{inspired} spring color palettes

As you all know, every few months I take a look at fashion color trends and translate those colors in home decor. I’m always inspired by the “new” colors that come into stores each season and, of course, I’m always itching to update my home a  little (a pillow here, a ceramic figure there) to keep on-trend. Since we hit 80+ degrees in Portland last weekend, and it FINALLY feels like spring, it's about time to share my favorites of the season.

But, I have a little surprise for you today. I'm actually sharing my color picks over at Restored Style! 

Kirsten is a fellow Portlander and is just all around talented and inspiring. She not only has a gorgeous home and stylish and fun blog, BUT just launched her own design services! Have you visited her before? Make sure you pop over today to say hi and check out my color picks.

** If you’d like to check out previous color palette posts see: winter color palettes, fall color palettes, summer color palettes, and spring color palettes.

{renovate} hallway reveal

Last week I revealed the new paint and new floors in the back bedroom. This week, we're ready to show off our newly refinished hallway!

Here was the hallway, in February. Note: I completely photoshopped the carpet into this picture. Don't worry, I will never photoshop a photo and not let you all know. We were just so excited to rip up the ugly carpet that I forgot to take a true before. The accuracy of this photo, though, is amazing. I heart photoshop. 

After we ripped up the carpet, and the linoleum, we were left with ....

... hardwoods! Shiny refurbished hardwoods!

What was once this ....

Is now this. This is the view from the kitchen looking towards the bedrooms/bathroom. If you look closely, you can see the lines from the moon/sun linoleum. Let's just say you don't have to look closely in person to see them. Boo. We'll be pulling up those boards and replacing them with salvaged hardwoods.

Which is what we did in this little area. The huge black area in the center of the photo is actually plywood. Not hardwoods. One day last year Chris was driving through our neighborhood and found the original hardwoods from a house that was being remodeled laying near a dumpster. Being the resourceful smarty that he is, he grabbed a bunch (after asking the owners, of course) just in case we ever needed it.

That same area now looks like this! YAH!

What I like best is the cohesiveness of having the same flooring throughout the majority of the upstairs now. The kitchen is still linoleum, but at some point I would like to refinish those hardwoods as well. In a floor plan that's as small as ours, having the same floors really opens up the house, and dare I say, even makes it feel a little bigger. Above is the hallway into the newly refinished back bedroom.

This is a view from our bedroom through the hallway to the other bedroom.

And this angle is the living room looking through the hallway. I love that all you see are hardwoods!

We painted the hallway when we painted the living room two years ago. So pulling up the carpet left an unsightly line along the baseboards. Luckily, it was nothing a little touch up paint couldn't handle.

A half hour later and all the baseboards were looking clean and crisp again. Lastly, we painted the vent that is in the bottom right of this picture. If you noticed in the above photos, it's blue. To match the carpet, obviously. So we spray painted it black to match the other vents in the house.

It feels so good to have this project wrapped up! Wednesday I'll be posting a tutorial for refinishing your hardwoods. While time consuming, it's actually pretty easy and saved us a lot of money.

So tell me, what did you all do this weekend? Anyone, besides me, glued to the TV watching March Madness?! :)

Edited: I'm adding this project to the Nester's Take a Risk Day link party! Because pulling up your carpet with a $0 budget was a huge risk for us :).

{renovate} a house history

Part of the fun of renovating a house is learning it's history. Each layer you peel back reveals a different era, and it's fun - and sometimes incredibly funny (!) - to discover previous owner's decorating choices.

I mentioned on Monday that Chris' best friend, and his wife, came over to help us with the back entry. Erika and I were planning on helping the boys, but it turns out the space is WAY too small for all four of us. We were ready to get our hands dirty and had no project! So Erika suggested we pull up my hallway carpet. Girl is crazy ambitious. 

Background: See, when Chris moved in, he pulled carpet out of the living room and front bedroom. But nasty, stained, baby blue carpet remains in the hallway and the back bedroom. He thought there was tile under the carpet, and then for sure hardwoods under the tile.

Turns out, it wasn't tile under the carpet. It was some sort of vintage linoleum/plastic material ... with fun shapes in-layed!

First up, crescent moon and star. And further down the hallway ....

A compass. You know, just in case we get lost walking out of our bedroom in the morning. Friends, it was hilarious, and completely weird and creepy at the same time.

Do you think it leads to a buried treasure in our house?! :)  We're thinking this was 60's/early 70's style. All I know is I can't wait to see what's under the carpet in the back bedroom! 

Hope you all have a super weekend!

{renovate} back entry

Happy Monday and Happy Valentine's Day! I'm not a big Valentine's Day gal. Most years I try to do something I a little special and out of the ordinary (cute card, breakfast in bed, etc.), but I totally forgot this year. Um, yeah. Wife of the year much?? :)

We actually have a pretty big project happening in our house right now, though. So in honor of Valentine's Day, I thought I'd preview the *love* we've been showing our house lately.

