On the Horizon

Happy first of June, everyone! Yeah, June… that’s what I said. Can you believe that Memorial Day has come and gone and we’re now in friggin JUNE? I’m having a bit of hard time getting back into the swing of things after such a great holiday weekend, so I figured I’d talk about fun things to come to put me in a better mood.

We haven’t done too many home improvement projects around the abode recently. We got to the point where things were “acceptable” which led to laziness. Or exhaustion. Maybe a little bit of both. But now that summer is on the horizon, I have the itch to spruce things up a bit to avoid complacency. We’ve already painted our kitchen and den and purchased a new bedspread for the bedroom and rug for the living room. But is that enough? How dare you even ask.

Here is our kitchen as it stands today (minus the new wall paint color, which has yet to be revealed). We spent a few smackaroos to update the countertops and backsplash a while back, but now I’m dying to update the cabinets a bit. Our cabinets are in great shape (albeit not my favorite style), but we decided to keep them rather than spend a ton of money on brand new cabinets. I’m fine with the stain color, but it just doesn’t wow me. How about a little facelift, shall we?

Here is my first idea in a (very rough) photoshop image. I really really want white cabinets, but I just can’t bring myself to have white cabinets, white countertop, white backsplash and a white floor – boring, right? I like the look of two-toned cabinets and I think a dark, gray-blue would be just the ticket for our little kitchen. But, of course, the hubs doesn’t quite agree.

Scott thinks that white-on-white is where it’s at and not at all stark/institutional/boring. I’m not sure I can stomach that much lack of color, so I compromised with a light gray on the bottom cabinets to bring a little bit of contrast into the space. Leave me a comment with your thoughts on this (very possible) future change!

We’re also very seriously considering fixing up our deck, if the weather can hold off for an entire weekend. The current stain is looking pretty rough and we don’t want to go to the expense (and maintenance) of re-staining. Plus, we think we’d like the look of a painted deck better since we’d like to have the floor and railings/trim be two different colors. After a long afternoon in Lowe’s staring at exterior paint options, I think we’ve come to a solution.

We’d love to make all of our railings and the arbor a clean, crisp white to tie into the trim on the rest of the house -and to give our deck a lighter feel. A white floor is just out of the question, so we selected a dark, gray-blue (see a pattern here?) for the deck floor, as well as the stair treads. This palette will then open us up to painting our deck furniture, which is in severe need of a fresh coat of paint (can we say lime green chairs?!). Are you chomping at the bit to see the deck makeover? And what about the kitchen – paint away or stay the same? Sound off!

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Idea Collage: Lovely Lounge

‘Tis the season for engagements it seems! A couple of my close girlfriends, as well as a few acquaintances, have recently gotten engaged. With all this love in the air, I can’t help myself from being drawn towards romantic details and pretty, girly colors, which are not typically the norm around here. I was browsing the internet today in search of some wedding ideas for aforementioned girlfriend, and I couldn’t help but notice all of the great mood boards out there for lovely, romantic weddings. Blue grays, lovely lilacs and ruffles are all around, and they really got my juices flowing for a semi-girly decor scheme.

This sofa is a bit on the masculine side (ie. not too girly for a man’s home) but with a few pretty details it would be the perfect centerpiece to a lovely lounge. I loved how the colors of this rug warmed things up a bit, and really tied into this great scalloped mirror and sweet lotus candle holder. Etsy is a great spot for ruffled pillows like this one, as well as great whimsical artwork to keep things light and girly. Add a simple gourd lamp, and some structured, citrus vases (to tie into the modern lines of the sofa) and you’ve got yourself a sweet but modern ladylike retreat! Enjoy!

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Winter Project

This past weekend, while driving around town running some errands, my husband said something to me that almost made me look forward to the dreaded winter season. “Let’s do a winter project”. I paused, smiled, and thought my husband must really get me. I’m a self-proclaimed winter hater, so this little idea thrown up by my one and only was music to my ears. It didn’t take much discussing for us to decide that our home office needed a bit of a pick me up. I admit, the office hasn’t been featured very often on this blog because, well, it’s heinous. It’s basically a mishmash of random furniture pieces that had to go somewhere, so they ended up in the office. Take a look at our disaster that is in desperate need of a winter makeover.

Oh, the horror. Yes internet, you have now gotten a glimpse into our sad little office that we close the door to when guests come over. The old school table I refinished (ie tried to salvage) sadly sits in the corner, but doesn’t provide any efficient storage. And the wires. Oh goodness gracious, the wires. They are the bane of my existence.

