Monday, November 30, 2009

Small Start to My Outdoor Christmas Decorating

I feel like I'm already behind, because everywhere I look (our neighborhood) and everywhere I read (facebook and my favorite design blogs and twitter) everyone has all their Christmas decorations up. I don't even have my Thanksgiving stuff put away yet. I did however get a few things done outside these last few days.

The first is my swag on the front door. I just bought a plain swag and dressed it with ornaments, and berries and some various winter foliage. You can save money if you put it together yourself and I think the end result is always better then buying one already done from a store.



The next one is a close up of one of my window boxes. Again, I basically threw a little of this and a lot of that into the containers. There is winter foliage, eucalyptus, berries, ornaments and some yard art that I bought from the Enchanted Garden.



The last photo is both of my window boxes.



Hopefully I can finish up with the other projects in the next few days and then convince my husband to get the lights up. I have 2 more wreaths, garland to string and a container to put together for in front of the front door, so come back!

Monday's Inspiration


(Photo from Southern Living)

This photo is from Southern Living. I chose it because I'm decorating the outside of my house this week. If only my house looked like this one!

My plan is to finish decorating the outside of our house this week, and the inside of the house next week, but honestly my brain is all over the place. I went shopping this weekend for supplies for the outside and I kept putting decorations for inside the house in my basket. Twice I pulled everything from my basket back onto the shelves and told myself to stop and focus on the outside and the list!

Time to go untangle the lights! Which brings me to the age old question, white lights or colored lights?

Friday, November 27, 2009

Resource Friday!

Black Friday and Resource Friday! Can we say shopping?? Today I'm talking about Anthropologie! This is actually what I'd call my dream job, meaning either designing their killer window displays and stores or traveling the world as a buyer for the store, you know a full-time shopper!

First up is the cascara coffee table at $598.00. I think its unique, has great lines and would make a fun statement in the living room.



Next is the crystal votive that is priced $38.00-$58.00. I'm totally into any and all things rock right now and if you're going to pick a rock why not pick a sparkly one?



Anthropologie has great knobs for your cabinets and furniture. Its a great way to add your own special and unique touch to a piece. I love this calico frog knob for $12.00!



Last we have the piped diamonds tote at $248.00 and the handbasket bag at $258.00. Oh wait!! That's not shopping for your home that's what's on my Christmas wish list!! How'd those get on here? Honey, if your reading...




Happy Shopping & Happy Friday!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Friday's Inspiration



I love this bedroom, unfortunately I don't know the designer or the source. I love the colors black and yellow together. I also love a canopy bed, it reminds me of when I was a little girl in my 1970's gilded canopy bed with the baby blue polyester canopy! I like the mix of patterns and stripes and how it all works to make the room inviting and comfortable.

Happy Thanksgiving!


(Photo from Martha Stewart, but of course!)

Its been a rough year but I still have so much to be thankful for. I love my family and friends very much and without them I couldn't get through the hard stuff! I hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving!!

Eat lots and be thankful!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Stairs



A month or so ago I posted a photo about ideas for stairs. I needed to re-do my stairs, the before photo doesn't look too bad but our stairs were pretty banged up and it was going to be to be too much work for me to strip and stain the stairs so I decided to paint the risers. I used linen paint by Restoration Hardware, I painted the both the walls and the risers. For Thanksgiving I added some canning jars with leaves attached to them and I simply put some tea candles in them to add a little sparkle!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Wednesday's Inspiration



Candice Olsen designed this room. Personally I think, her rooms are always great, I love the colors she uses they are seem so calm and soothing. I love rooms in attic spaces, I love how the walls slant, it just feels nice and cozy, but its also a hard room to design. This looks like a room you want to spend alot of time in on a cold winter day.

New Reading Material

From time to time I stumble upon a new design blog I like and thought I'd share it, I mean we all can use one more design blog to read while we're on our "break" at work right? This one is called In The Loop and is put together by CB2. It of course plugs their products but they do give some helpful advice on entertaining and design.


(Photo from In The Loop CB2)

Do you have a favorite design blog? If so please share!!

Monday, November 23, 2009

Tuesday's Inspiration



(photo from House Beautiful)

This is my idea of designer dream heaven! A Brunschwig and Fils showroom showcasing my favorite current pattern Ikat!

Do you have a favorite fabric or pattern?

Thanksgiving Table

We're hosting Thanksgiving this year and are counting down the days to the food! Its the one time of the year where I don't feel guilty for eating too much, which obviously makes it my favorite holiday of the year! I finished decorating the table today and I thought I'd show you the process.

Below is the before. We don't normally have the table set but we have our house on market (any buyers out there?) and I wanted the table to look inviting.



