All posts tagged planning

have a home philosophy

by Megan on April 16, 2013 in our home with No comments

The past few weeks have been full of a lot of thinking. You know, like grown up thinking. Such as “where do we want to live?”, “what’s going to be the best for our little family?”, “how can we scrape up enough money over the next year to buy our first house?”. I don’t know how it was when you tackled these questions (if you already have), but they. are. tough!! I feel like that’s part of the reason I’ve been so absent from the blog lately. I’m just feeling so overwhelmed with all these decisions! So, I figure it might be best to start small and create a philosophy for our home.

To me, a home philosophy is important for two reasons.

do what you can print – red autumn

Number one, it’s an easy way to focus your decorating intentions. By living under the manta of “doing more where you are with what you have”, I might find myself buying less random trinkets (because they were on sale) and raiding my crowded craft closet for materials to make some original art myself! If you’re like me and pine over all the pretty things you can buy online (thanks a lot, Pinterest!), a home philosophy like this would definitely come in handy.

black and white wall art – Making it Lovely

But the second reason is the most important. A home philosophy gives you a chance to state clearly how you want to live; what daily life is like in your home. The large, simple, black and white print above from Making it Lovely is a perfect example. Because even though all that pretty stuff is great, it’s not what makes your home “you”. (Feel free to stop me if I get too cheesy!)

hand lettered wisdom – Lisa Congdon

As for me and my home philosophy? I’d have to go with the one right above. “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful”. That just sings to my quasi-minimalist heart. Because even though I like ‘stuff’, I hate clutter and I don’t what our home to be defined by non-special junk littering every surface. I want it to be clean, calm, and for everything to serve a purpose. Whether it’s the cute yellow vacuum that’s purpose is to clean carpets or the first real piece of art Josh and I bought together as broke college students that just makes me smile with the memory, I want it all to be beautiful or useful.

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!

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

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!!

make this: hula hoop frames (pinterest challenge time!!)

by Megan on February 27, 2013 in do it yourself, make this with 1 Comment

It’s Pinterest Challenge time!!! We’ve been working hard to finish up the bedroom and for this challenge I thought it was finally time to tackle the space above our dresser. Lately, I’ve been loving big round frames and mirrors, but the thing about large, circular mirrors? They are hella expensive.

And then I had a thought. Hula hoops are big.. and round… and frame-like. HULA HOOPS, PEOPLE!! I made frames out of hula hoops.

This project is pretty easy and very inexpensive. I picked up two hula hoops from the dollar store in two slightly different sizes.

Then, I also grabbed a can of Krylon Fusion spray paint in a dark gray. This stuff is made to cling to plastic surfaces which is awesome. There was no bubbling or anything, just a smooth finish. All I had to do was find the split on each hoop, slice the ribbon and unravel it, then pour out the little noisemakers on the inside (which in dollar store hula hoops, is apparently just rocks…). A couple of coats of spray paint and a few hours drying time and my large hoop was done.

To mix up the look, I used a dark charcoal yarn to wrap the smaller hoop. They are similar in color but different textures which looks really neat. Now what to put in the frames? I’ve been loving this quote that I found on Pinterest for a while and I decided to recreate it with a poster and a sharpie. It’s not perfect but it’s kind of got that charming DIY look.

Inside the large frame, I strung up some twine and some pretty card stock and photos with tiny clothespins. I’m thinking this is just a place holder until I can find something awesome and bold to go in it.

The hula hoops were $1.00 each, the spray paint was about $3.00, and all the art was made from materials I had at home, so for $5.00 we made a major statement over our dresser. The round frames balance out all the bold, geometric patterns we’ve got going on (check out our DIY geometric art here!)

The bedroom is practically done! We’ve got to find some awesome art to go in the large hoop frame and I’m thinking about possibly revamping our thrift store nightstands and then we’ll wrap this room up!

Wanna see what we made for the last Pinterest Challenge? Check out our bright, flowery canvas art!

What did you make for the Pinterest challenge? What’s the oddest thing you’ve used for a project? Can you beat hula hoops?? Share below!!

color pops: pretty in pink

by Megan on February 18, 2013 in color pops, style a room with 2 Comments

First things first! Two Live Colorfully will be moving to self-hosted wordpress-ville this week! So, a Wednesday post may be late or non-existent, but we’re super excited about this change and we think you’re going to like it too!!

Sure, Valentine’s Day is over, but truth be told, I’m a year-round pink lover. Last month, I shared a fun Color Pop collection for True Blue fans everywhere, but today, we’re going full on girly! Plus, I’m sharing a few tips for making pink work in a not-overly-feminine way. Let’s roll.

Painting #03B via LEIF/Watercolor Bouquet of Tulips Print via Yao Cheng Designs/Geometric High Table Lamp/Pink City Maze Pillow and Coral Tall Chevron Pillow via Caitlin Wilson Textiles/Hot Pink Ottoman Makeover via Emily Henderson

I think the key with pink decor (especially if you share your living space with a man!) is moderation. So, even though I know that Josh would never in a million years let me bring that hot pink ottoman in our home, I’m pretty sure a pillow case combined with that pretty abstract painting would be perfectly acceptable.

Also, paired with darker shades of gray or maybe even navy blue, you could make pink fit perfectly in a shared space. I think a perfect example of this is Oh Joy’s house which was styled by Emily Henderson. It’s feminine, but not overly so. If you’re looking for real life inspiration on how to make that combo work, I’d start with her house tour here!

What are your thoughts on pink home decor? Totally fine or way too girly? And what Color Pop Collections would you love to see in the future!?

freebie: kind valentines

by Megan on February 11, 2013 in celebrate, freebies, valentine's day with No comments

It’s the week of Valentine’s and today, I’m bringing you a fun free printable for some kind valentines. I know, I know, I’m way past the school age where handing out valentine’s is expected but I just can’t help myself.

So, I made these simple and fun valentine’s in photoshop. They don’t have any names and they aren’t necessarily mushy. They’re just nice.

I thought it would be fun to hand them out kind of randomly. On a table at Starbucks, under someone’s windshield wiper, maybe a mailbox or two? This February 14th, I just want to make someone’s day.

And, here’s a printable for you. You can just cut them out and hand them out to anyone who could use some extra love this week.

Download the free printable here!!

What are your plans for Valentine’s Day? J and I usually like to avoid the rush and hang out at home together, and for two home-body dorks, that’s mighty fine!

{I linked up at Home Stories A to Z!}

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