Living Room Inspiration

I haven't posted any updates to the house in a long while but they are coming. The first on deck will be my new office space that will house my greatest decor love to date. I'm so excited to finally have my own office space, bloggin' on my lap gets old really quick but I digress.

Lately, I have been loving adding more warmth to my home by way of beautiful wood. I have ALOT of white in my house and the luxuriousness of beautiful wood anchors the spaces and also provides visual interests, especially an older piece.

So, I totally was floored when I saw this image of a wood fireplace:

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How absolutely GORGEOUS is this fireplace??!! I am swooning so freakin' hard at this fireplace design.

I wonder if my living room mantle is real wood and if so, can I strip it and stain it? I already black marble on that fireplace.. I think with a little or a lot of elbow grease, I can have something equally fabulous!

This is how my current fireplace looks.. I painted it a glossy black. You can't see it from this photo but trust me, it's glossy and black. Do you think a revealing the wood on the fireplace would be fabulous?

My do-list is never ending.. I plan to remove the mirrored console and add a more seating and maybe drapes to the French doors leading to the side porch. I need to finally get around to getting an area rug, some art and more lighting in that room, it's screaming for a chandelier. *le sigh*

Sometimes I feel that my living room is overwhelming and I need to edit it down a bit. Add a little bit more Traditional.. I do love the core pieces.. the sofa, piano and coffee table.. oh and the drapes. They are boss! But maybe there's room for changing everything else. What do you think? Any suggestions?

Bathroom Remix

I'm really under the gun to get the house together as much as I can before Thanksgiving. I have friends, that's more like family, coming to stay a few days and I want their experience to be as nice as I can make it.

In addition to new bedding and temporary window coverings for the guestrooms, I have to do something with the main bathroom that everyone will use. Although, it's a new bathroom, it's totally not my style.

Bleh, what color is that on the walls?? See the Roman shade that came with the house? I should be embarrassed that it's still up but I'm not. Just have to work on changing it alot sooner than I was ready to. I have an enclosed jacuzzi tub which I HATE. It's such a waste because we never use it and I'm not a fan of enclosures like that.. especially with the brassy trim on the doors. YUCK!! Because we can't rip out that tub and wall just yet, I will have to hang a shower curtain to hide the ugly.

I need to change out that mirror and faucet fixture. I see a more prettier oval mirror and more antique-y looking faucet fixture in my immediate future. I HAVE to get rid of the paint color. It's so unfab.

I also have to get rid of that light fixture. I'm not a fan and makes it so difficult to do my makeup, it creates so many shadows. So, my thoughts are to flank an oval mirror with some nice lighting.

I'm so inspired by this bathroom look:

In addition to that fab clawfoot tub, I really love the painted "wainscoting" look and that the trim is painted black.

Considering that I have a limited budget and a time crunch, I will just paint and hang a nice shower curtain, add some fluffy towels, a pretty tray. That should be good, right?

Curtain Call

I have been looking at window treatments lately. I have no coverings on any of my windows except for one of the bathrooms and that was there when we moved in. Terrible, I know.

In my defense, I didn't want to spend money to put something up, just to turn around and take it back down once I decided what I wanted a certain room or space to look like and/or how to adorn the windows.

I've been perusing the different types of options.. panel drapes, balloon and roman drapes are standouts for me and my style.

I these looks, panel and balloon shades, separately.

I believe I want to do a roman shade or more specifically a "London" shade for the family and dining rooms. Panels for the living and breakfast rooms.

I will be working on window treatments in the living room first so here's what I'm thinking.. two different looks.


Striped panels for the French doors:

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And for framing the bay window, solid panels with an interesting trim, like these:

or this:

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I also have to choose what type of top header I want.

French Pleat

Goblet Pleat

Inverted Pleat

Parisian Pleat

I must say, I adore the Goblet Pleat.

I watched a video discussing this curtain header options and while they say that the Goblet Pleat is very formal, it just looks really fun and cute to me.



What do you think about having different window treatments in the same room?

Gilded Entry, The Remix

Much better.. I just shopped my house for accessories. I will swap items as I find them. Home Goods, here I come!!

Then I decided to jazz up the front door. I was inspired by French interiors with gold trim on the doors.

Need to get around to changing the foyer lighting.. and the family room for that matter. But I like how everything is coming along.

I think I need a rug or runner for the foyer but I have no idea what to get.

Monochromatic accessories..  Asian scholar figurine and lidded box for keys and mail. It will do for now.

Before and Afters

I finally got around to painting the fireplace. Whew.. glad that's finally over.

The fireplace before it's glamafication.

The French doors and fireplace after priming.

Finished product. It's all glossy and fabulous.

I love how the fireplace is highlighted.

 I decided not to paint the French doors black because I thought it would make the wall look shorter and my goal is to make everything look as spacious as possible.

