pink bathroom: part 2

first things first, let's get back to that pink bathroom, shall we?

while Stuart wasn't a fan of the flamingos nearly as much as I was, we settled on chic country roses to stay with the look and character of the house, but still needed something to make this 50's pink tile shine.

Also, by this point we knew we were thinking of moving soon, so wanted something less crazy and not so catered to our taste.

We knew we wanted a big print, rather than small roses buds. I loved the idea of a black background, but thought that might not attract or appeal to too many people. It had to be within the fine parameters of chic and pretty, but not old lady-ish/dated/boring.

Here are some of the options...

(all of these we found on wayfair.com. they have a really big selection)

Here's the work in progress. I obviously hired to two cutest wallpapers in town and paid them in sandwiches and cookies ;)

and VOILA! the final product...

This was a good sized bathroom with really fantastic light. While it was only a half bath, you could easily have put in a shower or a bath with just a little reconfiguration. We just didn't have the time, money or energy. 

A few other things we did to give this room a facelift was a new floor and freshen up the white trim. A clean coat of white and retouching trim is the easiest way to boost a room back to life. 

And well, if you've been following for long, this room got a floor in the first place. This bathroom, since we moved in, had no floor, just old, smelly,  sub-flooring, which I'm sure wasn't up to code nor was it attractive. 

We chose a simple, clean, light color laminate floor. Home Depot and cost under $100 for the entire room. It was those easy stick tiles (I say easy because Stuart did it, not me;)

We wanted a light color, since its a fairly small room, but the whole new look makes it look bigger and much brighter. 

We also brought in a plant, got rid of the dark medicine cabinet and put up a chic, shabby cut glass mirror. We left the sink, since it was small and sweet and there was already plenty of storage in the built-in cabinets. And we put in a new, inexpensive, white toilet. 

We were pretty pleased with how it came out and our only regret was not doing it sooner so we could have enjoyed it. Live and learn. 

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. 

headboards + sweet dreams

remember how i was just telling you we are totally overwhelmed with headboard /wall ideas for our bedroom?

well, just this week i stumbled upon this AMAZING site. ariele seems just awesome and her work has such a great feel. i would love to own a piece (specificially; a headboard. obvi)

here are some of her designs...

beds & headboards

we LOVE our new bedroom. just love it!

we (finally) upgraded from a full size bed to a queen and it's been amazing sleep since. we bought this bed from west elm. we wanted something simple, clean and easy to adapt to whatever we decided on the "feel" of the room. it's perfect!

we shortly after decided we need some sort of headboard. while i would be head-over-heels for something fun like this rattan headboard

or something more luxurious and pretty like this gorgeous upholstered headboard, there is no way i could convince stuart to go for it.

so we've moved on to thinking of maybe reclaimed wood plank paneling the wall behind our bed in a gorgeous grey or faded color reclaimed wood. but then there comes a thousand questions to decide on...

vertical or horizontal? (we're thinking horizontal)

what color wood? grey? white wash? sun faded lavender is our ideal, but how long will it take us to find that and stay within our budget?

is it socially ok to go to a strangers house and ask them if we can pick apart their deteriorating barn or shed on their property? (probably not)

do we do the whole wall? or just 3/4ish to mimic wainscoting feeling?

here are some of our inspiration photos from pinterest

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")