Don’t worry I’m hanging my head in shame as I type this. I was on probation from getting any more chairs, we have enough of them and my chair collection is getting out of control. The thing is there is no way I could’ve resisted this champagne gold frame and patchwork needlework pattern, and then it was $4, so… It had to be.

I figured it can make it’s home on the front porch or down in the Henhouse studio.

So now you know my dirty little secret.

What the heck? Two gardening posts in 1 week and it’s not even March? I know, I know, I am totally crazy, but when I get on this kick it’s all I can think about. I mentioned a few days ago that I was considering a raised bed garden and then after chatting with my Ma, I was convinced it was something we should totally do. Finn is so interested in gardening and has been since he could walk that I think caring for a small veggie garden would be something he’d really like to do.

The Space:
Our backyard is decent size for the city but isn’t huge. We have gardens around the perimeter of the backyard and the interior space is all lawn for playing, grilling, bagging, and chilling. The only space we really have for a raised bed veggie garden would be in the small side yard between our house and the neighbors. It’s actually not a bad location because it’s south facing and gets lots of light all day long, the space itself is long and narrow. Pictured above (way at the top) are two possible raised bed layouts, one would function as a 4′x 8′ rectangular garden, and the other would follow the line of the house, leaving a more tailored looking walkway and garden. Obviously, the latter option is the better, but my the solution is harder than that. This is a problem of form vs function.

The Kits:
I was looking around for raised bed kits (which can be insanely expensive by the way) when I came across the most beautiful and modern looking garden kit made by Scout Regalia out of California. The garden hardware is well designed, made by local people and produced as eco friendly as possible. I loved it immediately.

Since I am internet shopping junkie, I had to do my due diligence and make sure I wasn’t missing anything better. I continued my search and stumbled upon these aluminum corners made by Burpee, the cost is slightly less but the great thing about these is the tubes interlock thus allowing them to pivot. They can accommodate any angle, so it would be totally possible to make a garden that followed the contour of the house and not have to get out my protractor. Not only that, they can be easily added on to, so if next year I wanted to expand my garden it won’t be a problem.

The Decision:
In the end I think I’ll have to go with the pivoting aluminum corners from Burpee but I think the rectangular raised bed kit from Scout Regalia is oh-so-great. If anyone is looking for a rectangular raised bed garden please go check these out. I hope somebody else has the perfect place for this raised bed garden in their yard.

Also, BLAOW: This is the greatest patio table I have ever seen in my whole life, the next time I have 3 G’s burning a hole in my pocket it’s mine.

Photo Credits – Top : Morgan Satterfield @ The Brick House – Bottom Left : Found via The Decorista – Bottom Right : Found via Convoy

I know I’m not the only one that’s got a little of the black fever going around. I’m seriously considering painting a wall in my bedroom black and have been finding plenty of inspiration over on pinterest. There has been handfuls of brave (and awesome) souls who have already done this, and I’d like to follow in their footsteps.

I can’t get over what it does to a room, it absorbs and reflects light in the perfect sort of way, and makes everything some kind of wonderful. Look at how those flowers and credenza stand out against it. That photo wall is a perfect example of how it can make a collection sing, and the bedroom shot from The Brick House highlights those vintage Nelson lamps like she planned it or something.

Photo Credits – Top : Victoria Smith @ sfbgirlbybay, Bottom : Anna Dorfman @ D16

I adore Victoria’s blacky-blue wall (although she says that it is less blue in real life) that she painted in her room and it looks AMAZING paired with those brass sconces. If I could transplant that wall in my room, I would, in a hot second. Anna @ Door Sixteen was the first introduction I had to “the black wall”. I wasn’t on board right away, but then that black wall started to grow on me, and now, I think it’s kind of the best. If you haven’t yet, stop by her blog, she loves black more than me, and has painted lots of black walls in her house.

Photo Credits – Left : Found via Lily – Right : Found via ISOWANEE

I gotta give some love to good old white, my optic cones be digging that too. I love a white room with a ton of color found throughout it’s accents & accessories. I would like to flatter myself and think my bedroom is both bright, airy, graphic and colorful like the above two rooms. I want my white and colorful to marry a black wall, do you think it could happen? I think it could be SO AWESOME, (Sawesome!)

P.S. If I included your photo and didn’t give it the credit it so deserves let me know, I’d be happy to change that.

