DIY Old Picture Frame Display Shelf

shelf from Country Living

Here’s a really cool DIY shelf from Country Living. Since I found the picture, I’ve found it on many other sites too. I’m trying to find an easy way to incorporate storage in our super small 1930’s bathroom. I like this idea.  I always find fancy picture frames at thrift and antique stores. I don’t buy them because they don’t have glass and because I have to stop hoarding picture frames. (I never use frames). I also can control the depth of the shelf. This is the issue in our small bathroom. Pre-made shelving and storage is too deep. So, now I’m on the hunt for a nice picture frame. Like always, once you are looking for it, you can’t find it. Here’s the tutorial for the shelf on Country Living’s website.

I’ve been super busy trying to finish some of the loose ends around the house. The weather has been oddly cool, rainy, and fall like. This makes me feel like I’m missing out on summer but it makes me keep busy in the house.  Saturday was our 6 year wedding anniversary and our 1 year home ownership anniversary.  So, I’m trying to make up for lost time.

-Victoria

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Chartreuse & Pink “Formal” Living Rooms

Ahh, spring.  Well, maybe not “officially” spring yet. The weather here in the PNW has been so nice (well, for the time being). It’s been very mild and we’ve had more sunny days than usually. The Sound has been beautiful, plum trees are covered in romantic white blossoms, and the days have been so clear that I’ve been able to see snow-covered mountains from many different parts of the house. I have spring fever and it is showing up in my “home” inspirations. Once again, I’m liking the colors we’ve chosen for the house both interior and exterior. I’m liking that we have pinks throughout the house. I’m loving these 2 chartreuse and pink rooms that I have stumbled across. It reminds me of plum blossoms and new spring growth.

"Pink" living room found in Country Living

This first room was found on Country Living’s website. I love the excessive use of petal pink mixed with gilded golds and luxe chartreuse. This room is formal and somehow it manages to be fun. It’s much more “cozier” than the usual formal living rooms/sitting rooms that I lust over. I also like the wallpaper, or at least I think it is wallpaper, covering the back of the built-in bookcases. Our bookcases in the great room look just like these sans the nice touch of wallpaper. By the time we got to the great room, we were both too tired to do anything too creative. Maybe one day…

This other room was found in House Beautiful. It is much heavier on the chartreuse but it still has the same vibe of the living room found in Country Living. The walls are vibrant and I would say I bit unexpected for such a formal space. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of seeing pea green. That’s a good thing. Our exterior color is a pea green (by accident) and I’m just going to learn to live with until our funds get replenished…Anyways, back to the room. I like this color combo used in what seems to be a small space. I didn’t know such a small space could look so luxurious.

Green sitting room found in House Beautiful

It’s the curtains. Overly long curtains create a luxe effect.

I’m off to go plant some wheat grass for Nowruz and to tend to our little seedlings. Our dining nook has turned into a green house. We really have to work on some curb appeal. But, I’ll save that for another day.

-Victoria

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Storage Ideas: A Dollhouse in the Laundry Room?

Laundry room featured in Country Living

I love things to be organized. I’m not very good at it but I can spend hours on-line browsing silly storage and organizing ideas. The key to organizing and storing is to not have a lot of stuff. We all know that, but we still have a lot of stuff  in our daily living. I have rolls and rolls of paper towels, bottles of every variety of cleaner ever, and tons of other stuff that I need to run a clean household. I love for things to be organized in a “unique” and salvaged ways. I hate plastic totes! I spend hours drooling over well-organized basements and laundry rooms. The house is coming together but that basement is still as scary as ever. This is where I have to do laundry. It’s gross and I don’t know how much more of it I can take. I haven’t hand washed a cashmere sweater down there…ever. Just imagine the pics of this hoarder house before we got involved. Do you think the basement was clean if their was 20 toupees worth of hair around the stove? Nope. So, I’m spending time planning my laundry room/project room.

I came across this charming but somewhat terrifying laundry room in Country Living. I do like it despite my mixed feelings. It’s organized and better finished than my house, but it is still creepy like my dark, dusty, and scary seaside basement. (What’s up with creepy slasher film showers in old seaside basement homes?) The dollhouse used for storage makes this a bit of a horror flick. I’ve always been a little scared of dollhouses. They are interesting and they do take some skill to complete, but they are featured in many horror films. This has ruined their rep. I’ve passed up many antique dollhouses in my day. I find them too creepy. I find anything doll related creepy. Especially antique doll stuff. Now I wish I hadn’t of left huge handmade dollhouses in the dumpster. I kind of like this dollhouse used as storage/furniture. It’s creepy and novel. Two words that I would love to have describe my house. I want it to be contrived creepy not actually creepy like my current basement. We sure know how to grow spiders here in the Northwest…perhaps they could set up house in the dollhouse.

