One Room Challenge: Week Two

For week two of the One Room Challenge™, I wanted to share with you my inspiration for the loft playroom that I am designing.

To me, one of the most enjoyable parts of interior design is finding your inspiration. Sometimes inspiration can come from a vacation, or place you have fond memories of. Sometimes it can be somewhere that you imagine going. I like to use these experiences to create rooms with a sense of history. I wanted this playroom to feel like a retro, lakeside sleep-away camp. The first thing that came to my mind when I pictured a good old fashioned sleep away camp is a traditional Pendleton blanket. You can’t go wrong with one of these classic staples. I found the ideal Pendleton blanket to be my jumping off point for this room at Overstock.com.

Isn’t it perfect? The colors were just right for a more masculine boy space and it worked well with the sofa I needed to use. I love every detail of this blanket from the color and texture right down to the touch of leather used in the tag. All of these details will be reflected in my room design.

After finding the blanket, it was easy to source the throw pillows for the sofa and window seats.

I knew practical storage was one of my main goals and I had these green, rolling, canvas bins that fit perfectly under our built-in shelves. I loved the idea of bringing in a little more of the green, and leather, and the canvas reminds me of a tent.

I wanted to replace the boring white cubbies under the TV for something a little more industrial looking and found the perfect storage solution with the metal cubby drawers.

A few fun retro accessories round out the room including a vintage chalkboard, vintage trophies, and antique globes. One of my favorite things in this room are the motivational pennants. Not only do they look great and fit the feel of the room, but I also love the idea that my little man will be surrounded by these words of inspiration every day.

Be sure to check back next week. I’m going to share some playroom storage solutions that are both beautiful and functional.

You can follow along with the other participants in the One Room Challenge™ by clicking the link below.

The Hive Christmas Tour 2015-Family Room and Entryway

Hello friends!  Welcome back to our Hive Christmas Home Tour 2015.  Today I'm sharing our entry way and family room.  Our home has a very open floor plan so the entry way, family room, and kitchen are all open to each other as you can see by the pictures.  For these rooms I basically stay with the traditional Christmas color scheme of red and green.  

One of my favorite things is our garland on the stairs.  We use this garland to display the Christmas cards we get from family and friends.  We love getting Christmas cards each year!  This is a simple way to display them so that they are easily looked at by even the smallest member of our family.  He loves to recognize loved ones in the pictures.

Our tree has spinning ornaments that are fun. Check out my Instagram feed to see them in action!  Notice the lack of presents under the tree.  I'm so behind this year!  I better get wrapping!

I love to use Christmas books as decor. 

Tomorrow I'm sharing our front room decor.  This is where I change it up a little bit and go with a more colorful decorating scheme.  I also can't wait to share one of my favorite collections with you.  

The Hive Christmas Home Tour 2015-Kitchen

Welcome to our Christmas Home Tour!  I wanted to start with the heart of our home, our kitchen. I would describe my Christmas decor style as part vintage, rustic, retro and colorful.  

The focal point of my kitchen is my stove hood.  I've decorated it this year using greenery with various kitchen necessities tucked in .  I've used a retro beater, cinnamon sticks, a vintage Ball jar, a rosemary tree, and a Christmas plate and mug.  Hanging from the garland are homemade cinnamon applesauce ornaments and vintage cookie cutter ornaments.  

Filling vintage Ball jars with epson salt, Christmas trees, bells, and ornaments, is an easy way to decorate your kitchen for the season.

These berry branches were perfect for my Christmas tablescape. 

I love tying mini-wreaths on chairs, and hanging them from windows.  This jingle bell ribbon was one of my favorite finds this season.  I found it at Home Goods!!!

I love collecting festive Christmas mugs.  These "Cheeky Reindeer" mugs from Pottery Barn are my all time favorite!  Aren't they darling?  You can spot them throughout my kitchen because I'm obsessed with them. 

I had a strand of vintage Christmas lights (note the little red balls on them) from my grandpa's house and I thought they were the perfect thing to bring a little holiday cheer to my vintage rolling pin collection. 

I hope you enjoyed our tour.  Thank you for stopping by!  Stop back later this week for more of our Hive Christmas Tour 2015.

Front Room-Home Tour

Sorry for the recent lack of posts, I turned the big 4-0 this week and my husband took me to Chicago to cheer me up, um I mean celebrate. :)  Actually, we've really been having a fabulous time!  I need to do a post when I return with all of my Chicago musts.  This is such a great city!  I have a good friend with Chicago connectections who has given me all of the inside scoop on the best Chicago has to offer.  She has been spot on in her suggestions!

Today I wanted to share my front room with my readers before it undergoes a major transformation.  Throughout the next couple of months everything on the shelves gets put in storage as I start decorating for the holidays.  The shelves in this room are customized specifically to showcase my Department 56 village collection.  It is currently hiding in the cupboards below and I'm just itching to get it all out and set up.  It is one of my favorite hobbies. I can't wait to share all of the details

This is what the front room looks like for the spring and summer season.  I love bright, happy colors and wanted to use a lot of crazy bright colors in this room.  

I've always wanted to use a bright yellow in my decor and this floral painting was the perfect jumping off point for my color scheme (see details on where to find it below).  I was able to use a lot of bright books, both new and vintage (like my vintage Nancy Drew collection).  

Goodbye bright, happy summer decor.  It's time for things to get spooky around here.