best bunk rooms EVER!

Remember when you were a kid and the only person you knew who snored was your Dad and your grandpa? (like a jack hammer, right?)  Certainly none of your kid friends- they would be laughed out of their sleeping bag at slumber parties (tough to be a kid!).  Remember staying up late at sleepovers? When people finally started falling asleep there was no doubt you’d sleep like a rock until the first giggle of the morning. Even if you were sleeping on the floor with just a sleeping bag- you slept like a rock.  Now a good night sleep is just about the best thing you could wish for.  And by the way, when does the snoring start (being an adult is so unfair)?  Step back in time with me as you look at these pictures (sorry for so many but how do you leave any of these out?). 

(Coastal Living)

(inside and out)

(willow decor)

(Emily Jenkins followill + folder of ideas.com)

(Southern Accents)

(Coastal Living)

(Rod Mickley)

(Traditional Home)

(Traditional Home)

(Country Living)

(Apartment Therapy)

I have a tough time romancing the idea of a sleep over on the floor (I can’t go that far back!!!).  However, I don’t have a single problem dreaming about a super fun slumber party in these totally fabulous rooms.

Oh to be a kid again!

The Big Reveal!

So here it is, my daughter Tyber is 10 years old – wow, the big double digit!  I think you all may remember (from Monday) the picture of Tyber’s old room.  Here it is below:

So girlie!!!  Well my girlie girl got a new room redo for her 10th birthday.  She asked for tonal cream and white with accents of silver.  She wanted traditional mixed with contemporary and a little ethnic for good measure.  This is what she got today:

Charli and Bella have a new hang out place!

It’s so much better then our room my husband Kevin is threatening to move in - maybe this will be the new punishment to pull out when bad behavior is looming.

Mom, no more pink!

My Daughter is turning 10 (yeah OMG!!!) and for her birthday she wanted a room redo, OK- that I can handle.  She currently has an over the top girlie pink and green room- see below:

Her room has looked like this since she was born, I’ve gotten ten great years out of this room.  When she was younger she LOVED it and certainly everyone who sees it falls in love and wants to be a little girl again for a few minutes (ok- so most of the men who see it don’t have that reaction- or maybe they do… hmmmmmmm). But at ten years old- “pink is so not cool anymore”- she is “so over it!”  My little girl who was such a girlie girl is now 10 going on 25.  She designed the new room’s color scheme as “tonal creams and whites with accents of silver”- holy shmoly who’s kid is this???  Ok- so at least she has not asked for a cave with a black light and Zeppelin posters, although maybe that's next.  She has designed a tranquil, sophisticated room with a very eclectic mix of traditional, contemporary and ethnic.  We are half done with the room and will show pictures on the blog in a week when it’s finished, as long as my husband and I can put in the extra 5 hours of work a night to get it done by then.  Stay tuned this week as I examine kid’s rooms, pink as it pertains to adults and the finale- the finished room!

White Ceiling Beware!

Some call it the ceiling, and some the fifth wall.  Thinking about the ceiling as a fifth wall encourages you to consider it in a decorative way.  Why not?  Who else is sick of boring ceiling white?  Oh me, me, me!  This is not a new concept, Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel from 1508-1512. 

Now that may, of course, be too much for some people to tackle.  Let’s look at a simpler variety of ceiling paint.

My friend Carol has a deeper version of this sky in her kitchen and no one walks into that room without gasping in appreciation at the gorgeous and fun ceiling.  Yet still some may still want an even simpler approach- say a solid color.

(Melissa Gulley Style)
Above is actually a picture of the family room in my last house.  Let me tell you, the ceiling made the room so warm and fun - it changed the feeling of the room entirely.

(apartment therapy blog)

The above all white rooms get a huge boost of character with the red and orange ceilings.

(Sherrill Canet)

Dining spaces, like the two pictures above, are a great place to play with color on the ceiling.  People are so absorbed in what’s happening at eye level while eating, that this can provide just a pop of the unexpected.  It pulls the eye up so one can appreciate the entire space.

 

(House Beautiful)                                                      (Inspiration for Decoration Blog)

Often people want the feeling of outdoors- a blue sky has a wonderful effect on people’s moods, so why not steal a little of that for the indoors?

(making arrangements blog)                                         (Melissa Gulley Style)

This incredible porch (below) is from the amazingly talented Amanda Nesbit.  We have all seen the aqua painted ceilings in porches - well, Mrs. Nesbit took it up a notch with this fabulous purple.  Do you know why porch ceilings were painted blue like the sky?  I didn't either, until my contractor and old house buff told me.  It was to fool the spiders into thinking it was the sky so they wouldn't settle there.  Hmmmmm, not sure spiders can even see color? 

Color

To me experiencing color can literally change my mood, my day and inspire my thoughts.  The idea that by giving my house “flow” and “continuity” might require me to have an overall color and style theme connecting all the rooms is such a kill joy!  Sometimes I need warm and cozy, or fun and wacky, or serene and tranquil all in the same house and all within the same day. 
Wake up to sunny and pretty:

Make the kids lunch and eat breakfast in sunny, uncluttered and clean:

Go to work in exciting and vivid:

OR

Then come home, Pour a glass of wine, read a magazine, open mail and return emails on the laptop in warm, familiar and sophisticated:

Homework with the kids and dinner in warm cozy and casual:

Kids in bed, watch your favorite TV show with Hubby, just before retiring for the night:

Then so sleepy you go to bed in the coziest bedroom ever:

Now how you go to sleep in dark, warm and cozy but wake up in Sunny and pretty………….well that’s why you hire a designer!