Baby Pickle's Room

We're having a baby!  Which has turned my mind towards decorating a baby's room, of  course. There's so much out there, I've been overwhelmed in a good way.  Here's what I know:
1. I don't like most pastel colors, I'm more a bright colored type person.  (think color wheel, primary colors etc). 
2. Most baby room themes don't appeal to me personally, I'm more intrigued by color and various graphics as a theme. 
3. The room is painted grey so I knew I'd have to have some exciting things on the walls to make the room feel like a 'kids' room.
Before/during/after pictures of the nursery to come and more awesome things that we're making/buying for pickle!  Here are a few of the things I've thought of, seen, gotten, thought about getting, or are on my list! Enjoy!

No this is not our nursery. :)  Just a cool nursery photo I found on Pinterest.  Love the idea of hanging ABC flash cards.  I'm also a big fan of this IKEA shelf filled with bright colored toys, books, bright colored bins etc. 

For the flash cards, I stumbled across this amazing illustrator!  Lorena Siminovich, check her out, I love everything she does! 

Collection of Pitchers

I decided a few years ago that I would start collecting pitchers.  I'm not sure why but I've been on the look out ever since.  Here are a few that have caught my eye as I've been browsing lately.  Enjoy! 

Amazing! Found on The Future Perfect

Also a beauty.  Apartment 48

GORGEOUS!  Design by Russell Wright, on Bauer Pottery

Baby Shower Designs [Part 2]

Hooray, another follow up post!  I've been so amazed to have such great clients that love my work enough to take photographs that I can put on here!  It's been great working with people do cool stuff like this Baby Shower design set.  I had such a blast doing it, and here's what the final products looked like and how the shower turned out.   I think they're wonderful!  (Pieces from this design set, and the whole set, are for sale in my Etsy shop). Enjoy!

Banner hanging

The cutest matching cake I've ever seen!! 

Invitation and matching thank you card

Office Redecoration [Part 1]

While Josh was out of town a few weeks ago, I tackled the last room (non-bathroom) in our house that needed painting, the room we affectionately call the 'man room'.  Basically it houses a little bit of junk and has functioned as an empty workout room for the last year or so. Here is it in its before state.

I painted it gray, my color of choice these days.  I figured that was versatile enough for the future and I really love the idea of having the accessories be the items that bring the color to the room instead of the walls like I've done in the past [guest room & our room].  This is a switch for me, but its been a fun challenge finding coordinating colorful things to put in this space  My thoughts are that I want to have the accessories be mostly white (following the 60, 30, 10 rule, sort of) with pops of bright green and bright orange. Here are some of the things I've found!  

Thus far we've purchased the desk, thanks IKEA.  We also got the companion drawer set (pictured below).  Others we're considering, the lamp, the hourglass, the cube bookends and the green chair are all from Crate & Barrel.  The file folder is something we probably won't end up with, from the MoMA store.  I've got the chord holders in the works from amazon.com and one thing I really want is the green wall file folder holder, but I can't for the life of me remember where I found it! (Please if you find it, comment and let me know where!) 

I love this chair! But it doesn't look super comfortable.  But if I didn't have to worry about sitting in it myself for hours at a time, I'd get it in a heartbeat.  (CB2)  We'll see what kind of chair we can agree on or if we just keep the plain black one we have. 

More to come later along with finished pictures of the new office.  Thanks for reading!

Awesome Decor Idea!

Today I found this amazing transformation home decor project!  Here on the blog The Wright Family blog, she has turned a beautiful vintage window into something lovely and functional!  I love this project, in fact I'm thinking of trying to find something this summer to do this with. 
Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but more new designs/products to come very soon!

Birthday Designs [Part 2]

Wow, its been a busy few weeks!  I've been wanting and wanting to get these pictures posted and am just now getting around to it.  As you know from my last Birthday Designs post, I created some graphics for one of my good friend's son's first birthday party!  It was such a fun project, and I think we came up with some awesome things!  She was kind enough to send me some great photos of the big day which I'm sharing with you here.

