Creative Space - Home Office Decor

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I can hardly believe the amount of time I have spent looking at home office pictures on Pinterest. If you have an account, there's a 105% chance you've pinned an apple monitor in front of a black wall that's covered in white frames, or a gorgeous all-white-and-gold office set up.

Well, for me, the time is now.

In our new digs, I finally have an office. My job is mostly spent indulging in the creative process, so it was imperative that I get the design aesthetic right for me. It had to inspire me to be creative and encourage me to push through mental blocks without distracting me from getting things done.

Let's talk about color.

Oddly enough, I have learned that I don't like color too much. I find it distracting, and sometimes it makes me stressed out or hyper (I'm looking at you, red/yellow/orange). In the room where I work on branding, create artwork, and brainstorm book ideas, stressed-out-and-hyper is not a good mood.

Instead, I have gravitated to whites and grays. Then, I worked in some colors that are calming to me - light shades of purple, blue, and pink, for the most part.

Flowers.

One office staple is the presence of a small bouquet of flowers. A large vase with a high gathering of flowers would overwhelm my small desk (and, honestly, I would probably knock it over). Instead, something small adds just enough color and interest to my space without overwhelming me.

I don't always have pink flowers, but I tend to stick in the pink/purple/white hues, because it works so well with the painting above my desk, which was a find 4 or 5 years ago at Cooper-Young Festival in Memphis, TN. 

Furniture finds.

I am currently using a desk that was a vintage find back in Chicago, and used to be owned by the U.S. Railroad Company. I have paired its antique, industrial look with the sleek, contemporary look of a white and gray setu chair.

White and gray.

The combination of white and gray is echoed in a silver-framed floor-to-ceiling mirror across from my desk (similar here), as well as the white and gray Urban Outfitters rug that lines the center of the room.

Natural elements.

I also try to work in natural elements, wherever possible. I started by re-using a piece of birchwood that held the table assignments at our wedding. It now holds a stack of my business cards for Createlive Consulting. (Guess what my colors are? Black and white.)

Inspirational pieces.
I have also been trying to work in tiny, inspirational pieces. I fell in love with this sea urchin-like pink candle, this orange citrine (which is not typically my color, but it is soft and meant to encourage creativity, so I bought the darn thing), and this tiny "it's a beautiful day" pencil.

Underneath my second monitor, I have a pair of miniature Dutch wooden shoes, which were an early-relationship gift to me from my then-boyfriend, now-husband. 

In front of those shoes, I have a small slip of paper with a quote that is extremely important to the creative process and, specifically, the publishing process. The road to being a published author involves a lot of criticism and failure, but this reminds me to dare myself, to push forward, and to continue to allow myself to fail.

Whitewashed bulletin board.
I also have a large bulletin board in my office, where I put up special cards, notes, and pictures. It was originally your average brown board, but I decided to paint it with the same paint I used on the walls, because I didn't want it to break up the space. This echoes the white background of my artwork above my desk. In short, I wanted to keep things clean.

And yes, as you may have surmised, both the walls and curtains are white. 

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

• What colors inspire you?
• Would you ever paint a bulletin board?
• What kind of flowers do you like most?

Don't Lose Your Marble(s) - Bathroom Counter Top

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Other bathroom remodel posts:

Bye Bye Bye to 80s Tile - How To Remove Trim and Tile, Bathroom Renovation Part 1

She Only Wants Me For My Beadboard - Bathroom Renovation Part 2 

Trimming and Caulking and Painting, Oh My! - Bathroom Renovation Part 3 

Paint That Funky Mirror, White Girl - Bathroom Renovation Part 4

It's official: we are over the hump. The worst is over, the tub is back in place, and the walls are painted, beadboarded, and caulked.

But then there is that nasty countertop...

It actually looks inoffensive with the rest of the bathroom finished, but let me give you a reminder of what that baby looks like up close.

Have you ever tried to clean a tile-and-grout countertop? What about after putting on bronzer and blush powder, which unavoidably spills a bit and ends up - you guessed it - on the grout.

Bust out that toothbrush, my friend. You're gonna be scrubbing.

When we finished the rest of the bathroom, we decided to save the old vanity but replace the countertop with something that fit the room better and made it feel more upscale. 

