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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Liking Lichen Green Living Rooms

Maire Claire Maison great room

I love a foresty lichen green. Perhaps because I like fungi? Could be it, but these two rooms are tops. This first rooms is from Maire Claire Maison. It was a cool article that took an unbelievably beautiful space to begin with and gave it 3 makeovers. I like the lichen green one for many reasons. Like I said, this was a great room to begin with. It has dark wood floors in immaculate condition. The ceilings are tall and the natural lighting is breathtaking. And there are great features such as millwork, the fireplace, the door hardware. I love the lichen green walls with the milk chocolate brown trim color. This is unexpected and a bit “moody”. The red accents make the green color pop. I like the room because it has a  cozy feel. Open shelves make books accessible and the large ottoman acts as table. And I’m a fan or antlers/horns. You put those in a room and I’m in love. This room has a very “exotic” feel to it because of the color combination and the mix of objects and textiles.

The other room, a foyer, was featured in Coastal Living. I love this room because the color combination is unexpected and I love this earthy green with wood tones. I also like this room because it is a coastal house that isn’t all light and white. I have been totally inspired by this room. I love the salmon door. I would love to see the exterior of this home. But, it looks awesome against the lichen green. I know what that color combo dominating some portion of my house. Lichen green walls and salmon painted thrift furniture or

Coastal Living lichen green foyer

salmon walls with lichen green fabrics…But, all of the colors work in here from the green to salmon to chartreuse to sky blue to sea pebble gray. I love it. Plus, the space isn’t too shabby with the all of the hardwoods. I also like steps playing bookshelf and the cool collection of pictures and how they line the stairs. And I love ship art. Especially ship art in a seaside home.

So, yeah. I’m liking lichen green rooms.

-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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Our Great Room Lighting

Our great room lighting

I am aware that I complain about lighting frequently. I rarely find things that I like and if I do, it is expensive. I do feel that lighting is a nice investment since it adds so much character to your home. It may not make you money in the long run since it is such a taste game but it really does tie your look together. I can’t afford to purchase all of my dream lighting at once. Or maybe ever… The great room was difficult for us. We want a formal room, something creepy and stuffy. We also wanted to purchase antique period lighting but I couldn’t’ find anything to suit the home. The lighting was either too large for our 30’s suburban home or just too craftsman. Nothing seemed to fit our home’s personality. And I’m not paying $800+ for something that isn’t perfect. The room’s lighting was replaced by the previous owner with the ugliest and cheapest “spot” lighting ever. We had to get rid of it, quick. It was disgusting and only one light bulb worked. I wanted something nautical or octopus like, I can’t afford a Walacavage at this time. While rummaging through our Habitat for Humanity’s building salvage yard, I found this lighting. At 1st, hubby wasn’t having it. He thought it appeared too “normal” and “McMansion” or trying too freak’n hard to be affluent. I told him he had to trust me. And if he didn’t like it, we were only going to lose $8. I purchased globe vanity bulbs to make it look less traditional and to make it look more 60’s and octopus-ish. David put it up and really liked it. It goes well with our dark, cave-like room. And with bulbs and all, it was under $18.

-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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Decorating with Paper Lanterns

I’m not one to decorate with paper lanterns. They just don’t fit with our house and our design. OK, so I mean that I haven’t found a way for them to work with our house or our design. I do find them attractive. They are so fragile, weightless, and light but they take up so much space and really can make a great focal point for a room. For something so “flimsy”, it can really make a statement. They are usually inexpensive and add whimsy to a space. If you add them to a room, it makes that room feel like a party and very festive.

I did find this really cute room in British Vogue. It’s a bit too cottage chic for my style but I do like it. (Don’t get me wrong. I do appreciate cottage style. I’m just not in the place or the home for it). I often find that when I see paper lanterns in decorating, it is often in a room for a teen or child. Paper lanterns can look too young and too dorm-like. This room may be country cottage, but at least it looks grown-up. This isn’t a dollhouse cottage. It’s quirky and fun. The lamp really pops against the paleness of the room. It’s a nice piece of art, a focal point, to have in this family room/library. I love red used as an accent. I’m such a sucker for it. David and I have decided that blue would be our new red, but I don’t think that has lasted.

pic found in British Vogue

I love red and vermillion and carmine. I also love these country cottage curtains against the red floral lantern. If you are going to have a country cottage you might as well mix floral prints.

Anyways, I also like the concept of this room and not just its style. I love that it is a library styled family room/dining room. Children can get homework help there. Children and adults can do art projects. Grown-ups can drink tea and look at design blogs on their laptop. It’s a nice use of that space without looking like a typical family room. It’s cute enough to entertain in. And it looks very “budget” friendly. These are the kind of pieces that one can collect from yard sales, thrift stores, and International markets.

Well, we’re renting that industrial buffer today to finish up the hardwood floors downstairs today. Boy, are my abs going to hurt tomorrow. Buffers belong in a rodeo.

