Painted Chandelier- sprayed to coordinate DIY

The latest issue of Country Living features a home with the very hot trend of blue and white. In the bedroom, designer Emily Henderson sprayed a floral chandelier to a solid blue which completely updated the look of the piece. I would not recommend doing this to a chandelier of any value, or one who's fortune could change. But, a chipping, dented, chandelier that might have a bit of rust, perfect!  And, I have a collection of chandeliers for you to choose from, all are available from Hanna Antiques at a reasonable price!

Note the "bright idea" from Country Living May 2014

Now, DIY it! Good spray paint, something to hang it from outside, and some paper covering the candles and sockets and you are ready to go!

Here are some lamps for you to head over to Hanna's and pick up for your project.

I think all of these are under $200 many closer to $100! Head down to Hanna's and in the words of Jack Horkhiemer "keep looking up!"

Great flower arrangements

Tomorrow brings a number of photo shoots, where I will be creating the flower arrangements for. I thought I would share my great finds!

Pretty flowers from Everyday Occasions blog by Jenny Stephens Hobick

I like the clustering of the flowers from Birmingham Blossoms.

I love purple, pink and lime green in flower arrangements

Great find by my friend Jan Gautro, from her pinterest page.

Very tempted by these Juliet roses from David Austin!

Country Living offered great ideas for simple arrangements!

Home Office-English style- Turquoise and Chocolate

For my weekly room design, I have taken the home office from my last post (image from country living) and as inspiration for a home office.  It's soft, romantic, and looks highly functional! I choose a chocolate and turquoise as the color palette for my office. Below is the decorators story board including wallpaper, paint, carpet and furnishings. All you need to add you office supplies!

The home office- English style

                                               photo credit: Keith Scott Morton

What a great home office from Country Living! Often the problem with a home office is the clutter and the make do attitude to the space. This space has none of that- pretty, a bit formal, and functional.
 Here are some tips inspired by this room for your home office.
1. Storage- lovely small cabinet in the back can conceal your papers, wireless printer, routers and other messy minutiae.. or an office bar!
2. Color- An office does not have to be  devoid of color. Color can be inspiring, soothing or invigorating. Find a color palette that you love and go to town. I love the English looking  wallpaper in rose, charteuese and chocolate from Osborne and Little. Such a great starting point for the rose color upholstry and the chartreuse office chair.
3. Function- One of the reasons this office is so function is the ability of the furnishings to serve more than one purpose. Th small footstools can also double as small group seating and the side chair is a nce way to get away from your desk to read. The accessories in the space allow for a place for the mail or working papers. The desk houses just enough space for a laptop and room to store the footstools underneath.
4. Lighting- The two windows afford great natural light and the heavy drapes afford light control. The desk light is large enough for true task lighting. The chandelier  seem to be more for looks than function, but would give off nice ambient light in the evenings.
5. Pattern- I love mixing patterns, when they are mixed well and this room mixes them well. Dark on the walls, light on the floor, both patterns of equal size. The drapes are a tonal stripe, which works as a neutral in the room and the velvets, though not patterns, provide texture from grounding the space.

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pinterest and the kitchen

I am newly discovering pinterest. As a visual person, I find it a great way to create cohesive imagery and make new observations. For me it has the elements of Dumbledore's pensive, I can add images that I find anywhere and look at the all together to find the pattern, trend or commonality.

Additionally, I am interested in statistical nature of the medium. What to know if other people like something, just pin and wait to see how much it gets re-pinned! To the left is an image from countryliving.com that I pinned for a work project. We were looking at a variety of white kitchens with dark countertops. This image, out of 12 images on the board received twice as many pins as most others. Not that it is not a nice kitchen, but what about this image is so pin-able? The flooring, the green door, the view outside, the homy-ness of the dark wood, maybe the chandalier? I'm still deciding... your thoughts?