Feeling Blue, Part II

There are so many shades of blue.  Baby blue, royal blue, slate blue, periwinkle, aqua, turquoise.  Here's some more blue inspiration.  No primary colors here.

Turquoise lamp and ottoman look fab with yellow table.  I need that lamp.  And that painting.  Image via HGTV.

Cool baby blue looks fab in an industrial chic environment and with pops of red.  Guilherme Torres via Desire to Inspire.

Candice Olsen's rooms always look a over the top for my taste.  But....  I must admit this color scheme of pale blue, royal blue and burgundy is delicious.

One of my new favorite color schemes.  Blue and gray.  Architects for Life.

I'm a sucker for pale blue in a modern environment.  That chair is too fab!  Sorry, I don't remember where I got this image, if you know please let me know.

Periwinkle is another of my favorite shades of blue.  This room is incredibly luxurious and restful looking in this shade.  No one does monochrome better than - one of my favorite designers - Benjamin Noriega Ortiz. 

In his own home, Benjamin lives with fabulous colors.  I've showed you his gorgeous pink bedroom (see previous post here).  The walls of his living room and dining room are painted the most beautiful of blues - Tiffany box blue.  This color is obsessing me.  I wish I could paint my walls this color!  Image via Knstrct.

Sneak Peak

Hello dear readers!  Hope you are having a great weekend.  As you know, I've been obsessing about blue lately.  I've been adding some blue to my apartment.  Here's a sneak peak with my new sofa cover.  It's actually a turquoise color, but it looks kind of green in the picture.

The vase that I painted blue.  Stay tuned for more blue!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!  xo

Feeling Blue!

As promised, we are going to do an exploration of the color blue over the next few days.  Blue is a soft and calming color, often associated with healing in color psychology.  It looks great with pink, yellow and orange.  It looks great with purple and with the gray.  There are so many beautiful shades of blue.  Today we are going to look at every girl's favorite - Tiffany box blue.  I've been seeing it everywhere in decor and especially love it on accent walls.  We will also look at baby blue, pastel blue and turquoise.

No She Didn't opaque lipstick by Lime Crime.  Could you dare?  This lip stick would be totally fab with a pink streak in your hair.

I need this nail polish!  Tiffany imposter by Sally Beauty Supply.

Love the yellow and blue color blocking here.  Notice the bed is painted the same color as the bottom part of the wall.  Image Helenio Barbetta.

Not a great kitchen, but I am in love with the blue tiles, cabinets and cabinets.  Houston's Beer Can House.

An old rather dull table gets a face lift with the help of a beautiful shade of blue paint.  Etsy user minthome.

I know a ton of people who have this same boring wood table.  It looks so much fresher painted!  Here the owners have opted for painting the table yellow and adding blue chairs.  The look is fab!  Victoria's Perfect Blend via Apartment Therapy.

A pale blue chair looks lovely with pale lilac in the same hue.  Mimmi Staaf via My Attic.

 

I need this lovely round ottoman in my living room!  It would be great for storing blankets.  I love a piece that is beautiful and functional.  Room Service.

I adore this turquoise sofa.  My next sofa cover is going to be turquoise.  From Croatia via Desire to Inspire.

This stunning apartment features a blue wallpaper accent wall and blue accessories.  As you know, I'm not a big fan of wallpaper, but I think using it on an accent wall is a great idea.  The place looks very fresh.  Dragana's Apartment via Desire to Inspire.

Love the pale blue accent wall.  And dig those cute little tables.  They look kinda like mushrooms and they look great with that pop of pink from the rug.

Same place, other wall in a darker blue.  I love how they've used different blues, patterns and wood.  The place still looks fresh, organic and monotone.  Guilherme Torres via Desire to Inspire.

The blue pillows, rug and chandelier look great combined with the gray walls and sofa.  Also love the dash of silver provided by the phone.  Source for this gorgeous room unknown. Please contact me if you know the designer of this room.  Stay tuned for more blue tomorrow.

Got Legs? Part Two

In my post below, I featured a beautiful apartment where all the furniture has legs.  I love the look of elevating the furniture from the floor.  It makes a place look airy.  That's why I am in love with my Danish sofa.  I adore ottomans with legs and bookcases with legs.  Turns out I am not the only one obsessed.  Here are some great ideas if you need add or show off legs in your place.