We looked at marble composites, granite, solid surface, and regular marble. In the end, we liked a honed (i.e. not shiny) carrara marble that is white and gray, and pulls from the whites in the floor tile.

The first step in getting this bad boy in place was to remove the existing countertop. For the most part, this wasn't too difficult. Just a process of pounding upward until it broke free.

You may notice, however, that there are some gaps in the beadboard because we cut it to fit around the old counter. Thankfully, because the wall is beadboard behind and next to the sink, we knew we would be putting in a backsplash, which would cover the gap.

The counter top came pre-cut with the hole for the under-mount sink, which was separate. First, the countertop was glued onto the vanity, and then the back splashes were installed as well. We had free installation from Duca Tile, so they took care of gluing it down and caulking the corners.

They also used a two-part epoxy glue to mount the sink underneath the countertop.

Here is a close up of how the marble backsplash looks next to the beadboard we installed.

And here is a farther away shot that includes the sink along with the beadboard, trim, and mirror. 

And now for the fun part... before-and-afters! 

And another angle...

We still have a few tiny projects left - like replacing the beige outlets (we replaced the outlet plates, but the outlets themselves are still a darker color) and installing the hardware for the vanity. But, the big pieces of this bathroom are finally finished.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

• Would you use marble for a bathroom sink, or a different surface?
• Have you ever remodeled a bathroom? Where did you splurge vs save?

Kitchen Update - Aint No Party Like An Island Party

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Ladies and gentleman, you're invited to the island party!

Location: In My Kitchen

Date and Time: All Day, Everyday 

This kitchen update was (kind of) free, extremely convenient, and very, very functional. The "kind of" free part includes reusing an old piece of furniture we didn't think we would need again.

When we lived in Chicago, we purchased a kitchen island. We wanted to have a non-permanent piece (we were renting) that would give a focal point to our kitchen and provide a space for people to congregate around.

We ended up purchasing the "Threshold Kitchen Island" from Target. It was (and still is) an unbeatable price at $249 plus my wonderful mother's 10% Target discount for having a Target Red card.

On top of the price, we loved the hidden storage. While open-shelving kitchen islands are pretty, this one offers a way to store things out of sight, and the inside drawers even pull out, in case you are putting something heavy on it.

Additionally, the "bar" side of the island can be extended or folded down (it's up in the picture above, and down in the picture below), which gives you the option of having a two person breakfast bar in your kitchen.

When we moved out of our Chicago apartment, we had a little debate over whether or not to keep it. We weren't sure if it would fit with the rest of our mid century furniture, and we didn't envision needing it. But, I assured my husband that, even if it wasn't in a kitchen, it could be a temporary piece in a guest bedroom or office. If you put the bar flap down, it seems a bit like a short dresser.

Little did we know how handy it would turn out to be.

When we bought our new house, we realized it would fit perfectly. Between the simple white cabinets and the butcher block top, it was going to be a perfect or almost-perfect fit for the space, without us having to shell out any cash.

Once the island was set in the middle of the kitchen and our dishes and other appliances were put in place, we transformed this room into a functional work space that allows multiple chefs to be in the kitchen at once. It made a huge difference in the amount of counter space we have to work with.

Another thing I love about this island is that it allows my husband to be sitting/drinkingcoffee/eating at the counter while I am still moving around in the kitchen. This house has a separate kitchen and dining room, so we would have otherwise spent a lot of mornings with me making my breakfast in the kitchen while he is eating or drinking coffee in the dining room.

Instead, we can enjoy the morning coffee/breakfast ritual together, in the same room. Huzzah!

For the sake of comparison, here are some before-and-after shots of the stove and island transformation.

Quick Note: These "before" pictures also leave out the much more fitting stainless steel stove/oven we purchased. If you missed that, you can check it out here.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

• What do you think about the change?
• Do you like kitchens with islands, or do you prefer to keep the space open?
• What do you do with all of your kitchen appliances? Clearly mine are sitting out on the counter, because I use them a lot, but I'm trying to figure out a cleaner way to display them.

My American Four Square - Upstairs House Tour

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I totally fell off the face of the earth for the last week due to a bathroom renovation that is driving me nuts and eating up a lot of my time.

