Dream Design: A Colorful Breakfast Nook

Right now, I am so in love with the idea of a breakfast nook. I've always liked the idea of having two dining spaces; one formal and one casual. When I saw this particular nook, just fell head over heels. It's bright, it's airy, and it's colorful. Three characteristics I covet in design!

Source: DIY Magazine

But what most appeals to me about this room is that it can very easily be emulated. Find the colors and patterns you love and throw them together! With a neutral backdrop, it can all pull together easily! Enjoy all of your favorite colors! And for your enjoyment, I whipped up a little design board for more inspiration on how to create your own colorful nook!

1. For this room, I chose to go with a true gray as the wall color. Gray is actually my favorite neutral. It's a bit more modern than your typical beige and cream. Benjamin Moore's Silver Dollar is a great "true" gray. It will make all of the colorful accessories really pop.

2. Perhaps the focal point of the nook is the pedestal table. White keeps it crisp and, again, neutral. The key making this room work is to keep the major items subtle and then fill in with lots of colorful accessories. For this board I chose the Odyssey White Dining Table by CB2 ($199.00).

3. Start the color parade off with your chair choice! These Tutti Frutti Stacking Chairs by Target (2 for $69.99) are a fun shape and come in several different colors. We actually own them in blue. Of course, any color would be great. I chose pink for this board because

4. I love this pendant lamp! The photo above displays a simple white lamp, but I really loved the pattern and color of the Retro Honeycomb Drum Shade Pendant from Shades of Light ($129.00). If you have a similar set-up as the photo. This colorful lamp can break up the white space if you choose to forgo curtains.

5. Textiles is where you really get to have some fun. These throw pillow are all from The Inglenook Decor, and while they are gorgeous they are a bit pricey ($64, $95, & $80 respectively). You could easily hunt down fun fabrics from your local craft stores or even design your own on Spoonflower and make your own. Same with curtains, if you choose to use them. Short, cafe styled curtains would be another fun way to break up the large windows.

6. I kept accessories down to a minimum for this board. There are so many cute things out there, it's hard to control myself, but this space doesn't necessarily lend itself to lots of knick-knacks. Table decor should be kept to a minimum, to keep as much room open for actually eating. This cute Peacock Blue Recycled Glass Vase from Pier 1 ($39.95) and this Ceramic Owls also from West Elm ($9.00) are adorable table toppers. I also added this Oversize Seagrass Basket by West Elm ($129.00) to stash extra pillows that might get in the way with extra guests.

Do you love breakfast nooks? Or are you more partial to a different dining space? What characteristics do you favor in design? Share below!

Our Bedroom Makeover: Easy changes = Big improvements

Well, fall approaches and things are finally getting back to normal around here. Josh spent the summer working out of town. I stayed home to take some summer classes and work. It wasn't necessarily fun living by myself for the past few months, but I'd like to think I took advantage of the opportunity by sprucing up the apartment. I made major changes to our bedroom and the kitchen and I have plenty of pictures of both!!

There wasn't really anything wrong with our bedroom before, but I felt like the blue we chose when we first moved in turned out to be way too dark for me. I wanted more of a relaxing oasis. I really inspired by a card I bought for my best friend's wedding. (I loved it so much, I bought the card for myself and then baked cupcakes to match!)

want to see more of cupcake pictures? check out my company blog for my eye candy!

Our room already had gold accents with the budget statement art and some other accessories, so only a new wall color was needed to acheive the light airiness of the card I was inspired by. Take a look at the difference it made!

I added to revamped nightstands that I purchased from Goodwill. A quick sanding, coat of white paint, and some new hardware made them clean and stylish. I also got some simple bedside lamps (also from Target) for night time reading. For the past year, we have used TV trays for nightstands and have had no bedside lighting so these additions have been the best by far! New white curtains (also from Target), keep the room feeling airy.

Now for some detail shots. I styled our nightstands with books in a similar color scheme of the room and added a few punches of pink to tie in with the artwork we have by the dresser.

Josh's nightstand is clearly more masculine with the addition of darker woodtone accessories, which tie in well with the furniture.

I was a little sad to see the original curtains I had made for the room go, but I knew white panels would make a huge difference. I contemplated making another set as I had previously and then I found these sheer white panels from Target and fell in love. There is a very subtle, circular pattern on them, and during the day time it is much more pronounced as the light shines through. It almost gives the room an ethereal feeling.

Here you can see the circular pattern on the curtains.

And this revamp was pretty easy on the wallet. Here's how it breaks down.