This banner was one of my favorite things and it turned out so great since they combined the letters I created with background paper and an amazing vine with leaves!  So jungle, it was amazing. 

Tag for the party favors

Smaller signs for the food (cutest names right?!)

Labels for the water bottles

Signs for different areas of the party

And lastly various designs for the cupcakes!  

I hope to do many many more of these wonderful birthday party themes (already have 1 on my schedule, a preview of that to come soon!) so if you know of someone or have one coming up for a child of yours, contact me and let's brainstorm and come up with some great decorations!  Also down the road I'm hoping to create general templates for party decorations like these and sell them in my Etsy shop. I hope this winter will be my chance to do that. [And...visit my Etsy shop if you haven't already!]

My New Candlesticks

For the last year or so I've been on the hunt for the perfect candlesticks.  Of course, my dream set is this set of Nambe ones (found here). 

So elegant and simple.  But out of my price range, hence the hunt.  I finally found these at, of all places, home goods last week! 

I'm really excited about them!  (I'm also excited that Josh brought home another batch of beautiful flowers to brighten up the house!)  But in my hunt, I found some other ones I want to share with you. 

In time for Christmas, from Crate & Barrel.

Love the simplicity of these, also from Crate & Barrel.  I would've bought these hands down if I weren't more in the market for candlesticks for tapers, not pillars. 

From World Market, I like that these are wood, I feel as though those are hard to find. 

I like these from Pottery Barn for the organic shape to them. 

Organization: Bedroom [Part 1]

One of the things I think I'm gifted with is organization.  Its not always the most glamorous gift, but Josh will confirm that I do love it when things have their very own, very specific place!  Even though it isn't the most glamorous, I'm going to share some things I do at home + some things I've seen online & in magazines that are great ways to keep organized. 
This post is kind of long, so it'll be in 2 parts and focus on things in the bedroom.  [Subsequent posts will continue through other rooms in the house].  Onto the good stuff!

One of the things in the bedroom that can get the most out of control is the jewelry I have.  This container, simply whitewashed (maybe if you know someone handy they could even make one!) is the perfect solution to holding things.  You can find it here at Wisteria.com.

On my dresser I have a little set of shiny containers (in kelly green!) that are specifically made to hold jewelry (got them at Pottery Barn).  I often sort my earrings into the little spaces or place rings, bracelets, charms etc. in them.  They also have a top/cover which is key to hiding the mess inside!

Kitchen Back-splashes

My parents recently moved into a brand new, beautiful townhouse.  It is lovely and the kitchen is out of this world!  The only thing they decided not to get done professionally was a back-splash in the kitchen.  My mom told me that we should learn how to do it ourselves...so this has been on my mind a lot lately.  In our kitchen at home, I'm not sure I'd opt for a back-splash (our counter tops are kind of dynamic and I feel like it would detract from their pizazz) but I still think they can be fantastic.  I've found some really amazing examples out there that are serving as some inspiration!

Um, hello beautiful!  Talk about making the back-splash truly the focal point of the space.  In most kitchens this might not work, but here it is lovely.

My Favorite Things...

In our house there are a few pieces that are my favorites, pieces I looked long and hard for, created myself or just got a great deal on and feel so lucky to have!  I finally got around to photographing them recently and here they are. 

The highlight here for me is really the old rod iron pieces in the frames.  I got these at the boutique I used to work at and the owner got them in Texas at a flea market, such a find!  I love them, they're definitely the most prominent thing in our family room, being on the wall opposite the entrance, and on the only colored wall in the room. 

A great find from the Kane County Flea Market!  This window (with 2 panes missing) hangs over our piano.  I painted the patterns on the glass to give it a little something extra, but the frame was already distressed white.  I think it brings the whole room together.

Simple, useful, got these from World Market.  Nothing super special, but I love having them in our entry way.