-Victoria

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An Inspiring Chambre “Display”

Marie Claire "display"

I love the magazine Marie Claire Maison. It also helps me refresh my French skills (or lack of them). I adore this “display” found in the magazine. It isn’t very functional and I am aware that it is just eye candy. I still love it. I’m usually not one for faux paint finishes in interiors. They often look super cheesy and have that “trying to hard” vibe. I already have dirty, disgusting, chipping, plaster walls 🙂 But, I do like this wall because I am loving gray. It is so moody and somber. The objects in this “display” are very nice treasures from the birdcage to the creepy portrait to the delicate perfume bottles. All together it has a creepy but feminine vibe. I try not to collect stuff or hoard but I can’t help it that I love “treasures”. I feel this is a tasteful way to display such treasures. It’s still not fun to dust but it is a nice balance and better edited than what I’m about to share.

This other picture is from our last residence, the rental house. I didn’t have a boudoir like I do now and this is how I had to manage all of my girly things such as makeup and perfume. (I have much more but is it hidden away from light.) It wasn’t as fabulous as this Marie Claire one but I’m just a regular gal and if I knew Marie Claire was coming over then I would clean up 🙂 I suck at editing. I’m aware of that.

My old "display"

I don’t know what to do with my current space. I just know that I need to learn to edit or at least get rid of some stuff. I admit that I am a cosmetic addict. But, I’m sure you already know that.

-Victoria

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Toad Stools: Mushroom Seating & A Cute Parisian Apartment

It is almost my favorite time of the year: full fledge fall. I have always loved autumn because of fall fashions (love layering), falling leaves, the smell of decay, cooler weather, pumpkin spiced lattes, and mushrooms. David and I are mushroom hunters. This keeps us outside when the weather is less than perfect. It’s actually fun to be out in the misty rain with decaying leaves just to spot their strange shapes, odors, and colors. We eat what we know is safe, very obvious ones, but mainly I just love mushrooms for their strangeness. (And when I say we hunt mushrooms, I must add that we are all about the non-psychotropic types). It is almost prime mushroom time here in the forests of Washington. We went out today and saw a few. It was nice to see after the dryness and hotness of our freakish summer. Since we are mushroom fans, we are always happy to spot mushroom decor. I’m always on the “hunt” for mushroom home items. I love this toad stool found at Velocity. It’s a bit costly at $297 and many local artists in the PNW can create one of these for much cheaper. But, anyways, I love these but I didn’t know how to use it without looking too cheesy, nerdy, hobit-ish or make it work with what I like. I found this Parisian apartment online and fell in love with it. It is very whimsy, but still classic and functional and totally what I am in to.

Parisian apartment

It is a very inspiring room for the fungi fanatic. Every detail is so interesting. It’s classy and a bit unexpected. This is how I want our house to be. A bit stuffy but with a sense of humor. I love the beach pebble lilac grey walls of the sitting room/dining room area against the contrast of the pickle green wallpaper. (I must add I adore the dog paintings, wouldn’t it be cool to have Gig paintings over a formal sofa like that?) I feel this space is so charming and functional. Plus, it doesn’t hurt to have a location in Paris, amazing woodwork, perfect hardwood floors, and towering ceilings.

It’s nice to think about decorating again and not the boring stuff of a renovation such as peeling wallpaper, popping staples, demolishing walls, and restoring hardware.

-Victoria

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2 Rooms With Tin Tiles

Inside Out room

Tin tiles are super cool. They can glam up any space. I like them on ceilings or used as a backsplash. It’s quick and I guarantee anybody can do it. I would do it but unfortunately this stuff lost popularity after 1930 and it isn’t “authentic” to the home. I through around the idea of doing the dining nook ceiling in a bold tin tile but then again I’m trying hard to not go OTT. However, I am drawn to maximist style. So, I am thinking about covering one wall in my boudoir with a metal tile like this. The boudoir will be pink and it has crystal knobs. I think by adding the tile it will make it glam but just a little turn of the century tavern tough.

I like this room featured in Australian Inside Out. Everything is going on in this room. It has spectacular silver toned tin tile. The wallpaper is dreaming, a peacock green floral print. you can see the butter yellow wallpaper in the bedroom. There are many prints going on here. This room would seriously look like a hot mess if it didn’t have these ceiling tiles. I feel like it would look like a cluttered room with mee-maw’s parlor room wallpaper. The lighting in the room is sorry, it’s cluttered, and there is no real focus. However, I totally forgive the space because of the lovely ceiling tiles. Those tiles make the rest of the space look intentional and creative. Maybe I should just go ahead and ceiling tile the entire house? 🙂

This other bedroom that was on cococozy.com, is quite a charmer. And once again it is only because of the detail of the tin ceiling tile! It makes this bedroom look luxe and very rich. I mean it too has an ugly light fixture, but I don’t care. Oh, and the floors look like they need refinished. But, it still looks cute. Why can’t I pull that off?

Tin tile bedroom

I’m getting a sneaking suspicion that this bedroom and the bedroom that we see a glimpse of above are the same or at least some pretty convincing copies. Anyways, who cares.

Ceiling tiles come in a variety of patterns and materials. I love it when it is metallic and reflects the light. I have also seen it painted bold colors such as sangria or aqua and that looks nice too, especially on the ceiling in a foyer. This Old House has a great ceiling tile slideshow. It gives prices and retailors. I love the copper ones too. Will that go with ballet pink?

-Victoria

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