Interior Design Bingo : His and Hers with a few extras

I’m still so behind on the bingo challenge but here are a few more squares to ponder: His & Hers, Technology, and Storage.

His w/technology:

Hers w/unusual storage:

We are fortunate to have A LOT of space in our house so we can each have a room (I share mine with Izzy) where we can tend to our hobbies.  Actually, Micah shares his room too.  Most of the technology in the house have to do with music.  I wanted something different to organize everyday items like rulers and scissors. 

One things I’d do differently if I had the chance would be to make the master bathroom a little bigger so Micah and I could have our own distinct space.  Something like this:

from pinterest via Pink Wall Paper

This space lacks storage so I’d have to add something like this to the his and her bathroom:

from Pinterest via Kohler Talk

I love this musical “his” space.  This could become a “we” space very easily.

from pinterest via Home in Harmonia

How do you and your significant other carve out your own area within your home?

Interior Design Bingo : Family and Holiday Decor

Christmas is officially here Forty20Four.  The busted out the Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving.  I truly LOVE Christmas.  I love picking out presents for other people.  I love seeing both our families and spending time with them.  I love all the lights and the décor. 

Since we’ve spent a lot of time this weekend decorating, I thought I’d know a few bingo squares out with our holiday décor.

We decided to put the Christmas tree this year in our family room.  We spend a lot of time on the main floor but it’s really our family/tv room where we all unwind and spend the most time during the week. 

In the picture, note the holy family in the knitted nativity scene.  Micah’s Mom made it for us a few years ago.  We love it.  Actually, most people love it.  Here’s a close-up from a few years ago.

For the most part, I feel like we’re almost there with our Christmas décor.  We had so many ornaments we decided to skip the standard glass balls this year.  We added 5 new ornaments from our travels this year.  We pick up an ornament from every place we visit together.  It’s “our” souvenir.  I’d like some kind of garland maybe, and definitely a tree skirt.  We NEED a tree skirt.  I’m thinking of making something like this:

image from Pinterest via sixoneseven

I love our nativity scene and would NEVER replace it but I could see adding a wooden version on the holy family to our holiday décor.  Something like this?

from Pinterest via Etsy seller bunnywithatoolbelt

I love our tree/nativity set-up this year.  Every single ornament has a story.  I can remember where we got it or who we got it from.  And I can go on and on about the nativity.  What’s your favorite holiday decor item?  Do you love it because it’s pretty or does it have a deeper meaning for you?

Interior Design Bingo : Nursery with a Cool Ceiling

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I felt like we got a lot done despite being tired and feeling under the weather.  Today’s bingo picks are interesting because we have neither interesting ceilings or a nursery in the house.  If I had to do together in one space, I think I’d go for something similar to this.

image from Pinterest via Living in Andyland

I like that this room is gender neutral and has some great details that could transition in to big kid room easily later – assuming the kid likes yellow.

Happy Monday and here’s to a short week (if you’re in the US).

Interior Design Bingo : A Cozy, Red Place

I couldn’t decide on a Cozy Place for this square.  I feel like there are so many options in our home.  I decided to go with the place where the most snuggling happens – the family room.  At least 5 nights a week, you can find Micah and I relaxing on the couch with Izzy snuggled up against one of us.  I’m actually sitting on the couch now with Izzy’s head resting on my lap.  A great night involves us watching a movie, enjoying popcorn and all three of us cozy on the couch.

This room also has a lot of red going on.  I have no idea why we decided on red in the room.  It just happened.  Actually the design and colors came together with very little planning.  We went with a rich red for the curtains and pulled together art we already had that had red in them.

As usual, the improvements I want to make to this room are minor and include throw pillows.  Our picture ledge also needs a little work.  I’d like our couch area to look more like this:

Image from Pinterest via 2 bp blogspot

I like the red curtains and probably won’t change them.  I do like the black contrasting with the red and think I work a little more black into the room.  The black accent wall in this room really makes the art pop.

Image from Pinterest via Apartment Therapy

I’m a little behind on my Bingo board but I’m getting there!

 

Happy Friday Everyone!  I hope you have a chance to enjoy your Cozy Space this weekend!

Interior Design Bingo : Repurposing in the Bathroom

I’m knocking two squares off today with the bathroom on the main floor of our house.  I really love this bathroom.  It might be my favorite in the house.  We didn’t try to do too much here which is key.  The color scheme is similar to the kitchen – just red, white and cork with hints of black.

The flooring is cork as is the tile in the shower.  We loved the cork tile but it was expensive so we decided to go with just the floor of the shower.

For some reason, the bathroom took on a “New York” theme.  We had a bunch of pictures from when Micah lived there and it all just came together.  I kind of want a New York City snow globe to put on the shelf by the sink. 

Can you see the repurposed item?  The vanity/sink thing is actually our old Ikea dining table.  We had it for years and even traveled back to Seattle from DC with me.  We really liked how this bathroom came out which is surprising since we spent so little time designing it.

Image via Pinterst (if this is your image, please let me know so I can give proper credit)

I like this bathroom because it’s simple but has some great features (read storage) which I feel like we don’t have enough of.  I also love the use of the ladder in the bathroom.  I know it’s not repurposed per se but it feels like it is by just being in the room.

