January 19, 2012
I’ve been excited to decorate our new place… yet terrified at the same time. I’ve never felt like I have a knack for decorating like I do designing something on a page. Committing to a piece of furniture makes me a nervous wreck. I gravitate towards colors and patterns and usually buy things accordingly, but then I get them home and realize they’re not right for the space, way too loud, or have no relationship to anything else in the space. More often than not, I am tired of it in five minutes and regret making such bold choices.
I’m trying a new approach where I set some guidelines for myself, don’t buy anything impulsively, and if I see something that looks bold and awesome — I realllllly think about it (and usually end up realizing it’s too much and I need to scale it back a bit). So far, so good.
For the walls, I fell in love with Benjamin Moore’s Palladian Blue… but then, after painting a handful of test swatches throughout the first floor and upstairs hallway (which would all eventually be painted the same color), I realized it was waaaaayy too much blue. After a few more Goldilocks trials and errors — you know, this one’s too bold, this one’s too boring, etc. — I landed upon Sherwin Williams Sea Salt, a muted grayish blueish green (that’s the technical description). It was perfect.
We already have charcoal grey couches which will stay, along with a coffee table that Nick made, but we need some other pieces to tie everything together… and that’s where I get stuck.
Enter: Design*Sponge At Home by Grace Bonney, editor of the Design*Sponge blog. I got a copy of this book a few months ago when I attended a signing at Terrain (Grace was super nice, by the way!), and it has become my decorating bible as of late. I love that pretty much all of the sneak peeks featured in the book are far from what you’d call matchy-matchy, yet they still have a very pulled together look despite being very eclectic. So many of them speak to me and remind me why I’ve never been drawn to buying matching sets of furniture.
In deciding how to decorate the downstairs of our new home, I looked for rooms in the book that had similar wall colors to Sea Salt, and just rooms that I generally liked. After browsing a handful of pages one afternoon, it struck me that so many rooms had one great thing in common: amidst calming neutrals, there was often a distinct pop of red that stood out as a focal point, and really tied the room together. Don’t believe me? Here are just a few rooms found on Design*Sponge (the blog this time):
image 1 // image 2 // image 3 // image 4
Coincidentally, a lovely friend also gave us a gorgeous red cast iron trivet as a housewarming gift, and I was sold. Pops of red — yes! Why didn’t I think of it sooner?
Thus, our color palette was born: mostly warm neutrals, with pops of teal (I mean, I’m still me, after all) and fire engine red. It looks pretty subdued to me here, but I think that’s a good sign that I won’t get sick of it in five minutes.
I’m thinking a red statement lamp would be perfect sitting atop this pedestal end table that was my nana’s and just came to live with us over the weekend:
We have yet to hang anything on the walls and I’m sure many more colors will come into play then — but having this new red revelation has me excited to decorate so it looks like grownups live here. Grownups who have an eclectic yet pulled-together style.
What’s your decorating method?
November 28, 2011
As we started packing up our lives to fit in a UHaul, I realized I didn’t have any recent photos of our apartment. Before the boxes get out of control (they’ve mostly been living in the second bedroom thus far), I decided to document the place I’ve called home for the last seven years. Nick moved in five years ago, and we’ve made changes over the years, but for the most part things haven’t changed too much. I painted the living room walls just before I moved in and they’ve remained the same Benjamin Moore Pale Sea Mist ever since. (I still love the color and I’m not ruling out using it on every wall somewhere in our new place.)
Here’s a peek at our living room, where we spend most of our downtime. This is a view from the entrance to the room, off of the main hallway in the apartment. (PS, I want a fancy camera, but for now, these shots taken with my point-and-shoot will have to do!)
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On the wall are four letterpress prints from Old School Stationers, and through those French doors is my office, which you’ve seen before.