Forgive me. Pictures coming soon. That makes up for my absence, right?

Now, picking up where the downstairs house tour left off... [If you missed it, click here to read it!]

As you head upstairs, the staircase turns inward and there is a beautiful stained glass window. The clear shape in the middle of this window mimics the mirror above the fireplace.

Stained glass window in stairwell

To the left, at the top of the stairs, is what we are currently using as a master bedroom.

Master bedroom

The floors in the bedrooms upstairs are in pretty poor condition because they haven't been refinished as recently as the downstairs floors. I have mixed feelings on this - it does give the upstairs a nice patina and historic look, but it isn't the most comfortable on bare feet, so we will probably cover any issues with rugs and eventually refinish it.

That said, many of these rooms have wonderful natural light. This part of the city is on a hill, so we are able to get extra light on this side of the house because all of the houses East of us are on lower ground. The natural light is what I love most about this room. It wakes me up softly every morning and makes it easier to get out of bed because there is no avoiding the fact that the day has begun!

There is also a door to the third floor from this bedroom. The door is around the bend to the left, by the window that faces East, and it leads up a stairwell to a well-lit and fairly large third floor that is currently empty.

Office #1

Across from the master bedroom is what my husband is using as his office. It's also on the side of the house with gorgeous natural light, so it will be a great space for him to work in (he works remotely, so he's in there all day). This room has a neat shape, and is very bright and spacious.

Office #2

Next to my husband's office is what is currently my office. It already looks significantly different than it does in this picture (posts coming soon), after a curtain change and a serious case of paint. In this picture, the walls are covered in a textured wallpaper that gives this room more of a beige look which I didn't care for... but the texture of the wallpaper ended up looking very cool painted! ;-)

Guest Room

Across from my office is the guest room. This is a view of the corner where the door to the hallway and door to the closet are. This room was pretty dark, due to some black out curtains, but we have swapped them out to give the room a brighter feel. Still awaiting furniture, which we are retrieving from Chicago this weekend.

And finally... drumroll please... the upstairs bathroom. This has been the bane of my existence for the past week because we are renovating it. The previous owners started the project, but now we are picking up the baton. It looks like one of the owners renovated it quite a while ago and it ended up having a very dated feel due to the wall tile, among other things. 

Stay tuned for a more updated (but still era friendly) bathroom post! 

^Go ahead and wave goodbye to that wall tile because it's not invited to stick around.

:)

My American Foursquare - Empty House Tour, Downstairs Edition

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If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you know that my husband and I just spent the last two days moving into a new house! Let the party begin.

One of the things we wanted while looking at homes was something with true character and style on its own - we didn't want a cookie cutter house that we would have to FORCE into having personality. It's totally a personal choice, but for us, it was extremely important to find something that felt significant and had a story behind it.

Here were our priorities when it came to picking a house:

• LOCATION! We wanted to buy somewhere within walking distance to yoga, restaurants, stores, and parks, because we like to live an active and on-foot lifestyle - Major check! Yoga is not even a full block away. I could do a whole post on things I can walk to from my new house, but I'll spare you... for now
• History! We wanted something that was older and very sturdy. - Check! Our new home was built in 1910 and it is considered an "American Four Square" style. It's a 4 bedroom, 3-story house in an historic neighborhood that we love. 
• Original, heavy wood doors - Check!
• Original woodwork, meaning trim, stairway, and built ins are original and have not been painted - Check! I am amazed that in over 100 years no one painted the trim or ripped out the built-in pantry. Thanks to everyone who ever owned this house.
• No carpet anywhere. We just don't like it, it's ugly, and it collects a lot of allergens. If there was carpet, we wanted something with wood underneath it so we could rip it out - Check! No carpet anywhere in this baby.
• Updated kitchen, meaning all or most appliances were stainless, adequate storage, and a dishwasher - Check! Everything but the stove was stainless, and we have already ordered a new stove to replace the white one.
• At least three bedrooms, preferably four (because we want a master, guest room, and at least one office but preferably two offices so that we can each have one) - Check! We have four bedrooms in this house, plus a large third story that will be another room or office once we spruce it up.
• A garage (these are especially hard to find in the neighborhood we looked in, because most of the houses were built before people even had cars!) - Check!

