Living Room Make Over plans!

This is my little watercolor sketch of the living room. Last fall we painted the north wall a bright, cheerful Planetarium Blue (from Glidden). See pictures below. The plan is to paint the east and south walls the same color, and add tons of ledges above the couch. The ledges will give us freedom to change the paintings/objects on display as we see fit. I'm very excited!

Plans for the future:

1. paint rest of the room

2. add IKEA ledges for interchangeable art

(see sketch!)

Design Inspiration: Nan Whitney

I ended up over at Calico Corners.com this morning in an effort to find some cheap, wonderful wall paper. In my explorations there I stumbled upon the extraordinary stylist Nan Whitney and fell in love with her bright, polished interiors (how awesome is the deep blue couch above and the rust orange ottoman?!). Below is the first room I saw of hers, love the bright bright bright colors.The green and yellow tables in the room above are so so fresh. And I love that there are many different printed patterns going on all over the place: the yellow floral chair, the fuchsia ikat chair (below, very interesting, very "me"), the velvet brocade pattern on the couch, the details of the persian rug. It's all so chaotic but harmonious. I love it!!!

After reading about Whitney for a bit this morning I realized she styles for Pottery Barn, which explains why I kept noticing Pottery Barn pieces in a lot of her shots. I actually have the corner version of the desk below in my office. A lot of the beauty of this room is the natural light, but I especially love the play between the leafy plant and the bright green upholstered chair. And who would think to mix this citrine color with an orange wall? But it works beautifully!

I love the turquoise Paisley chair in Nan Whitney's photo below. It's funny, I dress myself in mostly black/beige/brown, but when it comes to my home I want the brightest turquoise, fuchsia, and yellow in my immediate surroundings. More on my personal interiors to come...

Obviously the architecture of the staircase is amazing, but Whitney styles the room below in a way that makes even this modern glass interior feel warm and homey. The patterned citrus rug mixed with the swirling fabric on the armchairs was a bold ballsy move that really worked out well.

I have a soft spot in my heart for black and white checkered floors. Growing up the kitchen at my mom's house had big black and white tiles. I love the way a B&W floor looks with bright colored furniture and paintings. In Nan Whitney's room below the floor seems to be painted in a B&W checker pattern! It looks very chic with the silvery decor. See more work from this Boston-based designer here.

Wallpaper Awesomeness

Just found this beautiful wallpaper by Jill Malek over at Design*Sponge. More wallpaper posts to come. I had been researching a bunch of options back when I got my Domino decorating book, definitely considering some crazy wallpaper to brighten up my cozy little (mostly beige) home. 

Patio Inspiration

We're planning a patio off to the side of our house, and this means lots of gardening and design research! The patio will be situated between our little orchard and the west wall of our little home. More images to come of the actual house. Just some ideas  for planters here from DIY Ideas.

I love the varying heights of the planters that Katy just posted on her blog. My mother has similar tall urn-like planters at her door and it is gorgeous!

I love the planter box on the side of this little patio (from Design*Sponge). I want to put a raised box with tall flowers in it to act as a big green and floral wall. 

I just bought this Campanula flower at the local greenhouse. It's very tall and blooming happily in my front yard! If it makes it through the winter I hope to get many more next year!

Mark's mom recently introduced me to Bachelor Buttons. They are the most vibrant blue flower with a very full bloom. I'd love to grow these tall flowers in the raised beds around the patio. 

Shadow Boxes: Joseph Cornell

I was reading a post over at Crafty Nest about repurposing old drawers for shadow boxes. It reminded me of artist Joseph Cornell's beautifully eclectic works of assemblage. I learned about Cornell's work via Professor Bertolo, a Photo and Imaging prof at NYU who taught a collage class there while I was pursuing my un

dergraduate degree. He was a super interesting character, a recluse. Check him out!

A few of Joseph Cornell's shadow boxes:

Another shadow box idea DIY from Design*Sponge.

The original Crafty Nest old drawer-->shadow box DIY is below. I don't love the finished product, but I think the drawer transformation is a genius idea. What an easy way to experiment with this format! If I make my own I will definitely draw on Joseph Cornell for inspiration.

Do It Yourself Organization

While checking out my Google Reader feed this afternoon I stumbled upon Apartment Therapy's DIY Storage & Organization post. Since my mail is always cluttering up the house everywhere, I was immediately interested. Mark and I recently found a utilitarian little box from IKEA to satisfy our key hanging and mail holding needs, but some of these fabulous DIY Mail ideas are tempting! 

Like this turquoise shutter mounted as a letter holder:And this beautiful little old bird cage converted to hold mail and stationary:

This is genius. I love the rustic tool box convterted to a file folder idea.

 Check out more DIY storage ideas from Better Homes and Gardens DIY Mag here.

Paper Artwork

Australian artist Jaq Belcher makes beautiful works of art via intricate paper cuts. Her fingers look surprisingly intact for all of this work she does with paper. 

First of all, I love the layering of the works in the image above. I also really love the way the cut out pieces remain on the floor, reminding you of the whole that once existed.

I have to thank my sister Ivy for bringing this artist to my attention via our shared Google Reader feed. If you haven't used Google Reader yet, you need to check it out. 

Scrabble at Miss Wieders

bird print by Fanny Shorter at Boxbird. This is a bit more pricey at £100.00 but I love the color and detail here.

elizabethbrinton I found this van gogh-inspired screen print from elizabethbrinton on etsy.com. It's only 8.5 x 11, I wish it was larger, I would love for it to take up my whole living room with color!