January 2012

Part of my birthday to-do list was to make a calendar.  So...here is the month of January!

Photo Editing

When I posted the new pictures of our bedroom, I was a little ashamed.  Not of the bedroom itself (it is my favorite room), but of the photos.  They just were not good.  Despite my ability with Illustrator and In-Design, my Photoshop ability and knowledge is very very limited.  So, I typically do not edit my photos, but I saw somewhere that iPhoto had a decent photo editing option.  Here are the bedroom redo pictures again, but better!

Bedroom Redo

I promised some photos of our bedroom along with our inspiration.  Sadly, I do not have any before pictures, but I promise, it wasn't that great beforehand.


So first, here is our inspiration.

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The last is my favorite.  The different woods and clam colors are my just to die for.

Now, time for the end results!

Our nightstands and dresser are from IKEA, the HEMNES collection.  I love the color of the wood and how large the dresser is.  It is also handy that the nightstands can be closed, so they don't have to be pretty on the inside.  

The comforter, lamps on the nightstands and mirror are also from IKEA (a theme, if you will).  

The lamps on the dresser are from Target.  Beyond that, everything is either hand-me-downs or things we have gotten along the way.

The only thing not finished is the headboard.  I'm not sure what to do with it.  I can't decide if I want to paint it white, coral or upholster it.  Either way, I like it for the time being.

Living Room

As of now, the living room is the only room in the house that is filled with slightly unwanted hand-me-down furniture.  Not that I do not love my hand-me-downs, but they don't match our style any longer.  


Even though we aren't currently in the position to redo the living room, I would like to start making some decisions so we can at least head in the right direction.  We took the same approach with our bedroom, and now it is my favorite room in the house (pictures to come, when I have a day to clean it top to bottom first, lol).  


The first step in my "process" is to find lovely pictures of living rooms.  Oh and because I'm not the best blogger in the whole world, I only have a source for about half of these inspiration photos (eek!).

All of the above photos are from the all-inspiring House Beautiful living room slide show!  I find these all to be nice and neutral with pops of color here and there.  I think the very first is my current favorite because of the different textures and colors that blend well.

The above photos are the ones that I had in a file of inspiration, and have no clue of the source.  Of these, I think the last one is my favorite.  It has the same charm that the other favorite has.  I also really like the picture with the couple at their desks in the living room.  Nick and I are constantly sitting in the living room, me on my laptop on the couch and Nick behind me on his computer.  We enjoy being in the same room but doing separate things.  This would be a perfect way for us to be together and chat, but still be able to do different things.


Do you have favorite styles of the moment or a "process" for design?  

Mirror

Nick and I have been trolling our local Goodwills looking for good deals and diamonds in the rough.  Our latest purchase was this mirror.  We knew it had great potential, and we were right.

Here is the before picture.  It has a great design, but the tan color was too drab for us.

We thought red would look much better!

 

 What do you think?  We put it next to our door, as an entryway kind of thing.  

Window Box Dream'n

We have this cute little patio off of our apartment.  It is pretty large.  We have a round table and chairs out there for when it is nicer.  I've been thinking about putting some plants out there.  I can't decide if I should do a basic window box design-thing or something different.  Here are some pictures for my inspiration though.

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The Nest Love

Back when I was planning our wedding, I was crazy about The Knot.  It provided me with checklists and programs to put my guest list in.  It also gave me more inspiration than I needed.  


After the wedding, I started getting emails from The Nest, their newly married counterpart.  I ignored the emails initially, but have come to really enjoy the information provided on the site.  The have information ranging from weeknight meals to how to handle your money to decorating.  


Here are some of my favorite living rooms from The Nest.  Don't they seem so cozy?

We are working on finding our design style right now.  So I am trying to find all of the inspiration I can, filter through it, and then show it to Nick.