When we found this house, we pretty much knew instantly. We walked through it with smiles on our faces and just had that feeling you have when you find "the one." <--Yeah, it really feels like that, but I'm clearly a little bit dramatic! We put an offer in, and the next day, it was ours. Less than 24 hours on the market.

As I mentioned in my About page (which desperately needs an update), my inspiration to start a blog was YoungHouseLove - clearly a house-related blog, just based on the name. So, I started this blog with a focus on food, fitness, and home. But, I was living in small Chicago apartments and I couldn't do much with them, so the focus re-routed and the 'home' part got a little bit lost. I am so excited to have a place that is mine now, so that I can create an environment that is peaceful and unique and share it with my blog readers. Thanks for being along for the ride!

For now, here are a few sneak peaks of some of the features of this house we are so excited about. 

Original entryway.

Above, you see an image of the foyer and original entryway of the home. I love the full size mirror and the gorgeous antique light fixture that hangs from the ceiling.

Original wood stairway with a stained glass window

Across from the entryway is the original wood stairway. I appreciate the quality and brightness of the wood, as well as the gorgeous stained glass window that lets light into the stairway (more pictures of that coming soon).

The front room

To the left of the foyer is the front room. You walk through original glass french doors into this sitting room, where we plan to place a tufted couch and chaise lounge. This room has so many great features, such as the antique fireplace, gorgeous wood mirror, rustic industrial light fixtures, and the original glass french doors.

Ethereal living room

Through the front room is the living room. My favorite thing, by far, about this room is the bay windows. The combination of soft light and flowy drapes gives this room an ethereal feel, and we intend to juxtapose that with some modern furniture.

Here, we are putting our mid century couch, coffee table, and credenza. We are planning to mount our 60" flat screen on the wall above the credenza. Fingers crossed an old house can handle that...

Dining room

To the right of the living room is the dining room. There is a nice spread of high windows to let in light, but my favorite part of this room is the light fixture the previous owner added. I think it is so unique in this house and really an interesting conversation piece.

You can see through a small door to the top right of this picture - that goes to a walk through coat room that exists between the foyer and the dining room. So, if you wanted, you could let your guests in the front door, bring them into the walk through coat room to hang coats up, and enter the dining room. That coat room also has the door to the basement.

The kitchen is behind the living room. I love the backsplash (it looks off in this picture, but is actually white) and how simple it is, and I have already had a lot of fun playing with displays on those shelves.

At first, we considered adding upper cabinets that were white with glass inlays (which would have been true to this era of house, and also would allow us to keep the current lower cabinets without finding a perfect match). That said, now that we have put things away, we may leave it as is. Feel free to weigh in...

The fridge is unpictured here, but it is stainless and matches the dishwasher. We have a lot of other stainless appliances (Vitamix, juicer, etc) that will sit out, so we want the stove to match. (Hint hint: we already bought it)

The built in pantry

The pantry is between the kitchen and dining room, and this is by far one of my favorite features of the house. I am in love with these built ins - they are just so beautiful to look at, and I love the hardware, too. To boot, it stores an amazing amount of stuff, and is what is enabling us to get by without upper cabinets in the kitchen. I have put all of our things away, and we still have empty cabinets.

There is a skylight in this room as well as a window on the wall, so this pantry has amazing natural light. Get ready for lots of food photography coming at you from that built in table on the right.

Also off of the kitchen is a half bathroom. It is fairly small and simple, but gets the job done. I love the combo of the red door and red lighting. Great job, previous owners. You made our job easy.

Note to my readers... what should I put on those shelves up there? I want something decorative and interesting, because I don't need it for storage.

And there you have it! 

I am half-assing it and starting with downstairs only, because it is taking me quite a while to sift through my photos and pick just one of each room. I certainly could work on this all day, but I really should get back to things like unpacking my house and making myself food and, oh yeah, work.

WHAT ABOUT  YOU?

• What do you do in parts of your home where you place design before function? What kind of display areas do you have?
• Have you ever lived in an historic home?
• What do you think of open display kitchen shelving instead of upper cabinets?

