House Tour – outside

If you wondered why I chose the blog name – now you know.  My house is very, very yellow.  But it’s got some personality.  You can see the climbing roses by the trellis over the window, that gets really bushy in summer.  I also like the little frilly details on the porch (I can’t remember what it is really called, help me out).

Once upon a time this was the front door.  Now it is a windowbox to temporarily hold plants until I kill them.

Yep, that is our bright red detached garage.  A big magnolia tree is encroaching on its space.

Coming through the little gate between the house and garage is our back yard.  Don’t mind the hay bale targets, we were shooting arrows at it.  Can you tell I took these photos in October?  The leaves might give it away.

View of the backyard from the opposite corner.

In addition to the one-car garage, we have a cute matching garden shed.

Our back patio with the sliding doors going leading to the kitchen.  That takes you basically all the way around the house.  Hopefully I can do more garden/yard photos one day when I am not ashamed of my yard and when there is more stuff to look at.

White + Bright

Sometimes I can’t figure out what my ideal style is, but these places are what get me most giddy. I have a pattern of pinning (and pining for) a bright white space with small hits of colors shining happily.  I refuse to say “pop of color”.  Woops, there it is.  Well I will try my best not to let it happen again.

First we’ll visit Yvestown, the home of Yvonne in Belgium.

Yes, it is super adorable.  Can you believe a boy lives here with all the pink?  He doesn’t even mind.

Yvonne has an amazing eye for styling – its one of those places where it is hard to believe real people live here, but they do.  I love the baby pinks and blue, seafoam green, and guest starring reds.  Yvonne went white all the way with the painted floorboards.  I don’t think I could do that in real life, I would constantly be plagued by muddy dogprints.  But I can admire and envy.  Check out her blog (linked above) for even more sweet pastel goodness.

We’ll stay in Europe for this  “tin chapel” in Faversham, Kent (jolly old England).  It was lovingly converted into a modern home by artist Nick Kenny.

Yes, I spy a white slip-covered sofa and chippy white mix-matched chairs.  The gothic windows win for best actress in a lead.  Nick smartly highlighted the architectural elements by painting them a soft blue-gray.

The excerpt from Sonnet 18 by one William Shakespeare is quite perfect.  Moving on…

We’ll head back to California, USA for a (re) visit to my favorite AT house tour ever, Alisha’s Bright White Guest Cottage.

Best support actors:  colorful dishes, textiles, art.

This one hits me just right by getting a little more bohemian with the printed textiles and embroidered bedcoverings while still staying dominated by white.

So maybe I could call my ideal style “white w/splashes of happy colors in the form of eclectic boho textiles & vintage cottage housewares”.  That is way too many words.  But all of those words belong.  I’ll figure it out one day when my dream of my own AT tour comes true.

House Tour – the boy’s bathroom

So we’ve got 2 full bathrooms in the house, the pretty one is mine and the other still very nice one is Chris’s.  Its not big, and the tub/ shower combo is difficult to step in and out of in my opinion, but it has some nice little features.  The rag rug is from World Market and ties in pretty nicely with the art on the wall.

The previous owners left this little piece of furniture, which is handy as there isn’t much storage in here.

The clock was a wedding gift.  I think a clock in the bathroom is a necessity.  Its easy to lose track of time while I am admiring myself in the mirror.

I think I got the soap dispenser at Target.  The faucet is the same retro Kohler design with the hot, cold, waste labels as I have in my bathroom.  You can admire the granite here too.

Chris hung this poster up, it adds some color to the khaki walls and white floors.   He realized afterwards that the swirling whirlpool print hanging over the toilet has a certain humor to it.

The beadboard on this bump-out is a cute touch.  It is actually the back end of a broom closet on the other side of the wall.  The little soap dishes with the toothbrush holders built in are cute too.

So there it is, bathroom numero dos.

Kilim. the oldest next big thing.

I’ve been noticing these guys popping up in house tours.  What is kilim anyway?

I found a whole website dedicated to the art and history of kilim weaving, which has the predictable name of www.kilim.com.  According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition, kilim is “A pileless handwoven reversible rug or covering made in Turkey, the Caucasus, Iran, and western Turkestan“.  The tradition goes back forever, as best they can tell, or about 1,000 B.C. if you feel the need to put a number on it.  Check out kilim.com for all that you ever wanted to know and more about this weaving style.

