Condo Blues: 11 Pretty Summer Things to Inspire Your Home Decor

Sunday, June 23, 2013

11 Pretty Summer Things to Inspire Your Home Decor

While running errands and being otherwise frazzled during one of those weeks, I needed a little Me Time to recharge my creative brain. One way I do that is to look at pretty home decor eye candy. 

That's how I found myself in Homegoods after buying dog food for Lacey. This isn't a sponsored post or ad or anything. It just so happens we buy Lacey's human grade ingredient and only full of good stuff  dog food at a regional pet store that just so happens to share a shopping center with a Marshall's/Homegoods and  sometimes eye candy drive bys happen.

Let's "shop" for home decor and DIY ideas and inspiration!

First up, are mint green shabby chic, pretend antique candle holders. One thing I like about this particular store (other than it is close to home) is they put together some since shelf displays in the dinnerware section. It is hard to tell from my cell phone photos, that the candleholders are displayed with the pseudo jadeite light green dishware and decor. The light green color is what makes this mismatch of items into a pretty display that works. This is something anyone can do to make what you already have look less of a hodge podge of stuff you have and like and more like a purposeful and spendy display of stuff you have and like for zero dollars. Not to mention the whole the greenest thing is to use what you already own thing.


I laugh to myself when I see a ready made knock off made to look like something a DIYer did or found in a antique/junk shop. Although I realize not that everyone has access to those real goodies or  time to redo them. A few fake goodies somehow have found their way into my house for the same reason.

When I saw the leopard print lounge 'chair' dog bed, I took a photo figuring I could make one for Lacey. Then I saw the stuffed and more comfortable-than-a-foam-rubber-chaise children's chairs.



I had a serious internal debate on buying a cutesy kid chair that doesn't coordinate with anything in my living room to use as a dog bed because I think it is a cute idea even if Lacey will ignore it because her favorite place to nap is on the sofa next to her people. 

Lacey's favorite sleeping spot is snuggled next to me. 
What kind of dog mom would I be to deny her this?

I could use either of these coffee tables as an idea to dress up the wood foot locker we've been using as a temporary (going on 8 years) coffee table in the living room



My favorite is the wire basket version although I can almost guarantee Lacey will find a way to get into the wire baskets. When Lacey wants attention, she finds and holds something of mine in her mouth in my eye line   so I will pay attention to her, even if it is for doing something she knows she shouldn't. It is funny and sad at the same time and it is something we are working on.  In the meantime, wall shelves and dog proof covered storage are a new priority.

These walls shelves made my trip worth it. The corbel like shelf brackets gave me the idea to use the corbels/shelves that weren't working in my Master Bath as over the door shelf brackets in the guest and master bathrooms out of things I already had at home.

Their shelves...





...inspired my over the door fence board shelf. Notice how I pulled the pink flamingos and beachy items I already had from different parts of the house and displayed them together for a cohesive look. Idea shopping pays!

Learn how I made a shelf with reclaimed fence boards here.

Speaking of storage, I'm on the hunt for ant proof containers to store flours in my kitchen. These glass containers remind me of Mason Jars. Too bad they aren't large enough to hold a bag of flour. Does anyone make a canister designed to hold an entire bag of flour, sugar, etc. for those of us with small kitchen?









I wish my photo could show off the deep, interesting colors of these sprinkles. The blue looks like vibrant glass crystals. The mutated metallic color of the red, white that looks like silver, and blue sprinkles was so different and I lusted stared  at them even though I bet those interesting colors are made with artificial dyes some of my little kid friends should not and cannot eat without a bad reaction. Oh well, at least it made it easy to leave them on the shelf. Now, if it was glitter (yeah I know glitter usually isn't eco friend either) in those cute old timeyish jars it might have been a different story...



Do you call these jimmies or sprinkles?



I turned the corner and found myself smack dab in the middle of color pallets slapped me in cerebral cortex. First off, I need storage. These cloth storage baskets should be easy to replicate or inspire something that works a little better for me. Second. the orange and purples pair nicely with the lime green (which is practically a neutral in my house) although I think all of these bright colors would be a bit much in one room, even a kid's room. The purple and brown is a nice option though. So are the other shades of green with either the orange or the purple or just using any of the other greens together could be interesting. I love how the white makes the oranges pop too.



Instead of buying all of this stuff, I'm going to print this photo and tack it to a bulletin board for color inspiration.

When I saw this big metal button and immediately thought of hanging it on the wall in my sewing room. 


Buttons!

I left it at the store. I'm not quite sure what I want to do the walls in craft room other than a wall of wraparound shelves I have cooking in my hot little brain. I figure if I want something like this for the craft room once I'm at the final hanging stuff on the wall stage, I can make something similar and most likely bigger from my plywood stash.

A few days later, I saw Mark Montano made a giant button from a Frisbee, which is much easier than what I envisioned doing with wood and a jigsaw.

I bet you could find enough Frisbees at your local thrift store
 to cover an entire wall in giant buttons!

I wonder if Mark goes inspiration shopping too. Do you?

Did you enjoy this post? Get more like it by subscribing to the Condo Blues RSS Feed or to Condo Blues by Email. Tags:

No comments :

Post a Comment

I love comments and read them all! If you’re shy and don’t want your opinions made public, you can always email me at condoblues [at] gmail [dot] com.