The other side of the office is even more sad, if you can believe it. We have some wall space that isn’t being utilized to its full potential, and some hand-me-down storage that just isn’t making the cut. So what to do? Enter, our winter project idea collage.

Scott and I love the rich browns we have rocking in this space, but this room needs some colors to brighten things up a bit. Also, Scott works from home about 3 days a week and spends all day in this room, so the organization needs to be pumped up. I’m not completely sold on this collage, but it’s at least a good starting point while we work our way to a more functional and pleasing home office.

The desk, rug and side chair are existing, as well as our lovely Crate and Barrel ladder bookshelf. We’re planning to toss the old green table, as well as the cheapo college bookshelf to free up the room for some more useful storage solutions. We’ll reposition some items in the room to make the space work better, as well as add an Expedit storage unit from Ikea to form a credenza of sorts, with tons of useful storage within. We’ll even customize it with some door inserts, metal legs and some colorful knobs to take it from building standard to super snazzy.

Scott is in desperate need of an office chair that can house his tushy for an 8 hour day. I’ve been eyeing this one from CB2 for quite some time, so I think we may need to make it a member of our household. We’ll also bring in some color/pattern through window treatments – I’m not 100% sold on these particular ones, but I want something that will coordinate, as well as play off of, our newly redone side chair.

Thoughts? Comments? Any other items that we desperately need to make this office an organizational haven? Share the goods, people!

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Chair Maybe Makeover

I’ve been a bit uninspired lately when it comes to home decor projects. Maybe it’s the great weather we’ve been having or the fact that our house is almost to a point where I can stand it’s incomplete state. I said almost. There is always a project brewing in my crazy head, and one of those is salvaging a little chair I’ve had for quite some time. Sure, I could buy a new chair that better fits our needs, but what would be the fun in that?

Here’s our sad little chair, filling the void of our newly acquired office corner. It has a curved, canned back with an upholstered seat (the picture isn’t the best, but I don’t feel like getting off of the couch to take another one – yay for lazy Saturday!). I’ve had this chair since sophomore year of college, when I moved into a white on white apartment and had the urge to pop some color into the space in my early decorating days. I make a bedskirt and pillow, all in bright golds, greens and turquoise, and paired them with this cheapo chair my Mom and I found at an antique store. We painted it royal blue and threw on some gold fabric to go with my uber colorful new bedding. That would have made quite a nice little blog post, eh? Anywho, this chair no longer fits into our decor and I’d like to make it a bit more 2009. I recently stumbled upon this picture on a blog called Made By Girl and got really excited. Like when you figure out the solution to a problem that’s been bothering you for months. Of course I should paint my chair white and add a modern fabric. It’s so obvious!

So during our lazy Saturday (which turned into a day of Panera and getting new cell phones), I popped into Calico Corners to see if I could find some inspiration. And by golly, I just may have.

This picture is a bit off from reality, but let me paint you a pretty little picture. The print is fairly large scale, so I would just get a little taste of the yellow. The gray is a nice cool color and the white in the leaves is actually super white so the fabric has a lot of yummy contrast. The little bit of yellow will also go nicely with the yellow lamp shade I made for this room. Thoughts? Scott’s out of town next weekend so I’m sure I’ll need a project to keep myself preoccupied. :) Any other awesome fabrics I should consider?

Images courtesy of Calico Corners and Made by Girl. Oh, and me.

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Idea Collage: Outdoor Oasis

All this springtime weather and time outdoors is making me itch to dress up our outdoor living area. We have a great size deck that came with our home, but it’s a bit worse for the wear now a days. We’re considering refinishing it later on down the road, but I’m more excited about sprucing it up with some fun accessories to make it into a true outdoor living space.

I had some ideas in my head that were swirling around uncontrollably, so today I decided to sit down, reel them in and whip up a quick idea collage for our little outdoor oasis. You all know I’m a fan of green – ok internet, obsessive green addict, party of one over here – but green is the perfect color for an outdoor space since it mimics the colors in nature. I also wanted to bring in some pops of complimentary blue and yellow to give this space a fun, lively feel that’ll entice us outdoors all year round.

Let’s start with what’s existing: currently we have this lovely teak table and chair set from World Market, as well as two folding chairs with bright green canvas fabric. Annnd that’s it. Other than our grill and table set, our deck is a pretty barren landscape. Thus, my lovely idea collage that I’m hoping to one day make a reality. My starting point for this collage was the rug, with it’s bold stripes of blues and greens. It had me at hello. Luckily this rug had some green in it, so I was able to bring in some poppin’ green accents like these planters and these graphic, outdoor fern pillows. I’ll also prop some mini green planters along the rails of the deck to bring in some more greenery. Getting excited yet?