Finn and I (and Gus), got all crazy and antsy the other day and ran over to our local garden center and purchased a whole lot of seeds. This is our 3rd annual seed fest and every year we get a little more fancy. The first year we planted our seeds in eggshells, the second year we went to town and planted a ton of seeds and then I got really pregnant and we kind of stopped watering them. This year we’re hardcore. We bought our seeds, we got some pro dirt, and we purchased small greenhouses. We’re gonna kill it this year.

As we were paying for our seeds at the store the cashier made a comment that we got a “little bit of everything” and then chuckled, which the self conscious and paranoid me probably took the wrong way. Did I get too much stuff?, or too many different of things? Should I be buying tons of one kind of seed and perfecting the art of growing it, or should I be getting only annuals? I have no idea, but I did what seemed good to me. Don’t judge.

We got 3 different kinds of Zinnia’s because we love them and they grow great in our yard. I hope that all three kinds are successful this year. Normally we just get the “Giant” style but this year we also added Zahara (a mix of coral pink, neon green and white), and Envy (a big green bloom).We also got snap dragons, which we killed last year, but we thought we’d try again. Marigolds, which are always easy. Some Lupine, which is a perennial, and I’m not sure how well it will survive from seed. I’m not done yet though, we also bought something new, Moonflower, which is an evening glory instead of a morning glory and blooms in white. And lastly we grabbed some Nasturtium which did well and looked nice in our gardens last year. Then there are the herbs… we got the usual assortment and we hope they will do well in in pots and taste great in our cocktails.

Finn was a great helper, very patient and careful. We are still planning on planting some Dalhia and Ranunculus bulbs and are considering adding a small, raised bed vegetable garden to the side yard.

We also just signed up for our first ever CSA (!!!) through Driftless Organics, based in Wisconsin. Anyway, I’m not sure if a veggie garden is really practical considering how stocked we will be but I think the kids would enjoy it. We will see…

Now we just need spring to get here and we will be set, so hurry up already, ya heard.

Oh, and I almost forgot, here are few tips on starting seeds!!

I’m so proud to show off the completed music room!!!! It’s been a big project that I started planning way back in September. It was my hope to finish by the end of the year, and I came close, but still had a hand full of small projects to get done.

Here’s a before photo just to refresh your memory:

What a hot mess it was. It’s come a long way.

I started with slowly removing all the wallpaper, which ended with having the walls re-plastered. The plaster beneath the wallpaper wasn’t in good shape, and now the walls are pristine and smooth, like Hall and Oates light funk.

My good old friend Brittany (aka Killa Cam), let me have this most wonderful teak and brass swag lamp. The inner paper is a little yellowed but it looks so great. I completely love it in the room.

We purchased some of our favorite Expedit shelves from Ikea. We bought one of the 4×2′s and two of the 2×2′s. The second 2×2 was used as the corner piece for the ‘L’. I went to town with a chop saw and turned it into a 1×2 then attached it to the 4×2 and 2×2 with ‘L’ brackets. Are you confused yet? My original plan was to have a long and low shelf for record storage, but this ‘L’ plan is a much better use of space.

I went for the black and white lamp from the “Vintage Etsy Finds” post I did a few weeks ago. I’m not totally in love with it, but it’s not my room, and I figured Jeff could have a say. The black lamp shade was just a spare I had around the house, and I’m not sure it will stay for long. I envision an elongated white drum shade would suit the shape of the lamp better.

And did you notice the curtains?? Aren’t they just so manly now? Here’s a link on how I made my Ikea gathered top curtains into grommet top curtains.

This is where the lucky Eames chairs have landed. I didn’t really have a specific home for them, and I figured they would work well in here because A: they look awesome, B: they could be used as extra seating when Jeff is entertaining raging jam seshes, and C: they can easily be brought into the dining room for extra butt spots.

We also added shelving in the nook that made it’s home to the mayo-colored radiator that is still waiting to be painted. Anyone with tips on painting radiators let me know, I’ll buy you a beer. So far I’ve purchased a few cans of high heat spray paint (in white!) and plan on using them soon.

On the far wall we had added bookshelves on the upper part of the wall for extra dude-storage-stuff and instruments like this accordion.

Have I mentioned the wallpaper? Holy geez, I love this stuff. Actually I love most of everything over at the Ferm Living shop. Stop by and check it out if you haven’t. I promise you, you will leave wanting to wallpaper something.

The leaded glass windows stand out as a feature now that the oh-so-ugly floral wallpaper is gone. The ceramic horse head is part of a set of bookends I found on etsy, too bad for me the other bookend didn’t survive the USPS.

