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choosing an accent color

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Recently I freshened up my family room by adding some simple accessories and not spending scads of money. My new accent colors are orange, yellow, and a vibrant green.

I chose those colors by taking a look at some of the accessories I already had in the room (that I knew I’d be keeping) and picking out some of the more vibrant colors, like the orange and yellow in this lamp shade (which has a great story behind it)…

The spicy pumpkin orange and greens in this chair…

The golden lamp…

The yellow in this vintage advertising art…

And the vibrant yellow lemon zest in the poodle’s martini…(and what poodle doesn’t deserve – hell, even demand – a martini?)…

All pieces that I already had in my family room that either I love (the art and the striped lampshade) or that need to stay because the lotto fairies didn’t leave me a winning ticket (the 90s chairs). Bottom line…I built an entirely new look based on what I already had with just a couple of colors that are now here…

and here…

Plus, just to keep everyone on their toes with a little design surprise, I didn’t just stick to orange, yellow, and green, but also added in a little zebra and black and white…

…because doesn’t black and white zebra match just about anything? Just shake your head yes and agree with me and no one will get hurt!

See it all pulled together in the family room here.

vintage cowboy room

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Yeehaw! Don’t you love some vintage cowboy? I sure do!

Sadly, my boy is almost a teen and doesn’t want a little boy room anymore. So we’re saying goodbye to the vintage cowboy room. But not before we pay tribute to it here on the ole blog.

Welcome…

But we’ll need to hurry before the boy finds out we’re in his room!

The dresser…

Antler lamp and little cowboy boots…

Snake hook and star…

And an awesome spaghetti western print…

A snake I painted, along with a collection of letter As…

The duvet cover I sewed…

Awesome cowboy fabric! I sewed the curtains too…

I was thrilled to find the arrowhead finials, but they were bronze, so I spray painted them black. Super cool fabric with a western matchbook print. Love it!

The nightstand, with horses and a hammered metal lamp…

I made a French memo board with rodeo fabric…

And one of the focal points of the room is the star hanging on a wagon wheel…

And last but not least, in this day and age no cowboy room would be complete without Woody…

And just like Andy did in Toy Story, my kids wrote my son’s name on the bottom of Woody’s boot. Also like Andy, my boy is growing up, so soon we’ll say goodbye to the vintage cowboy room, but it sure was great while it lasted.

Showing off at Funky Junk Interiors and French Country Cottage.

design vacation :: master bedroom

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Although I didn’t accomplish quite as much as I’d hoped on my design vacation, I did spruce up my master bedroom a bit.

Inspired by a new duvet cover, I’ve started fixing my bed again.  After all, it only takes 2 minutes, even with scads of pillows…

I’m not sold on the color of the duvet cover yet, but I love all of the texture of the faux fur blanket and pillows, the brown floral quilt, leopard print, all topped off with the satin rose pillow. Kinda girly!

(And please, for the love of Pete, let’s just overlook the wrinkles on the duvet, OK?)

I tidied up my nightstand…

…and added some fabulous beaded raspberries to a formerly empty vase…

(Just for fun, let’s pronounce it VAHZ!)

The other nightstand got tidied, as well as a touch of mod…

Painted up a lamp…

And painted another lamp too that got added to this chest of drawers for a truly eclectic mix…

I even vacuumed.  And dusted.  And polished my furniture. No small feat for me!

I’m loving my newly cleaned and spruced up room.  Now I just need to add paint to this vaulted-ceilinged bad boy!

And don’t forget to enter the Spring Cleaning Giveaway for a chance to win this adorable sterling silver charm bracelet!

Click here for contest entry details.

Showing off at these link parties…

Mod Vintage Life

take it out on your home

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Feeling frustrated? Life got you down? Things just going wrong? Take it out on your home.

No, I don’t mean that you should punch a hole in the wall or run around tossing breakables to the floor.

Instead, after you’ve tried your usual coping methods – mine is napping my troubles away – if you still feel like crap, don’t throw yourself out the window, throw yourself into a project in your home!

It doesn’t have to be a major project. Any old project will do. And if money is what’s causing your angst, no need to spend more…just start cleaning. Decluttering is free and most people have cleaning supplies hanging around.

Throw yourself into a project and something interesting may happen. You may just get into “the zone” and forget about your problems…at least temporarily, and every little bit helps.

house goals – 2011 edition

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Over at Nesting Place, the Nester came up with a brilliant idea – house goals!

