Design Inspirations and Style Stories

Discover the art of home design and decor with our weekly series, Design Inspirations and Style Stories.

Delve into behind-the-scenes insights, curated shopping finds, and expert advice, as we journey together to create spaces that reflect your unique style and personality.

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Our Main Bedroom Project – A Personal Story

You may remember this last month I shared that we are giving our main bedroom a whole new look with flooring and furniture/accessories. What felt like a project that should take a couple weekends is still going nearly 6 weeks later. Have you been a part of a project like that before?

Here’s a quick recap and a proper “before” photo above, we had very old and dirty carpet in our home that was here before we moved in. The home was possibly rented throughout the years as well and had really seen some wear/tear. It was necessary to continue trading out the carpet for the LVP we installed in our daughters room this last summer.

We got to work and pulled it up. We began installation and it went smoothly. It just took longer than we expected as we wanted to make sure we secured squeaky floors and paid special attention to doing the prep correctly. Here is another look at the “in-progress” stage of our bedroom below. You can see a peek at the new flooring.

Then came the plan for the bathroom floors! We have a very small little bath with toilet and standing shower. In our previous home we had 1 bathroom for the 4 of us, so having a bathroom to ourselves is such a gift to us. We don’t take it lightly. I wanted to give this space a very quick updated look with as little work as possible. This is where floor tiles came in and we thought, “easy enough”! The photo below shows how we began to lay things out and get a visual.

Very long story short, our grout lines were too big to install the peel n stick on top of and even when we did the prep (applied thinnest to level things out)…

It didn’t work! Ugh, the thin set came right up. For some reason it wouldn’t stick. We resolved we would put new subfloors down and then lay the peel-n-stick. It turned into one thing after another and we found extensive damage around the toilet. Many things needed to be replaced and I am amazed at my husband’s hard work. He has managed to fix these thing and make it right. So while it was a headache and not the quick turnover we had hoped for, we found structural issues that really were a non-negotiable. In the end, we are so happy to have found the problems now instead of with a pricey leak. Moral of the story… When design problems arise there really is a silver lining at times. In this case, it is a functional toilet and catching a mess before it happened, lol! Stay tuned as we plan to start putting the tiles down this evening. If all goes well, I’ll share the product with and an update next week!

A Little Design Advice From Me To You

When talking about timelines, I feel many DIY projects need to have an estimated timeline doubled as a realistic expectation. That is truthfully just sound advice and something I think is valuable for a do-it-yourself job or on occasion a professionally hired one. Professionals will do their very best to stay on target and every once in a while, there are things outside of their control that may prolong a job. There are always so many factors that go into projects big and small. Having a healthy idea of what a project COULD take really helps with the stress, budgeting and overall expectations. This is in no way a discouragement from DIY or taking on projects as they are my favorite! Just encouragement on how to be mindful about them when planning and prepping.

Color Pairing And Ideas:

As a designer, I really don’t like to “focus” on trends. But there is no denying that red is high in demand this year, color wise. You will see it mentioned regularly and even when you are shopping local stores. If you are interested in trying this look out I suggest trying it in accessories and in these richer and moody red tones as that is a friendly way to try out a trend without major investment or commitment. I included some colors that would work well with these types of reds and how they could be paired.

What’s Inspiring Me Right Now!

I am really getting an urge to bring some pops of color into our home with art and books. I love our neutral themed home, it feels like “us”. But I do feel the need for some playfulness with color. I already have some gallery walls going and I hope to bring some fun prints or paintings here and there on our newly planked walls in the family room.

This was our bathroom in our previous home and this brighter vanity was a pretty addition to our neutral spaces. I am testing out some blues that I will hopefully incorporate into our bedroom space soon too.

Shopping Sources And Finds:

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As part of my job, I am always sourcing design/decor finds. I am going to start sharing those with you here. I plan to sprinkle in some general household things too (i.e. cleaning, cooking, organizing). Here’s a look at what caught my eye this week:

• This waffle knit blanket. I’m personally impressed with the quality and the price! You can see what a great layering addition it is to our bedding here too. Can’t wait to share everything with you soon!
• Electric Spinning Scrubber: I have owned this for a year and it is the only thing that gets our older shower clean to my standards, lol. I can’t wait to use it again once this project is done and we have our bathroom back!
• Blue Striped Dish Towels: I recently purchased these and replaced my older ones I can no longer purchase. They are my new favorite!
• Teak Cooking Utensils: I recently researched what is the best wooden material for wooden utensils and from what I found, Teak is the answer! I have been trying these out and really enjoying them.
• Cordless Table Lamp Option: You may remember how much I love cordless table lamps. I found another option that looks really pretty too!

I hope to keep sharing these weekly or biweekly posts here with you each month. I will be sharing some inspiration design boards, color pairing ideas, and more throughout the posts so make sure to check back!

Thanks so much for visiting today and see you back here soon…