Since our deck is right off of the house, we have some wall space to fill up. And what better to fill it up with than this awesome, modern square art? I’ve been pinning over this wooden masterpiece for some time now and I think I’ve finally found the perfect spot for them. And how about perfect spot for this blue chair? Well, right next to the grill, of course! A perfect spot for the grill master to take a quick break, no?

The finishing little touches that we’ll throw into the mix are these hanging lanterns, grouped in a pod above the dining table. A chandelier of sorts, to make this dining area feel like a legit dining area. I’d also love to bring in this canary colored basket to add another pop of color, as well as providing a spot to store napkins and other necessary outdoor dining utensils. Are you itching to come over to my plush pad and throw back a few? Let me know your thoughts!

P.S. The in-laws are in town this weekend, so I’ll most likely be on a mini blog hiatus. Happy weekend!

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Bodacious Boy Boudoir: Final Design

As soon as I posted Idea Numero Dos for my sister’s nursery, my mom purchased the bicycle pillow and my sister organized getting a projector from school for the bike mural. I guess the idea was received well, no? I’ve done a little tweaking to the idea collage after some consultations with my clients (haha) and would like to present the (close to) final idea collage for this little boy’s kickin’ boudoir. 

We stuck with most of the initial elements, but Emily found this sweet shag rug on Overstock.com that I think would be just the right amount of modern and silliness to make this space everything but serious. I’ve also included the custom bike art that were blogged about earlier. My dad so eloquently commented that the bike art “was very accurate artwork” so I’m glad that we’re paying homage to his paper boy days. A little bit of historical art there for ya, baby.

We’ll also still incorporate some Ikea floating shelves into the space to provide some modern, open storage solutions. We’ll need some sort of bookshelf unit on the closet wall, but that’s another post. Stay tuned!

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Bodacious Boy Boudoir: Idea Numero Dos

We’ve had a few developments in the design of my future nephew’s nursery. By we, I mean my design team consisting of the mom-to-be and my momma. We talk quite frequently about ideas that we all have, and my mom just purchased the glider for the room, so I figured I’d take another stab at an idea collage. This one isn’t as fleshed out as it could be, but I think it’s enough to convey an idea. One of our original ideas came from this simply amazing nursery that I found online:

I could die it’s so amazing. My sister and I both really liked the graphic white detail on one wall, and I’m such a sucker for orange accents. It’s basically perfect. But what’s the fun in copying someone’s exact design? I decided to take the feel of this room and go in a little different direction. The giraffe on the wall is pretty fantastic, but I have a feeling that this little boy will be a lot like his papa-full of energy and more into sports than cutesy animals. So, I took the circles from the bedding and that lead me to a theme – circles and bike tires repeated throughout the space.

I ran with the bike theme and thought it would be cool to have a graphic bike mural on the accent wall in the space. I’m hoping we can find a projector, project this image up on the wall, and handpaint it in some crisp, white paint. Quite a challenge, but I think we can handle it. The glider is one that my mom just purchased for the room from Babies R Us. The reviews said that you’d need a pillow behind your back for a shorter mom (which my sis most certainly is) so I think this graphic bike pillow from CB2 is just perfect.

My sis chose this rug from Target which I think is a great starting point to start introducing some orange accents to the room. Plus, the circles keep the whole bicycle tire theme going. We do have a wall sconce issue to deal with in the room, so I pulled this swirly stained glass one from some other comments from my sis. The more modern square sconce is freakin rad, but it’s a cool 300 beans. I think this is something we can recreate on the cheap, so it’s still in the running.

The mobile is something that I found on etsy.com. If you’ve never been to this site, check it out sometime. It’s a place where artisans/craft makers can post their creations and sell them to adoring buyers like myself. There are some really unique items on there that give you an alternative to the big chain stores. The colors weren’t quite right for the etsy mobile, but I think we can add in the orange (like I’ve shown here) and make this on our own for some more money savings – and a fun project. Now, I do realize that these colors are orange and blue, which makes my garnet and gold blood boil. But, the mom and dad are Gator fans, so I have to cater to my client. Unfortunately. :P

The crib and storage solutions from the previous idea collage still stand, but maybe we can bring in some orange storage boxes in lieu of the wicker baskets. They’ll have a bit more modern shape/look and will really bring that punch of orange all the way around the room. Swoon. Any thoughts on Idea Numero Dos?

