Choosing Themes

I'm working on themes for each room of the house. I like a modern feel with an earthy undertone. I've never decorated a house before, but I have several looks in mind that I have been dying to have in my home.

My bedroom and office are most important to me. It's said that the kitchen is where most people spend the majority of their time, but that simply isn't the case for me. Since I work from home, I spend a lot of time in my office so it's important to me that I have a nice, soothing yet uplifting work space. Green is my favorite color and using the inspiration of my favorite purse, I plan to paint the room a sort of medium olive-green while leaving the crown molding in the room, white. I think it'll give nice contrast and give the room a nice, fresh feel. There is both a sliding door closet and built in drawers in the room. I plan to accent those in a lighter version of the medium olive-green as well as using the same color on the inside of the window sill.

The bedroom is inspired by a bedding set I found at Walmart. It's medium power blue and milk chocolate in color. I've been wanting a set like this for a long time. It's not something I ever would have thought I'd like - that is, until I saw it and just knew I had to have it for my bedroom. Here is my Baby Blue / Milk Chocolate Bedding Set. I plan to paint the room a lighter blue to enhance the blue of the comforter and plan to use a matching milk chocolate color on the bedroom door, closet doors and possibly as an accent color on the inside of the window sills. I've not yet decided on curtains. If I can find some that match for a decent price, I'll probably buy them. If not, I may pick up some matching fabric and see if I can't convince my mother in law to sew me up some!

The bathroom is going to be tricky. I'm not a huge fan of yellow but a sunny, pastel yellow sounded like it made most sense for a bathroom. What better way to wake up in the morning? But because of the flooring color and because I'm not sure I want to spend money replacing it, I think I'm going to work with some kind of light teal / aqua. The bathroom will require the most work out of me no matter what color scheme I choose. Unlike the rest of the house, there is not only wallpaper in the bathroom, but there is paint on top of wallpaper - and then a wallpaper border on top of that. There is also an irreplaceable sink and countertop to consider. That's a task that I may work on later as it would be impossible for me to include it within my $1,000 budget.

My daughter's room is probably going to be the easiest room for me design wise. I'm doing a full Tinkerbell theme designed around a Tinkerbell bedding set (although I've not chosen which bedding set I want). Behr has a great Disney series of paints and awesome design ideas on their website. I plan to use a lot of their ideas for the room. I also plan to have a close friend of mine who is an artist, come in and paint a large scale Tinkerbell on my daughter's wall. The biggest splurge in her bedroom will be flooring. Like any parent, I'm concerned about her play area and let's just say that the forest green carpeting in her bedroom is far past its best and I have significant doubts about it getting any better with the use of a steam vac. I will be purchasing carpet for the room -or- purchasing linolium type tile and buying an area rug. It depends on the budget, how much cost is and which I think would look best in the end.

The living room area posesses a challenge for my modern tastes as I have a fairly large red-bricked fire place that extends a full wall in the living room, including wrapping around to part of the kitchen. After much debate and thought, my boyfriend actually came up with the best plan. He started talking about using an earthy red or orange and I just kept thinking "I don't want a red room with red brick." But then I found this awesome rug at Walmart. It's a little pricy, but I'm betting with some shopping around, I can find something similar that will work just as well. My living room area is fairly large and all dark, hard wood. I think this rug will be a nice warmth to the large space while still giving the room a modern edge. This Shag Overclean Area Rug paired with a few modern and accessories should be perfect. And since we already have some cream colored paint, it saves us a little money!

I may be purchasing a new couch. My mother in law had her new couch delivered today and it's absolutely gorgeous. I'm so jealous. I got stuck with an old couch that belonged to the people who last lived here so of course it's laced with cigarette smoke. I really don't want to keep it. It's too bulky for my taste to begin with. If I do purchase a couch, it will be something I save up for or pay in installments - therefor it will not be included in the $1,000 budget.

The kitchen is completely out of my hands. My boyfriend loves to cook and I agreed that he could design the kitchen himself. I'm not sure what he's going to do. He has plans for a checkered theme. I thought he was going to do a mauve red and off-white, but it sounds like he's leaning more towards black and white and cows.