A Little of This & That… Renovating, Decorating, DIY Projects & Family
A Little of This & That… Renovating, Decorating, DIY Projects & Family

Wardrobe Style Boards: Spring Pastels!

Spring and its gorgeous palette of brilliant pastels is sneaking up on us be it for wardrobe or home design (check out this article on Houzz for more fun proof) and I’m so excited to welcome Maryam back to share her take on this coming season’s fashion favorites (you can catch the full style board gallery over here). Take it away!

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Hi there!

Maryam here, dropping in to give a little peek on one of this spring’s trends that is sure to brighten up your coldest winter days! I am talking about PASTELS!

Heaps of sorbet and pastel color pieces are popping up all around the fashion world. Colors like cantaloupe, honeydew, peachy pink, lavender, mint, sea foam (sounds like dessert time. huh?) are all adorning anything from skinny jeans, heels, tanks, blazers, backpacks, rings- truly, the possibilities are endless.

This is a color trend that doesn’t have to stop with one accent piece. Don’t be afraid to mix and match colors and shades to create a cohesive outfit. The neutral tones compliment each other quite nicely… a lot like the sorbet section in the ice cream shop, so I say, go all out!

If you just want to just try a little taste of this sorbet-lovin’ trend, buy yourself a great pair of colored skinny jeans. Almost every online and in-store boutique is carrying them, and it’s a great way to ease into this color trend. Pair them with a chambray or denim button-down (one of my closet staples) and you got yourself a great looking outfit if I do say myself. And I could go on for days on that minty backpack… so very dreamy.

 

If you’re a gal who likes to dress it up or down, I adore the boyfriend blazer. The blazer is so very versatile, wear it with jeans, shorts, a mini or maxi skirt, over a dress- truly there are so many ways to style it. My favorite is to pair the blazer with a textured short. This look is classy, but you don’t have to worry about matching your shorts with the blazer, because its special feature is the texture. Eyelets or lace give a great contrast while still looking put together.

So what do you think about this year’s pastel trend? Are you going to eat it all up?

Maryam

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As always, you can visit the slideshow gallery for sourcing info to track down any of the above.

I have always loved Maryam’s LOVE for bright and beautiful colors, these style boards are the perfect example of how well and easily she mixes her favorites – be it an outfit of pastels, primaries or saturated colors – so wonderfully. I am in awe, being the neutral gal that I am. As hinted at yesterday, I’m working on taking the leap into brighter signs of spring for the house, too (a slow leap… but working my way up that color confidence ladder). Thanks again for visiting, Maryam! (PS You can always visit her right here.)

Making Room for Spring! A Living Room Update

Yes… it might be a little early to be thinking about Spring, but our living room was feeling a bit down and I’ve been itching at the bit to infuse a little color.

Actually, bright and cheery color might be a theme here this week now that I think about the DIY projects I’ve recently been working on and the awesome styleboards Maryam put together (her post soon to come).

Here’s our living room with its ‘Spring Infusion’ in full swing. It might not look that different from our previous set up but it’s four DIY pillows (+ two store bought versions), a new striped throw, a new addition to the wall collage, bookshelf revamp and mantle update away from how it used to be.

Go ahead and ignore that giant hole in the wall in our dining room (it’s the old door to the new bathroom that is getting plastered up soon). But! Check out the new pillows.

Let’s start with the pop of raspberry red. I found the beautiful velvet at our local discount fabric shop and made two easy pillow covers out of it for less than $12. The color is actually very similar to the coral West Elm versions I had there previously, but those guys were showing major sun wear-and-tear and were beginning to look tired and haggered (is that a word? spellcheck says no). These ones are more pink than they are coral and I love how they look with the other green accents in the room.

The brown and white trellis print is a new addition too. He’s from three cloth napkins from Target (bought them as part of my stenciled Christmas present kit and ended up not using them). Love the modern print!

Next to the velvet and trellis print pillows is another cloth napkin number. I’ve had this solo floral napkin in my collection for some time (why just one? not sure… maybe I thought it would work for a bread basket or something :)), but it’s getting much more use now as a horizontal pillow on the sofa! The backing is a tan linen from my remnant pile and the stuffing is just an everyday standard bed pillow (perfect length horizontally and a bit ‘stuffed’ vertically, but that lends itself to a nice soft ‘pouf’).

On the other side of the sofa is my World Market cow hide find (but a much softer version than a hide material) and my invisible zipper tan pillow from this tutorial. The green velvet version (love that texture! and mixing textures in pillows in general) is a C&B addition from a while back.

That new striped throw was from my holiday gift guide list (the rusty pink, green and brown versions are on sale for $13 right now in store!) from West Elm – it is sooo soft and the pop of blue balances out the pinks and greens and browns.

Other new room changes include moving a floral print (recognize one of my favorite artists from this post?) from the bookshelf to the wall collage along the back wall. (Looking at this photo I’m now thinking that the wall collage is way off center–note to self that I need to bump the bookshelves over about 6 inches).

