The kitchen colors I used to want & what I want now

When I was dating Adam (my husband) I mentioned the colors I wanted my future kitchen to be while bridal gift shopping for Jess.  We were not engaged, not even really talking about marriage, but without skipping a beat he mentioned that he would close his eyes while getting his breakfast in the morning if I decorated my kitchen in those colors.  What was so appalling to him?  Orange and avocado.

I still love these colors together. . . 

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. . . but since then I've learned there is more than love when it comes to picking kitchen colors. . .

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. . . like livability and serenity. . .

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. . . So while I still love these retro colors (not to mention retro music). . .

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. . . my personal style has changed/mellowed just a little.  (Although, this picture is working hard to make me change back!)

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Now what I want for my kitchen is very clean and less demanding of attention.

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Crisp white and blue glass tile.  (Plus I love the stripe detail on the floor of the kitchen)

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Blue bead board as a backsplash.  I love this color, but I think I prefer a tile backsplash. 

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What kitchen colors are your current favorite?  :)

Obsessed with nursery design

Yeah its no secret that nursery design is kind of my favorite.  It can be sophisticated, or not.  Its always easy to find accessories, just dig through the toy box!  (That's what I did to style Olivia changing table in this post)

But here's my dilemma: You've seen how I plan to update Olivia's bedding for a boy (which is what I'm having!  I'm so good at guessing the gender of my unborn children.) but what do I do for Olivia? 

Option 1: A totally different direction.

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I've always love shabby chic design, but its not really me.  So while I don't really see it happening in the rest of my house, I've always wanted to do a little girl room in shabby chic, because its so beautiful and totally girly.

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I could just give her a room full of ruffles and pinks and flowers.  When will I have another chance?

Option 2: Stay with the aqua and brown color scheme.

I have fabric to make a toddler blanket in the aqua, and there are some accessories in Olivia's room that just wouldn't transition to a boys room.

For example, these knobs:

And the art work I've been working on very fast slowly, which I want to reveal. . . soon, fits with the aqua color scheme.

Option 3: A blend of aqua and girly, modern and ruffles.

I just found this inspiration board which is a cute blend of aqua and modern.  I don't love every thing about it, but I do love the colors and the pillows. 

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Plus, I already have that rug!!

Your thoughts?

Trust your instincts

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Back in high school I had a bag of every Crayola marker that they made.  Sadly a lot of those color sets are no longer being made.  :(  I used these markers to decorate letters that I wrote to my friends.  I was always designing new decorations and lettering styles and I really loved the pastel colors of blue and peach together.  They weren't really "in style" back in the 90's but a quick scan of pinterest shows that they are now!  If you love something, don't question if its the right thing to love.  Trust your instincts and love what you love.

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The Story of a Chair

This summer I had plans to do some decorating for my mom.  I made her a quilt for Christmas and so I originally was going to work on her master bedroom but somehow it morphed into curtains and chairs in her living room/dining area.  My sister-in-law came to help me, and thank goodness, because this is not a one person job!!  Pregnancy saps so much of my energy so we didn't get nearly as much completed as I had hoped but we did finish one of the two wingback chairs in the living room!  I used Tiffany's blog post for inspiration and tried to follow in her footsteps of using as much of the chair as possible.  We used some of the tack strips and the piping and all of the padding and cushioning.  I think that saved us a lot of money and a lot of headaches!  Here's how it all went down:

We started by removing the back.  Its important to remember how the pieces are attached.  We did the whole project in four days so that made it easier, but if you were going to spread it out over time: pictures, pictures, pictures!

Then we removed the sides.

Lots and lots of staples to remove!

You might also want to have a small vaccuum ready.  There was a lot of dust and pet hair (from the former owners, my mom doesn't have pets) from years of use built up in there.  Fun.

My dad thought we were making it look to hard.  Then he found out how hard it really was! 

Eventually we got the chair down to this.  Our padding was still in really good shape, so we didn't mess with that.  Other tutorials will tell you to take it down to the bare bones and build up with all new padding.  I say, if you don't have to don't do that!  I can't imagine how much harder that would have made this project.

This is when the project started getting exciting.  We could see the beauty start to shine through the mess and exhaustion! 

From the front you almost couldn't tell it still had a long long way to go!

 And we ended right where we started, by putting on the back of the chair.

From the side.  One thing I love about this chair is the piping.  We did it in a coordinating solid blue.  Its a little hard to tell but it really makes it pop.

I feel bad we only had time for one!  We're going to have to do the other at Christmas time (joy).  In the mean time my mom is keeping this one covered so they don't wear unevenly. 

  

We made a lot of mistakes a long the way!  But thankfully no one will ever know but us.  If you have any questions about this project feel free to email me at kimmisue22@gmail.com (yeah, yeah, my email is weird.  I'd change it if it wouldn't be such a huge hassle.)

Linking up here!!

Design Star All Stars!

I have seen every season of design star. . . more than once (we'll just leave it at that).  So yeah, I was excited to see a Design Star All Stars show!  My first and biggest hope: Sparkle Josh!!!  I said, "YES!!!" out loud, complete with punching the air when he showed up on screen.  I may not love his POV (point of view) but he is SO.  FUNNY.

Here is what they had to start out with:

But!  They said this is not a white box challenge.  Don't be confused by the white box in front of you.  This time you're going to shop at an actual furniture store.  I guess the difference is that you get to buy actual nice things instead of trying to make stuff from a grocery store or Asian market?

So here is Dan's room, the winner of this and every white box challenge ever.  (Actually, I liked his white box from his original season where they shopped at a grocery store just a tad bit more)

Everyone raved over his idea to cut out a high boy silhouette and turn it into a bookshelf.  It was just a little too crafty for me.

And here is Hilari's room, third runner up from season 7 (which aired 1 or 2 weeks ago)

Hilari knows what she is doing, especially when it comes to shopping for nice things.

That being said, her style is not my style.  I like more clean lines and she likes more luxury and glamor. 

I do think this chair is rad, though.

 

You could probably guess the designer of this room.  In fact, that would be a fun game to play.  Too bad I already watched the show and know the answers!  This room was designed by Sparkle Josh (named because there were two Joshes on his season) He was the fourth runner up on season 2 (if I remember correctly. . . )

Does anyone else feel like they need sunglasses in this room?  

I have to agree with the judges, his sofa choice was a bit off to me.  A little too frumpy for such a glam room.

This room designed by Kellie, fourth runner up on season 6.

They went on and on about these book sculptures.  Probably because that was the only thing they really liked. . . 

Yeah, too crazy for me.

This room was my personal favorite, designed by Leslie.  Leslie was also in season 6 with Kellie, but I can't remember when she went home and the internets are not being very helpful!

Vern kind of hurt my feelings when he talked about the awesome shopping center they had available so there wasn't any need for "homemade art".  I love making my own art!  And I think this piece by Leslie is modern and bold.  I would pay for it.  

I do not remember this chandelier from the episode.  Why didn't they focus on it more???  Its so awesome!

And I love this sculptural art piece.  I bet I could make something similar with rulers and pray paint.  Hello homemade art! 

Tom's room, which had the most lived in, real life design feel I think.  The space planning was something you had to be inside the room to appreciate.  From the outside I just feel like an intruder.

Loved these little sketches he hung on the wall.

In the end Kellie went home.  It was between her and Sparkle Josh and I did NOT want him to leave just yet (too funny!!) so I was glad it was her.

Which room was your favorite?