Yellow Painted Love.

If you read this blog on a regular basis you know some things about me: I love the color yellow, and I have a fondness for painted furniture. Most of the furniture in my apartment is painted--mostly just greens or one piece is blue. I have decided that I'm tired of my blue dresser in particular and decided to paint it yellow. Here is a little yellow painted inspo I've come across.

Martha Stewart offers a really helpful tutorial on painted furniture. I love how she used an accent yellow color on the trims and drawer pulls.

I love the color combination of blue and yellow which works well because my walls are painted blue. This relaxed looking living room is by Lynn Morgan. Doesn't this table look like an Oomph table? They should do a sunshine yellow color.

I love the pretty textiles in this room; the carpet, the suzani quilt, and the scroll upholstered headboard. The texture continues in the matching night stands in a mustard/gold tone of yellow. From House Beautiful designed by Johnathan Berger.

This room is the epitome of sunshine; designed by Eddie Ross. I'd love to know what paint color Eddie chose...

Okay, so now back to me. Here is my dresser which is a distressed blue finish:

Here it is after I re-organized the surface of it with all my make up (what make up?) and jewelry. See what I mean with the competing blues? It's time for a change.


These are the paint colors I'm choosing between and I'd like your opinions also.

Haystack by Martha Stewart Paint from Home Depot. My apologies but imagine this a little bit more on the lemon side of yellow.

Sunbeam by Glidden. Not quite this intense in person.

Golden Honey by Benjamin Moore

So far, my head says Sunbeam by Glidden but my heart says Haystack by Martha. What do you guys think? This project probably won't be finished for about 2 weeks so I'm going to need a decision right away. My plan for the knobs are a turquoise knob from Anthropologie I believe. Don't you worry, I'll give constant updates. Thoughts??

Alicia B.

My New Apartment: Part One

As promised, I have gone through a lot of my pics of my new apartment and decided to share them with you. I still have many many messes that will be fixed over the next few months, but that's what is fun--the projects! Let me walk you through them:

I bought this little yellow pottery lamp at an estate sale in CT for only $5 and replaced the old parchment shade with this pretty silk pleated one! Similar ones can be purchased from Bed Bath and Beyond.

I just got these cute window pane pattern white drapes from Bed Bath and Beyond. I think they're feminine and pretty. I'd love to put more substantial drapery there but I can't drill into the plaster so these will have to work!

One of many of my projects is hanging up all my pictures, framed wallpaper pieces, and art. This is the rug in my bedroom; it's Dash and Albert Tangerine Dream. I bought it when I first moved to NYC.

These are my two absolute fave pillows from Wade Hampton Home sitting nicely on my newly re-upholstered loveseat in Roger Arlington fabric. Don't they look amazing there in my mini living room? I had a perfect rug for this room but it was was too wide for the room. It's small, okay?? So, I've mourned and moved on to THIS!

Adorable fresh flowers from my beau to brighten up my new apt! Aww.

My bedside table is from Target and the lamp is Martha Stewart, that I've had since my freshman year in college! Isn't the blue paint in my bedroom so pretty? It's Brittany Blue from Benjamin Moore. Sometimes it looks grey, and other times it looks blue and it always looks great with all the different colors in my room!

This wicker wall rack I'm going to paint a smokey grey to match the tile in the bathroom. I don't have any bathroom storage so I have to work with the space I have.

Here is a little scene of my new MINI stove top. I use the green Le Creuset kettle to make my fave Harney Tea, and the espresso maker I bought while I was in Florence, but you can get them HERE as well.

This set of three canisters from Sur la Table sits on my lovely Formica counter top. The large one has flower, medium has sugar, and the small has large cooking utensils!

My parents brought me this super handy wall mounted pot rack to hang all my new pots and pans on. I'm pretty sure they've been saving it for a very long time in the basement. Love it! In the 3 days that I've been here I've been cooking so much! These gorgeous pots aren't going to stay shiny for very long. Sad.

Alicia B.

Shades of Grey

One of the features of my new apartment that I'm most excited about is the tile in the bathroom. I know it sounds small and silly, but I walked into the bathroom and it had this cool grey subway tile in it. Usually, it's mini white, or ugly black and white cop-out tiles, but not this time. As I'm trying to make each room fun, I've decided that perhaps I'll play up the grey so that I can do punches of color in the towels, the shower curtain and the wall decor. Grey may seem dull or too neutral, so here are some grey rooms that still carry lots of drama.

OMG. Talk about dramatic. I love this painting; so moody but beautiful and the stools with the angular animal legs add to that feeling. By Susan Ferrier. Painting is by James McLaughlin Way and the stools are from John Rosselli.
(Thank you Emily Amy Gallery you little art scout!)

How many different greys/silvers/steels are in this minimalist kitchen by Julie Stevenson? Cool and dramatic.

I guess this isn't technically grey; more of a black/grey/brown, I suppose. I love the punch of yellow though in that chair. It just shows you don't need tons of color in a small space like this. From Marie Claire Maison.

I love the greys and the natural wood tones here. From Point Click Home.

This was how I originally wanted to do my living room before I decided on yellow. How beautiful and calming is this grey on the wall with the black and whites contrasting? By Eddie Ross. So beautiful.

I love this bedroom here from Domino mag. It looks so cozy with the grey tufted headboard and the light flowing in reflecting off the blue glass lamp etc. The grey paint is Benjamin Moore Rushing River.

This is Jamie Drake (genius) INSPIRED by the show Californication (better? Thank you to my loyal/rad commenters). The scaly tiling is very dramatic yet organic and I LOVE the built in open shelving on the back wall.

A brown shade of grey here with a separate tub from the faucet. So cute! From Point Click Home.

I think I'm going to do a dark grey on the currently white walls. The grey is cool and calming and I love the way that it absorbs and reflects light. Next stop: the paint store!


Alicia B.

Feeling Blue? GREAT!

Benjamin Moore's Paddington Blue # 791

A friend of mine just moved into a new apartment and was asking me for advice! Yay! She has lots of dark wood furniture and doesn't want pink to be involved in the color scheme (I know, crazy right?). I suggested blue to her and she loved the idea of the rich dark browns and contrasting blues. Also add in some sandy browns or pale golds for accents! Here are some fun blue interiors that I found.

A tranquil bedroom from Dominio Mag.

I love this facade. LOVE.

A blue color scheme with a pale yellow wall from Domino Mag.

A Markham Roberts Dining room. Beautiful.

Blue hallway.

From Domino, Nick Olson designed this living room with bold blues and yellows.

Alicia B.

orange

Word on the design street is that orange is the new celadon!! Just the other day a woman came into my place of business (not telling you where i work! hah!) asking if we had orange items...we did not..Anyway, it looks like a earthy mix, dark oranges, browns etc. Very calming, I like it! Who knows though...as Elle Woods once said, "Whoever said orange was the new pink was seriously disturbed!"

Below are some examples...

Pillows: Pottery Barn

Purse: Etsy shop Spongetta http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5278407

Blouse: Banana Republic