I’ve been toting around this brass eagle hook for a while now, and it seemed appropriate to hang in this room. I still have no idea what sort of stuff will hang on it but at least it looks brassy-bad-assy and cool (sorry it’s late-late as I’m writing this).

So, did you seriously read all that?? High five to you. Anyway, that about wraps up the tour. Let me know if I am missing anything or if you have any questions about sources etc. I’ll be updating the “Around The House” page soon with the new pics.

Coolio.

A cool looking side table showed up on craigslist yesterday and I had to jump on it. I’ve been casually looking for awhile but had some pretty strict functionality criteria that made the pool of potential tables small. On top of looking seriously great I needed the table to have a drawer for remotes, small toys, and secret diaper stashes AND I needed open space underneath to easily conceal a toy basket. A mom needs her hiding places. This table did all that stuff.

The table is made by American of Martinsville and was labeled a George Nelson piece in the CL ad, although I’m not quite sure that’s true. I know that it’s controversial that George Nelson actually designed for American of Martinsville and if he allegedly did the pieces I’ve seen on the internets have a ‘X’ inlay in the corners. If anyone has any insight into this I’d love to hear from ya. Anyway, getting off topic here.

So, like I said, I’ve been looking for awhile, I saw this ad, I liked it, I saw it in real life, I got it. Now it’s here and it’s totally throwing me off. I’m not used to having something in this corner of the living room, it seems huge, but I think it’s all in my head. And chrome, it’s fancy and shiny. I’m not fancy or shiny, can I still hang with chrome? I always envisioned a Saarinen tulip side table for this space but of course, you can’t hide diapers in that. What do you think? Should it stay?

Anybody else sensing a theme here? Pink is showing up all over my recent posts. I’ve resisted pink all my life – so what gives? I’m kinda loving it and it’s weirding me out. Maybe there’s a secret tractor beam that nobody told me about. I can’t understand any other reasonable explanation that would justify me liking the color pink.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I purchased a radio on etsy. I’ve had my eyes peeled for months, maybe even a year, when I found this turquoise gem with golden accents. Total love fest going on up in here. For your sake, I thought I’d do some pretend shopping and come up with my favorite vintage radio etsy finds for today so you can have a radio love party in your house too. You can thank me later.

1. 1980′s Rise n’ Shine AM/FM Clock Radio from Thrice Nice – $30.00 + $9.00 (for shipping)
2. 1950′s National 7 Transitor Radio in Pink from Yesterday and 2day – $29.00 + $6.00 (for shipping)
3. Mint Green AM/FM Electric Radio from New Life Vintage RV’s – $50.00 + $12.00 (for shipping)
4. Vintage General Electric Tube Clock Radio from Carmen and Ginger – $27.00 + $12.00 (for shipping)

That’s right, you heard it here first. I’ve decided to go totally pro (ha ha) and am now accepting sponsorship. If you haven’t noticed, Good Bones Vintage Co, a really cool etsy vintage shop that you should probably check out, started sponsoring on Monday. I bought that perfect turquoise radio from them pictured in the above bookshelf shot, and I LOVE it.

Having advertising on the blog has been something that I’ve been considering doing for awhile, but before wordpress I didn’t have the tools or confidence to pursue. Now I’ve got this new pretty little site, a decent little following and some big projects in the works, I think I’m ready! I’ve got two more slots available so if you’re interested hit me up (that’s cool to say right?) – I’ll let you in on all the details.

We spent a quick 48 hours at our good friends, Matt & Katie’s, family cabin last weekend. This cabin has become one of my favorite places on earth. Over the many adventures to the cabin, I have fallen hard, for it’s cute-kitschy-cabin-decor. So much so, that I sometimes see versions of it in my own house – I mean, I have a Minnesota plate collection and am working on building up my pheasant themed barware stash. Anyway, I couldn’t resist snapping a few photos during our last trip.

We love this place so much that we’ve been trying to make our front porch into a mini version of the cross lake cabin. We’ve are now proud owners of a few scenic paint by numbers, a vintage beer can collection, and one awesomely bad ass wood-veneer-duck painting.

Cabins man, they’re woodsy. Also, pine cone curtains!, how could you go wrong with pine cone curtains? And what about guest books?, let’s all start buying guest books for our houses.

The 4 essentials to a successful cabin experience; fire, booze, games & antlers (lighting for the late night dinners and game seshes of course).