What item do you have repurposed in your home.  Did you transform it completely or does it still serve it’s original function in a different way?

Sunday Suppers : Saturday’s Smoked Salmon

OK, this isn’t a true Sunday Suppers post as all the prep too place on Friday and Saturday but we definitely enjoyed the fruits of our weekend labor on Sunday.  When I was coming up with our themed Thanksgiving meal, I decided Salmon HAD to be involved.  It was either going to be an appetizer of smoked salmon and crackers or salmon chowder. 

Micah liked the idea of smoked salmon so I started searching for recipes.  We have actually have a smoker that Micah got a few years back on craigslist.  It was new and only $30.  One our best Craigslist scores ever.  Turns out smoking salmon is actually fairly easy and cheap.  All I needed was brown sugar, white sugar, pepper, salt and salmon.  I picked up some salmon for relatively cheap at our local Filipino seafood store. 

It took 15 minutes to put the cure rub together and get the salmon set in the fridge.  I mixed 1 cup of kosher salt, 1/4 cup of brown sugar and 1/4 and about 4 tbsp. of cracked black pepper in a bowl.  I cut two large pieces of salmon (so they are the same size), pulled out any pin bones and patted the fish dry.  I set out a large piece of plastic wrap where I put a third of my curing rub down, my salmon skin side down and another third of the rub.  I then topped my first piece of salmon with my second piece, flesh side down.  Lastly, I covered the top with the remaining rub and wrapped my salmon up tightly in the plastic wrap.  I wrapped the salmon parcel in aluminum foil, placed it on a old cookie sheet, weighed it down with two heavy books and put it in the fridge to cure. 

I let it sit for 9 hours on one side before turning it over.  Once 18 or so hours had passed, I rinsed off the salmon and let it sit in a cool, dry place (not the fridge) for a couple hours until it looked shiny and had a matte like texture.  We then smoked it for a couple hours.  We read that the smoker should be no more than 200 degrees which is hard to gauge in our smoker.  We waited until the heat died down before we put the salmon in there.  We ran out of heat before the salmon was fully cooked so we finished it in the oven.  We cooked it at 200 degrees until the thickest part of the salmon registered at 160 degrees. 

And that’s it.  It’s that easy.  I’m not trying to toot our own horns but the salmon is GOOD.  Like really good.  Like the best smoked salmon we’ve ever had.  It’s flakey but moist and it melts in your mouth.  I thought it was a little salty at first but it mellowed out by the second day.  This may be one of our most successful projects yet. 

We didn’t add any preservatives so it only keeps for 3 days unless you freeze it.  We gave some of it to our friend Darik who traded us for bacon he recently cured and smoked at our house (that post is coming).  The salmon is really versatile.  We’ve had it on sandwiches, in a Salmon hash for breakfast and on it’s own.  Really, it’s so tasty.  We’ve got plans to make more salmon, package it with Momager’s food sealer and give it out as Christmas gifts. 

So what do you think?  Would give smoking salmon a try?

Interior Design Bingo - Green

Not too long ago we made what we hope is our last chair purchase for the house.  We picked up a really comfy olive green for our living room.  Is it possible?  Are we done with the main floor of the house?  Just about.  At some point, I’d like something to use as a plant stand.  Anyway, the green chair:

We picked this chair up for almost 60% off it’s normal price.  I was going to pick a chair up from Craigslist and redo it but for the cost of the chair, new materials and time, we got this instead.  The olive green is weird but it goes with the carpet and in a strange way, it matches the other green chair we have.  The velvety chair we got from a house my Dad was cleaning out and remodeling.  You can’t beat free.  I was going to paint the wood white but now it goes with the dark wood of the Kasala chair.  Recovering the chair is out of the question.  It’s Izzy’s favorite chair.  She has NO interest in any other seat in our living room.  Just this chair.

The chairs paired with the fire make for a nice little entertaining space which we actually use.  My parents had a formal living room people only used during parties.  I like that our space is functional.

My inspiration picture is more modern than our living room.  I love all the details and the large photo in the back.  Again, it’s another example of great accessories.  We’ll get there one day!

Image via Interior Design Ideas

What do you guys think of the large picture?  I want to put a few large pictures up in our house.  I’ve got a few photos from some of our travels I want to use.  Big picture too much?

Interior Design Bingo : Vintage Vignettes

A Vignette. I actually wasn’t sure what this was in relation to interior design. At work, we have vignettes we publish every few months about aspects of our work. I knew what that type of vignette was. Once I found out what an interior design vignette was, I realized I was really bad at putting them together. Here are two examples from our house that aren’t completely terrible.

This first one is a favorite of mine – a Vintage Vignette. Micah majored in History at UW (go Huskies!) and focused on the American West, particularly to migration of people to California from the East Coast, South and Mid-West. I think part of his fascination is that his own family settled in California from Tennessee and Texas a few generations back. The bookend in the picture is the brand from Micah’s grandparents’ cattle ranch that was in Santa Maria. Many of the books here are from Micah’s Dad. I was looking through the copy of Cannery Row and noticed that this particular edition was printed in 1945. Other books in his American West collection are much newer. I like this particular vignette because it tells a story. I also like it because it’s vintage rustic look adds a little something to our mostly modern house.