This is our back entry. A mud room of sorts. While Chris and I are the only two people, really, who walk through that door, the area opens up to our kitchen. So you're looking directly into the back entry when you walk from the living room into the kitchen. And friends, it ain't purdy. This is what it looked like when I moved in. Yes, that's a fridge on the left. And yes, that was the second fridge in a 10-foot space (there was already one in the kitchen). If you look close, you can see how poorly the door fit. Like, not at all. That space at the top right let in a LOT of air.

We immediately got rid of the second fridge. And last summer we got a new door. That's where the fun stopped. This is what the entry has looked like for the past 8 months. (Insert, in your mind, a cute black bench next to the locker.)

Oh, and these are the stairs that somewhere a long the way we ripped carpet off. We decided after the first of the year we need to just get this done so we can move on. It's a super small space, we've just been intimidated by the not straight, or flat, walls. So we came up with a plan of attack that doesn't involve hanging dry wall (yah!) and have been working on it for the past couple weekends.

First we demoed. Don't I look thrilled?! ;)  Under the linoleum was 80 year old tile (hence the mask)!

All done!

Chris' best friend is a general contractor, and this weekend he came over and helped so, so much. The main thing we accomplished? Tearing apart the rickety stairs, tightening them and putting them all back together. Not so glamorous, but very essential to our home's well being.

There will be more updates to come! I'm excited to show you paint colors, curtain fabric and wall finishes. You know, all the fun stuff!

{inspired} new art!

Don't you just love happy, sweet surprises? I've been putting off telling you what my husband bought me for Christmas (remember that holiday a couple months ago?!), because I wanted to get it hung first. Yep, it's new art! But, first the back story. You might remember that in December I went to Crafty Wonderland here in Portland. And I bought a whole bunch of amazing hand made gifts and decor. At the end of my wrap up post, I mentioned that I'd seen an adorable type writer print and hemmed and hawed and then left without making it back to the booth. Of course I thought about it later and really wanted it, but couldn't find it online!

Well, my completely fantastic husband called the artist, Jigsaw Graphics, and arranged to go pick one up from her house (a huge perk of buying locally!)!

I was so surprised when I opened *the one that got away!* Isn't it adorable? It came framed with that bright and cheery fabric mat.

While I was hanging, I took a moment to refresh our has-been-empty-since-Christmas mantle. I'm still not quite sure what to do with it. Maybe an afternoon of Shelf Styling 101 is in order again?

I also wanted to share this little card with you all, because it's just the cutest thing I've ever seen. I found this set of 12 cards in a very small stationary shop in Boston a few years ago. They were in the window display and I immediately went and bought a box. I love Florence, and this dress silhouette is just beautiful. When I got home from Boston I was kicking myself for not buying more because I couldn't find them anywhere online and LOVE them. (Do you see a theme in this post?! Or at least an insight into how my brain works! :) But, I really like it framed. And maybe since I have a *forever* version now, I can move on and actually use the note cards for their intended purpose. Which I'm pretty sure was not sitting on my desk collecting dust.

Aren't begonia leaves gorgeous?! So dramatic!

So there's my updated mantle and artwork. Do you love the artwork? Want to check out more amazing letterpress? You can visit their site here. Want to purchase this amazing piece specifically? Shoot an email here.

{create} DIY Button Art

I feel like it's been forever since I shared a crafty-fun project with you all! So today we're going to talk about creating art out of vintage buttons. 

Last summer Chris and I picked up some buttons from a vintage shop. See, Chris' best friend is a dentist. So these buttons are kinda perfect. Then his bf went and bought a gorgeous new house equipped with a gorgeous new home office. So Chris asked me to frame these as a house warming gift, with the home office in mind. As you all know, I do have 45 empty frames waiting to be filled. So this project was not only amazingly inexpensive, but a really easy, big impact project. I like those.

Top left: Grab a frame.What, you don't hoard frames like we do? That's okay. Frames abound at second hand stores. With a little paint they look amazing. Top right: Cut a piece of batting the same size as the frame in the cardboard. You want a little extra padding for the buttons. Next, choose a fabric. For this frame, a neutral muslin looked the best. Cut large enough to wrap around the batting and cardboard. Bottom left: I found the easiest way to secure the fabric was with tape. Bottom right: Wrap the fabric like it's a gift. See above.

Last, put your fabric covered cardboard back in the frame and attach the buttons. Attaching the buttons was actually the hardest part. I wanted them to not only be centered, but also line up. It took a few tries :).

Once you've conquered the buttons, you have a great piece of custom art.

Next up is framing the vintage button I picked out for us. How CUTE is this!?

I hope you're all doing well! Thanks so much for stopping by today. And tell me, what kinds of crafty goodness have you guys been up to this week? 

{inspired} Stylist Emily Henson

A couple weeks ago Oh Joy did a quick feature about Emily Henson. I was immediately intrigued (I mean, come on, she styled for Anthro. Dream. Job.), so I clicked over to check out her portfolio. Her style is amazing friends. Colorful, playful and upbeat, it's great inspiration during the gloomy days of winter. And great inspiration for this girl who tends to shy away from too much color.

