Tag Archives: building a home

home decor – patio

30 Mar

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Considering it is officially spring, our patio space has once again become my focus. Let the outdoor living begin! Our loft was designed to be an indoor / outdoor space. It’s one of my favorite things about our home. When we bought the place the previous owners were nice enough to leave behind an outdoor couch, coffee table and a slew of planters- which was amazing because we had zero outdoor furniture when we moved in.The only problem…none of it is really our style. Our loft is very modern and all of it is rather traditional looking. Because of this I have been wanting to give the patio a makeover. The only things we have added over the last two years…a few bright green planters (which Brian has begun planting his dream garden in), a grill, an umbrella & Franks “special” patch of grass.

Current patio space…

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My new vision for the patio…

modern furniture with bright pops of color!! Oh and a designated garden area for my love.

Here are my inspiration photos…

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home decor – current bedroom

3 Sep

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Despite there still being a list of things I want to do to our bedroom, I really do love the space. It’s so bright and cheerful! I have a huge crush on the floor to ceiling windows- I fell in love with them the minute we walked into our loft. Don’t worry we have black out shades that come down when we sleep but the minute I wake up in the morning those shades go up. Not pictured…the sliding glass wall that opens up out onto our patio, making the bedroom an indoor/outdoor space- which is amazing during the summer months. I also love the simplicity of the room. I’m not a fan of clutter or televisions in bedrooms. Haven’t you ever heard that a happy marriage relies on not having a tv in the bedroom? HA.

With all that said there are a few things I do want to do to our bedroom…

– Paint the walls light grey. Honestly I want to paint every room light grey. To me home decor heaven is grey walls + clean lines + white + ethnic rugs + pops of colors.

– We need a beautiful piece of art above our bed. As I mentioned in another post the talented and generous photographer, Jennifer Harr sent us a landscape photograph of The Painted Hills in Oregon that I’m thinking might be perfect over our bed.

– as you can see from one of the photos above Brian has a headlamp next to his side of the bed. Sadly, this is what he has to use to read at night if I want to go to bed considering the only lighting in the bedroom is the track lighting above. The wall our bed is against isn’t large enough for two end tables and a bed. Poor Brian is camping in our bedroom! Pretty ridiculous, huh? I’m thinking we need to have two fabulous wall lamps installed on each side of the bed to remedy the situation. I will miss how cute Brian looks half-naked in a headlamp though.

– lastly, I think the space needs a bright colored ethnic rug (no surprise, right?!)

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home decor – current office space

27 Aug

One of my goals this year is to finish decorating our loft. We bought and moved into our place shortly after getting engaged, which was the start to a truly crazy year. Planning our wedding definitely took center stage as well as got first dibs on any extra funds. Weddings have a way sucking all the energy out of other parts of your life. We have done a few things since moving in…we bought a new sectional couch for the living room, a new bookcase for the office, Brian bought three pieces of vintage furniture while I was away on my bachelorette (thankfully, I liked them. Well, the vintage theatre chairs are still growing on me) & we replaced the small marble slab on the kitchen island with a custom-built much larger wood top to accommodate more people.

Other than that we’ve done very little- we haven’t even painted the walls or hung all our art yet! It’s time to give our home a little love. Each week I will show you the current state of each room in our house, as well as inspiration photos for what I want for the space. Our home is not terribly large so the “unveiling” will move rather quick. I thought I’d start with our office space because it makes me the most crazy. It has become the room where all the crap we don’t know what to do with ends up. Doesn’t everybody have one of these rooms? In preparation for taking photos of the office for this post I was about to clean & organize (kinda like everyone does before their housekeeper comes to clean) in fear of judgement. But then I realized I would be giving a very inaccurate view of our office space. So I decided to shoot it (Brian obviously shot these photos:) just the way it is.

my current work space…

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Brian (and Franks- HA!) current work space…

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bookshelf wall…

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overview…

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Things we want to do…

  •  Get rid of the couch…although I really do love certain things about it…especially the color! It has also become Franks daybed (you can pretty much guarantee you will find him cuddled up there when you get home) I’m not sure who’s going to miss it more when it goes. But we need to say goodbye to it to create more space for the desk we plan to build.
  •  Speaking of the desk we want to build…we want one long industrial looking wood/iron desk that takes up the whole wall and will serve as both of our desks. We go back on forth about what we want to have above the desk…a huge corkboard wall (could be fun, right?) Art? Shelving for storage? Any other ideas?
  •  Once my work space is moved to the large wall we will have a built-in cabinet left and half a blank wall. We go back and forth about what to do with this space. One day we hope it houses a crib (yes our future 1st child will have to share a room with an office. Problems with loft living! Luckily, not forever!) but until then what? Maybe move the bookshelf there? Maybe a fun colored reading chair?
  •  Regarding the bookshelf wall I think the bookshelf just needs to be organized better. I am convinced that we could probably donate half the books and still live a fulfilled existence. I think I might organize the remaining books by color. I always thought that that method made the shelf look like a piece of art.
  •  I’m not quite sure what to say about the wall under the large window. It’s rather offensive to the eyes, eh? Clearly, needs to be streamlined. But where will I put the vision boards!! HA.
  •  I also think the room needs a fabulous ethnic bright-colored rug. I’m pretty obsessed with ethnic rugs and think every room needs one.
  •  Lastly, I want to paint the room Boulder Grey by Ralph Lauren, a color which I’ve used before and simply love. It’s the perfect grey.

