If you’re looking to spruce up your home’s exterior on the cheap, why not upgrade your front door’s knob to something a little cuter? There are sweet vintage doorknobs and painted ceramic doorknobs and other fun options to choose from. Here are two of my favorites – the beautiful blue doors are pretty sweet, too!
When it’s time to paint and choose colors, who thinks of interior doors? Not many people, that’s who. Up until my new bedroom project, the last time I even considered painting a door was when I painted my bedroom door black in high school to make a point about how deep and complex I was. I’m not saying you should run out and paint all your interior doors black – unless you really want to – but rather that your interior doors (and the insides of your exterior doors) don’t have to be whiiiiiite or creeeeaaaam or some color that falls in between white and cream and does not have any personality at all.
Painted interior doors aren’t for everyone, of course – it’s just something to think about. If you’ve considered it and it isn’t for you, okay. But if you’ve never even imagined what your home might look like with more colorful doors, it’s time to start dreaming! Here are some visuals to get you started:
When outfitting the kitchen or the dining room with somewhere to sit, don’t feel like you have to buy four or six or eight matching chairs – especially if buying eight of the chairs you love is way impossible within the confines of your budget! Mismatched dining chairs can be a lot of fun when you make the effort to have fun with them. Let’s say you can get ONE of those chairs you love. Why not source the rest of thrift or consignment shops or Craigslist? Look for interesting shapes that complement that favorite chair – but don’t worry too much about color, because paint and glaze can go a long way toward achieving a unified look. See?
I’m not sure anyone will remember my mentioning it, but we had one our upstairs rooms done and it’s finally finished. Well, structurally, anyway. At this point we have the paint sitting in the landing, ready to go (two shades of gray, one light and one dark, for those curious). We just need to actually find the time to throw down tarps and tape up and paint. No easy feat when your family is comprised of two professionals and a toddler plus five cats who’d like nothing more than to track paint through the entire house.
At the moment, I’m trying to avoid thinking about when we’ll get around to painting so we can actually move in – this is our bedroom I’m talking about – and instead I am actively thinking what I am going to put in there! Right at this second, what I’d really like to put in there is at least one of these:
Walnut and powder-coated steel come together in a vintage-look side table that would look so gorgeous with the pair of low slung mcm-era Danish dressers my grandparents gave me who knows how long ago now. The designer is one Joel Nolan, and he is happy to recreate this side table in custom sizes and finishes in case the teal legs and interior just aren’t doing it for you like they are doing it for me.
How adorable is this colorful rug designed by HAY? Named after a Danish candy – colorful, sugarcoated licorice balls – the Pinocchio rug is crafted in Nepal using hand felted balls of wool that are strung together like beads on a necklace.
Now, I don’t know about you, but when I see a rug like this, I am definitely going to smile. And maybe dance around a bit on it just to see how the felted wool feels under my feet. Unfortunately, the Pinocchio rug costs just about as much as you’d think, coming as it does from HAY. But it is available in a 35″ size and a 55″ size, and it will make me smile, so if you have a space $500 or $1,200 lying around, why not spring for one?
The short answer: Just do it.
The Beard was initially skeptical when I suggested that we paint our kitchen purple, and a fairly intense purple, at that. But he’s gotten used to it, and when he happened to see some photos of how our kitchen used to look, he couldn’t believe how much the purple improved the space. Literally, I get nothing but compliments – though sometimes these are paired with comments like “I really didn’t think it would be as great as it is.” Uh, thanks?
And hey, if you told me you were thinking of painting your kitchen cabinets a pretty wild shade of pink, I might balk just a little bit. But if this kitchen from Sweden.se is any indication, painting a kitchen pink can be totally delicious. While there are some projects that don’t lend themselves to a quick do-over, why not go bright and bold when it comes to paint? You can always repaint the following weekend!
Copper is a beautiful thing to bring into your home, whether in the form of a single copper colander or you’re outfitting your entire drain spout system and overhangs in it. Shiny or patina-ed, I love it, and here are some of the things I love. Hopefully they give you a few good ideas!
A pretty French kitchen photographed by Simon Watson
The color inspiration posts I occasionally put up are among my favorites, if only because they give me a valid excuse to sit at my computer browsing through photos of awesome interiors. Even if, say, pink isn’t your thing, how it’s used can still give you some insight into how you use colors in your own home. Right now, I’m loving red. If you’ve been reading long enough, you’ll know that my now disused home office is a deep cherry red that was hard as hell to apply (tinted primer is your friend, use it), so really, I’ve never not loved red. Some people, though, are a little afraid of red because it’s such a powerful, influential, and sometimes overwhelming color.
But I’m here to tell you, don’t be afraid. Red is awesome. See what I mean?
(via)
“Who doesn’t love a comfy, distressed, brown leather sofa?” is a question I saw once in a magazine, and the answer is me. I love comfy leather and I love distressed leather, but brown? *yawn* If your home is decked out in an amazing brown palette, that’s one thing. But why not get a little more colorful? Before I begin, I have to say that this post is for Kai Jones, who said: I would love to see a variety of options in leather furniture. Due to allergies I am supposed to only have plain wood or metal, or leather-upholstered furniture. Your wish is my command! (Variety? Yeah, I can do that.)
The benefits of leather furniture go beyond not absorbing dander and mites and such – leather furniture can be wiped clean with a damp sponge instead of needed a full shampoo, Aniline leather in particular can be deliciously soft, leather warms to your body temp on chilly days, and leather furniture is really, really durable. It’s not entirely maintenance free, of course, but what in this life is? I certainly wouldn’t kick a sweet red leather sofa out of bed.
Leather furniture can be traditional and classic and awesome, which I think is the main source of leather’s long lasting charm. How nice would it be, do you think, to curl up with a good book in this orange leather chair? Just keep in mind that all leathers are not created equal – after Aniline, there’s the sturdier but less soft semi-Aniline and then the extremely durable coated leather, which could be softer. (via)
