Yellow Painted Love.

If you read this blog on a regular basis you know some things about me: I love the color yellow, and I have a fondness for painted furniture. Most of the furniture in my apartment is painted--mostly just greens or one piece is blue. I have decided that I'm tired of my blue dresser in particular and decided to paint it yellow. Here is a little yellow painted inspo I've come across.

Martha Stewart offers a really helpful tutorial on painted furniture. I love how she used an accent yellow color on the trims and drawer pulls.

I love the color combination of blue and yellow which works well because my walls are painted blue. This relaxed looking living room is by Lynn Morgan. Doesn't this table look like an Oomph table? They should do a sunshine yellow color.

I love the pretty textiles in this room; the carpet, the suzani quilt, and the scroll upholstered headboard. The texture continues in the matching night stands in a mustard/gold tone of yellow. From House Beautiful designed by Johnathan Berger.

This room is the epitome of sunshine; designed by Eddie Ross. I'd love to know what paint color Eddie chose...

Okay, so now back to me. Here is my dresser which is a distressed blue finish:

Here it is after I re-organized the surface of it with all my make up (what make up?) and jewelry. See what I mean with the competing blues? It's time for a change.


These are the paint colors I'm choosing between and I'd like your opinions also.

Haystack by Martha Stewart Paint from Home Depot. My apologies but imagine this a little bit more on the lemon side of yellow.

Sunbeam by Glidden. Not quite this intense in person.

Golden Honey by Benjamin Moore

So far, my head says Sunbeam by Glidden but my heart says Haystack by Martha. What do you guys think? This project probably won't be finished for about 2 weeks so I'm going to need a decision right away. My plan for the knobs are a turquoise knob from Anthropologie I believe. Don't you worry, I'll give constant updates. Thoughts??

Alicia B.

Putting all your eggs in one basket.

Eddie Ross put all these pretty country eggs in a wire basket. I love the different colors these eggs can be without dying them.

People warn against doing that but really it can be quite beautiful! Clearly I'm on an easter high even though its not quite here yet, but I'm decorating eggs so i can't stop thinking about how beautiful they can be all together! In one basket!

What would a holiday--or even HALF a day--be without Martha Stewart? This looks like a fun project with little fern leaves silhouetted onto these little Easter eggs. I think I'll try this one this year.

I love these wire baskets and egg holders. I think this is from Country Living. OOO Jelly beans!

Pottery Barn wanted to get in on the Easter madness as well with this cute egg holder. Well played Pottery Barn.

This is a fun little project you can do with those commercial Cadbury eggs. If you put them all in a pretty box with some Spring flowers, look how gourmet they appear! From Country Living.

Whatever you're doing today, walking through the park in this amazing weather, dying eggs and getting your fingers pink and yellow like mine, or hanging out with friends, have a great day. Happy Easter everyone!!


Alicia B.

Easter Interiors

Easter is only three days away and am definitely ready for some jelly beans. I love Easter for many reasons but I really love the pretty pastel colors. Purples, greens, pinks, and yellow are a nice harbinger of Spring and warm weather. These interiors are like beautiful pastel Easter eggs.

I don't wanna brag but I have this rug in my bedroom. Its so cute but a little bit softer than the one above because it's faded. I'm a huge fan of painted furniture so I pretty much can't find anything I don't love about this S. R. Gambrel room--except that I'm not in it.

How great are these shades of blue and green. Like a vibrant robin's egg and a faded celery. The light in this bedroom is generous--designed by Phoebe Howard.

One of my favorite parts of Easter is when they show the local news reports of farms giving away little yellow chicks on Easter. They are so so cute but I'm definitely not allowed to bring home more baby chicks (Long story short we thought it was a hen, it grew up to be a rooster. Not a pretty scene). Anyway, this yellow wall and then the strategically placed Hunters are the perfect dose of yellow. From Country Living.

I wish I could get this color of seafoam green on my eggs when I dye them. This bathroom is simple but has so much going on and so much to look at. Designed by Kerry Joyce.

Perfect beach colors: sand and sky. This living room of a beach house from House Beautiful.

I think the color green is really growing on me. It is a color that reminds me of nature and plants so can be really fresh but also gives a feeling of coziness. I love this little bedroom from Coastal Living.

Yellow is really one of my favorite colors. I adore this little breakfast nook with yellows and whites and the organic elements like the faux bamboo chairs and the flowery chandelier. I will be doing a little DIY project involving yellow next week so GET JAZZED. This yellow gorgeousness is by Celerie Kemble.

I'd never put a shag carpet in any interior but I love the blue stripes running up the wall and the ceiling. I'd also love to have double doors leading to a terrace. So rip out the shag carpet and switch out the bed frame to a white painted country style frame and I'm there. By Betsy Burnham.

