Today I’m so excited to be joining with some incredibly talented bloggers in the Seasonal Simplicity Spring Home Tour series! If you’re here from Inspiration for Moms- Welcome! I’m so glad you’re here! If you’re looking all the homes in the tour, you can find those down at the bottom of this post. You can also find the sources for pretty much everything I’m sharing (furniture, paint colours, etc!) at the bottom of this post ;) Now… on with the tour!

Spring is a lot of things, but it’s always a feeling of starting fresh. Cleaning up and clearing out and enjoying empty surfaces, the sunshine pouring in and decluttering the back of those closets. This has always been the case for me but when I started blogging and even more when I started focusing on sharing parts of my home, I had this impression that I had to do it up. Less wasn’t more- more was more. So I bought things or crafted things and added all this stuff in to make a seasonal tour more seasonal and then when I finished taking the photos, I would clear some of that stuff off our table or off our ottoman because we have little kids and babies that break things and I can’t live with that stress!

With every home tour I’ve done over the past year, I’m simplifying. I am doing a little less ‘extra’ stuff and sharing our home how we love it and how we live in it (just slightly cleaner… because KIDS! ha!). I actually loved the things that I made for our spring tour last year. I made a cute little wooden sign and a watercolour bunny but they are still packed away in boxes somewhere from our move along with every other ounce of spring decor I own. I’m sure I’ll find them before next year.

So this year we cleared all our surfaces, watered our plants for the first time in a few weeks and enjoyed the lack of clutter and the sun reflecting off of clean floors. It’s the little things. It feels like these past few weeks our house is really coming together and out of the main floor renovation chaos. Don’t get me wrong… we still have a long way to go but our living room walls are painted! Our closet doors are all on! We have trim up almost everywhere (just not filled or painted)! We finished the flooring (just the transitions left to go)! And we bought a console to store all the kids toys that were floating around! It’s been a full but very good few weeks, friends.

As far as spring decorations, just like every other home tour we’ve done, my favourite way to add some spring touches in is with fresh cut greenery and blooms. This time around that meant eucalyptus (that stuff is seriously perfect for every season). And of course switching up my letterboard with a seasonal quote. I love how versatile that thing is! I use it for seasonal decor, everyday decor and even party decor. Check that all off. Ha! You can see me talk more about my mantel this year right here if you like.

This is actually the first time I’m sharing the living room in our new home since we started changing anything! I have some more plans for this space… adding some art to the walls and layering in some lighting. And maybe some furniture updates. But I’m loving how fresh it feels with all the white. The large furniture fits so much better in this room than it did in our last living room! We’re so happy to be able to host a crowd in this space. Between the living room and the kitchen, we’re set to have a houseful- almost 30 people doesn’t feel overwhelming but we would have been crowded out of our last house. Don’t get me wrong… it’s not huge but SO well laid out for us. We’re so grateful for this place and as we paint it to make it our style, we’re feeling so at home here.

And since adding that hutch last week, I’m feeling so happy with our space- we had nowhere for my laptop or any books or any toys or any anything upstairs and I didn’t realize how much those little things took up space and how much the clutter affected me. My stacks of books and the container of lego at the end of the day and the laptop and charger and that journal I like to write in every morning… they have to go somewhere. And we didn’t have anywhere to store them out of sight so they were always on one of our surfaces. I’ve been reading a lot about decluttering and minimalism and its pretty widely acknowledged that clutter doesn’t lead to rest but anxiety and I want to be able to rest in my house! So one console and I’m already feeling how much that change is helping us keep our home tidier.

Plus… it’s a great place to put all my plants that is NOT my counter (where they’d all collected before!). Since all my plants were on here… my counters felt clear and it was glorious (I put all the stacks of paper in one of the console drawers too!) and I thought it looked too boring to photograph for you guys.

So I thought I should put some food on there since it’s appropriate. I didn’t spend too much time in there since we just shared our full kitchen tour but did make some bagels since I was left on my own without the kids for long enough to take photos. It was a dream for like… 2 hours, you guys! Ha! The recipe is from The DIY Mommy and they only have two ingredients, so don’t be too impressed. 

The one thing I did change in the kitchen is the plant in the corner. Exciting, right… more plants? But this is something I totally didn’t know! Olive trees are the new obsession, okay. They’re the new fiddle leaf fig and I’m here for it. I’ve actually had a small one before (even smaller than this) but killed it, of course. So I thought I’d head back to that nursery and pick up a bigger one. Turns out this is the biggest that I can get here. Oh, Canada… I love you but wish you could grow bigger olive trees! So it’s my goal to grow this one big over the next few years. And not kill it. Wish me luck, friends.

The thing about doing a home tour in a home that’s being remodelled is that you have to get creative with angles. It looks all done in these photos but the dining room window trim is all off since we had to measure for new windows, we’re missing all sorts of face plates, the entry way is half painted and trim is missing so cropped out of these photos and the hallway is a total disaster with the shop vac and everything else… did I mention the baby gate we’ve rigged on to our metal railing? But the creative angles are kind of fun, no?

Guys… I missed cleaning the mirror. I also missed putting the phone jack face back on. I spot it in these photos before anything else… but can you? ;) If you’re wanting some more amazing home tours and spring inspiration… there is so much incredible inspiration happening this week. I’m already changing things up from looking at these ladies teaser images! If you want to take the tour- hop on over to Southern State of Mind!

*SOURCES AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST!*

 

Also sharing today…

Monday

The Happy Housie // The Turquoise Home
Amber Tysl // Inspiration for Moms // Lemon Thistle

Southern State of Mind // Modern Glam
Taryn Whiteaker // A Burst of Beautiful // My Sweet Savannah

And sharing the rest of the week…

Tuesday

Jenna Kate at Home // Sincerely, Marie Designs // Town and Country Living
A Pretty Life // Hallstrom Home

House by Hoff // Tauni Everett // The DIY Mommy // Clean & Scentsible // Rambling Renovators

Wednesday

Shades of Blue Interiors // Finding Silver Pennies // Life is a Party // Bless’er House

Summer Adams// Tatertots and Jello // Paint Me Pink // This is Our Bliss

Thursday

Home Made Lovely // So Much Better With Age // Maison de Cinq
Craftberry Bush // Rooms FOR Rent

Maison de Pax // Zevy Joy // Place of My Taste // Deeply Southern Home // Kim Power Style

 

 SOURCES FROM THIS POST:

• Kitchen – See the full tour + sources here
• Most plant pots- Homesense
• Console, Candles, Vases – Homesense
• Living room sofa + chairs – Leons Furniture, both discontinued
• Living room rug + wood stool – Article
• Living room ottoman – DIY tutorial here
• Kitchen art – DIY tutorial here
• Living room art – DIY no tutorial (yet!)
• Round Mirror – IKEA
• Most pillows – H+M Home
• Long wool pillow – Rejuvination
• Full post on Mantel 
• Metal Side Table- Michaels
• Wood look diffuser – Amazon
• Flooring – Docked Oak Laminate from Home Decorators Collection at Home Depot
• Wall Paint – Expert White from General Paint