Colorful Kitchen Inspiration

Ever since Denny and I got done fixing up the master bath somewhat (we still have plans to paint and decorate eventually), we’ve been sort of looking around and contemplating what we should tackle next. It didn’t take us long to realize that our next indoor project should definitely be revamping the kitchen.

Now, I say “revamping” instead of “remodeling” for a couple of different reasons. First, we want to spend as little on this project as humanly possible because it’s really just going to be a temporary fix until we have the time and money to redo the kitchen the way we really want it (this includes some pretty drastic measures, like relocating the fridge, tearing out all the cabinets, replacing all the appliances, doing a tile backsplash, and possibly knocking down a wall). Secondly…well, I just like anything that includes the word “vamp,” I guess. ;)

Since this project will be less permanent than a full-out remodel, I think it might just be the perfect chance to play around a little and experiment with some new concepts. Eventually I want beautiful espresso colored cabinets and an overall sleek and elegant feel for the space. So when I sat down today and started snooping around for some inspiration for our interim look, I went in the exact opposite direction and searched for something bright, funky, and somewhat offbeat. I found myself very inspired by these two kitchens in particular:

and

Hmmm…I’m seeing a common theme here, aren’t you? Yeah, those turquoise lower cabinets really caught my eye. Especially in the second kitchen, where everything else is so warm and earthy. So, going off of that thought, I got to work assembling this mood board and product breakdown.

1. I found this color palette on Design-Seeds.com. It was nearly perfect, except for the fact that it didn’t actually include any turquoise. So I simply hopped over to the Behr website and played around with their ColorSmart paint selector tool (which is actually really helpful and fun to use, by the way). I ended up deciding on this beauty…

2. “Realm.” It’s a little darker than the inspiration photos (more of a teal, actually), but I think that the effect would be quite similar when applied to the lower bank of cabinets. Since our cabinets are very, very smooth and have absolutely no design or definition to them, I think it would look particularly neat when applied in a high-gloss finish for a lacquered effect.

3. This is an example of Realm and a couple of other coordinating colors applied to a sample kitchen using the ColorSmart tool. In this shot it looks quite a bit lighter than the swatch, but I’m not sure if that’s just the effect of the tool or if the color really would be that light. In any case, I’m really digging it. (Oh! And that open shelving up top…do I dare go that far? Hmmm…)

4. After decided on a general palette and color of the cabinets, I went looking (digitally, of course) for a nice coordinating rug to go along with them. Although it’s a little more orange than the palette calls for, I think throwing that down on our hardwood floors would really bring a feeling of warmth to the room.

5. And of course, no space is complete without a collection of books. I have quite an assortment of cookbooks packed away in a box somewhere, and I can’t wait to drag them out and display them somewhere within the kitchen, bringing a little more texture and depth to the space.

6. Initially, I had picked out a Moroccan-inspired starburst pendant for this board. But once I got it all together, I could tell that the starburst just would have been too much going on. With the bright colors, potentially open shelving, and fanciful rug, I’m pretty sure it would have been the straw that broke the camel’s back (however, I’m keeping it in mind for my future sleek-espresso kitchen!). Instead,  I opted for this subtler linen-shaded light. It’s not totally “blah,” but it is much more subdued than some of the other items in the kitchen.

7. The hardware shown here is also rather simple. A subtly-arched pull and classic knob will, I think, blend in with the cabinets instead of competing with them. The only really interesting thing about them will be their placement, which will have the pulls mounted on the doors and the knobs on the drawers. It’ll be a quiet but quirky switch-up.

8. And, last but definitely not least, a cookie jar. This bright little guy just looked so cute squished between the rug and the cabinets (in the collage, not in real life) that I couldn’t resist including him. Plus, on the practical side, it would give Denny someplace to put his cookies other than in a Ziploc baggie on the counter. Oi! (Speaking of Denny, whadya wanna bet he has a stroke when he sees this color palette? I'd say the odds are pretty decent...)