-Victoria

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2 Sunny Yellow Living Rooms

Country Living yellow living room

I’m not a fan of the yellow living room but I can really appreciate these two that I have recently found. The first one is from Country Living magazine. I can appreciate this one because it sort of creepy. It’s bold and bright but somehow strangely dark and morbid. Perhaps it is the portrait over the mantel doing all of that work. It doesn’t help that that eery pic is surrounded by dead and bare branches in little urns. That being said, that is one of the reasons that I love this room. A few other shots are available on the magazine’s website. You can see that the table is Moroccan in design and that there is a zebra rug, my weakness. This room has a quilt draped over a couch and I still am not running away screaming. Somehow that quilt makes the room a little bit morbid. So thumbs up to this room for making yellow a little bit of a gothic shade.

The other room designed by Jamie Drake is much less morbid and much more playful, sunny, and just mood elevating. The colors are bright. I love teal used anywhere and the teal and yellow really work well together.

Jamie Drake living room

It’s a mid-century modern look and that is usually a winner. It all works so well with the chocolate brown furniture and flooring.

P.S. We are moving into our mess this weekend! The top floor is almost finished and I’ll be sure to post pics as soon as the home gets internet ready. Have a great weekend and relax for us!

-Victoria

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Vintage Inspired Teal Kitchens

Country Living kitchen

I plan on painting our kitchen a mint. It’s going to be kitschy and retro. This is today’s project: paint the kitchen. The groovy wallpaper has been removed, the faux fur has been pulled off the cabinets, everything has been scrubbed. We are ready to start painting.

While poking around online (when I had the time to do that) I found this kitschy turquoise/teal kitchen in Country Living magazine. It’s a bit prop-ish for a kitchen but it is adorable. I love the pairing of teal and red. It’s a sunny and a happy hausfrau kitchen. It means business with a touch of love. It’s a nice eat-in kitchen. I love the repro appliances. Those are drool worthy. And the repro linens used as curtains is cute. I think I saw these exact same ones at Anthropologie one time. I am always looking for a function for vintage linens. Anyways, this is a cute kitchen and pretty versatile really. It is made 50’s by the use of accessories. Take those out and you’ll have a very different looking kitchen.

This other kitchen is a real kitchen from www.trickmybrick.blogspot.com. This is an awesome blog about  the renovation of an otherwise plain mid-century home. (David and I always thought we would be fixing up a ranch home, but we’re in the Pacific Northwest now and there are many more bungalows.) Anyways, I adore this blog. I love their clean, modern style. Oh, and I am a sucker for “before and after” shots. (Heck, I was a makeup artist). This is the “after” of their kitchen. It is such a pretty shade of teal. I have always said it and this just proves it, a sputnik chandelier will always make a room look like a million bucks. This kitchen is the perfect example. It totally jazzes up the place. (Like I needed another reason to lust for one). Also, I love the cabinet hardware. It’s simple and fitting. This is what we are looking for. Visit their blog for many more pics. You’ll love it.

Trick My Brick kitchen, after.

These are two very cute “retro” kitchens. Teal is a great color because it is vintage but very clean, airy, welcoming. It’s the perfect color for a “working” home. Plus, it looks amazing with white. I see a teal room and just think “happy family”. So, I hope I like the results of the hardwork that we will be doing today.

-Victoria

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Antiquarian Studies/Offices I Adore

Country Living office

I love old things. I try not to be a collector but it is my nature. I really like this home office in Ohio that was featured in Country Living. It’s not much of an office. No cords, computer, piles of papers that need to be attacked. That’s our problem. We will never have a tidy looking office because we both have things going on, this means we actually use office space.

I love this office’s color. It is a rich zucchini skin that really pops with that white trim. It’s a deep color, a bit of mystery, but neutral enough to not dominate. I would love to use this color but I feared that it would make the rooms appear to be too small, especially in the rooms with coving. I love the furniture and lighting. I can’t say that about every space that I find. Good lighting is hard to come by.  It’s a lovely space, simple and lovely. I doubt it’s actually used for working but it would make a nice writing space or art space. An office for the things that you enjoy doing. I would say that pens and art supplies could be stored in those boxes and baskets. I’d have fancy pens in one and fun stationery in the other.

The other is a desk from Domino (RIP). I just love all the old paper goods. I collect the heck out of that stuff. There is no way that I can display it all even though I should. It gets rotated every so often. It’s hard to make it “work” without having it all in picture frames and strangely, I dislike the look of picture frames, lots and lots of picture frames, especially with plaster walls. I have decided that in the “new” house that I will have a special space filled with my treasures. I want a desk like this to house my old postcards, stereoscope cards, sketches, journals, autographs, vintage perfume ads, and even old Goldman Fristoe articulation cards. I figure if I have enough of my odds and ends mixed with my actual paper mess such as bills then it looks like my mess is purposeful. Is it possible that a mess can make you appear more organized?