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the mirror

20 Jan

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So, you know how I mentioned that Brian and I would be tackling a few home projects this weekend? Our biggest task being sanding a mirror down so we could repaint it a bright coral and transform our entry way. Transform it, people! Well, it didn’t really go according to plan. Actually, I would say our home looks worse from this weekends activities rather than better.

After spending Saturday morning at Home Depot (I hate that place in general, but on a Saturday..kill me) we returned home with sanding equipment, new hanging hardware, tape, paint & paint brushes. We were ready to tackle the mirror project! Considering, I have never sanded anything before I was unaware of how difficult it was and quickly learned I was going to have to put some serious muscle in to it. I also learned that this project was going to take much longer than I originally anticipated and that gloves would be required (I hate the feeling of dry dust). Once suited up with yellow kitchen gloves, I joined Brian to sand.

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Sigh…I truly hated sanding. Every five minutes (alright two) I would huff and puff and complain to Brian about how much my arm hurt. He lovingly responded a few times, but then began to tune me out. Leaving me with no other option than to make up random excuses about why I had to go inside for a break…I had to feed the dog…I had to pee…was that my phone ringing? After awhile it was clear to both of us who would be finishing the sanding of the mirror that day. Brian finally called it quits at 3pm. The mirror was nearly striped but would need a bit more work before we could get to the fun part…PAINTING.

The next morning…I sucked it up, suited up in my gloves and poured myself a strong cup of coffee to help  Brian finish. An hour later it was finally time to paint!

We readied the outdoor area…taping paper down to the coffee table we would be painting on and unwrapping the paint brushes. When the area was ready Brian began to tape the mirrored edges and it was then I heard… “FUCK!”.

What?! What happened?!? I said calmly.

I peered over to where he sat and saw coral paint  (ooooo, that is a pretty color, I thought…really not to orange) pool out of the can and on to our cement patio and outdoor couch cover. Then I thought, SHIT and then I thought, thank God it wasn’t me who dropped it. The coral paint was not only all over our patio it was also spotted on Brian’s arms, clothes and shoes. I stood there with my mouth agape. I wasn’t even sure how best to help. It was bad.

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“Honey, what are you doing!? Grab the paper towels! Hurry!!”, he yelled.

I ran as fast as I could to the kitchen and when I returned with we tried our best to sop up as much coral paint as we could. It was then I noticed that with each step Brian took his paint covered shoes were spreading coral paint all over.

“Take off your shoes!” I said trying my best not to laugh.

Actually, It took all my might not to laugh in that moment, not because I wasn’t sad by the fact coral paint was seeping into the cement on our brand new patio, but because situations like this just make me laugh. I looked up and saw Frank peering out at us through the sliding glass doors…with a look that said…you fools…you fooooools.

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Thankfully the paint was water based and we were able to make good progress in cleaning with hot water and a sponge. Do we still have a pink circle on the patio? Yes. But, is it lighter? Yes. Maybe an outdoor rug is in order?

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As you can imagine, we decided to call it quits after the coral paint debacle. Not only because we were low on paint but also because we were both feeling a bit defeated.

Damn you mirror, Damn you. Until next weekend.

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inspiration, gratitude & surprises

28 Jun

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what inspired me this week?

finishing my personal essay for a writing class I’ve been taking. I’m proud of what I turned in

equality- Gay marriage is ready for a comeback in California

the beauty of the Alabama Hills

what am I grateful for this week?

TODAY is the day I pick up Frank!! I’m beyond excited. I’m apologizing now for the massive amount of puppy photos heading your way.

warm summer days

my calm & peaceful state of mind

home cooked meals on the grill

sweet emails from Ali

tuesday date nights with Rachel at Venice Beach Wines

west elm- seriously I need to go to a west elm support group. I can’t stop buying home stuff.

our home is coming together and I’m loving it

what surprised me this week?

I’ve woken up at 5:45 four mornings in a row to go to a 6:30 bar method class. Shocking. It felt amazing though and I’m hooked on early morning workouts. I wonder how that will all work out with a puppy

Lastly…this has nothing to do with inspiration, gratitude & surprises but I had to share because it made me laugh out loud.

It’s wedding party time

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