I love HGTV. I didn't even know such a channel existed until we moved into this house and ended up with cable. Now it fills my life with boundless joy. I have a billion design ideas and am SO excited to have a new, blank canvas to work with!
However, my budget is more "Design on a Dime" than "Divine Design", if you know what I'm sayin'. I'm having a hard time coming up with design elements that fit our budget and still look good..
Some of the rooms I have figured out. I'm pretty happy with my plan for the living room.
It's large for a living room, 14.5' x 18'. I had a hard time coming up with a color-scheme for the room. The carpet is nice, but it's a sage green. Which is on the "cool" side. That's fine, but my taste has leaned toward warm colors -- I've got golds and reds and browns in my living room now. So what color could I paint the walls that would work with our beige couch? Like I said, I was having a hard time.
I looked to
HGTV.com for inspiration and found this:
It is exactly what I want. (I even love the rug, but probably won't do something like that.) But I want the room to have the same sunny feel. Superman informed me that he planned on buying a new couch for the living room, so I didn't have to work with the beige! He
then informed me that he wanted to buy a baby grand piano for the room as well. He's mostly buying it because I'll be able to teach piano lessons if we own a piano, and if he's gonna buy one, he might as well buy a pretty one. (And we can find them for pretty cheap on
KSL.)
So I'm going to go with a creamy yellow for the room. I think it'll bring out the yellows in the carpet and not so much the blues and grays. I hope to find a couch similar to the one in the picture -- off-white, classic, comfortable. I'm hoping to get a dark brown/cherry colored piano for the far corner between the windows. I've got some other chairs and a small table that will go in the room, as well. Then it's just a matter of accessorizing! Not quite sure what I'll do about curtains, though. White? Patterned? Sheer? I just don't know yet.
The next room I have planned is Miss Marvel's. Right now, it's being used as an office. (It's bigger than it looks here, but not terribly large.)
I'm going to paint the bookshelves white and the walls a really pale pink. The sage green carpet is in her room, as well, so I thought green walls (like she has now) might be a bit too much green.
I'll keep the curtains, of course. I hope to just use the bookshelves for all the storage I need. I'll get some pink and green storage bins for diapers, toys, even clothes. Then all her knick-knacks and books can go up higher.
(How cute would polka dot ones be with her curtains?!)
There aren't any closet doors, but I'm just gonna work with it. I want to get some shimmery sheers to hang and tie at the sides of the closet. Some day she can have a play kitchen or a princess vanity in the closet. (Having a little girl is SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!)
I know what I'm doing in the boys' room, too. As much fun as the superhero room would be, it's just not practical. That room will mostly likely belong to Miss Marvel (or a baby boy) in a few years, and I don't want to have to repaint. Plus, that room is not going to be a play room
at all. They will have beds, clothes, and book in there -- that's it. So it'll be a soothing beige, and they've got dark blue and red bedding already. I'll frame those scripture hero posters around the room and be done.
The next few rooms, however, are what I'm still trying to figure out. Take the kitchen:
I'm probably not going to touch the actual "kitchen" part right now. The previous owners remodeled it themselves -- as in, they
made the cabinets. So while they aren't exactly the most modern things, they don't scream one era or another. And frankly, painting those doors would make the look cheap. Maybe I'll add some hardware. We'll have to redo the entire kitchen if we want to really update it.
The fireplace and dining area, however, is something I
can change. I'm hoping to paint some kind of green on the back wall to minimize the orange-ness of the hardwood floors.
But what shade? Superman and I are still trying to find something that makes both of us happy. I'm (of course) leaning toward the warmer tones -- an olive green of some sort. I kind of have a "Tuscany" theme going in my kitchen now, so that's what appeals to me. However, this kitchen has a very different feel and so I'm just not sure. Superman wants something lighter.
He also REALLY want to do something to the fireplace. Personally, I'm fine with it. It's a little drab, but it'll look better with some decor on the mantle. And I think an olive green would go well with the reddish-brown of the brick. But Superman wants to paint it black. Or tile it. Honestly, he wants to buy a small Greek column, saw it in half length-wise, paint the mantel white, and build a surround. While I admire his creativity, I don't think it's going to look as good as he wants it to. Also, we aren't terribly handy. We
might be able to pull of tiling it, but building a mantle takes a bit more skill than we possess.
So. Kinda stumped in the kitchen.
On to the family room downstairs.
This room has newer, more neutral carpet downstairs. Beige and mocha colored. I was gonna keep it simple down here and just paint it beige, but will that be too much beige with our couches?
(current living room with couches)What do you think? Too much beige? We'll also have our computer and book shelf down there, both a honey-colored plywood. What color would you do down there? I think a neutral green would look good down there, but I'm obviously partial to green. The large cabinet in the pic of the family room is staying, too. So we've got toy storage! That picture doesn't show very well how large the room is -- I was standing on a treadmill in the corner to take the picture. There's a window to the right of the TV that you can barely see, and a closet next to it.
So I need some help!! What would you do?
What color would you paint in the kitchen?
What about the fireplace?
What would you do downstairs?
Help me design it!
