Maria's Bungalow on AT

Catching up on my HouseTours on Apartmentherapy this morning, I came across Maria's Oh So You Bungalow. It is waaaaay too colorful for my taste (you should really check it out), but 2 more subdued photos really caught my eye. I would never have had the thought "Hm, I think I'll paint birds on the side of my house today..." but how cute are they?This looks like a vacation spot to me. I really like this area in the dark.

Tartan

I haven't picked up a new Domino yet, but blogger Frolic! posted about a spread they have on Tartan. I think Tartan is just a name for this kind of fabric/design also known as plaid (but I could be wrong). Either way I'm loving this trend for fall and trying hard to find the right ways to incorporate it into my wardrobe. Never thought to incorporate it in the home as well.
Top image from Domino, bottom images from Frolic!

Domino Living Rooms

I can't believe that some people actually have living rooms that look like this from Domino. These look like show rooms for furniture stores or something. One day I will have a living room this colorful!

Eames Rocker Contest on DesignSponge

Grace at DesignSponge is holding a giveaway with Sparkability. I'm not sure if you have to be a mother or be decorating a nursery, but I'm gonna try for it anyways. I think a rocker could work well in a living room even, and would make a nice edition to my living room in fact. To replace this crazy guy with any color of the Eames rocker...Should I send these pictures in? Am I worthy of a cute chair? I've never showed you guys my living room before. Here it is. Not my favorite room ever but I don't have the time or money to do anything to it at the moment, which makes me sad. Pretty much all of the furniture was free if that makes it look any better :)

New from SnapshotRadio

I just did a quick spin through my bookmarked flickr pages and re-visited Snapshotradio. I seriously want this girl to start a blog. Check out this before and after, what a great way to save space.And her inspiration board. Part of the board is an essay about birds nesting she wrote when she was 8, too funny.This bag is handmade.

Lori Pickert's Home via Cookie

Cookie Magazine writer/editor Joanna (A Cup of Jo) posted on this shoot done in a barn retreat in Illinois. Now Illinois ain't got much going on, except for Chicago of course, as far as I know, but this barn is beautiful. I am really getting into subdued colors and design that is translatable to any time period. I love the lack of modern appliances, and uncluttered look of the house.

Art as Headboard

I have been so super busy lately with school that I have had no time to finish up decorating my room. The one main thing missing is a headboard, or something resembling one. I'm still on to this art as headboard idea. Here are some new pictures I found on Domino that are giving me some new ideas. They are before and afters, which I am a big fan of.

Where can I find a huge piece of artwork that could work as a headboard? Pretty much everything on Etsy is 10" long or wide. Other than Ikea I'm kind of out of ideas.

Tiled Headboard

If these were less expensive I'd think about tiling a headboard for my bed. I figure I'd need like 50 or so of them and at $18 that's just not practical. But wouldn't that look so cool and unique?

Found on Apartmenttherapy but from Urban Outiftters.

Simpson Chair at EQ3

I had to check out EQ3 which Holly from Decor8 posted on today. I was slightly disappointed with the prices having geared up for them to be within my range. But I did get a new idea while browsing their site. I have this corner in my room that I'd like to use for "dressing" (aka throwing clothes onto when I'm too lazy to store them). How cute is this little guy?

Fixer Uppers

Awhile ago I got some great stuff to spruce up my room from all over the place: Ikea, Anthropologie and my parent's house. I'm feeling pretty good about the state of things and am happy to finally have my camera back from New York so I can share.

Office/Closet with new Ikea Snille Chair. I hung up some vintage Puerto Rico postcards, and a Chicago map for some color.My antique dresser with some drawer pulls from Anthropologie. Makes for a good dressing station, though it's kind of cramped at the foot of my bed.This fake velvet lampshade added some plushness (is that a word?) to the room. I also got a fluffy white rug that makes things softer.Oh, and I finally brought back the vintage stepstool from my parent's house. It is too cute. It looks good with our turquoisey pitcher.

Globe Spotting

I had the idea awhile ago to buy a good friend of mine (whom I usually refer to as gentleman from Astoria) a vintage globe. He is a classy guy who has learned much "in his travels" and could use a cool globe for his decor. Sharilyn's stuido housetore on Apartment Therapy LA was inspiring, she's got a huge collection of just what I was looking for. She's even thinking of selling some...maybe I should get in touch with this lady. Isn't that one black one so pretty with all of the blue?

