H for Homeowner and Home Decor

After living in 3 different continents (Asia, Europe and America), the journey from being a renter to a homeowner has been longer than what I had envisioned. I was born and raised in India and I like to call Mumbai "My Hometown". I moved to Cyprus after my wedding to be with my husband. Since then together we have moved 8 apartments and 5 corporate rentals. Finally we decided to put down our roots here in Washington (beautiful pacific northwest, nicknamed as Evergreen State) and became homeowners.

As a home decor enthusiast I have always loved the idea of moving into different apartments (of course sans the physical move) and enjoy my time adorning them. It was difficult to work up all my decor and design ideas and imaginations with given limitations and rules of renting. Here are  pictures from some of our rentals that we have lived in where in I tried to make it a place we could call home. 

While owning a home is probably more expensive than renting, home ownership does provide more stability. Since I am no longer subject to the landlord's whims, I took this blank canvas and put our heart and soul and DIY efforts to make this house a warm and inviting home not just for us but for our visitors too  :). I call our decor style "Classy Contemporary" it's a little fancier and specific word for "Transitional style decor". While this task of decorating and re-decorating is a continuous one, here are some pictures to show how we have decorated some of the spaces in our home sweet home that shows as of today. I can't promise they would look the same 5 years from now, cos, I love change my decor. It's like a therapy for me I guess :)

My son's room

Guest Bedroom-1

Dining Room

Kitchen

Family Room

Hallway

Guest Bedroom -2

Master Bedroom

Formal Living

Hallway/Stair/Landing

Linking to ABC Wednesday - Round fifteen. Checkout the link to look for some amazing takes on the alphabet prompt from around the world.

Love For Turquoise - Guest Bedroom Makeover

After drawing my inspiration from the Turquoise And Red Bedroom design board that I had put together a few weeks ago, I finally transpired that vision into reality (after a lot more takes). I chose my color theme from the design board and wanted to introduce it in one of our guest bedrooms (existing wall color was Beige all over).

Inspiration pic:

Outcome:

Plan A:   My vision initially was to get one of the walls with the chevron pattern (beige + turquoise) and keep the rest of the wall as is (the beige color). I and my partner in crime laid out a plan on paper before we actually went on to create the chevron pattern on the wall using painters tape. Soon my unwilling husband realized this method had diminishing returns and that I was being penny wise and pound foolish.

Plan B:   So, we order the Chevron pattern stencil and use that instead of marking and masking the wall with painters tape. I was trying to save my money on the stencil (40$). It took a couple of weeks for the stencil to arrive. My enthusiasm fizzled out and I had to stop abruptly when I wasn't able to get the perfection despite using the stencil (probably due to improper techniques and lack of experience).

Plan C:   Just paint all 4 walls the beautiful turquoise by taking the simpler route. It took just 4 hrs start to finish getting all the walls done. Unfortunately, I wasn't happy with the color after they went up on all 4 walls. I couldn't do much about it at that point but to leave it like that for few days and see if the color would grow on me. My feelings didn't seem to change. It still wasn't sinking in.

Plan D: After continuous thoughts, I decided to paint it in insipid white (back to basic). So went and brought primer. While at the store I decided to get a quart can of tomato red color (the accent color as per the design board). Thought I would create some easy geometric pattern on the white wall and will use the leftover turquoise and  red paint sparsely on the patterns. Even though I bought all the supplies I was going back and forth with the idea. Afterall it is hard work to repaint and start from scratch.

Plan E: I had a couple of visitors in between and they did not have a negative response like I did to the turquoise walls. They suggested me to leave it that way (at least for few more years) and not to hurry in painting it over. Thanks to Usha aunty who suggested that instead of painting it all white I could use a little white color (may be some design or something) to tone down the turquoise a little bit and that should probably do the magic. That gave me this idea of creating just a single line of the chevron pattern using white paint over the turquoise wall. I already had white paint left from my other painting projects which would be just enough to do the chevron pattern. I eventually also made use of my stencil in giving the final touch to this rather pesky guest bedroom project.

After 2 rolls of painters tape,  multiple coverup plans and some scrub-a-dub with carpet cleaner, this project would not have seen the light of the day without my dear darling hubby's strong muscle, laser cut precision and unconditional patience. Even though it's quiet not what I imagined it to be, I still think it is a beauty (in the eyes of its beholder).

I intend to change my accent pieces down the lane for this room. But for now, the bedroom is more than ready to cosy up it's guest in its new adorned look. So, who is going to be the lucky one to enjoy this fresh new space?

