All posts tagged decorating

let’s talk about pinterest

by Megan on May 24, 2013 in blog business with 1 Comment

Soooo, Pinterest. Maybe you haven’t heard of it? What starts out as a fun little site can easily become the time-suck of the century. But I love it. And apparently so do a lot of other people.

But even though it’s touted as an organizational tool, I looked at my page the other day and it was a disaster! Duplicate pins, jumbled and mismatched boards; it was crazy, people. So, being the quasi-organization obsessed person I am, I set out to sort out my Pinterest boards. I mean really, what’s the point of having a cyber-fantasy life if you can’t even find the things you’ve saved?

It took a few months, but several nights spent half eating dinner/half staring at my phone, editing and re-pinning and it’s finally done!

Not only are there more holiday and room boards, but I’ve also got some fun new categories!! Like “a fun house”, full of quirky little touches that make a home ~~a little weird~~ unique. Or my new board for everything decorative; “pillows|lamps|accessories“. Heck, I’ve even got a straight up, dedicated “harry potter” board. (Yeah, I’m not afraid to go all out nerd on y’all!)

I’m also thrilled to report that a certain husband of mine (I only have one, so that narrows it down pretty quickly) has also joined Pinterest!!! Whaaat?? He’s just getting started, but I can often find him glued to his iPhone scrolling through the treasure troves. Sure, he’s only following me, and I’m his only follower, but hey, we’re just trying to eeeease him into it.

~~Are you on Pinterest?~~ Of course, you are. What kind of fun, weird Pinterest boards do you have? Is your husband/SO on Pinterest too? Share below!!

our home: bathroom style on the cheap

by Megan on May 16, 2013 in our home, style a room with No comments

On our latest apartment adventure, we set out to add some color and style to our bland, boring master bathroom. Every apartment we’ve lived in has had the basic bathroom features that are just bland enough to please everyone. Beige counters, basic cabinets and hardware, nothing fancy. But a room you spend your early mornings and late nights in should be at least a little pretty, right? Why can’t I brush my teeth and look at something colorful and happy? Of course, we don’t have the freedom (or resources) to go with a bathroom remodel, so I wanted to add just a few apartment friendly touches to spruce things up a bit.

The easiest thing you can do? Add art. On the two walls that were big enough for frames, we added some color with free art! I cut an old floral print down to size for the frame by the vanity and, adjacent to the shower, I added some super easy paint chip art. We bought the two white frames from IKEA for $5.00 each. The great thing about them is that they are pretty thin, so they don’t stick out from the wall very much, and they are also plastic. Perfect to protect our DIY art from humidity, but it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if the frames somehow got damaged.

One of the most exciting upgrades was buying new towels! We replaced all of our bath and hand towels with these fluffy ones in sky blue, navy, and white. They are also from IKEA and the quality is actually pretty amazing. Plus the colors lend to a more spa like feel and don’t clash with the cabinetry and wall color that we can’t change.

We also upped our bathroom organization! We bought these awesome corner shower shelves from Target that just suction cup right to the wall. We’re over a month in and they haven’t budged. Plus, the people that make them are smart enough to have slits in the bottoms, so they stay pretty clean as well! No fuss, no muss! (By the way, what it muss??)

And on the counter, I put my extensive collection of glass vessels by turning a square vase and glass votive into storage for cotton balls and q-tips. Totally free and it is worlds better than having packages of bath supplies cluttering up the vanity.

No, it’s not the fanciest makeover. Nor the most impressive. But, hey! We’re not trying to win a beauty contest here! The goal right now is cheap and making, what will hopefully be, our last apartment stylish without spending a ton of dough. (But when we get a house, oh man, y’all better be prepared for the paint and projects to be flying!)

What are some other inexpensive ways to freshen up a bathroom? Share ideas for storage and style below!!

our home: master bath updates

by Megan on April 3, 2013 in create, our home with No comments

Wow, so it’s been a while right? It turns out getting back into the swing of things after a one week vacation is totally harder than it seems. But I’m back now and I’m ready for a lot of new projects and fun stuff on Two Live Colorfully!

Before we left for Oregon, we had been working on sprucing up our master bath. The before was pretty bland.

We’re not quite done yet, but we did finally get some new towels and I made some fun paint chip art to liven things up!

We bought our towels from IKEA and they are surprisingly luxurious! We probably stood in the towel section of the store for a good 30 minutes trying to decide what colors to get. Of course, in the end, we went with the three colors that were right next to each other! Two fun royal blue, spa blue, and crisp white to balance out the colors.

I also grabbed a few of these NYTTJA frames for both bathrooms. They are thin, light weight, and the front is plastic, so I thought they’d be perfect to stand up to the moisture and steam from showering.

