pink tile bathroom

back from hiatus (once again) and bathroom projects on the brain.

i'm not even sure if I've ever mentioned our downstairs bathroom. it's huge, has great light and we have big plans for it....oh, and it's hilariously hideous!

but after we had to unexpectedly give our upstairs bathroom a facelift/makeover not quite a year ago, and therefor spending a chunk of money we didn't have, we have to put our grand downstairs bathroom plans on hold.

this is our bathroom now (like, right now. i JUST took these pictures about 2 minutes ago)

while it's slowly grown on me and i find it really funny and charming in its own way, stuart hates the pink tile. but we're not about to go and paint tile or do anything that takes too much time, money or effort, especially as the grand plans we're hoping we can do within the next 3+ years.

i had this brilliant idea last night and thought we should totally embrace the wildly dated pink + black combo and actually make that our theme and just run with it. FLAMINGOS!

so this morning i've been knee deep in "research" and found these awesome flamingo print wallpapers. 

the print needs to be fun and not too serious. can flamingos be serious?

I'm thinking it also ideally needs to have a bit of black in it to pull the colored tile in. 

this one is my favorite of the bunch, but i have no doubts will be stuarts least favorite. i also need to see how big the scale is.

shockingly, stuart is (somewhat) on board and once we order the paper, we could get the whole project done in a weekend. 

i'll keep you posted on progress. 

DIY triangle garland

after making these awesome heart strands on-a-whim valentine craft, i decided i wanted to do something to jazz up cai's first birthday party.

i made nia a really fun + beautiful ribbon garland for her 2nd birthday party, which now hangs over her bed, but wanted something a little less feminine...not that cai can't handle it. he loves butterfly wings and has been known to wear crowns

... and maybe bring into his room decor once the party was over. and i didn't want to do the ribbons again but instead wanted something new and original.

well, admittedly, not so original, as i was pretty seriously inspired by emily hendersons triangle baby shower. how gorgeous is that and what a clever theme! i obviously didn't take the triangles as seriously and cai's party was far less festive and beautiful, but hey, i have to craft solo, a midsts an elmo spaghettios clad dinning table, with toddler safe scissors.

i basically chose a few different shades of blues + green paper, cut them into different sized triangles and sewed them together in the same way i did the hearts.

they all kind of hung out, scotch taped to the wall for a few weeks. but i really loved how they looked on a blank wall. it reminded me of a variation of a fine little day wallpaper or something. 

turns out, the morning of the party was kinda crazy and i forgot about them until about 20 minutes before company was due to arrive. oops! so my fabulous friend caroline helped string them up behind the bar station, where they looked pretty cute and helped hide the awkward behind the stairs space. 

in hind sight, i would have made less, but longer strands, as they were constantly getting tangled and are now draped over a chair, in the basement, in a big, awkward single strand. "E" for effort, no?

design update: dining room

our dining room is probably my favorite room in the house so far. maybe it's because it's the only one nearest completion.

i think it reflects our style really well. it has amazing natural light spilling in all day long. there is the amazing original character and modern light fixture that work together so well. and perhaps my favorite bargain/design/piece is our barn door conversion farm table. 

but this room has gone through quite the transition and is still in progress...

here are a few before pictures...

stuart deserves an award for his patience on this room. it was originally a dar maroon color and took over 6 coats of paint. 6 coats!

i love love love this cabinet. we took the curtain out and just have a few glassware pieces in there, but ideally it will just display wine + liquor. 

before we did the barn door table, we had our old, solid teak table, which was our awesome focal piece in our apartments but now looks so tiny in our new house

and here in the (almost) final product

close up of the really beautiful barn door table

and these really perfect + modern hairpin legs i found on etsy. 

for now, this room is just about done. i still have visions of doing the dipped chairs and having a bench along one side of the table. i would also LOVE upholstered french provincial chairs for the heads of the table. and i'm always on the hunt for a gorgeous hutch or cabinet to make a bar station along the back wall. 

white crush

loving these white looks

(source)

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DIY hibiscus dyed curtains

we are so lucky to have gorgeous bay windows in our bedroom. but as of now they are only covered by hideous, old, dirty and cheap plastic blinds that came with the house. we've been searching for awesome curtains, but don't want to break the bank, especially as i have a tendency to change my mind on design ideas pretty quickly.

we think we want our overall look to be light, airy and a little pop of blues or violet colors on the ends to accent.

we were searching around bed, bath + beyond and we spotted these. i just loved the subtle texture. so we bought 8; 2 panels for each window, so they are still soft + light but thick enough to give us privacy.

HOWEVER, i scooped up all 8 of the ivory color. no white. so as we are putting them up and thinking they look gorgeous, the more that we put up, the worse it looks against our white trim. ugh.

so i've been toying with the idea to bleach them white (they don't even exist in white. i've checked everywhere!) but then what's the point of spending all that money to still have to fix them. annoying.

now i'm thinking maybe i'll experiment with one and dye it a very faint color. i'm loving this shade of pink + idea and the fact that it's natural. 

otherwise, i think i might just try good ol' rit dye and go for a shade of lilac. right now, i'm liking shade 600, 116 and 563. i'll keep you posted on the progress of the curtains.

nursery inspiration

big + exciting news: we're expecting baby #2 in the springtime!

so, along with the my usual OCD and organizing plus the typical organizing you do when you move and are trying to settle into a new house, are now both being trumped by a severe case of nesting. hand in hand with nesting is planning for the new nursery. i have a zillion ideas leftover from nia's room or new things i've seen out + about. 

we don't know if we are having a boy or a girl, so we're thinking grey paint, white crib and i plan on refinishing one of the awesome dressers we just scored in either a mint or lavender color and the room having lots of warm wood tomes. 

here are some of my favorite looks from pinterest...

DIY dresser

since we just moved from a small 1 bedroom apartment in queens to our new spacious house, we realized we didn't have much furniture at all (especially since our IKEA dresser and armoire not-so-shockingly both broke in  transit)

i've been hunting for some great pieces and found these 2 awesome dressers on craigslist. one will be for nia's room and the lower we are thinking will be in the nursery to act as a changing table double for the first year or so.

i have so many ideas for these two dressers, i feel like we need 10 more just to do all the sweet ideas rolling around in my head.

here are a few of my favorite color ideas from pinterest...

for nia's french provincial style dresser i was thinking all solid light pink

or solid pink with the pretty handles white

or a light mint green or faint, warm blue...

and for the nursery dresser, because it's a bit less detailed than nia's desser, it could carry ombre (as you can tell, i'm slightly obsessed with) in yellow or green or mint or blue shades.

 + 

 i also love the lavender color and would just have to be sure the room as a whole wouldn't be too feminine if we have a boy. then if it's a girl i would totally want to attempt this awesome faux inlay look or a gorgeous stenciling/hand painted design.

or just stick with more gender neutral mint/grey color and switch out the knobs? 

then i also like something bolder and fun that this dresser could totally carry and could perk up the room. 

*(all images were from pinterest by searching "dresser")