Cottage Blue Designs

This Year's Decorating Goals

2012-03-05T19:57:00.003-05:00

Hi friends,

Greetings from Columbia, South Carolina, where I am working this week. I talked to my husband on the phone earlier today and heard that our little guy bumped his head pretty hard at the playground this afternoon. He said there was a lot of blood! The mommy guilt is kicking in strongly right now. I wanted to jump in the car and drive home to give him a hug and a kiss from mommy. But, my husband told me not to, that all is alright and he has things under control which I am sure he does. But, still, there's something about momma's love.

Last week I shared with you the decorating projects that we've tackled in our new home that we've been in over the past year. You can read about it here if you missed it:

http://cottagebluedesigns.blogspot.com/2012/02/almost-year-in-review.html

Today I wanted to share what on our decorating "to do" list.

What we still want to do:

*Add pendant lights over the bar in the kitchen

*Replace huge bronze ceiling fan in master bedroom with beautiful light (here's the one I am thinking about: http://cottagebluedesigns.blogspot.com/2012/03/master-bedroom-decorating-plans.html

*Put up daughter's purple chandelier (we better do this ASAP because she's not going to want it much longer

*Paint upstairs hallway

*Paint kids' bathroom (Hubby did this yesterday! Can't wait to get home and see it! He said, "Be prepared for a bold color!")

*Paint my home office

*Paint guest room

*Redo daughter's bedroom

*Redo son's bedroom

*Backyard landscaping (Steve has many, many terrific ideas)

*Work on Steve's home office

*Replace porch lights

What we may do in the future (not sure yet):

Put french doors in the eat-in kitchen leading out to the deck
Add stone patio to backyard
Paint kitchen cabinets (that seems too scary)
Replace boring white garage doors with more interesting ones
Purchase outdoors sectional sofa for screened-in porch

Whewie! Those are some lists! It'll be fun to see what we do.

Happy decorating & living,

Megan

megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Freshening Up the Photos

2012-03-04T17:22:00.000-05:00

Hi friends,
Thanks for joining me today. How was your weekend?

Greetings from Columbia, South Carolina, where I am working this week. I am an educational consultant and I specialize in coaching elementary school teachers around the subject of mathematics. I teach courses and workshops as well also centered on what we know about how students learn mathematics best with real understanding.

I wanted to share with you some spicing it up that I did in our living room up over the weekend. I replaced three of our black and white photos in our living room. After adding the new photos I quickly realized that without meaning to do it, our family photo wall now has a theme. Most of the photos were taken at the beach with the exception of the few professional sitting shots. I didn't mean to do this but I guess it makes sense. I love the beach! My family spends a lot of time at the beach and some of our happiest memories are there. I love walking by our family photo wall and stopping for a minute to look at our pictures. It makes me smile!

Here are the 3 new photos:

Brayden, age 2 (I love his smile!)-

Bryce, age 5 (I love this sassy picture just like my girl!)-

Brayden, age 1 (You can't tell but the colors in this photo were great, lime green chair, bright green shirt, and blue shorts, he was a little chunkster in this one)-

Here are some of our older beach photos:

Steve & Bryce last spring-

Bryce & Brayden last spring-

The Brew Crew last spring-

Bryce, age 2 (when we were a family of 3)(this one doesn't belong with the others because it's sepia tone, I need to get a copy made in black and white soon)-

Here are some of our other photos on our family photo wall:

Steve as a baby-

Me as a toddler (I love this frame that I found in a shabby chic kind of store with a print in it)-

I hope you have a great week this week. I am having a wonderful time with some awesome educators and colleagues in South Carolina.

I can't wait to get home because my husband is at it again painting up a storm. We chose a bright fun green to paint the kids' bathroom. He just called me to share that it's painted and it's "bold". I can't wait to see it! If you can't have fun in the kids' bathroom with paint color, where can you have fun I ask you? I'll take some pictures of it to share with you when I get home later in the week.

Happy decorating & living,
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Master Bedroom Decorating Plans

2012-03-02T07:20:00.001-05:00

Hi friends,
Thanks for joining me today. I hope that you have an awesome weekend! Any special plans? We have a pretty standard weekend planned over here.

Okay, on to decorating.
We started off with a bang decorating our bedroom this summer and then lately we've just fizzled. The decorating ideas are still there, don't get me wrong. But, maybe it's life (like jobs, kids, pets....) that has gotten in the way or the fact that every idea I have takes money, money, money. I'd love to share with you what my dreams are for our bedroom.