As for the art, I just raided the paint chip section of Wal-Mart, cut each chip into a square and then used double sided tape to attach them to white paper. It took less than 20 minutes and I love the way it looks! We had some pink paint chip art in the bedroom of our last apartment and I just think it’s a really fun look. It kind of reminds me of a photo that’s been blown up and each square is a pixel. Pretty cool and 100% free.

Still on the list of things to do:

add some art on the opposite wall
frame out the mirror
style it up

What rooms have you been making progress with? And what are your favorite paint chip projects? I know there are some really neat ones out there!

room love: vintage inspired

by Megan on March 21, 2013 in room love, style a room with No comments

It’s been a looong time since I’ve done a “Room Love” board but I just had to bring it back today. If you haven’t seen it yet, Emily Henderson styled Bri Emery’s living room and it rocks my world. Plus, it’s pretty cool when two bloggers you follow religiously, team up.

This room is outstanding! It’s bright and airy, it’s got lots of fantastic styling, and it’s beautifully mis-matched. Plus, it’s a rental! They brought this whole room together without painting the walls and doing anything super dramatic so it’s very achievable. Take a look:

Ahhh! It’s styled up but I don’t think too girly, which is obviously what they were going for because a couple lives here. The furniture, which is mostly reupholstered vintage finds, is all complimentary and all the color comes from fun accessories. And plants!!! We have zero plants in our apartment because I have a black thumb, but my birthday will be rolling around in a few months, and it’s been a tradition for the last few years to attempt to not murder a new plant so, we’ll see.

Now, here is my take on Bri’s new living room. It’s so amazing what Emily can do with those vintage pieces, but if you want to recreate the it’s nice to have a few easy-to-go-to resources:

There is so much fun stuff here!

According to the design recap, one of the goals was to purchase investment furniture; pieces that might have been a little pricy but would last forever. So, even though that Carter Credenza will run you in the neighborhood of $1700.00 it has a life time guarantee!! The couch is also a splurge at $1900.00 but it’s got a classic shape and the darker fabric will keep it looking nicer longer. Plus you can change up the look with different pillow case covers and throws!

I also mentioned how much I love the plants in this living room! Especially that huge fiddle leaf fig tree! The ficus plant from IKEA gives you a similar effect with the big gorgeous leaves with a smaller price tag.

Another one of my favorite elements is that black and white tribal print chair. According to Emily, it was a vintage find that was reupholstered in that awesome fabric but I think the Varanasi Stool from CB2 has a very similar vibe!

And, as far as accessories go, it’s all good, baby! Emily incorporated a lot of gold accessories, which totally rules. (I mentioned I’m really digging gold right now, right??). Fill in the gaps with fun, colorful items like lamps, pillows, and books!

I think the reason I love this space so much is because it is a room that looks very livable. It’s not a matchy-matchy, buy everything in a set sort of vibe. It’s very true to Bri’s style.

What do you think of this makeover? Do you love the “lived in” vibe as much as I do??

color pops: minty fresh

by Megan on March 14, 2013 in color pops, style a room with No comments

Mint is just an all around great color. In fact, it might just be the perfect pastel. It can be casual or fancy and a few pops of mint look great just about anywhere. With St. Patrick’s Day and Easter celebrations going on this month, I thought a Color Pop tribute to Mint would be very appropriate!

As you can see, there are a lot of different shades of mint, so it’s up to you to decide which you like best. Bright and cheery like those pillows? Or muted and moody like that awesome couch? I’m pretty sure any guy would be happy to hang out on that!

Plus, mint is super versatile with other colors! Pair mint with touches of gold for an instant glamorous touch. Or match it up with bright colors like coral and yellow for a more casual, fun aesthetic. Either way, mint makes an amazing color pop. Wouldn’t that couch be gorgeous with some fun patterned pillows? And, honestly, that mint nail polish (which I own) is perfect for a spring time manicure…

I guess, my final thought it: Mint, get you some!

Want to see more Color Pops? Check out the (always growing) gallery here!

make this: painted wooden easter eggs

by Megan on March 12, 2013 in celebrate, easter, make this with No comments

**Hey! We’re on vacation this week! So, we might be a little absent from social media and all that jazz, but you’ve still got four days of awesome posts coming up!! Have a fantastic week!**

Like St. Patrick’s day, I have never really been into decorating for Easter. The traditional pastels and frills aren’t really my style. But this year I decided to do a little branching out and do at least one Easter project. If you follow me on Pinterest, you’ll see that a lot of the Easter inspiration I pin is mostly different (and amazing) ways to decorate eggs. Long gone are the days of those crappy little color tablets and flimsy wire egg holders. There are so many neat things you can do!! But we’re not exactly in the position to go the traditional hard-boiled egg route either, so I adapted.

These hand painted wooden eggs turned out so adorable and can be used year after year! I found these wooden eggs at Michael’s for $1.99 each. I took home three.

