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Building this home has been fun and stressful, but also so rewarding! There is so much that goes into the process and with this being our second build I feel like I have learned a thing or two that helped us this time around. One of the biggest things is knowing where to spend your money with your builder. Flooring is definitely an area where you can save a ton by doing it yourself after your home is completed. Even if you’re not a DIYer or the job feels intimidating it’s still worth it to skip this upgrade with the builder. Typically a project like this would be 3 or more times expensive through your builder then if you DIY it or hire a company to install it after your home is finished.
Planning for the project
I knew from the very beginning I wanted my whole home to have LVP (luxury vinyl plank) flooring, not just the main living areas but the bedrooms and closets. The biggest reasons being that LVP is stain and scratch resistant, 100% waterproof, and has the look of real wood! These are super important factors for our family. We have 5 kids and 3 dogs so we need something that is going to stand up to our day to day life. Also, the ability to get a completely clean surface is crucial in our home since me and 3 of my kids have dust allergies and asthma, making life with carpet pretty horrible!
When picking out the LVP for our home I had a few things I was looking for. I wanted a wide plank and a flooring that didn’t “look” like vinyl, but rather looked like real wood. The color I fell in love with was Style Selection (formerly Pro Core Flooring) English Grove Oak. The flooring has good movement in the pattern, giving it a truly realistic light oak look. This is very important to think about when selecting your flooring, since too much movement can be overpowering and too busy for your home. Also, not enough movement can make your flooring fall flat and not enhance your space.
- Tip: order samples of flooring you’re thinking about, then order a box of the couple you narrow it down to so you can see the flooring on a bigger scale. This will help you visualize how it will look in your home much better than a small sample piece.
Installing the LVP flooring
The first step is to prep your sub floor. If the space previously had carpet it’s important to remove all staples, tack strips, and debris before laying your new flooring. This type of LVP has the underlayment attached to the back of each board, so you can eliminate the job of laying down underlayment under your planks. If you have ever installed a flooring that requires a separate underlayment you know what a big deal this is!! The Style Selection flooring is a drop and lock system, meaning you interlock the planks together and drop them down to lock them in place. You want to make sure you have a good seal without any gaps so your flooring doesn’t have problems down the line. You can use a rubber mallet to help lock the planks into place.
Caring for your flooring
LVP is definitely the easiest type of flooring to care for, which is one of the main reasons we chose it. With real wood flooring you have to be extremely careful with the types of cleaners you use on them. Too much water can make wood floor boards warp, and they scratch easily from furniture or pets . Laminate is slightly easier than really wood since it’s less likely to scratch or stain, but you still have to be careful with water. Laminate is still made of wood and too much water can make the boards swell and seperate. LVP on the other hand is the most durable. You don’t have to worry about water on the floor since it’s 100% waterproof and doesn’t contain any wood. Daily vacuuming won’t scratch or wear it out and there’s no risk of cleaners staining the planks. My favorite way to care for my LVP flooring is with a wet/dry vacuum or a spin mop with water and a little bit of dish soap!
Choosing to put LVP flooring in our home was the best choice for our family. I’m excited to enjoy this beautifully flooring in our new home for years to come with little to no maintenance required. That’s a win in my book!
-Grey Birch Designs-
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When it comes to interior design styles, mine is a mix of transitional and modern farmhouse. Because of this there are a few retailers I tend to gravitate toward. One of these is All Modern. I used a few of their pieces in my last home and plan to do the same in my new one. While shopping online I spotted a few pieces I love that are part of All Modern’s coming up cyber sale!
These items are beautiful, will work with many different home styles, and are on a great sale. Check out my All Modern cyber sale round up below!
-Grey Birch Designs-
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This year I did all my back to school shopping at Walmart. I found some awesome clothes at incredible prices and I want to share my back to school round up with you all!
My favorite line at Walmart this year is the Free Assembly brand. The styles are super cute and the quality is really impressive. I bought a bunch of clothes for my youngest son Travis but my favorites are these sweatpants, hoodie, and fleece vest. You can shop this look here.
I found some super cute Free Assembly dresses for my teenage daughter. I also found these awesome $9 jeans that come in a bunch of colors, and some shoes that are similar to ones I love from high end designers. You can shop these Walmart finds here.
In the past I’ve only shopped Walmart for back to school supplies but now I’m so impressed with their clothes and fashion. I’ll definitely be doing all our kids’ back to school clothes shopping for years to come!
-Grey Birch Designs-
*This blog post is sponsored by Walmart and contains affiliate links*
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One of my favorite things to make for a special occasion is a charcuterie board, and the star of the board is definitely the baked brie cheese! There are a few things I like to include in my charcuterie boards, including a few different kinds of crackers, a sliced baguette, meats like salmi or prosciutto, fruit, jams, and a variety of cheeses. I was able to find everything I needed to create this board from Walmart.
Walmart also has a great selection of affordable wood and cheese boards to create a charcuterie board!
