Inspiration Boards

Even though we are new-house-less, I've been compiling mood boards for the new house that we'll have (someday).  I find that it really helps to have an overall view of what you're going for - a big picture.  That way you can see how things will go together and plan for a cohesive look throughout the room, and from one room to another.

We did this all the time in design school.  In the old days, we'd pour through catalogs and magazines, carefully using Xacto knives to cut out photos of furniture and accessories, and glue them down to foam core boards with actual fabric samples, paint chips, and wood finishes.

These days, it's way easier to do it all digitally.  You can hunt around online for limitless options for furnishings and materials, copy and paste the photo and resize and crop as needed.

I use Powerpoint to do all of mine.  It's what we used when I worked at the Giant Cabinet Conglomerate for our photography sets, and it's what I continue to use now for my personal life.

So far, I only have three rooms finished for our (someday) new house: the kitchen, dining, and living rooms.  I started with these because they are all in the same area, all open to each other, so I wanted to make sure I had consistent themes throughout.

These three rooms have several common elements:

1.  Wood planks and beams on the ceiling.  I want to paint them all white, to give the whole area a county cottagey vibe.  Tongue-and-groove planks are easy to install with construction adhesive and a nail gun, and the beams are just 2x4s installed on top.

2.  Dark-stained hardwood flooring.  I'd really like to have wide planks, with some knotty texture (like oak) that will show through the espresso or walnut colored stain.  I also want high-shine on them, so that they will reflect natural light, visually expanding the floorspace.  The dark finish will also help to create the illusion of depth, since dark colors recede visually and contribute to the open feeling I'm going for.

3.  Jute rugs.  Rugs help to define areas, create a cozy spot for furniture to sit and gather on, and add visual texture.  This is a big way to bring natural elements into your home.  The photo I used is from Ballard Designs, who has a really wide variety of sizes at good prices. 

4.  Rustic metal.  In addition to the wood floors and jute rugs, I plan to use a lot of weathered, aged metal through accessories.  A good example is my old milk crates.  I also like the look of galvanized steel, like on these chairs from Crate and Barrel.  The help to lend the rustic vibe I'm going for, and will hold up for a really long time.  The leather couch is the Austin Leather Sofa from Pottery Barn, and I really like the way the dark color of the leather will contrast with the jute rug it will sit on, then echo the dark hardwood floor underneath.  This is a basic principle of design called repetition - repeating a similar color, texture or shape contributes to overall harmony in a room.

Don't be afraid to mix finishes in metals, too.  I always used to be so matchy-matchy and thought that all of the metal finishes have to be the same.  Not true!  I love a lot of different finishes, and you'll notice that I have brushed nickel in the kitchen (pendant lighting, pulls and faucet), rusty metal (milk crates, wire baskets and base of the coffee table), and black iron (in the light fixture for the foyer and the chandelier for the dining room).

I can't wait to post the rest of the rooms once I've got them all done.  Earlier this year, we purchased a bed and two dressers from Ikea, so I need to work those into the master bedroom board, and work with our existing couch for the finished basement.  Lord knows I'd love to go out and buy all brand new things, but that's just not the way life works, folks.  Creative interior design comes from using what you already have and with the budget you have, no matter how restrictive it is!

Rustic Chalet

So the house that we'd put the offer in for back in early July has fallen through - for now.  The current owners have been going back and forth trying to get full rights to sell the house in order to avoid having to be in the same room together, so that whole deal is in limbo right now.

We've continued looking and are going to see one tonight.



Listing photo

It's a chalet-style house and has a lot, I mean A LOT of interior wood.  It's a little overwhelming.

Listing photo

And the kitchen is tiny, as you can see in the photo above.  According to the Sibcy Cline listing, it's only 9' x 9'.  I'm going to take field measurements when we go look at it tonight to be sure.

I've been exploring options for this house today, mainly for what to do with all that wood.  I like the wood as a textural element, but think the walls need to be painted white. 

Layla from The Lettered Cottage has a great post with a reader question who has a guest bedroom that looks just like this house.

Image from The Lettered Cottage

The reader's husband doesn't want to lose the look of the original wood, so she suggested a few options.  Read the full article here.

This was my favorite solution, and the option I would do with the house.

Image from The Lettered Cottage

I like this image the best because it keeps the wood on the floor and ceilings, and you would still get the texture of the individual boards and the woodgrain even with painting the walls white.  Plus, the house gets a lot of natural light, and the addition of our existing white furniture and light-colored accessories would help to brighten things up.

Listing Photo

The above image shows just how much beautiful natural lighting the living room and kitchen area get.  I also love the open floorplan and the open staircase. 

Another great feature of this house is the lot.

Listing Photo

It sits on 1.27 acres off of a country road, just outside the city limit of Lebanon, Ohio.  The acreage is mostly flat, with the exception of the walk-out basement you see here.  It has a line of mature trees that border the lot to the east, to block traffic from the nearby highway.  I'd say 1.27 acres is plenty of room for a few chickens!

I really hope that this one is as good in person as it is on the website.  Who knows, by the end of the night, we might have put in an offer on it!

