loving this room!

Saw a tweet about Anthropologie's Room-By-Room Looks and decided to check it out. And yeah, so glad I did. Check this one out:

I'd be very happy with a dining room like this, but more so I see it for my sister and brother-in-law. The rustic table, the metal chairs (though I know they really want mismatched ones), the copper & green color scheme, the ridiculously awesome chandelier. I can totally see it in their house.

small updates to my bedroom

My mom was over for a visit last week and commented that every time she comes over, my bedroom is different and it's true. I had a general idea in my head of what I wanted the room to look like, but it was pretty vague, which has left a lot of space for switching things up. The constants have been my pink bedspread, the purple end tables and the overall layout of the room. And then the bed and chiffonier aren't going anywhere. The bed is 12 years old, from Ikea and threatens to break with every move, but when it does finally fall apart (for good - I've repaired it twice), I will run out to Ikea and buy their new version of it. I just love it.

So what changes are the accents. First I paired brown & orange with the pink. I kinda loved it, but the comforter was too hot and then I discovered my love of patterned sheets. I tried out some green and white ones, but I didn't like the consistency of the fabric. It was just too slippery.

Then I found a pink paisley Ralph Lauren sateen set at Marshall's. I was a little concerned about the sateen - would it also be too slippery?  Nope, it was just as crisp as crisp could be - and doesn't wrinkle a bit. I do feel like it's starting to fade, but that could be my imagination.

I also swap out the pillows. Seems like whenever I tire of a pillow in my living room, it ends up being perfect in my bedroom and then I'm always on the hunt for the perfect rectangular pillow so I can have just one long one. For now, I'm down to two small rectangles which give the right effect.

To add warmth and the weight I love, I have a gray quilt from Target. Maybe it'd be a darker shade of gray, but it works. And I'm a big fan of gray with the brown furniture and the gold pulls.

See how a bigger rectangle of just one pattern would be better? Now if I can only find it...

Then I FINALLY hung more art in the room! I've always had the small painting above one of the end tables, but the other side of the room was just hungry for something big. And then my mom offered up a painting of my grandfather's that had always hung in our cellar (he was such a prolific painter that we had 1/2 a dozen paintings in the cellar growing up, just overflow from the rest of the house). The colors and size were right and it even has a gold frame! How perfect!

This side of my bedroom is never perfectly styled and even though my box of scarves is overflowing, I consider this a fairly successful shoot. At least all of my camisoles and tank tops are actually IN the baskets in the little white bookcase at the right!

Still need to paint and I still want to make it a super pale, almost white, inside-a-shell pink. Now that I have the painting, it's really helping me narrow down the options. Stay tuned!

my lavender bathroom - pictures!

I did it - I painted my bathroom last week. And though I said I would wait on pictures until I was finished, I love the result so much that I just couldn't help myself. It's a little weird to have done my northern-facing bathroom in sunset colors, but I do love the warmth it gives the room at night. Once afternoon rolls around, the whole room & hallway just glow. And then the lavender is really lovely in the icy morning sun - and helps bring out the green in my eyes. This color just makes me happy.

The shower curtain's packaging was made out of the same peach as the top row with ruffles of the the middle pink and lighter purple, which made picking out a paint color so easy. I was able to do it right in the middle of Home Depot - no coming home to check colors, second-guessing myself and putting off the whole project for another two years.

And see? The shade is perfect. If the curtain had another row of purple, it would be Behr's Sweet Petal.

The icy northern light IS beautiful, but it's only so-so for getting detail pictures with my point-and-shoot camera. But you get it, right?

I also painted all of the trim in Ralph Lauren Picket Fence, leftover from painting my living room. One day all of the trim and all of the doors in my house will be this shade of white. It's perfect. Crisp and clean but still with a bit of life to it. And can I just say how much I ADORE Ralph Lauren paint? It was a bit thick after sitting in my shed for two years, but still went on smoothly (after much mixing) and was so much easier to apply than drippy, thin Behr. Really wish Home Depot still carried it, but I'd drive an hour (or order online) to get some more Picket Fence.

I've never really taken pictures of my bathroom before so even though my cabinet set-up isn't new to me, it is new to you. It really makes me happy to use decorative items to hold my everyday supplies - and makes this open shelf a lot more attractive. Plus the stained glass pieces were presents, which makes them extra pretty in my eyes.

Obvs the mini galvanized bucket (found online for 99 cents!) holds my cotton swabs and then the Liberty for Target canister hold cotton balls and the votive holder captures hair elastics, barrettes and tweezers.

And what a fun coincidence that the canister matches my new walls! You know what else matches? Everything in my shower. Yup - my shampoo, conditioner, body wash, body puff, shave gel AND razor are all shades of pink and purple. I swear this was not planned - but I do wonder if I was unconsciously influenced?

I love the way my bathroom turned out. I don't even mind the wrinkles in the shower curtain - and anyway, they are slowly falling out with each shower. Overall, it is just a happy, fun and spirited room. Just what I needed.

a lavender bathroom?

If you follow me on Twitter, you'll know that I bought this shower curtain from Anthropologie on Friday. It's GORGEOUS. Bright and fun and makes me think of salsa costumes from Dancing With The Stars or So You Think You Can Dance. Love it.

And it's inspiring me to paint this room. I kept checking it out all weekend, trying for inspiration. The current white is a bit stark. Gray could be an elegant choice - and it certainly would be safe. But I'm not one for safe paint choices. And anyway, I kept coming back to lavender.

Lavender? Really, Debbie? Wouldn't it look like rainbow sherbet? Or a kid's bathroom? Possibly, but the heart wants what the heart wants. So yesterday I took the package for the curtain (made out of the same peach cotton as the top row with ruffles of the darker pink and lighter purple - so cute!) to Home Depot and bought a gallon of Behr in Sweet Petal. It's on the pink side of lavender and has just a touch of gray in it. I think it will be perfect.

Don't believe me? Check out these pictures I grabbed from Pinterest:

Think I'll want to update some of the accessories in this room once the lavender is actually on the walls so it may be a while before you see the finished product, but I'm pretty excited to get started!