Inspirational Room

pictures are from House&Home September 2011 issue

I fell in love with this beautiful kitchen the first time I saw the picture on the cover of House&Home. It's not only because how open and bright the kitchen is, the killer fireplace oven, interesting herringbone floor, but more importantly......how cool are those awesome brass hardware!

DIY Panel Moldings

I always admire the exquisite molding details in older homes. It's amazing to see how simple moldings can bring a sense of elegance and tons of characters to a room. Our apartment is not a new built, however its lack of architectural details makes the apartment looks really plain and boring despite how hard I tried to style it.

Earlier this year I got some big size pictures from Moveline, a hotel liquidation place in Oakville. The purpose of purchasing the pictures is to use the frames. (Originally I planed to do the framed wallpaper look by painting orange and white zig-zags by myself on paper and then put the painted frame on top. Apparently after almost 5 months, it's still not happening.) By taking out the picture and glass and paint the picture frame the same color as our bedroom wall color, I made my own panel moldings for the bedroom. After I taped the frames (by using heavy duty double sided tape) on the wall and all of sudden our rental apartment bedroom finally got the oh-so-charming look.

From Runway to Room

This dress from Gucci 2011 spring collection is a purely stunning piece. The paring of vibrant turquoise blue and gold instantly bring out that ultimate glamorous look. Why not try to turn this outfit to a room and to bring that luxurious look by using this blue and gold color combo?

Colorful Kitchen Cabinets

    

My heart literally skipped a beat when I saw this pale blue kitchen featured in House & Home magazine. I wonder since when people stopped using colorful cabinets. It seems like all the kitchens are into this white color trend nowadays. Most of us might be afraid that this colorful look is too 50s style (I'm not saying retro is not fun). The trick is to use accessories to update the look. Note the handsome faucet, brass bin pulls, marble counter top and the gas stove in the picture above. This kitchen screams 21st century chic. It's time to bring out some colorful kitchen cabinets!

The Spell Of Noir

Lately I found myself being drawn to black color in interior decorating (no, I'm not gothic). Usually I'm not the type that would get shied away from colors, but I have to admit that to paint a wall black had never crossed my mind before. Maybe it's the grey color trend in interior for the past few years has helped me to adapt to black. Once I had my mind open, I started falling under its spell. I know it takes a lot of guts to paint a room dark, let alone black color. As I always tell people that dark color doesn't necessarily make a space smaller. It's relevant to how the furnitures are arranged and how other colors in the room coordinates with each other. If you want to introduce a bold color to the room without overpowering, you can always do an accent wall.

Notice how the black wall in the picture below, expands the room by visually pushed that wall further away and defines that dining area.

 

Back to the black color. Black, white and grey are the neutrals on the color wheel. It goes well with any other colors and it doesn't add any noise to your color scheme. It's calm and can be used in any room. It's bold and it accentuates other colors by bringing high contrast. Depends on the texture, it can be glamorous when it's glossy or even earthy when it's matte.

Weekend Project - wallpaper

Okay, first I have to confess that neither my husband or I am a very productive person when it comes to our own home improvement. Hence the never quite finished painting job for the kitchen, unassembled other two dinning chairs that are still in a box because we still don't need them yet, unhemmed bedroom curtains, pictures sitting on the floor that need to be hanged...ah and don't even mention the messy study that needs to be organized desperately. So you get the picture. The fact that we actually put up the wallpaper that I have ordered more than a month ago is indeed a big accomplishment to us. This is the first time that I've ever tried to cover a whole wall with wallpaper by myself ( ...with a little help from Max). Minus the frustration and seriously more frustrations, I actually enjoyed the process and am very glad that the result turned out pretty good.

Oh by the way, something that you couldn't tell in the picture that we haven't cut the top part of the wallpaper where it meets the ceiling and also the pillow covers aren't quite finished yet. I still need to put on zippers...

Ah...the to-do list keeps rolling...