!