A Very Vibey Guest Bedroom

I re-styled my guest room and in a word it’s giving: vibes.

My mom stays in this room several months out of the year, so she has collected most of these pieces.

I don’t know where this came from — is it Gen Z terminology? My algorithm? — but now I just say, “vibes” in response to most things.

I say it so often that Vince asked me to stop.

Rude.

Sadly for Vince, this verbal tick is here to stay and now a core part of my personality *shrug*.

So, as I was saying — the room is v, v vibey and (naturally) full of thrifted finds. Here’s how it’s laid out:

My mom lives in this room several months out of the year, and there’s only one small closet, so coming up with storage solutions for her stuff has been tricky.

She found this gorgeous dresser at The Cozy Cottage in Lake Worth Beach last month which has been a total game changer. It’s just missing a handle on the top drawer, so she’s on the hunt!

My mom was worried this piece would crowd the space, but placing it against the wall near the head of the bed has actually made the room feel less crowded to me.

We have more than 60 house plants at this point, so we’re in a phase of coming up with creative ways to place them and make sure they’re getting enough light.

This little macrame hanging shelf does the trick in this room.

I love styling with books and stack them everywhere, much like our house plants. Mom’s old yearbooks and a few others are leaning against the chair in the corner here.

Mom found this chair and pillow at separate thrift shops. The chair previously lived at The Breakers Palm Beach.

Baskets are utilized as clothing hampers and extra storage.

The artwork was gifted to my mom from our neighbor in Columbia, Missouri. We have lots of this artist’s pieces throughout our home.

The tassel pillow is from a local thrift market and the crochet throw is from The Cozy Cottage in Lake Worth Beach.

My mom almost got rid of this little dresser because she thought it would be too heavy in the space across from the other larger dresser she found.

I convinced her to keep it for more storage (it now holds her purses) and also because I’m obsessed with it. The stud detailing and color is perfection — we found this piece at Quantum House Thrift in Jupiter.

The basket tray keeps tabletop items tidy and is sourced from Goodwill, the mirror is from Stone Button Studio in Northwood, and the matching pair of lamps is from The Nearly New Thrift Shop in West Palm Beach. They originally came with old fashioned lampshades so I replaced them with these modern gray ones I found at Home Goods years ago.

My favorite thing in this room is the macrame hat organizer I gifted to my mom for her birthday last year. It’s so practical but also feels like art.

I love the use of trays to organize surfaces. Mom found this tray at a local garage sale and I styled various thrifted and gifted items inside. The gorgeous shell box next to it is from Stone Button Studio.

This room is the only one in the house with so much gray. I tend to stay away from “millennial gray” but the cool tones in this room feel refreshing rather than bland.

Let me know if you want to come visit, the room is ready for ya. 😉


In other news, I wore a $15.99 Goodwill gown to a Gala over the weekend and truly felt like a million bucks.

I felt like a princess!
My super comfy shoes are also from Goodwill.

I fear this is the type of dress you can only wear once, which kills me because it’s perfection.

I forgot to snag a photo of the back — it’s sheer!!

The only good full length photo I got of the dress. Here we are with our handsome cousins!

I found this gown a few weeks ago while shopping with my mom and remember telling her, “When am I ever going to wear something like this?!” I debated over it and decided the price was too good not to take it.

Who would have thought a last minute gala would plop onto my calendar?!

Goodwill comes through in all life’s moments, friends. Have I turned you into a thrifter yet??

Last week’s thrfited ‘fits:

Button up from Goodwill West Palm Beach
Dress and Bag from Goodwill West Palm Beach

Variegation Consternation

Like most people, I love natural light. It’s important for my home to have lots of windows and the blinds raised at all times of day.

I don’t like having indoor lights on when the sun is out.

I’m always going behind my housemates and flipping the lights off.

We have lots of plants in our house that benefit from all the windows and natural light, but as my husband propagates and collects more, he’s needing to hang and shelve them in darker areas; we’re running out of prime window real estate.

His solution is to install grow lights — special lighting that work just like the sun for plants.

The hanging grow light in our primary bedroom.

I know that my ideal design aesthetic can never be achieved whilst sharing space with an adult man, two teenage boys and a toddler. I know this.

But, the introduction of the grow lights was simply something I could not have foretold.

To me, they’re giving: science experiment. Nail tech lighting. Clinical.

I want soft sunlight that casts a gentle shadow as the day progresses.

A vintage lamp found at The Cozy Cottage in Lake Worth Beach transformed into a grow light set up.

The light these grow lights cast are literally disturbing to my eye. Am I being dramatic?

The lights are making a big difference for the plants they’re nourishing. One pothos in particular is growing orangey looking leaves now — I’m told this is called variegation.

This one kills me.
Variegation.

This is extremely exciting for my husband, prompting him to want to install more grow lights throughout the house.

