Fireplace Finagling

Something is wrong with me.  This is my second post this week and it's only wednesday.  I suppose my priorities just might be all messed up this week;)  

I wanted to show you my sad attempt at trying to envision some plans for our fireplace. 

I know it's bad.. I can't bring myself to take the time to learn photoshop so it will have to do but it helps right?  I'm a very visual person and it makes me nervous to go throwing tile on a fireplace or playing with herringbone patterns and not know if I will like it or not.

Part of me wants to do some fun design in white trim above the mantle but we may do something like the herringbone pattern( on a smaller scale than my crummy pic) instead?

We have chosen this grey penny tile and gray slate trim to go around the fireplace opening.  

We were originally going to pick a slab of grey lueders stone for the hearth but decided it may look dingy against the white paint.  Soo....we are going to build a concrete hearth!  Yippe.  You may have seen the not so detailed post about how we did our concrete countertop 9 years ago in the first house?

Well we are going to play with concrete again!

 Below is the grey lueders with our tile selection.

After hubs built the new mantel and put it up temporarily we used blue tape to envision the outline of the tile.  See how the tape stops way above the floor?  The hearth will sit fairly high so we have an extra place to sit in the living room if need be.

After the sheetrockers came out to patch the holes from taking down our old rustic mantle we then painted the fireplace wall a bright white.

 Wanna see another look I'm thinking about?  Think stencil but a little more 3D.  Confused?  Me too..but I may just have to try a little something.  If I do I will show you if it is a success or not;)

So what do you think?  Again if we do the herringbone it will be smaller in scale and probably brighter white.  Either way...it will be something we can change in the future when we tire of it and you know what it?  It probably won't happen until things settle down after we move so I have time to play and think about it but it is nice to see it in a picture!

Wondering what's happening at the casa?  The stone work is finally all done.   I'll show you a pic on facebook later.  And...we are getting measured for countertops today!

What Inspires your Decorating?

Well if we are at a standstill in the construction process I might as well pretend to decorate right?

I believe this was a place setting at West Elm at one time.  I pinned this picture probably two years ago and it doesn't link directly to the source but I think I remember that is where it's from.  Anywho..When I saw it I instantly wanted to incorporate these colors and textures into the Jack n Jill bath at the new casa.

I love the different variations of green and the bright white with a little rustic wood thrown in.  

I want the kids bath to be playful but not too youthful.  Nothing is set in stone yet except the vanity...

The countertops will be Grey Expo from silestone.

The dark stained concrete floors...

And this fun West Elm light.

I'm going to bring in the wood tones with two mirrors in a shade and texture like this mirror that was super inexpensive at Garden Ridge.

Now for the fun stuff(the accessories)!

I love these green giraffe curtains as the shower curtain.  It's playful and that's where I want to go for the kiddos.

I fell hard for these animal hooks from anthropology a long time ago too.  I hope they still have them or I can at least find something similar and paint it white if need be.  I just picture 3 different animal heads holding the kids towels!  

This owl light switch cover resides at anthro too.  I'll admit I have never bought a thing at Anthropology because I'm a cheapo but I may have to splurge for these cuties.

I think they will add a perfect bit of whimsy to our fairly basic bathroom.

And although I'm tempted to do some super cute more childish art on the only wall that I have to decorate in the space I don't know if I can pass up this butterfly display.  

I think these Free Printable Butterflies that BHG.com featured would look awesome on the wall in the wet area(the shower and toilet are in their own little room). 

Now don't hold me to it but that is where my mind is right now and well really it has been for a while;) I suppose I could always move in and have a change of heart but I am still loving that place setting as inspiration!  My mission will have to be to find some mint green and other green tones to really follow through with it.  Have you ever been inspired but something like a place setting or something like it before?

Funky Friday Finds

Hey guys!  We interrupt the not so regularly scheduled posting about building a house for something a bit more wacky and fun.   After living in our rental for a year and a half and before that focusing on staging the house we sold I am chomping at the bit not to just move into the new house but to play with it! Every once in a while if I see a good deal on a pillow or a candle holder I will get it and set it aside in hopes that it will get used in the future.  So I have some fun stuff to pull out when we get there but I came across some fun stuff today and I have to share.  Now don't hold me to it but I'm thinking of starting a Funky Friday Finds series where I feature fun and maybe out of the box things to decorate with.  I LOVE the surprise element of decorating and have always had my eyes peeled for something "different" to put in a room so lets see what I can come up with on fridays.  You with me?

Today it's all about plants.  No matter what your taste or thumb color it is always nice to have a little green inside.  I think the more simple the better because it's hard enough to remember to water the potted plants outside and we try not to add anymore chores to our to do list these days.  That being said I think you can go simple but go fun!

Deck the Walls

She doesn't know it yet but I've wanted to do this for my friend/client Lori in a special place but now that she is moving to the Big D I may just have to do it at my house instead.  When you need to add some interest to the walls I think something like these succulents all framed up would be awesome mixed in with family pictures and nick nacky finds.

And...Hello cool with a K!  One letter or a whole word would we awesome almost anywhere.

I also love the simplicity of this air plant that you could either hang or sit on a table top as well.

How about these concrete planters for the wall?

These guys are actually the type of planters that I envisioned placing in graphic rows of 3 or 4 over Lori's fireplace(or mine;).

Want something even more funky for the wall? 