Your Things Can Be Pretty

I really liked finding this considering I'm on such a tight budget when it comes to decorating. From At Home At Home, and on Style at Home, these 7 tips for making your space cooler are pretty handy.
"the power of placement"
"the right art in the right place"More on Style at Home...

Chair + Pillow

I just bought this chair from Ikea today. I'm pretty happy with it and will post pictures of it at my desk when my camera arrives back from New York. I'm thinking about getting the zebra pillow to put on it. Pillow is from Kanibal home via Designsponge.

Tivoli Home

I was searching around for some cute pillows to possibly put on the chair below. But then the guy from Craigslist decided he needed to sell the chair with its pair. :( I really need to stop my Craigslist addiction. It leads to a lot of disappointment. Tivoli Home has some cute pillows and they're having a sale! It says on their site it only runs through August 15th, but the pillows are still marked down.

Back and Blogging

I arrived back in Chicago today after some camping in New Jersey. It was a really great time, and much more dry than I expected. We grilled over a fire, ate fresh peaches from an award winning peach stand, and saw more stars than I've seen in years. I would post pictures if I hadn't left my camera in New York :(

So I'm back and thinking about desk chairs. These 3 are pretty similar and from 3 different places. Craigslist a supposedly Eames chair, C2b Milan chair, and Ikea Gilbert chair.I like the simplicity of these desk chairs, reminiscent of school desk chairs. I'd love to have one and keep a pretty pillow on it as cushion. Pillows from Etsy: Kitchniche, Karen Hiltondesigns, Joom

Somebody stop me...

Ok. I am out of control and I need to stop. The fact of the matter is, that I have very little going on both during the day and during the night, as my sister so kindly pointed out. Hence, I've been obsessively thinking about decorating, and not spending enough time studying for my math placement exam.

I got sick of this:So I whipped up this:But what I was really trying to accomplish was a combination of these 2:
Can anyone recommend a good primer? :)

Inspiration from Marie Claire le Maison

An interesting idea for shoe storage:Great idea to make a room look bigger, love this:
Wood panelling which I've come to like on just about anything. I think this room looks very retro-chic. I especially love the long floating shelf.Bubble Lounger, for the pool. And with that I'm off to lounge in my sister's pool! This hanging out for a month before grad school is really becoming a great vacation.
Images all from Marie Claire le Maison

Help! Art as Headboard?

I decided to do a little experiment to see if I could pull off black and white art hanging above the bed as a headboard. I drew little silhouettes of various images, and added a few things I already had framed. I've never hung a grouping of art though before, so I'm wondering how this looks, and what I can do to improve it (despite straightening the frames). Should I spread it all out? Should I eliminate the ones with color and keep it strictly black and white?? Help! Here's a closeup of some of the art I made, using a sharpie to outline some photos I liked.A photo I took of Washington Square Park my freshman year in college:Crazy charcoal drawing:

Rococo

I'm obviously late to join the trend, but I'm noticing a lot of this style being used in various "arenas". Kitchen items, upholstery, jewelry and fashion are all using rococo style. I think I need at least like a pillow or something with this design so that I can get with the trend.
Plates: Elsewares.com
Couch: Anthropologie
Wall Decals and Wall Clock: chiasso
Notebook: Sprout Home
Bracelet: Konzuk

Everything Inching Towards Its Right Place

My 5 or 6 boxes of stuff that had been picked up over 2 weeks ago in New York finally arrived in Chicago today. I was so excited to finally move in, for real, after 5 days of living here. Here's what I've been doing all day, and why I wasn't on the blogs at all. (Oh, and I took my grandmother couch shopping which took about 5 hours, yikes).

My first time using a drill, I hung that floating shelf up myself. I'm thinking of adding another. I have all of this artwork and knickknacks out trying to figure out what I like where. Still wishing that dresser had some mid-century modern flair. Some things are just un-poofable it seems.The office closet in the making. I'm eventually going to get a piece of wood to use as a desk, and add one more shelf. Also going to store my bags somewhere else. Wouldn't a flat screen tv be nice? Oh, and I'm painting that bright blue chair a darker brown.
I do like the way this one corner turned out, though the rest of the "office" needs some work.