A close up of the addition–I moved a few pieces around  to create a new layout, too. Love the silver frame and how it breaks up my traditional (and favorite) warm brown frames. Here’s another example of how linen mattes have become my second go-to after white! This frame/matte combo is actually from West Elm (I’m beginning to sound like an advertisement for them but we have one locally here in San Diego so I stop in periodically to check out the sale racks), but I’ve also had linen mattes made (like this set from the office) at Michaels, too.

Speaking of bookshelves, I like to use frames in bookshelves to help break up the solid brown backing (or whatever backing color is in the bookshelf I’m working with), so I replaced the silver frame with a framed piece of bright green handmade paper from Paper-Source (you might recognize it as my ‘pop’ of green on the mantle at Christmas).

I also added a white ceramic bird (the one with long tail feathers on the second shelf down on the right–found him at a second hand shop in Iowa) and a white bird candle to my accessories. I find that a commonality (i.e. the white color) amongst a handful of accessories brings unity to a shelf that could otherwise be too messy. Despite a consideration towards design with these shelves, this bookshelf is still functional for us with all of the books that we actually want to access on a regular basis stored in various baskets or by color (like those on the top shelf).

Moving further down the wall from the bookshelves, our rustic leather smoking chair (he’s been in the family for over 4o years) received a new silk green pillow that I found on sale.

Last but not least, the mantel received a little makeover post-Christmas. Instead of redressing it with my usual look, I took the opportunity to find new pieces to feature (plus, over the holidays I found better homes for most of the other photos that were up there originally).

My favorite new piece is the beautifully (and simply) embroidered print by Etsy artist Avery of Dear Night. It’s inspired by this print from Secrets from a Stylist (my favorite HDTV show) and despite my best efforts to track down the actual artist and to purchase a similar piece of embroidered art (which included unanswered emails and lots of tracking), I worked with Avery (who is Awesome! And so talented–I’m so lucky to have found her randomly on Etsy while searching) to create our own version on a linen fabric based around one of my favorite ‘home’ quotes that was unique enough as not to be a replica. I LOVE it. So much.

It was sort of a Christmas present for Kevin. But mostly one for me.

On the other side of the mantel are two branches of giant green billy balls! Yes, I believe that’s what they’re called, though Crate & Barrel calls them ‘Chestnut Branches‘ (which is admittedly a little more attractive). I began regretting my decision when the lady at check out referred to them as ‘very Dr. Seuss-ish’ but immediately retracted on that when I saw them in the house replacing the branches on the mantel. I think they look so cool!

I was ready for a change from the birch branches that originally filled this vase. I love the branches and I’m still looking for a new location for them, but they didn’t always look super on the mantel (they’d slip out of their arrangement and would poke out in random directions) and these guys are a bit more mold-able without looking and feeling like fake wire flowers (because they’re not really flowers). Plus, any opportunity to add a little green life to a room is one I’m happy to take.

A few more shots of the mantel:

The last update is moving our big brown ottoman from the dining room (used as extra seating as a bench) into the living room as an alternative to a coffee table. I loved the free space of not having anything in front of the fireplace and plenty of room for Liv to play, but it wasn’t realistic for hosting people, eating chips and guac in front of the football game, or for holding glasses of wine after a long day. This ottoman is sort of the best of both worlds, it has soft edges for Liv to bounce around, it’s light weight and can easily be pushed out of the way (under the front window behind me in the below shot) and it’s sturdy enough to hold plates of food or a wooden tray for glasses. I’m thinking I might reupholster it in something more creative than the store-bought faux brown leather though… we’ll see.

In every attempt to keep a somewhat normal living room set up, I try to limit Liv’s toys to just a single basket in each room she plays in outside of her room. You can see my World Market basket (which I snagged for $10-ish with a coupon) in the corner next to the fireplace.

And there you have it! My infusion of Spring into our neutral living room space. I’ll post more on those really simple envelope pillows I made (all four in just a couple of hours–no zippers required) later this week. Happy Monday!

More posts on our living room can be found right here.

Friday Guest Blog Interview: Jan of Chicago Spaces

 

Happy Friday! Can you believe this week? Such a fast week. Yesterday felt like Tuesday and tomorrow should not be Saturday – but alas it is Friday and I’m more than a little happy about that.

Every once in a while I invite a blogger, artist or writer to stop by the blog and share their thoughts about design with readers. I’ve come to call this my ‘Friday Guest Blog Interview’ and while I don’t host every Friday, I took a little count yesterday and this is the 52nd interview to date. I’m no interior designer so I might look forward to these interviews most, but if you’re interested in some serious tips and tricks from some of the best out there, check out the archive here. A few of my favorites? Centsational Girl, Young House Love, Viva Full House, Isabella & Max Rooms, Hostess with the Mostess, Bower Power, Decor8, Made by Girl, Ruffles and Stuff, Style Me Pretty, M Loves M — too many to name. I really have enjoyed each one of those 52. I keep the same four questions each time and I love to hear the variations and commonalities in the answers!

Today I have the honor of introducing Jan Parr, long time editor of Chicago Home + Garden and recent author of Chicago Spaces: Inspiring Interiors. If you’re a collector of awesome coffee table books, I must admit that this is a great addition to the collection. I have sprinkled my favorite photos from the book throughout the interview!

Everything about both of the above images is awesome. More after the jump. Continue reading

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