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Bodacious Boy Boudoir: Idea Numero Uno

Scott and I had a very lazy Sunday today, which is a bit odd for us. If you know Scott at all, you know that he’s a very spirited guy (ie. can’t sit still) and loves to be on the move (ie can’t sit still). But alas, we were very sedentary today because it rained ALL DAY. No joke, it has been raining since Saturday morning, non stop, and now it’s snowing pretty heavily. The lovely weather has kept us locked up, so I decided to use this downtime to tackle a project that’s been brewing in my head for some time – a little laddie nursery. That’s right folks, I’ll be an aunt in about 5 months (you thought I was going to say mom didn’t you? did your heart skip a beat?) and my sister has accepted my offer to do her little boy’s nursery. I’m so super excited! I just started jotting down some ideas today and doing some (very rough) sketches, so I figured I’d post them on here to get a bit of feedback. This is idea numero uno in my crazy design mind, so if it’s totally off the mark, that’s fine! I’ll work on some more ideas and post them along the way until the ultimate boy nursery comes to fruition.

This is a quick little idea collage I pulled together on this rainy day. My mom has already purchased the crib bedding for this room, so it gave me a starting point as well as something concrete that I had to work with. My sister mentioned that she doesn’t want something too cutesy for the nursery, but rather something a bit more modern and not so literal (ie a surfer mural on the wall). With this collage, I’m running with the stripe theme, but making the stripe wall a bit more modern than most stripe walls you might see out there. My husband seems to think the striped wall is “a bit 80s” so maybe I am off the mark. But I like it. :) The crib, bookshelf and glider are from the always amazing Target, while the floating white shelves and baskets are from Ikea. The artwork is something that I found online that I’d like to try and recreate (DIY project) if this idea reaches the goal line.

This is a quick little sketch I drew up to give some idea of where everything would be in the space. I’m by no means the best artist, but at least this gives a feel for how the space would lay out. I have yet to find the perfect rug or the exact window treatments, but hey, this is a first stab. Give me a break, internet! One thing that I don’t have shown on these sketches is the papa’s surfboard, which I think would be nice in Elevation A to the right of the dresser. Future baby daddy is a surfer and would like that to be integrated into the room somewhere, so I think one of his boards propped up against the wall would a) be a great place to store the board and b) bring in the surfer theme, without the cheesy mural. If we went this route, the custom artwork could definitely be tweaked to have a more beachy, surfer feel.

Of course, my brain is spewing out ideas (like the vomit reference?), so I’ve been spending the rest of my afternoon sketching more accent wall ideas. Some are ok, some are awful – but that’s how the design process works. At least I didn’t post the other 20 sketches I had – my rendition of an elephant was just too embarrassing to post in blogland. Maybe it’ll make an appearance on a “best of the worst” entry in the future. Yikes.

Please feel free to leave me a comment and give me some feedback (good or bad) and some ideas for this little munchkin retreat. I’m not sure if I’m writing this blog just for my parents (love your comments, ma and pa), so if you’d like to follow their lead, drop me a line!

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First Idea Collage

Need inspiration for what to do in your house? Try an idea collage! I created this one with photoshop, but simply snipping ideas out of a magazine will have the same effect. We recently painted our front living room a chic gray (eliminating the last remains of the blah beige the previous homeowner had left) but I was stuck on what to do with the rest of the space. I had found things online or in catalogs that I liked, but had never thought of the space as a whole. You would think as a designer I would do this in my home, but no, the thought never occured to me. :P

One lovely Saturday morning, I decided to sit down and “design” my living room. It all started with the couch we already had in the space and the china cabinet we had our eye on. From there, I decided that I wanted white accents and a touch of orange to liven up the gray and black palette, but still keep things clean and contemporary. I spent some time browsing the internet and collected some images onto one page until I was happy with the compilation. You’ll be amazed how much easier it is to visualize a space once all of the components are right in front of you.

Some of the items have gone by the wayside because of budget (a gorgeous Crate and Barrel lamp was replaced by the more economical version from CB2) or simple internet shopping issues (the awesome mirror was more gold in person that we had hoped – Scott said he felt like he was in “grandma’s house”), but the idea collage definitely helped the look and feel of the space stay on track. We’ve gotten a couple of the items so far, so I’ll post some finished pictures once the room is finalized. :)

 

I'll be rolling on this in no time

Take a stab at an idea collage and share (if you’re like me and want to spend a Saturday afternoon doing this… I’m such a nerd!)

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