What Would You Do If BHG Was Coming To You?

Screech?  Squeal?  Have happy heart palpitations?  Jump up and down like a giddy school girl?  Panic?  Clean?  Paint?  Project?  Feel excited?  Nervous?  Curious?  Research?  Question things {everything!}?  Bite off more than you can chew?  Catch yourself smiling?  Make seventeen "to do" lists in your sleep?  Escape?  Read?  Pin things?  Do random cartwheels?  Talk about it endlessly to your spouse? 

I am pretty sure I did all of those things and then some... maybe even multiple times!

I know I didn't really spill much ahead of time... maybe because I was scared it was all just a dream and I wanted to be sure it was 100% real, but in the end, it was a real dream! 

I have been a long time reader of Storage magazine.  In fact, I was recently looking for some reads to take on a boat ride, and I was giggling to myself how many Storage mags I was hoarding...

I even found one from '09.  Love that.  BHG runs a quarterly publication of their Storage mag, and it is always full of pages upon pages of inspiration and great product ideas.

So, the day I found out they were interested in photographing our home for an upcoming issue, I just may have gone out to celebrate with the kids and hubs.  It will go down in history of one of my favorite days.

But here is the thing.  As excited as I was, I was also nervous!  I mean, it is one thing to loooove magazines and use them for ideas and inspiration, but it's another to have a home that is "magazine worthy".  Because that just doesn't seem to be us.  Do I love to organize?  Yes.  Do I love a pretty clean home?  Absolutely.  Do I love to project, DIY, paint and build with the hubs?  I could do it daily.  Have I dreamed about the day that I could be featured in one of my favorite glossy mags, since I was a little lady?  You betcha.  But the reality of it all is that we are a busy, crazy family of five plus two furry pups and a fish.  We are dirty.  We are messy.  My boys love to run their cars and trucks into freshly painted trim.  We ding walls moving furniture.  The boys spray the windows with squirt guns two seconds after I wash them.  They play in their sand box and bring half of it back inside.  They run through the house without stopping to think to take their shoes off.  So do we.  Our dogs shed in crazy amounts so the kids think dust bunnies are just another pet to play with.  We love our home but we also live in our home.

But you know what?  BHG was down with that.  All of that.   Whew.

It was amazing to me how quickly the few short months went, that I had to prepare for the shoot.  I instantly began to assess our home and each space I knew they were going to be photographing {boy's shared bedroom, dining room, pantry, living room/entry, studio, laundry room, playroom, master bedroom/dressing room}.  My crazy brain took over.  Not the logical thinking brain... the brain that was instantly obsessed with trying to make every room more awesome than it already was.  Looking back now that it is all said and done and I am clear minded again, they wanted to photograph our home based on what they had already seen.  Not because of what I wanted to do.  So were all of the updates, projects and changes we made completely necessary?  Nope.  But hey, we love our home even more now that they are done, so it was worth it anyway.

The "to do" lists started forming.  And they were a bit excessive and daunting.  And I would find myself re-writing them over and over, hoping it would make things go away or make the list look easier, but then I would lay in bed thinking up more ideas and projects.  Crazy lady alert!  That may have been why in the past few months you have seen us paint the playroom, stencil the wall, build in a bench with storage, paint the entertainment center, add book storage, update our IKEA dresser, paint our studio dresser, spray paint a clearance mirror, update the map in the boy's bedroom, upholster the boy's headboards, finished organizing the boy's closet, created extra storage in the pantry, label everything and start working on our secret stairs...

And the kicker is that we had two boys in baseball since April, which means that we had baseball about four nights per week and tournaments on the weekends {always with travel of course!}.  Plus B runs a golf league every week and the kids have had daily sports and activities, not to mention we planned and hosted a birthday party for our two birthday boys and celebrated an anniversary in there too.   So if you were to ask me how we accomplished everything I have shown you, plus oodles of other behind the scenes projects that I haven't blogged about yet, I wouldn't know how to answer that.  It was a whirlwind of late nights {projects typically started once the kids were in bed for the night}, play dates with grandma and grandpa and friends for the kids, help from my assistant Emily, help from relatives, eating quick meals, taking a few days off from work and blogging.... This is where I tear up thinking about how fortunate we are to have the help we do, and where I virtually hug them all in front of y'all to show my gratitude.  Especially my husband who put me first for months and did anything I asked of him, stayed calm under pressure, kept me grounded and said no to things in his life to say yes to me.  I guess now you know why the hubs and I took a last minute getaway to the lovely state of Florida... 

So, maybe I went a little overboard, but wouldn't you if your studio looked like this a few weeks prior to a Better Homes and Gardens crew showing up on your doorstep?

Please still love me after seeing that picture...

