Drum Shades, Pendant Lights and... Cat Fixtures?

It was a lot harder than I thought it would be to find good inspiration photos of entryways I actually liked. I thought I was being all sneaky by giving myself an easy task for my weekly goals. Apparently not.

Bryan and I, we are wee little people. Bryan is just 5'4 and I come in at 5'3. We're not ridiculously short, but we're not basketball players either. So us short people, when we extend our arms all the way up, are pretty close to touching the ceiling. My Mom's husband, Larry, can touch our ceiling. He's like 5'8 or 5'9. What I'm tryin' to say is, our ceilings are not what you would call 'vaulted'. 

Which proves to be a problem with a light fixture. We have about a foot and a half of space (thats me remembering it generously) from the ceiling in the entryway to the top of the door-jam. This spacial issue does not allow for a grand light fixture. As much as I wish I could have something like this:

I can't. I probably wouldn't have chose that for this space anyways, but whatev. Add the fact that the entryway is flanked by two walls and doesn't automatically open into a wall-less great room, I have to work with what I have got. Right now I have one of those bulbous builders basic white lights. It's downright ugly and it casts a vomit-inducing yellow light. It's very welcoming. Any-whoo, ya'll know that I want to do something like this in the entryway. 

Image: Centsational Girl

Thinking about what light fixture I might want makes me think a lot about what furniture I want to have in the entryway. If I were to go with a simple, light I would feel like a bench with a chunky pattern like the one above would help liven up and give our guests a big hug when they arrive. On the other hand, if I were to do a bolder light fixture, then I'm thinking I would put three little stools, like this:

Obviously, I had to keep how I wanted to decorate the space in mind while I looked for lighting fixtures. 

Now, on to the actual inspiration! 

Image:  Lumens

I love this light fixture because it's timeless. It's also neutral enough that it goes with the cool, open feeling I have in my house but it's also traditional and it gives a little upscale Victorian flare to the entryway.

Image: Knights

 I like the idea of this drum-shade light fixture because not only does it seem "homey" but it's a bold fixture for my space, but its also close the the ceiling. I love that the manufacturer brought the metal rim into an overstated arch - it's a simple but dramatic feature that pops out when the light is on. 

A light fixture of this type would definitely go with the simple wainscoting from the picture above and it does makes a statement. But would it provide enough light for an area of my home that sets the tone for the guests that come over?  What could I do to ensure that this area would be well lit but not blinding? 

Could I possibly put one or two hardwired unassuming sconces above the wainscoting? Something like these from Pottery Barn? 

These would certainly add to the warmth of the foyer but wouldn't necessarily make a bold statement. It wouldn't be the main event of the entryway. Hmm, something to think about. 

What about something like the light above? I love how the light wood tones keep this pendant from being a show stealer, but the beautiful filigree has a flair of understated elegance. I think that with the oaty tan that I want to paint the walls and the white wainscoting, this bad boy would look pretty darn good in our entry way. I love that it screams "cottage on the beach" but can still complement almost any color I choose in our home. I dig it. I wonder though, what kind of light this emits, and if it would look good with six small-to-medium sized recessed lighting fixtures to the left and right of it? 

All I can say is that I looked at hundreds and hundreds of pictures for inspiration for my entryway and I haven't fell madly in love with any of it. Which says to me that I just need to keep looking. This was a great tool to get my brain churning and I'm sure I'll come up with something that'll be perfect. 

And just because I really don't know when to properly end a blog entry, I thought I would leave you with this eye candy. 

Image: Sisal Net

Because who wouldn't want a cat light fixture? 

2.5 is Better Than 0

Lets recap. The first week I did my weekly goals, I only managed to accomplish one goal. Booo.

Last week, I wrote about how I was inundated with mounds of laundry and I thought I was going to get lost.

This week, I.... well. I haven't done this week. Obviously I am off to a fantastic start. So, here we go. Last weeks goals were:

Week of January 9, 2011

- Post-guest Purpley Room Clean-up

-Install master bedroom wall sconces

-Beach Room Clean Up

-Redecorate living room (including new furniture placement.)

-Wash all laundry

Let's see how I did!

 

Week of January 9, 2011

- Post-guest Purpley Room Clean-up

-Install master bedroom wall sconces

-Beach Room Clean Up

-Redecorate living room (including new furniture placement.)

-Wash all laundry

I was able to finish two and a half things from my list! Score! That is definitely better than last week, but still not great. I do have some excuses reasons why this didn't happen. 

