Sexy Time

I am happy with the living room in my apartment, but my bedroom is not quite there yet.  The problem originates with the fact that I bought bedroom furniture with an eye for function and not style.  Ideally, it should be both.  You want something that serves its purpose but is also a reflection of how you want the room to look & feel.

I want my bedroom to feel warm and sexy. I found some inspiration at Elle Decor (of course! I love that magazine).

This bedroom feels tropical sexy to me, but only in an ideal world where I have a live-in house keeper.  Because that much white requires a lot of care.  I suppose that's what lends the room sexiness - it's breezy, yet luxurious.

 

What I love about this room is the combination of the very bright yellow with the stark metallics.  It feels very fresh and sophisticated.  The browns add warmth to the space.  It is a very NYC bedroom.

This room is very cozy, it does have a snooze factor to it (not the good kind of snooze), but the fireplace outweighs any blandness.  A roaring fire by the bed is the ultimate sexy.

I love, love, love this bedroom.  It is so young, fresh and colorful. The green tufted sofa adds some soft luxury to the room and the charcoal artwork adds a nice touch of edginess. I love the monogramming on the bedding.

How awesome is this room?  A bit over the top, yes; but a gigantic mirror as a headboard =  much sexiness. I love the bright red comfort and touch of zebra print on the bed.  I am not sure what's the thing at the top of the mirror.  It could be a projector or a lamp... hmmm.  I am also digging the nude artwork.  ;-)

{Images via Elle Decor}

So much inspiration and so limited by budget.  *Sigh*

Week of Joy - Days Four and Five

The holidays and work (f-ing work!) interfered with my blog posts.  I want to quickly wrap up the posts I had planned last week for my Week of Joy, before the last post of 2010.




The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears or the sea.  - Isak Dinesen

I love the ocean.  I love that feeling when you walk into the ocean and the water wraps around your legs.   I credit the sea for healing many of my own heart aches.

{Images from my vacation in New Zealand}

I love the way the ocean changes color depending on the sun.  I could happily live the rest of my life by the sea.

A couple of bedrooms with an oceanic color palette.  The one below is very soothing with shades of gray and white.

I love the sparkle and green tones in this room:

{Images via Elle Decor}

Another thing that brings me great joy is travel.  I love to visit new places and I especially love the challenge of visiting places where I don't know the spoken language. The ironic thing in my life is that I used to travel a lot more when I had less money.  Now that I have a nice salary, I work too much and don't have as much free time to travel.  I think some adjustments for 2011 are in order.

A place I hold dear to my heart is a little town in central Mexico called San Miguel de Allende.
 I spent a few months here before moving to New Orleans for law school.  I was in search of guidance and healing.  I found it in this little town of cobblestone streets and colonial architecture. 

 This is the church that flanks the main courtyard in town.  It is a lovely soft pink color.  It kinda looks like a teenage girl's birthday cake and I love it for that reason.

I would spend hours strolling the streets and stepping into unexpected shops and art galleries.  San Miguel de Allende is a big artist's community and has many expats from all over the world. It give this little town a cosmopolitan edge.

I rented a little apartment with a rooftop terrace and this was the view.

For years, I would dream about San Miguel de Allende. I would dream (in that way where dreams don't follow logic or reason) that the town would search for me and ask me to return.  After a while those dreams stopped. 

I think a return trip is in order for 2011. 

Week of Joy - Day Two

Friendship.  There are two quotes I read recently about friendship that I have been mulling over:

"My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me."
- Henry Ford 

 As I get older and as my friendships deepen with certain people and fade with others, I am struck by the truth of that quote.   

 Nothing like a cozy nook with deep armchairs & an ottoman to inspire conversation (and gossip!) among friends. 

This next quote is not only funny - but rings true to me in its humor. Although I think you need a certain level of self-awareness to appreciate that sentiment. ;-)


"A true friend stabs you in the front."
- Oscar Wilde 

 To me, a true friend is someone who can celebrate with you in good times and can kindly call your attention when you need a swift kick in the ass.

This living room is designed for conversation.  There is no television, no other distraction - just seating for your friends.  How awesome is that baby picture above the mantel?