Details:

Color - Brand:BEHR ULTRA Number: 500B-4 Color Name: Gem Turquoise Finish: Eggshell.
I gave only one coat and got that color. But it did take a couple of days to actually show up this true turquoise.

Roller - I used semi rough to smooth surface microfiber roller for the turquoise and used a smaller size "high density foam roller" for the chevron pattern.

Stencil - CuttingEdgeStencil.com

Quilt Set: Online Target Mudhut Brand.

Accessories: Garage Sale finds and used some spray paint for the pop of red.

Colorful Livingroom

Our living room furniture needs an update. We have continued to keep our living room sofa set that we used in our apartment days. This colorful living room can cheer your mood anytime of the day (or night). A blend of neutral tone, pastel colors and deep dark colors balances the color palette. I am dreaming about bringing this exact setup into our living room.

My favorite piece, well its pieces - Curtain, Cushions and Rug

Individual item list below. Click on each to check details.

Vase
Basket
Russian Doll
Small Decorative Chest
Wall Mirror Scones
Candle Holders
Coffee Table
Curtains
Couch
Blue Cushions
Multicolor Cushions
Coral Cushions
Chair

Hallway Or Landing Space Or Feature wall

This can be your hallway, entryway, landing space or just any wall in your home that can feature this classy and modern decor. Even though the space has some hint of pinks which plays up the femininity, I have also carefully juxtaposed items  (wall sconce against wall paper, elephants and metallic finish vase) to bring out the brawniness making this space appealing to both sexes.

My favourite thing has to be the pink and white ceramic elephants.





Here is the link to all the individual pieces.

Individual item list below. Click on each to check details.
Seating
Console Table
Mirrors
Wallpaper
Runner
Vase
Wall Scone  
White Elephant
Pink Elephant  

Warm Tone Living Space

Be it formal living room or family room, this warm space screams  coziness. My favorite piece has to be the  the 2 whimsical cube storage ottoman. The room has been put together keeping in terms with the traditional style moroccan wallpaper.

Here is the link to all the individual pieces.

Individual item list below. Click on each to check details.
Wallpaper
2 Accent Chest
2 Buffet Lamps on both Accent Chest
3 Decorative Books (box) on the Accent Chest on left
2 Picture Frame On the Accent Chest
3 Decorative mirrors behind sofa
2 Curtains
Sofa
2 Accent Pillows On the Sofa
2 Cube Storage Ottoman
Tree between Cube Storage Ottoman
Coffee Table
Wire End Tables
Candle Stand on coffee Table
Decorative Books under the Coffee table
2 Accent Chairs
3 Decorative stacked box between Accent Chairs

Turquoise And Red Bedroom

For a while I have been thinking about how I can build my blog. I asked myself what is the most I love about. "Decor" was one thing that kept rebounding. That doesn't mean I am discontinuing to paint my word on few other topics (travel, photography, food, thoughts) that I contribute in my blog.

Usually, before I plan to decor any part of my house, I prefer to put together a pallet board to coordinate pieces and colors that can stir me in the right direction. That gave birth to this idea. Why can't I continue to do that even if it's not for my house. With the endless possibilities available out there in dressing up a room, I know there is only so much I can make it a reality in my house.

So with the intention of inspiring you and help you take the right direction, I will be trying to bring you my pallet board that I assimilate from the plethora of items that are available on the internet.

Here is a bedroom put together for you to checkout. I am in love with this turquoise color especially pairing it with the bold red.

Psstt...I am certainly taking inspiration for my next project at home (painting one of my guest bedroom)

Here is the link to all the individual pieces.

Individual item list below. Click on each to check details.
Rug
Ottoman
Vase
Art
Pillow
Dresser
Curtains
Bedding
Nightstand
Headboard
Black Figurine
Colorful Sculpture

Design On a Dime - By Pallavi Bhalerao

Have you ever thought what good can come out of old (or new) wedding cards?
We all adore those fancy invitations and some may even have the hobby of collecting decorative wedding cards. We do save the ones that comes from our loved ones, but what happens to the few others?
Most likely they are housed only until the actual event takes place and we all know where it goes (some most hesitantly).

Well, here is an ingenious idea that one of my friend (Pallavi Bhalerao) came up with.
Looks like she is a collector of wedding cards :). After reading the post on The gift of gift wrapping paper
she sifted through her pack rat collection and found a few wedding cards to frame those. Isn't that impressive?