Here's what we started with:

The size of our new bedroom is soooo wonderful because our last bedroom (though very sweet) was tiny, tiny, tiny. Even though it was super tiny we did spice it up and change how the furniture was arranged:

Well, back to our current bedroom. Our first purchase for our new room was a new bed. A brand new king size bed. Anyone who has a child or two or three will totally understand the need for a king size bed. There's nothing worse (for me at least and my husband too) to have a little kid or two crawling into your bed in the middle of the night and getting all hot, sweaty, and cramped in your bed so that you cannot sleep. Sleep is very important to me! I like my sleep! Hence the need for a bigger bed.

So, after purchasing the new big bed I created a design plan for our bedroom:

Our next purchase after the bed was the headboard and bedding. I covered an old ottoman with one of my favorite fabrics. My husband then painted the room Shark's Loop from Valspar (it's a blueish gray). Next I scored the small rattan circular table at the local Goodwill for about twenty bucks. Then we took down the cheap blinds which were already in the room and added inexpensive bamboo shades for texture. For Christmas I used a gift card to purchase these curtains, but they quickly got returned because they did NOT work at all (the blue was more of a navy and was not in harmony with the rest of the room):

So, here we are. This is what our room currently looks like:

Wanna hear my ideas for the rest of the room?
Here we go:

Purchase curtains.
Talk my husband into letting me (really him) take down the hideous hugemonous (is that a word?) ugly bronze ceiling fan/light that we never use and replace it with a lovely chandelier.
Find a cool long linen bench to place at the end of the bed.
Find some more artwork for the room besides the three framed beach notecards above the bed and the shell mirror I made on the dresser.

Here are the curtains I am considering now. They're a Porcelain Blue and I think they'll look great.:

Here's a bench that I think is pretty:

Here is a coral chandelier that looks interesting:

I plan on looking for some interesting artwork on some upcoming vacations we have planned. Then we're done! Whewie! And on to the next room.....Stay with me this summer and I'll share our updates to our bedroom.

Thanks for joining me today. :)

I hope you have a great day and weekend-

Happy decorating & living,
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Easter has arrived at The Brewers

2012-03-01T07:17:00.001-05:00

Hi friends,

I am at it again, decorating for a holiday probably earlier than I should. My neighbors are probably thinking, "Oh there's that crazy girl decorating too soon again!" Oh well, too bad. Honestly, outside all I have for Easter is an egg wreath (which I might add is missing a couple of eggs). Our flag pole broke so the Easter flag waits inside. Kinda sad, huh?

Jane- Here's our Easter tree. I bought the stand at our local Goodwill store for like a $1:

I LOVE these little sheep! They make me smile. Can you believe that I found them at the grocery store?!

This was a Brew Crew kids' Easter craft project:

My little guy, Brayden, made this one. This was exactly like the sample picture on the box. And no, there isn't anyone in our family named Pat. But if someone named Pat comes over, we're set and ready!

I just picked up these little sweet bunnies at Pier 1 for a very cheap price! I added the ribbons.

Here's how I decorated our old house in Virginia two years ago for Easter. You can see my Easter tree which was little branches (bought at the craft store) placed in a large jar. Now I look at these pictures and think there's entirely too much going on in this room!!!!

It's not Easter for me without tullips and other flowers:

This is my absolute favorite Easter children's book. I have very fond memories of my mom reading it to me when I was little. Now, I read it to my own kids:

What I am not showing you are our collection of Easter bunny and duck stuffed animals given to the kids each Easter from generous grandparents that we only pull out once a year. They're all now either in the Bonus Room or in the kids' rooms. Also, I didn't share with you the hundreds (well, maybe I exxagerate a little) of plastic Easter eggs in baskets that we take turns hiding for each other. It's good times at the Brewers!

Happy decorating & living,

Megan

megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Almost A Year in Review

2012-02-29T09:17:00.000-05:00

Hi friends,
Thanks for joining me today. How is your week going? I've been getting ready for a business trip that I have coming up next week: working on powerpoints, getting copies made of handouts, getting the Brew Crew household in order so I can leave, planning my outfits for my trip (this is important stuff here friends!), and normal life (driving kids to and from school, going on my walks, laundry, taking care of pets, normal household stuff, blah blah blah...).

I'm starting to get in the reflection mood. We have lived in our new house in North Carolina now for almost a year (we moved mid-April last year).

I felt in the mood to reflect on what we've done so far and what we have left to do. I love making lists!

What we have done:

Replaced eat-in kitchen light

Before:

After:

Replaced my home office light (supposed to be dining room)

Before:

After:

Replaced living room light

Before:

After:

Painted master bedroom

Before:

After:

Painted master bathroom

Before:

After:

Okay, it seems like I have an obsession about light fixtures (it's true) and my husband likes to paint (also true).

