Design Inspiration

Mary is hosting the Design Inspiration Carnival today. I'm looking forward to this and the glimpses into people's home for some fresh decorating ideas. It doesn't have to be magazine-like ideas (because mine certainly aren't) but just a fun way to share things we like about our homes.

We built our home in 2005. We didn't want to try at that point to choose colors for every room, so we went with one basic color for the walls throughout the entire house. If we wanted to paint one room later, we could. But, after being here almost 3 years, I have grown fonder of my paint choice each day! We used Benjamin Moore's "blanched almond" for the walls and "timid white" for the woodwork and ceilings.

I like to use the color black as an accent, wrought iron being my favorite way to tie that in.

Here are 2 inexpensive and simple plate racks next to a wall hanging that my mom made. I chose 4 plates that matched it and I interchange them for a fresh look every few months. The other 2 plates are red and purple. I do green and red at Christmastime, purple and yellow and Easter, and so on. Gives the kitchen a nice new feel.

Hanging above my cook top are these wrought iron trivets. I didn't buy them to use them this way, but I just love how it fills in this gap. And, they weren't a real expensive way to decorate.

One of my favorite pieces of furniture is this wood rack in our laundry room that a good friend built for us. Our laundry room is directly across from the garage - its the first thing you see when you walk in from the garage. I wanted something to hang coats on as well as to be used for storage. This fits the bill! I got the idea from a Pottery Barn catalog and Duane did a wonderful job!

To give the kids' bedrooms a "personality" with the same brown walls, we picked carpet to match quilts my mom made them. Here is Quintin's room, before last week's spring cleaning.

And here is how it looks after we've moved his furniture. (I'm taking the below picture standing in the corner where the quilt hangs.)
Here is Elle's room (taken before she officially moved into this room. The bed had been against a wall, but I didn't have any good pictures of the room that way.)
And here is her room after changing it around last week.
Colin's room hasn't had much of a chance to develop its personality yet. We chose carpet colors before we were even expecting baby #3, so we went with a nice soft green. I plan to have my mom pair that green with cream and some dark browns for his quilt (No rush mom, you can relax!!)

Hanging in Colin's room right now is a wall hanging my mom did when I was pregnant with Quintin. I hope you've enjoyed this little peek into home and maybe you even got some new ideas. If you haven't posted anything for this carnival, I hope you'll think again about doing something - I'd love to see your ideas too!

Have a blessed weekend!