This planter made from bamboo and what I think are air plants would look great hung by itself,

used as a centerpiece or how about 3 of them hung on the wall together.  

O.k.  as I type I'm falling more in love with all of these and starting to thing I may go against my own rule of not having too many plants inside.

Oh and I can't resist these awesome reclaimed pillar post turned succulent wall art. I need these too.  I'm in trouble.  How do you decide when there is so much awesomeness?

 Contain the Fun

I don't think fun should be contained at all but let's   just step away from the standard clay or ceramic pot for a minute.  I  fell hard for these guys and could see myself going a little nuts for these unexpected and colorful friends.

Just look at him in all his orange glory!

Au Nature-al 

We can keep it natural all around and yet still be funky.  This grass in an eggshell would look good sitting absolutely anywhere, bookshelves, tables, bathrooms..whatever, where ever.  You just can't go wrong adding a touch of grass to a room.

 How about some air plants in urchins?  Yes please!  If you need some texture in a room here ya go!

 Show your interests

You can stick a plant in almost anything.

Wine enthusiast?  

Wouldn't that be a great gift for someone who is if your not?

Just have something to say?  Consider writing a little message on any potted plant.  Whether it be chalk or not you could do this on any simple pot but I do like the fun shape of this one.

You can't moss it up;)

Really you can't.  People have been decorating with moss forever.  Whether it's covering a wreath, a ball, a cardboard letter for your initials, you name it.  It always adds some fun color.  But lets make it a little funky now.

We can put it in a lightbulb and make your run of the mill terrarium a little more interesting.

These would look great on any shelf or nightstand.

Oh and these cuties had me at hello.  What an awesome and so simple centerpiece on your table or in the hubs office!  Guys need green pretty things to ya know.

The best part about all of these is we aren't talking about high priced items to add some spice to your home.  Many of these you could do yourself but most are all very reasonable and fun little quirks to add to life because let's face it life isn't quirky enough at times.  Here's hoping lots of not so funky stuff happens at the construction site this weekend and I can share some progress next week!

Details on a Whim

I'm excited to say I have a little more hope today!  I kid I kid...Yes we are absolutely ready to get this all over with and move in and on with our life but no I'm not totally hopeless. 

But....when there are crews working on the casa it does make me feel like someone slipped me a pill of relief. Even if it was just half of one I'll take it.

Lets start with a pic of the kitchen progress shall we?  Again another bad camera phone pic but you get the idea!

Yeah we finally got the pocket doors fully installed AND the sheetrock went up over them!  This is huge people!  Typically only one thing at a time happens over here and this was a biggie.  You see the kitchen cabinets couldn't be installed until that stinkin wall was done.  Oh but wait...remember our cabinet issue in the last post?  Well you may notice a few cabinets are now gone.  Since every cabinet except for the one in the kids bath was wrongo the cabinet guy agreed to fix what was absolutely necessary and not charge us the extra 1,700 that he had decided to charge from he original quote.  So although they aren't like the plans (that we paid someone to draw up so this wouldn't happen) we agreed to just move on because time is $$.  I'll share some of the details on how all that works in a later post. 

O.k.  The details...On a whim

Well I'm not an on the whim kinda girl when it comes to well anything.  So when hubs called me and said the sub called and there is an issue with the door frames and trim I knew I would have to get out there to actually see the issue and figure out what would be best.

So here was the problem.

It's not a huge deal right?  Ideally You would just go with bigger trim but that isn't in the budget and the subs already had all of this size trim ordered and with them.  

So the alternative that we came up with was to slide a piece of the same trim right in between the top and side trim.

Here is a side view that will make sense of all that trim speak.

Then I had to decide if I liked the look of the trim all lining up along the outside..

Or with a little 1/2 overlap on the sides?

We went with the overlap because it gives it almost a craftsman look and looks a little less like a spur of the moment fix like it was.

I think it looks pretty good actually and adds a nice detail.

Now look at how the other side of the kitchen looks!

This is from inside the playroom looking into the kitchen and laundry room there on the right.

It looks so different not having those big openings into the kitchen.

This was the before from a different angle.

 Here is another grainy before picture form the master bath.

After:  The pocket door is all closed in and your peering into what will soon be our messy closet.

Almost all of the trim is up at this point.  I think it will be done today!  

Below you'll see we decided to extend the trim 3" outside of each window.  We did this because someday we would like to place trim all the way around the windows and we didn't want to have to redo the window sills.

We have 5 or 5 1/2 inch baseboards(I can't believe I can't remember) and they just so happen to butt up right against the window sill in the dining area.  We decided to make the sills continuos under the windows here because if we ever do get around to adding trim around the windows it would have left this teeny tiny area of wall between the pieces. (does that make any sense?)  Anywho it would have been odd but now we can really beef up the trim around the windows some day.

You may notice there are lots of little areas that will need to be cleaned up and patched.  I've already had the blue tape out;)  If you have every bought a new house or built you know they hand you a roll of blue tape and have you mark any uh oh's you come across.

This is how the open doorways look all trimmed out.  Your getting a sneak peek of the cheap and yet adorable light I found for our teeny tiny hall into our  master bedroom.

And that folks is my thrown together post about the happenings so far this week and it's only Wednesday!  Oh and if you follow on facebook you've seen my Hallelujah  picture below...

We have an electric pole!!!!!!!!!  Can you imagine the excitement running through my bones when I can flip a switch and see the lights come on?

Thanks for giving a rip ;)