The geometric shapes work well with the clean lines of contemporary furniture, but the tribal patterns and rougher texture add a contrasting rustic quality.  Like anything that’s been around for a few thousand years, its a pretty good bet that these will always be in style, so they’re a smart long term investment.  The kilim designs also pull their weight in the color and pattern department, as all good accessories should.

So where can you find some this Central Asian design goodness for yourself?  Morgan at the brick house recommends eBay, as that’s where she found her sumptuous pile in the first photo.  Sure enough, there’s plenty of gorgeousness to be had there, though the prices are suspiciously low.  Etsy has a healthy amount of vintage kilim rugs and etc, at higher but likely more ethical prices.  I was eyeballing prices the other day and found this gem:

It was gone by the time I went back to look for it.  I like the blue in it, as most are dominated by reds and neutrals.

This one is from orientina on Etsy, straight from Istanbul.

This is from KilimCom on Etsy… you’ll see that the prices for the rugs are high, so if I jump on this I’ll be sticking with the throw pillows where my wallet is a little more at ease.

Anybody else feeling like going a little tribal with some throw pillows?  Or are you ready to invest in a long-term commitment rug?

Nifty Gifty-s

Did you get any home-y things for Christmas? I saw this throw pillow on Emily Henderson’s blog and entered to win it. Of course I didn’t, so I told my brother to get it for me for Christmas. He is so obedient.  Land’s End has it on mega-sale right now too!

The pattern seems vaguely Japanese to me – you know, like those repeating wi-fi signals.  Or like this (lifted from ineednicethings.com):

I digress.  Here’s another shot of the pillow working its magic on the futon.  He is nice and fluffy too, so good for squishing on if I can bear to risk it.  The husband thinks my desire for pillows is silly, as they are largely decorative.  Then he gets huffy when I squawk at him for leaning on them in an inappropriate manner, leaving them deformed and squashed.  So it goes.

Moving on.  I’ve been collecting depression glass for a little while to satisfy my irrational lust for pretty colored glass.  My mom has found me these little treasures.

Its just a little coffee creamer, but I think it deserves to look larger than life.  See how nice this photo is?  Yeah, Chris got me a new point-n-shoot camera for Christmas that is making a good impression so far.

And a schmancy candlestick.  Speaking of candles… I found something I couldn’t resist while pre-holiday shopping at Target.

Its faux mercury glass votives, and only $3 each, I couldn’t resist.  I did resist buying all the ones left on the shelf (they’re on sale?!  must snatch them all!!) because really, they aren’t necessary in life.  After all, I only want them in the first place because Pottery Barn decided they were the next big thing in shabby chic.  If you’re curious what mercury glass even is, look what Wikipedia has to say.

They are way, way better than my attempt (failure) to follow a tutorial for faking them.  They seem to have a warm golden glow rather than a pewtery silver finish.

So those were my little Christmas gift to me.  I’m sooooo happy!

If you’re feeling the post-holiday blahs rather than New Year’s motivation (and you’re in a place where you can watch a video) go here and pay close attention to the HD monitor.  You should laugh a lot if you are the type of person who likes humorous things.

House Tour – living room

Its small, but its ours.

The old chair holding the lamp is a new addition.  A side table felt too bulky, so I’m trying out the chair thing.  We’ve got nice overhead recessed lighting with a dimmer, so lamps aren’t really necessary, but they add a nice vibe.

The Ikea screens are hiding our TV (shhh, don’t tell).  I’ve been switching out the stuff on the shelves and on top of the console, so various picture frames and candles are always migrating.

The window seat is where the animals like to sit and look out at the world.  I’ve got plans for some simple changes in here that I hope will make a big impact.  One of them is in the mail on its way to me right now…

As a side note, I vegged out over Christmas, but I’m back!  And now I’m surprised at how cruddy these photos are… yeah, more technical difficulties (my computer ate corrupted some of the other photos).  But things are looking up and there will definitely be more living room changes in the new year.