Shopping for my Sister
My sister is moving into a new, larger apartment and has been on the hunt for some good pieces of furniture to give her a more grown-up style, I decided to help her out before it is time for the movers to come in.
I thought I’d share some of the great pieces we’ve found for her.
FIrst off, I love this couch.
Puebla Convert-a-Couch Convertible Sofa Color: Smoky Charcoal Gray Linen / Greek Key
from: Wayfair
It comes in several colors including Blue, Purple, and Green.
I haven’t even told you the best part… $505!!!
We’ve also found a bunch of great rugs which are one of the points highlighted in the article Sprucing Up Your Home: 3 Simple Transformations. This is a neat geometric one that is on super sale for the next 2 days.
It would go great with the gray sofa above.
They are primarily furnishing the office/guest bedroom and my brother-in-law needs a nice desk. I think this one is just really neat and at $171 not badly priced. There are plenty options of where to look for office furniture.
Toss a big canvas art print of Monet’s Water Lillies up for another $33 and you’ve got yourself a room!
Claude Monet “Lavender Water Lillies” Canvas Wall Art Size: 18″ H x 24″ W x 0.1″ D
We also bought a pair of umbrellas from UK’s leading branded umbrella suppliers. They look very attractive and attract the views of others. Because of what they fit perfectly into the interior.
My sister and her husband are moving at the end of the month and I can’t wait to see what she does with the place, hopefully she get the help she needs from one of these local moving companies. I envy her ability to jump right into decorating but I’m living vicariously.
Sarah
New Plan: Blue Walls in Den
We were thinking brown, looking at brown, planning on brown but browns are hard. If they are too light, they are tan and if they are too dark they are kind of poopy for lack of a better word.
Then we were thinking Dark Gray. Dark and moody and neutral.
Dark Gray is sophisticated and moody while still being a neutral. Then I saw a picture in Home Decorator’s Collection (page 43 of their Early Summer 2013 catalog) and I knew, it was Blue.
I picked up a sample when my mother was in town and it is perfect! It’s a navy dusty blue.
I picked up the paint last weekend and I can’t wait to get it up on the walls. I’ll be sure to show you pics!
The next decisions for this room are lighting and built-ins.
I’m thinking of maybe getting unfinished oak kitchen cabinets from Home Depot and then getting some of those unfinished wood bookcases from an unfinished wood furniture place nearby. Then we can either stain everything to match or paint everything the blue from the walls or the blue from the walls in high gloss.
This room by Vincente Wolf in Architectural Digest has the blue built-ins that meld seamlessly with the blue walls. B-E-A-U-Tiful but we do like our wood tones.
We could go painted but white like Markam Robert’s library below.
But I just love the look of wood bookcases…
and wood libraries like this one from Studio Peregalli
Painting that room is going to be scary but I think it’s going to look AWESOME!
Sarah
Upstairs Hallway Lighting
Lighting in hallways is so difficult. I really don’t like most flush-mount light fixtures. I’m particularly not fond of “boob” fixtures.
Semi-flush is better
but still a little boob-ish.
There are other options. The semi-flush drum shade isn’t too bad.
But I think the real improvement comes when you get away from clear and move towards tiffany style shades.
That being said, clear light is much better for viewing artwork and I’d really like to get some neat large-scale pieces to fill the one blank wall in the hall. There’s no room for furniture so a large painting or a wall of artwork/pictures/etc is going to be the main attraction.
There’s quite a few semi-flush crystal fixtures but I’m thinking it’s too much.
This kind of mercury glass look is pretty but it looks more like an entry fixture than a hallway fixtures.
The other obvious option is a flush or semi-flush globe type fixture. Something like this would be easy, cheap, and wouldn’t make a big statement. The Schoolhouse shade also has the benifit of being very “in” right now and allows me to put off deciding on something more awesome until later.
What do you think? You can see more shades that I’ve considered on the lighting collections page.
The one thing I have absolutely positively decided on is that the ceiling needs a ceiling medalion. It will be a fairly simple one.
Something like:
but not $119…. I’m thinking more in the $30 range..
This one is very similar to what’s in the rest of the house. I’ll put of on deciding until I finally make a decision about the fixture itself.
I think I’m leaning towards a semi-flush schoolhouse. What metal tone though? Silver, chome, black, brass? SO many decisions.
I’d love your opinion. I can use all the help I can get! Please comment!
Sarah
Den Lighting
As we are getting closer and closer to the decorating stage of the house work, I’ve realized I need to got on the lighting search ASAP. We are going to want to put lights in sooner rather than later so that we can have some light to work by. I’ve had the dining room lighting in the back of my mind but I’ve neglected the second floor which is our primary living space and the more vital lighting areas.
I’m starting with the Den. If you recall, the den was once 2 bedrooms. You can see where it sits in the house on the floorplan page. We have 2 overhead lighting fixtures to decide on: one over the sofas in the living room half and one over the center work table in the office side. We are planning on built-ins on the north wall of the den and built-in desks on the north and east walls of the office half.
To get me started, I found some inspiration images.
This room has some of the awesome Boston library lamps that swing out from the wall. I do believe these will be making an appearance in the den but it doesn’t solve my overhead lighting situation.
This room
This room has the rich wood paneling that I love and a single semi-flush tiffany style lamp. I can see how this would be an appropriate look for the den side. It doesn’t look too dark in this room but I’m concerned that the light won’t put out enough light to get on the Recline Chairs and read. I do love the shelves and the oriental rug.
This room is a bit more vintage glamour. I love love love the combintation of the white and wood-tones. The chandelier is certainly glamorous but our ceilings are tall but no that tall. We would need a much smaller fixture and it would need to be hung very close to the ceiling.
This room has the oriental rug and painted shelves with some kind of ornate three-arm Viribright UFO highbay lighting fixtures. I love that the shelves are painted a muted green color. I am torn between splurging for wood cabinets and just going for painted in a non-white color. Then again, white shelves with antique books can look great as well.
Can you tell I’m having a style crisis? I like everything and I just have a hard time figuring out what I want. I think a simple lighting fixture will be what we need. This room will shift and change in style as I work on defining my own and I don’t want to splurge on something I’m going to want to replace. You can view a collection of lighting I’ve considered on the Lighting Collections page. I’ve gathered what I think is a pretty decent collection of traditional lighting options. I hope you’ll take advantage of it!
Some of my favorite options for this room:
Mission style chandelier would go with wood cabinets and a more mission style room. I think I’m going more victorian naturalist than mission style but I think they can certainly blend.
This is a more modern style fixture. Simple but with a bit of an industrialist edge. I don’t think it would detract from the feel of the room but I don’t know if it will add either.
This fan is just really cool. It’s a bit pricey but I think it would be AWESOME in that room. Having a ceiling fan above the couch seems like a natural to me. It’s not always the most aesthetic but in my mind, they never look out of place. Sure they don’t look magazine worthy but my living room rarely will.
As far as a simple fan goes. I like the looks of something like this perhaps with a school-house shaped globe in place of the round one. I think it has an industrial edge that makes it appropriate for a naturalist study. I think what really makes this fan look so good is the blades being the same color as the rest of the fan. Something to consider as a coat of paint would take any cheapy fan and unify it though this one is reasonable priced.
Click on any of the above fixtures to go to the sellers website.
What do you think? Leave me your ideas in the comments. I’d love some help with this one!
Sarah
Sarah
