TODAYS COLOR: WHITE

Elle Decor
Emerald Design
Design Crisis & Sikamo

Interior Gallery Design
Elle Decor
Home Dit

EXPEDIT BOOKCASE

The Expedit bookcase from IKEA is one of my favorite bookcases EVER! It works in all rooms and can be used in so many different ways! Funny thing is,...I DON'T HAVE ONE!!! Instead I just enjoy looking at images of the bookcase in others homes...
The Story Of Home
The Sassy Kathy & Olive & A

Arizona Inetgiant
Decor Pad
Chaplank
Why don't I have an Expedit? I didn't want to move it across the country! I am waiting till we buy our next house!!!
See my other Expedit posts {HERE}
Look at Expedit Bookcases on IKEA's website {HERE}

My Dollhouse Project

After thinking about it and thinking about it, I broke down and bought a dollhouse. I have always wanted to build and decorate one. I figured with the cold winter months approaching it would be a good project for me. I knew with the "I'm A Giant Challenge" going on, it would just make me want to do it even more. I headed to Hobby Lobby and purchased this house...
The Vermont Farmhouse Jr Dollhouse
It is not my first choice of course. If I could have any house it would be an ultra modern one. Most of the contemporary houses are very expensive though and I wasn't even sure if this was a project I would stick with. When I asked Cody about maybe just building one for me, he looked at me like I had two heads. We don't have the tools or space for that right now! Here is my favorite dollhouse I found on the web...
The Ultra Modern

It is sold out of course! It looks like a house I would live in! If I stick with this new found hobby, my next house will have to be a modern one. For now I focus on my cute little farmhouse. The first few days were spent painting everything with primer. (I still have tons of priming to do!) The house came with finished wood flooring...I decided to paint the floors white. I love painted white floors in real homes, so my dollhouse had to have white floors! I have no idea what I am doing since this whole dollhouse thing is new to me. I searched for hours online looking for inspiration. I found a website with a tutorial for building furniture out of cardboard. I decided to attempt it...
My couches are on the bigger size. I pretty much designed them with the Lounge Sofa from Crate & Barrel in mind. I purchased gray corduroy fabric from JoAnn's and spent about 3 hours trying to get the sofa right. The problem was I don't like to follow directions and I tried to do it my own way. The couch and chair I made turned out okay. I can definitely tell this was my first attempt. All I see are my mistakes...They are cute though and work for now. My goal is to make as much of the furniture as possible. Yes, I could buy all kinds of awesome stuff online. I rather make things myself then drop tons of cash. The selection of doll furniture is very limited where I live. I will have to purchase many things online, or make them myself. I decided on chevron painted walls in the living room because I have always wanted a "real life" room painted this way. Since I have been living in apartments for awhile now, it makes it hard for me to do all these crazy things I envision. This is why this dollhouse project is fun for me. It is a great creative outlet. I have a lot of work ahead of me. Here is all I have done right now...I have to paint all the trim and the outside of the house still. I may try to work on all that before I decorate anymore of the interior. I plan to paint the exterior of the house a cheery yellow color! Stay tuned...

TODAYS COLOR: GREEN

Titus 8
An American Housewife
Titus 8

BLOG LOVE - Vintage Revivals

A blog I stalk on a daily basis is Vintage Revivals written by Mandi. She turns thrift store finds into beautiful home decor. She is a stencil and spray paint queen! This is why I want a house so badly and not a stupid apartment where I can't paint! I want to do stuff like this...This amazing yellow and white wall is in Mandi's living room. She also revamped that buffet herself! She has so much great advise and tutorials on her blog for people like me, who honestly don't know what they are doing. You will find lots of inspiration on her blog and she is really funny. She recently did a Epic Room Makeover Giveaway, and Mandi went to the lucky winner's home and designed a wonderful room...She is so talented and really inspires me to "think outside the box" and shop at thrift stores more! I like the more personalized style for your home and not the store bought look! Go check out Mandi's blog for more inspiration!
(Images are from Mandi's blog)

My Living Room {A Work In Progress}

I hate posting pictures of my decorating when a room is not finished. Things have slowed down decorating wise for me though, so I figured I should reveal something. This is the living room currently. Here is the view as you walk into the living room from the front door...I really had no plan for this room when we moved in. I knew that my teal vintage chairs had to go in the room, because they didn't fit anywhere else in the apartment. We had no living room furniture at all and not a big budget! It all started with the huge ottoman we found at a thrift store... We used the ottoman for weeks as a couch as we searched thrift stores almost daily looking for a sofa! Evenutally we found our green beauty from a thrift store on the Air Force Base, which also meant it was FREE...The couch has grown on me. It's really comfy and the size is perfect for the room. I am not up for the challenge of reupholstering it, so the green has to work for now. I will however be recovering the ottoman with hot pink fabric and painting the wood frame white. I have no artwork for over the couch and my lamps are a little small for the space. I just have to use what I have for now though. I also decided to hang the vintage curtains I found in our living room. It really added some color on that wall...
The room has so much green and blue. Not what I planned at all. Once the ottoman is recovered though I think the look of the room will really change. I would love to get a huge shag rug to complete the room. Probably just white or cream. I know the dogs would love it! On the other side of the room is where I placed some of my IKEA bookcases...
Here you find more colors! This is also where most of our Vinylmation collection ended up. At first I just placed a few in the bookcases, then a few turned into a lot. I just really wanted to enjoy them daily. The bookcases are mainly full of photos, vases and my Marilyn Monroe books...
It took me probably a total of 5 hours to arrange everything in a way I loved. Arranging displays is one of my favorite things to do. I plan to post detailed pictures of my bookcase display later. For now I keep searching for artwork and pillows for the couch area...
I really want to add more pink to the room. (Poor Cody) I am open to suggestions for artwork over the couch. I think I will end up painting something on my own. I can never find anything I like in stores. I have ideas of course, but not sure what feels right yet. We'll see....