In working on Doc Holiday, our little beach cottage, my plan for the living/dining space was to try to squeeze as much out of the small space as possible. I had learned from working with designer Jane Coslick on other projects that it would help to lighten up the dark paneled rooms with white paint--not only does it make the space seem brighter but it also makes it appear to be larger and gives a neutral backdrop for any color I want to introduce.
When it was time to select a sofa and upholstered chairs I chose white slipcovered pieces because they would blend in and take up less space visually plus the slipcovers make it easy to wash away the occasional spills of little (or big) people.
I shopped IKEA because they specialize in small scale furniture and their goods have a nice design and reasonable price. The only problem I had with IKEA was getting used to the strange names of the furniture!
Once I had a nice white backdrop it was time to put some color in the room--and that is where the exciting, nail-biting, rewarding, terrifying, thrilling, satisfying part of decorating comes in--the part where you give your room some personality!
I had to decide what kind of feeling my room should evoke when people walked in. I wanted people to feel uplifted and say Ooooo--niiice and yet not feel intimidated because the room is too precious. I wanted the room to welcome guests, invite them to relax and to have furnishings that delight them and make them feel happy as they look around. Also I wanted the room to say You're at the beach!! without getting too cute and overly kitschy.
When I began to shop I tried to keep my objective in mind--to only buy things that met my goals. I usually try to establish a color scheme fairly early in the game and pull the colors through the house to all the rooms to keep it cohesive. But who am I kidding?
My Most Important Rule: Buy what you really love and skip the rest.
So today I want to show you some of my favorite things--things that made the cut because
they say "happy" to me.
This painting was my first purchase--it was my birthday/Christmas present from Henry.
I blogged about the artist, Bellamy Murphy, way back in April when I visited her studio. Her paintings make me smile and I'd been wanting one for several years. The only problem was narrowing my choice down to just one...
After seeing "May Day" on Bellamy's blog I just knew. I had found it. The perfect painting to use as a focal point and inspiration for my bright and happy color scheme!
I love to shop for vintage pieces. I've scored some great deals with Craig's List, eBay, and little local flea markets. Some have needed do-overs like this cupboard I posted about here. It now has a split personality since I separated the top and bottom, painted them, and made them into
two pieces of furniture!
These tables for each side of the sofa were also flea market finds.
The lamps and shades I bought to go on the side tables came from Target. They were chosen to echo the yellow found in Bellamy's painting.
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| It's white, folks! The picture makes it look sort of grey. |
This little painting from Home Goods was left over from decorating a different cottage. I liked it too much to return it and for now it has found a home above the sofa.
Then there is the matter of pillows...
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| A pair of these are on the sofa. |
These are my faves! I found them on Amazon but their price took my breath away. No matter how much I loved them, I could not justify it with my tiny budget :(
But hooray! A few weeks later just in time to furnish Doc Holiday, one of my favorite flash sale sites, Joss and Main, offered them for less than half the Amazon price and I snagged a couple! Sometimes it pays to wait!
If you'd like to check out some of the great deals at Joss and Main please click my link and join up! The deals change daily so if you don't find something you like and need today you may find it tomorrow! At any rate, it's fun to window shop!
These are a few of my favorite things! This post is getting long so I will wait til next week to show you a close-up of an absolutely fabulous seashell-encrusted mirror! Then I want to put everything together and show you how it looks in the living room!
What about you? Do you have any favorite finds or stores to share with us?
Where do you like to shop? Are you a flea market enthusiast or do you prefer the
fancier stores?
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