Posts Tagged ‘gray’

Striped Walls

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Posted by Rebecca, February 17th, 2011

I couldn’t think of a good title today.

Since we moved in, I’ve had striped walls on my mind. Originally, I thought of doing a light tone on tone horizontal stripe in our bedroom. I’m not sure where I got this idea, since I had it in my head long before I discovered house blogs. Probably some show on HGTV! I was thinking something like this…

(via Apartment Therapy)

Our bedroom is large and I knew the walls needed something, but I was too intimidated to try a stencil or wallpaper. If I ever made the bed and took a picture, I could show you a decent angle. And I’d rather not show you the uber embarassing kitten conference, unmade bed, pants on the ground picture again. So here’s an equally awful and creepy picture of the wall behind our bed, taken from our sitting room which has no light fixture in it (hence the ghostly looking cat…)

I just couldn’t imagine stripes in here, but it was the easy solution. Then I decided to man up and attempt a stencil.. attempt still pending.

So I diverted my need for stripes to another room after seeing this must-have inspiration photo from Elle Decor…

(via Elle Decor)

I fell in love with the dramatic contrast and figured the perfect place for something so bold would be the powder room. Until one day recently when I was analyzing the powder room and I realized my beloved stripes wouldn’t look good in there.

The ceilings are pretty high..

And the door is actually at an angle, so the room isn’t a perfect square.

At this point I figured that maybe I’d just use my dark brown stripes in our future basement. Note: our basement is no where near finished. By the time we finish it, I’ll probably think of something else. I have no clue why it took me so long to think of this, since this was my original, original idea, but the office could use some stripes.

Way back when we were buying office furniture and all gung-ho office, I wanted to do stripes but knew the bedroom needed a fancy wall paint more and I didn’t want to be the stripe house. We’ve lost some motivation in the office, since it needs so much organizing and I was having a hard time visualizing the finished space. We went with the furniture we could afford and I wanted to balance the Ikea modern with some more traditional elements to keep it classy. I think the stripes will do just that.

To reassure myself, I download Google SketchUp last night and played with it for just a half hour or so. Awesome program. I just fiddled and wasn’t aiming for perfection, but this is what I got…

The walls on the sides are the same color as the darker stripe, SketchUp just does a 2D shadow type thing. The room is missing the bay window on that left wall and the gallery wall would be on the right wall. The white line at the top is crown molding we’d eventually like to do. We’ve been eyeing up these white chairs from Staples and that’s as far as I got last night. I didn’t rotate that one chair, but then I realized it was kind of funny to keep it like that because we will probably never push our chairs under anyway! The paint color is the Benjamin Moore Smoked Oyster we’ve had in mind since we moved in, though we’ll have to throw a little sample on the wall before deciding. The color in this SketchUp is far more purple than the actual color. Here’s a little image from the Benajamin Moore site…

We’d probably pair the Smoked Oyster with the Elephant Gray or Portland Gray. Smoked Oyster definitely has some purple tones (to make my purple loving self happy) but falls into the brown/gray family as well. That is the only reason why Mike agreed to it as well, I even gave him the option of a green!

Anyway I’m super excited about my new area to put some stripes. Now maybe the office will make some progress soon 🙂

Mmm West Elm

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Posted by Rebecca, January 5th, 2011

West Elm is quickly becoming my favorite store, which is a huge statement considering how I feel about Crate and Barrel. Just lately, I love everything in West Elm. So when I received an
email and a catalog telling me about their new arrivals, I drooled. Twice. Once while at my computer and once while standing at my counter. I’m all about technology and everything and would be the first to tell you that I’d rather look at something online than buy a magazine (ie- all things wedding related) but boy, that catalog was dreamy. So I obviously felt compelled to give you a list of my favorites!

1. Slipcovered Slipper Chair, $349 for chair, $69 for slipcover

I’m generally not one for skirted slipcovers, but for some reason I love this one. It’s a nice mix of traditional and modern. Plus I love that print. A cheaper option would be to buy a much more affordable slipper chair at Target or HomeGoods and just use the West Elm slipcover (if it fits, I have done zero research).

2. Pebble Side Table, $149

I am just intrigued by this thing, part of me likes that it’s asymmetrical and if it wasn’t, I probably would have browsed right past it. It says its for indoor/outdoor use and I do like it, but I’d probably love it outside.

3. Stripe Duvet Cover, $59 for queen

Thick stripes? Check. Gray/white color scheme? Check. This thing is right up my alley.

4. Spring Floral Duvet, $59 for queen

While we’re on the topic of bedding, which just so happens to be one of my favorite topics, I love this set as well. I love a white themed bed and this has just the right amount of color to add interest. Never mind that awesome floral graphic.

5. Metal Squirrel, $29

Because he’s cute, and I love a woodland animal. But at $29?? I’ll wait for him to go on sale…

6. Textured Pure Vases, $29-$39

I’d like to add some more white accessories to the office to keep my little owl company and I love the texture in these.

7.Porcelain Tumblers, $8

I love a nice little find for under $10. The bold patterns on these make them a nice little accent piece for pencils and pens, toothbrushes or as a little vase.

8. Modern Weave Headboard, $379 for queen

This is something that caught my eye in the catalog and if I had $400 hanging around, I’d totally buy it to compliment my future, stenciled, bedroom. Hm this list was too long for a top 5, but too short for a top 10. So I leave you with my top 8! 🙂

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