Domino desk

-Victoria

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Living Rooms With A Pop Of Acidic Yellow

I’m not ready for yellow in my own home. David and I both have mothers that are very fond of this shade as an interior color. It’s going to take at least 8 years for me to go there. 🙂 I do like yellow. It adds a pop, a cheeriness, but I really like an acidic yellow, something almost chartreuse.

Acidic yellow living room, Country Living

Even though this room really isn’t “me” (I am much more gothic), I do like this room found in Country Living magazine. It has some lovely accessories. That crystal ball is at least $500! And check out all of those animal hides. It adds a certain creepiness to an otherwise “perky” room. I also appreciate the mix of metals, old world gilded gold couch with a more modern chrome lamp and chair legs. I do like these details, very moody. Like I said, I like this room, but I fear this color would grow old very quickly. Plus, it does nothing for my complexion 🙂 This is a room that I can admire from a distance.

Another room that I like is much more subtle and less in “yo face”. It’s from Southern Accents. You can appreciate this living room if you are a collector/fan of National Geographic magazines. I know I am but I don’t keep magazines, too much clutter. However, this room is using the National Geographic magazines almost like decor, as a way to add an acidic yellow to the room. I like it. You could put all of the years together, 70’s mags in one cube, 80’s in the other, etc. National Geographic is much too cool. I also like this room because I am attracted to the library/living room idea.Strangely enough those magazines are what makes the room. The room is pretty stark otherwise with its mix of creamy neutrals and natural fibers.

Southern Accents living room

Those magazines add a much needed pop of color and it really pulls the room together. So what I have learned today is that magazines don’t always equal clutter. With a classy mag like National Geographic, magazines can be a focal point.

-Victoria

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Charming White Bathrooms

Who doesn’t love an all white bathroom? It’s screams cleanliness and looks like it would simplify your life. It’s crisp and it has never been out of style. If you want to add color, than do it with accessories, towels and stuff like that. I’m thinking of doing the upstairs bathroom in an all white color palette. I hope to put up my vintage Brocade Home styled mirror, have shiny fixtures, white tile (a pain in the arse to clean), and walls that are a shade of white with the faintest tinge of gray. This has been my plan, if we ever get into that house to start remodeling. Anyways, I am trying my damnest to stay positive and thinking about French bulldog puppies, humid florals, carnival glass, and decorating. This makes me happy.

Country Living bathroom

The first bathroom is from Country Living Magazine. I like it because when I started searching for bathrooms online all you get are these humongous, monster bathrooms that are at least 1000+ square feet. My life will not have the jumbo bathroom complete with hot tub and an entire sitting room furniture set and a flat screen TV and wine bar. I will have a 30’s bathroom, tiny, efficient, but it can still be cute. I was happy to find a small, cute bathroom. It isn’t completely white but it is almost. I am attracted to this one because in my little mind I thought the tiles upstairs where white hexagon under the awful linoleum. When we walked back through, it isn’t. It is more like this tile. I was heartbroken. I wanted white tile with white subway tile. I wanted it to be the “original”. But, when I found this and saw how they kept that clean and neutral vibe, it made me happy. Maybe I can use that floor. It’s a tiny bath that is still cute and very functional. I love the gray shade add a few more squirts of white and I’ve got my ideal shade for my bathroom. It’s a cute and simple bathroom.

My "dream" bath

Sorry HGTV but I have never fallen for the colossal master bath bull hockey. I do not want to bust out A Picture of Dorian Gray and relax on a plum velvet chaise lounge, well, at least not in my bathroom. Bathrooms are for hygiene. Not as an oasis, go to a freaking spa for that. I want to go in with Ghost Busters attire and be able to bleach blast everything in sight. And I’d rather spend my dough on making a living space more efficient, investing in a studio, something that doesn’t get doo-dooed in. Plus, I have no desire to clean these fairytale bathrooms. If I had one I would pay somebody to clean the floor to ceiling tile and all those extra showers. I would rather have actual living space. My bathroom is a room that is necessary, not a room to make me feel rich or pampered. If I can’t have the solid black marble Valentino bathroom (or the mansion), then I’ll have my little functional white bath. This other bathroom is my “dream” bathroom. It’s large but still realistic. I love the tile, the tub, the little Saarinen side table. This is my “oasis” bathroom. But, the house we are supposed to be closing on someday, does not have clawfoot tubs. It was more of a “modern” home at the time with “modern” fixtures. The bathrooms aren’t really designed for clawfoots and I really don’t want to do a huge bathroom renovation. Not now. I just want a place to live.

-Victoria

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