Inspiration Breakdown:

Inspiration Kitchens (top) (bottom)

Color palette from Design-Seeds.com

Behr paint in Realm from Home Depot - $32 per gallon

Suzani Rug 5x8 from Z Gallerie - $635

Cookbook Image from Pimp My Cookbooks

Trellis Linen Drum Shade Pendant from Shades of Light - $149

Amerock Satin Nickel Hardware from Lowes $5-$6

Wise Ol' Cookie Jar from Anthropolgie $128

Oooooh! Sparkly!

Just as I delighted to wake up to this glitzy little display a few mornings ago, so I hope you were delighted to wake up to the new-and-improved 21 House today (don’t lie, you know you check this blog first thing upon waking!).

There are a couple of extra things that I’ve added, including a list of things that Denny and I want to do to the house, things we’ve already completed, and a page devoted to what inspires me in my decorating adventures (all of which are under construction and will be added to, I swear!). You can find all these pages and links just above the posts, beneath the banner.

Same as before, if for any reason you find you have trouble accessing anything, it doesn’t look good, or it just plain bothers you, please leave a comment and I’ll do my best to fix it.

And, on that note, if you have trouble commenting (as I know at least one person has), please text me and let me know (I’m assuming my total readership is comprised of people who have my personal cell number…and I’m fairly certain this assumption is correct). I’ll work on making it more accessible.

Hope you enjoy the new layout! J I’ll be back shortly with an actual home-themed post, as well.

PS: The mirrorball is probably not a permanent dining room fixture, by the way. It’ll most likely be moved to the Studio once it becomes more of a functional space and less of a holding cell for banished boxes. But you gotta admit, it is awful pretty in the early morning sunlight (not that I choose to experience that very often!). -A

In Which I Am Weird

A couple of days ago, Denny and I took advantage of the lack of rain and headed outdoors to…dundundun! The BACKYARD.

Yes, very exciting stuff, I know.  Please, control yourselves. Your hysterics embarrass me.

Ahem.

Actually, it wasn’t all that exciting, but it was very satisfying to be able to check yet another thing off our list of things to do this summer. What did we check off, you might ask? We demolished the pet cemetery. Um, I guess that needs some explaining. You see, our realtor is a spaz. You might not think that explains it, but it really does. She simply couldn’t refrain from nicknaming everything in sight. For example, the sauna in the garage was the “grow room” (don’t ask) and the overgrown little garden out back was (you guessed it) the “pet cemetery.” Not because there were actual pets buried there (that we know of), but just because it was fenced off, kind of creepy, and not very accessible. Add that up and, in our realtor’s head, you had a pet cemetery.

The sauna was lucky enough to quickly shed its weird nickname, but the pet cemetery, sadly, never did.  I’m pretty sure that (many years from now) when we go to sell our house, we’ll be giving potential buyers the tour and pointing out, “Oh! And that’s where the pet cemetery used to be.” (Which will probably result in us living in this house until we die. Would you buy a house that had its own pet cemetery?)

The pet cemetery (spelled with a C, not an S—no Stephen King references, if you please) was pretty much a weed farm surrounded by a rickety fence and trellis. See?

Not only was it practically falling down, but it really served no discernable purpose, other than that of providing habitat for every known species of bug found in the Pacific Northwest. It had to go. Since I was the more excited of the two of us to see it leave, Denny suggested that I have the honor of the initial teardown, which resulted in this:

As you can see, I jumped into my role as destructo-girl with quite the vigor. However, that thing was actually more sturdy than it looked (that, or I’m not quite the brute I think I am) because Denny did have to put down the camera for a minute to come up and help me get it to this:

In no time at all, we were ripping up fenceposts  and hauling sections over to our already substantial woodpile (made up of remnants of the sauna and garage shelves).