So is the affection just a Minnesota thing? I mean everyone in this state has a family with a cabin or a friend with a cabin. We all know all about cabins, is this why it seems acceptable to me to bring this style back into my house? Do other places have cabins, Vermont, you must have cabins, do you decorate them the same way, or is it more of a classy New England cottage sort of a vibe?

We made some Valentine’s today for Mom’s and Dad’s and everyone we love! I’ve been trying to come up with a fun Valentine’s Day project for awhile and was inspired when I saw this V-Day post over at Small for Big. This one was fun, quick and easy. It’s really great seeing these kids go to town and create. I would’ve loved to have had some super bright fluorescent paper on hand, but neon ain’t no thang when you have glitter. Take that hot pink.

CREDIT ◊◊ Photo template from Pugly Pixel

A few weeks ago I found some curtains I really loved at Ikea, they were just the look I wanted, at the price I wanted. The only thing is that I wasn’t into the the gathered curtain thing going on at the top. I don’t mind this look, but the curtains were going in the new music room, and it needed to be a little more dudely, plus all the other curtains on the main floor of our house are have grommet headings. Luckily, I’ve had experience with this type of thing; last May when I was putting together Gus’ nursery I made curtains for him with grommets and the whole process turned out to be pretty easy. I’ll show you how to turn your Ikea curtains into grommet curtains for less than 20 bones and in less than 1 hour!

First you need to be organized and get your shit together. You will need Dritz grommets (2 packs, 8 rings per panel), measuring tape, a scissors and a pen or pencil.

Open up your pack of grommets, inside you will find a template for marking your grommet holes. Guess what?, I did the hardest part for you… I did math, that just saved you an 45 minutes, believe me. All Ikea panels are 57″, so this is how you will layout your grommets. Start your holes 2.25 inches from both ends, then put a center mark every 7.5 inches. Ta-da, you owe me a beer now! I put my center mark 3″ from the top but you can adjust this based on your preferences.

Now for the real hardest part, take a deep breath, and cut holes into your perfectly good curtains. It always takes me about 10 minutes of double and triple checking before I actually commit to this part. Don’t worry, you can do it!

Once you cut out your holes you snap together your grommets. It’s so easy you won’t even believe me ’till you try it. Blamo.

Congrats Graham! (Jeff totally picked you cause you were the only dude, bros stick together). I hope your sweetie, Jes, loves the card and your sentiments too of course. Do you think you’ll give her the Bruce one? That would probably be best.

Thanks to all who entered! It was nice to hear from all of you and I appreciate all the kind words and positive feedback about the new site redesign.

Have a good weekend,
Scoops Out.

I thought I’d do a post about how I edit my interior shots in photoshop. This is a little bit of a tricky topic because everyone has their own way of doing things in photoshop, but I thought I’d give you my two cents. Maybe it will help somebody out there and maybe you will laugh at me, either way it’s cool.

To start out this tutorial, here’s a before and after so you can get a feel for what this looks like straight off my camera and how light filled and airy a few simple steps can make your pics.

First off, I’m sure results can vary, so it should be noted that I white balance all my photos prior to shooting and I take them in natural light. Obviously, if you were not doing this, the stuff I’m about to show you might not help ya much. Also, I have no idea what a lot of the technical terms for some of these photoshop thangs are so bare with me. Click on the “READ MORE” below for a complete tutorial.

Step 1: Adjust your levels.

Open your image (duh). Duplicate the first “background” layer and rename it, I do this as I go so I can go back step by step and double check to make sure I’m adjusting things accurately. I have days when my eyes are just tired and they can’t make good decisions about what looks good and what doesn’t. Duplicating layers helps with this process and makes it easy to make changes if you decide tomorrow your photo kinda sucks.

Adjust the levels (Image > Adjustment > Levels). I usually move the white slider on the right hand side up until it sits directly under that black hump OR until right before the whites in your photo start to get blown out, whatever comes first. Be very careful not to adjust too much. In this case I stopped before the humps because all the white walls in my photo started turning nuclear white, (it’s a color that exists, seriously.)

Step 2: Adjust the curves.

Duplicate the “levels” layer and rename it.

Adjust the curves (Image > Adjustment > Curves). Check out the image below for help. I always pull the curve slider up right around the lower left hand quadrant and then again at the upper right hand quadrant. The lower left hand corner helps determines the look of your shadows and the upper right hand slider determines the look of your highlights. Start with the bottom left, shadow side first. Pull up and move around with your cursor until you find a level that looks good to your eye. Then move the upper right “highlight” slider. This one is sensitive, again be careful not to blow out your whites. It’s easy to go too far.