DIY Save The Dates

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**FYI, I recently updated my website so that every image has an easy pin button! Just hover over any image on the page and a big red Pinterest "P" will show up on the bottom right hand of the image! Click on that to pin any images on this site, and they will link directly to the individual post that image comes from!**

Now that my "Save The Dates" are long received (and our invitations are out!), I'm finally sharing our Save The Date cards.

Because my fiance had a photographer lined up for a photo shoot right after we got engaged (literally - we went straight there!), we already had a bunch of great pictures of the two of us. I had shared some of the images on Facebook, but kept most of my favorites for use in things like Save The Dates, Wedding and shower invites, etc.

That meant that, when it came to designing our own Save The Date cards, we had a plethora of gorgeous pictures to choose from. But, we didn't even have to discuss it, because there was one picture that we were all drawn to.

I knew from the start that I wanted to design my own Save The Date. There's something about stock cards online that just puts me off, and I am so visually particular that I would probably be a designer's worst nightmare anyway, so hiring someone seemed out of the question. Since starting a consulting business, I'm now seasoned enough in Photoshop that I thought it was something I could do on my own.

I ended up going with a front that was very simple - this awesome picture of us kissing near the Kinzie Street Bridge, with some slightly transparent text on top of it.

The Front of our Save The Date card

If you read my post about designing my own wedding monogram, you might recall that we wanted "Vintage with a touch of modern." It is how I would describe our style, and it's the description my fiance says he used when designing my ring (they actually took some CAD designs for a more vintage looking ring and modernized and customized it to fit that description). I am equally drawn to weddings that are very vintage as well as weddings that are modern, so to choose just one or the other would have been difficult and left me feeling like something was missing. So, Justin and I decided on two typefaces to use on our wedding stationary. 

The first, Raleway, is very modern. It is sans serif (or, as I call it, "without feet"), and is very clean looking. It's also the typeface I was drawn to a long time ago, when I started my blog and used it for my header.

The second, Modern No. 20, is a bit more vintage. It is a serif typeface ("with feet") and has a bit more of a vintage, country vibe to it. The most ironic part is that it has modern in its name, but we're using it as our more vintage font. 

The Back of our Save The Date card

On the back, we used our custom wedding monogram. In some shape or form, it is on every item in our wedding stationary suite - from the save the dates to the bachelorette party information. Here, we used it with light blue lettering to give the back of the Save The Date card a bit of color.

Because our wedding is the same weekend as Lollapalooza (yes, we are insane), we decided to put some hotel information on our Save The Date to encourage our guests to book their rooms early. We also added our own hash tag for twitter and instagram, because I do social media consulting, so it seemed like a crime to not have social media be a part of our big day!

And last but not least, information about our website. Yeah, we bought the domain name. Not sure what we'll use it for after the wedding, but I'm sure we'll find some fun stuff to fill it with!

What about you?

• How would you describe your style?
• Would you ever design your own Save The Date or Invitations? 

Be My Bridesmaid? How To "Propose" To Your Wedding Party

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If you've been reading my blog in the past 3 months, you might know that I'm getting married. For some reason, until now, I haven't talked about it much in posts (other than calling Justin "my fiance" over and over and over again...). But, now, I've added a "Wedding" portion to this site, and will be talking about it a whole lot more!

I wanted to share what I did to "propose" to my bridal party. The way I see it, Justin had to put everything together for the perfect engagement - from designing the ring to orchestrating a photographer, from coordinating with our parents to duping me into thinking none of it was happening... so, why shouldn't I have to do some proposing, too?

Here are the basic tools I used:

• Wood Box
• Blue and White Twine
• Scrabble Tiles
• Craft Tags
• Martha Stewart Small Bunting
• Alphabet Stamps
• Black Ink Pad
• White Spraypaint
• Silver Spraypaint
• Lace

I created a box for each of my girls. I wanted these boxes to symbolize my wedding, so I included a lot of natural elements along with some DIY touches. I hand stained the boxes to a very dark color, then laid a piece of lace over the top and did a layer of white spray paint, then a layer of silver spray paint to leave a very neat lace pattern on the top.