Much to my consternation.

Last week’s thrifted ‘fits:

Baby girl and I scored clothes, stationery, and several items for my thrifted Christmas baskets at Goodwill last week:

>> Watch Video Thrift Haul HERE! <<

Dress – Max Studio, Source: Goodwill West Palm Beach
Earrings from Community Thrift Store West Palm Beach
Dress – O.p.t., Source: Goodwill West Palm Beach
Dress – Universal Thread , Source: Goodwill West Palm Beach
Top – Milk Designs (handmade by local designer – formerly a vintage tablecloth!), Source: The Rust Market Lake Park
Rapunzel costume found at Goodwill West Palm Beach
Little Mermaid costume found at Goodwill West Palm Beach, Ruby slippers too!
Top – Max Studio London, Source: Goodwill West Palm Beach, Earrings Source: The Church Mouse Palm Beach

Eclectic Charm

The best compliment I’ve received about my decor lately is that I don’t decorate to be “on trend,” I just fill my home with things I love — whether they “go together” or not (thanks, Becky!).

Macrame Garland gifted from my mom, Source: WPB Green Market

It’s not that I don’t care about trends, I’m not that cool. I do care and pay attention to what’s current.

I’m influenced by trends all the time, but I also know I won’t ever have a consistently themed home (like cottage, bohemian, modern farmhouse, mid-century modern, etc.).

Examples of my decorating flair are the garland, mobiles, and charms I hang everywhere.

I love to adorn our plants and hang them from the ceilings and in our windows.

Indian Bird Charm, Source: Jupiter Medical Thrift

I collect my charms and garlands while thrifting and traveling, so there’s usually a story or memory attached to them.

Handmade Shell & Glass Bead Charm, Source: Stone Button Studio
Ignore the dusty leaves – this lady doesn’t like to dust!
Vintage papier-mâché Vegetable Garland, Source: The Nearly New Shop, Shell & Woven Palm Leaves Mobile gifted from my mom, Source: Mom & Co. Curaçao
Handmade Agate Charm, Source: Stone Button Studio (the very first charm I hung in the house!)
Woven Palm Leaves Bird & Fish Mobile, Source: A little cafe in Guadeloupe
Shell Charm, Source: Trinkets & Treasures Lake Worth Beach
Tassel Charms, Source: Stone Button Studio, Wooden Bird Mobile, Source: Roadside shop in Guadeloupe

Bohemian might come closest to my style – what do you think?

This week’s thrifted ‘fits & treasures round-up:

Shirt – Bella Tu, thrifted & gifted from a friend ❤️, Wooden Parrot Necklace, Source: WPB Antiques Festival (Pants aren’t thrifted but are from a vendor at the WPB Green Market!)
Vintage Glass Fruit Earrings, Source: WPB Antiques Festival
Sterling Silver Shell Earrings, Source: Stone Button Studio
Swimsuit – Tommy Bahama (reversible!), Source: Goodwill
Swimsuit, Source: Goodwill
Hand Painted Italian Serving Dish, Source: Goodwill
Framed Heron Painting, Source: Goodwill
My PRIZE at $3 from Goodwill – gorgeous shell wreath
Terra cotta pots and boxes of taper candles, Source: Goodwill
Table Runner, Source: Goodwill
Five Bamboo Trays, Source: Goodwill
Vintage Ice Bucket (has little “m” on top!), Source: Goodwill

Dining Details

We’ve upgraded our dining area with a bargain box store deal and thrifted find, and it’s lookin’ pretty cute 💅🏽.

We moved into our new build, cookie cutter house in 2020, and all I wanted was to thrift my lil heart out and fill each space with vintage and eclectic character.

Couldn’t do that in 2020. But we still managed to find an awesome dining table on Wayfair — the distressed wood is perfect for having kids and pets, the marks and scratches just blend in.

Our original chairs were also from Wayfair and we liked them, but they were falling apart from, well, kids and pets.

We found eight chairs that I’m pretty sure are like…event chairs?…on OfferUp for $120 and snagged them for our dining area.

I’m sure you’ve sat in a chair like this at a wedding at some point.

Six around the table + two extra for when we have guests = ideal.

The brown wood vibes with the table and our new rug, which has its own story.

My mom was exploring the Wellington Mall a few weeks back and found a huge jute rug for $99 at City Furniture.

This steal was nestled in a section where they sell marked down show room pieces.

It blends perfectly with my style – I love it!

My husband hates jute, which is rude, but I appreciate how natural and forgiving it is.

The backdrop of our dining area is a plant project/idea of my husband’s. He installed the wooden lattice and hung two pothos to create a low-maintenance living wall.

It has taken a while for the vines to grow out, but now that they have, it almost feels like an art installation.