Wish us luck!

She's Gone Country!

Oh how things change with time and maturity!

As we get older and our lives change, so follows the evolution of our style and design philosophies.  Once the pets and kids come along, ultra-modern furniture no longer seems practical or comfortable.  Soon we're concerned about the scrub-ability of the fabrics we're choosing, and after a long day working, want to come home to relax on a sofa we can really sink into.

I think it's ironic that since moving to "the city" my own personal style has drifted more into the Country / Rustic genres, and I'm more concerned about incorporating natural materials and colors into every room.

I've realized that living in a home that's filled with only man-made, modern objects can feel sterile and unwelcoming.  So to bring the nature in, I've been incorporating a lot of natural and found elements into each room:




Deer Horn with Driftwood in a Jar




Gnarly Driftwood in the Bedroom

Abalone Shells Collected from the Little Miami River

I've also been buying a lot of antiques lately.  Adding items that have lived a life before you encountered them adds history and a sense of rustic comfort to a house.  I really like looking for antique crates and baskets to help corral the everyday items that can get disorganized easily.  Plus, they tend to be cheap, so you can pick up multiples at one time.

I have an antique metal milk crate in the bedroom that keeps all my magazines and catalogs together.  Then when it's time to recycle, I can just take the crate outside.



Milk Crate Magazine Holder

I also picked up a couple of wooden crates at the Tri-State Antique Market to keep around the house as organizers.

This one is a cranberry crate and it sits just outside the kitchen so we can kick off our flip-flops before walking on the carpet.  Plus it hides our dirty shoes and looks a lot better than having them sitting out on the floor.



Cranberry Crate for Shoes

The Schweppes crate I picked up because it says "Cinti, Ohio" and is from the factory here in town.  Plus, I loves my gin + tonics with some Schweppes.

I don't have anything in the crate just yet, but when we get the house I think it'll go in the kitchen to hold either recyclables or potatoes and onions. 

The basket sitting on top of the crate is from the Newtown Farm Market and it was just $0.99.  I use it when I go out to the garden to pick vegetables.

So I've decided to call my new mix of styles:

"Modern Rustic Vintage"

Because it incorporates my persistant preference for shiny surfaces and clean lines and simplified forms (Modern), the new addition of varied textures like worn wood, natural fibers, patina metal and muted colors (Rustic), and antiques or items that have been used as something else in the past (Vintage).

It may not seem important to define one's style, but it helps to focus your vision a bit, in order to make sure that what you add to your home becomes a cohesive element and works with items you already have. 

Styles change and people change, but I think that this is a design theme that I'll have for a really long time, since it allows for a lot of flexibility and changing out of indiviual items to freshen things up every so often.

Happy antique hunting!

Finally! A Plant I Can Manage!

I will admit it freely: I am notoriously bad with plants of any kind.  Indoor, outdoor, in a pot, in the ground - it doesn't matter - it won't live long in my care. 

My past experiences seem to have no effect on my perpetual need to have something green around the house.  So earlier this spring I headed off to the Home Depot and grabbed 12 cute little hot pink geraniums for just $0.88 each.  I bought two planters to put on the front porch and a couple of smaller pots for my office and the kitchen.

Here's what they look like now:

Geranium in my office.  At least it still has SOME flowers, right?

(Here's a link to the cute robin's egg blue pot in the photo above, just in case you were wondering.)




Geraniums Beware!

 

My biggest problem has always been remembering to water them.  I am usually really good about doing it for the first 2 - 3 weeks and then they're on their own.  I occasionally remember here and there, but I've just never been able to adhere to a watering routine.
Like everyone else in the design world right now, I've been seeing terrariums everywhere.  These are just simple plantings in glass containers with a few succulents and some rocks.  Finally something I could manage, since succulents are arid climate plants and only need to be watered every two weeks.

The instructions I used to plant my terrariums are from Martha Stewart's website, which you can find here.

Martha's Terrarium

Below is a picture of my terrariums when I finished planting them:

3 Lovely Terrariums!

And here is a closeup:

I already had the largest vase, and picked up the other two for less than a dollar each at a thrift store.  I decided to go with all cylinders, to keep the shapes similar, but to vary the height, knowing that I was going to put them in a grouping together on my coffee table.

For the river rock, I used actual stones I gathered from the Little Miami, about two blocks from my house.  But you can buy river stones from the garden center at Home Depot.  I used Miracle Gro's Cactus, Palm and Citrus Soil, also purchased from Home Depot.  I used a comination of Echeveria and Mimicry species.

These little beauties have lasted all summer long with very little watering.  They are also an idea for an easy hostess or housewarming gift.

Finding the Prince

So the old saying about kissing frogs before you find the prince is true.  After many months of intrepid searching, countless drive-bys and peeking in windows - not to mention the hours spent on Realtor.com - we've found a house!

Our (Hopefully!) Soon-to-be New House

This is the realtor's photo from the website, so it's not the greatest quality, but it gives you an idea.  Of course, the current owners haven't been keeping up with the yard, and this photo was taken at the end of February, so it looks totally different now.