Then came time for the much-celebrated weed-uprooting. Denny kept telling me to take it easy; that we’d just get out the weed-eater and chainsaw later. But I am…how do I describe it? A madman when it comes to weeding. I get CRAZY. Obsessed. Armed with my shears and some sturdy gardening gloves, I turn into the Michael Myers of gardeners, slaying every weed in sight. And it doesn’t stop there, given the chance, I’ll gladly hack down any shrub or flower that doesn’t appear to be in perfect health or location. “Ashley! That’s a flower!” “I don’t care! It’s in the WRONG PLACE.” Poor flowers. They just don’t stand a chance. Eventually, Denny gets proper control of me once more and I stand back to survey the damage, usually pretty pleased that my ruthlessness has resulted in a scene such as this:

The whole pet cemetery whittled away to a few twigs and leaves. (Those purple flowers were saved only due to Denny’s intervention—aka, tearing the shears out of my hand and sending me away for a timeout).  Knowing how I get, Denny pretty much left me to it, although he did pause (in his project of clearing out the woodpile) to snap this shot.

Can you believe the size of that thing? As you can see, I’m a little under 5’3” and the sliding doors are a standard 6’10”, which puts that monster in at…what? 9 feet high?! Holy *>%?! At one point, I think it was a rosebush, but it had since mutated into a pre-historic-looking-photosynthetic behemoth. I repeat: it had to go.

Overall, it was a good day, tater. The pet cemetery is no more (although I predict that the name will linger), I killed approximately 250 pounds worth of offending plant life, and Denny packed his dad’s black trailer to the brim with scrap awood, clearing up a sizeable chunk of our yard and taking us one step closer to a spider-free territory.

PS: Did you notice the wee leaf of secrecy? It’s blocking our street sign. I like it. I think it will be an ongoing tradition here at 21 House. The Wee Leaf of Secrecy. In capitals. Respect the Leaf.

PSx2: See, Amanda? I don’t ALWAYS wear black shirts. ;)

Windows Warts

Alright! It’s 21 House quiz time! Are you ready?

Q: How many window treatments did our house come with?

Do you remember? I think I only mentioned it once, in the “Walkthrough” post in the first week, so if you don’t remember, I totally forgive you.

A: Zero

Yep, when we first moved in, there were exactly 13 windows and not a single blind, curtain, or even a tacked up sheet to give us any privacy. And in the nearly-five weeks we’ve lived there, we’ve put up…uh, only two treatments so far. I’m aware that this is terribly pathetic, but the thing is, we really only have a couple of rooms that really needed treatments right away. The bedroom was first, obviously, and I’m proud somewhat embarrassed to say that we waited (only!) a total of four days before installing some nice white plantation blinds. The other was the guest bedroom, where I hurriedly installed a tension rod and some old curtains when I remembered that we were having company one weekend and that they would probably like the option of privacy, too.

The other area of the house that needs some form of treatment a.s.a.p. is the side window in the kitchen and the large window in the dining room. Why only those, you may wonder? Well, the lower living room does have the sliding doors, but since it’s sunk down lower than the rest of the house and most of the yard, it’s actually pretty private. I don’t know if we’ll ever end up putting any kind of treatment on that one. The front room doesn’t ever get used, so that window can wait, as well as the windows upstairs in the studio and office.

Which leaves us with this,

and this,

The garden window, seen here, 

could probably use something, too, but since I’m not sure what, I think we’ll leave it until I can come up with a good solution. Oh, and don’t you just love the view from the side kitchen window? Very inspiring, eh? It’s funny, because the front of that neighbor’s house is perfectly nice. The side, though, is like a wart on an otherwise attractive woman’s face. Just plain unfortunate.

So, in addition to it being a privacy issue, I was simply sick of looking at that eyesore. Something had to be done. I began researching and didn’t really come up with much of anything beyond the standard “slap-some-blinds-up-and-call-it-good” tactic, until I came across this, from 7th House on the Left.

It’s contact paper! It looks like etched glass, but it’s really just a Moroccan pattern traced onto and cut from regular old contact paper. Genius, I tell ya. The idea was originally for a sidedoor that had a large panel of glass in it, but I think it can be adopted for a small-ish kitchen window, too. Whadya think?