Step 3: Adjust the Brightness & Contrast

Duplicate the “curves” layer and rename it.

Adjust the Brightness & Contrast (Image > Adjustment > Brightness/Contrast). You will find sometimes that you need to up (up is what I call moving the slider to the right resulting in a positive number) the brightness quite a bit and sometimes you need just a little touch, like I do in the photograph of my bedroom. It all depends on the exposure you used while taking the photo and the lighting at the time. Occasionally, I will up the contrast a touch, but for me, this isn’t always necessary.

Step 4: Adjust the Hue & Saturation

Duplicate the “brightness/contrast” layer and rename it.

Adjust the Hue & Saturation (Image > Adjustment > Hue/Saturation). This step can be very important. With all that lightening & brightening we did in the previous layers our colors can get a bit over saturated. I kinda love this look because I’m a sucker for tons of vivid colors especially against neutral backdrops, but sometimes it can get to be a little too crazed. The Hue/Saturation tool will allow you to tone down those blaring colors by moving the slider to the left.

Cool! You are just about done, that is if my methods actually work for you ;)

Lastly I might adjust the “Color Balance” slightly but isn’t always necessary, especially if I/you white balanced prior to take taking the shot.

So like I said in the beginning, I do not consider myself an expert in this area. I’ve been using photoshop for like 15 years (holy geez), but I don’t make a habit of learning new things. I am an old curmudgeon that is stuck in my ways. I am sure there is a much better and more efficient way of doing all of this so if you have any tips for me I’d be happy to hear them.

Thanks for looking!

Sources:: Pugly Pixel Graph Paper

Hey Guys,
You might have noticed that I have been up to a lot of new things around the old Henhouse these days. I’ve got the new site redesign, some new features (like the etsy finds), a really awesome new spotlight involving cool people and studio tours, and some new projects I’d like to share with you. To celebrate all the new changes and to welcome you to the new and improved Henhouse, I’d like to try something new, a GIVEAWAY! Yep that’s right. Colz and I are going to be giving away a suite of 3 Valentine’s (featured below) from our stationery shop, The Henhouse Press.

All this being said, I’d love it if you made yourself at home, check out the new space, nose around and head over to the Facebook page where I have been sharing news, a few instagram photos and some other random inspiration.

Here’s the Deets:
❤ This Giveaway is for a suite of the above 3 Valentines. The top 2 are letterpressed A2 notecards in Fuschia and the bottom is a handmade, Gocco screen printed note card (also A2) in Neon Pink & Gold. Your sweetie(s) will love these!
❤ Enter your name and email address in the comments.
❤ Tell me who’s your special valentine(s)
❤ Entries will be accepted through the end of the day (8pm CST) Wednesday, February 8th and the winner will be announced on Thursday, February 9th!
❤ The winner will be randomly selected from the pool and notified by email.
❤ International and domestic participants are welcome, and the items will be shipped for free anywhere.
❤ Please do not email your entry, I will only accept submissions left in the comments, thank you!!!

Yep, We’ve got new Valentine’s in the Etsy store and these ones are pretty great. Printed with super Hot Pink & Metallic Gold ink they kinda rule, seriously, how could you go wrong?

The abbreviation on the front could stand for Happy Valentines Day, or, it could stand for any of the following;

• Herpes Vulva Dong
• Happy Venereal Disease
• Hot Vajayjay Dookie
• Huge Virtual Dong
• Hilarious Vagina Dicks (my favorite)
• Humping Very Daintily

Okay, I’m spent, this is harder than it looks.

Here’s another pic and the details.

This single, screen printed valentine card comes complete with a coordinating kraft paper envelope. The inside of this cards is left blank, and is just waiting a special, or not so special message for your sweetie .

The note card is A2 size (4.25″ x 5.5″) and packaged in a cellophane bag for protection.
Please order soon, so that I can get these sweeet thangs to you by V-Day.

So a year ago yesterday I did a post about how cold and snowy it was and how I couldn’t stand it anymore. Seriously, last year was nuts. I think by February 1st it had already snowed 5 feet or something. Totally unreal, plus it was in the negative digits for weeks on end. So here we are February 1st 2012 and I can see grass, it’s 40º out and there are puddles. For realz. I actually think spring is right around the corner.

