Designing for Life

Kari & Kijsa have asked everyone to share their thoughts on "Designing for Life" so we here we go:
One of our favorite rooms in Karla's house is the living room. It is one of her favorites because - it is so close to being done - the only thing she needs in it is something for on one wall....but that wall doesn't bother her - She knows that we'll find the perfect thing some day. One of our top design philosophies is to never - I repeat NEVER purchase anything that you don't love!
There are not one, not two, but four beautiful stained glass windows in her home. They are all the "inspiration pieces" that we pulled the color from for each room. The living room's stained glass has just a small round, pomegranate colored glass in it - so this is what we chose for the wall color. It took about a year to come up with the wallpaper - but having patience pays off - no need to want to tear it down in four of five years - this is on for a good 20+ years!!

One of the major reasons that this is such a special room is the fireplace. Imagine it white - this is what she had when she moved in. We haven't figured out when it was painted to cover the quarter-sawn oak, but it was white for the thirty plus years that her husband's family lived here. It took Karla almost a year to finish stripping the paint off, repairing the damaged dental on the detail of the fireplace, and getting all of the remaining paint out of the groves on the fireplace, the bench, and the back wood panels. All of that work was totally worth it!

Up on the fireplace Karla has put some of her collection of fruit plates. Two of these plates were our grandmothers. We especially love the colors of them, they bring all of the colors that are used in the room, together - all in one spot!




Across from the fireplace is a table that holds fun treasures that Karla likes to switch out now and then. Right now it has her picture of the three wise men that she got on her vacation in February. You'll see a McCoy bird planter - one of her favorite finds while we were out and about! One of our other design philosophies is to bring in "quirky" elements to a room. Mixing old things, family heirlooms or anything that adds personality to make your house reflect you.

Both of us consider ourselves traditional/eclectic girls. We love English and French Country most - and love adding a hint of the outdoors inside our homes. However...we LOVE the cool, calm white look of a cottage look (we've decided that it doesn't "fit" our homes....so we will do that when we get a cottage along the lake together - no we haven't informed the Mr.'s yet!!)

Stop on over to Kari & Kijsa's blog to see all of the neat designing for life posts by everyone!