Small Space Big Style

As you all know, we have a small home. So whenever I come across an amazing house that is small on the square footage, but big on smile I do a happy dance! Because it seems like magazines only feature large homes, I consider anything over 1600sq ft big, since ours hovers in the 1000sq ft range. I guess in the 1950's in California, they just made-em small :) But were snug and happy in our little rancher and love our big backyard, so its all good and I hate cleaning so I think the smaller space is perfect us (at this moment) I did some digging around on the on Better Homes and Gardens to find pretty small living rooms, that I like. 


What I like about this small living room: Not afraid to use color on the drapes, light blue slip covered sofa. Moldings on the doorway make the room look larger, also hanging the curtains makes the ceiling appear larger. 

{ via BHG}

What I like about this small living room: The light paint color on the walls makes the room feel larger and keeps the nice sunlight in. Large fun artwork add a nice pop. The furniture is in a tailored style, yet relaxed. The room also has a little 'office space nook area' 

What I like about this small living room: I love all the detail in this spot in the living room, pretty artwork dramatic curtains and large accessories all work well in this living room.

{via BHG}

Ooh, look casings on the doorways. I'm just a tad bit in love with casings lately since we're in the process of adding them to our home. I like the mix of traditional style with fun modern touches. 

{via BHG}

Regardless of how many sq feet your home is, its all about making the space work for your needs, that's one lesson I've learned while slowly re-doing our home inch by inch.  

In your opinion, what is more difficult to decorate a living room space or large? In my opinion, I say small :)  lol But I will say, it can be very difficult to decorate a large living room and give it a cozy lived in feeling :) 

What have you done to create a cozy & inviting living room in (be it small or big) in your home? 

Built-in Bookcases

A few months one of my girlfriends mentioned to me, she's planning on adding built-in bookcases to her living room for more more storage for books, movies pretty much 'life stuff.' I loved her idea and started emailing her inspiration ideas, to come up with the perfect bookcase style for her home. Not too much later it dawned on me, that's what our living room needs! I started gathering ideas for 'our bookcase style.' 


I drew up some plan drafts on paper, then finally on the computer. Here's what I've come up with so far. The lower section of the bookcases would consist of cabinets. Which is the perfect spot to hide clutter: DVDs, DVD player, cable box etc. The top section would be a mix of long shelves and a middle section a spot for our TV. The TV would hang inside the bookcases / on the wall. I want to bookcases to be floor to ceiling, wall to wall. 

My bookcase plans are very rough, nothing is drawn to scale { right now } and no measurements have been taken { yet } But this is the overall idea of how we want them to look. We want the bookcase to be placed where our current TV and Ikea bookcases are now. It makes the most sense and its the perfect spot in our living room for them. I like the bookcases we purchased from Ikea awhile ago, however it just makes more sense to have built-in ones. I found the image below via Pinterest and love the simplicity and style of the bookcase. I want ours to feel clean lined and have faux feet, like in my sketch above and in the picture below. I think the chunky feet style really give the feeling of a more modern clean lined look.

{ via Pinterest }

Another example of how I want the feet to look on the bookcase. 

We decided to DIY our bookcases after seeing how amazing Sara via Russet Street Reno's turned out. Yup, Sara and her husband built the bookcases themselves! Lovely, huh! It really adds to much appeal and style in our 'Woman Cave' 

{ via Russet Street Reno }

Our plan is to do a mix of ready cabinets for the bottom bookcases { like Sara did } and the top make 3 - 4 long bookcases depending on measurements for the upper portion of the bookcases. My sketch below is an example of the individual upper bookcase unit we would build. Each bookcase portion then would be connected to the cabinets. 

After we tweak our plans to achieve exactly the style we want ( with measurements etc.) the next plan is pricing and cabinet shopping for the lower portion of the bookcases. We'll be doing a lot of price comparing to get the best deal. Here's a picture of in stock cabinets from Lowes 36x30

Here's a look at how our living room currently looks. Can you see my vision? Floor to ceiling bookcases with long thick shelves and a perfect spot for our TV to hang.

I'm really looking forward to this project and the amazing transformation of our our living once its completed. I know they'll be many hours of sanding, painting, cutting and screaming { me } But I can feel the end result will be amazing!


Can you picture it? 

Favorite 'Pins' Thus Far

I'm having a blast 'Pinning' so mo many pretty ideas for my home from decorating ideas, and sewing musts. I wanted to share with you all a few of my favorite Pins. I've been 'Pinning' a lot of built in bookcases, ideas I'm thinking about for our living room. I think built-ins would be perfect for our living room and provide so much additional storage not to mention more places for pretty things. 