Let me back up a sec. So, if you weren’t following me last year this is what happened. I was totally over winter and I had the SADS so Finn and I take a trip to the flower store to pick up some succulents to fend off those winter blues. We plant them and wait for spring. One year later; 40% of the succulents are dead, 40% are huge and the remaining 20% (aka 1 plant if you’re good at math) is super crazy and weird looking. Not bad odds? Not so sure about that. Anyway. Just like the Empire Penguins march to lay their eggs so do Finn and I march to the flower store every February 1st hoping for signs of spring.

Taking into consideration our not so hot odds with succulents, we go the extra mile and buy a new planter and some drainage rocks and some dirt so these guys can have an actual chance; all things we should’ve done last year. Finn & Elsa take charge and a planting we-a-go.

We plant our succulents and set them in the window. We are dead set on spring.

I thought I’d try and be all cool like Daniel over at Manhattan Nest and spend an evening removing paint from my bedroom door knobs, It would’ve been cool if it won’t have been so hard.

So I’ve been wanting to remove the paint from these knobs for awhile and here is the reason why; on the main floor of our house none of the knobs have been painted and they are all kinds of this beautiful dark metal (I don’t even know what it is, Bronze maybe?) Anyways, I thought I should try my hand at stripping the knobs upstairs to see what I had. First I spend like an hour with a utility blade trying to get the paint out of the screw heads so I could actually try and remove the hardware. Then I boiled them in a pot for an hour or so, the paint was all blistered and looked like it would come off like butter, which was partially true, it did, but it also left a lot of paint in the grooves. This part was the worst and a total a pain in the butt to get off. After a good hour of scrubbing with some steal wool and a steak knife (I know, but it’s was there and it worked) I was able to get off most of the paint. I reassemble the hardware on the door, and stand back to look at my hard work. But it’s not super beautiful, it only looks okay. Now I realize the whole door needs a new coat of paint, and all the trim and all the molding, and if I’m going to keep this look up I have a good EIGHT other doors to do.

No, my knobs do not look as beautiful as Daniel’s, and yes, I should’ve probably left them white, but sometimes a girls got to dive right in and see what’s out there.

I’ve been in the market for a good lamp for the music room, in fact, I need new lamps for a lot of rooms. Since we moved in (and even before) we’ve made a habit of buying the $9.99 Ikea lamps with paper shades when we need a little light, seriously, I think we have 4 of them. For the time being they work as good place holders, but those paper shades won’t last forever. Anyways, I am always searching through etsy for cool lamps. Here’s the coolest of the cool currently available on etsy today, and all for under $100. I wonder if any of them will end up being mine??

1. The Atomic Bowling Pin Lamp! $27.00 + $30.00 (for shipping)
2. Danish Diamond Lamp $58.00 + $22.00 (for shipping) – Don’t you love that diamond pattern?
3. 1960′s Teak Lamp $39.00 + $19.00 (for shipping)
4. White Textured Lamp $89.50 + $18.00 (for shipping) – Okay, so technically with shipping it’s over $100 but barley, and it’s pretty darn beautiful.

Oh man, I totally got all nerdy yesterday. After watching 2 episodes of Secrets from a Stylist I felt inspired to pretend I was a stylist (yeah right.) Anyway I went around and found all my pillows and tchotchkes set them all out in a pile and then practically put them back in the same spots I found them in. Also, I would never leave that sheepskin on the coffee table, that would just be weird and Jeff would laugh at me. I guess I’m just not there yet. Anyways, then I got my camera out and decided I would try my hand at taking some vignettes. Do I ever take vignette style photos? Answer: Barely ever. What I did discover, sometimes photos can make your stuff look way better than it does in real life. Also, vignettes are cool because you, the viewer, have no idea that there are toys and other crap all over this living room, you just can’t see it.

I had taken a few photos around the house this weekend thinking I might try and do a post called “Inspired by the Royal Tenenbaum’s” or something weird like that, but when I went back to look at them this afternoon I realized that they weren’t really that Tenenbaumesque (which made me sad because I like to think my house aspires to be the blue smaller version of that house.) Instead I realized how similar the color themes were from room to room. Two of the photos were from the dining room, and two were from the new updated music room. This bright poppy coral color is something that’s showing up more and more around my house and is totally unintentional. I guess I’m just secretly drawn to the contrast between the muted greys and the bright red-orange, but seriously, why wouldn’t I be? Seeing it like this makes it look kinda awesome.

Anybody else have a secret color that keeps showing up in your space?