Picking Paint Colours

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So you want to add a little pizazz to your space.  The easiest way to do that is with paint.  We've all been there, right?!  You head down to your local paint store full of excitement and there it is.  The giant wall of colour choices.  Where on earth is one supposed to start anyway?  After all, there isn't just white but there are 25 different shades of white - some with yellow undertones, green undertones and even red undertones.  It can be so intimidating for sure!  I haven't painted a ton in my life but I have picked up a few valuable tips along the way to help narrow down the choices.

1.  start with the experts - I've found that many designers have a few colours that they use over and over.  I figure they have go-to colours for a reason so why not start there.  Candice Olson recently partnered with Benjamin Moore and put together her top 5 favourite neutrals.  They are a great place to start when trying to decide on specific colours and let's face it they are just plain beautiful.  Click the picture below to see more about her great picks.

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2.  use the fabrics from the room as a jumping off point 

This is fabric I'm considering for my dining room chairs.  The lighter blue and the white were "pulled out" of the fabric and used as the paint colours on the wall.  I think this fabric would look fun as chair upholstery and tie the whole dining area together without looking too matchy-matchy.  You could then pull out the darker blue/black and use that colour as accents in the room - candle holders and picture frames would be a great place to start. 

3.  don't be bashful - use those suggestion cards at the paint store.  Hey, there's no shame in using these little booklets and they are a really great way to know what colours to put together. (unfortunately, I don't have a pictures of one of those little gems).

Here is the MOST IMPORTANT TIP ever!  

Always, Always, Always paint a large square sample of paint on the wall in the room where it will be used.

I can't tell you how many blue colours we went through before we decided to go with Cloudy Sky in our bedroom.  Seeing the paint in the actual lighting of the room will bring out its undertones.  Believe it or not, the undertones that come out can actually change the colour.  At first, I wanted to use the ever popular Cloud White by Benjamin Moore.  Once I painted it on the wall I quickly saw that, in our lighting, the paint turned light green.  Uh...that wasn't the look I was going for.  I eventually settled on Atrium White because it stayed white in our lighting.  

Save your time and money - do a test patch!

Happy paint picking everyone!  I promise there are more pictures to come but there's a bunch of furniture in the way so it may take a bit.  Patience - at least that's what I keep telling myself anyway.

Holiday Decorating - Christmas table centerpiece

It's official! The boxes have been brought into the house and ornaments unpacked.  That's when I discovered how dreadfully old and tacky some of my decorations are.  Yikes!  What was I thinking?  I bought most of them when I had my first place right out of college.  I didn't have much money so they did the job.  I was also the only one making the decisions on which ornaments to pick and what look I was going for.  Much has changed since then and now Mr. D has ideas and opinions to add to the mix.  Since we have been together our colour scheme has evolved to include apple green.  I would never have picked that colour myself but I wanted to make sure to honor Mr. D's request so apple green it was.

The time I have for decorating and all of that fun stuff is pretty limited and things just work best during little D's nap time or bedtime.  I started by shopping in my closet picking any container that might hold ornaments or other decorative items.  Here's what I came up with.

Before 

These are the supplies I gathered.  I'm sure I won't use all of them but it's helpful to try different pieces as I go.  The majority of glass containers are the same height so I'll show you a little trick I learned to help add some dimension.

I found little bowls in my cupboard that I turned upside down, covered with white fabric (fabric napkins) and placed the glass containers on top which added dimension to the height.

This year I chose to keep the colour scheme pretty tight so I picked my apple green and silver ornaments.  I tried to add interest by picking different sized ornaments but that was only in the silver coloured ones.  I think I'll work on adding to the apple green collection with some patterned ornaments and also trying to find different sizes.  

I tried to make sure that I did not put containers next to each other that were the same height so the bowls under the napkins came in really handy.  I also tried to make sure I put the green ornaments in spots throughout the arrangement.  That helps the eye to move all around the arrangement without getting stuck in one place.  I also tried to remember to use odd numbers and ended up using three candles, three containers with green ornaments and three containers with silver ornaments.  I would like to add some fake snow to some of the containers but I think I got rid of what I had so I'll need to pick some up.  Until then have some fun shopping in your own closet and decorating your own tables.  

Happy closet shopping!

Living Room Make-Over

Living room Status Update:

For the last few months I've been focusing my attention on adding a more personal touch to my living room.  It's the room we spend most of our time in watching movies, playing with little dude, watching t.v., folding laundry, and storing things that have no other home.  The whole storing things with no home in the living room is not going to continue...eventually everything will have a home (or at least I keep telling myself that).  I really want my living room to be comfortable, uncluttered and to feel pulled together.  Due to budget constraints we will be keeping the key pieces of furniture in the room and I'm kind of excited about that.  It means I get to put my creative juices to work to figure out how to make them work and to look fabulous.  Eventually, the plan is to ditch the massive corner t.v. cabinet and replace the whole thing with a wall-mounted flat screen t.v.  That will give me so many more options for arranging the furniture because it isn't dictated by the t.v. in the corner.  Until then, this is what we've got to work with and I think it will work out great.

When I start to think about a decorating project I usually like to take stock of what I've got to work with before I get started.  This way, I can start crossing things off my list right away and I can also see where I'm going to need to focus my resources.  Here's what's going on in my living room.

