March 4, 2015

design disagreements

Our home renovation is trucking along and I'm loving it.  New kitchen cabinets have been ordered, a large opening has been created between the kitchen and the family room, all the trim has been painted and new hardwood floors are being installed.  I've only been over there once, but my mom and dad visit and send me updates occasionally.  I get so giddy to see the progress.

houseprogressMarch3

I'm hoping this weekend we will get to go and finalize the master bathroom design and finishes.  We also might try our hand at white washing the fireplace.  I don't want to paint it straight white, but the straight red brick just isn't working for me.  So I want to do a really really thin wash of white over it to tone down the red and help it blend in to my more neutral palette.

Now that the trim is painted we can get to work on doing the walls in the upstairs bedrooms.  I thought I'd be a good mom and include my kids in the design process as much as I could, but there is where we've run in to an issue.  When I asked Elsie what color she wanted her room, she quickly shouted "RED!"  Not exactly what I was wanting to hear.  As luck would have it, Ryann keeps requesting that I paint her walls purple.  Red and purple.  Quite possibly my two least favorite colors to design with.  In general I just find red too harsh.  And I think as a Jayhawk fan I just have this ingrained aversion to purple.  So I'm working on how to come to a compromise with their rooms.

For Elsie's room, I've actually become a little excited about the color scheme.  Along with red she requested pink.  Oh my little February baby, forever a Valentine!  Haha.  When I searched red and pink bedrooms on Pinterest I found this winner via 6th Street Design School.

 

Most of the main walls in our house are going to be varying shades of grey, so I was hoping to put some color on the walls in the kids room.  However I love how the bright colors of that room pop against the neutral walls.  I think the use of the red is just the right amount, and Kirsten was able to bring other colors into the room in fun ways.  Definitely a great jumping off point for me.  My plan is to use Ryann's pink upholstered headboard and probably her white comforter.  From there I'll add fun pillows, hopefully some DIY abstract art and who knows what else.

Ryann's room is a different story.  Right now we're leaning towards a coral, pink and purple color scheme.  I was imagining something like this:

ryannsroomcolorsMarch3

But Ryann isn't sold.  She wants a 'real purple'.  Apparently I picked a fake purple?  And she is seriously adamant that I paint the walls purple.  I have never in my life imagined painting any walls in my house purple.  But maybe I'll cave just for her.  Really I'd be alright painting one wall purple (but more of my version of purple!) but her room stumps me.  It has a long hallway leading in to it, and then the wall attached to that hallway is where the bed will go.  Usually I would imagine the bed wall as the feature wall, but I don't know how to deal with the hallway.

Oh life's dilemmas.  I'm sure we'll figure it out eventually.  Ryann's room will certainly need the most 'stuff'.  Most of her furniture is going to Elsie, and most of Elsie's will go to the nursery.  Speaking of the nursery, I'm not really sure what direction I want to go in there either.  I still love the dresser we have in Elsie's room, and it won't fit in her new room (color wise or size) so it will probably go to the baby.  But I don't think I want to stick with the same color scheme.  Here are a couple of rooms I've been loving lately:

nurseryinspirationMarch4
both via Apartment Therapy, here and here

I'm not sure what exactly draws me to them, but I just love them.  I'd look to incorporate a little black and white, and a lot of color.  The room on the right gives me hope that I can utilize Elsie's dresser while pulling in some other fun colors.  The only thing I'm slightly sad that I don't think I'll be reusing are Ryann's curtains (see them here).  They are just a little too pastel for what I'm going for.

I can't wait to see our house come together.  The design and decorating process will be long.  It has to be.  I don't want to rush just to get everything 'done'.  But I'm getting more and more excited the further we get!

4 comments:

Amy S said...

To refinish our fireplace, we used a kit called Brick Anew, and it works fantastically! We have used it twice, in two different houses. Might be worth checking out.

AllieInbetween said...

We went through a big home reno when we moved into our first house that involved white washing our wall-to-wall fireplace, and I love the result! It was cheaper than tearing the brick down, but brightens up the room a lot by having it be a lighter color.

Ashley Antkowiak said...

Love this! We are in the middle of renovating a house too. Im sticking with neutrals on walls and bringing color in with accessories. My girls will share a room so that will make it so they can both be happy. I might have fun with details like closet doors, etc. Basically anything that would be easy to change as their tastes change. Can't wait to see how yours turns out!

Lorin Jetter said...

I think Ryann's purple wall obsession might be sort of my fault! 🙈🙈 we talked in Georgia about the purple room I had growing up and how the walls were purple and so was everything else. My B!