{ via here }

I'm all about the floor to ceiling built in bookcases, with cabinets below and room for a flat screen is a must, I love the one below. Simply put floor to ceiling! 

I'm have a major crush on the bookcase below, I love the clean modern lines of each shelf nice and long. A nice twist on the conventional built in style. It feels so me. 

{ via here }

I've also been Pinning kitchens, since our kitchen update is in our very near future. 1st paint, then more cabinets and finally new counters, Hallelujah! The kitchen below is a great example of  using stock cabinets to create custom look. 

{ via here }

I'm also finding so many great crafting and sewing ideas, I can't wait to try out! i just need a quiet moment at home to whip out my sewing machine and get busy. I'm loving this idea for storing fabric, so clever! My little house doesn't have this much room, but I can make the baskets work in a closet { perhaps the sewing closet I want to work on still } on shelves to keep my fabric nice and tidy. I know my husband would appreciate it! lol 

{ via here }

I'm making a bunch of softies for Avery for Christmas and for some of my friends baby boys too! I'm planning on making Avery a cute cloud below, the ribbon makes it so darling. 

{ via here }

I'm sure you've all see this cute idea on Apartment Therapy. Super clever jar + plastic animal + glue + spray paint = fun way to keep the kiddos organized! I'm going to do a few jars for my tween, I know they make him smile and keep him organized. 

{ via here }

As I said before I'm loving Pinterest! All the ideas blow me away, especially the affordable ones { or ideas you can MAKE affordable } because being on a budget like our household is when decorating forces you get creative! If your on Pinterest follow me and include your link in the comments so I can follow you back :) 

What's your favorite thing(s) you've pinned lately?

Happy Pinning!

A few months ago after hearing about Pinterest, I deiced to joined sounded like fun, well it took me until yesterday to actually starting Pinning. For those of you who haven't heard of Pinterest here's the definition "Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes"

Even though I've only been using it for 24 hrs, I'm already in love. It's so much fun and a great way to find beautiful and creative ideas, and you can add follower other people and see what their pinning and vice versa. I love how collaborative it is, and the cool thing it it links back the site where the idea was originally pinned at, so you can get the in depth 'how to.' Since I'm a newbie I only have 4 boards: I Love Baby, My Style, Favorite Spaces & Places, My Style and For the Home. Here's a few things I've pinned so far.

Darling kids softie kids bowling set, via Anthropoligie. I really thing Avery needs these, don't you! 

Also from Anthropologie { oh how I love them! } I love this knob and think it might look super cute on out MCM Secretary desk, that's almost finished! :) It says 'Favorite Things to Keep Forever' 

I really really love cake stands, I've been drooling over this style that Martha Stewart & Rachel Ray both use on their shows. I need this jadeite cake stand in my life STAT. It would make a darling present to our kitchen, when its finally done. Yep, I'm a firm believer in gifted rooms goodies once they look pretty :) 

So if you haven't already joined, or on the fence about joining our just learning about go take a peek its a blast!! For those of you already on Pinterest, follow me and I can't wait to see all of your pretty Pinboards. Here's my link to Pinterest. I'm so excited about filling my boards up with pretty things :)

Oh and Happy Pinning! 

Are you on Pinterest? What Do you think about it? What's your link to your Pinterest? 

Thinking Out Loud

For the past few months I've been on the hunt for a vintage { yet safe } wood high chair for the little guy. I really love the idea on taking old stuff and making it new again and would love to do the same with a high chair. Even though there are some cool new high chairs out there, most seem big and bulky for our small dining room, so vintage mostly likely will be the way we go. I would love to paint the vintage wood high chair a fun color, maybe a shade of teal? Or just play it safe with white? I'm also liking the idea of painting it glossy grey. I also plan on making a thin seat cushion, instead of using regular fabric, I plan on using oil cloth - perfect for babies. The high chairs below is a perfect example of what I was thinking.

{ via I like It, I Love It }

 { via Drab to Fab }

Hopefully I'll be able to find a darling vintage one soon, after all Avery will be turning 4 months soon and a few months after that we'll be introducing solids. I do have a backup plan just in case I can't find a vintage safe wood chair to redo. Enter Ikea, they sale two wooden style high chairs that could work well. The Blames highchair has a great shape, I would love it in a glossy grey or white. 

The runner up if we go the Ikea route is the Gulliver, I would also love it glossy grey or glossy white. I like that this one pushes directly up to the table, making family dinners much easier. This one has a much wider bottom base, so I'm not sure if it would work for us.