What I love about it is a) you don’t need to hang any curtains or blinds, b) it provides privacy but you still get to enjoy the sunlight, and c) it’s totally commitment-free, since you can just tear down the contact paper if you change your mind about it later. In short, this was the solution to our problem.

However, when I went out a couple days ago to try and scrounge up some frosted contact paper, I realized that maybe this wouldn’t be as easy as it seemed. I went to Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Lowes, looking for frosted contact paper, but could only find clear. Finally, at Home Depot I found some “frosted squares” contact paper and decided I would have to settle for that (at something like $6 a roll, it wasn’t too big of a sacrifice). Side note: When I went back and looked at the instructions on 7^th House on the Left, I realized they did use clear paper; it just looked frosted. Oh, well. I’m kinda digging the squares now.

Anyhow, I went home and got straight to work. I immediately put up this little sample, just to make sure I wasn’t wasting my time doing this.

I think it looks pretty cool. Denny is a little skeptical, but I just gave him the look and he immediately said (in an overly hearty tone, so I knew he was being sarcastic) “I’m sure it’ll look GREAT, dear.” Haha. Even though he doesn’t really believe it, I think it will.

Sorry that I don’t have it done yet (is it better to show projects all in one lump sum? or in stages?), but tracing and cutting out all of those shapes has proven rather time consuming. However, I promise that I will post a completed pic to show you by the end of the week. And as for the dining room window, I definitely won't be contact-papering it, but I will hopefully have some sort of plan for it soon. I really like how much natural light there is in this area of the house, so said-plans will probably involve something very sheer and filmy, maybe like so?

Tub Wars: 21 House Strikes Back

Oi. Sorry that this post is getting up so late, but today was rather busier than I thought it would be. First of all, I got my hair lobbed off (finally!), which means that I now have close to a foot of ponytail that needs to be mailed off to Locks of Love. Secondly, I went grocery shopping (by myself, for a change). And, lastly, I…well, it seems like there should be more, but I think that actually covers my day.

I guess I don’t really have a good excuse for not getting this post up sooner, but if you still want to see it, I still want to post it. So, without further adieu, here is the rest of the bath transformation!

After caulking the holes and ridding the entire place of the rebel scum (soap scum, that is), Denny broke out the hardware that came with the curtain rod and began measuring out where he planned to hang it. He wanted to hang it just above the edge of the tub surround, but I convinced him to go up and extra two inches ala YoungHouseLove, which recommends hanging both window treatments and shower curtains up higher than usual to create a taller-looking ceiling. And since our bathroom has strangely low ceilings, I really wanted to add some height by any means.

1. We did some measuring to figure out the placement of the attachment hardware, then Denny held up the attachments themselves and marked out where the screws needed to go in.

2. Using the drill, we put a test screw in to see if there was a stud on that wall or if we needed to use the drywall anchors that came with the rods (yes, I’m aware that we need to buy a stud-finder). Luckily, there were studs on either side so we

3. screwed the attachment partially into the wall and used the level to make sure that it was square before putting the last screw in.

Uh, and that’s where we ran into trouble. The first side went in just fine, but the second side apparently had studs of steel underneath it (sounds like the title of a trashy romance novel, huh?), which resulted in having to put some extra force behind the drill, which caused the screw to go in slightly sideways, which was not what we wanted, which led to us trying to unscrew it, which totally stripped the crap out of the head. Whew! Basically it was just a series of unfortunate events.

4. So we used some pliers to remove the wonky screw, tossed it in the trash, and

5. put in a new one in its place. Voila! We now had two fully functional attachments screwed securely in place.

6. Next we put the rod into place and inserted the bolt which hold the two pieces together.

7. I proceeded (at Denny’s insistence) to very clumsily use a couple of Allen wrenches to tighten up the bolts. We repeated the procedure on the other side and in no-time-at-all had a lovely, curved shower rod ready for the hanging!

We decided to go ahead and get everything shower-related done at one time, which included installing this pretty puppy.

