Wednesday, April 29, 2015

OH BABY!

I have to admit one of my favorite spaces to design is a nursery.  Just the thought of a sweet little angel sleeping in a well-organized and of course adorable space brings a smile to my face! 

In 2011 I found out I was pregnant with a little boy and of course I was over the moon!  I started buying tiny baby boy clothes, having things monogrammed (I am a sucker for it!) and naturally I could not wait to start planning the nursery.  At the time one of my best friends and fellow designers, Emily Hewett, was in the first year of her blog and design business so we decided Baby Oliver’s nursery would be a great project to collaborate on…I mean two designer minds are better than one, right?!?

I knew that I wanted something more modern and not overly “baby”.  To achieve this look simple furniture and geometric patterns was the way to go.  I had tans, browns and accents of blue throughout the rest of my house so I went with something different for his room and used gray, white and yellow for the color scheme.

Jenny Lind crib

Waverley Cross Section Charcoal fabric



With the simplicity of everything going into the room it definitely needed a “wow” factor.  Something to grab your attention when you walked in.  So Emily and I put our creative caps on and decided it needed stripes…chunky, gray and white stripes around the entire room.   And to this day that is one of my favorite things I have done in our entire house.  We get compliments on it ALL of the time!  You can see the full blog post she did for the design board and finished product HERE.  And since I was only one day away from giving birth when the room was coming to completion she even came over and hung the paper poufs over the crib and helped with all of the finishing touches.  Aren't I a lucky gal to have her as a friend?!?



And when we moved to our current home a few years ago I moved it all with me and recreated it as closely as possible...stripes and all!  However, this little boy got lucky and his room has quite a bit more space so I added a couple of bookcases on each side of the crib.  They are simple white IKEA bookcases and I painted the backs of them yellow to add some pizzazz.  Since he was almost 1 when we moved I did not keep the paper poufs over the crib.  Knowing his room would be changed within the next year or so I did not want to spend a lot of money on anything so I decided on a DIY canvas to be centered over his crib.  I bought a blank square canvas, some wood letters and acrylic paint to coordinate with his room.  It was a very inexpensive project but turned out to be a cute addition to his new room!




The nursery ended up exactly how I envisioned it!  My sweet little baby is now three and has a totally different room but this was a fun trip down memory lane for me so thanks for joining me! 

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

OUTDOOR FUN

Clear skies, warm sunshine, green grass and beautiful bright flowers…doesn’t the thought of that make you want to spend all day outdoors?  We are right in the midst of spring here in Texas, which means a lot of our days are filled with lovely rays of sunshine without being scorching hot yet.  Since I have two young boys and work from home now, I try and find any excuse I can to get outside and enjoy the season. 

Over the last couple of months all of my home décor catalogs are all about outdoor furniture.  And it sure does make me daydream about being on a patio overlooking a beach or a lake or even a lavish garden.  Here are some of my favorite outdoor spaces I have been seeing.

Picture from Ballard Designs

Naturally, the neutral tones of this space catch my eye.  The wicker furniture looks so comfortable and I like the combination of the natural wood occasional tables with it.

Picture from Pottery Barn

And in my opinion, you can’t ever go wrong with a classic black and white scheme whether it’s indoors or outdoors.  The bold, striped drapes are my favorite!  And any pop of color works great when added to this kind of scheme.  The black iron furniture is striking as well but unfortunately with the heat of the Texas sun it would end up getting way too hot for my liking.

Picture from West Elm

Picture from Architectural Digest

I have always wanted an outdoor dining space that can be used for casual family meals or a fun dinner party!  I love the simple, wood slat chairs with the “X” bench and table in the first picture.  And I would take that view any day!  

And the large square table that faces the stone fireplace in the second photo would be such a great space to entertain.

But back to reality…it really makes me want to redo our backyard. I must admit that our patio needs some major TLC.  One of the main reasons we bought our house was because it sits on a decent size lot so we have a lot of yard space and the previous owners had not done much to it.  Which is nice that we have a blank slate to work with but that kind of update can be quite pricey and really isn’t in the budget right now.  So for now, I will do some small updates and DIY projects to get it into shape for spring and summer!  I will keep you posted on how it is all going!

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

COLOR ME HAPPY

What does your home décor say about you?  Is it full of neutrals or do you prefer to play with color?  Or maybe you have mostly neutrals with pops of color that can be changed throughout the year depending on the season or your mood? 

Although my house is full of different shades of taupes, grays, whites and off-whites, I love getting to decorate with fun, bright colors. They just seem to exude happiness!  Which is why the Virtual Design Boards I worked on for some good friends was so much fun!  They moved into their house a few years ago and wanted to make some changes so when Britney contacted me to help them I couldn’t have been more excited! 

Today I am sharing the Virtual Design Boards I completed for the Family Room and Dining Room.  In the Family Room the inspiration was a couple of paintings that are filled with beautiful, vibrant colors.  My apologies for the grainy phone picture!


I selected sofas in a darker gray since they have twin boys that are coming up on their 2nd birthday and added punches of color through accent pillows and other accessories throughout the room.


The Dining Room Virtual Design Board was more for accessories, art and a chandelier.  The chandelier was originally selected for the Kitchen but she decided it was a little too much for that space and moved it to the Dining Room.  Great call on her part…it looks amazing and really makes a statement in there!


To top it all off they didn’t just stop with getting new furniture and accessories but they also updated their fireplace, Entry floor and Kitchen.  And I was able to shop with Britney for the selections!  Could a girl ask for anything more fun than shopping for design selections with a great girlfriend?!?  More to come on those details in the next couple of weeks along with before and after pictures of how everything has turned out!