I am envisioning chalkboards being a big part of my wedding, because I love the old school vibe they give off. So, on the inside of these boxes, I hot glued a chalkboard. Because the phrase "Will You Be My Bridesmaid?" seemed too hard to fit onto the chalkboard, I opted to break the phrase into two parts. 

I hand stamped "Be" and "My" onto two miniature bunting flags per box, then strung them on small blue and white twine that I hot glued to the top corners of the inside of the box lid. Then, I glued the chalkboards with the word "Bridesmaid" in the center of the inside of the lid.

How did I get the chalkboards to be such an awesome and fun shape? To be honest, this was just a piece of cardboard cut from a shoe box, which I then cut into the shape I wanted before painting over with chalkboard paint. But, it was the cheapest and easiest way to ensure I got chalkboard pieces that were exactly the right size.

As I mentioned, I wanted to bring in some natural elements to these boxes. I lined the  inside with one layer of thin burlap that I purchased from Hobby Lobby and one small layer of a gauzey/lace-like material that my sister had on hand. I thought it was kind of fun that, once you opened the box and saw the "Be My Bridesmaid?" question, there was still a bit of a "gift" to open.

I filled the insides with goodies, and no two boxes were exactly the same. I wanted some items to be in every box, but some items to be unique.

I included champagne corks to signify the celebratory nature that weddings have. Also, I love champagne, so it wasn't hard to collect the corks.

In some boxes, I included dark gray felt flowers to represent one of the important colors we are incorporating into our wedding as well as symbolize the fact that my girls will be carrying flowers as part of their bridesmaid job.

Some boxes also included a sample name card holder that is made from birch wood. I got a set of these at Anthropologie, and they really evoke the feeling of "the outside in," which is part of what I am hoping to achieve. Our wedding is going to be in a huge loft with a skyline view of the city, so we want to mix elements to combine the city life with nature.

Some boxes also included a CD of fun, girly, lovey music that I put together. It includes love songs from Disney movies, as well as more contemporary songs that are meaningful to Justin and me. I wanted it to combine the exciting feelings we have about love as children with the excitement I have about marrying the love of my life. I wrapped the CDs in blue and white graph paper, because I wanted to add another interesting visual element without adding any new colors.

Also, I included Scrabble Tiles that spelled out each girl's name (or a nick name, if applicable). This was my mom's idea, and I loved it, because Scrabble Tiles will also be making an appearance at my wedding!

All five of the boxes also included a set of four cards that I made, which were wrapped in the same blue twine I used to hang the "Be" and "My" flags. I printed these on some manilla folders I grabbed from my parents' den at their house. Basically, I cut those pages to be a print-appropriate size, and arranged all four pages to be about the size of a post card, so that they would all fit on one page and I could cut/separate them later.

Then, I glued thick, brown labels on the top of each card. The shape of these labels mimicked the shape of the chalkboard, and I hand-stamped the phrases "The Job," "The Girls," "The Dresses," and "The Timeline" on them.

I also used one of the fonts I'm using for my wedding. It's called Modern No. 20. It is also part of my Save The Date, so I am excited about the continuity there. It's the little things...

On the card "The Job," I wrote them a heartfelt note about why I wanted them there and what I wanted them to do. I didn't get strict or specific - I just told them that I loved them and that I wanted them to feel wonderful in their dress, to hold beautiful flowers, and to be there to support me as I marry Justin/

On the card "The Timeline," I just broke down the key dates that we have so far - things like an Engagement Party, Cocktails and Crafts Day, Bachelorette Weekend, Rehearsal Dinner, and Wedding Day. I kept it simple by putting the date, event name, and general location (like Chicago, IL or Libertyville, IL), so that they could plan ahead.

On the card "The Dresses," I put a description of what we're thinking to have them wear. I wanted them to know what to expect, so they could visualize themselves on that day.

On the card labeled "The Girls," I named each of my bridesmaids (so that they could start getting familiar with each others' names) and a short, silly, one sentence description about them. For my friend Kelsey, for example, I put "Most likely to give me a pep talk in baby talk," or something like that. The idea was just to keep things light and silly.

Finally, I closed the boxes. I gave two of these boxes out at a family party on the same day, so for those two, I tied some twine around them and added a hand-stamped name card.