This week’s thrifted ‘fits & treasures round-up:

Office outfit! Shirt – Red Haute, Source: Goodwill, Pants – J. Crew, Source: Thrifted and gifted from a friend ❤️
Belt and Bag – Unknown, Source: Goodwill, Shoes – Bernardo (retail $348!!!), Source: Goodwill, Earrings – handmade/upcycled, Source: Stone Button Studio
Can you believe?!?!
Cuties
Dress/Swim Coverup – Unknown, Source: Thrifted and gifted from a friend ❤️
Baskets from Goodwill (tall one thrifted and gifted from a friend ❤️)
Adorable hat added to baby girl’s room, Source: Goodwill
Urn from Goodwill
My built-in thrift buddy 🤙🏽

Thrifted Brunch Table

We had our neighbors for brunch over the weekend, so I used it as an excuse to pull out thrifted wares and style them!

My husband is the brunch chef in our house. He invited the neighbors to come at 12:00 pm. He *started* chopping the potatoes at 11:40 am.

🥴🥴🥴

It drove me temporarily insane but at least my table was cute.

Here’s the tablescape tour:

Candle holder – Lake Park Rust Market, Pink taper candle – Goodwill, Vintage Pyrex mixing bowl – Goodwill, Vintage dessert plates – Goodwill, Dinner plates – Goodwill, Paper napkins – a TJ Maxx impulse purchase
My husband propagates plants, so we always have jars of cuttings around the house and I usually have one or two as the centerpiece of our dining table. I found him this new propagation vessel at Goodwill this week!
I found the mixing bowl and plates at Goodwill on two separate occasions – they match perfectly!
Can’t have brunch without donuts! Pink serving plate – thrifted and gifted from my mother-in-law. Adorable stone plate (soon to hold bacon!) from Goodwill.
No vintage at the table for the kiddos, I’m afraid – non breakables only.
But they grabbed their donut holes from these cuties I picked up at Goodwill this week.
Water served from an IKEA jug found at Goodwill.

This week’s thrifted ‘fits & treasures round-up:

Dress – Printfresh, Source: Goodwill, Bracelets – Unknown, Source: The Nearly New Shop
Dress – Charlotte Kellogg Palm Beach , Source: The Nearly New Shop, Earrings – Unknown, Source: The Church Mouse
Bag – Unknown, Source: Goodwill
Tunic I used as a swim cover up (has pockets!) – J.Crew, Source: Goodwill
Adorable set, Source: Jupiter Medical Thrift
Some may be skeeved by a thrifted swimsuit, but I have my cleaning methods and own many! This one is Sanctuary, Source: Goodwill
Cute lil vase I’m using for baby girl’s toothbrush holder, hand painted, Source: Goodwill
Set of 4 Anthropologie bowls, Source: Goodwill
Set of six Queen’s salad plates, Source: Goodwill
Milk glass bowl, Source: Goodwill
Starfish drink stirrers, Source: Goodwill, Vintage basket, Source: The Cozy Cottage Lake Worth Beach
I used this adorable basket to store towels for post brunch pool hangs, Source: The Nearly New Shop

It was such a pleasure to share my thrifted finds with friends over food (say that 3x fast) – hope you enjoyed, too!

Monstera Deliciosa, Chaos Gloriosa

Rabies. Roundworm. Salmonella. Giardiasis.

Racoons carry and transmit all of these things. I hadn’t heard of that last one, but it’s parasites found in contaminated water that, if come into contact with, can lead to major tummy rumbles.

One would not want one’s three-year-old getting giardiasis, would one?

I live in a cookie-cutter, concrete block, basic-b house with my family, and one way we’ve carved out an aesthetic that combats the millennial gray of things is by decorating with green, live plants in every room and on every possible surface. Plant hoarding, if you will.

My husband is the horticulturist and I’m the stylist. Which leads me to how I almost infected my precious toddler with a parasite or flu-like illness.

I’ve been needing a monstera. A big, juicy one for our living room. So, we went to the plant nursery up the street on a Saturday and I recorded cute vids of my daughter splashing in the display foundations while my husband went in search of the juiciest monstera he could find.

After my child had splashed around for damn near an hour, a store rep came up to gently whisper, “You might not want her playing in the fountains. The raccoons get in them at night. There’s a hose over there if you want to rinse her off.”

…Pardon moi?

Raccoon rivers in these here fountains, you say?

Rinse her off with a HOSE?

Lady, direct me to the nearest bathroom and your ANTIBIOTIC SOAP, please!

Ugh. I’m such a sketchy mom.

But the monstera looks LOVELY in our living room. Really brings the space to life.

This is called a monstera deliciosa, which my husband says means, “delicious monster.” My kinda girl!
I talk as though I had the power to control this girl. The might of heaven and hell combined couldn’t have kept her from those raccoon fountains.