Category Archives: home

Dining Room Furniture Update

July 18, 2016

Since painting our walls white (gah, still need to do that blog post!) from a beige last winter, some of our furniture just really didn’t match anymore. I LOVE our white walls (we chose Benjamin Moore Simply White, their color of the year for 2016) and now we just needed to update some furniture to keep up with the modern look of the white we have in our home now.

Starting with the dining room!

We have a FABULOUS West Elm reclaimed wood table that we have had since we moved to our house. I LOVE the table and all the rustic wood and masculinity of it. But our old chairs were hiding the table and didn’t match well with our white. I love Kailee Wright and she has the same table (see her dining room post here) with some really cool white chairs. I also saw some inspiration that I loved on the Glitter Guide featuring Colby Tice Jaimerena’s home (see that post here – bohemian LOVE!!!), where she also had some cool white chairs around a rustic wood table. So I have been loving that look! I searched out some similar chairs on Amazon and found the ones that work perfectly! Click on the picture!

Armless white Eames chair White Eames chair with arms

The chairs arrived this past weekend (Amazon Primed it! WHOOP!) and I couldn’t wait to put them together!

I got around to it today and set up the whole table (follow along on Snapchat… kaylee.koch), and I’m OBSESSED with it! The dining room looks sooo much better! I LOVE how the white flows through the room now and I mostly love how you can REALLY see the table now! I didn’t realize how hidden it was from our big chairs before. The table is the focal point now, which it should be because it’s such a gorgeous table.

Here’s the before picture!

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And after!

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I think it’s SOOO much better. And the chairs are actually comfy! I am pretty much obsessed with all the white and our table is like a whole new table! The room looks a million times better. YAY. Love when things work out :)

Shop our look here!

Dining Table // white chair // white chair with arms (similar below) // white vase // white geometric texture vase

Here are some similar looks – Shop more here!

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Published! Country Living Magazine

July 12, 2016

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This is so exciting you guys!!! Ivy’s room got scouted out to be featured in the Country Living magazine! Her room was chosen to represent South Dakota for their feature article about “50 Dream Rooms” from around the US. Such an interesting article to see the different rooms and styles from around the country. View the gallery of all the rooms here!

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So proud to hold her magazine! :)

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Here’s the picture Country Living found on my Instagram to feature Country Living Magazine-2 Country Living Magazine-1 Country Living Magazine Ivy Country Living Magazine-4

While I do love Ivy’s room, I’m pretty much obsessed with some of the other rooms in the magazine! The whole Oklahoma house was featured and it is to die for – modern farmhouse has me lately!!!

Grab a magazine to see the rest of the states! Or view the gallery online here

Jenny Lind twin bed // bed sheets // heart pillowcase // mermaid quilt // art prints // hairbow //

See the rest of Ivy’s nursery here

And a HUGE thank you to Jeff Sampson Photography for setting this up! Much appreciated! :)

Our Home: Featured!

June 14, 2016

I absolutely love our house. It has some serious curb appeal and completely draws you in with all of the natural light and high ceilings. We used to run by it and always wondered what the birds nest type part of the upper left of the house was and what the home looked like inside. So when we finally got a chance to look at it on the market, we knew we had to have it! A perfect combination of young and modern with all of the essentials of entertaining: the perfect patio and kitchen.

Home photo

John and I have settled our family into here and as we grow up, so does our style. We recently updated all of the walls from an awful beige to Simply White from Benjamin Moore. I LOVE THE WHITE. It is so fabulous with the bright light we get into the house. We also updated the kitchen to subway tiles which I’m obseeeeeeessed with! I still have to share photos of our updates and changes from before to after. It’s so good! And happy the hubs is a general contractor and owner of John Koch Construction (shameless plug 😜), so his design work is perfection! He’s got a serious queer eye and has such good taste! And be on the lookout for his feature about a historic home downtown he’s renovating coming out in a few months. Here was one from last year on an 1880 home he restored and renovated. The before and afters are INCREDIBLE! Your work is amazing John! Proud of you!!

With having a husband in the renovating and design business, he’s usually the front runner with fixing and updating things around the house. And thankfully, John and I work well together with our styles and wants for the house, which is nice!! I’ve gone from hippie funky patterns and colors, to simple little details with whites and pops of color around the house. I’m onto LESS IS MORE and I’m getting rid of all the clutter! I’m more of the filler around the house, finding the perfect details to complement the area. John is more bold with finding eye-catching pieces of art from our favorite artists in town, mostly from Shaine Schroeder, and he’s always finding unique furniture that gets you talking! So come take a peek, as I am happy to share our home with you this month in the Argus Leader newspaper in the SHE magazine edition!

