get in line

so the lightbulb went off a little late this year [lightbulllb!], but next year i have a fun idea for our kitchen chandelier.  i mean, its already dressed to the nines 24-7 with [coughfauxcough] crystals aplenty dripping from its entire length.  but you know me! i love to switch it up if i can.

....in fact, see here how i originally had the crystals displayed.  oh + bring your magnifying glass.  [eeps.  sorry folks, that was the old template.]

i'm picturing either clusters of glossy ornaments strung all the way along the main bar [with the crystals still in place], or, using an approach like the foyer chandy this year + hanging a very minimalist row of orbs in a straight line parallel to the chrome bar.  with the crystals removed, so that the lights bounce off the sparkly ornaments alone.  oh and trust me, i'd find a place to use those crystals too....somewhere else where they'd have a completely different spin.

i have a couple other tardy-to-the-party ideas for next year as well, but i'll just have to wait on that for approximately 11 months.  this year was just a little too whirlwind [we already took down our tree....SHHHH....i know].

+ + +

oh and here's a little aside, while i'm looking at the picture above.  thoughts on our white grates-on-black-wall look we have been rocking out for over a year now since we moved in?  yeah i mean that glowing white rectangle that's been staring you in the eye while you try desperately to ignore it and move on to prettier pastures.

every so often we [interpretation: i] debate painting it black + changing out the outlet covers on that wall to black as well, but we always come back to the conclusion of leaving them all white.  personally, i think it gives a more urban air to our singular inky wall.  and, leaving them white = no work or expense.  but i always notice in other homes where grates have been painted to disappear into the wall color [hmm.  so perhaps that defeats the purpose?  well i do have an especially nosy eye, i'll admit.]  anyway.  if you have an opinion, feel free to share!

while i'm at it

i know, i know. i have a son. but i JUST CAN'T HELP MYSELF.

after doing a baby-done-growed-up boy's room post i feel compelled to follow it with a big girl bedroom moodboard [ish]. 

because i'm a girl's girl, and while i love my son, I CAN DREAM. TRY AND STOP ME.

here's what i'd do if i had a daughter's room to transition in the near future:

+ a splash of scandi style.  red, pink, light blue and white, white, white.

+ fresh, whimsical, but not overly feminine.  a bit of edge.

+ large scale fairly neutral pieces that could easily move into other areas of the house later on. because we can try and lie to ourselves that baby girls won't fall in love with dora and minnie mouse and three thousand shades of pink, purple, and that pinnacle palette-topper purpley-pink....but let's not.  let's just accept it as fact and move on.

via etsy

via life interiors

via classy mirrors

via kaboodle

via pottery barn

via rubie green

via yvestown

ok i better stop now.  i am loving this scheme wayyyy too much and i still have a son to think about!  maybe the hubs will let me decorate the spare bedroom as a big girl room....for myself. 

biggie smalls

well it seems time does indeed fly.  here we are about to jump into january '11 and my mind keeps wandering to what i'll want to do with baby H's big boy room [SPOILER ALERT: not announcing anything here! sorry folks.  we're just enjoying the one!]  i merely mean the wee man isn't so wee anymore and it will be fun to re-decorate a room for him that suits a little boy vs. a teeny tiny beebee.  plus, we didn't find out H's gender before his arrival so it would be my first time decorating specifically for him.

on that note....here are my initial thoughts!

+ eclectic will be a key word [again, and yet even more this time].  a fun mix of things that don't look like a pre-packaged set.

+ a bit of a traveled look would be a plus.  like, this little boy has been places.  like, this little boy must have dual citizenship to a foreign country.  oh yeah.  HE DOES.  could totally tell from his room.

+ a bolder dose of pattern and/or artwork.  something large scale.

here are some images for you.  shaken, not stirred.

via ACL

via shoponline2011

via designova

via cococozy

via etsy

i definitely wouldn't be buying all new gear.  let's get that straight, right from the get-go.  those of the perceptive eye would note that the antlers + ikea canvases are already owned.  as are the chartreuse ikea pillows which i think would be sharp with hits of red, grey + tiny touches of blue in the room as well. the dangerous book for boys was an amazingly spot-on christmas gift to our little tyke, and we were also gifted a much-loved-upon vintage bowling pin.  ours has hot pink details, but i think H is oozing enough manliness to make even a dash of hot pink in his room seem ever so cool.

as for other elements in his current nursery, many would be easy enough to switch over to a whole new scheme.  the vintage pendant light?  paint it!  the letters?  spray 'em, baby!  the curtains?  re-trim in a new color!  why not!

so now you know what decorating dallying my brain's been doing....anything to distract me from that pesky master boudoir that i can't seem to finish.  oh + speaking of master....we would never forget the master rhino himself who would be a perfect fit for our all-grown-up-little-boy room.

you like?

the halls are decked. 2010 edition.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

if you've been to our place around christmas time you'd know we like to do a twist every year on what we've done before.  nothing too crazy....i mean we have yet to do a carmen-miranda-as-chiquita-banana-lady theme [let alone a katie perry as carmen miranda as chiquita banana lady theme] or anything like that....but we just like to rearrange things a bit each year without dropping more coin.  here's a shot of last year in case you were curious.