I deliberated for a while about what sort of design I wanted to go with and in the end I decided on my current favorite color combo: metallic gold + any other color! I covered the eggs with a few coats of some fun pastels and then, after they dried, I went back and hand painted some fun designs.

I love that they are sort of imperfect. You can tell they are hand-painted and that gives them a little character. Plus, they totally have a casual vibe going on. No fussy, stuffy Easter bonnets needed here!

Also, a fun tip for painting polka dots! I dipped the end of a paper straw in gold paint and then used that to create a polka dot “stencil” of sorts. The straw gave me a gold dot outline, and then I just went back and filled them in. Again, they aren’t perfectly equal but I like it!

Next week, I’ll be sharing all of our Spring decor and you can see where these adorable little eggs ended up!

What’s your favorite way to decorate Easter eggs? Are you trying out any fun new techniques this year??

our home: video tour!!

by Megan on March 11, 2013 in our home, videos with No comments

**Hey! We’re on vacation this week! But don’t worry, we’ve still got four solid days of Two Live Colorfully awesome-ness! Enjoy!**

There has never been a video on this blog! What?! It’s time to break that streak. Today we’ve got our very first video, a tour of our apartment. Sometimes it’s hard to visualize a space, especially the layout, with just pictures. So, here you go! A full apartment tour just for you!

Projects mentioned (just in case you want the details):

Navy & white striped curtains (made from bedsheets!)
Gilded chair makeover
IKEA IVAR bookcase
DIY embroidery hoop mobiles (one of my favorite projects!)
Bright, flowery canvas art
Geometric bedroom art
Bleach pen designed curtains

make this: miny glitter birdhouse

by Megan on March 7, 2013 in create, make this with No comments

Today, I thought I’d share a quick little spring craft. With the exception of Christmas and Halloween, my holiday decorating mantra is “little touches.” I don’t go all out crazy, but I like to have fun seasonal accents around the apartment.

When I was at Michael’s last weekend, I saw these fun little wood bird houses for $0.50 and couldn’t resist grabbing one.

And, because I’m not huge into pastels, I decided to go with glitter. You know that saying about birds and shiny things? Well any bird tiny enough to live in this bird house would be smitten!!

Some Mod Podge and chunky gold glitter and we were in business.

Bam! Look at that bling! Once that dried, I used a bright pink craft paint to color the finish the rest of the house.

It looks super cute on our bookcase too. I’ve got a few more spring decor updates coming soon! Including some very pretty wooden Easter eggs, so make sure to stay tuned for that!

What kind of spring crafts are you working on? And what’s your holiday decorating philosophy? Do you go all out, add a few touches, or nothing at all?

our home: bland, boring bathroom

by Megan on March 5, 2013 in our home with No comments

Well, we’re on track to get our apartment put together before the summer and the next space on the list is our master bathroom. It is bah-land. I mean really lame. No decor, really no color at all. master-bathroom-makeover-before-3 As you can see, it’s your standard builder-basic apartment bathroom. Pretty much no personality. Plus we’ve got a major mis-match going on with the shower curtain and our towels so the whole room is just not working out.And ever since we’ve moved in, we have just been putting our shampoo and body wash bottles around the sides of the tub, so we definitely need a solution for that. master-bathroom-makeover-before-4

Here’s the plan:

Add some fun, colorful art
Update the shower curtain (or get another one)
Buy new towels (plushhh ones)
Get some sort of shower organization system
Possibly find some temporary method for framing the mirror?

We’ll be having family over in April, so we better get moving!! Stay tuned for updates!

Are you an apartment dweller? What have you done to spruce up your bathroom to make it a little less blegh?? Tips and suggestions are much appreciated!!

our home: curtain update (when your husband is right!)

by Megan on March 1, 2013 in do it yourself, our home with 1 Comment

Let’s add a point to Josh’s side of the “design decisions” board, shall we? Last year, when I made these big, bold striped curtains, I thought one panel would be best because our living room window doesn’t have equal space on each side. (For more info and pictures on that project check out this post here!) Josh thought two panels would look better, but I convinced him that I knew what I was doing. Now, months later, I realized he was totally right.

Here’s what it looked like before:

Not bad or anything. In fact, it looked pretty good. But once we moved my pink computer desk in here, the one-paneled window looked really off kilter. Exhibit B:

So, last weekend, I decided it was time. I took down the curtain, sliced it right up the middle, “hemmed” the edges with iron-on hem tape, and put them back up.Bam! A pretty quick update that made a huge difference! Now it’s much more balanced and it frames out my pink desk perfectly. And, oh! Hello, gorgeous gold chair! Look at you and your fine self in your rightful spot!

So, picture Josh doing a happy “I was right” jig. That should start your weekend off right!

Have you ever realized that someone else was totally right about a home project after the fact? Feel free to describe their happy dance below!!

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