woman's work

how lovely is this little workspace? it's a closet turned into an office! i seriously adore this idea. the wallpaper is perfection and the gorgeous paint color sets everything, including the white details, off beautifully. i think the rug really pulls it all together and gives the "office" a sense of place and grounds it.

i love when i see ideas like this - makes you think differently about even the tiniest spaces in your home...the possibilities are endless!

photo from www.apartmenttherapy.com

wanna shag?

not amazing.

amazing.

here are the instructions, as told by the creator, karen from the art of doing stuff.

materials:
chair found abandoned at the side of the road
mongolian lamb throw (or anything else that blows your skirt up)

i literally threw the blanket (hence the term “throw” I guess) over the chair. no sewing, no stapling, no nothing. and if you get sick of it you just pull the throw off, at which point i’m sure it could be constructed with very little effort into a prancing goat costume for halloween.

amazing.

photos from the art of doing stuff

come on in!

much the same way we talked about entryways being the welcome hug of a home, a pretty doormat can be an even earlier indicator of happiness and warmth inside - like the smile that precedes the hug.

i spotted ours, below, at the christmas tree shop long before spring was in the air, but the happy green, pink and red color combo grabbed me, so i bought it and squirrelled it away until now.


with similarly vibrant and saturated colors, i love the estrella doormat and the sunflower doormat, both from pier 1.



the nice thing about using fun colors in the form of a doormat is that in most cases, you don't have to consider the overall color palette of the room because there is no room...it's a standalone item so you can play around with colors you might not be ready to try inside the house or that you fear would be too far from what you're already working with.







wouldn't these two options be just spot-on for a beach house?



and i love the unmistakably springy feeling of the sparrow, butterfly and nest doormats from pottery barn.




and i feel like, especially in spring, you can never go wrong with a fresh green color palette - goes with any flower, any outdoor accessories, and totally conveys the brightness of a new season filled with life and growth.






the best thing about doormats is that you can have as many as you have doors! they're such an easy way to spruce up front and back doors, kitchen doors, deck and patio doors, etc. and you can try a different look with each one. love!


estrella and sunflower mats from http://www.pier1.com/, welcome, come again mat, sparrow, nest and butterfly mats from http://www.potterybarn.com/, large mum, fish, and multi-colored stripe mats from http://www.cocomatsnmore.com/, green leaves mat from http://www.wisteria.com/, green birds, green filigree, green stripe and brown, green and turquoise flower trellis (below large mum mat) from smith & hawken for target, remainder from www.chiasso.com

a hop, skip and a rug

i am loving area rugs right now...such a great way to infuse some personality and texture into a room, and cb2 and west elm are really killing it these days. i'm thinking, though, the floor isn't the only place these beauties can lay - how about using them as wall hangings, or even as beautiful (and soft) headboards? you can use a curtain rod and curtain clips (they make heavy duty ones for heavier curtains, or rugs as it were) or you can use nails in each corner to hang the rug.

the hopscotch rug above and these others are from cb2.

and we talked a few weeks ago about west elm's rugs. here are some i think would be perf on a wall as well as a floor.


the zebra runner from walmart's new hometrends line that i mentioned on friday would be a great, cheap option (like, $39 cheap).

even if you're not in the market for a new rug, it's fun to think about different ways of using ones you already have. what are your thoughts?

all photos from linked sites

floors need jewelry too

this rug from west elm seems to be fantabulously priced at $39 for the size that would look perf in our front entryway. such a front entryway kind of thing, isn't it?
they make it in brown too, but i'm in more of a yellow mood at present.

now we just have to wait for the last of the winter frooooshe so we can raise the weatherstripping on the door because as of now, the bottom of the door clears nothing. such problems have we.

i'm also applauding some other west elm rugs at the moment. well done, west elm, well done indeed.




all photos from west elm - rugs are andalusia, zebra, sakura, stone, safari