We removed the old shower head and the Teflon-tape remnants, then Denny simply screwed the new shower head into place. We didn’t need to bother with sealants or anything, since the new shower head uses a rubber O-ring instead.

All the while (by which I mean most of the night), there was a lot of Denny perched on the edge of the tub and me right behind him, snapping madly away from every angle, kind of like this:

Anyway, the result (here come the finale pics, by the way, are you ready?) was a curved rod, a (sorta) fancy new shower head, and an overall more functional and aesthetically pleasing master bath. (These pictures don't come close to doing it justice by the way...)

Oh, and if you don’t believe me about the huge difference the rod makes, check out this little pic:

Imagine a rigid glass door in place a couple of inches to the right of where the rod attachment starts. It seriously doesn’t even feel like the same shower. It makes me happy every time I step into it.

Oh, and speaking of transformations, I thought I’d include a tiny before and after pic of my own transformation.

Quite the difference on both fronts, huh?

Tub Wars: A New Hope

This weekend we officially concluded our first fairly-large, indoor project: we removed the nasty shower doors from our master bathroom tub, cleaned the whole thing top to bottom, and hung up a new, curved rod. It may not seem like much, but there aren’t words to express to how great it feels to have gotten it done.

You see, before we bought our house, it had stood empty for some time and before that the people that had lived in it were clearly not…how do I put this delicately? Tidy? Organized? That doesn’t quite work. Okay, let’s just be honest instead: the people who lived in our house before us were pigs. Dust everywhere, twenty years worth of bacon grease under the range hood, hair clippings in the bathroom drawers…you name it, they left it behind. So, obviously, the first thing we embarked on was making the place liveable (aka clean). This process has taken up a lot of our time and there are still portions of the house that need work (now all we have left to clean is half the kitchen, the downstairs bathroom, and a whole lotta windows).

Up until last week, the master bathroom had still been on that list. The first night we moved in, I hurriedly chose the less disgusting of the upstairs bathrooms (the hallway one, obviously), gave it a good scrubbing, and we’ve been using it ever since. The master bath had been no-man’s land for a few weeks before we were able to find the time and the energy to gut it and clean it.

We started out by removing the ugly, brass shower doors. Now, let me just take a moment to explain that this was not only an issue of taste (I mean, really? Brass shower doors?), not even just an issue of cleanliness (although that played a heavy hand, too), it was primarily an issue of space. The showers in our house are incredibly narrow and that flaw was compounded by the rigid glass doors (really, you should see the bruises on my elbows from knocking into them every three seconds). So when I mentioned to my Mom that I wanted to replace the doors, she suggested getting curved, “hotel”-style shower rods to add space. And let me just say: I’ve never been so glad to have heeded any advice as I am right now. Curved rods = all the difference.

Here’s a (sort-of) quick rundown of how we did it. (And some pictures to go along with it!)

1. See this ugly thing? It simply had to go, so…

2. we carefully removed the doors from their tracks,

3. and were left with this ugly sight.

4. So, Denny broke out the tools and began removing the screws that held the tracks to the shower.

5. He then used a flathead screwdriver to gently pry up the tracks,

6. then pulled the whole thing out (this picture was taken right before the whole thing nearly fell down on his head—we were able to grab it just in time, me with the camera still clutched in one hand, much to his completely-justified-annoyance).

7. Once the tracks were removed, we were left with this nasty mess. This is what was living (and I do mean living) under the tracks for who-knows-how-many years? The very idea makes me shudder.

8. Luckily, Denny is made of tougher stuff than I am (I could barely look at the disgusting leavings) and he used a putty knife to remove all of it.

Denny then proceeded to clean the whole bathroom from top to bottom (bless his heart), leaving me free to work on some other projects (which I will update you all on later!). He worked his butt off on that tub. Just to give you an example of how bad it was, listen to this: When we moved in, we honestly thought the tub was supposed to be beige-colored. It wasn’t. It was actually white and the beige tint was just a few decades worth of soap scum. Nasty, huh?