Unique Use for Paint

This weekend I saw a commercial for Home Depot paint.  Usually we blaze through commercials and can barely handle watching them, but this one caught my eye, even made me rewind it twice.  It wasn't the paint they were marketing, but one of the pictures of a finished product that made me look again.  It was a bright red wall with white trim, but the person who painted it (or commercial producer that made the call, whatever the case may be) decided to add a strip of blue tape a few inches in from the outside of the wall creating a beautifully stark contrast with the red paint.  Almost like a simple picture frame around the plain red wall.  This image is the best example I could find since I couldn't get a screencapture of the commercial.  Imagine this, but in a brilliant red and nothing in the center of the frame, although I do like how they've utilized this paint combination to showcase the mirror and bed.  (Image from Decor Pad)

The commercial got me thinking about how to use paint and think outside the box for decorating.  And at the same time, save myself some money!  So often I tell myself that I need to fill up every wall with a piece of art.  I've attempted to do this in our home, but it can get expensive.  (The custom framing alone, uffda!)  To that end, I've considered installing a chair rail in our 3rd bedroom and painting the lower portion of the walls one color, the top, another.  (I actually mean I've considered asking Josh to install one, I don't think I could handle something so...mathematical!)  Something similar to this image (from In Colors) but more vibrant, more contrast. 

Architectural Salvage

Architectural salvage places are some of my favorite warehouses to go to and just roam around.  It's also something that I haven't done very much of recently because I don't have that much space to store any pieces I might find and want to take home!  But that doesn't mean I don't keep track of where they are in hopes that I'll have more space one day.  :) 
Places like this really are the best for unique things like vintage signs, beautiful chandeliers, old iron gates, stone sculptures off old buildings, even old arcade games or soda machines.  In fact I bought a beautiful old wooden door at a place like this a few years ago (more on that find later...).  Despite that, I don't typically look for those larger pieces, I tend to look more for smaller accents that will fit subtly into the decor of our home.  Old door knobs, stained glass pieces, small windows, tin wall hangings, wall hooks, iron wall hangings and vintage sconces.

Garden Trinkets

We just planted our garden this past weekend and I, at long last, got to put my new garden markers in their pots!  I can't tell you how excited I was, I've been wishing and wanting these for a long time and finally I got them (a happy promotion present to myself!) and they are now in their pots and looking beautiful.  The artist that made them uses old silverware and pounds the letters right into the silver. You  can buy these from her shop here. 

As I was purchasing these, I stumbled across many other really cute garden markers that I wanted to share.  These are for those that aren't into the vintage/re-purposed look.  These you can buy on etsy. 

  And for those looking to something similar to mine (I purchased mine from monkeysalwayslook) there's these cuties (from etsy also). 

I just think there's something to be said about the small things.  Granted, some of these could be considered a needless expense, but for me when I see them it makes me smile so it's worth it.
Another cute example, but different then the others.  Find them here.

And the last few. (You can find them here, and here).

Dining Room Tables

One thing our house is sadly lacking, is a formal dining room.  Right now we have a simple eating area that has a small round table in it, one I inherited from my parents.  Its a great, solid oak table, but I dream of one day having a formal dining room and getting a beautiful, long dining room table to fill it! It's definitely something that's going to be an investment for us.  I'm tired of the college days, buying cheap furniture that falls apart in a couple years.  This table I want to last until we are too old to entertain anymore.
With that in mind, I've been looking and have found some beautiful items.

Something simple & rectangular is really what I'm looking for.
One of the more popular table trends I've seen in the last 5 years is having one long bench for seating on one side of a long table.  I really love this, almost adds a better sense of community to the dining experience, plus being extremely practical for fitting more people.

I love the combination of steel/metal and wood in this table.
My next question is, if the table has a matching bench, what do you do about the other chairs you'll need?  I suppose I've always thought a table should have matching chairs, but I'm warming to the idea that the chairs needn't match at all!

Oh the possibilities! 

Liberty of London, History

Very cool history of Liberty of London fabric here.  Thanks to Amy Azzarito & Design*Sponge, cool info to go along with my post on the new Liberty of London line at Target.