A friend of mine just sent me this fantastic quote from Bruce Shostak in a recent issue of House Beautiful.

“A small entryway is a great opportunity to use a dark color, like this terra-cotta. It feels like a big, warm, earthy hug, and you get a sense of compression that propels you into the living room—what architects call ‘squeeze and squirt.’ And if the living room is a lighter color, like this pale gray, the room will feel even larger and more airy, as if you’ve been hit by a gust of wind.”

This quiet color palette works so well in Hanni Liliedahl and Jesse Silacci’s Monterey, California home because of the wondrous variety of shapes and textures. There are so many beautiful things to gawk at that I don’t miss color at all.

*Images from the February/March 2013 issue of Rue Magazine.

This little boy’s room incorporates so many of my favorite nursery elements!, namely:

1) A distinctive color palette which includes light blue.
2) Vintage car artwork, specifically the Fiat 500 (my favorite).
3) Pattern above and wainscoting below.
4) Large-scale bookshelves with varying objects.

*Images from the February/March 2013 issue of Adore Home.

These kitchens are cute.

If you need a kitchen makeover but can’t afford to replace the cabinets, this first image shows that a new coat of paint and sleeker hardware can do wonders. Hey, those 1960s kitchen cabinets were built [to last] out of solid wood, so if you have to keep them, then, by all means.

So it looks like these cabinets were painted in a pale aqua, the counters are white, and—correct me if I’m wrong—the walls are an even paler shade of aqua. So beachy!

I can’t tell if this second image has old or new cabinets, but they’re also painted in pale aqua and are contrasted with yellow walls. The butcher-block counters and stainless steel appliances make it look less retro and more like an updated cottage, but, besides the colors, there are other retro details—note the scalloped edge on the open shelves. Cute, cute, cute.

Note that neither of these kitchens have tiled backsplashes. Sometimes I think we get too caught up in what we “should” have that we don’t stop to question necessity. If a kitchen can function without a tiled backsplash, and if you find that you’re spending too much time agonizing over the cost of the prettiest ones, why bother? We didn’t have a tiled backsplash in our Chicago condo, and I promise you, food was not flinging all over the place. And if it was, it was washable.

Also, I apologize for not being able to credit the source of these photos (though it looks like the first one might be from MarthaStewart.com). I never wanted to make this blog a personal version of Pinterest, where I just post random images and say, “Ooh, isn’t this pretty?” No, I don’t want to saturate your life with more unattainable visuals and then have you sit back and sigh; I never intended to make this a space for fantasy.

Instead, I hope that you can take something away from this space, mostly in the form of knowledge. Knowledge about how to decorate, how to organize, how to shop, how to train your eye to see how one design element impacts another…

Whether or not I’m achieving that goal—well, I guess that’s more your call than mine. But at least now you know my intention. Ha!

Anyway, I feel a little guilty posting these images without credit to the designer or publication. For one, you should know who produced these things of beauty, and second, you should be able to return to the sources for more information. I’ll try to redeem myself this week.

I’m timid about admitting that I am madly in love with this sitting room. Madly. In. Love.

Why am I timid about it? I don’t know, probably because I couldn’t find a room that would interest my husband less than this one. He’d prefer a cozy, woodland cabin. Something more Hobbit Shire than modern high-rise.

I think there’s a part of me that’s also embarrassed to admit I love this kind of stark elegance. What’s trendy these days is layers upon layers of pattern and paint, and this room is stripped of that modish DIY-look that has everyone drooling.

But this is more my speed.

Reasons to love:

Well, I’ve already told you about my obsession with teal velvet furniture, tall vertical windows, and an all-white space, but there’s also the singular, statement-making painting (which, no doubt, inspired the velvet chairs) and the alluring mix of masculine and feminine (hard lines paired with soft fabrics, for example) that are absolute necessities for my dream home.

Except, realistically, I will have to make compromises.

So maybe my dream home will include a cozy, woodland outhouse somewhere in the back, back, back yard.

This 1860s Pennsylvania farmhouse, owned by Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief Kate White and her family, has such a joyful color palette. I think if I lived in this apple-green and mango space, I’d wake up every morning with a smile.

*Images from Country Living.

Not just purple countertops. Purple countertops with round, gold tile backsplash and red-orange window trim. If you would’ve asked me, I would’ve called you crazy. But that was before I saw this detail shot from Jane Pettersen’s Canberra, Australia kitchen.

Um, wow.

*Image from Adore Home magazine.

Confession: For many reasons, I haven’t stopped thinking about birch-tree wallpaper since I wrote this post last December. So I finally decided to channel my obsession productively and create an inspiration board.

It feels like a contemporary ode to the ‘70s with its organic shapes and earth tones, doesn’t it? So I added the sleek glass lamp and French Deco coffee table to keep it fresh, to avoid digging too far into that decade.

Alright, so I was hoping this inspiration board would get the birch-tree wallpaper out of my system, but it didn’t work; now I just want to create another one. What’s a girl gotta do to eliminate an unhealthy obsession? Make a wallpaper voodoo doll?

Posted especially for those of you still obsessed with this color palette.

I’ve been in an obsessive house-decorating mood. If you’re new to my blog, this is a dangerous mindset for me—I live overseas where my husband is doing volunteer work, and our fully-furnished apartment is provided for us. So, unfortunately, I can’t really work on our own space.

Instead, I: 1) keep a blog, 2) offer decorating advice to friends, and 3) surf the Internet as if I were actually in the midst of decorating and remodeling (which I’m very much not).

Today’s pointless surfing led me to Room&Board, my favorite mass-market home furnishings retailer after Crate&Barrel. I always like to check their clearance section, and came across these living room pieces: York 87″ Sofa in Teton Paprika, Holden Ottoman in Stenson Spice, Murray Chair in Trey Maize, and the Orson Chair in Terri Mink.

A color palette comes together quite nicely with these pieces, reminding me of one of the many spice markets around town. Ooh, a spice theme could be carried out through an entire house!