PS: Did you notice the exquisite stenciling on the wall? :) 

Photo Courtesy: Pallavi Bhalerao

I also like how she has combined different but complementing frames and brought the collage effect. Pallavi, you truly took it up a notch.


Isn't that a better bargain that someone else paid oodles of money to print that invite but you did not shed a penny. Now that's what I call design on a dime.

I love it when folks come forward and share their simple yet elegant ideas. Thanks so much Pallavi.
I am going to tell folks back home to save all those invitation cards for me.

So, if you have successfully attempted on an simple DIY and care to share, please send me an email with pictures and I will be more than happy to pitch it to my readers.

If you are a blogger already, I would still love to share your post in my blog space.

I Can Paint-An Effortless Way To Showcase Your Talent

If you are anything like me you feel handicapped when it comes to canvas, painting, art, drawing.
They say a can of paint can go a long way :). I am talking about the aerosol paint cans (spray paint)...
I know, its cheating but don't you think the possibilities are endless. A few selection of colors in my collection are (Red, Blue, Chrome, Black, White) and they have done wonders for me.

I have spray painted a few decorative items like my old vases, trays, frames just to give the updated look or color that I would want to co-ordinate the space with. Garage sales are an awesome place to find such articles to which you would like to add a splash of color. I have even sprayed on a newly bought lantern with bright red to match the decor.

Another decor hack which I attempted on is painting on canvas or similar material. No, not painting on a blank canvas but on the one that already has printed/painted pictures on it.
I bought these monochromatic picture on a canvas like frame from IKEA (below pic the one on the left for 14$ each) . Bought a small bottle of (enough for experimenting painters like me) yellow color paint that will work on canvas. Then, all I did was fill in the blanks :). Voila! I took it up a notch and brought life into a rather insipid art.

My choice of color for was yellow and so I highlighted some of the areas with that in order for the painting to pop.

I have seen black and white prints/paintings on canvas like material available in various home decor store for a cheap price. Hope you can hack them with this effortless way of painting to showcase your talent :)

The Gift Of Gift Wrapping Paper

It's been a while I haven't written any blog on my home update projects. Well, that's because I haven't attempted on one since my last project (my son's room). These days I spend my free time outdoors and take advantage of the springing weather. Well, until I get to some hard work, I just thought these simple ideas might help you adorn your space.

Many supermarket stores these days have an assortment of gift wrapping papers. Unlike the typical wrapping papers these have a designer quality to it with eye catching motif. As a matter of fact some of them look very much like wallpaper. For locals here check Marshalls and TJMaxx store and of course Amazon.

You can easily place a cut out of the paper instead of a photo in a picture frame, shown below.

PS: you can also try using scrapbook paper, it has some thickness to it.

Another one is to invert the above idea. You can cut out and place the wrapping paper around the picture. Doesn't that give enough depth to your photo. 

I swap the paper based on my duvet cover and coordinate accordingly for a harmonious look. I keep the unused ones right behind the picture inside the frame so its a lot more accessible and stays unfolded all the time.

If you have a picture frame that doesn't have a glass (and you no longer plan to use it as is) you can cut out some wrapping paper and inset using double sided tape. You almost will never feel the need to discard old frames :)

Books and Photo albums are also a great way to decorate space and keep it interesting. A photo album is a conversation piece isn't it? You can buy not so expensive photo albums and wrap it with the one that can correlate your living room (or anywhere). Easy way to hide that cheap cover :).

You can wrap a shoebox deftly and bam! you have got yourself a decorative box to store your knickknacks. I guess I have given enough to kindle your ideas to use them creatively. So, next time you see a gift wrapping paper think decor :) - happy wrapping!

Fun And Flamboyant Orange Radiates Warmth And Energy - (Color Theme For My Boy's Room)

Atlast I got his room done. I had promised my son that I would paint his room before his birthday. There you go I am way ahead. The tough part was to convince him (and convince myself) to refresh his (my) mind from his (my) very own vision of how he (I) wanted his room to be.
When we moved into the house, the first thing he said was mommy "I already have chosen which room I want for myself". Little did I know he would take me to the "Master Bedroom" and said "This is going to be my new room". I asked him why would he want to take the biggest room? Isn't that too big for just one person? I had to talk him out of it and he agreed only if I would promise that I will be sharing "The Master Bedroom" with his dad and not have the whole room for just myself. For some reason he thought we each (3 of us) would get our very own room and that mommy would take the biggest of all (Not a bad idea!).