The second vignette is also from the study.  Please excuse the blurry picture.  It’s of the “Russia Shelf” in our study.  All books about something having to do with Russia.  The political Matroshka dolls are from when I was a student in St. Petersburg 13 years ago.  Has it really been that long?  The vintage Russian mailbox is from Micah’s Dad.  Micah lived in Russia too.  Actually, it was the Soviet Union.  Don’t ask him about it though.  You’ll hear tales of marching, cabbage and Babushkas yelling at him. 

As usual, my inspiration vignettes are from Pinterest.  I love this first vignette. It’s more a collection of vignettes. This is what I want our study to look like one day.  Maybe this can be our big project for next year.

Pinterest via decor8

The second I love because it’s a little different. It’s how I’d decorate the bandroom if I was allowed to restyle it.  A keyboard, a mid-century modern inspired art and few vintage dishes = perfection.

Pinterest via Handz on Etsy

I’m slowly catching up on bingo.  We hope to have some actual news to share about our bathroom this week.  We had to special order cement and are hoping it comes in this week.

So are you a vignette assembling master or more of an amateur like me?

Interior Design Bingo : Mid-Century Modern

I hope everyone had a really great weekend. Izzy had a sleepover Friday night, and Micah and I managed to get quite a bit done Saturday and Sunday. I’m starting the week out with the Mid-Century Modern square on the bingo board.

This chair is one we’ve spent a lot of time on. We scored the chair off Craigslist last year. We loved it’s structure but hated the library print material of the cushions. It took us months to decide on fabric, source it and then get it covered. We love the way it turned out and how it rounds out our living room.

I picked this second picture because I love how it mixes classic Mid-Century modern pieces with ethnic pieces, bright colors and dogs. We love Mid-Century pieces but we’re not trying to recreate the set of Mad Men in our house. Don’t get me wrong, we’d love to have SO much from the show but we want to incorporate our personalities into it.

image via Pinterest

I can’t wait until our place starts to look THIS put together.  Happy Monday!

Interior Design Bingo - Kitchen

The next square I’m covering on my bingo board is the kitchen. I’ve been spending a lot of time organizing our kitchen. I decided to tackle organizing our house room by room starting with the kitchen. Last night I tackled the area under the sink. I found cleaning supplies we’ve had for over 5 years! Ridiculous. I managed to get rid of a lot of stuff we don’t use like an espresso machine we inherited from Micah’s parents, a hand mixer (we have a counter one) and a small food processor. Oh, the space! I also realized we are in desperate need of new dish towels and could use a few more OXO Pop containers to sort out our pantry which is tonight’s task.

This is an older picture of our kitchen but not much has changed since I first posted it.

I love this kitchen. Yes, I wish it was a little bigger but for the most part, it’s perfect. We wanted it to be bright but we wanted to stick with a design and colors we’d love in 40 years. We decided on red because my Kitchen Aid mixer is red and so are all our Le Cruset pots. I know, a silly reason to have picked red but the pots and mixer were an investment that we aren’t going to replace anytime soon (or ever).

The one thing I think our kitchen lacks is personality. I think it’s nice but I do think it could use a few things to warm it up a bit. My first pick is of a kitchen that to me feels completely lived in. I love all the personal accessories and furniture. The space is modern and clean but really warm and personal.

From Pinterest via Design Sponge

My second pick is something crazy and over the top. Love the legos in the kitchen. I don’t know that I could ever do it, but it’s so awesome. How could you not want it?

From Pinterest via imgfave

It’s only day three and I’m already behind!  I might have to do a double post tomorrow to catch up!

Interior Design Bingo – Accessories

A friend of mine, Ali of His Birdie’s Nest, decided to put together a little bingo game for bloggers to post about throughout the month of November. Ali has laid out 30 interior design terms on a bingo board and the idea is that bloggers would post about all of them over the course of the month. I needed some inspiration to get myself going again and this seemed like the best way to start. I decided that I’d also add something to my BINGO posts by trying to find the design elements we currently have in our house and examples of what I’d like to see in our house.

First up, ACCESSORIES! I went straight to our master bedroom for this element as we have a lot of accessories that bring the black, white, yellow and grey theme all together. The cactus trio and pots are from Ikea and the amazing little letterpressed calendar is from Orange Beautiful. The grey pillow with the ruffles is from Target and the long Alexander Girard pillow was on sale at Urban Outfitters for $7!  We have more pictures of our master bedroom which I’m hoping to update with a few new accessories and artwork.

What we need (desperately) in our house are throw pillows. Seriously, whole rooms would finally come together if I could just get some throw pillows made. We have some in our bedroom but that’s it. I think there may be one in the family room. I’d love to see something more like this on our couches - lots of color, shapes and texture that brings everything together.

From Pinterest via My Home Ideas

That’s one done, twenty nine to go!

If you are interested in the Interior Design Bingo challenge, please visit His Birdie’s Nest for more details and a list of participants.  I can wait to see what everyone else comes up with!