Anyway, once the tub was clean, he called me back in and asked me to caulk the holes left by the doors while he worked on cleaning out the vanity drawers (remember when I mentioned hair clippings? Yeah, we had to vacuum the drawers before cleaning them…with lots and lots and LOTS of bleach).

So I broke out the caulk (that’s what she said!) and a few other supplies and proceeded from there. (Be warned, this whole next section just sounds wrong, so please bear with me.)

I put some rubbing alcohol on some TP then wiped down the holes, making them completely clean and ready for the caulking to adhere to.

Next, I squeezed some caulking into the hole, then squished it down with my fingers (by the way, please ignore my sadly chipped nail polish, which will be making an appearance in some more photos later this week). I did this until I was sure the hole was completely filled, then I added a bit more (so it stuck up over the edges of the hole) and used the aforementioned putty knife to scrape the excess flat. I had to do this 2 or 3 times on each hole over the course of a couple of days because the caulking kept shrinking and pulling back into the hole. Maybe there’s a way to avoid this, but I don’t know of it.

Anyway, the end result was a flat, hole-free space which you can barely tell ever had a shower door screwed into it!

And now (because there are still 9 more pictures to go and twice as many steps), I’m going to leave you hanging and return back tomorrow with the rest of our bathroom transformation. Trust me when I say that a little (LOT) bit of elbow grease and a new shower rod pretty much changed the way we feel about our place. It was a major morale booster to get this project done and now we feel excited to get started on some other things on our list, like painting the insides of the kitchen cabinets and laying down new vapor barrier under the house. Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration. I don’t think anything could make us excited about going under the house. But this very nearly does the trick. J

PS: You may have noticed that the blog width is slightly larger than usual. That is to allow for larger photos to be posted, but if it's too large to be viewed on a normal screen, please let me know. My monitor at work (where I am lucky enough to be able to do most of my posting!) is rather large and I'm not sure if the banner will fit well on other computers or not. Also, the sidebar is back to being on the left side, as requested by the one commentor to give feedback on the layout (thanks, Amanda!). Love, Ash

Moody

So, today I decided to try a little bit of a different sort of post. Kind of  an actual-planning-slash-decorating-and-design post.

Hmm. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I guess, I should first start out by explaining that a couple of days ago, I broke down and got a Facebook account. Yes, I can hear all of your shouts of joy (and probably smug I-told-you-so-ness) from all the way up here.  I’ve been swearing for years that I would never have a Facebook, despite everyone’s pleading that “it makes it so easy to keep in touch with people” (to which I always replied, I do keep in touch with the people in my life…all thirteen of them) and “but then you can check out all my pictures!” (my rebuttal? If you want me to see your damn pictures, email them to me) and, last but not least, “it only takes up as much of your time as you want!” (HA! You LIE! Facebook is like digital crack!).

But, here’s the thing: there’s this other website called Pinterest (if you don’t know what it is, check it out immediately and come back—I’ll wait), which I absolutely adore (although it too is rather crack-like, I must admit), and to create an account on Pinterest, you must have a Facebook login. Much. To. My. Despair. I cannot stress that enough. I was devastated when I read that you have to join the ranks of Website-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named in order to create your own beautiful inspiration boards on Pinterest. But I resisted anyway. For about three months now, I’ve played around on Pinterest, creating my own poor-man’s-version of an inspiration board, saving hundreds of design photos and color palettes and inspiring snapshots to a thumb-drive.

And then my thumb-drive got tapped out. Even when I moved half of my pictures to my home laptop, there just wasn’t enough room for it to be functional any longer. And with the creation of this blog, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to show everyone all the cool things I am inspired by? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to just point everyone towards a simple website so they could see what I’m thinking when I say that I want to paint all my window sills black?” 

Answer: it would be very nice. Therefore, in the interest of Pinterest (haha), I got a Facebook account. But let it be known: it exists only for the purpose of my Pinterest account and I will not be posting to it or making friends or putting things on my “wall.” I will. Not. Do. It. I will not be this girl. (Even though she is pretty hilarious)

Anyway! /End rant.