Don't you just love pastel rooms? I'm sure even if you're not a celebrator of Easter, the colors and the spring feeling, yes? I'm now at home in CT and I've been instructed that I must dye all the eggs, but I'll be helped when the boyfriend joins us tomorrow. My sisters are also dying eggs in Chicago and carrying out the silent competition of who can dye the best (funniest, too. I know, we're wild!) eggs. What are your Easter Plans? Non-Easter/just a gorgeous weekend plans? Tell me!


Alicia B.

Slippery Slope

These look like a slippery slope to fun. I think taking a slide would be much more fun that taking the stairs, don't you? I've been seeing more and more images of the "slide" option in interiors and I think it looks crazy fun. Plus there's nothing more precious than watching this man enjoy this slide. Just precious.

Here is the slide sans the man. Its really quite beautiful; the gorgeous mahogany and the design. The architect Rodney Miller at Wood Innovations designed this millionaire for Scott Jones. It took 15 months to finish. Also check out his chevron patterned flooring. Swoon!

Win is right! I'm not sure where this one is but I like its "win" spirit!

Great way to enjoy the view, huh? You can see it from all angles and really really fast if you take the slide! The rest of the room need a little help though. Mini rugs and a kitty litter box? Time for a bit of spring cleaning! via wide open spaces.

See, hipsters aren't THAT miserable! This looks ridiculously fun but only looks wide enough for a child...or an unhappy hipster. I love the round window going down though. via penny rounds.

I hope this makes your Wednesday a little more fun and just know that this day is a "slippery slope" to Friday! Yeah I made it a pun, what of it? Maybe I can install one of these in my barn attached to my farmhouse in the country. You know, the one that I'll own by the time I'm 30.


Alicia B.

Making organization so pretty!

Over the weekend I dipped into the Lilly Pulitzer store on Madison ave and picked up some fun little file folders to file my taxes and some other paper work. I think that organization is just as much a part of design as anything else and i think that it really does matter what they look like. It just makes organization and paying your bill just a little bit more fun. It seems that other people agree because I've been seeing more and more of my favorite stores carry their own stationary lines. Take a look.
Vera Bradley has pretty stationary and I was given VB file folders a few years ago. I like this pink and brown Chinoiserie patterned one. $14 for 6 of them.

The Vera Bradley ones, like their bags, have a vast array of fun patterns. Sittin in a Tree HERE.

Jonathan Alder knows what's what and came up with his own stationary line too. PHEW. $9.95 for six of them.

Greek key, as you may know, is my newest love. I might have to go back to Mad Ave and pick up some of these ones at Jonathan Adler.

I found these on Etsy. The ones on etsy were pretty hit or miss (mostly miss), but I thought these were pretty and much simpler than the rest. From Whisker Graphics, 3 for $5 on Etsy.

These are the ones that I bought on Saturday. They're very tropical/preppy fun. $13 for 6 of them.

Lilly Pulitzer has a great stationary section as well as these adorable file folder. COME on! They have turtles on them!

Of course, the Container Store has a little collection of cute folders. A wee bit more affordable than some of the others, these are $6 for six folders--Bloom folders.

If you're into birds, these are really pretty from Kate's Paperie. Cavallini folders 12 folders for $18, woo! Though these aren't my favorite I kind of like the vintage postage feel to them.

I do love attractive organization but I really do think that it makes a difference to have something like these instead of blah manila folders. You know I'm right. Organization is also a great part of decorating and spring cleaning!

Alicia B.

9 By Design

9 By Design is Bravo's latest design show to entertain us all--this time with the huge Novogratz Family of Sixx Design. The Novogratz family is made up of Courtney and Robert Novogratz and their seven beautiful children. Not only do they have amazing style, which I've shown on this blog before, but they seem like practical designers; taking into account a budget and the fact that living with children, you can't make everything very formal.

The couple started out just buying houses, living in them, re-designing them, then selling the house and moving on.

They then went on to work on other people's homes and countless hotels! I love their eclectic mix of modern and antiques/vintage throughout each space they design.

I watched a few of the videos on Bravo TV.com and the gorgeous couple seem really down to earth and surprisingly personable. The kids are hilarious and it's clear that their parents have a great influence on them because of their amazing personal style!

Most reality shows are all about being loud and mostly obnoxious but this one seems to be a great balance of fabulous style and much needed practicality when it comes to design and raising SEVEN children. You all MUST go to Bravo right now to watch some clips (I've done that about 5 times so far so you better catch up). Sixx Design also came out with a book Downtown Chic a few months ago, so this hot design team is on a roll right now! The show starts on April 9th and I don't know about you, but I'll be counting the days, so stay tuned for my reviews!!

Alicia B.