Hi, my name is Erin and I IKEA.

Like all addictions, I was hooked from my first visit. Three years ago my husband and I took our kids to a Great Wolf Lodge in Ohio and I convinced him we should make a stop at the Ikea a few exits away. We went with the intention of finding an inexpensive chair and ottoman for the lake. I needed something that was reasonably comfortable and stylish balanced with a price tag that could handle wet bathing suit bottoms. We ended up with the Ektorp chair and ottoman in white.

Client Kitchen Update Reveal!!

I am so excited to be sharing this kitchen, hearth room & kitchen nook face lift! Jenni is a long time friend and I love helping her with her home. Her style is more traditional and I like the challenge of thinking in terms of creating style that is unique from mine. That's the whole idea right!?! 

If you recall Jenni had sage green walls as the backdrop of her beautiful ornate cabinetry, molding and crown woodwork in the kitchen area. In my opinion it was not a rich enough color to accentuate the detail. 

BEFORE:

Because her cabinetry is cream and she has so much natural light in her kitchen, we were able to go a little darker and more dramatic with the color. I choose to go between two shades of a smokey blue gray! We had them mix Sherwin Williams colors, "Riverway" and "Moody Blue". Dramatic difference, right?!. 

AFTER: 

Guest Feature On Living Savvy!!

Well I am more than honored to have our rustic modern bar featured on Living Savvy! Tiffany is an awesome designer and DIY girl and her blog is one I admire. Go on over and check out her projects and tutorials. Also, I slipped in some sneak preview photos of some other basement spaces I have yet to post about! A huge thanks to Tiffany for featuring our space!

      

Enjoy and Cheers! {Laura}

Good things come to those who wait...

Hi all! It has been a busy couple weeks for our crew. My last post, the shadowbox frame, from last Monday was coming off a trip to Atlanta. Yesterday we got back from Wisconsin from a long weekend with family. We had a great time in the "land of cheese" & cranberries, who knew. I ate a cranberry soaked in moonshine that I think gave me an insta-buzz! We bon fired, water parked, wined and ate lots of great food! The kids and I are home one day (long enough to wash our undies and write this post) and then we are off to Clear Lake to "lake it" for a week with my sister and her boys. Erin and I have taken our 5 kids to the lake for three summers running. Yes, we are the ragged looking girls on the pontoon (a floating play pin of sorts) with enough wine, goldfish and kids to sink it! I will admit, more fun as the kids have gotten older and our supervision a tad less taxing:) Follow me on Instagram if you want to see some of this madness unravel...

Some Exciting news for House Envy....

Tomorrow House Envy will be featured on a very cool blog! I am excited to share the details with you tomorrow!! Yay, first official feature!! A BD in the land of blogging!

This week My sister and I will be working on some formatting details on the site to get it ready to introduce her as my co-blogger on House Envy!! Erin and I have very similar taste but just different enough that it will introduce a wider spectrum of design and of course more projects and DIY than I could handle on my own! She is an awesome DIY'er with skills of sewing & upholstering that one up me for sure! Erin has an eclectic style and I'm excited to show off some of her awesome projects. Now, with all this said have mercy on the two of us who share a common genetic dumbness for social media and technology in general:)

Here is a sneak peek at her style and some cool spaces in her house... I "sneak photoed" them while I was at her house last before I had officially convinced her she needed to be blogging with me!! hehee!!

Oh Lord! I need a religious gift!!

My best friend's sweet baby boy was baptized this weekend in Atlanta and I am his Godmother! Leading up to my trip I was brainstorming what would be a unique and special gift. I had given the cross jewelry and the growth chart and have seen the ceramic crosses online and many many keepsake boxes and silver spoons but wanted to give something that would coordinate well with his nursery and also be special enough for the occasion. 

I found a shop on Etsy selling prints of cute sayings and some religious prayers, typed out in modern, fun lettering. It just so happened that one of the sweet little religious prayers had a pop of color in it that matched his nursery color scheme!

I will go through how I customized the frame but this is how it turned out!

Monochromatic color scheme, way more exciting than it sounds!

Here is it, the big question... how does one create a color scheme that pulls together a room?  Most people don't think they are good at it and struggle to come up with two or three colors they think go well together. I am always suggesting what I call "layering a color" to add depth and interest in a room. In other words, say that you want your room to be orange & blue. These two colors pair well together because they are complimentary colors or opposite each other on the color wheel. These opposite colors are complimentary by definition because they are said to be pleasing to the eye and together create a dynamic look. Everyone wants that, right?! But what if you are struggling on which two colors to pair?! And furthermore, it can be difficult to find pillows, rugs, paint, window panels and accessories all in the exact two shades you decided on! 

But what if you choose several shades of one color? Anyone can figure this out! This is where layering one base color can create interest that is pleasing to the eye without being overwhelming. You can still add in a second color (if you choose) but now you have a rich foundation of various shades of your base color to introduce the new color. 

Many people cannot see how olive green, citrus and kelly green go together but I am going to show you how monochromatic color can be very cool and very easy to accomplish! So here we have it... a bunch of shades of green. 

Use them all... together!!

In this shot we are seeing a blue green backdrop paired with lime green, kelly green and even a touch of an olive green tone in the place mat and the branch leaves. Stunning!

Via: Pinterest