Kaylee

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Go online to Argus Leader to read the article and see more pictures! Here is a snapshot of some of the photos of our home via the Argus Leader article taken by the talented Emily Spartz Weerheim. View the online gallery and see the rest of the photos here!

Living Room Kitchen Front entry Thank you Argus Leader for the feature! Again, view the online gallery and see the rest of the photos here!

Happiest At Home

February 24, 2016

Since becoming a stay-at-home Mom, it’s been such a whirlwind. Leaving my teaching job to be able to stay home with our kids was a difficult decision, but watching our children grow up right in front of me, and me being able to raise them each day, has been the greatest gift I could receive (thanks Hubs!). I am soooo very happy that I get to spend so much time with them and teach them about life. Being with them makes me so incredibly happy.

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Getting the chance to see their personalities take shape has been the highlight. We had the opportunity to take in-home photos with Amie Hansen Photography. I was so excited to be in our natural environment at home and for her to really capture what it’s like in my daily life with Ivy and Leo. I’ll have to say I am SO happy with the photos! There are so many special moments captured from our days at home and interactions between the kids and I and Ivy and Leo together. They turned out AMAZING! She truly captured Ivy’s spunk and hilarious antics, while also capturing sweet Leo and his loving side. And the biggest capture… a Mother’s love. I think they are PERFECT! We are definitely HAPPIEST AT HOME :)

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Ivy has become so spunky and is a gazillion miles an hour! She’s so hilarious and I just can’t get enough of her! I mean, that smile is contagious :)

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And then you get her to sit for like two seconds and get a tad of a cuddle, and then I’m drawn in even more. LOVE.
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Sibling interaction… I CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF IT!!! Ivy is pretty sweet on Leo and she is always trying to copy him, it’s so funny! The baby things she does are hysterical!
koch0017 koch0014 Then, there’s LEO. My boooooy, so sweet. Just loves kisses and close holds from his Mama. And his two fingers :) His tired signal.

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Come on Leo, crawl crawl! Milestone captured! CHECK!
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Mama and son moments. So cherished.

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Hehe, Ivy being her silly self. Quite the entertainer! All eyes on her! Passing time with an easy game of peek-a-boo full of laughter :)

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And then there’s “Mama’s bed,” as Ivy calls it. A warm naturally lit room where everyone can cuddle and play together in a comfy spot. koch0101 koch0104 koch0097 koch0099 koch0066 koch0105 koch0079 Onbed

And that’s why I love being a Mom. The hugs, kisses, cuddles, and laughs are what makes my days joyful. I can’t get enough of these two and indeed, I’ll cherish these captured moments between mom, daughter, son, sister and brother… forever.

Photos by Amie Hansen Photography

My white tee // Ivy’s dress (old from Tea Collection, similar here and here) // Hairbow // Leo’s onesie // Leo’s pants

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Ikea Latt Table hack

January 20, 2015

I browsed and browsed for the perfect children’s table for the playroom. I of course wanted this Land of Nod table because I’m obsessed with Land of Nod, but could not get myself to pay that price, then also have to buy the chairs. I also found this KidKraft table that was white and had four fun bright colored chairs that came with it, but I didn’t LOVE the chair colors. Well then I found the Ikea Latt children’s table and BINGO. For $20 for the table and two chairs, I knew I could work with this. And there are a TON of ways to spruce up the table (just google “Ikea Latt hack”).

I found two online tutorials (here and here) that provided my lack of DIY talent just enough confidence to try this out on my own – to paint the table white and add seat cushions. I couldn’t wait to get started!

Here is the table before – I actually debated on not doing anything to it once I saw it together! It really matched her kitchen nicely, buuuut, I decided to go for it and paint it white.

Let’s get started painting!

And AFTER

Much better :)

Next, I wanted to add the seat cushions. I bought the fabric from Minted – they have a ton of really cute ones, it was so hard to decide! I eventually went with this handdrawn scalloped fabric in the blue and pink. I love it!

Again, follow these tutorials to get the cushions on, they are really helpful and easy to follow (here and here)

Ta da!

See the Playroom Reveal here

See Ivy’s Playroom Favorites here

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