2 White Rooms with Pink & Teal Accents

kitchen featured in Living Etc.

These two rooms have so much in common despite their different functions. They are stark white rooms with bold accents of pink, teal, and lime green.

This kitchen and dining room was featured in Living Etc. I am attracted to this space for many reasons. One of the reasons is that it is a small kitchen. I get sick of seeing huge outlandish kitchens in design magazines. The other reason is that it is old. It has brick floors. I can’t remember exactly but I think this is an old Spanish or Portuguese apartment.

Anyways, I love the use of accent colors. The white paint makes the space look fresh and well, it emphasizes the high ceilings. I love the robin’s egg blue counters. And I love the dining room accents. These energetic colors really pop against the white backdrop. These are the kinds of things that are easy to change and perfect for renters. Never underestimate the power of colorful accessories.

And I thought that was a fireplace but it appears to be a secret passage or storage. And I love the chrome diner chairs paired with a sturdy wood table.

This other space, a bedroom nook of some sort or a guest bedroom, was featured in Marie Claire Maison. This room has such an eclectic

Marie Claire bedroom

layered feel. It is like the Living Etc. kitchen and dining room because the room has old architecture, the walls are a crisp white, and there are colorful accessories. I love this bedroom. I love the mix of fabrics and prints. I love the jewel tone colors. I also love that there are paperback books everywhere. You don’t see paperback books in decor magazines very often so they really stand out when they are in a room. I just really like this room because it is so livable and feels like home. It’s eclectic and not stuffy.

It has been a hot weekend here in the PNW. I found some great thrift chairs and a German Shepard paint by number. David found a huge, bright koi picture. I dislike it, too bold. We rarely disagree about home stuff. Marriage is about compromise, right? So, the giant kois are hanging up in the studio.

Well, Frink and I are going to commence the sweating for the day. Old homes without a/c are no fun when temps exceed 90° 😦 Too hot to clean, cook, or renovate.

-Victoria

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2 White Bedrooms with Dark Antique Iron Beds

Canadian House and Home white bedroom

I love both of the bedrooms here because I like their simplicity. Both rooms have dark metal/iron beds. Both of these rooms remind me of the Tudorks bedroom: dark metal bed, antique luggage, fancy lighting. What do I want after seeing these rooms? White bedding.

This first crisp white bedroom was featured in Canadian House and Home. This is one of those rooms that would be pretty even when standing empty. The ceiling has interesting lines and the floors are stunning. If we were to refinish our hardwoods, this is the stain that I would use. There really isn’t a more classy look that light walls and dark hardwoods. This room has nice accents. I love metal beds and old suitcases and luggage used as storage. This is a winning combination. What would I have done differently in this room? Well, I wouldn’t of painted the window trim a darker shade of white for a needed contrast. People underestimate the power of that little trick when they have bright white walls.

The other bedroom is beautiful as well. I do not recall where this room was first featured. I apologize. It reminds me of the first room because it is white, neutral and the dark metal bed adds needed contrast. This second white bedroom is much more rustic. It looks less new than the House and Home room. This white bedroom has a very old home shape. It looks like the bedrooms in our home. It really looks like a smaller version of our studio.This room also has a dark metal bed and dark pictures for high contrast against the white walls. This room’s floors are the opposite, painted white. It’s such a beautiful look. This room has such a fresh feel but it is grounded by rough antiques. This grit gives this white bedroom character. And note to self: We have walls like the ones in this room and I haven’t put pictures up. I love the row of low paintings. I need to do this. Great excuse to hang

Rustic white bedroom

up my Audubon  bird pictures.
I really do love both of these rooms. They are my “style”.

I’ve been going through the house taking so many pictures lately. Next week will be the 1 year anniversary of our home ownership and our home restoration. We’ve done so much but it’s easy to think you haven’t when some things are still a wreck. I’m happy we have pictures to remind us of all our hard work. I’m trying to get before and after pictures ready to share. You’ll get some giggles out of the “befores”. Who else do you know moved in a house with a 13 foot mural/silhouette of  a naked lady? Who else do you know had to peel faux fur off of every door in their house? Who else do you know was peeling adhesive off of the ceiling where mirrors used to be? Geez…

-Victoria

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DIY Pipe Shelving Unit

Photo from The Brick House

I love an industrial look. You see many of my posts featuring that antique warehouse “raw” feel. So I was delighted when I cam across 2 tutorials for pipe shelving. One is on The Brick House. This shelving unit totally transformed the space. I would love to put one of these up in the studio. The other isn’t as much of a tutorial, but it features lots of nice motivating pictures. It’s on Apartment Therapy.

It looks like making your own pipe shelving isn’t so difficult according to these two DIY posts. For under $200 you can really change a space and add a bit of an open and industrial feel.