June 15, 2011
My self-imposed ban on Realtor.com is going surprisingly well…but of course that doesn’t mean I haven’t continued collecting inspiration and ideas for our future home. I’ve been cataloging everything on Pinterest, and below are just a few of my favorite kitchen decor pins.
aqua island via Apartment Therapy
glass tile and open shelving via Young House Love
open & airy white kitchen with dark hardwood floors via Best Kitchen
green and white kitchen via House Beautiful
February 21, 2011
Guys, I’m totally related to celebrities. My brother & sister-in-law’s awesome apartment is featured on Design*Sponge today! Yes, THAT Design*Sponge! We’re a pretty excited family of designerds at the moment. I’m so proud!
Check it out for more great photos, and please note that my awesome husband got a shout-out for giving them the cocktail blueprint :)
Photos by Jen Huang
February 15, 2011
How fun are these? Magnetic Polaroid frames… so simple, yet so delightful. Because Polaroids just look way awesomer than regular borderless snapshots on your fridge.
via Photojojo, found via paper + cup
January 31, 2011
(Say that five times fast!)
If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen that I attended a terrarium workshop at Terrain yesterday. I’ve long been intrigued by terrariums but have always had an extremely black thumb, so I was hesitant to spend money on something I’d likely end up killing. The good thing about terrariums is that they require very little maintenance, though, so I gave it a whirl. (It’s day two and my terrarium still looks good, so my fingers are crossed that this is a fool-proof type of gardening for me! ;)
My friend Susan joined me for the workshop, which lasted two hours in the greenhouse. Instruction and potting materials were included in the $15 fee; we were able to choose our own glass vessels and plants from Terrain, which we paid for at the end of the workshop. Susan thought ahead and brought her own vessel:
I went with a tall cylinder for mine. I started out thinking I’d use the copper base underneath and flip the glass over to be a closed terrarium (as shown), but once I started playing around I changed my mind.
That cardboard box contains all of the plants I grabbed inside the store to possibly use in my terrarium. We were encouraged to grab as many as we wanted so we’d have some options when we started creating. Whatever we didn’t use would go back into the store and we didn’t have to pay for it.
We started out by adding gravel (above), and then adding small bits of activated charcoal and mixing everything together. This is a good base in the bottom that will absorb extra moisture so my plants are never drowning. Then we added potting soil on top — I have about 2″ worth because of the plants I chose. After that, it was all about having fun and creating a lovely little environment for some plants.
I ended up only using three of the plants I had originally chosen, and I also added some rocks, moss, and dried flower buds to give things a bit more color and texture. I am so pleased with the final result, and Susan’s came out beautifully, too!
I will have to water each plant (about a shot-glass worth of water for each one) about every 8-10 days. It will thrive most if it is in bright, indirect light, so I currently have it sitting on my desk where I get a lot of natural light throughout the day. It’s also nice to see it there while I work!
I’ll keep you posted if I manage to kill the plants or if, like I’m hoping, everything stays alive and well.
Have you ever made a terrarium?
All images by Susan
January 21, 2011
Put these rooms and colors together and I’m pretty sure you’ve got my bold and colorful (with crisp white contrast) dream home.
November 19, 2010
I pinned this photo last week and I can’t stop looking at it. My kitchen already has a teal wall and an ice blue KitchenAid mixer — now all I need is, uh, everything else, and I’ll have a pretty kitchen just like it!
via Design*Sponge
October 12, 2010
I love the pops of color and unexpected color combinations in this home that was recently featured on Design*Sponge.
I always see photos of amazing homes that make use of mostly neutrals with small splashes of color and subtle texture, and I admire them. But then I see homes like this and I’m reminded that I’m destined to live in a colorful and lively place. I just can’t resist.
Do you gravitate towards neutrals or bold colors?
September 22, 2010
I love a pretty clock. Find me a clock that looks the slightest bit retro and I’m pretty much enamored with it. I’m fairly certain that one (or both?) of these cuties needs to live in my home.
cubist retro clock in turquoise and chartreuse; found via Design Mom
