Friday 14 December 2012

2013 Pantone Colour of the Year

If you haven't heard, Pantone's Colour of the Year for 2013 is...emerald!  While I've been enjoying the emerald green fashion I've seen coming out,  I admit my initial reaction wasn't excitement.  But after I looked around a bit and saw it in a few decor shots, it's grown on me.  

Emerald green isn't the only big colour of the year of course.  Blues are still huge from last year.  Especially green blues and bright blues.  Yellow is still in too.  But emerald is expected to be the colour to take off.

So if you're not feeling it, here are some images to get you in the emerald frame of mind!
















 
Look at that!  My Christmas trees on trend!

Keeping it Real, No Apologies

Something I've noticed in the last month and a half of doing in home consultations, is just about every home I go to, they apologize.  I find it completely unnecessary of course but whether it's the unfinished state of a room or the toys that didn't get picked up, they feel the need to apologize for the current state of their home.
I understand, don't get me wrong!  I've done it too.  But I kind of wonder if they do it because they assume I will be disguisted with their kids toys or their wood panelling.  Maybe they assume that because my job is to make rooms beautiful, that I live in a beautiful perfect home and will find theirs horrible?
I have to laugh a little inside when they're apologizing and think,  "If only they could see my house!"

So here's a little background; We have lived in this house for just over two years.  We needed a larger house because we wanted another baby and lived in a tiny starter house with no basement or garage.  We considered renovating, RTMs, and building but none really worked well for our situation.  When we were looking there were two houses for sale that fit our needs.  They both needed a lot of work and updating, so it was a bit of a toss up but price and space ended up being the decision maker.
We have been slowly trying to make our way through it but with me being at home with the kids and going to school, budget and time has been on the slim side. 

So here I am, keeping it real and letting you all see some of the undecorated and unrenovated spaces of my home!  eeek

 
Here's my unfinished basement.  It still needs flooring, baseboards, trim around the windows and to be decorated.  The basement is a family room/playroom, although the kids spend far more time down there than we do.  It's mostly mismatched hand me down furniture and random area rugs to cover the bare floors.  I have plans to put down wood look flooring, paint, put up shelving for all the kids toys and of course new furniture for the family room.  However that is not happening immediately, so I dream for now :)  Notice I didn't clean up the kids toys...keeping it real!

 
My dream kitchen!  Or not.  It's big, has lots of storage, and it's easy to work in but it definitely isn't my idea of a good looking kitchen.  I would like white shaker style cabinets, butcher block counter tops, subway tile backsplash, a cute pendant and roman blinds over the sink.  And just about any floors would be better than the faux brick lino.
 
 
 
Embarassed of your wood panelling?  Here's the wall of wood in our master!  She's a beaut!  All of the bedrooms and the dining room had these walls of wood.  This is the last surviving one!  They take a pile of work to sand down and paint but look a million times better afterwards.  We did put new floors in because I couldn't handle the faux pink marble floors that were in here but otherwise the master has gone untouched.  Hopefully this summer it will get done!
 
Master Bedroom


 This is the moodboard I made for my master a few months ago.  We'll see if I don't tweak it a bit before it actually gets done.  I've got the chair, bedding and new side tables already but I have this thing about collecting everything for the room and then installing it all at once. 
 


 
And my original 50's bathroom!  The mint is back and I don't mind all the glass walls actually but everything is starting to get pretty worn down and showing it's age.
 

 
This is much closer to my dream bathroom!  On the list of things to save for.
 
 
So the point of this post? I love beautiful rooms and designing them but I live in reality,  just like all of you.  So no apologies needed!


Monday 3 December 2012

Natural Christmas

I've been trying to simplify Christmas around my house slowly over the last couple of years.  I think having kids has made the mad dash in the mall less exciting and more stressful.  So my goal has been to cut out a lot of the stressful and more commercialized stuff that I used to love and do more "experience" based things with my kids to make the holidays fun.  Stuff like building a gingerbread house (todays activity), sledding, skating, planning DIY gifts we can make together, and making homemade ornaments and decorations. 

Incidentally, we seem to be on trend!  I have noticed a huge amount of stuff on Pinterest and in "blog land" about going back to homemade and simplified holidays.  I think people are remembering when they were kids and the simple, fun things they did with their families.

So in keeping with what my family has been up to, I've collected some gorgeous homemade decorating ideas that are made from items you can collect in your backyard! 
Wouldn't that be a great afternoon with your kids or grandkids!  Going out to collect everything, then having a decorating party with crockpot hotchocolate and some warm buttery popcorn and homemade cookies,mmmm...sorry, love my food!  I don't know about you but that sounds like more fun than the aisles of Walmart to me.

So feast your eyes on some of this naturally beautiful decor!



Source: flickr.com via Kirsten on Pinterest




 

Source: google.com via Kirsten on Pinterest


Source: bhg.com via Kirsten on Pinterest




Source: bhg.com via Kirsten on Pinterest


Source: bhg.com via Kirsten on Pinterest




Source: bhg.com via Kirsten on Pinterest

I hope that inspires you and is maybe a reminder that you can have a gorgeous holiday that doesn't have to come out of a store or cost you anything.  Happy holiday season to everyone!