New Year Inspiration
Certain spaces get me fired up for all the changes that I want to make during the upcoming year. Here’s a bit of my inspiration.
Certain spaces get me fired up for all the changes that I want to make during the upcoming year. Here’s a bit of my inspiration.
From the time that I was in high school until I graduated from college, I desperately wanted a job that would require me to travel all the time. I could see myself lying on the beach, checking out historical sites, and sitting at fabulously chic bars, throwing my head back in laughter. I was seriously disillusioned. When I graduated from the university I found myself at a “really cool” job in the same city that I went to school in and only an hour or so away from my home town. All my friends envied my job but I wasn’t living in some exotic city and I wasn’t traveling. (I promise that I’m not one of those Texans who never want to move out of the state. It just happened to work out this way–but don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll move sometime soon.) Then about a year in, I got a new boss. A boss whose priority became for us to travel. It only took one trip to realize that I hated traveling for work. Now, several trips in, I dread answering particular salespeople’s emails because I know as soon as I do, I’ll be packing my bags for a client visit. Last week was no different. I ended up in Chicago in the 12 degree weather. Yes, that’s right–twelve.
There were two redeeming factors about my trip. 1.) I got to see Peter’s parents. 2.) The hotel that I stayed in, The Hard Rock Hotel was über trendy and it gave me some ideas for modern decorating. This is definitely outside of our usually style but this would be a great look for a modern bachelor pad. The main thing that differentiated this hotel room from an average hotel was the exceptional amount of natural light.
Mirrors lined the back wall of the hotel, accentuating the natural light and making the room appear bigger. The white duvet made the room feel crisp and clean (like I hope it really was) and the bed skirt tied together the overall gray theme of the room.
Next to the bed, the faux-snake-skin chair really tied together the bachelor pad look. This sort of thing would usually weird me out but somehow it really went with the room in an effortless way. I tried lounging on the chair but immediately felt weird and crawled into bed.
Another really steal-able idea from the room was the bathroom lighting. It would be a bit of an investment but if you’re planning on making over your bathroom with a minimalistic look, this lighted mirror is a great touch. There are no bulky light fixtures hanging overhead, just pure simple light.
Now take a look at the woolly texture of these curtains. They added a great depth to the room.
I love the lavender walls and gray accents. I may be a little biased since these are our wedding colors, but in my opinion it’s such a versatile combination. All in all, The Hard Rock Hotel was great. Now, if only next time I could bring Peter with me!
What steal-worthy details would you consider adding to your home?
You may be wondering why I’d love to own this house. It might not scream love to anyone else in the world, but to me it begs for someone to snatch it up and nurture it back to life.
Is anyone else dying to find a fixer-upper of their own? If so, check out an Hip House Girl’s Blog. She just bought a 1926 fixer-upper of her own!
Images courtesy of Plugged in Cleveland.
I just got back from a business trip in Chicago. Is it just me or does work become a million times crazier around the holiday? Either way, in this time of sparse writing I’ve managed to fix a few of my mistakes. Do you remember about a month ago when I got really excited about spray painting and forgot to clean the wine rack before I painted it and got spray paint all over my jeans?
I’m happy to say that I remedied both of these situations without spending any extra money. The wine rack was really easy. I simply sanded down the surfaces to ensure that I removed any dust. After sanding, I wiped it down to ensure that I wouldn’t repeat the same mistakes. In case you forgot, here’s what it looked like before:
Pretty gross, huh? And here it is now:
And just so you can admire how wonderfully dust free this really is, here are a few more:
Secondly, I managed to remove almost all of the spray paint from my jeans!! Before I give you the details, I’d like to make the disclaimer that I don’t know very much about stain removal so I’d only try this with clothing that you would otherwise be forced to throw away (or condemn to a life of “painting clothes”). After staring at my jeans in disbelief for a good twenty minutes, I brought them inside and began to route through the laundry cupboard. I realized that Shout wasn’t going to cut it for this job so I turned to the internet. A quick Google search later, I was sitting in the bathroom with hairspray and hand sanitizer. Several people on various websites swore it would get spray paint out of clothes. So I applied, rubbed and rinsed, and applied, rubbed and rinsed some more. I just knew that this was some fabulous little secret that would shock Peter with its dramatic results but after trying again and again, I still had bright red jeans. I slumped down in the bathroom, sure that my jeans were ruined forever when my eyes met the nail polish remover. This was an act of desperation but as I poured (with a heavy hand) the nail polish remover on to my jeans and scrubbed, I saw a difference. I knew they’d improved but honestly I was too afraid to wash them because it seemed like the final step that could set the stain and officially banish my jeans from the outside world. So they sat on the washer, got pushed onto the floor, and finally weeks later I put tons of Shout onto them and threw them into the wash. And guess what? They’re near perfect. There is one tiny red spot where there had originally been a quarter size stain but they’re completely work appropriate again! (Yes, we have a very casual dress code.)
