Feeling Blue

A year later and I haven't made any progress on liking the master bedroom. I used to be on a yellow and grey kick, but while I was working to finish the fireplace room and my DIY Pottery Barn knockoff mirror, I had a new revelation. Dark blue walls in the master bedroom.

I put together this inspiration board with the thought that the room should be both pretty and functional (i.e. sleep-inducing!). Blue walls in the bedroom = relaxing! I had to work around a few constraints for my board. Specifically, I might be vampire. When I sleep, it has to be d.a.r.k. dark. So, the walls needed to be some kind of dark light-absorbing color and the white Ikea curtains I lined with blackout material should remain. Also, I'm not changing out the carpet. It's the same beige carpet that graces our floors on the entire second floor of our house (all of the bedrooms). And last, we own a bunch of matchy-matchy dark wood pieces similar to the nightstand you see below, including headboard, pair of nightstands, dresser, and chest of drawers. For the sake of not spending an arm and a leg, those stay safe - for now! I have an idea to "slipcover" my headboard to change it up a bit.

For paint color, I'd choose something like Benjamin Moore Hale Navy, Vermont Slate, or Bella Blue.

All in all, I was going for a put-together, natural, and collected look. My favorite parts of this inspiration board are the swiss army blankets, bench (which I intend to DIY), and rope (incorporated through a lamp or some kind of accessory). It just gives me that warm and cozy feeling -- this is the type of bedroom I want to wake up in!

Plate Walls

Loving... plate walls. This wall in what we call the Fireplace Room is looking pretty darn lonely, and while I'd love to put some great art on it, that wall can't compete too heavily with the fireplace and mantle. Could the plate wall idea actually work?

Below, I've posted a couple of inspiration photos which I've pinned here.

My #1 all-time fave? I'm drooling over nearly everything in Joi's house. At first, it was their cane chairs, and now it's this fun and colorful plate wall. And look at those grey walls! The grey makes the yellow, turquoise, blue, and pink just pop.

Source - Nuestra Vida Dulce

Some of the other finalists.....

Source - Angela Hardison

Source - View Along the Way

Source - Flickr

Source - Sunset

Source - Design Sponge

You know, this wall (below) might just be cool after all.

That canvas art has since been sold off, leaving a different kind of empty "canvas" waiting to be filled!

Meanwhile, I'm on the search for plates from thrift stores and local shops like Relish and Elements in Bloomington. Check out what I've found so far - total camera phone picture.

How about you? Have you found any sources for good and fun plates? Do you have or want to have a plate wall?

Orange and Blue

Whew, a little quiet on the house blog front lately! I've been hard at work on BartleysRun, describing how to "do" a triathlon. If you're interested or have ever considered it, get over there and check it out!

I never thought I'd ever say this in a million years, but I think I'm jumping on the orange bandwagon. It's growing on me. Orange is such a happy and cheerful color, it just seems to wake you up when you're looking at it. Since I'm still beyond stumped as to how to deal with this dark brown sofa we've got in the front room, maybe a little pale orange would complement the tan walls nicely and subtly.

The other day, I came across a beautiful home featured by Erin at House of Turquoise (As you might guess, she really likes turquoise!) I love the use of a happy orange color without being too bright or overzealous - so you won't be seeing any orange walls or orange furniture. It is so inspiring that the orange is not the feature color, but pops out of the room filled with tans, woods, and linens. The light blues, yellows, and greens in this color palette make it seem relaxed but fun. Click here for the full home tour. This house is gor-ge-ous... what's the best part? Is it the architecturally interesting ceilings? The industrial chairs? Or how about those curtains that you could totally DIY?  I'll take two, please!

 

This new beachy-feel orange and light blue inspiration led me on a deeper hunt. Here are some of the other playful-but-polished rooms featuring this color combo:

via Houzz

via Houzz

No blue in this room (below), but I still like the soft orange and yellow.

via West Elm.

via Belle Maison

via Houzz

So, what do you think: orange and light blue - crazy or fun?

Front Room Color Splash

Thanks to Pinterest, which I wrote about here, I've found some amazing inspiration rooms and colors. For the time being, we're stuck with the dark brown sofa we chose, but now there is hope!

Here are some of the inspiration rooms and color palettes I've pulled out of them - I think we can make this work!

Via Pinterest

via Pinterest

(above) I love the unexpected combination of colors in this room! The chevron artwork, display shelves, grey pillows... mmm!

via Design Seeds

 (Above) If you're interested in color, Design Seeds is another blog with some fun color palettes inspired by everyday objects, like this:

Restless Again.

TJ Maxx is having a giant clearance sale!!  Gues who just scored this solid glass hurricane for 2 bucks?  This girl!

I was out there was to find some stuff to give the front room a facelift-- the fabric covering the ottoman is getting old... actually, it hasn't seemed right, ever.

Here's the photo I posted a week ago. There's just something in here that works. West Elm makes adding character to rooms seem effortless.

While a dark blue accent wall would probably not fit in with the rest of the house, I do believe the same color effect could be accomplished with wall art. Eventually, I'll work up the courage to a) paint walls and b) do it in a dark color. By the way, the blue used by West Elm is Benjamin Moore Philipsburg Blue, and Pottery Barn uses a similar BM Hale Navy.

An intense search turned up a few more rooms that use the same dark-blue-wall idea. I'm looking for a room that's more polished and classic, maybe not so "trendy," like these... as fun as they are:

Photo: House Beautiful

In other words, we're not going to commit to the orange sofa just yet.

Here are a few of the inspiration rooms that seem to hit the nail on the head:

From the blog, moderninmn.blogspot.com. This is so inspirational because it's a REAL LIFE example of blue done well, not just a catalog shot. She even has the little transom windows like ours!  Great idea to turn a basket upside-down and use it as a side table.

This is from House Beautiful; it's obviously not a living room, but note the brown/wood accent, clean lines, and natural, organic feel of the room.

Basically, the brown sofa is the biggest constraint in our house. So here are a few rooms that seem make the brown sofa work:

From HGTV's Rate My Space. It's a very warm and inviting room! Great accent pillows, and nice way to add light to the room with the ZGallerie mirrored coffee table.

In reality, this sofa may actually be grey. But, again, we have this beautiful geometric design on this grey rug... drool. I love the clean lines and classic look of this room. But does it lack personality?

Inspiration Alert!

I am all about sharing the websites and sources where I find some good solid ideas.

Have you seen HGTV's Rate My Space? 
You can go to this site and upload photos of rooms in your house, then other registered users look at your pictures to offer their comments and suggestions... or pats on the back for a design job well-done. It's awesome for someone who's just starting, and a great place for some inspiration.  Today, I used it for inspiration.
A few very well-done living rooms:

I also stumbled across this West Elm staged room (from the store catalog) after googling "upholstered ottoman":

WHY is this exciting?
Because a) I'm already sick of the ottoman fabric print in our living room; b) I could not find any good examples of cream-colored rugs + brown sofa; and c) I have a furry pillow like that!

This room is super fun, but I don't think painting our back wall dark blue is necessarily a good idea. You can buy the grey and white ikat print fabric, though. I'm seriously considering getting it and re-upholstering my current DIY ottoman in all of its neutral-y goodness.