Tag: interior design

A Purple Christmas Wreath for My Front Door

Purple Christmas wreath for my front door

You’ve all seen my purple front door, right? The one I painted for my purple summer front porch makeover? Well, what do you do with  a purple front door when Christmas rolls around and all the holiday finery is typically red and green? Paint it? Nah. Embrace it!

This is what I’ll be hanging on my purple front door over the Christmas holiday–it was a special order from TwoInspireYou’s shop at etsy.com. Isn’t it gorgeous and totally unique? Now all I need to do is find some silver sequined pillows to adorn my purple chairs and add some gem tone rugs on the porch and I’ll be sporting a totally unique holiday look. What do you think about this look? Fabulous or too unconventional?

Here’s another pic:

Purple Christmas wreath

Fireplace Makeovers–One Fireplace Three Ways

Navy blue fireplace makeover

Aqua fireplace makeover

Fireplace makeover in light blue

I’ve been hard at work overhauling my blog this week to make it more user friendly and give it a fresh new look. What do think of my new design? I’m really liking the touches of fresh lime.

While going through old posts I found these photos of my fireplace featuring several different shades of blue and thought I would share them today. I frequently repaint my rooms. Repainting a room is one of the most economical decorating tricks up a decorator’s sleeve. The change is always dramatic and all it takes is one afternoon of work and about $150.00 per room.

Which color is your favorite, the navy, the aqua, or the light blue?

Pink and White Outdoor Chevron Rugs–You Had Me At Hello

Purple porch makeover

You Had Me At Hello
It was love at first sight when I found these pink and white chevron rugs by designer Annie Selke on the Dash and Albert website last spring. I was in the middle of planning a spring porch makeover and was looking for colorful outdoor rugs to complement my purple wicker chairs, gemstone colored pillows, and colorful accessories. So the moment I saw these pink and white beauties I threw down my money and did a happy dance. The rugs were on back order but that was fine; it was early in the season so I had plenty of time to pull my porch together.

But my happy dance was short lived when the estimated delivery date for my order was delayed until June, and then delayed again until July, and then again in August. I considered cancelling my order and began a search for a suitable replacement but I couldn’t find anything else that rocked my world. So I waited, and waited, and waited for my rugs to arrive, and pulled my porch together without the rugs. It was a nice makeover, but the porch looked unfinished without the rugs.

You Complete Me
Last week my rugs finally arrived so I swept the porch, dusted the furniture, cleaned the cushions, ran out to a nursery and picked up a few flowers and planted them in colorful pots and finally–FINALLY–my porch makeover is complete. This makeover was a long time coming but oh so worth the wait. Dash and Albert, rugs you complete me. Here are a few more pictures.

Purple porch makeover

Purple porch makeover

Purple porch makeover

Aren’t these pink and white chevron rugs the bomb?

Decked Out for Summer Entertaining Part II

Colorful deck accessories

Now that my deck furniture has been freshened up with a new coat of stain, I couldn’t wait to bling out my deck with lots accessories in bright colors. Since the umbrella I bought last year is still in great shape, I chose a palette of green, orange, yellow, and red to complement the umbrella then added some fun stripes and polka dots.

Colorful deck accessories

The sea grass chargers and wooden napkin rings are from Pottery Barn.

Colorful desk accessories

The polka dotted pots from A. C. Moore came in handy for storing plastic knives, spoons, and forks.

Colorful deck accessories

I bought the green place mats, colorful candles, plastic plates, dip bowls, and napkins at Target. It’s a goldmine for affordable outdoor accessories.

Colorful deck accessories

The cute plastic pitcher was a gift from my mother. Thanks, mom!

Colorful deck accessories

What would I do without my two favorite stores, Target and Pottery Barn? What’s your go-to place for inexpensive outdoor accessories?

Quick Spring Bedroom Makeover

Quick and easy spring bedroom makeover

I continued my spring home refresher project this weekend with a quick, easy, and inexpensive makeover of my of daughter’s bedroom. Her bedroom walls used to be chocolate brown–a color she chose. I’ve never been a fan of neutral colors; I think they lack energy. Plus the brown paint made her room feel small and dark. So for this makeover I chose a light green paint (Hampton Green by Benjamin Moore). It transformed the room from dark and dreary into a fresh and soothing sanctuary. And I accomplished all this in one day with very little money. Here’s another picture.