The good thing is that I was in my element.  Projecting, painting, high fiving, smiling, singing, dancing and enjoying every minute of it.  I also got to do some important house shopping, much of it was thanks to some built up credit over at Joss & Main.  I will have to do a post on some of the fun purchases I was able to make from there and at a couple of other stops along the way.

So my advice, do the projects for you and because you want to, not because a photo shoot is happening {they didn't ask me to do a single thing, it was all me trying to be an overachiever}.  We had been wanting to do them anyway, so the shoot just lit a fire under us, but some of the things probably could have waited.  I created a bit of my own chaos.  Including selling our kitchen table on Craigslist two weeks before BHG showed up, since I had been wanting to replace it for the last couple of years anyway...

The weekend before they showed up, my oldest had an out of state tournament a few hours away, which meant that all of the last minute scrubbing, washing and cleaning had to be condensed and prioritized.  I read a few of my favorite blogs that had also gone through the experience of a photo shoot to see if I could pick up tricks, ideas, etc.... of what was important and what wasn't as much.  I skipped washing some of the slipcovers and decided not to iron our sheets, but scrub and scrub we did.  And I labeled everything I could think of labeling!

Once the projecting finally slowed down and the cleaning was done {at 4:00 a.m. the morning before they arrived}, I could finally breath again.  Day one was just a walk through with the crew and once they arrived, I was instantly put at ease.  They were so kind and amazing and understanding of the home's imperfections.  Here they are now!

{Jay, Molly, Me, Megan}

They explained how the process was going to work:

• They have a shoot list of everything that was planned on being captured over the course of the week.
• They bring in all sorts of fabulous rugs, flowers and accessories to help tell a story of the space and highlight the current systems even more.
• They prop and stage out the areas, and then move on without us even knowing they were there.  Not a thing was left out of place.  I was so impressed!

What they didn't share upfront, but I learned along the way:

• They are amazing at what they do.  I got to take a sneak peek at the photos they were taking and I fell even more in love with my own home.  They have an amazing ability of capturing the story of the space.
• They are incredibly fun and know how to have a good time.  I could often here them singing from different rooms in the house and chatting with the boys.

Back to the flowers and accessories.... day one and our home was filled beautiful blooms.

The ranunculus were my favorite!

And a few days prior to the shoot... packages started arriving....

However, throughout the course of the week, most of the boxes didn't even get opened.  The stylist that came used many of the items we already had on hand in our home {shopping from room to room of course}, and was able to save from using many of the props that were shipped. 

This was awesome because it was really interesting to see how many of the items we have chosen to use in our home, are versatile enough to move around and be used in many of our spaces.  It was also great to see how we could switch things up in ways I had never thought of.  She did bring some rugs in however, just because I haven't purchased any for a few of the spaces they photographed, and I didn't want her take them away.  The one for the dressing room was especially dreamy, but for over $600 on discount, I still couldn't take the plunge to snag it up, so my search continues.

They spent a few hours or more in each space they were capturing.  They set up the equipment, set up the shot, took the photo, analyzed it on the screen, moved some things, took it again, analyzed, etc....

It was a dreamy experience to see how the behind the scenes go down at a photo shoot to capture beautiful interior images.  Everything is pre-planned, well thought out and they are very particular about getting it all just right.  It also told me the story that they have to move furniture around so that it makes sense in the shot, but not necessarily in the space, rugs were rolled if they didn't fit the space, piles of accessories sit behind the camera and as my eight year old learned and reminded me throughout the week, "they are magic" at making everything look dreamy perfect for the final product.

I especially love that they captured us as a family using the storage we have put in place.

{sorry, taken quick with my iphone}

They snapped a few shots of the kid's in their personal spaces as well, and those are the ones I am most excited to see!

After they took photos of the individual rooms, they also took more detailed shots of many of the smaller systems we have in place.  Those were done by setting up an area at the dining table and using pretty paper backdrops.  I took mental notes on many of their tricks!

They were in town for an entire week, doing their walk through on Monday, shooting for three full days and wrapping things up on Friday.  By the time they were leaving, it felt like we were saying goodbye to family.
 
I have to thank everyone over at BHG and the Storage crew, for being so thoughtful and kind and for this incredible opportunity.  Some kids grow up dreaming of becoming a firefighter, veterinarian, all-star football player, Miss U.S.A or the president.  I grew up drawing pictures of houses and building mansions out of Lego.  I organized my bedroom, locker, first apartment, office desks and now my home with thoughtfulness and love, while spending every spare second looking at my shelter mag collection and dreaming of the day that we would maybe fill a page with our story.  Better Homes and Gardens really have made this imperfect small town gal's big dreams come true and for that, I will be forever grateful!

We are slated to be featured in the Spring issue of Storage, which comes out at the end of December.  I am sure you will know when it hits the stands, I will be shouting it from the rooftops!

So please forgive me as I take a few weeks to sleep, play, relax and enjoy what is remaining of summer, and stay tuned for a few more recently finished projects along the way!