I also like the thought of using a pipe shelving unit like this as a shelving unit room divider. It could be mounted from floor to ceiling.

I do worry a little about installing one of these on our lath and plaster walls. I’m sure that installing any shelving to our walls will mess it up. It’s one of those situations. I hope that you’ll see a tutorial of our version of pipe shelving in the future…

-Victoria

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Outdoor Living Spaces: The Hip New Way To Say Patio

Featured in Country Home

I really should be cleaning off the deck and scrapping paint off of a vintage aluminum picnic table so that I can repaint it, but I it’s easy to procrastinate. Even when it is beautiful outside. Are you surprised that I don’t want to scrape paint in the midday sun?

I was very excited about having a deck this year.  It is very nice but I thought it would be a great outdoor living space. It’s not. It’s nice to set on and nice to eat on space. That’s it. I always see this whimsical fantasy pictures in decorating magazines featuring beautiful daybeds outside (outdoor spaces here featured in Country Home and House to Home). What’s the purpose of these spaces and where are they? I assume that they only exist  in photographs and couldn’t make it in this harsh, cruel world. They are better decorated than my indoor living space :). These fantasy spaces have comfortable outdoor seating with throw pillows, paper lanterns, outdoor rugs, and even coffee tables. It’s all beautiful but far from practical. I say that if you are at the purchasing an outdoor rug stage in your life then you need to reevaluate your life and maybe get a new hobby or go on a vacation with that expendable income. Maybe I’m clueless, this is very possible, because I live in the Pacific Northwest. We have nice summers, not very long and the rest of the year it rains. I’m better off investing in a nice deck stain than nice patio furniture and paper lanterns. Maybe you can live like this in Southern California? I see these in pictures on resorts in Mexico. Maybe you have to haul this stuff in and out every day? I don’t know. Regardless, these outdoor living spaces take a wonderful picture and I always wish I was relaxing on one of those comfy outdoor daybeds. I won’t have a perfectly decorated living space but I’ll have a nice one if I just get out there and pull it together. And these pictures have motivated me to do so. Time to pull together my budget-friendly and totally practical “outdoor living space”. This is the cool new way of saying “deck” or “patio”. And if you say “outdoor living space”, you sound really rich. Have a great weekend!

-Victoria

Featured in House to Home

David’s Commentary:

I find this idea to be the kind of irrational thing that a designer comes up with without thinking about too much.  The moisture, mold, insect, rodent and bird-poop assault that would be pressed on your furniture in this setting will make almost any textiles nasty in under a week. One slight rainfall on a foam cushion will keep it moist enough to mold for weeks.

Perhaps this gets pushed by retailers so much because it’s a really attractive concept that requires that you replace the items used 3 times a season?

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I Need Bookshelf Help & Your Suggestions

For the first time ever, David and I have too much bookshelf in our life. After making a cross country move, we purged and donated lots of books and records. This house has 4 built-in bookshelves in the great room. I don’t know what to do with them because I’ve never had this much space to work with. I’ve collected pictures on-line to inspire me with bookshelves. I’ve figured out what I like about the ones in the magazines but I can’t achieve that in my home.

All the magazine ready bookshelves have these things in common:

-All the books are to the same scale. They are displayed by size. Most of their books are large. It appears that nobody in the magazines have City Lights Pocket Poets Series.

-Never do I see paperbacks! And most of the books appear to be for decoration. For example, they all look antique or old. They are like staged books.

-Cool things are incorporated in the shelves. These cool things, either pictures or knickknacks, all have a common theme. This theme can be white glassware or black & white pictures, you get it. It doesn’t feel so random.

– Sometimes books are grouped by color. I don’t know if I like this.

A glimpse at one of our built-in bookshelves.

Here’s my problem:

– My books are all over the place in scale. I have giant hardbacks and teeny tiny City Lights Pocket Poets Series.

– I have paperbacks and books that look new.Many of the books have obnoxious, bright spines.

– I have too many cool things and they are all over the place in theme. I can easily choose a theme but it may take years to get that “look”. I want my theme to be old stuff that I like. Creepy, old stuff, almost like an apothecary. And pictures in black frames. I also want tabletop antique radios on the top of the shelves.

-I may have too much shelf. See this pic above and below. I have 4 of those from floor to almost the ceiling. Because of they are so spacious, they’ve been a catch all for all our random stuff. You see that shelf: antique lighting shades, antlers, 1930’s Guerlain, apothecary jars filled with exotic resins, and pictures of random people with bags of moneys. This has been were we put our stuff to keep it out of the way of the renovation. The bottom ones with the doors have been great storage.

A view of the entire bookshelf, now, add 3 more.