Quick and easy spring bedroom makeover

I bought the matelasse coverlet, dust ruffle, pillow shams, lamps, and shades at Target. I love shopping at Target. It’s a treasure trove of great design at fabulous prices. Add a gallon or two of paint and you’ve got yourself a quick and inexpensive one-day spring makeover. Here’s a close-up view of the pillow shams. I love the pops of orange and bits of yellow.

Quick and easy spring bedroom makoever

And here are before and after photos. (I always love it when magazines show before and after shots.)

Quick and easy spring bedroom makeover - before and after photos

And here’s a picture of my dog, Mary, helping me work. My dogs have to be at the center of every activity.

My dog, Mary, helping during the photo shoot

Making an Entrance Part III–Colorful Porch Makeover

colorful porch makeover

Hi everyone. I hope you enjoyed the long Memorial Day weekend. My brother and I spent all three days power washing and painting my front porch. It was a ton of work. Everything got a fresh coat of paint. Painting the rafters, porch pillars, railings, and all those spindles took forever but it was well worth the effort. Just look at this sparkly clean porch.

Freshly painted colorful porch makeover

Does this say welcome to my house, or what?

Purple front door

I really love my freshly painted purple front door (deep amethyst by Glidden) and chairs (grape by Rust-oleum).

Purple front door and colorful tulip bouquet

And this colorful custom-made tulip bouquet by TwoInspireYou at Etsy.com  is perfection.

Colorful porch furniture and accessories

The porch is coming together very nicely but I’m STILL waiting for the pink and white chevron rugs from Dash and Albert to arrive. Come on slow pokes, at this rate summer will be over before you know it. When companies advertise new outdoor rugs they should be ready for delivery by spring, not the fall and winter season.

Colorful porch furniture and accessories

In addition to the rugs, I still need to add some live plants and flowers, but that’s a job for next weekend. This solitary plant was all I had available for my photo shoot.

Colorful porch furniture and accessories

These gorgeous ruffled and micro-fiber pillows are indoor pillows, but I couldn’t resist the scrumptious colors and textures, and my covered porch should shield them from the elements for the most part. Sometimes you have to be creative and flexible to get the look you want. The colorful flower pots were a gift from my mom several years ago. She bought them at the local dollar store. What a find!

Enjoying a snack and a good read on my freshly painted porch

And the best part of all my hard work? Enjoying a home-made iced mocha (get the recipe here), a snack, and a good read on my comfy and colorful new porch–and meeting all the neighbors who stopped by to introduce themselves and take a peek while I worked. I hope I’ve inspired them to make the most of their outdoor spaces and banish beige wherever it’s lurking. Be gone, you drab non-color!

Ahh, This is the Life

A little time all to myself, a steamy cup of coffee, my little Piggy snuggled up at my side, and the arrival of two new books from my book club–it doesn’t get any better than this. I can’t wait to see what visual delights and inspiration await me inside these two books:

I hope you carve out some time for yourself this weekend and do something equally inspiring and enjoyable. Have a great weekend.

Work in Progress–The Yellow Porch

I spent the day painting my porch furniture yellow, white, and tangerine but ran out of paint before I could complete the job. I really underestimated how much paint it takes to cover purple paint with yellow. I purchased two cans of paint for each piece of furniture. Normally that would be more than enough to achieve a nice, even finish. But not this time.

I ran out to buy a few more cans of paint but the hardware store was closed. So tonight my porch is sporting a strange mixture of purple, green, yellow, white, and tangerine furniture. This evening my mother and I will be working on a matching wreath for the front door; not only is she my muse, but she has mad wreath design skills.

Here are some pictures of my porch makeover in progress. Stop by tomorrow to see the completed design.

That Concludes the Tour–But Wait, There’s More….

What if I kept the high-contrast color scheme that I love so much but simply inverted the palette? What kind of results would I get? What if I changed the white furniture to black and replaced the highly saturated wall colors with less saturated hues?

Oh, yes, we’re going there next. And it’s going to be another colorful ride. Stop in next week to see the results. You know you want to look….

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