More Idea House Pictures

 

As promised, here are more pictures of the Southern Living Idea House, thanks to our sweet friend and babysitter who went a couple of weeks ago.  I know you’ve seen most of these spaces in the magazine already, but I always think it’s fun to see the rooms from different angles.

 

That’s one thing about idea houses/home tours.  It’s always hard to pretend like I live there with all of those ladies and their purses in “my” living room :)

 

 

 

 

The dining room was one of my favorite spots.  Just goes to show that a really simple centerpiece can be beautiful.

 

 

 

 

I love the dark powder room, but wasn’t able to find the name of the paint color online.  Anybody know?

 

 

 

 

Such a sweet nook at the top of the stairs—with my current favorite IKEA chairs:

 

 

 

 

View looking down from the same nook:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love the fabric they used for the bedroom.  My sitter was kind of enough to point out that it’s from IKEA:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This shower curtain!  So simple.  So pretty.

 

 

 

 

And, love the wire baskets for laundry room storage. . .

 

 

 

Ebay has a lot of these (search “locker baskets”) but they seem to be a pretty hot item.  I’m putting these on my flea market shopping list.

 

source

 

 

 

Another picture of the drapes on the door that I blogged about the other day:

 

 

 

 

And some outside shots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, just for fun, I grabbed this photo from the Tracery blog so we could see a comparison between a “real life” shot of the room versus the magazine cover.  Amazing what small touches of pink and green in the right places can do:

 

 

 

What was your favorite part of this year’s Idea House?

 

Let the Sunshine In

Just a quick glimpse at a project I'm currently working on.  I'm helping a client to transform a somewhat unused sunroom into a place to hang out, relax, entertain. . .  

I'm using a combination of these fabrics:

And, a pair of these fantastic chairs:

We're also adding a comfy reading chair, a painted reading desk and a superstar light fixture that I can't wait to show you.



And, since I'm on a sunroom kick, here are some more images of inspiring "sunny" spaces.  I love that the modern sunroom has become a more comfortable extension of the home.  While it can definitely work in some spaces, there's so many more options besides the traditional white wicker look:

Emma Pilkington



DecorPad

Georgia Carlee via House of Turquoise

HARDROCK CONSTRUCTION via Houzz

Olga Adler via Houzz

 Marcelo Brito via Houzz

Su Casa Designs via Houzz

 

American Style

    
Well, I'm off to spend my 4th of July with Katie Couric in the Hamptons. . . at least in my dreams :)  I saw these pictures of her "getaway" house in Hamptons Cottages and Gardens magazine, and thought it embodied all-American style.  Enjoy!

  

All images via Cottages & Gardens.

Wood Trim: To Paint or Not to Paint?

    

One of the most commonly asked decorating dilemmas I get asked about involves what to do with older homes that have lots and lots of dark wood trim.  A reader named Jodi sent me this email just a couple of weeks ago:

We have an older home and do not wish to paint all the trim white, but I do find the wood trim to be one of my biggest struggles when decorating. It's also very hard to find inspiration as most home decor magazines, blogs, etc only feature white trimmed rooms, as this is most common these days...but what about those with us who still have and like the look of wood trim? Any advice?


Painting wood trim throughout an entire house can be daunting (and pricey if you hire it out).  I went on a search to find some inspiration pictures for Jodi and stopped when I saw this:

 Rebekah Zaveloff via Houzz

 

I think it's a really perfect example of how to work around a house full of wood trim, if you're wanting to lighten things up without investing a lot of time and money.  An overall light wall color softens the room but makes the trim pop.  In other words, work with what you've got instead of trying to disguise the trim.  They also layered with light upholstery and a big, light area rug. 

And, my favorite trick they used here was to paint the crown molding white all the way around the top of the room.  This is the perfect compromise for the wife who wants to paint every bit of trim and the husband who flips out at the thought of painting anything wood.  It also draws your eye up, instead of making the room seem "cut off" at a certain point. 

If you've saved a great inspiration picture of a beautiful room with wood trim, I'd love for you to leave link in the comments.

 

Those Darn High Ceilings

    

I've blogged about them before. . . Those two-story family rooms that seem so majestic until you start trying to decorate them.  For those of you still dealing with that predicament, I found a couple of inspiration rooms that took two very different approaches.

I would call this approach "bigger is better." Everything is oversized to fit the grand scale of the space. I do love the idea of stacking two round mirrors above the mantel.
    

Eric Cohler via La Dolce Vita

And, Emily at Jones Design Company took a wide open space and made it cozy by installing molding around the entire room and used a darker paint color on the wall below, to create the illusion of a "ceiling."  I think this is a fantastic idea, and makes the room seem so livable.  Using oversized lighting (notice--at a lowered height) still makes the room feel grand.

    



images via Jones Design Company

Which approach do you like best?