Floral Love

It is never too early, I think, to prep for Valentine's Day whether you have someone to snuggle with or not. I think the little ones have it right, passing out Valentines to all of their friends.  I think for grown-ups, the perfect gifts include chocolates and flowers.  My favorite V-Day flowers remain the peony English Rose. They are perfect, especially in the color of blush. I can hardly resist having them all over my own apartment. They are a little pricy but definitely worth the sentiment.  

Arrangement from 2012 from J to A. 

If you are not a believer in gifting flowers because they eventually die, here are a few floral ideas that are meant to last......

via Anthropologie

Besos,

Mel

Choosing a Look for a Quick Chair Overhaul

As I mentioned earlier this week, the sitting area in our kitchen needs some serious help.  One quick and pretty easy way to perk up this room will be to update this old chair I have never gotten around to recovering.  I'm also thinking of painting the frame to give it some contrast, since the current color is somewhere between cream and beige-- but not in a nice way.  

There are so many fun combinations!  I'm thinking of either black or off-white for the frame, and something contrasting for the fabric.

Here are some fun ideas from Ballard Designs.

Jenny on LGN painted her bergere chair frames white.

And I love, love love the color of her stool here, Behr's Kiwi Squeeze.  I'm thinking it would look pretty amazing paired with a black and white bold print-- either a zebra or a chevron.  

(a closeup of the color)

Stay tuned for a transformation!  

And I haven't decided which look to choose yet, so I'd welcome your ideas:)  

xo

Liza

A little Love...

I know we are in January, but in the Casa de Smith we have already begun creating fun Valentine's Day decorations. I just love having all the fun reds, pinks, and light blues around the house. I say keep it simple when your decorating with little ones and your sure to have a home full of whimsy. 

Here are a few of my favorite images around my digs....

Happy Decorating!!!

Besos, 

M

Sitting Room Redo

Our visit with Mel last week was so much fun, and I loved getting to introduce her to our new hometown on her very first trip to Kentucky.  We took full advantage of the lazy days with no agenda and sat around for hours in our pjs by the fire.  Of course we couldn't resist a little decor brainstorming while she was here, and I definitely needed her help.  After making so many decisions, large and small, during the process of renovating and unpacking, I had hit on some real decorator's block, particularly with the sitting room portion of our kitchen.  Whenever this happens, I find looking to outside input always helps jumpstart the inspiration again.  

The cooking part of the kitchen takes up a little more than half of the room, and at the other end are our built in bookshelves, the TV and a small sitting area.  The kitchen itself is nearly finished now, but the TV section was looking pretty sad.  Because of that I don't have any photos of how it was when Melina arrived, but I'll try to explain.  Here's a really old photo showing where the space is in the house.

The problem in this part of the room is that it all felt too brown, too blah.  We've been using a square natural fiber rug we inherited from my sister years ago (yes, half of what we own is a hand me down:)), which I love, but together with the blonde bamboo floors, the yellowish china cabinet, and the wood door, it was just too much.  Melina and I agreed we needed a punch of color and stopped by Home Goods to check out their rugs.  You never know what they'll have that day, so we were thrilled to find several fun options at great deals.

We brought home our new find, and now I'm working on planning the rest of the room.  I love the colors and how fun and bright it is... but I still need to tie in the other elements of the space.  

 The next major projects in this room are:

1) Paint the wood on the door to match the trim to clean up the look and reduce the brown level in the room.

2) Recover chair and maybe paint the frame?

3) Finish recovering the love seat I bought for 5 dollars (!) in chocolate brown soft tweed fabric.

4) Paint the china cabinet... but which color??  There are so many fun ways to go with this one...

At this point I'm pretty sure we'll keep the rug, but I'm still thinking about another look.  I'm loving the idea of using the natural fiber rug with a zebra print cowhide on top, plus the brown love seat (assuming I ever finish upholstering it!) and some hot pink and black with gold accents.  What do you think??  I clearly need some help:)

xo

Liza

Making Memories

January tends to be a quiet month for most of us, especially when most of your time is spent trying to stay warm inside. January and February are great months to reflect on the years past and what is ahead. So, for me that means reorganizing our apartment, printing family photos, and making doctor's appointments. 

As I have been looking for new ways to display photos around our home as we all grow older, I happily stumbled upon OHHSIT. They have the most fabulous design ideas to capture your family memories and integrate them in your everyday living, all while making a design statement.

via ohhsit.com 

via ohhsit.com

I can not get enough of this idea. What a fabulous way to keep your family memories.


Happy Friday!!


Mel

a touch of pink....

The last few months I have had so much fun using assorted colored candles. During Christmas pink, red, and pale blue candles were set and lit for most of my table settings. I just love the look of them. If your thinking colored candles maybe a little to much for your settings, you can easily dip your to in by adding pale pink to your table. Last week we hosted a dinner party and I didn't want to OVER do it, so I mixed pale pink candles in with white. I think they were just the right touch for the evening. 

If you are not convinced, I loved these images I found on Pinterest.

Besos en Pink!!

Mel

Water Under the Bridge?

This hall bathroom is coming along, and I'm so excited to show you the progress we've made.  I'm making myself wait until it's truly finished before I post any more photos, but that shouldn't take too much longer.  In the meantime I'm considering our options for a new faucet, since the one we have now--in oil rubbed bronze-- doesn't match the rest of the space, which is finished in chrome and nickel.  I'm toying with the idea of trying out one of these fun vintage bridge faucets... what do you think?  Too much?  I'm on the fence, since something more understated might be a better fit for this tiny space.  

Home Depot

Amazon

Houzz

Decor Pad

Houzz

xo

Liza

Hi from KY

Friday News, and My Next Project

Things have been busy around here, and this week has flown by as we have been settling back into the normal bustle of life after our perfectly relaxing family vacation. Now we're now gearing up for our next exciting development: Mel is coming to town!!!  We are SO excited that she'll be here to visit us and feel particularly grateful to her dear husband, who has volunteered to care for their sweet kids for four days by himself:)  We are going to have the best time tooling around our new home with our old friend, and I can't wait for her to get here.  

In preparation for Mel's arrival, I have been busy trying to tackle that guest bathroom finally... Remember this?

I'm hoping that this, plus this...

Plus this...

will equal something close to a usable bathroom for Mel by the time she comes.  This is hard work, with lots of steps with drying time in between, so it will be a miracle if I can pull it off.  But it's worth a try!  And either way, we'll have a great time:)

Stay tuned for the full write up of this tiling project and plenty of before and after photos!

xo

Liza 

Mix it up...

Last Friday we hosted a party in the basement of the church. We did the best we could to transform the space. Since the basement is dark I added pink to the floral arrangements to give the space a pop in color. I think the berries, rananculas, and magnolia leaves turned out to be a happy combination. 

I love a pop of pink or red in these winter months!


Happy Arranging!

M