House Inspiration

My sister Therese came over yesterday and introduced me to Pinterest.  I had heard of it and knew what it was, but I hadn't let myself use it because I could envision myself getting addicted.  Sure enough, I am hooked!

The downstairs bath, right off the kitchen, is probably going to be the celery green color in the top left.  I love the wainscoting too.  The cabinets below are like the ones we've ordered, but I like the idea of doing the black mirror with it.

I'm going for a really calm and serene look in the master bedroom.  I love the bottom left picture.  I tend to think of tan walls as boring walls, but with big white trim, it looks really crisp!  I thought the canvas prints below were a great idea too- the girl that made these used the lyrics from her wedding song to make the prints.  We have green and brown bedding right now, but *hopefully* I'll work getting an all white set into the budget. 

Nathan and I are moving into our house in March and have been renovating it from top to bottom.  Nathan actually bought it before we were even engaged, and in the past two years has done some work to it.  But we weren't sure that we even wanted to live there (it's pretty far out in the country, and more than an hour from where I teach my students) and we had been continually debating about whether to fix it up and move in, sort-of fix it up and rent it out, or sell it.  Well, in December, we decided we were tired of paying rent and two sets of utilities, and we would move in the last week of March.  Nathan has been spending all of his extra time there, and things are really starting to come together.  I'm so proud of how he isn't overwhelmed by the big project- he's so good at going step-by-step, tackling one small project at a time.  For most things, he's learning as he goes, and it's really turning out great!

With the decorating end of the job falling to me (it's a fun job!), Pinterest seems like it's going to be an inspirational help, and maybe a little waste of time.  Our home is a century-old farmhouse, and I hope by keeping the furnishings themed around clean lines and simplicity, it will still feel somewhat like a farmhouse when we're done.  I'd also like the home to lean towards being modern, but not so much that it feels cold.

In the kitchen, I'm going with cabinets very similar to those below.  Most of the top cabinets will have clear glass doors.  The actual cabinets are square and simple.  The main question for me is what color to paint the kitchen walls.  I like the robin egg blue above with red, but wonder if I'd get tired of it.  I could also paint it a nice neutral color like in the above right.  I was originally thinking of painting it an orangish-red color (not cranberry red), but since Nathan doesn't love dark walls and the kitchen is a part of the house we will both be spending a lot of time in, I nixed that idea.  The other question is whether to use a normal table in the kitchen, or build a booth, something like pictured below.

Isaac and Eva driving home with me a few weeks ago.  My car was getting worked on, so the dealership had loaned me a 2012 version of my car.  The kids were going on about different features they really liked about this car, how nice it was, and how I should buy it.  I told them that it would cost a lot of money to buy the car, so I'd just keep driving mine for a few more years.  Then they wanted to know how much I meant when I said it would be a lot of money, and I told them probably $25,000.  "Oh my!" Isaac said, "For that  much money, you could make your house civilized!"

The front porch is going to be our storage/entrance room.  I love the color of the bathroom for the porch, and since it has lots of windows, it shouldn't be too dark.

 We aren't going to buy cabinets in the laundry room for now, and I thought these were great ideas of shelves and things we could do ourselves.

Yes, our house isn't quite "civilized" yet, but hopefully by the time we move in, we'll be on our way towards that with cabinets, finished drywall and refinished wood floors.  The new windows are mostly in, and the siding/guttering/soffeting will be finished in a month or so.  The rest of the things won't be such a big deal to do while we live there...and I'll just be glad to have the super dusty projects out of the way.  Some of the ideas in these pictures are far into the future, and others are things we can do right away.  So tell me what you like and what you don't, and send me links to your own good ideas too!

In the guest bedroom, or "Isaac and Eva's Room" I'm going to paint the walls a neutral color and then accent with bright colors, like lime green (bedding above), bright yellow and some teal blue.  The picture just above isn't the right colors, but I love the flower pendant (only $30 at IKEA!) and the white chair.