Artsy Fartsy

I love art. I probably love art more than the average gal, but I (obviously) don't have tons of money to spend on pieces. So, I have a myriad of different types of art adorning my walls. I have artwork that ranges from a painting that I got at the Hospice flea market for 25 cents to an original Renoir print that I got as a wedding gift from a very special art collector friend. Needless to say, my artwork is all over the place.

My rule of thumb when it comes to art is to hang it if you love it, which is really just my general rule of thumb for decorating. Who really cares about what's popular or what's out of style. If you love something, embrace it. Your house should be a reflection of things you love and who cares what other people think :)

I love original pieces of art and I'm not scared to draw something to put on my walls (even though my sister has reminded me more than a couple of times that she doesn't LOVE my artwork...in other words, I'm no good). I actually even framed a watercolor that I painted in Ms. Hess' 8th grade expanded art class.

I'm from an artistic family, but I didn't totally get the gene, if you know what I mean. My aunt Kathy was an amazing artist that I'll write more about later. My aunt Sissy was pretty good, too, and my dad isn't half bad when it comes to intricate pencil drawings. He has drawn sketches of both of my houses and is currently working on airplane drawings for Gaines' room. As an aside that nobody really cares about, both my aunt and my dad won gold key awards many, many years ago :)

So, without further ado, here are some pictures of things that I have on my walls. There's really no rhyme or reason to where art goes in my house. Does anyone else like to pick up random artwork that they find or draw things for their rooms are are you mostly bought art kind of people?

Seeing Stripes

This summer, I had Lilly's room painted pink. Very, very pink. Like Lilly Pulitzer pink. Even though I thought I had done my due diligence and painted a pretty big swatch on the wall, the color turned out to be way pinker than I had anticipated. Not bad, just PINK.

When Jeff saw it, he told me that all of the other little girls that see the room are going to be jealous because they're also going to want a pink room like Lilly's, but all of their mothers are going to say, "no way in H-E-double hockey sticks" (because they have more sense than I do). I took that as a back handed compliment on my color choice :) Also, given the fact that this was the first room that I had gotten professionally painted, the color was staying.

A few weeks ago, I decided to go big or go home with Lilly's room. You can only get away with crazy colors and fabrics for so long and what little girl doesn't want a super pink room (hopefully mine still does when she gets old enough to have an opinion about such things...as in 6 months from now because, like I said, the color is staying).

Anyway, in the spirit of over-the-topness, I decided to paint bold, pink stripes on top of the bold, pink wall.

First, I measured 10 inch stripes and taped the wall with the green painter's tape (worked so much better than the blue kind) and then went to town painting. It took me a couple of days to finish because I really only do this kind of stuff during naptime, which is also the only time I have to clean, check email, eat lunch...you get the point.

I love how it turned out, so I may end up with stripes all over my house.

Also, the room still has a long way to go, but I'll keep working on it and blogging about it as I go.

Light & White

My husband and I have been having a house debate, which is really weird because he typically has zero opinion about anything involving our house. His usual response to any house question I have is, "How much does it cost?" So, what could possibly force him to actually have a decorating opinion? Wood paneling.

We have birch paneling in our family room and Jeff LOVES it. I think that he thinks that it's cozy and warm. I, on the other hand, do not love the wood.

To be honest, I don't hate the paneling, per se, but I very strongly dislike how dark the room is because of the paneling. It's a moot point, though, because as much as I tell Jeff that one day he's going to come home to a painted room, I'm not going to ruin the one house thing he has an opinion about in this house.

As a result of the darkness of the paneling, I decided to go with a white sofa. Yes, I have two children and two dogs so it seems more than crazy, but the white slipcover was on sale this fall at Ballard Designs so I went ahead and bought it. It arrived a couple of weeks ago and I seriously love it! I figured that I can easily bleach it, if needed.

Anyway, here are some pictures of my favorite new slipcover :) I think that it really does brighten the room up a little.

By the way, this room still needs mucho work. This whole house is a major work in progress.