Now that that’s out of the way, back to my original story. I decided to do up a little inspiration board to show y’all (no, Mom, that doesn’t sound right either) the kind of look I want for each of my rooms. So far I have done only the lower living room because, dang, mood boards are way more work than they appear! But here it is anyway, along with my thoughts on the whole shebang and where to find each item if you too decide you are inspired (be warned though, some of these items are stupid expensive and I plan on scouting mine out at sales and, hopefully, at thrift stores).

Drum roll, puleeze…

Ta-Daaaaaaah!

Yes, it is rather brighter and bubblier than I normally go for, but I think that it’s a good look. Not too grown-up, not too childish. Kind of bright and light, which is what that lower living space needs. In short: it’s juuuuuuust right. Now, for the breakdown.

1. Ever since seeing some similar color palettes for weddings, I’ve been really attracted to this combination (you’re thinking about my wedding colors now, aren’t you? See?). There’s something about the green and the blue and the coral that just makes me very, very happy. So, why wouldn’t I try to incorporate it into a space I will spend considerable time in every day?

2. Now, this is one room that I found really inspiring, partially because it uses a variation on my fave color palette and partly because of the versatility of the design. You could easily swap out the pops of orange/coral for another color and give the whole thing a brand new look with minimal effort. This is important to me because I can be very capricious when it comes to decorating. (Just ask my Mom; I switched up the design of my bedroom almost every single year from the time I was small all the way into high school.) Oh, and I also like the layout of this room.

3. A while back, Denny and I went and looked at couches and we came away with some very distinct likes and dislikes. For example, I discovered that couches with pillow-backs (like this one) drive Denny up the wall and he found out that I’m more of a fabric person than a leather person. This one shown here is a good compromise. It’s also a nice neutral color, which allows us to change our minds on color schemes later on down the road (unlike this hot little tangerine number, which although attractive, pretty well sets the color scheme in stone).

4. This chair (we would need two of them) isn’t an exact match in style to the sofa but, with it’s neutral fabric and similarly styled legs, it still fits well. Also, it’s comfy looking and, yet, still structural. Not just a beanbag masquerading as real furniture, you know? I’m particularly attracted to slipper chairs, but I know that I couldn’t live with an armless chair for any real period of time. I mean, what kind of quality of life would it really have? (Did you get my Office reference?)

5. For the area rug (which anchors the arrangement and creates a focal point), I chose this green patterned one from West Elm. It’s actually a pretty good deal (by West Elm standards) and I like it enough that even if I did decide to eliminate green from the palette someday, I know I could relocate it to another area of the house and be just fine.

6. So, lately I’ve been very into clear lamps. They’re functional, but they kind of fade into the background, allowing you to highlight other knick-knacks and objects without making everything too busy and crowded. Bet you didn’t even notice the one in my inspiration pic, did ya? See? Totally cool.

7. A lot of designers think that curtains are a good place to feature a big, bold pattern, but in my case, I think maybe just a nice bold color will do. I like how these ones are boldly colored, but still kind of sheer. They also feature a subtle chevron pattern, which is very in right now. ;)

8. And, last but not least, pillows! I’m looking forward to building a layered and eclectic, but still polished, collection of pillows for this room. These are just some of the ones that inspired me (and I already own the middle, burnet velvet one and the lower left rectangular one, btw).

So, there’s a little look inside my head. What do you think? Can I pull it off? Can I go from this to this?

Inspiration Breakdown:

Pillows from Pier 1 Imports and West Elm - $8-$65

Caney Beige Microfiber Accent Chair from Overstock.com - $173

Tucker Custom Sofa in Chenille Tan from JC Penney - $899

Jonsbo Orod Lamp from Ikea - $50

Dhurrie 8’x10’ Area Rug in Citron from West Elm - $479

Zigzag Beaded Curtain in Teal from Urban Outfitters - $89

Color palette from Design-Seeds.com

Inspiration room source unknown

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