Our great room/living room is a disaster. This room has the most potential but we intimidated by the large space. Also, our furniture doesn’t fit and it will take time to save up to replace it all. Because this room is so useless and ugly, we never go in there. We never use it. I thought the easiest (and cheapest) thing to tackle at this stage would be the bookshelves.

Now what should I do? I’ve been thinking about getting rid of most of the books. I know this doesn’t fly with some people but I would love to go paperless except for antiques. If I can get it on a Kindle, then I should get rid of it. If I want a book, that’s what the library is for. Do I ever go  to that bookshelf and take a book off to read it? No. The only ones that I look at are the antique ones. How do I make my “theme” look intentional during the collection stage? Right now I feel it is all so random, because it is. I don’t want my bookshelves to look like me-maw’s curio cabinet of Swaroski knickknacks and Home Shopping Network collectibles. How can I make these shelves functional? Any ideas?

Had to share our H.G. Lewis autograph

I have to share our Herschell Gordon Lewis autograph. This was one of those too cool things we had boxed away. Who doesn’t want the autograph of the man that started “splatter film” and junk mail. What great contributions to our society!

So, yeah, here’s a peek at one of our many messes. I’m open to suggestions. I feel this is something that I can tackle and maybe this will motivate me to get the great room together. The room isn’t finished. We need a mantel and a sofa that is better scaled for the space. But, the bookshelves just need TLC and editing.

-Victoria

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DIY Inexpensive Patchwork Runner or Rug

Patchwork Runner from Martha Stewart Living

Here’s an idea that I found on Martha Stewart Living, a patchwork rug. I can not get over how expensive rugs are. I keep saying that I’m going to invest in one that I love because they “transform” a room. After getting Frink the Frug, I refuse to spend $500+ on a rug. Pets are nice but they aren’t nice to rugs. I also can not afford to spend at least $3,000 on rugs for the entire house (our entire home is sans carpet) and have a dog puke on it. So, we’ve been shopping at Ross and I’ve purchased some “it’ll do” acrylic fiber rugs for now. Lowe’s also marks rugs down more than 50% off, watch the clearance sections. We bought a hilarious “Frankenstein” floor sample “runner” Oriental rug for $5. I love the patchwork quirkiness to it, so I started looking up patchwork rugs and found…

This DIY project featured on Martha Stewart Living. I love a patchwork look. It’s quirky, unexpected. Lately, I have really been obsessed with mixing prints. The rugs featured in the pic above are about $5 each. I could easily make a runner for the upstairs foyer for under $40. Plus, I’m starting to see rugs as disposable with all the foot and Frink traffic and I don’t want to spend much. Here is the tutorial on how to make a patchwork runner. I’m positive I can do this. Heck, I may keep going and make a large rug.

I think I’ll go out today and price check some small rugs like this. Didn’t I say I was going to paint a floor canvas for the dining nook this summer? Yes, I did. Need to order that. This renovation mess is finally starting to look like a home!

Today I’m attempting to bake a fresh plum frangipane tart for the first time. I hope it turns out nicely. I have to run out and buy a rolling-pin. For 5 years I’ve said I need a rolling-pin. Today, I am being proactive and buying one.

-Victoria

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2 Hot Pink Bedrooms With Vintage Fabrics

Living Etc. painted hot pink brick bedroom

I’m attracted to pink rooms, even vivid, hot pink rooms. Here are two hot pink bedrooms that I’ve stumbled across on  Living Etc. website. I think the use of the color is unexpected but not overwhelming. But, do I ever find pink overwhelming? No.

This first bedroom, an attic bedroom, is a bit daring. I think painting brick is daring. I don’t know why. I just do. I especially think it is daring to paint it hot pink. But, I do like the touch, using the brick wall as the accent wall. This is a cute room with an interesting roof line. I assume it is a teen room with that vanity filled with mainstream fragrances you’d find at Sephora. (Bumper sticker: My other blog is a fragrance blog). I like the country home touches of baby blue floral fabrics and painted white furniture. The chandelier isn’t bad either.

The other room has the same type of vibe, even if the walls aren’t painted hot pink (pink vintage wallpaper, cool). Bold pink is brought into this space with linens. This room is a very much a collector’s room with all the wall art. I like excess and I like collecting. It’s always nice to see someone’s collection displayed so deliberately. It also makes me feel better about being a thrifter.I think this room is very achievable. The walls are pink floral wallpaper, I feel they are working with their wallpaper/the house. The room is transformed by linens and artfully displaying collectibles. It appears to be a smaller room, a livable room with

Living Etc. pink bedroom

allowable clutter. Books are everywhere, the nightstand is being used, a laptop is charging. It feels like a real space. I love the brass bed and the mismatched linens. This hits me as a thrifters room and I like it.

