HOME...be inspired everyday

Yipee ka yay!!!

 
                            {roses picked from my new garden}

 It is official we are homeowners of the Cottage on Cullen St!!   I'm so very excited!! You have no idea!  My whole life I have waited for this, this is my very first time having a home of my very own....  I have dusted off my white adirondack chair, plopped my seaside pillow from Target and put out the ivy plant on the brick porch.  Now the "real work" begins...

This weekend we begin testing and selecting paint colors...for the "Cottage on Cullen St." 

 
You can see from the built in, that is the living room it has a real cottage feel to it.....we hope to paint first but not likely how it will work and then have all the floors redone next.  So I have a gazillion paint chips spilling out of my HOME..Be Inspired Binder and I've browsed several painting blogs  like this one and blogs with paint colors I'm drawn to.  I'm thinking  since I have lived with white walls for a long time I would now finally like to add some color to my new home.  Here is where and what I'm leaning towards...{now to convince Mr. Incredible it won't look like a tissue box}

In the family room....I love the look of this grayish green color......

 
 
This is Owl Gray by Benjamin Moore and it seen on the blog For The Love of A House blog...it looks very greenish gray here in her pictures but on the paint chip it looks more gray than green. 

Next...I'm thinking of going one shade lighter for the Living room, where the built in is located in the above photo, on this paint chip scale, here it is on my friends wall on her cabinet.

 
The paint is called  Blustery Wind by Dunn Edwards and the color I'm thinking of going with is Spy Glass which is one shade lighter then this one on the paint chip scale. 

 
This is called Quiet Moments by Benjamin Moore.  I love the blue green color and it will match our bedding perfectly....

Madison is going with a more soft aqua in her room as not over power her desk that we painted last year in pretty deep color blue.  She had white everything and was complaining her room was too white! 

MacKenzie...has vacillated from "green and black stripes" on her wall to multi-colored polka dots on her wall.  She has a few pink pieces so I'm trying to have her tie it into those colors.  I think we are going to go with an Aloha Hello Kitty theme in pink, browns and pops of lime green!!  Stay tuned...this you won't want to miss. Last time we went to the paint store she pulled a colonial blue, deep dark red and a forest green paint pallet together and a lady walked by and said to me, "I wouldn't be letting my daughter choose those colors for her room".  I did agree with her but hey lady, mind your own business!  So it will be interesting to see what we come up with! 

I know they all seem very similiar but they have small variations in them...I do hope I can color match them at Dunn Edwards so I can buy all our paint in one store...

Happy EASTER Everyone! Hope it is with your loved ones...

 
to Egg Hunts, Baskets with Chocolate Rabbits and eating CARROT CAKE!  

Waiting....

 
Did I ever tell you I'm impatient?  Well, I am!  Super impatient, it is not something I am known for around these parts.  So even though we have not been "technically" given the keys to "the cottage on Cullen St." I thought it would be fun to set up my white Adirondack chair {from World Market, which I got on sale last year at the end of the season} with a cute little ivy plant that is potted in a planter from the Rose Bowl Flea Market so I could sneak over there and sip my coffee on the porch "dreaming" of decorating ideas for my li'l house to be.  I even have an extra coffee maker inside, shhhh If I need a refill.   Well.....I thought it was a good idea.  Well, my real estate agent not so much.   She was driving by and it caught her eye and text-ed me right away and told me I had to remove my chair!...What!!   I thought it might look like someone lives there and be a good thing as Martha says.  So I did....as we await the small technicality of the DEED getting sent to the lender so we can move forward.  Our lender was hoping to close earlier then the Cinco de Mayo deadline....

We have Spring Break this week and it would of been perfect to get inside and start painting and refinishing the hardwood floors.  So we wait.......did I tell you that I'm not very patient...oh I did!  

Babbling....about packing and refinishing hardwood floors

Remember this post?  I thought I was a bit crazy going up to that house and asking if they wanted to sell....the funny thing is we will be living down the street from that cute creamy white cottage.  I've started all my packing...actually the girls last week begged and begged me to get boxes so they could start. {Mr. Incredible was a bit apprehensive, thinking we'd jinx ourselves} I saw that they had all their clothes folded and lined up ready to be packed...I had to remind them that they DO have to wear clothes to school...can't go to school naked..they would be breaking DRESS CODE! 

So begins the process.....of moving

 
so very exciting but  A LOT of work....I have soooo much stuff.....it seems I'm a bit paralyzed in getting started.   So while we wait to get  the keys it's a packing we will do.  But as soon as we get those keys we are going to have the hardwood floors all refinished.  Did I tell you that the WHOLE dang house is hardwood floors EVEN the kitchen...yea me!!!  So what color should we re-stain them?   Hmmmm? 

 
a honey color like this?

 
or a bit more darker.....like this?

 

this looks like it has been taken to the natural wood without a sealer on it.

 
Or going this very dark will make my white furniture pop?  I hear you see all the lint and dust with real dark floors.....something to ponder but I think they look gorgeous!

  or do blonds have more fun?   
this is sort of a grayish natural wood, also looks like no sealer or polyurethane.

 

 These are what the floors look like in the house...not the best of shape...

Swimming....

My head is swimming with ideas...for the new home. 

 

 

I have always loved a white on white color palette but since most of the rooms we have lived in for the past 6 years are painted "cottage white" by Dunn Edwards, I'm thinking I'd like to go with some soft neutral colors on the walls for a change. I've been keeping a diary of wall colors in my "keep calm and carry on notebook" and I jot the paint colors I come across when it is posted on someone's blog or noted on the magazine articles.

 

or celedon with cream and pops of brights here and there?
 
or with lots of fun cheery colors......oh my!

 

Khaki walls with red accents...red has always been a favorite but I'm leaning away from it these days...
 

but at the end of the day...this is the look I think I'll be striving for...this ITILLDO  me!
Lots of texture, wicker, the aquas, casual beach chic.....

 
with a shingled little porch to match.....