Stop back by my blog tomorrow and I'll share with you my ideas of what I want to work on next.

Thanks again for joining me today. I hope you are doing well and having a good week.

Happy decorating & living,

Megan

megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

The beach is calling.....

2012-02-27T20:54:00.000-05:00

Hi friends,
How are you this week? Did you watch the Oscars? What did you think? I have to admit I only saw four of the movies nonimated for anything (Bridesmaids, The Muppets, Rio, and The Help). How about you? How many of the films did you see? Which ones did you like?

I have to share with you that I broke down and pulled the Easter decorations out of the attic yesterday. The Easter tree is up with it's ornaments on it. The bunnies, eggs, wreath, Easter children's books, and other springtime decor is around the Brewer household. How about you? Do you have special decorations that you put out for Easter?

We've been thinking a lot about the beach lately in our household. Honestly, one of the major bonuses for us moving from Northern Virginia to North Carolina (it's about a 4 1/2 hour car ride) is that we can now travel to beach in half the time that it used to take us. Now, the idea of jumping in the car on a Friday afternoon and heading to the shore for the weekend is very doable. And we're going to do it a lot! My husband and I have pulled out our calendars for the next couple of months and marked off some time for the beach.

I love going to the beach!!!! I am very fortunate that I've been able to go to the beach just about every year of my life, usually a couple of times a year. My family has always chosen to go to the beach over other vacations. That might explain why I didn't make it to Disney World until I was in my thirties!

Here is what I love to do at the beach:

take long walks or runs on the beach or on the bike paths or through the neighborhoods
hang out in the beach house and play games, cards, or do puzzles
read on the beach
nap in the afternoon
go out on the beach at night with flashlights looking for crabs
go out for ice cream
cook together
fly kites
watch the kids play in the sand digging big holes, building sand castles, or jumping in the waves
eating some yummy seafood
taking outside showers
watching the coastline for dolphins
smelling the warm, salty air
hearing the seagulls and pelicans
feeling the warmth of the sun
putt putt

How about you? Do you like to go to the beach? If so, what are some of the things that you like to do there?

Here are some beach images to remind us that we can hold on a little longer, spring is just around the corner......the beach is calling.

Happy decorating & living,

Megan

megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Trying to Hold Off Easter

2012-02-26T21:16:00.000-05:00

Hi friends,
How was your weekend?

I am trying to hold off decorating for Easter. Every holiday I decorate our house entirely too early and then by the actual holiday I am sick and tired of the decorations. I am trying to learn to be patient. This is a skill that I do NOT have. I am trying to learn this lesson. And I believe Easter is really the last holiday that I have any decorations for until Halloween (unless you count a flag or two for July 4th). We do have all of our birthdays during the down time so we'll have some type of decorations in our home this spring and summer (balloons, streamers, etc.).

Easter is such a special time. My spirit comes alive with the warmer days filled with sunshine and warm breezes. I love all of the flowers that are popping up everywhere. We love going to the beach in the springtime to fly kites and build sandcastles (no playing in the water yet, it's still too cold). I actually thought my son was going to be born on Easter. My water broke late on a Saturday night (around 2am) four years ago on Easter. Unfortunately, my labor stopped shortly after we arrived at the hospital and since my son was 4 weeks early the doctors would not help me along so I had to hang out at the hospital for two more days until they decided yes, they'd give me some drugs to help me along. So my hopes of having an Easter baby were shot. Yes, it is a myth, you do not have to have a baby immediately after your water breaks. Of course, they will not let you go home so you have to hang out at the hospital. I hope that I didn't just share too much information with you!

Since I'm holding off on decorating for Easter yet I thought I'd appease myself by sharing some Easter inspired images:

My daughter on her first Easter:

I can't believe I am sharing with you this picture of myself- I am as big as a whale here- I think my son was born right after this picture. This was my daughter's second Easter (back in Virginia):

Getting ready for our little Buddy to arrive in his new room 4 years ago:

Here are my babies today:

Happy decorating & living,
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Bedroom Benches

2012-02-23T18:36:00.001-05:00

Hi friends,
Thanks for joining me today. How was your week? What are your plans for the weekend? We have all of the Brew Crew back together this weekend after pops traveling for work again this week. It's a pretty normal weekend for us with ballet/tap lessons, a birthday party, and church. We are looking forward to seeing some of Steve's relatives for dinner Saturday night.

Lately, I've been dreaming about how to spice up our bedroom. We have done a lot of work in there since we moved in but it's still not finished.

