Tips for Shopping the Serena & Lily Outlet

When I was in California seeing my parent's new house last month, I learned that there is a Serena & Lily Outlet inVacaville, CA (not too far from their new house). Of course, we had to stop in! We got super lucky with a couple of our finds...I'm so excited to tell you about our trip to the outlet and give you some pointers if you're thinking of going yourself!
I know of 2 S&L outlets now. One in Vacaville and one in Berkley, CA. The one we went to was at 870 Alamo Dr, Vacaville, CA 95688. Apparently there is a Restoration Hardware & Williams Sonoma Home outlet nearby, too! Next time I'm visiting, I'm going ;)
Okay, so they open at 10am and there wasn't a huge rush when we went, thankfully. Right when you walk in, you'll want to grab a bunch of HOLD tags. If you write your name on them and put them on an item, then that item is held for you while you are shopping inside the store. If you leave, your item can't be held any more. I thought this was a nice thing to be able to do, since some of the items are larger and you can't just carry them around!
A quick note about the furniture: a lot of it is slightly damaged. I found most things could be fixed or hidden, especially for nearly 50% off or more on the items! 

I thought the lighting section was awesome. Some of the shades needed to be replaced for table lamps (just dirty or bent, but super easy to order a new shade), but the bases and the hanging lights were in great condition. We're definitely going back for lighting next time. 

We got this one for my mom's breakfast nook! We got it for $850 and it retails for $1700.

Besides tons of furniture, they have lots of linens-- bins of duvets, pillow covers (I brought one home and thought this was one of the best sections in the store!), and blankets. They even had some sheets, bath towels and a few crib sheets. 

Here's some of the furniture they had in the front entrance:

This is so crazy, but next door to the main outlet, they have another huge warehouse building full of mostly stools, some tables and rugs. ALL bar stools are $49, which is insane because they retail for something like $700+. 

Now, I need to level with you. These are, in fact, the real bar stools -- not some knock off versions they make for the outlet only -- BUT they are not in great condition. We looked through all of the Balboa stools to try to find 4 decent ones that didn't wobble and didn't have lose rattan pieces poking off of them and we were unsuccessful. I'm also not going to lie to you, seeing these bar stools in bad shape made me a little weary of the quality of the stools in the first place. I don't think I'll be specifying them for client projects because of it. 

HOWEVER, if you love the hunt and you have patience for looking through a pile of bar stools AND you love budget shopping and are okay with slightly sub par quality, this is a great place to look!

My takeaway from the trip to the Serena & Lily Outlet is this: If you want a good deal (almost everything was at least 50% off online prices) and are okay with some imperfections in furniture, this is totally worth the trip! They have everything from furniture, to lighting, bedding, linens a couple (very limited) accessories, limited rugs and even wallpaper!! We got 4 rolls of my mom's powder room wallpaper for $39 each. They retail for $160. Major score!!

If you go, let me know what you find!!
xoxo



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Farewell, Childhood Home!

Today is officially moving day for my mom and dad! Our family has been in this house since I was 7 years old, so as you can imagine, this move comes with a lot of emotions. I heard once that moving should be hard, because it means you dug in there, you made memories, formed relationships, got attached, felt safe and lived lots of life there. That was certainly true for our family in this house! 
Over the 23 years my parent's have owned this house, we've experienced a lot of joy (we got our first and second dog in this house, hosted birthday parties, graduations and Christmas with family, both my brother and I got engaged while living here and also brought our spouses here to visit, we hosted prom photos, surprise parties, easter egg hunts and a halloween party I will never forget when I was a sophomore in high school), but we've also gone through hard times here, as any family would. 
What stands out to me most, though, is how inside these walls, our family got through everything together. There was so much love, forgiveness, learning about life and growing up here. I will always love this house and always refer to it as home! 
I was so glad that we got to take a couple of family photos at the house before they moved. I'll always love these!

I thought I would share some photos from the listing, as a way to remember it for years to come!

More details on the living and dining room here.

More details on the kitchen remodel from 2020.

More details on the family room (before we painted the brick white-- we did that for the listing, but now my parents agree they wish they did it years ago!)

