beautiful ruin

A couple of weekends ago, Jeremy and I headed to the town of Hale, MO (population 475) for my grandmother's auction. It was a beautiful day and as we were driving through the small town of Bogard. We spotted an abandoned church at the top of a hill off the highway. The door was wide open, so we decided to do some friendly tresspassing and I'm so glad we did. The desolate church was both sad and beautiful. Take a look at what we found.







Jeremy is an amazing piano player, so the lonely piano made the church all the more intriguing.

re:color | kelly green

Jeremy and I have decided that our bedroom could use some major updating. It is a bit drab. When we bought the house I wanted rich chocolate walls and deep colors, but now that I am living in it I really want our room to feel bright and cheery. So, we are debating on how to make this happen. One idea is to only paint an accent wall and paint the other three walls white. In addition, we plan to use white accents in the curtains, bedding and furniture to brighten up the space.

But the question remains, what color should I pain the accent wall? Lately, I have been leaning toward a bright kelly green. Here are a few rooms that inspire me and are leading me down that path. Don't these rooms make you happy?

re:decorate | pairing patterns

I love bold use of pattern, especially when someone is daring enough to combine multiple patterns in a room. Here are a few successful examples of this. It is so rewarding when you take risks like this (but I'm preaching to the choir).

re:purpose | collections

It is amazing how beautiful the most simple and ordinary objects can look when arranged in multiples. What collection do you have that is waiting to become art?

Want more collection ideas?
Go to A Collection a Day.

Re:Decorate: Bathroom

So, now that all of the dirty work for our bathroom is almost complete (more posts still to come), I am working on the decorating part which is way more fun!

The shower curtain has been tricky. I haven't been able to find anything I like. In addition, I want an extra long shower curtain that hangs from the top of the ceiling. That has been difficult to find as well. The bathroom is predominantly neutral (gray, black and white) with yellow accents.

I was searching for fabric in order to make a shower curtain and then I stumbled upon this awesome duvet cover at Anthropologie. I thought it was perfect but way out of my price range. I went back a few weeks later and found it to be on crazy sale. The duvet cover (normally $300) was on sale for $60. Not too shabby. In addition, it happens to be the perfect height and width for a shower curtain. All I need to do is take off the back of the duvet cover and add some holes for the curtain rings. I'm so excited!

Doodle Art

These amazing installations by Heike Weber have decorated galleries all over Europe. I wish she would come decorate my house. Heike uses permanent marker and acrylic paint to create these beautifully doodled patterns on floors and walls. It is truly amazing (and also kind of trippy). I could see Johnny Depp's house looking like this.

spotted on The Jealous Curator.

Jonathan Adler Calendar

One of the best (and hardest) parts of my job is designing calendars. It is so much fun to concept, but it is also difficult to consistently think of something new. I was searching some of my favorite blogs today and was surprised to see the Jonathan Adler calendar featured on Design Crush's 2011 Calendar Roundup. I worked on this last January and it is so exciting to finally see it produced.

This calendar is a lot of fun. Complete with bright and bold Jonathan Adler patterns and quirky icons. Find out the top nude beaches of the world in August, discover how to make a balloon poodle in February, or pick our your favorite mustache style in October. I will be ordering several for my friends and family. You should too!

You can buy one at here at Paper Source.