Never-Ending Inspiration: My Sources are No Secret

 Happy Wednesday! I have been feeling very inspired lately. Perhaps it's due to our multiple failed attempts at DIY projects around the home. It's just a much fun to search for things that inspire us as it is to dream up our own projects. If you haven't been to pinterest yet, let me introduce your new addiction. I commit at least 5 minutes of break a day to zone out and get inspired there no matter what. Another great place is dwellinggawker. The pictures are all styled so perfectly. 

The pictures you see are from my "private" collection of inspiration. Each photo has something in it which provided an "ah ha!" moment and sparked my inner DIYer. We have A LOT of work to do around our home, and we strive to make every moment interesting and exactly "us". We battle with "what style" are we are quite often. 

As you see in our "agreed upon" inspiration, we contradict ourselves. The battle is craving a relaxing beach cottage, but living in a 1930's English Tutor - in a place where we conquer Winter half the year. Maybe we need a vacation house to get this out of our system. Im very much thinking a cottage by the sea. But I think I am ahead of myself. After all, we have a lot to finish in our main home. 

All of the photos you see here have been saved in a file in my computer for, I can only imagine, how long. Feel free to comment sources, as I believe in giving credit where credit is due. 

 

I thought it would be fun to share "where I go" when I need a little kick in the bum to get my creative juices flowing. 

 Emily Henderson's Portfolio: It's where I go when I am looking for that homey lived-in look. 

 Nate Burkus and Associates: It's such a great place to find insanely inspiring room compositions. 

 Anthropologie: They carry the best mix and match stuff, and the photos are always to die for. 

 The Selby: I could waste an entire day looking inside other peoples homes. 

 Dwelling Gawker: It's such a simple concept, but I am addicted to seeing the high end photos of both  beautiful and out of reach homes/rooms. 

 Jonathan Adler Interior Designs: He just seems like so much fun. I love to look there when I want to  add humor to a room. 

 Martyn Lawrence Bullard: He's off the wall streamlined and pish-posh. I love what he does so much. 

 Mary McDonald: She can do no wrong. She's bold and clean, and in the top three of my favorite  designers.

 Pinterest: Yep. Go. Sign up. Obsess. It's so loaded with awesomeness, you will squeal. 

 So there you have it! A complete list of non-blog inspirations. Do you have a place you feel is "secret"  you love to find inspiration? Please share!

Flash Master Jam

Happy Monday Lovlies! How is your holiday weekend treating you? We have some family in from out of town and are very excited to see everyone. The weather has finally decided to be beautiful, no complaining over here at Casa Katsaros. As we mentioned in a previous post, we have been working on the master bedroom, and are ready to share with you! Brace yourself, this is going to be a long post.

If you aren't up to date with how we got to the current state of our bedroom, check this and this out to get you in the know. Now that everyone is up to date, we had to make a bit of a mess to get things in order.

After moving things out of the room, and coving up the heavy stuff, the room looked like a wreck. Almost so bad, I couldn't image it actually finished. A messy room is a messy mind, and this room was pure chaos.

We had only painted one wall with the stencil we bought over at Cutting Edge Stencil, the rest of the room was in the original putty color that came with the house. It was driving me bananas.

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We decided to take the lighter color from the stencil, Cumulus Cloud by Martha Stewart, and have it color matched with Behr Premium Plus Ultra so we wouldn't have to prime + paint + paint again. It's a really large room, and as much as we love the result of paint, the process is kinda grueling. We also invested in some new tools because of this.

Let me introduce you to your new best friend. This is the Ryobi Duet Power House Paint System. She's not perfect, but she's darn good. Here is the deal in a nutshell. For $99 bucks, this investment is totally worth it. We picked it up at our Home Depot along with two gallons of the paint to finish off our room. Being this paint system is so efficient, we wasted nearly no paint, and only needed one gallon of paint. The process of painting the room took about 1/4 of the time we thought. It has a duel option, but Joey pounded it out with out my help. I did corners and used 3M tape, while he did the bulk. So why isn't she perfect? Truth is, she is a pain in the booty to clean. The cleaning instructions are vague, and he made a mess in the laundry room. Even with this flaw, we totally recommend the investment, it will save you time, paint, and in the end a lot of money. We have a lot more painting ahead of us, and the quote we got from professionals (we were curious) was outrageous.  

