The Winners!

Wow, it wasn't as hard deciding as I thought it would be. The one on the left is for the foyer. I love that it's not too bold but yet it has a statement. I love the metallic sheen to it. I'm going to paint the rest of the foyer and hallways the white color of the flower, and paint the half bath the blue color so that it coordinates. I'll probably frame some of the wallpaper for the half bath as an art piece to really tie it all together. The one on the right is for a headboard in our bedroom. I chose this one because I can paint the wall any color I want (probably a light blue or blue/green) without having to match it up to the wallpaper (I liked some of the ones with blue/green flowers but I didn't love the shade of the flowers).

Update: I'm now thinking about how cute the one with the brown background and the birdcage and birds would be...especially when I decorate with a birdcage with little fabric birds in it to match.

How Is a Girl to Decide?!

I'm planning on doing a feature wall in the foyer (this wall, actually), and so I ordered 30 wallpaper samples. I also want to do a headboard feature of wallpaper in the bedroom. There are already a few that I'm going to eliminate.

New Kitchen Color!

I have been really tired of this all-beige kitchen and wanted something a little more exciting. The wall color was really cool-toned and didn't go well with the warm cabinets. I used a kitchen that Candise Olson designed as my inspiration. I'm using the same fabric that she did and I matched up Benjamin Moore's Covington Blue to it. I can't wait to see how it will look with the curtains and some red accessories. Now I just need to figure out how to sew curtains.

Before:



And After:









Here is Candise Olson's kitchen. When I first looked at her sources, I couldn't find the blue color. So I picked one out on my own. Then I looked again a few days ago, and found that I picked the exact same brand and color as she did!



A blog that I like is Eddie Ross. He's a former editor at Martha Stewart Living. He recently purchased a farmhouse and just a couple of days ago posted pictures of his butler's pantry that he painted...in the same exact color! The odds of this really are pretty slim, considering how many paint brands and colors are out there.

Handyman Heinz

We needed more storage in our laundry room, so Heinz set out to build a cabinet instead of paying someone else to. I also didn't want open shelving so that everything could stay as dust-free as possible.

These are the original cabinets in the laundry room. The previous homeowner told me where the cabinet doors came from, so we bought some to match up to these.



The completed cabinet.



The top shelves are short for platters, and then there's a big space underneath for tall kitchen appliances.

Cheap (and Cute!) Magazine Holders

I love magazine holders, and I used to spend a lot of money on them. Because they can be pricey. But last year I found out that Ikea has supercheap magazine holders. They are five for $3! They are plain white cardboard and are sturdy enough. And it's so easy to make them pretty! By using scrapbook paper and mod podge, I turned this



into this for the kitchen, to hold cooking magazines and loose recipes (it's going to match my new color scheme).



For the living room, to hold catalogs and current magazines. I covered the left side of the one on the left since it shows on the shelf.



These are for sheet music. I looked for scrapbook paper with music notes at Michael's and Hobby Lobby but I didn't find any.



For Heinz's office:



And these are for the craft room, of course.