Mr. Christmas!!

My nephew, Ka'Run, has been decorating Christmas trees for several years now.  When he was in grade school, he started decorating Christmas trees for his bedroom.  A few years ago I started letting him decorate my Christmas tree.  I love looking at Christmas trees, but I don't enjoy pulling the tree down from the attic and the dozens of boxes with all of my ornaments.

This is Ka'Run's first tree for his new home in Dallas.  He was so excited to show me what he did.  In fact, we did FaceTime because he wanted me to see his work live.  I am so proud of him and I wanted to share his work with others.  Enjoy!

Can you see the snowflakes?

Breakfast bar

Things I Love!!

Another installment of Things I Love!!!

I subscribe to five decorating magazines and several online publications.  When I see pictures of something I like, I save it to iPhoto to share later.  Here are two examples of spaces I wanted to share with you.  I picked both of these spaces based solely on the wall color.  I am partial to dark walls.  Dark colors add a certain richness to a space.  Don't get me wrong, I like lighter hued walls as well but I lean more to darker shades.

Courtesy of House Beautiful

These colors are so cozy to me.  Even though the colors are dark, there is still a lot of light in the spaces.  I really love how the ceiling is painted the same color as the wall in the bedroom photo.  I imagine at night time this space is like a cocoon.  Looking at this makes me want to paint my bedroom walls and ceilings dark.  Stay tuned!!

My Niece Has A New Place!

My niece Ashli moved into her new apartment over the weekend.  I was on hand to help make her place feel like a home.  I was so excited that my niece wanted artwork on her walls!  Nothing makes your space feel more like a home than artwork on the walls.  Ashli had purchased three pieces of artwork when she moved into her last apartment.  With this new space, she purchased five more pieces to hang.  I also gave her a piece of artwork that I purchased for my home but the piece did not work where I wanted to hang it.

If you are a renter, don't let that stop you from hanging artwork on the walls.  I rented for 9 years before I purchased my first home.  I had artwork on the walls in the three apartments I lived in.  Always keep a small container of spackle on hand to fill in the holes.  And, get to know the maintenance staff at your apartment complex.  I was always able to get a small jar of the wall color for touch-ups from the maintenance staff.

Another thing that was missing in Ashli's decor was accessory pillows for her sofa, love seat, and recliner.  She purchased new living room furniture for the other apartment, but the furniture did not come with accessory pillows.  You all know how I feel about pillows--the more the better!!  So, we headed to Garden Ridge to find pillows for Ashli's furniture.  Without the pillows, her furniture was sort of blah.  The pillows really pop on her furniture and liven up the space.

I like shopping with my niece.  She knows what she likes and doesn't like.  And, she makes her decisions real quick.  She's a lot like me I guess.  My only advice to her was to pick out something she would enjoy looking at.  Don't just pick out a piece of artwork to fill in a space.  Here are pictures of her living room, breakfast bar and kitchen.  I provided the artwork on her kitchen wall.

I purchased a pillow for the recliner, but the picture was taken before the pillow.

Ashli picked out the artwork over her breakfast bar.

Master Bath Reveal!!!

In an earlier post, I talked about painting and re-decorating my master bathroom.  In the eight years I've lived in this house, this is the third time I've painted my bathroom.   The two prior paintings were both done in colors from the same color chart--various shades of taupe and brown.  In fact, I used three colors from the chart and did a stripe effect.  That was one of those ideas that worked fine on paper but didn't translate well in reality.  The last painting was done a few years ago and I decided to go dark.  The color choice was Sherwin Williams Steady Brown.  I have a thing for dark colors.  For me, artwork pops better on a dark hued wall.  Everything looks richer when the walls are dark.  

So, for the past 4 or 5 years, this is how my bathroom looked:

I liked the look, but I was ready for something more dramatic.  I'm not even sure how or why I came up with the new color.  The artwork actually came before the paint color.  I wanted something different--something outside of the taupe and brown color.   So, this is what I chose-- Sherwin Williams Maxi Teal:

When I painted the first swatch of color, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it.  My first thought was, "Oh my God, I've made a mistake!"  But, that is a typical response when ever you depart from something that is usual or familiar to you.  I think this is one of those looks where you will either love it or hate it.  My sister doesn't like it.  She says this room doesn't look like the rest of my house--and it doesn't.  My niece loves it.  I didn't love it at first, but the next morning when I turned on the light, my first thought was this is a happy space!  

I didn't want my bathroom to look juvenile with this color, but the right accessories can keep it out of the kiddie zone.  I saw the artwork at Garden Ridge and I liked it so I purchased it.  Then I took the artwork to Sherwin Williams to find a color to use on my walls.  There are several colors in the artwork--red, yellow, orange, but for some reason the teal jumped out at me.  I got rid of the silk arrangement that was on my vanity.  This arrangement has been on my vanity since I moved into the house and I was so over it.  My niece proudly displays it in her house now, along with the rag rugs.  I decided to display orchids on the vanity.  It's a cleaner look and I think it goes well with the new color.

Let me know your thoughts on the redesign-love it or hate it!