I am very grateful for the friendships in my life and intend to do my best to show them my love and appreciation this upcoming year.   Now if I were to design a room for my friend and loyal blog reader Penguin, to me this living room just feels like her.  The soft colored walls, the paneling contrasted with the graphic curtains and modern light fixture =  it all seems very sweet but with a flirty edge.

Except I would replace the coffee table & throw rug above with this:

 {All images above and below via Lonny Magazine}

 
For my friend A, I would design a guest room or informal living room in her house like this:

Perfect for when your girlfriend wants to dish about the new man in her life.  She can lounge on the daybed and tell the story to her girlfriends sitting nearby. How awesome is the gold on the ceiling?  And those lamps?!  This room feels eclectic and like a place you want to linger, which I think is very much like my friend A.  It's a place where you can tell someone your life story ;).

I love you girls. xoxoxo  Am I totally off base on the rooms I think are you?

Week of Joy

I heard some sad news regarding an incident in my apartment building on Saturday.  I won't go into details, this is not the time or place and it is not my story to tell.  Sometimes people can be overwhelmed with pain and grief to the point that it casts an impossibly dark shadow over everything.

This week, I want to focus on the things in life that are good and joyful. This is my (very) small part in spreading some light.  In the process, I want to remind myself of the things in my own life that are beautiful and joyful & for which I am grateful. 

My dog.

Look at that face!  My dog is a source of constant entertainment.  She is a clown, a soap opera actress and and a snuggle monster all rolled into one. I never feel alone when she is with me - everywhere I go with her, people stop to talk to her.


She helps me overcome my natural inclination to be reserved.  She loves to say hello to anyone and everyone that crosses her path. There is not one shy bone in her body.  She makes my life sunny and bright and sooo much fun.

If I had to design a bedroom to match my dog's personality, I think this would be it:

{Image via Lonny Magazine}

Zebra printed walls (b/c she is a little punk rock), polka dots on her duvet (b/c she is a little wacky) and an outrageous, tufted, tall white uphostered headboard (b/c she is a drama queen).  Call me crazy - but this room is all her and I love it for that reason.

Alternative Headboards

A friend's interior decor project sparked me to research alternative and cheap ways to create a headboard. 

1.  Camila over at Effortless Style has an easy to follow tutorial on how to create a 3 panel headboard like this one:

2. I found this awesome graphic decal that can substitute for a headboard at blik. It comes in a variety of colors but this hot pink one is awesome.

3.   Better Homes and Gardens has a feature on cheap & chic headboards.  Including this cute canopy:

and this adorable headboard made from a salvaged chain link fence:

4.  Over at Budget Wise Home I found this - curtains used as an alternative headboard:

So many creative ideas! So many ways to stretch your budget & still make your home a special place!

Pretty Bedrooms

House Beautiful is one of my favorite magazines and they have a great online library of pictures & articles you can use for inspiration.  They currently have an article called 12 Romantic Bedrooms and there a few bedrooms I really like:

I wouldn't decorate my master bedroom this way, I think master bedrooms should be equal parts feminine & masculine (in my humble opinion).  But I think this would make a beautiful guest bedroom:

 I love the upholstered headboard and how the stools at the foot of the bed coordinate but don't exactly match the headboard. I also love the simple bedding.


I would have killed to have this bedroom when I was a teenage girl. I love the understated canopy (well, as understated as a canopy can be), the sunburst mirror and the pink tuxedo sofa tucked under a window.  AND the swatch of pink on the ceiling = girly perfection.  Again I love the simple bedding.

 Mercifully I am not a teenage girl anymore, but if I was - I would love to re-create this look.

Lavender is a very soothing color and I have been told that painting bedroom walls this color helps people relax and unwind.  Unfortunately for me, an ex-boyfriend of mine had hideous purple walls in his bedroom. Hideous.  Since then, I have stayed away from shades of purple on walls.  But this bedroom has me thinking twice.

 I love the headboard: it is made of rustic materials, but has feminine gracious lines.  I love the petite nightstand and table lamp.

I'm not sure how I feel about this bedroom.  At first glance, I really like it.  But then... is it too old (lady-ish)?  Pending a final verdict, I added it to my list because it is interesting and it makes an impact.