We offered them considerably less than their asking price for a couple of reasons:

1.  They haven't mowed all summer long and the yard is going to have to be mowed by professionals with a tractor.
2.  There are door jambs and mouldings that are either missing chunks because their dog ate them, or from severe weather damage, both of which could have been prevented.
3.  There is a large hole in the drywall in the basement.  The couple is getting a divorce (which is why they're selling the house), so maybe the hole is a result of a late-night domestic dispute???
4.  They took the shower heads with them in both bathrooms.  Apparently this happens frequently, because our realtor wasn't suprised by this.
5.  There is a large piece of metal flashing that is missing from the roofline above the garage that will need to be replaced.

They countered with the asking price.  Jerks.

After some debating, more looking, and hoping they'd change their mind, we decided to just accept their counter offer and pay the full asking price.  Why?  Because we're convinced that we won't find anything we love more that is in this price range with this location and lot.

Some of my favorite features:

1.  Open floorplan with entry, living, dining and kitchen all together.

The Kitchen

2.  Gas fireplace in the living room.
3.  Vaulted ceiling in the living room / dining room area.

The Kitchen, Open to the Dining Room

Vaulted Ceiling in the Living Room

4.  It has a full finished (dry!) basement.  A super bonus considering it's out in the country and I hate storms.  No more sitting in a dark wet basement riding the storm out!

Finished Basement (Looks Scary Now, but Just Wait!)

5.  It's on a 1.3 acre lot out in the country on a very quiet gravel road.  Ahh, tranquility!  And chickens!
6.  But the thing I like most about the house is that I can see the potential of how amazing it could be with some lovin' and sweat.  It has great lighting and space, and those are rare attributes amongst any of the houses we've seen.

So naturally, I've already started planning.  We've got to get some of the basics out of the way first - like some major landscaping and patching and repairing - before I get to have a whole lotta fun.

Driftwood DIY

Saving for a house never keeps me from getting something I want to buy.  I just have to figure out a way to do it myself.

Exhibit A: Cute driftwood pieces that I saw while trolling Etsy.  I particularly liked the idea of doing hooks for our back door, since we're in a little rental house without a good place to drop dog leashes, purses, jackets or anything really.  So I saw this little gem:

This one is listed at $40.00 on Etsy.

Since we live about a block away from the river, I now have easy access to a driftwood supply.  I actually found the piece that I used for my own hanger at the lake one day.  My version is below:

Not too rustic, since I used new hooks from Lowe's, but that's totally my style:  Modern Updated Classic, with a touch of the Old / Found / Picked.  Total cost for this project:

3 Hooks: $6.84

Hanging Hardware: about $3.00

Driftwood:  Free

Total: about 10 bucks.

Exhibit B:



A lovely driftwood jewelry hanger to display my necklaces.  This one is listed on Etsy at $25.00

Mine is pictured below:

And a closer shot to show the hooks:

I used picture hangers screwed into the back of the piece to hold it on the wall, giving it a floating apprearance.  I didn't want to be able to see the hanging hardware when you're looking at it, so that the focus is on the jewelry.  The hooks are cup hooks, which have the little screw end, so you just tap them in a little with a hammer and screw the rest of the way in.

The overall length of the piece is right at 18", so I allowed for 1" of space between the cup hooks. That gave me a few inches of space on either end for visual balance.  I ended up with 13 hooks total.

Total cost for this project:

16 Hangers (they come in packs of 4): $3.92

Mounting hangers for the back: $1.94

$5.86

Of course, lots of people are selling driftwood as accent pieces for display.  The smaller piece I'm just using as a decorative item.

 

See what to do with a long piece here.

For now, this piece is going to just hang out under our little console desk at the rental house, until we find a real home to display it in - either over a doorway or on the fireplace mantel.

So what's the next driftwood project?

Although I've seen a lot of them, driftwood mirrors just aren't my style, as much as I love Pottery Barn.  (Maybe that's why it's on clearance . . . )

I need to find a huge chunk to turn into a table base.  I've even got the glass ready for it.  I had a piece that was a desktop I've since gotten rid of.  But the top was 3/8" thick glass, with polished edges, so I couldn't let go of it.  The cost of the glass alone would have been around $100, so it was worth holding on to.

See my inspiration for the driftwood coffee table here.

So go out and get yourself some *free* home decor.  And even if you don't find any good pieces to use, a walk in the sunshine along the shore is never time wasted.

Happy driftwood hunting!

House Hunters: Cincinnati

We're back!  And in a new state.  Literally.

The hubs got a new job, so we sold our house we worked so hard making cute, and packed up our stuff and moved to Cincinnati.

The hunt for the next house is officially on, and we have six months to find it.  For some reason, the "gotta kiss a few frogs . . . " saying keeps coming to mind.

We saw one house (see below) last Sunday that looked so promsing: right on the river, old architectural details, and Southern charm.  But it was priced at twice its value and had a crumbling foundation (don't ever buy a house with spongey spots in the floor).

Too bad we weren't the perfect buyers for it.  I hope it makes someone else very happy.