Did you ever hear about the experiments with rats where they would get frustrated in some way, and then made themselves feel better by going and beating up other rats? Now, I am not a professional interior designer, nor stylist, nor photographer. I have no budgets and I have very limited resources. Thus, I live in a very fragile glass house as I throw these stones, but hey, it’s fun. When checking out some professional design sites to get inspiration for my pretty pink bedroom, I came across some genuine head-scratchers. Case in point:

Living, etc. calls this “Cape Cod style.” I call it “Who let the pony on the bed” or “Let’s get out of this hotel room before they see what we’ve done” or “half-assed shipwreck.” Seriously, wtf? Hasn’t this casual styling business gone a bit too far? I don’t even know what kind of inspiration I’m supposed to take away from this other than “blue” and “America” and “whatever.”

Okay, so this one’s not so bad, though there’s a lot I could say about how vague and disconnected it is. But what’s with the overstyling? Magazine on the bed? Water on the bedside table? It makes it unclear where the design ends and the styling begins – oh, I just leaned this mirror up against the wall so I’d have a place to hang my dress? How would you even use that mirror in real life with that chair in front of it?

I want to make it clear that I love everything about this setup except SOMEONE PLEASE FIX THE STRIPED BLANKET IT’S GOING TO FALL VERY SOON kthx

I promise I’ll be positive in my actual inspiration post to follow.

I want to make one thing clear: I am not getting married. But thanks to Apartment Therapy’s color contest this month, I’ve been thinking a lot about color and what it takes to create a successful color palette. And thanks to design*sponge, I was introduced to Once Wed, a stunningly lovely collection of wedding ideas, photography, and decorating porn. It borders on the obscene it’s so beautiful. There are a lot of photos of flowers and the outdoors, and I can spend entire afternoons going through the site and creating potential romantic room palettes based on them.

Taking the deep, muted green of the leaves and adding yellow, pink, and red, we get this, the most beautiful bedroom I have ever seen:

This is one of the most awesomest bedrooms I have ever seen. Farrow & Ball in Down Pipe is the color, though it looks greener here. Love.

Or, this:

Or even this:

Or from my *other* favorite color contest entry:

Check out Once Wed for some great color inspiration, and
vote tomorrow (!) for me and for Gidget (and for whomever else you like)!

I am thinking – only thinking, mind you – about dismantling my loft bed and creating an entirely different bedroom.

This loft setup has been incredibly useful, but I'm not sure I want to keep it anymore.

My ex-boyfriend built this loft bed with the stairs and dog crate underneath as a way to give us more room and have a large place for the dogs to go when we weren’t home. I still love it, but it creates this awkward hole in the middle of the room underneath the loft, and, well, there’s just something that feels weird about not changing a bedroom at all after a cohabitating relationship ends – especially if the one leaving built the bed. So these images are now on my radar for potential bedroom ideas. I have to say, the thought of having a normal bedroom with nightstands and lamps is kind of intriguing. These are all from design*sponge sneak peeks:

I love the subtle paint on the wall, and the varied assortment of small silhouettes is lovely.

I love the weathered wood feeling here.

This is my favorite - I love everything about this room.

I know this is a kid's room, but it's just nice, okay?

Cinderblocks to raise the bed? I think I can afford that.

As always, my budget is limited – basically zero. I would have to work with what I have, so I’m still trying to decide if it’s worth it.

I may be way behind this trend, but I’ve been noticing something around the markets lately. In addition to the already popular schoolhouse and science classroom inspired decor, comme ça:

I’m noticing a ton of trophies around. There’s something a little odd about decorating with other people’s trophies or ribbons, because you didn’t win anything to get them, but their shapes and shine are kind of too pretty to pass up.

I seem to have entered a contest. It happened late the other night, after agonizing over photos of my living room for three days, and at the urging of my boyfriend and a few glasses of wine, I entered the Apartment Therapy Room for Color contest. I meant to do it, of course, but now that it’s up and my very personal home choices are displayed for all to see, I’m feeling pretty self-conscious. Unfortunately, wine does not help one proofread, so I mostly just wish I had written out the answers beforehand and avoided embarrassing typographical errors. But, it happens.

Anyway, if you’re already a member of the AT community, or you’re not just signing up to vote for me, click here to vote (check out all the other entries and, while you’re there, sign up for the cure)! Leave a comment if you wish, but please remember two things: 1) if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all, and 2) please refrain from signing your comment,¹ because it makes it look like I just hired some friends to vote for me. Which I’m totally doing². But no one else needs to know that.

xoxo

This is a far cry from the lemon lime disaster that plagued me on my first go round.

¹Unless you are Matte Stephens, then I encourage you to sign it, because I cite you as my color inspiration, so it’s appropriate. Thank you.
²Though I briefly considered it, this is not actually true … yet.