This is my parent's bedroom-- always loved the ceilings and the doors out to the backyard.

More details on their bathroom remodel here.

The guest room (lots of sleepover memories in here!)

My bedroom:

And the backyard. This is probably what we'll miss the most!

Below the deck about 100 feet is a creek (well usually...right now it's dried up!)

Thank you for all the love and memories, pretty house! We hope the new owners love it as much as we did (they do! They're so sweet and excited about it, which makes it feel less sad.) And thank you to my parents, who made this house what it was for us. My mom made it feel so welcoming and my dad made it feel so safe. We're excited to continue making memories together at the new house!
The best is yet to come!
xoxo


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Memory Lane: My Childhood Bedroom Designs Through the Years

Boy, do I have a treat for you today! I'm looking back at all the ways I've had my childhood room at my parent's house decorated over the years! These are only the years since I've had a blog (took a deep dive into my blog archive and wow...just wow ;)) but it has still seen a lot of change in just 11 years! I will tell you the design before the blue and green look was just straight up purple everything with huge flowers. Think Limited Too meets Lisa Frank.
Since my parent's are moving this week, I thought it'd be fun to take a look back on this special room. 
This was how it looked in high school. All the walls were blue, with one lime green accent wall. I remember this being very stylish!! Ha ;) You'll see more down below, when the room looked like this, I even staple gunned fabric on the back of the bookshelves to give more color to the room. I distinctly remember thinking "they should pick me for Trading Spaces!" when I did that.

Anyways, in college I switched up the room to something more streamlined and updated. This was a fun one and I'll always remember this room because it was the first time I had anything professionally photographed for my blog!!

Then right before we got married (5 years ago) we redid the room again with a queen bed, so we could actually stay in the room together ;) We toned it WAY down and just went simple.

I refinished this dresser when I did the college mint green makeover. My parents just sold it this week since they don't need it at the new house!

Okay, I have to show you how my bookshelf styling evolved in the room as well (notice the fabric I attached to the walls behind the shelves!) HIGH SCHOOL:

COLLEGE:

Lastly, I have to show you what I did to my the guest room at their house. After freshman year in design school, I was itching to experiment with color. I told them we needed an accent wall in the guest room and the bright coral from the bedding would be perfect. (I'm dying a little inside right now!) My parent's actually let me do this to their house!!!

But don't worry, we turned it around a couple years later when I graduated college ;)

And then these were the listing photos of the house from a couple months ago:
Guest room...

My room...

BIG thanks to my mom and dad who let me use their home as a total experimental canvas. They never turned down my ideas and always made me feel so good about using my creativity (even when the ideas were, indeed, terrible!) This was so fun (and embarrassing) to look back on. I hope you liked it, too! And if you've been a long time reader...I truly don't know why you stuck around for the first 3-4 years of my blog. HA! Thank you!!
Happy Monday!xoxo


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Spring Design Projects Sneak Peek

Happy Wednesday! I thought it'd be fun to share some of what's going on behind the scenes with my design work as of lately. It's so hard for me to remember to share throughout the week, because it's just so busy with the work part of things ;) Enjoy this little in-progress photo dump!

This is my current new build project. Fun fact: Makeshift stairs you can see through literally TERRIFY me. I have to scoot down them on my behind ha!!

This is the pretty countertop we're doing for the kitchen in the new build project. I'm in love!

This is renovation project where we are gutting the kitchen, den and dining room. It's going to be a beautiful white kitchen with a gray island, quartz counters, a pretty backsplash, and some other beautiful details!

This is the room off the kitchen from above. It's going to be a "keeping room" (Southern for "sitting room").

I recently did an art install for a client and these peony prints made her dining room come to life!

I'm obsessed with this coffee table for another one of my clients. This project is 99% done!! Just waiting on some backordered lamps to finish it off.

This update is from my own house-- we finally got the side chair I ordered back in November! HA! It's a small (not super cozy, but does the job) occasional chair and it's a swivel, so it's really functional.