Steve and I stayed at a beautiful resort hotel recently that had a lovely linen bench at the end of the bed perfect for sitting on to put shoes on. When our room was 'turned down' while we were downstairs having dinner I noticed that the extra bed pillows were placed on the lower portion of the bench which I thought was a fantastic idea. It got me thinking about bedroom benches. I did a little online shopping for bedroom benches and haven't found one that I'm totally crazy about yet.

Here are some inspiration pics that I found online of bedroom benches. Do you like any of them?

The bench in our resort hotel was similar to this one:

I love, love, love this entire room! I think the French doors are awesome and the light fixture! Oh, if I could talk my husband into getting rid of our big brown ceiling fan! The colors are perfect!

Is that a boat on the ceiling???

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Happy decorating & living,
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Spring Clothes

2012-02-22T07:26:00.000-05:00

Hi friends,
Thanks for joining me today. Maybe it's the warmish weather that we've had in the Raleigh area of North Carolina that has been getting me in the mood for spring. Maybe it's my desire to 'spice it up'. I've worn my winterish clothes now for a while- that's kinda a joke because it hasn't been cold here in North Carolina at all this season and I've been traveling to South Carolina for work (of course, it's even warmer there!). Any-hoo, maybe it's just me wanting some new clothes. Yeah, that's probably it! I have to share with you I used to have this dream that my father owned a department store and each morning before school I would go into the store to pick out my outfit for the day complete with shoes, jewerly, purse...you get the idea. Sounds pretty materialist, doesn't it? I know.

I was looking over my "Style" board on my Pinterest page and noticed that there's a direct connection between the clothes I like and the rooms I like. See if you agree:

How about for you? Do you notice a correlation between the clothes in your closet and the colors in your home?

Happy almost spring to you my friends.
Happy decorating & living,
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

It's time to spice it up!!!!

2012-02-21T16:00:00.000-05:00

HI friends,
Thank you for joining me today. How is your week going?

Guess what? It's time to spice it up! I am so happy that I get to share my fourth and last rule for decorating today: Spice it up!!!! Anyone who knows me, I mean really knows me, knows that I like to spice it up! My kids know I like to spice it up! They say, "Mommy, can we spice up my room?" I am a person who gets energy from an envrionment that is different.

It's amazing how a simple, inexpensive change in my home can rejuvenate me. I spice it up frequently by:
-changing furniture arrangement in a room
-moving one piece of furniture or artwork or accessory to a different space
-swapping out pillows
-changing out a light fixture or adding a new light fixture to a room
-adding a new plant or accessory to a room

I can't express how much I love change! It inspires me. I know not everyone is like me. Some people really love constancy. They buy furniture they like, they hang up artwork, and they arrange their room and it stays that way for a long, long, long time. That's okay. Actually that's wonderful if that's what makes you happy. When I say it's time to spice it up it's for the people out there like me who feel rejuvenated taking a risk and spicing it up.

Honestly, some of my favorite decorating pieces have been pieces that I wasn't quite sure about and tried it out anyway and ended up loving it. That's what today's post is about: taking a risk, trying something, and maybe loving it. Why not? Give it a try. Swap out some artwork from one room to another. Rearrange the furniture in a room. Buy some new pillows for your favorite room. Get a new small rug for your entryway. Repurpose a piece of furniture by recovering it or repainting it. I can't wait to hear what you decide to do. Go for it!

Here are some of my favorite pinnings from http://www.pinterest.com/ that are inspiring me to spice it up:

Love the sweet bench at the end of the bed:

Love the seahorse picture and the rattan blue painted chairs:

Love the colors and open shelves:

Love the mix of wood finishes:

Happy decorating & living,
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Time and Rule 3