So he picked out next biggest room that was available. I casually told him to "start thinking" about how he would want to decorate his room and blurt came the answer I want "Space Theme" and "Dinosaurs". Typical of boys that age I may guess. So I kind of knew what he would want but I did not expect that he had already been planning it. His answer to my question did not end there. He said - "I want my room in Orange Color (Wall and Ceiling), I want a bunk bed and I want the bed to be right in the middle of the room like an island!". Then he showed me where he wants his toys. There was no mention of school books or any desk. When I asked him about that he said - hmmm lets keep them in one of the shelves in the kitchen. Reason for that - Since he is going to need help for his homework most of the time, it will be easy for me to help him if its in the kitchen. Well thought! but I wasn't ready to share my kitchen at that time, now its a different story - I finally gave a cabinet for him in my kitchen.

Boy oh Boy! none of his idea resonate with me. I did not want to say "No", so I said - Lets think more about it and plan. Whenever we spoke/discussed we never were  able to reconcile. Finally I had to say "No to Orange color" and "No for Bunk bed" and " A definite No for keeping the bed in the center of the room".

My reasons for saying
"No" to bunk bed" - because he doesn't want to sleep on the higher one, I did not see a point in a bunk bed then (maybe later when he is ready for that I would trade his current bed for a bunk bed for sure).
"No for keeping the bed in the center of the room" - Come on need I care to give a reason!
"No to Orange color" - Well this is where the debating actually started. I knew Orange is my son's favorite color so I thought I would try to bring in some orange in the form of bedding, accessories etc. But he kept saying he wanted Orange on the walls. I did not want to enter a room that looked like furnace for sure. But for Seattle's weather I bet Orange is actually not a bad one to see on the wall. So the debate was actually in my mind rather than with my 6 year old.

I started to ransack the internet to find one inspiring pic that would make me say an affirmative "Yes" or even "Ok" for the "Orange" color. I couldn't wrap my head around this. One funny thing that happened in the mean time though is - One day G came to me and said - "Fine if you don't want to paint the walls Orange, Can you at least paint the closet Orange?!"...Poor guy, It appeared like he finally just want to get this over with and was haggling with me to at least get it done :)

After the scavenge hunt I eventually found one to which we were 100% onboard. Here is the inspiration pic.

Here is the final outcome of our attempt -

Even though the brain behind this is me the effort is a collaborative one that includes my husband and my little one (with clean up) - Thanks Sweetypie.

Few things that are noteworthy here are -
I bought some furniture legs from IKEA and used those to make this vertical self lay horizontal. The shelf is a typical IKEA one that I had in my apartment as a showcase near my TV cabinet. I asked my husband to remove the doors (Dear door please don't feel separated, I will upcycle you later).

Those black geometric pattern thing is from one of my favorite online shopping store Overstock.com. They are actually sofa chair's seat cushions for outdoor furniture. I bought those as seating for my bay window. They did not fit so I had been using it as floor cushions in my prayer room. After I put my son's room together it just occured to me why don't I just stuck it in as headboard since his platform bed did not have headboard anyway.

I bought some shelf brackets (Amazon.com) and used them to hold his skating board. The skating board was gifted by one of our friends on his 4th birthday and I really don't think he will be ready for it until he is 8. So while we still hold on to it in the garage, I just thought I would use it as display shelf until then.

The unique car shaped lamp is from my another favorite online shopping store Wayfair.com. There were very few options for kids (Boy's) room . But the ones that I loved were a little expensive ranging from 210$ to 270$. I had a price watch on those for a long time and I found that one of the lamps had a huge price slash (just in time while I was planning to paint his room). I bought those using one of the gift cards that a friend of ours gave us as house warming gift (Thanks Swati and Saurabh).

The space theme stickers I bought from Sherwin William's paint store while I was shopping for paints. They were on sale for 10$. I had those on his walls when we moved in and since they are peel and stick it was easy for me to reuse those after I finished painting. Between, Venus is my son's favorite planet!. Thanks to Chitra Aunty who suggested that I should do some art on that black patch through out. I am not artist so I decided to go with these stickers.

The white shelf where the casio is resting is a spice rack that I bought from IKEA.

The panel curtains are from IKEA. Shamefully it took 2 hours for me and my husband to hang this.

The monogram is my self creation of my son's initial 'G'. I used nail/thumb tacks to create this.

I bought those orange metal baskets from dollar store for storage purpose.

My reward - After the paint was all coming through while I was doing some clean up, my son came running to me and gave me a loving hug and said - I Love it so much mommy, thanks for listening to me! LOL.