Next, I opened the table up to make for more seating. My husband and I love our dining room table. We live in an old house and the dining room is only 10 x 13, so we had to find a clever table. We usually have the table set up to sit 4 but on special occasions the table flips open to sit 6-8. The nice thing about it is there is no leaves to store. (Crate and Barrel stopped carrying this table a year ago.)



Then I plan on paper what I want to do. Decorating brainstorming! I make a list and get to shopping for my supplies! My inspiration was my china.



The chandelier is from Ikea but I added shades from Ballards to make it look a little more traditional. I added grapevine wreaths and gold berries to the candle part of the chandelier for some Thanksgiving bling.



Next comes the table setting. My china is from Williams Sonoma Home. They are my high end for the design. I have been collecting the china over the last few years when I would have some extra money. Unfortunately even though WS promised me the pattern would never go out of production, 6 months ago what do you know the pattern is out of production. Luckily I'm only missing a few pieces and am hoping to pick them up on Ebay. I used my regular white cloth napkins but put a piece of burlap over it to give it some texture and simply placed a brown ribbon and feather in the middle.



I also used the burlap as a center runner going down the table. The burlap was purchased for $2.49 a yard. I frayed the ends and a $5.00 table runner sure beats the $50.00 one at Pottery Barn!

Next is the wine markers. They are just gift tags with stickers from Martha Stewart's line and brown ribbon I found on clearance for 29 cents!



On the back of the chair I once again used grapevine wreaths and glued peacock feathers and a piece of pumpkin potpourri in the middle, strung the same brown ribbon I used for the napkin holders and attached it to the back of the chairs.



Finally looking at the end result you'll see I used a silver tray and put walnuts in it, placed pumpkins and gourds I sprayed copper on a glass cake stand. I used my rule of using high end (my china) and low end (virtually everything else) and something sentimental (my grandma's candlesticks) to pull together the look.



Let's hope my turkey turns out as nice as the table!

Monday's Inspiration


(photo source unknown)

This photo came from my hardrive (photos of ideas and rooms I love) and unfortunately I do not know who the designer/owner of the photo is. I posted the photo because I'm jealous! This is probably an area of my house that isn't as organized as I would like it to be.

I love how the books are organized by color and the baskets and toy break up all the books, so there's not too much. It would be a great way to get your children involved in the cleaning up too, they could clean and learn about putting the books back where all the purple, green and red ones go! I might have to put this on my to do list!

What area of your house do you wish were more organized?

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Resource Friday!

Time to go shopping! Today it's Ballard Design. Love this store! Its got everything from kitchen to bath to furniture to fabric by the yard and everything in between.

Below is an ikat pillow that is a bit pricey at $149.00 but I love it. I'm currently obsessed with all things ikat!



Next is the montego mirror that is $119.00. Ballard has beautiful mirrors!



Finally something fun, the turtle stool at only $45.00!



Happy Friday!!

Friday's Inspiration

Friday's photo comes from Jenny of the Little Green Notebook. You can read about the dining room makeover on her blog where she explains in detail how she put the room togethe. There are lots I like about the room, the mirror, the way she used a loveseat for seating and the clock painted blue over to the left of the room. She is incredibly talented.

Getting ready for Thanksgiving

I'm hosting Thanksgiving this year and I've been trying to come up with some ideas for decorating the house for. I'm thinking about using natural materials, pinecones, leaves, corks and I even have some ideas using some veggies for the centerpiece. I want to keep it simple and am looking forward to using my fancy china!




Do you decorate for Thanksgiving?

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Thursday's Inspiration



I know this isn't a "picture" of a room but I think it is beautiful, in fact I'm quite jealous of Michelle from A Schematic Life. She is an amazing illustrator and I wish I only had 1/4 of her talent. In fact the drawing portion as an interior design student makes me break out in a sweat, honestly I have a hard time drawing a three dimensional box! Her talents inspire me to work harder though!

What inspires you?

The Color Purple

The color purple is supposed to represent royalty, romance and it's been said that it helps spark creativity. They may or may not be true what I can attest to is that lots of teenage girls like the color! Here are some examples of purple done right in the bedroom.


(photo from House Beautiful)


(photo from southern accents, another magazine that has closed its door)


(photo from Google image)

Do you think you have to be a teenage girl to have a purple room?

Wednesday's Inspiration



Kelly Wearstler is for sure one my favorite interior designers. I absolutely love her style and her willingness to take her designs as far as it can go. You may think this isn't your style or its too much but you can't say its boring! This is her office and I personally love it. I love the vintage chandelier, her desk chair and the colors of the walls. It also wouldn't be me if I didn't point out I love how they put her hermes handbag in the photo shoot!

When I pick photos for my design files I don't have to love everything about it, (although I love everything in this particular one) I can just like certain elements so can you pick out something you like about this room?