-Install master bedroom wall sconces

Okay, here is the dealio. I dig my wall sconces and I think they will be a cozy addition to our master bedroom. And they are sitting in the corner of our bedroom right by my nightstand and it makes me sad to see them there. But, I don't feel like I deserve them yet. My room is not decorated, it is certainly not clean, and I haven't paid much attention to it because no one sees it. That just ain't right, yo. I want our bedroom to be a safe haven... somewhere that Bryan and I want to be. And until I can get the rest of the laundry off the floor, and unpack the few boxes I have in there, I'm waiting to put my pretty, brand new sconces up. I'd also really like to paint in there before I attach them to the wall. 

-Beach Room Clean-up

Yikes-a-bee. Most of the floor is covered in this room with the hardwood for our floors. Bryan has yet to start on that project and I can't move them. I walked into this room to start and I looked around, turned around, shut the door and left. Know what you can handle, I say. 

-Wash all laundry. 

Alright, look here. I did SO MUCH LAUNDRY and I'm still not done. But I deserve a half a point because I actually worked on it. And that is what matters. I will get back on it tonight and I hope to be finished before the world "ends" in 2012. 

Two point five items done. I'm kind of proud of myself. 

Are you ready for this weeks goals (never mind the fact that this week is halfway over.

Week of January 16, 2011

-Continue Laundering

-Clean and decorate master bedroom

-Look at paint inspiration for the master bedroom

-Look at light fixtures for my entryway

-Unpack five boxes from the garage

As you can see, the beach room and wall sconces were dropped from the list. It just makes more sense to me to get the basics done in the master bedroom before we add frilly things. And the beach room? I need to prepare myself mentally for that challenge. :)

Move Over Ektorp

After this weekend, all I gotta say is poor Bryan. Ya know, I've dated a few guys. And a few of them were serious. But none of them had what it took to deal with me on a daily basis. Bryan is so carefree, I envy it. He worries about nothing and rarely does anything affect him. Life just rolls right over his shoulders. Whereas, I am a tightly knit ball of stress because I feel like I have to pick up all the slack of his lackadaisical-ness and really, it's very, very hard for me to relax when I know there are things to do. If the house is a mess, if there is laundry to do, if dinner needs to get cooked.. whatever it is, if there is something hanging over my head it is hard to really, truly relax.

This weekend, I had the best of intentions to get stuff done in my house. And while I continued doing loads of laundry, not much else happened. When I start getting revved up about getting something done in the house, I end up getting so overwhelmed that I just don't know where to start! It's hugely intimidating and paralyzing. And then I get mad at myself for just not doing ANYTHING. I'm smart enough to know that doing nothing gets you a whole lot of nothing.

While I should have been working on the house but wasn't, I did managed to stumble upon a little sale. I told Bryan that I wanted to go to Visalia so we could hit up Best Buy for these ridiculously expensive screen protectors for our phones and he jumped at the chance to not only get the phone accessories, but to go to Guitar Center. I told him to drop me off at Pier 1 and made him promise not to dawdle. I ended up finishing at Pier 1 before he was done at Guitar Center so I meandered over to World Market.

World Market just so happened to be having a furniture sale. 50% off! My wheels started churning. I've looked at WM's website many-a-time after a random blogger had an entry about it. I've even drooled over their furniture before, even though I knew 1. they are really expensive and b. I didn't know if their furniture was reliable.

I looked around, half hoping I would find some amazing deal or that I would hate everything and this sale wouldn't affect me. I walked around the entire store and then made my way up to the front and I saw it. Not too big, not to small. Clean lines, modern yet classic, slip covered for easy cleaning - not to mention easy decorating.

There were two key tests that must be conducted. I sat. It was firm, but comfortable. I was told that you should buy firm furniture because it breaks in and gets comfortable over the years and ends up lasting you a long time.  The pillows are filled with down. It was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. The price was right. Two of these bad boys in my living room would create a lot of seating, but it wouldn't make our space feel cluttered with bulky items of furniture.

Wanna see it? Here. Feast your eyes.

 The couch is a really pretty charcoal gray color that would not only work well with the cool colors that I already have going in my living room but would work with warm colors should I ever decide to switch things up. It is a tad smaller than the couch we have right now, but since I am wanting to buy two (which will give us a sectional feel) they are the perfect size.

