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An At-Home Bar Upgrade

Mixing up at home cocktails with Garden & Gun and Blade and Bow
Filed Under > "Hostess with the Mostest"

I’ve always been a fan of a great at-home bar. I strongly believe it’s a must-learn life skill to mix up classic cocktails, and as an avid host, it’s important to provide an array of libations for your guests at a moment’s notice.

Now more than ever, with the amount of time we’re spending at home, a great home bar has truly become a necessity. While I have a few bar carts and drink stations set up around my home, nothing has upgraded the experience quite like my recently acquired Field Bar, a collaboration between Garden & Gun and Blade and Bow.

This bar is unlike any you’ve ever seen. Handcrafted in York, South Carolina, by the father-son team at Leake Furniture Makers, this expandable bar is made from cherry wood and brass. When closed, you’d have no idea what treasures are held inside: four crystal rocks glasses, a bar set by Lost Cove Jewelry, a custom throw and a custom set of napkins, both in Blade and Bow plaid. It’s also equipped with plenty of drawers and compartments to stow your other cocktail accouterments.

A true showstopper, the Field Bar reminds me of antique curio cabinets—the kind you would fold out to sit down and pen a letter. This is a true piece of art, but one that can travel. (When we’re allowed to travel again, that is).

If you’re looking for a last-minute holiday gift that’s sure to wow, put the Field Bar on your list. And don’t forget to add a bottle of Blade and Bow Bourbon as spirits aren’t included! Truly, MKR

In partnership with Garden & Gun, photography Kathryn McCrary

Setting the Table with Schumacher for Williams Sonoma

A classic print gets a whole new look
Filed Under > Entertaining
Dragon Ice Bucket, Double Old Fashion Glasses, Decanter
Ikat Serving Bowl, Dragon Platter, Cheese Knives
Schumacher Table Cloth & Ikat Ginger Jar
Schumacher for Williams Sonoma Ikat Charger, Ikat Dinner Plate, Dragon Salad Plate, Napkin
Schumacher for Williams Sonoma Ikat Ginger Jar

It’s amazing how a quick change in tabletop can make a room look completely different. Case in point setting the table with the new, jaw-dropping Schumacher for Williams Sonoma Collection.

Have you seen this collection yet? For those of you not familiar at all with Schumacher let me give you a quick run down. Schumacher was founded in 1889 by Frederic Schumacher, and quickly became the industry leader in textiles, wall coverings and trimmings. This legendary American design house is renowned for its unwavering commitment to beauty, artistry and quality and is a go-to for designers all over the world. So when they joined forces with Williams Sonoma, I knew the collaboration would be iconic.

This exclusive collection is the first time ever Schumacher has allowed their iconic patterns to be available in dinnerware and entertaining pieces and by how beautiful the collection turned out they’ve all got to be asking, why didn’t we do this sooner?!?!

I cannot tell you how much fun I had setting this table. This collection, at its heart, is a pattern and color lovers dream which is was waited with bated breath for it to launch.

Not only was I anxious to see which iconic Schumacher patterns were going to make the collection, I loved knowing that I would be able mix and match all of the different Schumacher patterns such as ikat, dragon, and chinois fret and the end result will feel cohesive and effortless. This is what I’m always talking about when mixing patterns…be bold, don’t be afraid friends!

Plus, from an entertaining standpoint this collection is so full and colorful there was no need to crowd the table with additional decor such as candles and loads of florals. I kept it simple by combining an orchid I already had potted at home and a few white hydrangeas from my garden combined in the Schumacher Ikat Ginger Jar.

While the entire collection is stunning, my personal favorites have to be the dragon ice bucket that is literally so large it can hold 3 bottles of wine! The amazingly intricate dragon decanter and matching double old fashioned glasses. And lastly all of the fabrics, specifically the napkin collection. They’re so beautiful and at such a great price!

At the end of the day every Schumacher for Williams Sonoma piece can completely stand on it’s own, but my suggestion…have fun with this one because the collection is truly meant to be mixed, matched, and swooned over. Truly, MKR

P.S. Come back this weekend when I’ll be sharing my recipe for the easiest ever Korean Ground Beef recipe as pictured above.

Photography Rustic White Interiors | This post is sponsored by Williams Sonoma, a brand I love and adore. All opinions and images are 100% my own

Festive Outdoor Decor to take you from Fall to Thanksgiving

Just a few easy changes make your home's decorations work from September thru November
Filed Under > Entertaining

The minute October, more like September, hits I’m ready to decorate my porch in all of the festive-goodness the season brings.  However, when I first bought my home four years ago, I found that I was spending a ton of money decorating for each season: fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. So over the years, I’ve made it my mission to figure out how to make my outdoor decor able to transition through the seasons with only minimal changes. And after a few rounds of trial and error, I think I’ve finally gotten it down well enough to share.