2012-02-20T20:50:00.000-05:00

Hi friends,
Thank you for joining me today. Today's post is about my rule 3 for decorating. But, before we go there, I want to share something that I've been thinking about lately. I've been thinking about ..... time. It seems like lately I've been thinking, "I don't have enough time.....for my work, my family, my hobbies, my walks, my kids, my friends, my books, myself...." the list goes on and on and on. Maybe you feel this way sometimes too. It seems so prevalent in our society this idea that we don't have enough time. It seems popular to think, "Oh, I'm so busy, I don't have time for _____and ______." To be completely honest with you, I've really struggled lately with this idea of not having enough time for everything in my life that I love. But, then.....I was having dinner with a dear, smart, and very intuitive colleague of mine while I was away on a business trip recently and we started talking about this idea of time. She shared with me that she believes we truly have the time we need to spend on those things that are really important to us. She shared with me that she believes when we focus on this concept of "not having enough time" we are setting ourselves up for this situation of not having enough time. She said that when we change our thoughts, and when we start believing that we really do have enough time in our lives to spend the time doing the things that we truly feel are important and worthy of our time, we find ourselves having enough time. Well....something strange has happened to me since I've changed my way of thinking about time. Ever since I had that conversation with my friend I've been thinking about this idea of time. I have found that honestly, I do have enough time. Enough time to spend on those things which I value. After all, how I spend my time, reflects what is important to me. If it's important to me to spend time with each of my children individually, then I do it. If it's important to me to spend time with my husband one on one, I make sure it happens. If it's important to me to find time to walk and run outside to fill my bucket with that solo time to reflect on the day and to get rejuvenated (not to mention to get this body in shape after the holidays and too many Girl Scout cookies) then I find the time each day to get outside and move my body. The work still happens. The hobbies find their way into my life too. It's really actually quite amazing how when we start to change the way we are thinking about a concept, like time, we can really change our reality. Try it! Take a couple of days and really watch the language you are saying to yourself and to others about time and see if it makes a difference when you start to change these thoughts/statements. Maybe you will find that you really do have enough time. I can't wait to see what happens for you. Please let me know!

Okay, now on to Rule #3: Enjoy what you have and love!
This one is super easy for me. I want to enjoy what I have and love each and every day. I don't think that I should have things that are so precious to me that I keep them hidden away or horde them somewhere for my children to use in the future. What if my children don't appreciate my 'things' like I do? Things are just things. They do not, and will not, have any special powers over me. My philosophy is to enjoy life, enjoy the things we have and live life. If you have a special china pattern from a grandmother or great grandmother, use it and enjoy it. What a lovely way to remember your grandmother and honor her each and every day! I am so blessed that my engagement ring is my grandmother's engagement ring. Each and every time I look at my ring I think about my grandmother and the wonderful qualitities that she had. I don't believe in putting away special items or things and never using them that are precious to me. I believe in letting things be things and enjoy what they have to offer. If I get a special soap or bath item for a gift, I use it and think about the person who got it for me. If I get a special candle or bottle of wine, I enjoy them and think fondly of the person who gave it to me. Life is really not about things, it's about experiences and relationships. I believe that whole heartedly. Here's to all of us, enjoying our things and having wonderful experiences and relationships. That's what I wish for you, my friends.

This is what life is all about: experiences and relationships-

Happy decorating & living,
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Rule #2

2012-02-20T07:49:00.003-05:00

Hi friends,
Happy President's Day! Do you have the day off? I think we have a sweet deal over here at the Brewer house, our kids have school (learning is important, after all, right?) and Steve and I have the day off. Nice! It did snow a teeny tiny amount last night so one child gets a two hour delay.

Thanks for joining me today. Yesterday I started sharing my 4 Rules of Decorating. I wrote about Rule #1: Only having pieces that you love. If something isn't working for you or you don't love it, return it, sell it, give it to a friend, or donate it to Goodwill. Your home should be a place filled with pieces that you truly love and that bring you happiness and joy. No stress allowed for settling for pieces.

Here were my 4 Rules for Decorating:

1. Only have pieces that you love.
2. Live with your new ideas for a while and see how they feel before making a decision to change it.
3. Enjoy what you have and love.
4. Spice it up!

I wanted to share more about Rule #2 today:
Live with your new ideas for a while and see how they feel before making a decision to keep it or change it.

Decorating is an organic art. Let's be honest, a lot of decorating is trial and error. Having a idea, being inspired by a decorating show or a picture that I put in my Idea Book that I like. Then I try out that idea and see how it goes. I've made many, many, many mistakes in decorating. But, really, who cares? At least, I am trying new ideas out. There's nothing quite like the feeling of trying out a new paint color or furniture arrangement and finding that it really works and brings me joy and peace. I am a person who LOVES living in a space that inspires me and allows me to feel passionate and rejuvenated. I realize that some people like to find one furniture arrangement or paint color that works for them and they keep it forever. That's not me. I like to be inspired by my home. Often times though, it does take a couple of days for me to decide on what's working and what's not working.

A perfect example of this are these three floating white shelves that we inherited from the sellers of our home last April. It has taken me months and months and months to find an arrangement of accessories for these shevles that makes me happy. I'm happy to report that I'm finally happy (at least for the time being):

In the beginning, it was pretty sad....

