Best of 2016 - Migonis Home

Please excuse the smushed formatting of the blog. Something went wrong the other day and everything has been sort of wonky since then. I’m trying to figure this out! Anyone have suggestions?

This year last year and a half since moving into this home has been crazy. It’s been full and fun. We made a lot of progress around the house and made over some spaces to really be our style, we purchased two rentals and almost completed the adoption training process. Drew started kindergarten and Elle began pre-school.

Drum roll please… the best posts for 2016.

Best Purchase of 2016 (tie)

We adore the tufted chairs we added to the office, and I think you did too because it’s definitely been one of my biggest affiliate sale items.

I loved them so much that I moved them during Christmas into the living room and just ordered two more for the office. Full post here.

The other best purchase was our dining room table that we got from the Restoration Hardware Outlet. It has been amazing to comfortably have groups over!

pictured with these chairs

Most Popular Home Tour

My home tour this summer with Birch Lane and Country Living magazine was my most popular tour… I’m finding myself itching for warmer days like this now that Christmas is over!

Most Popular Printable

The free tulip printable that I used for my mother-in-law’s 60th invitation was the most popular printable this year. It’s great to use as favor tags too with some gorgeous pink ribbon!

Most Popular Gift

The other popular printable this year were the Valentine’s tags I made for paints or colored pencils. I may just reuse these same ones for Drew’s kindergarten class. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it, right? I just recently found that you can order the paint in bulk from Amazon which works out to be cheaper than what I spent at Target’s Dollar Spot. Score!

Most Popular Best and Afters (or before and in-progress)

You liked our home tour one year in… and so did I. It was so affirming to type that post and upload before photos knowing how far we’d come. I’m really excited to do another before and after tour shortly… I think you need more updated progress shots.

First Floor and Exterior Tour

Second Floor

Best Hiding Job

The best hidden award goes to our TV in the playroom, which we have at the far end of the kitchen (our kitchen is in the shape of a T). I kept the TV under wraps thanks to a giant canvas I outfitted with shells from the beach within walking distance to our house. If I were to do this project over again I’d use the super thin luan plywood and liquid nails. Glue gun glue doesn’t hold the shells onto the canvas with any bumps. Just before Christmas I pulled off all the shells and will have a fun project to share with you using this same canvas sometime soon.

Favorite Christmas Post

My post about our Balsam Hill Christmas tree was definitely your favorite holiday post this year. I’m sitting next to the tree now and love it… I’m going to be really sad to take it down, the living room will feel so dark without the twinkling lights!

Most Meaningful

We announced a couple of months ago that we were at the mid-point of the adoption training process. We are now just waiting for our approval to come through, our social worker predicted it would most likely be this week because the state department is back at it after the Christmas break. It’s the strangest process because, with Drew and Elle, we knew generally when we would meet them (both were on their due dates)… with this process it could be this week or it could be in months. It could be an infant or a three year old. So many details are up in the air which is both good and crazy for someone like me who likes to know exactly what to expect.

Most popular post of 2016

The most popular post of 2016 was a collection of ideas for how we, and you, can update a tired or boring Colonial. Our home looks fine, it’s just lacking a little pizzazz. This collection of ideas will inspire you with some really great porticos, porches and beautiful add-ons.