Before I dive into the details, I thought it important to share that this is not my home.  This is one of my Waiting On Martha Home Retail Manager’s gorgeous home. I think it’s important to state that because you may be looking at this and feel, “my porch is not near this large so this look just won’t work for my home.” Well trust me, my porch is tiny (like tiny-tiny), and this same formula works, I just use less of it.  So whether you have a giant farmhouse with a sprawling yard, a row home stoop, or even an apartment balcony you want to make feel more festive, this will work. I promise. Now let’s get down to the nitty gritty shall we?

When building the “bones” or base of the outside design I first start with the idea of fall. For me, fall means corn stalks, mums, and plenty of pumpkins. The great thing about starting here is it’s obviously the first season, but all of the fall decorations will also work for Thanksgiving.  If you have any pillars to work with, corn stalks are a great way to decorate those.  All you have to do is tie the stalks around the pillars using two ropes and then peel back the corn husks to reveal the corn.  Corn stalks are pretty inexpensive and will last from fall to Thanksgiving. Corn stalks also look great flanking each side of a garage, or any driveway gates or fences posts as well.  For this particular look, I used two bunches of stalks per pillar, so four total, with each bunch costing $10 each. If you know a local farmer, he or she may even give you a few bunches for free!

Next up, pumpkin stacks and mums.  Mums are the quintessential flower of fall. I love them because they come in a variety of colors and as long as you water them they can easily withstand the Georgia heat.  Typically I pick them up at Costco or Home Depot and then place them in my large apple barrel baskets which I get at Hobby Lobby. The apple barrel baskets will be a one-time investment that you’ll have for years to come. I personally love to mix up the sizes and colors of the mums to accentuate all of the colorful pumpkins.

Which brings me to my favorite part, pumpkin stacks.  Warning, this is the most expensive part of the look, but for me going to my pumpkin patch and supporting my local farmers is something I look forward to each and every year so I just bite the bullet and know that pumpkins are always going to cost me a bit of dough.  They’re costly mainly because I love the specialty pumpkins; the whites, greys, greens, and princess pink pumpkins which are harder to find.  These specialty pumpkins are also the easiest to stack because of their shape. I do make sure to work in the less expensive standard orange pumpkins, and also talk to the owner of the pumpkin patch about pumpkin rot which I suggest you do too  Because of the Georgia heat and also the bees, sometimes pumpkins rot before the season ends.  My guy makes me a promise that if that happens to any of my pumpkins I can just come by and pick out another at no cost.  That way I feel like my investment is worth it because I’m assured my decorations will last the entirety of the season.  Another option is to go faux. Faux will save you money year over year, and time. Plus faux pumpkin stacks like these have gotten very close to looking like the real deal.  Completely up to you.

To finalize our fall (which remember will also be our Thanksgiving) design I completed the look with a great wreath and doormat. I chose to go with a green pumpkin wreath rather than your traditional orange because I knew with the mums and pumpkins I’d have a lot of oranges already present. Totally your call though on color, just buy a good wreath. Wreaths can be a bit of an investment, but I believe they’re the one thing you should actually invest in. Out of everything you’ll see in this post I’ve had the wreath the longest, 4 years now.  And it’s still in perfect condition. I’ve purchased less expensive wreaths in the past and what I’ve found is they simply fall apart. So if you’re able to, listen to Miles Redd and “buy the best and you’ll only cry once.”  That and store it in a great wreath box like this

Lastly, adding a festive doormat is the perfect way to cap off any design. Because I typically find that all the fun, festive doormats, to be too small for the actual space I love layering the doormat on a larger rug such as this.  It adds depth to your design and allows you to switch out doormats easily. I’ve got a pumpkin doormat shown here, but just after our shoot, my new one came in that’s a bit more on the fun side.

I’ve scoured the internet and the closest I can get to mine (the one in the picture) is this one from Frontgate. Typically my store has these exact ones, but we sold out within the first week of putting them up. I promise next year I’ll buy more for y’all.  But there are some gorgeous harvest colored ones I’m loving like this one from Williams Sonoma that would look just as good.

And with that, we’ve completed the perfect outdoor design for fall and Thanksgiving. Now, without disrupting the overall scheme, it’s time to add a bit of Halloween into the mix.

To take my porch from fall to Halloween all I did was switch out the wreath and doormat, plus added a few crows and witches brooms.  

Because the crow wreaths were smaller, I decided to hang two vertically with fishing wire to really make a statement.  The doormat, witch-themed, to match my overall theme. Crows from Amazon I placed in the mums and on the pumpkin stacks. And lastly two crooked, old witch brooms from my shop. I mean how easy is that? Changes that took me less than 10 minutes to complete, with items I’m able to use for more than one season.

*Sorry the brooms are too tall to ship, but if you’re local stop in we’ve got plenty left*

Halloween Porch Ideas Halloween Porch Ideas

All in all, I couldn’t be happier with the way this look turns out each and every season and I know you’ll love it too and let it transition you from September thru November.  Happy fall-Halloween-Thanksgiving friends! Truly, MKR
 


 

Photography, Rustic White Interiors

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