The second part of creating a great charcuterie board is making it visually pleasing! By balancing out the different foods around a board in groupings you can create a delicious and beautiful appetizer! I start my boards with the baked brie in the center and built around it with the other ingredients.
Baked Brie Cheese
Ingredients
- Brie Cheese
- Puff Pastry
- Brown Sugar
- Strawberry Jam
- Maple Syrup
Instructions
- Pre-heat the over to 350 F
- Slice the top off the brie (optional but it will help the puff pastry stick to the cheese)
- Place the brie on top of the puff pastry. Spread the jam on top of the brie and fold the dough over it
- Sprinkle the top of the dough with brown sugar and maple syrup
- Bake at 35oF for 30 minutes.
Notes
Let cool for 5-10 minuites before serving. Place in the center of your charcuterie board and add fruit, crackers, meats, jams and other cheeses to finish builded your board!
Click the link below to see everything I used from Walmart to make our family’s favorite Charcuterie board and baked brie!
-Grey Birch Designs-
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For as long as I can remember I have thought about how cool it would be to have a fireplace in my bedroom, but for whatever reason the thought of building one never crossed my mind. Even as a little girl my grandmother had a fireplace in her bedroom and I loved sitting in front of it after taking a bath!
I think the biggest hurdle for me was thinking it had to be a gas fireplace in order to look real and put out heat, but that’s not the case! Electric fireplaces have come a long way. They look real, have a beautiful sleek design, and are amazing at heating up a room! This meant I could easily DIY a fireplace in my bedroom, and I have to say this is at the top of my list of favorite DIY projects! I decided to go with Dimplex 25″ Multi-Fire XD™ Firebox w/ Acrylic Ember Media Bed
One of the reasons this firebox was at the top of my list is it’s plug and play. You literally just plug it into an outlet and you’re good to go! It also only pushes heat out in the front so you don’t need to worry about the wall behind getting hot!
For this project I decided to build a floor to ceiling shiplapped fireplace for a big impact! The first step was to build the frame. My husband and I built a simple box frame out of 2×4’s and wood screws. We made sure to include a vertical 2×4 in the center to mount the TV to. We also added a small shelf inside the frame to hold the TV cable box.
After the frame was finished it was time to cover everything with shiplap. In our experience the pre-made MDF shiplap boards are the easiest to use and have the cleanest look, so that’s what we used! We simply cut the shiplap boards to size and secured them to the frame with 2″ brad nails. We finished off the corners with some simple corner trim for a nice clean look.
When it came time to paint, I knew I wanted to go bold and have a color that really popped against my white walls. I picked my favorite Tricorn Black by Sherwin-Williams. It was the perfect choice and gave me the sleek modern look I was hoping for!
After building this fireplace and realizing how much I use it I wish I would have tacked this project sooner!
-Grey Birch Designs-
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My favorite cookware brand just launched a line of bakeware and are running an early access sale available only through this link!
This is the only cookware we use in our home and have for years! Its non-toxic cookware/bakeware with a modern design in a great selection of popular colors! Right now you can save up to 20% off your purchase here. This is the ONLY sale Caraway will be running this year, these sets make great gifts too!
Save up to 20% on Caraway cookware and bakeware here, no code needed the discount automatically applies through my link!
-Grey Birch Designs-
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One of my favorite placed to find great deals on gifts for the Holidays or anytime of year is Zulily. Right now with my code: hellonov21 you can get FREE shipping on any order over $45. Code expires on 11/7 at midnight PST
I have put together a gift guild round up on my favorite Zulily finds for woman below. These are all a fantastic value made even better with the FREE SHIPPING code!
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Halloween is a big deal at our house. I tend to go big with the decor because my kids get so excited!! I have wanted to decorate a mudroom for my kids for years, the problem is until about 6 months ago we didn’t have a mudroom. Our home’s floorpan didn’t have come with one so in February of this year we decided to convert our hall closet into a much needed mudroom! You can checkout that project here! Now because of this I finally get to create the spooky mudroom I have been wanting to do for years!
The first thing I did was look for some witches capes and hats, I wanted these to hang on the hooks of the lockers in the mudroom. I found the perfect ones at Walmart that were super affordable, but to dress them up just a bit I had a sparkly tulle and black lace cut to size from the fabric department at Walmart.
I also wanted to add some spooky decor to the top of the lockers so I grabbed a faux skull and these adorable baskets. These are great because they match my Halloween decor but the are also practical storage I will continue to use all year long! Finally I add some bats to the wall and a seasonal sign. I also made some DIY witches brooms that were so easy and fun to make! Check out how I made them here!
The best part of this whole mudroom Halloween makeover was my kids had no idea I was doing this while they were at school and when they came home they were so surprised! My littlest one had the biggest smile on his face when he went to put his backpack away. You can watch my video here to see how I put this whole space together!
I had a blast decorating this space and my kids loved it too. Halloween time is such a fun time of year and we celebrate it all month long around here!!
-Grey Birch Designs-