While I was at it, I used some spray paint to paint the circle end tables. I had never spray painted anything before and now that I have.... I LOVE IT!!! I wanna spray paint EVERYTHING!! I almost spray painted our garbage cans gold, too. We would have had the fanciest garbage cans in the neighborhood.

The obsession begins...

Love the result!

So much better!

Me likey!

 I still have to work on a vignette for the fireplace and the mirrored console. I want to add a circular mirror for over the fireplace to repeat the circles in the tables. Beyond that, I need to study glam vignettes that I have in my inspiration folders and glean a look from there.

I'm going to order our custom sofa and sectional next week. YEAAAAA! I can't wait to finally have a sofa in the living room. Still want a daybed too.. not sure if I will go the custom route or get this one from Macy's.

Can I Have?

I know I'm beating the same drum but this is yet another post about the house.. which the Husband and I, loving call, "Sugarcube".  Backstory: The name came about when I saw my dream, dream house about 3 years ago.. and the street it was on was called Sugarloaf. It was waaaaay out of our budget.. even in our dream budget.

When we found our current house, my Hubby asked me if it was a dream, dream house... I told him, just one dream.. he said, well it can be our Sugarcube.

Ok, trolling the internet is bad for one's health.. the health of the bank account. I've seen some really great things, that in time, I want to add to our humble abode. Wanna see?

I saw this Chinoiserie door and I want something similiar:

 

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I found these double doors on 1st Dibs.. the price wasn't too bad. I may get them in put them away until I figure out where I'd like them. Let the hoarding begin!

 I have always loved and wanted a ram's head base desk. They are so incredibly chic.. I can't stand it!

While a desk is not in my immediate future, this little side table may be:

I just love this little table!! I love the juxtaposition of the lucite top and the rustic looking base. A great, unique piece. I like that it's sculptural yet functional. 

Speaking of tables, I think I have found a stone table for the patio. I found this on the CL and I'm trying to work the price down because I know I will pay handsomely for someone to transport this 500 pounder to my house.

Lastly, (for this post) I have been DYING to find this chandelier that I have been head over heels for since I first saw it on HBO series, True Blood. I could not find any photos of it on the web and had to resort posting a video.. It's not long... check out the foyer chandelier at :36.



LOVE!!!  Can anyone tell me where to find that beautiful lighting?

Virtual Decorating

Wish I could show you photos of the completed painting of the house but I can't because we're STILL not done. I think my molding is breeding and making more molding because seriously, it seems never-ending. *sigh*

But it's coming along, seemingly we're almost done. Then, we can slap on the black paint for the doors and living room fireplace and we'll finally be done. Well, there's still the kitchen but we're gonna use a paint sprayer for that.

Today, I turn my attention to the family room. This room will be decidedly more masculine and dark, as opposed to the light and airy and diva-likeness of the living room. The family room will be where everyone congregates because of it's proximity to the kitchen. So, I'm keeping durability and wear in mind. With that said, I still want that room to have a glamorous feel.

This is my inspiration:

Fab room by Atmosphere

 

LOVE THIS ROOM!!!

So, my take aways for my family room are how they have a white fireplace, that they take the color all the way to the ceiling. We will be doing that. If you remember, our fireplace has this great white marble with gray and black veining... I think it's gonna be pretty cool.

Still debating the accent color(s) of the room but more than likely it will be in the gray family, to keep that element throughout the house.

I love the scones they used in this room and I want those:

I already have an armchair that is currently glossy black and patent leather:

But I'm thinking of reupholstering it in a pattern to bring some movement into the room, like this:

Another item I love in this room are the lamps. LOVE THESE!!

I have my eye on a couple of lamps that's similar. Can't wait to get my hands on them!

The last item I want for the family room is this:

Crocodile embossed leather flooring, in black, of course. I think this flooring will make me do a happy dance every time I see it.

Doors Noir

I haven't posted any updates about the house because, well... not much has been going on. The only thing we've been working on is painting the trim because when the house was painted, the trim was not. And there's ALOT of trim. Just to give you an idea of how much.. we've gotten quotes of 7k, just to paint the freakin' trim.

Needless to say, we've been trying to tackle the task. It's been slow going because neither of us have tons of time to dedicate to it. It's a little frustrating but it will get done.

In addition to the trim, I've decided I want the doors painted black. At first, we agreed on just the front door and I just love the chicness of the look...glossy and black:

These doors are so fierce and the brass hardware in the center, just sings!

 

Now, I'm considering replacing all the doors in the house and painting those black as well. It will certainly pop against the all white walls.

These are the doors I'm considering:

And they will look like this after applying some glossy, oil based paint goodness:

So pretty!

These are fab too:

I love these rustic doors, the texture is awesome and the black makes it modern.