Given that I work full time and procrastinate, leaving me with limited time and energy, I thought that house goals would be perfect for me.

So here are my 2001 house goals…

  1. Repaint the stairway wall
  2. Paint the kids’ bathroom- COMPLETE!
  3. Add curtains to the master bathroom – COMPLETE!
  4. Clean up my office
  5. Scour my teenage daughter’s room after she goes off to college
  6. Add drop cloth curtains to the family room windows – COMPLETE!
  7. Get that damn satellite dish off the roof
  8. Buy a dishwasher
  9. Tile the kitchen back splash
  10. Paint at least 1 kitchen wall
  11. For the love of all things holy, DECLUTTER!

As you can see, it’s an expansive list.  I probably could have listed 3 or 4 times the number of projects, but in the spirit of keeping it real, I decided to stick with 12, so that I could reasonably do 1 project per month.

Here’s a little more detail around the projects…

1. Repaint the stairway wall

So, the stairwell wall has already been painted, but it still needs another coat. And apparently it’s taken me a while.

Last year at work, we had a holiday white elephant exchange and do you know what I got?  Paint!  Two gallons of slate gray paint!  The exact color that I was planning on painting the stairwell wall already.  Every now and then, fate sends a little gift of home decor love.  Now I’ve got to get on the stick and finish the job.

2. Paint the kids’ bathroom– COMPLETE!

No photos of this madness.  All I have to say is this about that…teenage hair dye explosion. Walls, door trim, baseboard. Splattered with dark brown hair dye.

Needless to say, all future hair dyeing has been banned.

I thought that I might get this project done when I was on vacation over the holidays, but it just didn’t happen.  However, paint has been purchased, so it can happen any time inspiration strikes.

3. Add curtains to the master bathroom – COMPLETE!

I just can’t seem to get past the creepy feeling that people can look into the cracks between the blinds.  So curtains are in order.  Just need to find the right ones.

4. Clean up my office

This seems as if it should be a simple enough project, but it’s my combination office, craft room, and general lounging area.  And it’s been neglected for quite some time.  Lots of filing and decisions to be made about what stays and what goes.

5. Scour my teenage daughter’s room after she goes off to college

The same teenage daughter who experienced the hair dye explosion has a room that could potentially be condemned by the health department.  And honestly, I’ve given up on getting her to keep it consistently clean.  Every now and then she has a flare-up of cleaning, but it gets out of hand more often than not.

So, when she goes off to school, I’ll be in there in my hazmat suit, ready to sanitize.

6. Add drop cloth curtains to the family room windows – COMPLETE!

I’m planning to join the Internet Bloggers Drop Cloth Revolution (IBDCR) and make curtains out of drop cloths.  ‘Nuff said.

7. Get that damn satellite dish off the roof

So, I happen to have a satellite dish dangling from my roof by a thread.  No, we don’t still use the satellite.  And yes, I’ve become that neighbor.

But who can I hire to get that damn thing off the roof?  I just don’t know who does that kind of thing.

8. Buy a dishwasher

Although my house is only 4 1/2 years old, the dishwasher is no longer working.  I’ve already spent a small fortune to get the problem diagnosed, but it’s still not fixed.  It could be fixed, but the dishwasher repair guy told me that it’s a design flaw, and would likely be broken again within a year.  So I opted to not fix it and put the money toward a new dishwasher.  In the meantime, I’m using a $2.99 solution…a dishpan, and frankly, not doing such a great job of keeping up with the dishes.

9. Tile the kitchen back splash

OK, what I’d really like to do is an extreme kitchen makeover, because the layout of my kitchen is really dumb.  But since I don’t have an extra $10-20k hanging around, I’ve got to make due with what I have.  So I’ll at least add some cosmetic changes, the first being tiling the back splash with those cool & funky little glass tiles.

10. Paint at least 1 kitchen wall

Most people probably wouldn’t stop at just 1 kitchen wall, but with an open-concept floor plan, the walls go on forever, without a logical stopping point.  So I’ll start with a goal of 1 wall, and figure out where to go from there.

11. For the love of all things holy, DECLUTTER!

Well, there’s probably not a whole lot more that needs to be said about this issue.  I’ve been leaning more toward minimizing than maximizing, and I am going to continue to follow that trend, little by little, throughout the year.

Those are my true confession house goals 2011 edition…what are your 2011 house goals?