Notice the dramatic color difference on the two walls? Looks a bit more blue than we anticipated. Odd thing is, the room seems to change colors depending on where you are looking. The number one rule of design lives in lighting, and this is the first time we really experienced how dramatic the difference can be depending on said light. 

So the bones of the room are finally finished. The furniture is purchased and placed, the patterns and textiles have been selected and some are even living in the room. The "sparkle" and fun stuff is missing. One major item we haven't bought yet is this amazing mirror via Restoration Hardware:

She's pretty and would fit perfectly over this:

Best news is, she's $1,200 and that's not including shipping. If you paid attention to previous bedroom posts, we have only spent just a speck over $3,000 for the whole bedroom. Seems a bit silly to spend that much on a mirror, but then again, she is very pretty....

In the meantime, the room is pretty unsparkely. The fun part is picking all the accessories and homey/cozy things. Check her out so far. We would love to know what you think!

We have some of those sparkle items in hand. If you remember, we have some amazing pillars from India circa 1880. I love them I drool over them. Right now they are hanging out in the upstairs hall until we decide on a few things.

We also have the amazing white moose head from Z Galleries, which sadly did not fit in the mudroom chilling in a basket, soon to be hung over the fireplace.

We also got some curtains from West Elm we placed behind the bed....for now. We love them, but aren't quite sure how we feel about them dressing every window in the room.

After we put the pillars back up, we will have a better idea of what works. Also, notice we are still fan-less? Another massive Restoration Hardware love fest going on there.

So there you have it! Our "finished" bedroom! As we add the elements that make it a home, we will happily share. Some financial contemplations and moral dilemmas going on as far as the things we love, and is the cash worth it. Have you ever faced this? Let us know, we are curious about how to solve a problem like a $500 fan you can't DIY your way through.

Happy Memorial Day!

Five Things to do Right Now to Redesign Any Room for Almost FREE!

Happy Hump Day! Is it me, or is this week moving awfully fast? With Spring being all the buzz and Spring cleaning being on the top of everyones list, don't you think a little revampping is in order? I love opening windows and playing around with a room for a whole day. It's quite rewarding to get a whole new look and feel on the cheap! Here are some tips to get you started.

1.) Empty the room of everything small, and if you can handel it, the furniture too.

 We bet you can't even guess what room this is!

Cleaning out a room completely will give you an instant new perspective as what the room could be. When filled with your things, it's hard to see the potential it's hiding. It's also a good chance to scope out if you really love your wall color, fan selection, and window dressing. When you bring the stuff back in your room, play with new layouts. Make sure not to block windows, and the sun really does something special to a room.

2.) Take home paint samples, and play with them!

We all know paint is the cheapest way to transform any room (furniture, floors, and fireplaces for that matter!). I don't know about you but I get excited when I am at the hardware store in the paint section. I am little a little kid collecting shiny new jewels every time I pass by the paint samples, and it's served me well. It's always good to have the samples on hand, but it's even better when you can envision them up on your wall. It's free. It's fun. And it will  motivate you to change things up!

3.) Make some art

We are FAR from artists in this house. I am not going to lie, I am a fine arts major switched to markeing because I had a professor tell me I was so bad at it. Dreadful, I know. So then, how do I make "art"? Easy! I don't need to be Picasso to make something pretty I love. We are big on shadow boxes, found object art, doily lamps, and photography in this house.

4.) Let the light in

Ohhhh. My fave. Sunshine all the time! Can you tell I'm a Florida girl? A sunfilled room is a glorious room as far as I am concearned. If you have small windows or big windoes, it doesn't matter - let the light in.

5.) Go shopping in  your other rooms

I love to shop. And I even have fun shopping in my own home. One thing I like to do is pull a bunch of stuff from a variety of rooms that hold a common feel or theme and use those things to decorate a whole room. It cuts the clutter down, and gives new life to already loved objects.

Pretty easy, right? We really do love "shopping" from our other rooms. It's probably our favorite thing to do when we don't feel like spending cash.