For Christmas, I had to have a little fun:

And finally, (which translates for me "for the time being"):

New piece of coral added to the collection:

Rule #1 definitely crept in here too- I love love love these beach prints. One was a wedding gift from Steve's cousin and his family and the other two were from his parents when they lived at the beach. Both North Carolina artists.

Thanks again for stopping by today friends. I'll share details about my last two rules this week. Take care all. I hope you have a great week.

Happy decorating & living,
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

The Rules of Decorating

2012-02-18T20:45:00.000-05:00

Hi friends,
How are you? Are you feeling the desire for springtime where you are? We purchased some new pansies (since some of my fall pansies weren't looking so hot) and have had a few windows open lately with degrees in the sixties. I took down the Valentine decorations and am chomping at the bit to put up some Easter decorations (though I am making myself wait a bit longer, well, I did put out three little precious bunnies- a momma bunny and her two little ones).

Sorry for my brief absence on my post. Lots going on in the Brewer household over the last week:

1. I returned home from a week away working.
2. My husband returned home from a month away working on a ship with the Navy.
3. My parents were visiting us.
4. My mother in law was visiting us and caring for the kids.
5. I surprised my husband with a night away.
6. We are all returning to a somewhat normal life.

Okay, I have to share some details.

2. This is the ship that my husband was working on with the Navy. No, he's not in the Navy himself but he was helping them by supporting some software that they were using, I can tell you, my husband has a new found respect for the sacrifices our military men and women make:

5. I surprised my husband with a night away. I gave him a Valentine's Card that read "pack a bag, you have one hour to get ready" and took him to a really nice resort hotel just 20 minutes from our house. We had a great dinner there while listening to live music and were back in our hotel room in bed watching our favorite tv show by 10pm (Parenthood)...yes, we know we live on the wild side! The next morning we had an awesome breakfast in bed and walked around the property's lake.

6. Rollerskating with my daughter:

and family dinner/movie night:

Okay, that's enough of that, but seriously, thanks for reading. I appreciate it and love sharing the blessings of my life.

Now, on to the matters at hand....The Rules of Decorating. You can buy decorating books, magazines, do online searches about the rules of decorating.....you will see guidelines about paying attention to scale, proportion, lighting, color, furniture arrangement, etc. That's great and all but I have four simple rules that I follow and live by in terms of decorating.

1. Only have pieces that you love.
2. Live with your new ideas for a while and see how they feel before making a decision to change it.
3. Enjoy what you have and love.
4. Spice it up!

Now, I have to share, these 4 decorating rules work for me and my personality. They may or may not work for you, depending on your personality and how you like to live. Let me explain. Let's look at my rules again:

1. Only have pieces that you love. By this I mean buy pieces that you really love. Pieces (furniture, artwork, fabrics, accessories) that you adore and you will be able to use them in a variety of ways in a variety of places. I have white slipcovered furniture with two pets and two small children because I LOVE the look of slipcovered pieces- so fresh, comfortable, and easy plus I throw them in the wash every now and then. A bonus of white slipcovered furniture is that you can swap out your pillows whenever you feel the need to. They are a blank canvas for your room. You can add color with your wall paint, curtain fabrics, pillows, and accessories.

Whenever I buy something that I am not crazy about, I regret it. Just this week I bought two new graphic yellow pillows for our front porch. The pillows were great but they didn't work on the porch and the bright yellow color in them didn't work anywhere else in our house so back to the store they went. Return! Don't keep pieces just because you don't have something in that spot. Wait, and get something, sometime, that you really love. Right now, our master bedroom is pretty sparse. I reused some of the artwork in there (two large tin pieces that I love) in our living room. I have lots of ideas of what I want for our master bedroom (new panel curtains, a bench with storage for the end of our bed, artwork that I love) but it takes money and time to find the "just right" I LOVE pieces so we will wait. I often try to find inexpensive prints or cards (sometimes even postcards) while on vacation, especially beach vacations. Then whenever I see the print I am reminded of the trip and the memories we made. I often pick up inexpensive note cards or postcards while on vacation and have many framed around my house. We are about to embark on several small trips this spring and I plan on keeping my eyes keenly on alert for inexpensive pieces of artwork that I love.

