Tag Archives: interior design

bedroom accent wall

28 Aug

 

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Painting a wall a dark shade of grey in our bedroom has been a project in the works for a while now…I’ve personally been brewing on it for almost a year. But as I mentioned in a previous post, Brian needs a little coaxing into anything to do with change- something very difficult for an impulsive person like me to understand. If I had my way that wall would have been painted a year ago- actually, probably the very day I had the brilliant idea. It also probably would have looked like crap because impulsive people like me tend to take less time and care painting walls in their home. But because marriage is all about compromise…I introduce to you…our new perfectly painted accent wall!

Originally, I wanted every single wall in our house to be painted a light shade of grey. But luckily (because my husband isn’t impulsive) I’ve had time to think about it (as well as many many many hours to pin various colors on pinterest) and ended up changing my mind. My new plan involves many different shades of grey throughout the house and one moody, dark and sexy accent wall in our bedroom. Considering, I am obsessed with the color grey (I’m guessing that is clear by now?) I knew the accent wall had to  mostly “read” grey but I also wanted it to have hints of blue & green.

After many months of persuading, I was finally able to get Brian to agree to paint the wall. To tell you truth, I think he was just tired of hearing me talk about it.

Last weekend Frank, Brian and I paid a visit to our local paint store in search of the perfect color for our accent wall.

At least Frankie looked excited.

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Once we got home with the paint it was decided that Brian would paint the edges and I would paint the center with the roller. He’s better at the details.

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After the wall was finished I literally watched paint dry. I was a woman obsessed.

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Isn’t it strange how different the color looks in every photo?? It is such an interesting color. It’s grey in one light…blue in another…and sometimes it’s green! I’m pretty darn happy with it and I love the way pops of color look against it.

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the paint color is rocky coast by benjamin moore

 

 

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home decor – current entry / kitchen / dining room

2 Feb

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When you live in a loft space the functions of a room tend to blend together- say hello to our entry way, kitchen & dining room. It happens to be one of my favorite spaces in the house. I know, I know…but I don’t really cook? Doesn’t matter…it’s still one of my favorite rooms. It inspires me to want to cook!

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The only bummer about our kitchen space was that it came with very little dining space. Make that no real place to put a dining table. A bit of a bummer for somebody like me who loves to entertain. So, one of the early changes we made to the kitchen was replacing the tiny marble island counter top with a much larger wood top that we had built. While wood can be a bit harder to maintain we decided it was the right choice because we wanted to warm up the space. It can feel a bit sterile with all the stainless steel. The bigger island can now accommodate up to eight stools around it, converting it to a functioning dining table. The only problem is…we still haven’t bought the eight counter stools. Baby steps, right? I do have my eyes on these puppies though from a company my friend, Eric works for- I pretty much want all of their pieces. I think that would be the last thing on my list of things to-do for the kitchen space- buy stools. That takes us to the nook that was I guess was designated for a dining table- I only know this because the previous owners had an overhead light hung above it. If it wasn’t for this, you would think it was a walkway. It’s tiny. We currently have a credenza there that holds china. It happens to be the piece of furniture that Brian bought (without consulting me) while I was away at my bachelorette. Lucky (for him) I like it. Scratch that…I love it. It fits perfectly into the space. On top of it sits a lot of my favorite things from our trip to Nepal…a singing bowl (yes, we take it out nightly…only kidding), a photo Brian took of a local woman harvesting rice, a stone head & two sets of bells…one meant to be placed around the neck of a water buffalo and one meant to be placed on a door. Oh, and one of my favorite photographs from our wedding day. The only change I still want to make to this space is painting the walls.

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Lastly, we have our entry space. Which is in need of some paint on the walls as well. I’m thinking grey! Oh, and some cord removal. I hate seeing those things dangling down.

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happy list

3 Nov

20 things that have been making me happy recently…

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1. counting down the days until we get to celebrate our first wedding anniversary

2. the sound of fall leaves crunching under my feet

3. I wore my leather jacket for the first time this weekend!

4. the big rainstorm we had Friday night

5. morning walks through the canals with Brian and Frank after the big storm. The air was so crisp and the puffy clouds made the cloud lover in me swoon.

6. walking. Currently all I want to do is take long walks. It helps clear my head

7. fall magazines, fall movies & fall television

8. Tagging along with my interior designer mother to shop for her clients at the Pacific Design Center. That place is insane! I saw so many home decor items that made my heart skip a beat.

9. weekly writing dates with Katie

10. kids dressed up in their Halloween costumes

11. taking my little sister Briana on a date to the symphony. I’m a sucker classical music

12. lavender pillow spray

13. saying yes! to life in general

14. two of Brian’s photography prints are part of the “Art of Giving” charity auction, benefiting United Way of Greater Los Angeles. The silent auction is Thursday night…I can’t wait to dress up and celebrate him!

15. we cleaned out our storage unit on Sunday. It’s been on my to do list for months. Oh the joy this brought me.

16. brainstorming my goals & plans for 2015. 2014 kicked my ass in a lot of ways and I am ready for a fresh start

17. Sunday mornings spent cuddled up with my boys, coffee and a stack of magazines

18. weird things all dog owners do

19. pumpkins

20. my husband, always my husband

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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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