Obviously, I'm sitting there in the front of the store, stewing over how I could decorate my living room and how many different ways I could put the furniture. In each way, there is a side missing. It would just be open and awkward. Chairs. I need two comfy single-seater chairs. I immediately was up and looking around and of course, I found these babies:

Again, I sat. I mushed myself down on these chairs and got comfortable. These are also slipcovered, which is a God-send for our critter-loving house. The chair design matches the couch I'm loving and they are narrow enough that they would fit the space. I'm digging that that they are neutral and can be dressed up with some funky pillows. I also love is that if I ever change my mind and want to get two chairs that have a bold pattern, I can easily slip one of these guys in a guest bedroom and the other in Bryan's office and they'll work perfectly. Gotta love investing in furniture that can be used in multiple rooms!

Anyways, I mentioned them in passing to Bryan, trying to hide how my mind was reeling and we popped over to, drum-roll, HOBBY LOBBY. Yes. Visalia has a brand spanking new Hobby Lobby and I was giddy with excitement. All I hear about some from of my favorite blogs is how they adore HL and now we have one! Unfortunately for me but many kudos to them, they are closed on Sunday to allow their employees time with their families and time to worship. Which I respect! Hopefully we'll make the twenty minute trek there again soon, because I want to go!

Back to the poor Bryan part. As soon as I got home, I started googling reviews of World Market's LuxeLuxe Slipcover sofa gives Ikea's Ektorp (the couch I have been using as a template for what I want and for a saving price point) a run for its money! It also had a link to an article the LA Times wrote about the best, highest quality sofas $699 and under and guess which sofa made the list?!

The entire time I'm finding all these nuggets of information, I keep reading them out loud, barraging Bryan about how these sofa's are turning out to be quite the deal! Then, all day Monday, I kept going on about how we should go to Visalia and get them. That by that night we could be cuddling on our new furniture watching a movie! Of course, he wouldn't budge. "We need to plan." He says. "We need to figure out what we already have saved and if we can pay it off completely next month." "We need to figure out where we are going to put the furniture we have right now!" UGH! Him and his adult thinking. Why can't we just go for it!? Figure it all out later?

I suppose it's because we are adults.

RATS.

Cards and Coffee

Just a quick update because it's on my mind. How much do I LOVE that my friends and I can sit at a table in Starbucks for two hours just talking, laughing, and playing cards? Best Saturday night ever!

Psst. This was posted on the go via Blogaway on the HTC Incredible. Any errors are because my thumbs get so tired that sometimes they don't hit the right keys. 

This Is One Way To Make Friends...

I'd like to start off this post by saying that I forgot to tell you something uber embarrassing last week. If you are anything like me, you think uber embarrassing stuff that happens to other people is hilarious but when it happens to you its mortifying. I'm a shy person and in an effort to be less shy I'll tell you this story.

I work at a school and I eat the same lunches the kids eat on most days. Before you roll your eyes and say "Ewwww." I'll tell you that our ladies make almost every meal from scratch and they are awesome. This is like home-cooked food. I love the food supervisor and one day she told me that she would never feed a meal to a child at school that she wouldn't feed to her children at home. She's a good, Christian lady and she and her team make some bomb-dot-com food.

So, we had turkey tacos on Thursday with veggies, Spanish rice and some sherbet. I had just eaten lunch and I walked outside and some kid was messing with a little kid, who looked close to crying. I was a bit hormonal last week, if you know what I mean, and I called the big kid over and just YELLED at him. There was a lot of "How  DARE you pick on this little kid. You are older than him and you should be protecting him! We do not tolerate any type of bullying in this school. Do you understand me?" The kid nodded his head but through the entire speech, he would not meet my eyes. He just kind of stared at my neck/upper chest area. So, I'm going on and on about how we treat other kids and I was getting all kinds of irritated with his not looking at me. I said, "And now, you don't even respect your elders enough to look at them when they talk to you!" And he looks up and says, "Sorry. But you have food on your shirt."

I kid you not, Internet. I look down and there are three pieces of Spanish rice on my blue shirt. I was mortified for a second and then I started laughing. I told him that it would have been nice if he had told me that earlier and I made him say sorry and he took off.  Freaking kids, man. Now every time I see him (which isn't super often, but often enough) he smiles at me  and waves. My new best friend.

Hope you enjoyed that little gem!

Room Within A Room Madness

My living room is a tricky little bugger. Its long, and a tad oddly shaped. And it's sort of wide. When we bought the house, there was a wall separating it and the first decision we made was to tear it down to create an open, airy feeling in the house. By tearing down this wall, we created a great room.

The living room starts out narrow because of the step-up dining area and then opens up a bit. Because of this, I knew the only thing to do was to create two separate spaces that would flow together and make sense. When you walk through the door, there is a long, semi-narrow entry-way. It's claustrophobically narrow but it's definitely not wide and comfortable. It's sort of in-between and because of this, it's a real pain in my arse to decorate. I'm going to post the floor-plan here so that you can refer to it and get an idea of what I am talking about.

