Let's Put It This Way...I Wouldn't Mind It

Living in apartments for the past five years, it is a lovely dream of mine to live in a cozy house with my own four walls. With that lovely dream comes the urge to take a peak at different real estate sites. Well today I came across this great site of houses that are located in the perfect Canals in Venice Beach, CA. Real Estate Company Venice Beach Living run by realtors Jay and CJ Cole (no relation) is where I found this little gem.

*Update*: Thanks to one of our wonderful readers, Kala Roberson of Studio Stella we now know that the house belongs to the very talented Interior Designer, Kristan Cunningham !

And let's put it this way...I wouldn't mind living here!

You're very own castle.

And check out the gorgeous interior...

just the front dooor is perfection, and there are details throughout that are fabulous, enjoy!

All of the artwork looks amazing! This home has such a cozy, lovely feeling to it.

*Images compliments of Venice Beach Living

Quintessential New Orleans

Quintessential New Orleans style, owned and designed by Melissa Rufty. This historical new Orleans house is a pure classic, with its wide front porch. A New Orleans influence is used all through the design of the house. From the architectural salvaged pieces and beautiful fine antiques all found locally. The wonderful treasurer from historical Magazine row were Bush antiques, Leontine Linens and Amanda Tally gallery are located. What a treasure box of design.

Images compliments of: House Beautiful

Fall Foliage

My dad sent me some images of the fall foliage from our house in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire. I absolutely love this time of year in the "North Country" and it is such a beautiful place to take walks, hikes, go apple picking and just drive around looking at all the leaves changing color. This is also the perfect time to visit because soon it will get too cold to go outside without a down jacket and uggs. In the next couple of weeks, the only thing you will be able to see is a rainbow of oranges, yellows and reds!

*Images compliments of Chic Coles

DIY: Geometric Art

I found this great DIY art project from this blog and knew that I had to do it! The bedroom was calling for a large piece of art and on the small budget, I thought this would be the perfect solution. 

The boyfriend had purchased a bed frame from Craiglist for $1 and the guy selling it threw in a piece of "art" from Ikea for free, very similar to the one below. Going for $99 at Ikea, it ended up being a great deal for him. It stayed in this state for quite some time...

And then I found the great DIY project! The boyfriend's Mom is the sweetest and offered to cover the canvas and frame in all white, which was such a huge help in this project. So after picking it up yesterday in Capitola, we set out today to do our own version!

He helped me with this great mock up in Photoshop, so that we knew exactly which areas to paint. Then I used some Painter's Tape to make sure that the white showed through.

I had the mock up printed out and pinned up next to me but ended up painting all of them one color...which you may remember from this post. I just added a bit of white paint to make a slight contrast in color.

And then started to paint in the darker colored spaces, which weren't that many.

Once dry we took off the painters tape! And with the finished result, it got hung up...

The DIY Geometric Art in it's place! Besides taking a little while, it was so easy and didn't cost anything except for the thinner roll of tape.

A History of Beds

A bed is a piece of furniture on which we sleep. Although Bedstar.co.uk beds can serve multiple functions, such as places to relax, read or watch television from, the primary purpose remains to sleep! 

Historically, in many cultures the bed was considered the most important piece of furniture in the house. It was usually the biggest and acted as an indication of status – the bigger and better the bed, the more important a person you were! For the ancient Egyptians, the bed was the centre of the household and used not just as a place to sleep or recline but as a place to eat meals and entertain guests. 

The earliest form of bed was a shallow chest in which bedding was placed in an attempt to make it comfortable. The first attempt to build a bed purely designed to lie down on, consisted of ropes stretched across a framework of wood. In the 1600’s, a typical bed was a timber frame with rope or leather supports. A mattress was placed atop these supports, but this was not the mattress we know today. The mattress would have consisted of a bag made of plain, cheap fabric with a soft filling inside, most commonly straw or sometimes wool. 

It was during the mid 18th century that the covering of the mattress began to be made of quality linen or cotton. The mattress took on the rectangular shape we now recognise and the fillings became more natural including coconut fibre, cotton, wool or horse hair. 

The mattresses became tufted or buttoned in order to effectively contain their fillings and the edges were stitched together. It was in the late 19th century that the timber frames on beds were replaced with iron and steel. Pocket spring mattresses were introduced, individual springs sewn into linked fabric bags, as were latex rubber mattresses, the most expensive form of mattress.

It is easy to see how  beds developed from these earlier forms. The essential elements of the frame and the mattress have developed from the earliest bed designs, and almost certainly will continue to do so as beds continue to be designed.

Color Us Happy

We are loving this cheery happy space. The beautiful warm farm table, striped cotton rug and star chandelier, lends a relaxed feel to the space. The punch of color with the orange and raspberry pillows is just perfect. Hope every one has a fun and cherry day and a great weekend.

Images Compliments of:House Beautiful

What's Your Style All About

The new issue of Elle Decor really got me thinking...what style am I all about? Working in the Interior Design Field I see a lot  of different things going on and I have to say I gravitate to many different styles. This then caused me to ask myself, what do our readers prefer? So you tell me...

Modern?

Contemporary?

Traditional?

Country?

Eclectic?

Or Beach?

And even after going through tons of my inspiration files, I still can't pick just one! Can you?

*images compliments of Elle Decor, House Beautiful and the so talented designers who created the rooms!