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Getting Ready for Christmas?!

I know! I know! We haven't even eaten our Thanksgiving turkey yet but here I am posting about Christmas! To be honest I'm not a big lover of Christmas decorating and I keep it pretty minimal in our house. I put up a tree, decorate the mantel and maybe put a centerpiece on the table. I do however like to decorate the outside of our house.

I went home this weekend to visit with my mother-in-law/best friend (yep you read it right, I'm one of the lucky one's who has an amazing mother-in-law!) She asked me if I wanted to go to The Artful Gardens with her on Saturday morning for a class they were having on outdoor Christmas decorating. Well count me in! The store's website is still under construction but the store is located at 611 Indiana Avenue in Crown Point, IN. If you're ever in the area you have to stop in. The store is actually a small house but they still have alot to chose from.

We paid $5.00 for the class and learned how to design a urn for the front door, window boxes, a wreath for the front door, and a centerpiece for the table. The instructor was hilarious and his eye for design was incredible. He was one of those types who can throw things together in 5 seconds and it looked like something Martha Stewart put together herself, ok maybe I should compare him to Eddie Ross instead since I'm talking about a man!





After the demonstration we were able to shop around on the back patio and what do you know they had everything we needed to complete all the projects we just saw! Imagine that! You should of seen those women buying that store up, cha ching!!

This photo below is the back of the house where they have various lawn art for sale. I have always loved those bottle sculptures!



When you were done shopping they brought you into the house to pay and what do you know, there were about a million cute things in the store to buy! A few of the rooms were already decorated for Christmas but the others had great gift ideas for any occasion.




I'm glad I went to the demonstration, although my pocket book took a punch, but its the first time in years that I'm looking forward to decorating for Christmas!

Tuesday's Inspiration




I thought I'd try a new feature on h2urHOME and post daily photos of rooms that have inspired me through the years that I've stored away in my hard drive. Unfortunately, I won't always know the designer but if I do I'll let you know and if I don't know the designer and you do please feel free to let me know.

Today's photo is designed by Nate Berkus. We all know him from Oprah and honestly who doesn't love Nate? I love virtually every room he designs. It seems most of his spaces have a organic feel to them and I really love how he always incorporates the owner into the design. There is always something special in the room to make the room feel like home.

Monday, November 16, 2009

I Love Monday's!

Ok maybe it's just this Monday that has got me so excited. I was reading through my favorite blogs this afternoon and was I surprised to see my basement re-do on one of my must read blogs, Better After! Its a really fun blog that showcases readers before and after pics. I always come up with new ideas whenever I read Lindsey's postings!



Thanks Lindsey for posting my pics, although that 1st one is sure hard to look at!

I always say Happy Friday but today is for sure a Happy Monday!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Resource Friday

Friday is pay day for most of us and what do we girls like to do on payday? We like to shop! I thought I'd start a weekly postings on some of my favorite places to shop for my home. Do I get paid to toot their horn? No way! But I do think its fun to share with people great places to find beautiful things!

My first resource I'm excited to talk about is Urban Outfitters! Did you think they only sold clothes for teenagers and adults in their early 20's? No way! Their home stuff is awesome and what's even better their prices are great!

The first product is a metal accordian table that cost a measly $60.00! I'm sure you've seen this table at other stores for 5 times the price! Steal!!



This tufted headboard is $300.00 and I'm thinking it might be time to redesign my own bedroom!



Speaking of my bedroom, I actually have the next item. Its the haruki slat bench for $225.00. Its one of my favorite pieces in my house. Right now it's at the foot of my bed but this bench could easily be used as a coffee table.



Finally, having an obsession with chairs, I'm loving this charcoal dolce chair for $200.00. Can I sniff out a bargain or what? Love the style and love the color!



Happy Shopping & Happy Friday!!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Yellow Kitchens

Its been said that the color you paint your room can make you feel a certain way. Well there's been studies done that supposedly proves that a yellow kitchen helps stimulate and aids in digestion (although I never seem to have a problem eating regardless of the color) and it is also known to be a motivating color, and who couldn't use the extra help getting motivated in the morning?!


(Photo from Better Homes and Gardens)


(Photo from Country Living.com)


(Photo from House to Home U.K.)

I think all these kitchens are yummy but what do you think, do you think there's any truth to a paint color making you feel a certain way?

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Can You Tell The Difference?

One is the original Eames Molded Plastic Rocker and it's retail price is $479.00. The other is a knock off and cost only $153.99.





If you were a serious collector the real deal is a great piece to have but if you just think its a fun chair then I say go for the lesser price one so you can buy another cool piece for your room!

(The first photo is the real deal and you can find the chair at Design Within Reach.)

The second photo is the price saver from Overstock.com.)