Emily Henson's portfolio

I love the all white interior with generous bursts of color. I want to have a tea party here. And wear a cute dress. Obviously.

Emily Henson's portfolio 

Love, love, love this combo of pink and turquoise. Super girly, yet super chic.

Emily Henson's portfolio 

I would sleep here. In a second! Can you imagine falling asleep looking at those branches? I'm sure it sparks some amazing dreams.

Her style, and generous use of color, reminds me of some other interiors I've eyed recently on Pinterest (by the way, where have I been? I've had an account for ages, but just recently clued in to this ah-maz-ing resource!).

Oh Dee Doh

Paperweight

Under the Sycamore

havenspie

Although I always find myself craving color this time of year, this year I want to act on the impulse. I find myself scanning my house thinking: what can I paint red?! What colors do you lean toward in the winter? How do you deal with the winter dreariness?

You can check out Emily Henson's portfolio here.
She also has a fun blog! Here.

{create} home mood boards

Very few things make me more crazy than when I fall in love with a piece of furniture, but can't buy it because I'm not sure if we have room for it. Or, when I'm paralyzed by the fear of poorly coordinated fabric at the fabric store. Does this happen to anyone else? For the last couple years I've been wanting to create a comprehensive resource of our home decorating/renovating. I know notebooks are popular when you're renovating a room, but those projects are usually on time lines. We're not on a time line, and I don't want to lug around a notebook. 

My solution? I created a mood board booklet.

It's a collection of paint and fabric samples that fits into any of my bags.  I wish I'd done this a long, long time ago friends. And, it was actually really fun to put together. Let me show you how.

I think most people wouldn't even need to go to the store for this project. I'm not even sure why we don't have index cards or glue in the house. But we do now! (Anyone need index cards?!) So, I started with 4" x 6" index cards. The 3" x 5" are just too small to fit a good color and fabric sample.

Then I gathered up all our paint samples, fabric samples, and measurements for spaces we need to fill.

After that it was just gluing and labeling.

Now, I did run into a couple of issues during the process. The first is we have a living room rug that I can't carry around. (The sample alone is 2' x 2'!) So instead, I added a fabric sample that features the rug colors (above). It's not perfect, but it's a lot closer than me trying to guess.

The kitchen. Lots of room for new fabrics!

The second issue I ran into is that our duvet has a crazy (awesome) orange color. I don't have a fabric sample, but it's one of *those* colors that paralyzes me at fabric stores. So, I took a pillow case to the paint store and picked out a color swatch that matches the color perfectly. Problem solved!

I also added extra pages to the back so as we decorate/renovate the booklet can grow. This project was so easy (and so fun!) and I know will save me so many hours of indecision and so much money from buying fabric/furniture that won't work. In fact, this little booklet has already been to a fabric store with me, and it was a huge help. The great part is that it works for both renters and home owners. We all have spaces we need to fill and decorate, and we're all busy. I love how little projects like this can save so much time.

January has been a great month!* Thanks so much for reading along! I am excited to share with you the other projects we've been tackling in the last couple weeks though. Hint: there a room remodel involved!

So, tell me, what's your fabric/furniture shopping style? Do you carry *the notebook*, or just wing it when you get to the store? 

Happy friday friends! Hope you have a great weekend!

*In case you missed it, I spent the month of January taking control of my *style*. First I organized our basement and kitchen. Next, I read a book that really inspired me, I took a look through my inspiration files, and I defined a house color palette. Lastly, I took a hard look at what needed to change in our house to create a cohesive style.

{inspire} House Color Palette

Happy Friday friends!

After looking through my clipping files this week, I pulled together a palette of colors I'd like to see consistently through our house. Our house, really, is pretty tiny. I'm becoming increasingly aware of how straying from a palette can really break rooms up and make them feel disjointed. 

So, I've pulled together a solid range of neutrals, with some fun pops of color to add a little dimension to each space.

Honestly, I get a little freaked at the thought of bright colors.  But I love how other houses look when they're used - correctly - and want to take some risks moving forward. I'll keep a neutral base of blues (yep, that's working out to be a great neutral for me), browns and greys. And as pops of color, I'd like to add in some yellows, red-oranges and oranges. I love these three colors. They just make me smile. I would also like to play around with a darker blue/turquoise color. I think it'll add a little depth to the light blue neutral.

A couple recent additions to our home that both highlight and confirm my palette are this adorable tea towel ...

... And this new letterpress.

Both have the bright pops of color I'm looking for ... and are just so cute! I like having a color palette nailed down. We have a couple rooms we're looking at sprucing up this year and this will make my life so much easier. 

What are your favorite colors lately? Do you lean toward the amazing jewel tones out this season? Do you prefer to stay in neutral territory?

Have a great weekend!

Update: I'm linking up to Samantha's Fab Friend Friday. It's a clever way to meet new bloggers. Hop on over and say hi! :)