David and I spent a day in Portland. It was totally awesome: great food, reproduction streamline bathroom lighting, jadeite glassware, and salvage yards. PDX is the mothership. Need to move.

-Victoria

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2 Serene Powder Blue Farmhouse Style Guest Bedrooms

Powder blue, robin’s egg blue, whatever you choose to call it, is a beautiful color for any room. People love it. It’s light and airy. It fits so many different design styles. It is one of those colors that I have liked for decor my entire life. It seems to always change. It’s a classy color. It goes with mid-century modern walnut furniture to frou-frou Marie Antoinette styles. Here are 2 robin’s egg blue guest bedrooms that I swoon over.

Guest bedroom found at Design * Sponge

The first one is from Design Sponge. I came across this picture a long time ago. This is the direction I wanted my house to go. I still love it. It is very dreamy. There is nothing I would change about this room. That’s rare for me. They even made me want to go to Ikea and purchase that pendant lamp (again, had it in my 1st apartment)* But, I think this lamp is the real deal, I’d settle for the Ikea. I love all of the elements here from the modern lighting  to the farmhouse prints. It’s all looks amazing against those powder blue walls. The white trim pops, the dark frames pop, and the natural wood tone of the beds is delicious. The light blue paint changes the feel of this otherwise ho-hum country styled room. (Well, that and the lighting). I love the mixing going on in this room. This room makes me want to completely re-do our bedroom.

The other room I found on Martha Stewart’s website. It is another guest bedroom painted in a light as clouds light blue. This entire room is much “fluffier” than the other. I love the white accents. It’s all so dreamy. Of course the room appears light and airy because of the awesome natural lighting. The windows are stunning, especially when draped in barely there white curtains letting the light in. I would change the textiles to something younger and funkier. I don’t want it to look too traditional. Oh, and don’t you love those hydrangeas in that robin’s egg blue porcelain vase? I need to get one of those. I love hydrangeas.

We didn’t get much done around the house this long weekend (well, we did paint the bathroom and get the studio mostly in order, we did work). We are enamored by seasonal produce and spent most of the time at various markets.

Martha Stewart Living powder blue guest bedroom

This took me to Williams Sonoma and Sur La Table where I didn’t see anything I needed. (I’m waiting for my food processor in the mail, so stoked!) We went to a  few antique shops and didn’t see anything worth buying. We had lots of great food, that’s why I love Seattle! I think all we needed was time off and a little sunshine. Hope everyone had a great weekend and a 4th of July! I’m now planning for Bastille Day…

-Victoria

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2 Dramatic Dark Living Rooms with a Pop of Fuschia

I used to think that dark rooms only existed because they photograph well. I thought that “real” people didn’t have dark rooms because they didn’t look good in “real” life. I’ve painted a few rooms in our home dark. They look just as good in my working home as they do in pictures. Dark colors have so much impact and drama. This is why I’m attracted to the two featured here.

Design Sponge living room

This first room was featured on Design Sponge. I love the slap in the face of hot pink. It is stunning. Not much more to say. This is about the color of our living room, or at least the color that it appears in pictures. We have a bust of Napoleon painted that shade of pink on the built-ins. Napoleon really adds something. I am all about contrast anyways. That’s why I like black and white floors, zebra prints, and wild trim colors.

Anyways, I love this room. The colors are amazing. It is sophisticated but still very “young” feeling without being too perky. It has a certain moodiness. Oh, and great lighting too. The thing about dark rooms is that you need many, many different light sources: overhead lighting, windows, floor lamps, table lamps, sconces, candles, anything that gives off light. Different light sources transform the room and makes so many different “moods”. This room also uses texture nicely. You have a glossy hot pink coffee table, painted floors with a sheen, fuzzy maize throw pillow, mysterious silky purple throw pillows, and matte walls. It all works so nicely together and adds so much interest.

The other living room was featured in Homes and Gardens. It has the same feel of the Design Sponge room. It’s dark with these shocking bold colors and diverse textures. I assume that this room is hand painted but it may be wallpaper.

Homes and Garden living room

I don’t recall. This room is all about the walls. Of of the colors are taken from the design on the walls. I love chocolate brown and chartreuse together. The fuchsia adds so much too. The textures are so luxurious but the colors are a bit unexpected. Somehow this room has crushed purple velvet chairs but it doesn’t look like a blaxploitation pimp decorated the room . (Actually the room would probably be much more fabulous if it was decorated by a pimp character actor). Anyways, I love this room because it takes so many “me-maw” elements such as throw pillows, “wallpaper”, glassware, “slipcover” upholstery, and this formal living room still looks “young”.

These dark rooms do have something else in common: they are both large with tall ceilings. I think this is another reason why these rooms don’t feel claustrophobic.

-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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