• 1 gallon Color Place's "Nature's Cool Water Pond" satin finish: $15.96


• Extra paint supplies: $15.00


• Nightstands found at Goodwill: $22.50


• White paint for nightstands: already owned


• 2 curtain panels from Target: $15.92 (2 @ $7.96)


• 2 table lamps from Target: $29.98 (2 @ $14.99)

Total: $99.36

Have you done any budget revamps lately? Or maybe a simple improvements that made a huge difference? Please share!

Fireplaces in the Off Season

When it's about a-billion degrees outside (like it is in Texas), our fireplace is the last thing on my mind. But lately, I've been making some improvements to our apartment (lots of posts coming soon!) and I wanted to improve the look of our hearth.

Last winter, we didn't have a chance to buy a screen or even use our fireplace so it's been bare since we moved in. And, go figure, they don't sell that kind of stuff in the summer wit the aforementioned "billion-degree weather". So, I searched out some alternatives to make our fireplace less of a black hole. Here are some of the ideas I love and the one I chose.

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I love the look of this fireplace in general. It's light and cheery, which is the opposite of what I envision when I think fire. Love it! Get this look easily with some vases in complimentary colors to your room decor and fill with faux blooms to keep your display looking good all through the warm months.

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I love this idea! Especially for a room that isn't full of wood tones and natural wood furniture. Here, it really brings warmth to the crisp white walls and fireplace. It's not exactly functional if you'd like to use your fireplace, but if you aren't really a fan of the flames or have a non-working hearth, then this would be a beautiful option!

I kept it simple with some pillar candles and a mirror. It keeps option of soft light and looks good when it's not lit. The mirror also helps brighten up the black hole that was our fireplace.

Have you used any of these techniques? Or any other fun ideas? I wanna know!

Dream Design: Pink & Red

February is awesome because it gives the lovers of pink (um, me!) a reason to play around with the pretty feminine color inside the home. Red and pink together are so flirty and feminine. I love it! It's been a very popular color scheme for ads as well! Take a peek at my favorites!

Kate Spade, Twirl

Seriously, who doesn't love Kate Spade? I could spend way longer than I care to admit on their website just pretending!

Coach Poppy Perfume

So yes, the combo can be a little potent, but I'm a firm believer that red and pink can be a fun addition to the everyday design of your home.

laundry room, staircase, apron, red mixer

Of course you've seen that laundry room in this post, but I used it again because it is awesome! And that pink staircase? A gorgeous pop of color in an otherwise neutral space. Add in some fun accessories to your space like the apron and this Kitchen Aid Mixer and you are set! Pink & red all year 'round! You are welcome!

Dream Design: Living Room

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! I was blessed enough to spend time with old and new family. Being home has inspired some thoughts of becoming a home-owner and having another opportunity to design and decorate. Since, this won't be happening any time soon, I thought I'd give a shot at creating design boards of my "fantasy land" home.

I decided to start with the living area. (Click for larger image)

I found the color palette from this post at Young House Love. I was drawn to it because our couch is very close to that shade of purple and after we bought it I contemplated how we could incorporate it into multiple color schemes and life stages. Our current palette is very bold with black, white, yellow, and purple but I figure that in our future house we will want a more subdued palette. And how killer is that wallpaper? I love that this medium has been given a makeover. I found this and a lot more beautiful patterns at Walnut Wallpaper. I thought it would be amazing to have around the fire place to make it an accent wall and keep the other walls the pale blue so things don't get too cluttered.

The Leaning Wine Bar/Bookcase from Crate and Barrel is a great statement piece and (along with a fire place) it is substantial enough to take the place of a television. We don't currently own a TV and, if we acquire one in the future, we do not want it to be the center of the living area. There will be ample seating with our current sofa and a few lounge chairs from Target. This modern coffee table (also from C&B) provides hidden storage and promotes a circular flow for the seating arrangement.

Glass accents like these candle holders and the beautiful Firefly Pendant Lamp by CB2 (seeing a pattern here?) keep the airiness of the color palette

So, while, I'm in no position right now to purchase anything, there is no harm in thinking about it. I really had fun putting together this design board and have plans to do many more. I hope you enjoyed it to.

Weird Fantasies?

Do you ever find yourself drifting off? Maybe in class or at work? Your eyelids get heavy, your mouth slackens, and you starting entering dream land, where anything is possible... like gorgeous, spacious, light and airy laundry rooms!

What did you think I meant?

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I am loving the pink-striped room! It's so fresh. Right now our laundry room is more of a closet, but one day we'll have a house and it would just be the cherry on top if we could have an awesome laundry room. After all, don't you think that having a room like any of these three would make doing laundry a lot better? I think, yes.

Which is your favorite?