with all that preface i give you....christmas: version 12.10.

it was the hub's idea to set up the tree in the dining room this year.  last year, we enjoyed a sparkle bedecked window scape in the sunroom.  me likee the sparklee.

well this time around i have to give the hubs credit for creating some lovely ambiance as we arrive home at night in the dark....we get to see this number all lit up [in the non-wasted sense of the phrase] and charming.

as you can see we had to rearrange the furniture a tad to get our festive tree all cozied up to the window.   there's a touch of awkwardness to the layout [hello there, pendant hanging in front of the tree lighting up nothing in particular.  how are you?], but we think its pretty fun for the holiday season.

the little man certainly loves it.

we pushed the table up tight against the wall + removed three of the chairs so things would be a little less cluttery in that corner.  and i rummaged through the basement to find these beauteous mitsumata branches [crate + barrel a few years back] which i sprinkled with silver stars.  oh and the pine cones, you say?  i actually started spray painting them silver, got distracted by other things, went looking for them in the basement a few days later and decided i kinda liked the depth they have with the dark brown peeping out from their metallic silver coats.

here's a look at the chairs we pulled from the living room.  i grabbed a couple throw pillows from a closet + stole the silver stool from our bathroom. and it was good.

the console table [which usually sits beneath the dining room canvas] also needed to get a move on.  

off it went to the angled wall by the staircase, and i created a little neutral christmas decor look with some family photos in frames + mr. rhino.  

mr. rhino who was begging to get in on the fun.  who were we to deny him?

to polish off what we quickly monikered 'the christmas room', i added a dose of sparkle to the nearby foyer chandelier.  more re-mixing, as i merely took some silver sequined ornaments from the tree + strung them up with floss [yes, like there's a piece of spinach sunbathing on your front tooth, floss].  pretty AND minty fresh.

 

i hardly think i need mention how pretty it is at night with the lights sparkling off these silver snowdrops-raindrops-whatever you imagine these to be.

and in the kitchen + living room, its mainly just some silver sparkle + an added dash of color representing this fair season. we've had a lovely christmas enjoying all the sparkle + shine and more than anything else are so thankful for the greatest gift of all....JESUS CHRIST!

its tree time!

so we were definitely on the late side of things with our christmas tree this year.  as in, we waited until we had scarcely two weeks between us + christmas before scrambling out the door, bundled infant in tow, to do the only kind of outdoor hunting i'll ever do:  tree hunting!

we found the cutest little family-run farm out in the boondocks of rolling hilly farmland and cud-chewing cows and off we were. juuuust the three of us, we can make it if we try....juuuust the three of us, the hubs, babe + iiiiiii....

 

we managed to find a pint-sized tree for H, purely for photo op purposes....

and here's the whole fam jam in the midst of a group huddle....do we like this tree?  why yes, i think we do!  

one of our troupe was casting a suspicious eye on the whole affair....

but even he eventually came back around.

mmmm....zipperrrrrrr....

so with a few swift slashes of the saw, we laid that baby to rest + enjoyed a complimentary (read: extremely bumpy but incredibly memorable) hay ride back up the hill....partaking in some hot cocoa + christmas cookies while our tree was wrapped up.  

christmas traditions with a mini man....does it get any better?!

next up: decorations, 2010 edition!

master of the house

ok, so i give in.  i'm finally going to share some shots of our very unfinished master bedroom.  so you can see that just like you, i hit road blocks here + there with decor choices.  yes, even year-and-a-half long road blocks.

first of all, let's take a peek at two visions i had for the room.

idea a....my initial thought for the space.  hollywood regency....glamour....a scoshe [scosh?  scoach?  i love scotch.  scotchy scotch scotch.] kelly wearstler....lots of black + white + a bit of gold.

to the tune of this metro home bedroom....

 

[yeah and btdubs, that wall, its totally handpainted. amazing huh?!]

or this:

 via curbly

idea b....a softer look.  loads of whites....airy....fresh....eclectic.  perhaps some pink, some red, some pale gold, some gray.

via keeping it realtor

via windlost

and here's our room in its current condition:

our room has always been white, back from when i picked all the paint colors during the building process....i just knew from the start that i wanted a light + breezy cloudy cream puff of a boudoir.  to be honest, i would have done many more white walls in our house for a truly contemporary feel but i scared myself out of it from a practicality standpoint.  i figured our bedroom was the safest place to go wintery white since only the hubs + i would be in there [vs. the rest of the house being a kid zone eventually].

now you may recall the dresser reference from months past.  well that little diddy turned out quite well, if i do say so myself.  a dozen odd coats of spray paint is all it took.  [um, yes, that was sarcasm....spraypainting a single vase = fun.  spraypainting a six foot long dresser = not fun].  we picked up those fun futuristic knobs from menards, home of good deals and boy-part jokes aplenty.

all in all we've got some lovely components going on, i'd say.  but its pretty much been a frozen winterscape for a while now of dresser....bed....side tables....and yeah.  that's it.


anyone wanna unleash their inner sarah richardson + give me some feedback?  black + white hollywood glam, or ultra light ultra mod?  speak up, y'all!