I haven't had time to take pictures, but I will soon. Until then, we'll break it down like this:

Sitting Room

1. This is where I put the couch. The couch is a straight back in the Victorian style. It's not very big width wise and it seemed to "fit" here and helped keep the room open and light. 

2. This a tall bookcase. It's easy for anyone to curl up on the couch and pull a book from the bookcase to read. 

3 & 4. The rug I purchased to hide the trap door and anchor the couch is here. On top I placed a white coffee table which finishes the sitting area off nicely. Not drawn are the two floor pillows I purchased (for $8 each!) that I keep tucked away on the shelf under the coffee table top. 

Living Room

1. The comfy chair is angled just slightly towards  the TV for better viewing.

2. I just recently pulled the couch away from the wall because it left a huge void in the middle of the room. It also caused problems for me because I couldn't see the TV clearly. That is a dealbreaker, ladies! (30 Rock obsessed? Maybe a little!) I had been looking for inspiration online and I forgot where I saw it, but I read that pulling the sofa from the wall would help to float the room and make a small space feel better. So viola! I like it. My hubs is a little weirded out. He doesn't understand furniture that doesn't back up against a wall. 

3. This is a little sofa table that I put against the wall and under a window. I put some candles and decor on it, as well as a lamp. 

4. This is a small bookcase and I'm thinking I might get another one for the opposite side of that wall to anchor things a bit. Since it's small, it doesn't have that heavy-on-the-furniture feel and I keep the bookcases light with having stacks of books and a few knick-knacks. 

5. Right now, the TV is on a stand, but soon it will be hung against the wall with a custom made entertainment center that is nothing like an entertainment center at all. Excited? You should be! :)

As you can see? read? whatever, I tried very hard to decorate and have furniture without it being overbearing or stuffy. You'll get a better feel for it once I post pictures. I'm okay with this layout for now because I am working with what I have. But ever the planner, I'm already trying to think of ideas on ways to make this space really cozy and homey. Enter: The Internet. 

Here are a few photos that I saw that have a few things I am going for. 

All images in this post taken from IKEA Ideas and Inspiration.

Okay, here are the things I love about this room. I love that there is a media area that is cozy and close together but it doesn't look packed to the brim with furniture. I like that it seats 5 comfortably or 6 if there are four people snuggled on the couch. I don't like that the chairs by the TV are wood. I want something more comfortable than that. 

I like that there is a separate area with chaise lounges that you can doze, read, or even watch TV on. I like the IDEA of this set up. I, however, don't think it'll work in my space. 

The photo above is the middle in a three part series. As you can see, they have a more horizontal set up and they chose to create two rooms by placing two of the same couch back to back. They also used two different colors but made sure that there complemented each other, and then they tied the entire room together by using pops of blue. Using the patriotic red accents for one room, white accents for the other and a color that coordinates with both really gives this room a great vibe. I love it. 

When you are looking towards the white side of the room, you see that its the media center. 

 There are two cozy arm-chairs facing the couch for ease of conversation, an ottoman and a media center with a rug that anchors the room down. I like this area, but am not thrilled with having chairs that you can't see the TV at all. We are big movie-watching people and so are most of our friends. That is a must! 

To the right of the room is the following lounge/office area:

I really dig that they didn't use red in an overbearing way. I also love that the stager put games on the second shelf of the coffee table and flanked the table with two ottomans that look like they could seat one or two people to create a fun, easy going vibe. Just in that area alone you can have 6 to 8 people gathered and even more if you turned those awesome red chairs around from the desks. I've honestly never seen a space where there are two desks put together to create a craft/computer area for the adults or the kids. It is so functional! 

As much as I love this space, I'm not sure how it would work in my house and with my family. The area I have to work with does not have the luxury of width that this room does. It's narrow and difficult. Plus, the idea of talking hubby in to spending $1198 on just the two sofa's (without tax) ALONE does not sound fun. Eek! 

And, as a side note, I'm so frustrated with trying to find photo's on the internet that have a room within a room, or great rooms. I'm not having a whole lot of luck. Hopefully I can find a few more ideas to help me out!

More Changes

This weekend I'll be fiddling around with the blog, so you might see things disappear for a while. Come Monday, everything should be completed!

Thanks!

Psst. This was posted on the go via Blogaway on the HTC Incredible. Any errors are because my thumbs get so tired that sometimes they don't hit the right keys.