I love this idea!  Custom legs for Ikea furniture by Pretty Pegs.   Those pink ones are pretty sweet.  Would be fun to make a coffee table using those.

I've been seeing this look a lot lately, where it looks like the legs have been dipped in paint.  I especially love when it looks like they have been dipped in a neon color.

Also love the look where the legs are exposed.  Kind of like the chair is wearing panty hose.  Sexy.  Above two images Koskela via My Attic.

Here the top of the leg is left exposed.  Love the injection of hot pink with the the wood and neutral color scheme.  Image via The Style Files.

Here the top of the leg is painted the same color as the table top, and the bottom is exposed.  I love the white and the peak of the real materials the table is made of.  I adore this table, I'd like to have it for my work desk.  It's not often I see a table I like as much as the Parsons.  Image via Koskela.

Designer extraordinaire, Anna from Door Sixteen is a master at injecting hot pink into her mostly black and white home.  She painted these legs on her sofa.  I'm thinking about copying this idea.

Here's another great idea called the Tick System by designer Jacob Schenk.  The legs are wire sculpted into a pure form.  They can be easily hooked onto any piece of wood to make a simple looking table.  Another great idea in sustainability.  I love them.  I hope we will be able to get these in the U.S.

Got legs?

Did you follow this year's Small Cool contest at Apartment Therapy?  It was a lot of fun, and there were many good entries.  Hard to believe this is already their 8th annual!  If you didn't follow, don't despair, they have all the entries on their site and there's always next year.  Next up is their color contest, which I think happens in the fall.  

My favorite entry did not win, although I am happy for the winner.  The winner has a blog that I enjoy reading and he is an amazing DIYer.  His blog is entitled Manhattan Nest.  I'm not sure why that's not on my link list.  An unintentional omission I intend to correct.  But I digress.  This is not a post about Daniel, but rather about Matt.  Matt's apartment was by far my favorite.

 

 Matt's Well Curated Collection

I love Matt's apartment.  He designed the space to fit his needs, moving his sleeping area into his living room and making the bedroom into an office.  Having lived in a studio for many years, I totally get it.  You get used to the open space.  I may do this very same thing in my new apartment.  I need a work area for my art projects and I'd love to sleep by the sliding glass doors in the living area.

Matt has a great art collection.  But one of my favorite things about Matt's apartment are its legs!  Notice how all the furniture has legs and is elevated from the floor.  I love the look of furniture with legs.  It makes all the furniture appear to float and gives the place a nice airy feel.  Adding to the airy feel is the lack of window treatments.  The place is a bit masculine, but I could live here.  There's only one thing I'd like to change - you guessed it - I'd like to paint all the floors white!  Ahh, then it really would look like living on a cloud.

Weekend Art Project - Painting Vases

Hello dear readers!  Hope you are having a great weekend.  I wanted to give you a sneak peek of an art project I'm working on.  My first art project in my new apartment!  Well my first non-digital project.  I'm working on some really cool digital projects.  But for now, it felt great to play with paint again.  It's been so long, I've been craving it.

First I bought a couple of cheap vases at the Goodwill.  I spent about $4.00 on vases.  They needed to have a simple geometric shape and a rather porous finish.  I selected the one above for its beautiful shape. Its finish was not original and chipped in a couple of places so it had to be sanded.  I've mentioned a few times that I am itching to add some blue to my apartment.  Still... you know... I love me some pink.  I went round and round - pink or blue?  My cousin said I already had pink covered in my home.  True dat.  I decided on a lovely shade of baby blue.  Besides, blue looks great with pink.

Ta da!  Here it is in its beautiful new shade.  Since the finish was porous, the paint went on easily with a brush.  No spray paint mess, perfect matte finish.  I kinda dig it.

This poor unloved baby had a great shape but a poorly applied, careless finish.  Not sure if it's original, might  be one of those textured spray paints.  This one could have been part of my ugly vase installation.  Since I dismantled that installation (sometimes I wish I hadn't), I decided instead to give her a make over.   I sanded the heck out of this thing, but had to give up my perfectionist tendencies.  Though smoother, this baby would never be completely smooth.

Ta da!  You know you love it, and so do I.    I actually dig the texture.  And I love its half moon shape!  Definitely Ikebana inspired.