This couch doesn't look like much but it's so comfy.  We don't have the money to replace them so we are happy to use them.  I think eventually I'd like to make slip covers for them but that may be later on down the road.










Furniture & accessories in the room:

- two really comfy brown chenille couches
- 8 throw pillows (that came with the couches but are losing their fluff)
- 1 upholstered rectangular ottoman in desperate need of recovering
- 1 piano
- 1 book shelf
- 1 giant buffet/storage piece

Lighting:
- it's pretty HORRIBLE and dark - YUCK!
- 1 ugly ceiling fan with lights
- 1 table lamp complete with yellowed shade

We need storage help!

Other Challenges:
- the living room is a walk-through to get from one side of the house to the other so there needs to be a clear path
- the lighting is HORRIBLE...did I already mention that?!
- we would like to have as much seating as possible
- zero storage (except for the buffet but that holds all of my dining room type stuff)
- all of the wood furniture, wait, ALL of the furniture is dark.  Add that to a dark room and sometimes my living room feels like a cave.  I'd like it to feel more like an open oasis.

So there you have it - the good, the bad and the ugly.  I'm not really sure how this is going to work out but I'm excited to put my creativity to work for us and to make our dream a reality.

Decor 101 - What's the vibe?

Photo from my honeymoon in the Bahamas.

Happy Tuesday!  Thursday?! 

Isn't it amazing how time just seems to fly right on by?!  Life can get so hectic and demanding but one thing I've realized is that down-time, for me, is like a breath of fresh air.  Mr. D has a very demanding job with no set schedule so when things ramp up for him, we slip into non-essential mode.  The thing is, I've come to learn that even in non-essential mode I need to have a creative outlet.  That's why I've taken on adding some style to our home.  Thinking and planning is where I recharge and, well, it's just plain fun.  So I'm excited that you've joined me as I begin this slow but exciting process.  



Photo from the Bahamas

Are you picking up part of the theme yet?

Getting started:

What's the vibe?

Starting a whole-house project like this is very daunting and for my detail-oriented mind it can get down right overwhelming.  The first thing I usually do is think about what vibe I want the space to have.  Since it's our own home, that means talking with Mr. D and then thinking about what I want people to feel when they come visit.  Mr. D is pretty relaxed about things and because he has such a crazy-busy job he really likes/needs to relax.  Often, Saturdays are sleep in/watch movies/play with little dude kind of days so it's safe to say our life is pretty casual.  Mr. D is also very sentimental and connected to his family so I'm excited to bring that element into our home.  I'm not really sure what that's going to look like yet but I know we'll come up with something fab. 

One of my favourite places is the beach and since we live in beach vacation land I thought it would be fun to give our home a beachy vibe.  I'm talking more Nantucket-ish, not so much South Beach.  I also have a more "classic" side to me that my sis-in-law likes to call Preppy.  No matter how hard I try I always go back to it (yes, little dude has a few brighthly coloured polos...) because it was influenced by my low-key West Coast upbringing.  The fun challenge will be to find just the right mix of Nantucket beachy and West Coast polished.  Yep, those are definitely the technical terms and I think I've got my work cut out for me!

Next time we will talk about inspiration but for now here are a few pictures that I'm loving.

* photos courtesy of Coastal Living

                                             

...one more thing - Don't you just love all of the bold fabrics?  I'm  loving the bold stripes and I just might need to keep my eyes open for fabric for my space. 

Decor 101 - Decorating in Odd Numbers

I have always thought it would be fun to have a professional designer come into my home and help to make it look fabulous.  But the reality is, it's just not gonna happen.  Instead, I've made it my goal to learn as much as I can about decorating tricks and tips so I can bring a cohesive feel to my own space.  It's actually kind of fun once you get going with it and I always find that inspiration starts rolling once I take the first step.  The main thing to remember is that it's ok to make "mistakes" because you can always change things around.  That's really the beauty of doing it yourself - you can have confidence to change it whenever you want.  Let's take a look at decorating in odd numbers.

I first learned about this decorating concept from my friend's mother.  Until she pointed out to me that she made sure to group things in odd numbers, I had never really noticed it before.  After she pointed it out I began to notice that my eye was drawn to odd numbered groupings.  Let me just say that my own goal in decorating my space is to make it pleasing to my own eye.  If grouping something in odd numbers doesn't look great to me then I change it.  It's not a hard and fast rule for me but I always start there.

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 This picture shows a couple of things:

1.  there are 3 pillows on the couch and though two are brightly coloured and one is white, they still come across as an odd numbered group

2.  the brown horse picture, the dark wood nesting tables and the dark wood coffee table read as a grouping because of the similar colour.  It causes your eye to move from one to the other which groups them in your mind's eye. 

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In this photo:

1.  the 3 pillows on the couch are related by colour even though two are patterned and one is solid

2.  the 7 plates on the wall are arranged in such a way that they come across symmetrically and all relate to each other with various shades of the same yellow and blue

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I just love how the 5 pillows on the couch are similar in colour but just different enough to add some visual interest.

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These 3 items, though very different in form, group together nicely because they are similar in colour.

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The 3 metal vases on the coffee table look beautiful grouped together.

Have fun arranging your own objects!

                                         
...one more thing...  remember, don't be bashful - change things up if you don't like how things look the first time!