Whatever route we end up going for the little guys highchair I'll for sure share.On my to do list this weekend finish up some misc. diy projects and stalk Craigslist for the vintage wood chair wish me luck!


What are your plans this weekend?

Bookmarked

I recently a did a little update to our living room, I sewed some new pillows, and added a new color scheme { navy's, greens & yellow } I'm loving the new colors and think its time to reconsider our curtains. Right now we have the Ikea White Vivain curtains hanging, which I've loved. But with our greige walls and white curtains, things can look a ho hum some days. Plus I love how dark brighter curtains look in rooms that gets a lot of natural light, just like Avery's nursery. I bookmarked a few ideas, and like the look of the solid curtains against light walls. 

Another idea I've been thinking about is patterned curtains, which would look good and add more color in our living room. I like that patterns add another layer of interest and almost feels like artwork on your windows.

Love this in progress picture from House Beautiful { here }

{ via here }

If we end up going with a solid color, I'm thinking navy linen will look nice. I like the look of linen, its pretty and light filtering. As soon as we decide I'll be ordering some fabric and making curtains. Here's a quick reminder of how our living room currently looks.

See, were in need of more color STAT.

What do you prefer white curtains, solid darker brighter curtains or patterned curtains? And Why?

Craving Yellow

It's no secret I love pops of yellow in my living room, lately I've been craving new yellow additions to our living room. With Spring finally appearing Northern California, I want to inject some fun new yellow fabric in our living room. I'm thinking of making some new lumbar pillow covers & and pillows for our sofa. 

{ via fabric.com }

{ via Calico Corners }

{ via Fabric.com }

I think my new love of pom poms is growing by the minute, I would love to add pom poms to our basic white IKEA curtains in the living room. Isn't this pretty!! I think this would add so much whimsy into our living room!! I'm not sure if the husband would agree :) 

{ via here } 

I think new pops of yellow will be entering our living room very soon. What colors are you currently craving for your home?

Oh Baby: Nurseries I Adore

Mr CLH & I are anxious to starting working the nursery! I hope to start sharing our plans for our little ones nursery next week & some projects I've been working on. We still have a few items to clean out of the room { and are waiting a pick up from Goodwill } Soon I'll have lots or pictures of the 'before space' to share. So for the time being I wanted to share a slew of nurseries I adore. These nurseries have truly inspired me.


I saw the nursery below on my favorite Canadian glossy home magazine, Style at Home. This nursery makes me smile! I adore the artichoke green fabric drapes and love how the dark curtain rod really sets the color off. I also love the wallpaper!! It so pretty and looks amazing in this little boys nurser. I love the designer (the mom) crated a nursery that's modern with classic touches. 

{ via Style at Home } 

The nursery below is darling, I love the soft grey and white stripes that loop around the room. I found this nursery while trolling around the net and am not sure where I found it. i think the color scheme in the room is so cute and the roman shades look great over the plantation shutters. I like how gender natural this room is and could easily be a girls room wit ha few swaps here and there.  

This nursery is so charming, and you can tell a lot of love was put into the room! I love the delicate mobile and the tall shelves that wrap around the room. The bedding is precious, I love dandelions and to see them on the   bedding is so sweet. 

Those three nurseries have give me so much inspiration the past few months!! I can't believe I just hit 24weeks { 6mos } wow time is flying by! No worries though, our very own project nursery will be soon :)

What style nursery do you prefer? Classic with touches of modern OR Modern All the Way?

The Painted Dresser

I've been lusting over the idea of painting a Craigslist { find } dresser a pretty color. In the past I've painted our buffet in our dining room and our bedroom dresser both white. Both turned our so nice, its hard to go wrong painting a vintage price white. I've gone bolder when painting chairs { the bold bright yellow one in our living room, and the pretty blue vintage chair } however, I've yet to paint a dresser a pretty color. I found some pretty dressers that have given me plenty of inspiration to paint a vintage dresser and turn into a pretty elegant modern piece. 


I love this green painted dresser, its classic lines look amazing in color.

{ via here }

This pale blue dresser looks classic and simple. I love the thick knobs and the little key holes peeking though on each drawer. 

{ via here } 

By now I'm sure most of you have seen the pink painted dresser Nicole from Making It Lovely did for her daughters nursery. Isn't just darling! She chose the perfect pink for the dresser and truly transformed it. 

{ via here }

Now I just need to find the perfect dresser to paint, or maybe give our buffet in our dinning room a little color makeover! With paint the possibilities are endless?


What;s the last painting project you tackled? Did you opt for color or played it safe?