Here are the two lovelies together.  This is my idea of upcycling.  What a gorgeous shade of blue!  Now I am on the hunt for more cheap, porous, simply shaped vases.  I also covered a canvas in this beautiful shade.  I am so crazy about this color I wish I could do an accent wall in it.  Since I'm not allowed to paint the walls, I thought it might be cool to go monotone in my display - have the painting, the bookcase and all the vases in the same color.  A tactile, accent wall!  Stay tuned - more discussions of the beauty of blue coming up.  If you are not a fan of blue, I promise you will be by the end of the week.  :)  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!  xo

More obsession...

Below I wrote about my obsession with (and mission to find) a new lamp.  As you know, when decorating one thing leads to the other.  I have been considering whether I need new art over my sofa once I buy a lamp.  Here are a few possibilities.

This is my new painting, which is still in process.

I love black and white photography and I love the graphic simplicity of this work.  From Etsy user honeytree.

This is one of my photos.  I've always wanted to have some of my photos printed on canvas.

This is one of my paintings which is sold.  I love the idea of hot pink and cool blue, I could recreate this painting.

I'd love to do a black accent wall but, as you know, I'm not allowed to paint.  I've experimented here with another photo of mine that I'd like to have printed on canvas.  I love how stark it is, but I think I'd get tired  of the black quickly.

This might be my favorite, although I've enlarged it for my purposes.  I love these colors!   I think I need some silky pale pink and pale blue pillows.  Painting from Etsy user Shauno.  What do you think, dear readers, do you have a favorite?  All suggestions welcome!

Lamp Obsession

As you know, I'd like to have an over sized lamp for the Parsons end table in my living area.  I must have had too much time on my hands today.  Okay, truthfully I was procrastinating.  Here are some lamps I found on the internet that would look great in my place.  I thought I'd experiment with both the white sofa cover and the hot pink one.

Hot pink lamp.This fab pink lamp is actually from a Barbie house (see previous post here).

 This lamp was formerly available at West Elm.  Love the tall shade.

I mentioned this gorgeous lamp in a post below.  It is available from Etsy user Retroenvy.  For purposes of this mock up, I added the West Elm shade to the lamp.  The lamp is available without a shade for a fairly reasonable price, but as you know, shades can get really expensive!  And hard to find in this area.

A large yellow lamp might be cool.  This lamp is available from Etsy user vintagelovesandmore, but at $650 is only a pipe dream.  I'd be better off with the yellow Perch lamp from West Elm.  It's reasonably priced, but it's too small.  I want something big!  I'm on a mission.  I will be investigating flea markets, garage sales and the Goodwill.  I know I will find something I like, but I may have to spray paint it.

Which is your favorite lamp, dear readers?  I think I like the one in pics 5 and 6 best.  Such a sensual shape.

My Apartment for Today

I have a confession to make.  I feel like shopping.  But I have no money to spend.  Oh, what to do?  I know - I'll rearrange a few things in my apartment.  Truthfully, I don't need anything new - except a new lamp...and an ottoman.... I know it's an obsession.  My apartment's small and humble, but I love it.  I love living simply.  I want my place to flirt with minimalism.  I also want it to be clean and modern and girly with an edge.  Oh yeah, and cozy and Bohemian.  Quite a tall order for a modest place.  Moving a few things around always helps with the desire to shop.  I have plenty of pretty things.

I've been craving blue and turquoise.  I love the hot pink sofa cover, but decided to see what would happen if I lightened up things a bit with the white cover.  I wish I could paint the walls bright white.  Right now they are kind of beige.

This is the counter separating the living room and open kitchen.  The canvas is actually in process.  I am currently working on an experiment in color and texture.  I love gray and turquoise together.

Of course, I had to change the art in the hallway and rearrange the pottery.  I have several projects in mind and can't wait to get started.  Look at this super sexy lamp I saw at Etsy!  I think it would look great in my living room.  

I think this lamp would look fab with a tall lamp shade.   Lamp available at retroenvy.

Here's another idea I really love.  I adore this tension shelving!  Such a great idea for a small space.  In a small place it's important to go vertical with display.  I'm not allowed to make permanent changes to my apartment.  But I think I could use something like this on the counter separating my kitchen and living area.  I could display pottery there, and it would still appear open.  I love it.  This design is by Kris Swift, who is one of the designers who will be competing in the new season of Design Star on HGTV.  The new season will be starting May 29.  I can't wait!