How about a little color?!?!

There is no BIG renovation that needs to take place in our living room - dining room. Perhaps the biggest thing in there is how to decorate it and make the space feel like to separate yet cohesive rooms. It is one very BIG, rectangle room. The dining room has a Bay window on one end and the living room has french doors on the other end. The dining room is also semi open to the kitchen, so there needs to be some cohesion there as well. See my post below about the kitchen which is a mild mint color with red, khaki and black and white accents.

I have been tossing around a lot of ideas... paint the dining "room" red and the "living" room tan. It could work there are places on both sides that would equally divide the space. BUT the couch that I want is Gray (shitake). And while it comes in Cocoa, that would be entirely too much tan.

So here is what we are currently working with...


Above: Pottery Barn 8x10 rug... LOVE it. This is also a hand me down. This will go in the dining room under the table (which is another hand me down). We will eventually redo the hardwood, have this rug in the dining room and one in the sitting space in the living room. The colors in this rug are the inspiration and work well with the kitchen.

Below: a beautiful 1920's sideboard that I scored on Craigslist for $100! It is in fabulous condition and fits perfectly in the space.

Below here are two of the "red" color options we were looking at. Love them... not so sure though.

Below: One of the dining room chairs. The dining room table and chairs were a hand me down/gift from my parents. It was their dining set from when they first got married. It is beautiful! In fabulous condition and fits well with the other pieces we have for the room.

Below: We have a set of the end tables below (garage sale - 2 end tables and another matching table with oval top for $80.00). The design of these tables fits in perfect with dining room table.

So that's the scoop and the sneak peak. I have some other pictures but I'll post those another day. In the meantime... my couch is on sale!

So I Took a Hiatus!

It was unplanned, but you know how it goes. Life gets in the way of blogging and next thing you know it's October! I also realized that my banner is out of date. We are now up to 2 kittens and sadly we are down to 2 dogs as we our 13 yo Yellow Lab Casey passed away.

In the midst of all this life living, I've been doing some renovating and some planning. Here are some glimpses of the kitchen and the decor plans.

Above: I found this really great rug at Christmas Tree Shops for $12.99ish. This is actually after a washing, in which it came out beautifully! It may say Not Machine Washable but for the price, it was worth the try when it had gotten soiled.

Below: Wall art is also from Christmas Tree Shops a few years ago. Walls are painted Behrs' Mild Mint and the table was a hand me down from my brother.

Last and certainly not least...

Our kitchen clock. Oh how I love that clock. It was a housewarming present from my parents. It is the Courtly Check enamel collection from MacKenzie Childs. The aloe plant and pot that it is in is from Ikea.

Do you want to discuss MacKenzie Childs? How much I love that company and all it's pretty things? I literally drool over the catalog and website. I'm up to 4 pieces and I've got a rainy day Mackenzie Childs fund going. So far I can afford a knob.

But the reality is, I have sort of based my kitchen renovation around the designs and ideas of MacKenzie Childs. The black and white check with hints of red and tan and green and the whimsy patterns.