Here are some of my favorite pieces that I LOVE (slipcovered furniture, blue/green color combination reminds me of the beach, accessories from nature: beach glass, shells, rocks, woven baskets):

White slipcovered chair and a half:

Nature items:

White slipcovered washable cotton sofas:

Artwork from the beach:

Oyster shell mirror made from oyster shells collected from beach restaurant:

White basket ceiling light with blue and green accents in my home office:

Blue and green beach glass mirror:

Beach artwork purchased while on vacation from local artist:

Blue and green pottery on silver sparkly tray:

More blue pottery I love:

Another homemade shell mirror with Maine pottery lamp and favorite blue and purple pottery pieces bought during various South Carolina beach vacations:

Thanks for joining me today friends. Try to stop back by in the next couple of days and I'll elaborate on my Rules of Decorating for rules 2, 3, and 4. What are your rules for decorating?
Take care all.
Happy decorating & living,
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Wire baskets

2012-02-13T08:45:00.001-05:00

Hi friends,
How was your weekend? What did you do? It was cold and windy here so we did a lot of indoor activities. The highlight of our weekend was definitely my husband returning home from a month away on business. This was the first time that he was gone on weekends as well as during the week due to the fact that he was on a military ship and couln't get off. Let me tell you, weekends with an almost 4 year old and almost 6 year old as a single parent can be longggg. Thank goodness for neighborhood children, ballet class, and crafts to get us busy. But, all is well in the Brewer world now. Balance has been restored.

Daddy came home early just in time to take his daugher to the Daddy/Daughter Dance:

Let's talk decorating. I purchased this interesting piece last October for my husband for our anniversary. He likes rustic, kind of Tuscan pieces and I thought this piece would speak to him. I've had fun trying it out if different places in our home:

I am really starting to appreciate wire baskets. Maybe it's the contrast they add to a room. They add a texture that most of my rooms don't have. Here are some interesting wire baskets that I found online. I love how they serve different uses and are repurposed in a variety of ways:

Here's to a great week! Happy Valentine's Day!
Happy decorating & living,
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Blue and Purple Rooms, why not?

2012-02-09T15:23:00.000-05:00

Hi friends,

How are you? Thank you for joining me today. I think I am a pretty cool girl. Well, let me rephrase that, I am a girl who LOVES cool colors. I graviate towards cool shades. I look in my closet and there's a spectrum of cool colors in there....blues, purples, cool greens, etc. I look around my house and my favorite pieces and fabrics all fall in the cool zone. It got me thinking about blue and purple. I have a mostly blue bedroom but I did paint the back of a wooden shelf piece with a light purple and do have my favorite purple flowered pottery that I get at the beach in there. Click on my 'Tour My Home' tab and you'll see some pictures of my bedroom. I think blue and purple are a sweet combo. What about you?

What color combinations do you LOVE most?
Happy decorating & living,
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Painted Furniture

2012-02-08T07:08:00.000-05:00

Hi friends,

How is your week going? I hear that there is the possiblility of snow in Virginia on Wednesday. Here where I am working in South Carolina it's going to be in the mid 60s today. I definitely need to get out and go for a long walk outside when I am finished with my coaching in schools.

I have been thinking about how much I love painted furniture. How about you? Isn't it fun to find a cheap piece of furniture with great lines at a Goodwill store, Salvation Army store, or some other thrift like store and give it a rebirth with a fresh coat of fun glossy paint.

Here are some of my painted furniture pieces:

I am feeling the desire to repaint a piece. Hmm.....need to get home and see what fun I can have.

Happy decorating & living,

Megan

megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Kids' bathroom

2012-02-07T06:33:00.000-05:00

Hi friends,
Thanks so much for joining me today. I am away consulting this week with some wonderful educators in the state of South Carolina. I stole away for a few hours last night to work on this blog posting after dinner. I wanted to share my kids' bathroom with you. I think their bathroom is a fun place! I found an artist in North Carolina who paints whimisical beach inspired pictures that I've hung in this space. I especially love the rustic brightly painted wood frames that the artist choses to frame her artwork. I do hope to paint their bathroom a fun color...maybe green or yellow sometime in the near future. Or maybe I should rephrase that, I want to ask my handy husband to paint their bathroom soon. Sorry that the lighting is pretty bad in this room for taking pictures.

Here was their bathroom as a blank slate:

Here is their bathroom now:

Here are some inspiration bathrooms:

I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week.
Happy decorating & living,
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Spicing up boy's room: Temporary

2012-02-05T21:43:00.000-05:00

Hi friends,
I hope you had a great weekend! Did you watch the Superbowl? How did you spend your weekend?

