LIVING ROOM TOUR

Welcome to our living room! I am really proud of what we've done working with what we already had or got for free, but one day-- this will be the "before" shot.

All of the furniture was either given to us or inherited from family except the dresser that is now our TV stand, which was part of Brooke's old bedroom set. We only purchased accessories, including all the pillows, the rugs, a thrifted lamp, a lampshade, some pretty potpourri (that inspired our color scheme), Ikea curtains, and those little trinket boxes on the coffee table! Oh, and a slip cover for the sofa -- beneath, it is upholstered in a striped navy, yellow, & red fabric that is such an eyesore when the slipcover rises up ;) So I guess-timate we spent less than $300 on everything.



Please ignore the dining room that you can see from this angle -- it is a work in progress for sure!



I would absolutely love to paint the walls a brighter color! Both Brooke & I are fans of white walls, we just aren't fans of painting.

As for our color scheme, we were wondering: do these colors really match? Do they actually go together? Green, orange, & pink? Then we were walking down the aisles at Target and found potpourri that had all those colors, so we decided they must! ;)



What color scheme do you have in your living room? Any plans to paint or re-decorate? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below :)

BEDROOM BLUES

So, I'm moving out of the  bedroom blues  and learning to love my decision to paint my room gray. I'm dreaming of a gray, navy, purple, and bronze scheme. Reference below. And by the way, why are faux floral arrangements SO pricey? Like, the ones in that picture cost nearly $500! WHAT?!



I used to think fake flowers were so eighties.. or just, dusty. Not modern and not cute like our mothers thought they were. And flowers are missing from my life -- particularly fresh ones. It's feel so important and romantic when they're around! I can invite people over & they'll see them, and I'll explain how I peddled on my bike to the local farmers market and bought this organic bouquet to brighten up my cozy loft apartment. Except the reality is I browsed the refrigerator of bouquets at my local grocery store, and all I came up with were fluorescent gerbera daisies...

oh.

So now I understand the importance of fake flowers.

DECORATOR'S REMORSE

At my job, I get to see a lot of people's homes. I see big homes, small homes, messy homes, clean homes. I see homes by Kirkland, homes by Pier 1, and homes by brand names I can't pronounce, much less afford! You'd think after all the homes I've seen, I'd have come up with some good ideas of my own.

But no.

My  decorator's remorse  is inevitable. A trip to the hardware store & two coats of paint. Such is the length of my commitment to a color scheme, and I'm blaming Pinterest. Someone ought to be blamed for my indecisiveness. What's the first website I turn to for inspiration and ideas?  To which website did I pin 20,000 images to a B E D R O O M S  board and no two have a single pillow case in common? Which website is responsible for the chevron pandemic of 2010? How about for taking C.S. Lewis quotes out of context as the basis for hipster religion? Maybe that's a different topic, but you get the point.

That's right. PINTEREST. I love it & hate it; don't you?

Pinterest often robs me of my originality & creativity! I'm too busy staring at a screen admiring other people's homes and not busy enough actually living in my own. I love creating, and I want to create a home that is true to myself. That means it will never be perfect, and it will never be finished, and I'm okay with that.

And I know, I know. You saw a great quote on Pinterest the other day that more beautifully articulates what I just said.  ;)

End rant.

HONEYSUCKLE WAY

About a year ago, I put a contract in on my first home! I'm not married & don't have any kids, so it was a big milestone for me. I remember going several times to look at my empty place, imagining with my sister (& roomie) all the things we could do & how beautiful it would look. It was CLEAN, had new laminate wood flooring, and was painted neutral throughout: a perfect blank canvas. We talked about the furniture we owned or had acquired, where it would go, what we needed to buy still.. I imagined how clean we would keep it. I imagined all the classy dinner parties we'd host. Even though it looked the same as all the others on the outside (just with different cars covering the front porch), I knew ours would be 1000x's more fabulous inside!

Fast forward 10-ish months: this place is looking only slightly better than a college dorm room. Ok, maybe it's a lot better than that.. but GEEZ, furnishing and decorating a home is expensive, and around here, we're livin' paycheck to paycheck! We have to work with what we already have. We're sucky at hanging things levelly. We are the epitome of DIY fails. I think we inherited our non-handiness from our dear ol' dad.

So what I'm saying is: this is an interior decorating blog written by a girl who isn't very good at interior decorating! I DO appreciate beautiful interiors; I SO appreciate them! As a child, my mother subscribed to House Beautiful and Veranda. I took Interior Design in high school. Back then, it all made sense because it was all pretend. Work with an imaginary $10,000 to design my dream bedroom? No problem! But this is the journey & the struggle & the triumphs of a young girl decorating on a budget.

Welcome to Honeysuckle Way!