Another update from The Beel Abode (our house!) My friend Chelsea is ALMOST done with the floral mural in our powder room. I can't wait to put the finishing touches on it this weekend when she's done!

This project is almost wrapped up as well-- this was a dining and family room addition. We just finished the dining area and it's one of my favorite nooks ever!

Update on my parents' new house! It's all painted! We went with Balboa Mist and it looks so lovely. 

We found this chandelier at the Serena & Lily outlet in Vacaville, CA for 50% off and couldn't be happier! It's in the breakfast nook. We're going for a coastal farmhouse look and this fit the bill perfectly.

We also picked out our breakfast nook table at a store close to my parents' new house. It's called The Feathered Nest in Loomis, CA. This is the base of the table (they kindly got it out so we could see the wood finish!) and we just fell in love with it. I can't wait to see it in there.

Lastly, this is a beautiful bathroom design! The subway tile will be the shower surround, the marble diamonds will be the shampoo niche and the tile they're sitting on is going to be the tile floor for the bathroom. It's so lovely and classic!

So fun to see things coming together!!

Have a great week

xoxo

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My Parent's New House Tour

If you missed our announcement on Instagram, my parents bought a new house! They are moving 2.5 hours north of where they currently live (and where I grew up) in California, to a beautiful suburb of Sacramento. This past week I've been in CA to see their new house, then go back to their current house so I could say goodbye to my childhood home. It's such a bittersweet time! If you've gone through this, I'd love to hear how got through it (it feels so emotional for me!) and what things you did to commemorate your time in your home. Thankfully we were able to get a family picture together in front of the house!
Next week I'll share some photos of the house I grew up in, but today I wanted to give you a little tour of the NEW house! You'll need to look past the paint swatches and the random stuff in all these photos because work had already started by the time I snapped these pictures, but you'll get the idea ;)
All the walls have been painted since these photos and we're actually going to see how it turned out today! We went with a nice, lighter greige color. We're hoping to take the home "coastal farmhouse" to bring in their love for the water!
Come on in...

When you walk in and turn right, you head into the dining room. The coffered ceiling is so beautiful in here! 

The main living space is what we're calling "the great room" and it has sliding doors that fully open to the backyard. The fireplace mantle that you see will be completely redone in a few months, so I'll be excited to share that renovation with you!

The kitchen overlooks the great room and has a nice, big island! To the right of the kitchen is the breakfast nook, then through there (where my dad is standing on a cabinet in these photos haha!!) is his office.

I'm standing in the breakfast nook taking this picture looking into the kitchen. 

Here's a peek into the breakfast nook and office. We're getting doors put on this opening into the office to help with sound when my dad is on a call. We're either doing barn doors or french doors! The shiplap ceiling in the breakfast nook is a favorite feature of mine.

Here's the office with pretty builtins. Can't wait to style these ;)

Off the kitchen is a small nook with the door to the laundry room to the left. We're making this their wine bar area and will be installing a wine fridge with some wine racks. It's going to be really fun!

Laundry room is going blue! I tried to convince my parents to do blue cabinets, but they wouldn't go for it ;) So blue walls it is!

This is the powder bathroom that's located to the right of the great room mantle. This is getting a major facelift with wallpaper, a new vanity and we're also adding a can light in the ceiling because it's super dark right now.

This is the guest room with an attached bathroom. It has a pretty bay window looking to the front of the house.

The Master is at the back of the house and has a slider out to the backyard. It's a really spacious room! We're getting new carpet in here.

The bed will be centered between these two windows. And all new light fixtures are going throughout the house!

Here's the master bath:

We'll be framing out these mirrors, changing the light fixtures, paint and if we need to change the floors later, we will, but we're hoping to make them work. I didn't get a photo, but there's a soaking tub and a tile shower on the opposite wall of these mirrors. 

The backyard is really lovely! They have this covered porch area that's called the "California Room" which will be nice for an outdoor sofa, table and chairs. 

There is also some gorgeous landscaping! Good thing my mom has a green thumb :) 

I'm really excited to help my parent's make this feel like home over the next several months (stay tuned for updates!)  and I can't wait to make some new memories here with them!
xoxo


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