You might have seen my post last weekend about spicing up my daughter's bedroom. Well, we were at it again and spiced up my son's room too. And we didn't spend a penny! I do want to redecorate my son's room in the next year. We inherited this boy's room when we bought our house less than a year ago. Here's what it looked like as a blank slate:

Though I certainly appreciate the "boy room" it isn't really working for me. But we've been busy working and decorating other rooms in our house so his house has been "on hold" for the time being. We did decide to spice it up with some fun colorful lantern lights that we had stored in attic. C'mon on in and take a peek:

Here's my little man who is almost 4 years old:

Here are some inspiration rooms that I may pull from when we do redecorate my little guy's bedroom. I am thinking of a magnetic chalkboard focal wall and keeping a surfing/sailing theme:

Happy decorating & living,
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Spicing up the kids' rooms for free

2012-02-03T10:04:00.000-05:00

Hi friends,
How is your week going? It's been crazy warm in North Carolina. I even saw some daffodils blooming! In February! I wanted to share with you how I spiced up my kids' rooms. We were fortunate to buy our house last April that already had a 'boy' room and a 'girl' room. Now, they weren't exactly decorated like I would have chosen, but how awesome is that? I have plans to redecorate their rooms possibly this summer or certainly within the next year or so but I wanted to share with you how we spiced up their rooms this week.

This is what my daughter's room looked like when we purchased the house a little less than a year ago. Notice the princess border, purple sponge painting, and butterfly decals.

Then we moved in and added my daughter's furniture:

Here's my little almost 6 year old who loves to spice it up (just like her mother)! She's been begging me to redo her room:

Here's her room now after we spiced it up:

All we did was pull down some old white lights from the attic and replace her artwork with a few of her dresses from her play clothes collection. Easy scheemzie, spiced up room.

Here are some young girl inspiration rooms:

Stop back by my blog soon and I'll share how we spiced up my son's room.
Happy decorating & living,
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Here I go again, spicing it up in my home office....

2012-02-02T08:40:00.000-05:00

Hi friends,

Since spicing it up in the adjoining living room last week, I felt inspired to spice it up in my home office. I only made minor changes. I moved the beach glass mirror to the wall with my repurposed white shelves. I also added the black and white pillow from the guest room to my chair. It's these little changes that make me happy.

Happy decorating & living,

Megan

megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Were you a Prep?

2012-02-01T09:51:00.000-05:00

Hi friends,
I admit it, I am a child of the 80s which translates to "Hi, I am Megan, I was a preppy."

Do you remember.....

Have I taken you back through memory lane?

How does a preppy grow up and decorate? Maybe like this....

Happy decorating & living from a prepster,
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Spicing it up in the living room!

2012-01-31T09:09:00.001-05:00

Hi friends,
Ever since I added these two old (found in the attic, purchased from Target years ago) pictures in our living room now every time I walk by and see these pictures, I am not pleased. There was a reason that these two pictures were in the attic. I think they're going to Goodwill this week. If something doesn't work for you anymore, let it work for someone else. Good-bye sepia flowers:

I stole these two large tins from our bedroom and am trying them out in the this space now. So far, so good:

My husband likes to spice it up too! While I was away on a business trip in January he flip flopped the white sofa and the two gingham chairs with buffet. I like this new arrangement too. Thanks honey!

Now I need to go see what else I can spice up!
Happy decorating & living,
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Valentine's Day in our house

2012-01-30T10:19:00.001-05:00

Hi friends,
Yep, we're getting ready for Valentine's Day in our house. Class Valentines have been purchased and are beginning to be addressed to the classmates. Barbie cards with lollipops for Bryce's classmates and Toy Story with bookmarks for Brayden's classmates. We've been doing a little Valentine's crafts in our household as well:

Have you seen these Tabletopics cards? They're so much fun! We pull 1 or 2 out during dinner and take turns asking the questions. They're great for dinner parties. You can learn a lot of interesting stuff about people from asking the questions.

Happy decorating & living,
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Keepin' it real!

2012-01-29T10:01:00.002-05:00

Hi friends,
You know how obsessed I am with pillows. I have honestly never been really happy with the pillow situation in our family room. Well, I picked up two new blue and green (my favorite color combination) paisley pillows recently with a gift card for our family room. The pillow situation is improving in there. It's not quite there, but it's getting closer.

Here are the new pillows:

Here is how the rest of the family room is looking these days:

Here is what I've tried in the past with the pillow situation:

Christmas time-

Here is what is happening in the room while I'm happily snapping away. I'm keepin' it real here:

Yes, pajamas are still on, cartoons are on, and Legos are everywhere!

Happy decorating & living,
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

Blue and Yellow Rooms

2012-01-27T16:17:00.000-05:00

Hi friends,
How are you? What are your plans this weekend?

My posting about yellow rooms earlier this week inspired me to think about my absolute favorite color blue being paired with my new friend yellow.

Blue and yellow are a nice combination, aren't they?

What do you think of these blue and yellow rooms?

Do you have a blue and yellow room?
Happy decorating & living,
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com