Archives For Inspiration Boards

Why just white?

January 23, 2013 — 24 Comments

I’m having another moment of design evolution.  When we first bought our home in 2011 I thought the only way to make a room look good was to have crisp white trim.

White Trim

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I think I assumed it was the rule to prettiness.  I’m pretty sure I pinned the above picture on Pinterest at the time as well.  And why wouldn’t I?  It’s beautiful!

Something happened over the past year, though, and my personal style has changed. I love this board showing different styles.  Which style fits your taste the best? Design style (source)

I most definitely had the biggest draw to the eclectic look. I love that it looks unique.  I feel like I would be relaxed and comfortable in that room, and that it would be a room that no one else has.  I never in a million years would have thought I’d describe my taste as “eclectic”.  But, what the hay…I guess I’m just a little wild! (bazinga)

Back to trim:  If not white, then what?  Well, to that I say, anything!  Blue, green, gray, mocha–why not?!

My first step in to this non-white trim world is in the new office.  I finished painting it over the weekend and it’s a monochromatic greige room–I can’t wait for the room to be finished and post a reveal!  This is what the room looks like right now.  It’s a mess, but what mid-renovation room isn’t?

Office in Progress

Oh! Side note:  I bought a new light fixture for the room today!  You didn’t think I was keeping that chandelier up did you?  It doesn’t exactly scream “masculine office”. I’ll write about that more later.

Painting the office trim a color other than white gave me the courage I needed to move forward and dare step outside the box of white trim.  Why is it a scary feeling when you do something different than the norm?  I think it’s just going from a “safe” choice to something that might be more unique and not as aesthetically pleasing to every eye. But come on, folks!  You only live once!  I know I’m only talking paint, but take chances. Be a little daring.

Black.

Beautiful black.

It doesn’t look dark and gothic.

It gives me a feeling of luxury when in a high gloss finish, but it gives me a different feeling of funky when in a flat finish.

These pictures are giving me the inspiration to take the black trim upstairs to the bedroom!  Hellllllo luxurious, romantic bedroom! (TMI?)

Black trim

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Black trim

(from Pinterest. Source not linked.)

Black trim

(from Pinterest. Source not linked.)

Let’s see if I can pull this one off without reeking of Kardashian-ness!

So what says you?  Yay or nay to non-white trim?

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On to the next project: guest bathroom

November 27, 2012 — 3 Comments

Now that the kitchen is complete, the next room on our list is the hallway bathroom upstairs.  I would love to tackle our master bath right now, but it will be a much larger project, a much higher budget, and my mother-in-law might be staying with us over Christmas and the guest bath is completely disgusting to even shower in.  So the guest bath wins!

The ultimate goal would to have it finished before Christmas.  That’s quite the lofty goal.  I’m not super confident it will happen, but we’re going to try!

I want to do this bathroom as simplistic as possible in order to be as budget friendly as possible. Bathrooms are expensive in general because there’s a lot of things that have to go in the space, but I love finding deals and I’m going to make cheap tile work!

I’ve perused a billion inspiration pictures and these are the ones that stick out the most to me:

Bathroom Inspiration

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Bathroom Inspiration

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Inspiration

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Notice a pattern? I’m definitely digging a WHITE bathroom.  It just screams clean and that’s exactly what I want in a bathroom. My fear is that it will feel too sterile, but I’m hoping that accents in the room will be able to take away from that feeling.

Here is my (pathetic attempt at an) inspiration board:

guest bath inspiration

1. Ikea Mirror 2. Home Depot Light 3. Vessel Sink 4. Vessel Faucet 5. Shower/Bath System 6. Hexagon floor tile 7. Subway tile tub surround

Ideally, I’d like to tile around the wall about 3.5 feet from floor up, but I need to factor in cost and see if it’s in budget or not.  I think I’d need to tear down my current dry wall and put up cement board to do that, and I can tell you now that that’s not going to be in the budget.

[...the contractor is here]

Okay, my contractor just came and checked out the bathroom so I can get an estimate.  Part of updating this outdated house has been knowing when to hire out and when to DIY.  This room will be a large tile job and some plumbing work–this is a hire-out / DIY combo room.

guest bath

Here’s my breakdown on what I’m DIY’ing vs. what I’m hiring out:

ME: painting walls (OVER WALLPAPER!), painting vanity, painting ceiling, changing vanity light.

Hiring Out:  demo, tiling floors, tiling shower/tub, installing vessel sink, tiling walls (if budget allows)

guest bath

Between me and them, we should be good to go before Christmas…as long as it’s going to cost close to what I’m estimating, of course!

In Guest Bath, Inspiration Boards
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This vs. That: One Kings Lane vs. IKEA

August 4, 2012 — 4 Comments

I was having a morning date with myself, a great cup of coffee, the Pioneer Woman on Food Network, and my e-mail this morning (multi-task much, emily?).  It’s what I love to do every Saturday if I have the chance.

While doing all of the above, I read on twitter that Home by Novogratz was airing a new episode tonight on HGTV and it happens to be the episode that they re-did one of Ree Drummond’s (the Pioneer Woman) rooms in her home.  Then, in my e-mail, popped up my daily One Kings Lane e-mail with the current day’s sales.

The Novogratz were featured as one of the sales–I’m not completely sure how it works, but I’m guessing it’s similar to Joss & Main’s curator collections where bloggers or other people put together a collection of items they love to be featured and sold. But I could be completely wrong.

ANYways…

I was scrolling through the Novogratz items and came across a pillow that was awesome. Black & white and very much my style. I must say that it was very much NOT my price, though–$199. Yikes. One Kings Lane- The Novogratz Black and White Pillow

I had a pause after looking at it because it looked familiar to me…as if I had just seen the exact pillow somewhere recently.  Then it came to me…the new IKEA catalog that came in the mail a few days ago! You can find the pillow here.

Let’s compare the two, shall we–

One Kings Lane vs Ikea

I’m willing to bet that the One Kings Lane pillow is higher quality than the IKEA one. I’m sure it’s texture it better, the quality of the material is better, and just looks richer in general. But come on…$180 better (I’m being generous with a $20 concession for the pillow to go inside the cover) I’m not convinced. Perhaps it may seem cheap of me, but that’s just a lot of dough to drop on a single pillow.

So, the moral point of the post….shop around, folks!

                 ☺ -Em

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