A Little Cottage Inspiration

With fall swiftly approaching, we’re back in nesting mode around here. We’ve been living among piles of clothes, boxes, tools and drywall dust for six months officially as of today and while we’ve made a lot of progress, the summer largely halted any major renovation projects. We have a lot of rooms that are painted, but a lot of doors still waiting to be rehung, a room still wanting for flooring, a kitchen still desperately in need of gutting….you get the picture. At any rate, we’re now itching to get back at it and can’t wait to knock out a ton of projects this fall. To that end, I figured it was time to start rounding up some inspiration again.

I spied this cute cottage on Apartment Therapy last night and I just love the look and feel of these spaces. Warm, neutral and inviting with pops of interesting color and accessories and a great mix of old and new. While I think our final look will be slightly different, I want our home to feel like this one does when we’re all finished.

I am loving the layered neutrals, natural materials and bright little spot of aqua on the chair cushions. This is a room I could curl up and read a book in any day of the week.

Is that a teal lacquer desk that I spy? And I love the look of crisp black frames against the bright, neutral walls. A striped area rug that avoids being matchy-matchy? Love and love.

Crisp aqua and white paired with blonde wood floors and funky galvanized chairs make this little dining space as cute as it is simple. I love how a little color and a few well placed accesories can go a long way.

I’m rounding up my favorite places to search for inspiration, too. Any suggestions? I’d love to know what sites you turn to for decor ideas!

{Photos from Apartment Therapy.}

Master Bedroom and Living Room Paint Colors

With our closing on Monday, Mike and I decided to spend some time today getting our appliances ordered and final paint colors selected for our master bedroom and living room, the two rooms we plan to tackle first. I know I want the whole house to be painted in soft neutrals and shades of gray, blue and greige, that delightful gray area being gray and beige. (No pun intended.) The house is only around 1600 square feet so I know I want to limit the number of paint colors to about four so all the spaces have great continuity and flow from room to room. With that in mind, picking the colors for two of the spaces that will get the most use was an important step in determining the direction things will go.

I knew right away that I wanted gray walls in the master bedroom, a nice medium shade that was decidedly gray as opposed to an off white shade that read a bit gray. Without too much difficulty I settled on Benjamin Moore Stonington Gray HC-170. It’s a beautiful neutral gray with just a tiny hint of blue undertone that is just gorgeous. Keeping in mind that every monitor is different, here is a bedroom painted in Stonington Gray:

{Photo from decor pad.}

Deciding on the living room paint was only slightly more difficult. I thought I had wanted a shade of cream or light tan, something akin to Benjamin Moore French White 1093, but when I played with the swatches against a throw pillow from our soft aquamarine couch, I knew those shades weren’t going to work. They were alternately reading too pink, too yellow, too orange, just too warm in general. After playing around with a couple of ideas, Mike and I both gravitated toward Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray HC-173 so that was the winner. Here is a living room painted in Edgecomb Gray:

{Photo from Blossom Interiors.}

The two colors look beautiful together, but are different enough that I think the rooms will read very differently. Stonington Gray is definitely a bit darker and a decidedly cooler gray, while the Edgecomb Gray reads more like a soft greige hue.

{Benjamin Moore Stonington Gray HC-170 from my perfect color.}

{Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray HC-173 from my perfect color.}

I also decided on a shade of white for the kitchen cabinets, which I’ll be painting next Tuesday. Without much deliberation I opted for perennial Benjamin Moore favorite Cloud White OC-130. I’ll be posting full details on the products I used for the kitchen cabinets plus complete before and after photos next week. Let the games begin!

The House Hunting Adventures Begin

Mike and I are currently in the process of looking to buy a house. A few weeks ago we fell in love with a house that we really hoped would be ours only to have it get snatched up by another buyer rather quickly and unexpectedly. After licking our wounds over that disappoint, we went out house hunting again yesterday and found a place we really like. It’s cute, it has the perfect floor plan for our lifestyle and the location is great. We’re seriously considering putting in an offer and, naturally, my head has gone right into decorating mode. All I can think about are the new kitchen cabinets I want to buy, the great paint colors I can try and all of the little ways we can make it our own. The life of a potential home owner is much like that of a wedding planning bride – I’m once again officially on the hunt for inspiration all the time. I’ll keep you posted on how the house hunt plays out, but in the meantime here are a few of the things that are inspiring me right now…

Dramatic gray walls and the fun play between traditional lines and bold modern color and pattern. (From Desire to Inspire.)

Love the floating shelves behind the dining table and the soft and soothing color scheme.
(From Young House Love.)

White cabinets, aqua subway tiles and bead board ceilings = perfection.
(From Country Home via Dream in Domestic.)

Perhaps the greatest little home office I’ve ever seen – love the framed peg board for craft supply storage.
(From Brooklyn Limestone.)

Who knew twin beds could be so cool?
(From Domino from The Domino Magazine Files.)