I predicted the housing bubble would burst way back in March. I foretold of the trend of gradients in web design last week. And in this tradition, I’m now going to point out several examples of OPP – that’s “Other People’s Portraits” – in home decor.

This man has mastered thrifty + tasteful + stylish + symmetrical.

Swoon. This house is delightful. Via apartmenttherapy.com

Hot. I love the color choices here.

No one says it has to be human.

I know, I know, antlers. Still. This whole house is indescribably beautiful.

And, from one of the best AT contest entries of all time:

I'm pretty sure most AT readers wanted to either hire or marry Jesse after this entry.

Now, back to my volunteer job at the campaign … vote Obama in ‘08!

Saw an adorable idea on AT today that I would desperately like to replicate: the farm-style screen door on the pantry:

via Apartment Therapy

Pantry screen door via flickr

Indoor screen door via Coastal Living

Another idea from the Why Didn’t I Think of That department.

I’ve written briefly about WHBS before, but this past weekend I took a few pictures of the magic that is a Northern California salvage yard, grown organically (so to speak) around trees, chicken coops, makeshift warehouses with plastic roofs, and ad hoc shelving.

Whole House is an incredible find, and it makes me wish I had a project just so I could search there. They have discount wood paneling, moulding, doors ($35 for a solid wood door is okay with me), shutters, and more, as well as sinks, marble slabs and tiles, chickens, ducks, bricks, lumber, lighting fixtures, doorknobs, toilets, bathtubs, cabinets, desks, shelves, glass, and mirrors. And more. At extremely reasonable prices.

These salvaged wood pieces could make rustic frames or trim, for just pennies per linear foot.

Glass and mirrors of all sizes; they also cut to spec.

Not for those expecting a boring retail experience, WHBS is a fun place to explore and get dirty.

Shutters and doors can be used for their intended purpose, or for room dividers, tables, or desks.

Medicine cabinets ... all of these are vanities?

Whole House Building Supply is located in East Palo Alto, just off 101 behind Ikea, at 1955 Pulgas Road. Open Monday – Friday, 9 to 5pm, Saturday 8am-5pm, and Sunday 11-4pm.

I would almost never shop at Pottery Barn, but this wallpaper (which claims to be “easier to install and remove than conventional wall papers”) is beautiful, and is on sale for $40/roll (regularly $84), or about 60 square feet:

Overlapping leaves wallpaper from Pottery Barn, half price

I started out with a $300 budget for my bedroom project, and initially I said I didn’t need any furniture. But I did need something to store shoes and various bits of things in this horrible corner:

Our last penultimate piece of Ikea furniture took up a lot of space and stored things I didn't need.

I wouldn’t normally think of Wertz Brothers Antique Mart in Santa Monica as a place for thrifty furniture – a thousand-dollar table may be worth a thousand dollars, but that doesn’t mean I have a thousand dollars to spend on a table. But since it was raining on my shopping day and the flea markets weren’t exactly stocked, I checked out Wertz Brothers for some wire baskets, crates, or suitcases to store things, and came across the most wonderful antique wooden storage … thing:

This antique wooden cubby/shelf was a perfect find.

At $150, it was a little pricey – it took up half my budget, so I left it at the store at first to go home and measure. That, and it wouldn’t fit in my car. But as soon as I got it in the room, I realized it was the perfect piece. If you set a budget, it’s okay to spend a lot of it on one piece that sets the right tone for the room and is highly functional. I also had these lens cases from Alex’s dad that had been sitting unused in the bathroom:

These lens cases are perfect for storing buttons, zippers, and other sewing notions.

This antique level was just $4 at Wertz Brothers and serves as a tiny shelf for thread and alternate feet for my sewing machine. With the photos above, I’ve used up nearly all of my original $300 budget:

• paint & supplies: $67
• wooden cubby thing: $150
• organic cotton sheets: $35 on clearance at gaiam.com
• quirky vacation photos above wooden cubby thing: $25
• vintage wooden suitcase for storing christmas decorations: $15
• antique wooden level: $4

Total: $296

Everything else came from elsewhere in the house or was already in the room – this reading lamp I picked up for $5 at a flea market a few months ago, but the light was too garish to use downcast, so it just sat around until I realized that shining upward, it was perfect.

Cast upward, this lamp provides ample light for the bedroom and the loft above.

All the art for the room was here or in other rooms:

The art on this wall originally came from flea markets or talented relatives.

The orange curtain on the left hides the elliptical trainer (nonnegotiable in this room) from view when you first walk in the house (it’s actually a table runner that happened to be the width of the machine). Overall, I couldn’t be happier with the final result for the budget. Although the room before was adorable and fun with the trees and all, it’s much calmer and more functional now.

I liked the bedroom before, but I needed a change, and I love the after.