Pinning for Penrose: Eat-in Kitchen

In our house we have an eat-in kitchen area in front of our big kitchen window.  I go back and forth with what I want to put there.  We have bar space at the island for people to eat, and when we re-do our kitchen counters within the next year (granite and backsplash) we will be adding 2-3 more bar seats on the wall between the kitchen & living room, where we currently just have wood moulding.  I am not crazy about the idea of just getting a table and chairs and calling it a day in there.  I would rather have some comfy seating, more of an informal area, where friends or family could sit and chat while we prepare a big meal.  So, I've been looking at some Keeping Room inspiration on Pinterest....

reading nook // built-in bench // club chairs // lounge area

Don't these just make you want to grab a cup of coffee or holiday beverage and some snacks to relax a little while?  I'm loving this so much more than a plain ol' table & chairs.

This is not one of the most important items on my list of ideas, but eventually I plan to create something like this.  I will have to keep my eyes open for good deals and see what I come across!

 

Pinning for Penrose: Wall Decor

I am so excited to start making the new house feel like home. We are supposed to close the first week of October, and hopefully will be moved in around my birthday.  

I found a great deal on Groupon for Gallery Wrapped Photo Canvases that I snatched up! We have a big open wall in the kitchen and I have such a fun idea for it. I can't wait to get these canvases ordered closer to our closing date!

Here is some inspiration for other areas of the house...

Three more weeks until we close!!!!

  

Pinning for Penrose: Bedroom Decor

I am so excited about decorating our new house.  I know, duh, anyone would be.  But it's just something about this house, I guess building it from scratch, that makes me feel so much more like it's ours and I want to decorate every room.  Our last house we sort of decorated as we went, some rooms never event ended up with art on the walls, because we hadn't needed to use them yet.  This house I have so many ideas for every single space.  I can't wait for it to all come together!

We chose Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray as our whole-home wall color.  It's a nice warm gray that I think goes perfectly with espresso wood, which we have a ton of.  We will end up with some accent walls, because that's how I roll...you know this if  you were at our last house ;)

Here are some ideas I'm gathering with some Pinterest inspiration for bedroom decor.

Ryleigh's Room:  Bright colors & Puppy Dog theme

Anyone who is around Ryleigh knows how much she loves her dogs!  She requests to give them goodnight kisses every night before bed (or else she will refuse to go to sleep!) and she carries her stuffed "Puppy" around all the time.  She's also obsessed with Bubble Puppy from the Bubble Guppies show, her favorite!  So, baby girl gets a puppy-themed room :)

Master Bedroom:  Deep, Earthy colors with Navy & Green

I just can't seem to steer away from my favorite color, green. I love it for accents and I feel like it matches everything!  I try to not go too girly in "our" spaces because I want Jake to feel comfortable and like it's just as much his space to relax as mine.  

Pinning for Penrose: Kitchen Lighting

Gorgeous light fixtures make my heart beat faster :)  And that's not just a saying, it's really one of those things that makes me squeal with excitement and ache to have such a beautiful thing as mine!  Maybe that's a designer thing? I don't know.  What I do know, is that I need to find something outstanding for over our kitchen island.

The island is roughly 3'x4', although when we do the granite counters I'm thinking to stretch it to 3'x5' so that it overhangs the back and one side of the island cabinetry.  There is space for it, we will just need to figure out extra supports for the countertop and a couple brackets should do the trick.

So, with a good size island and 9ft ceilings, I need a sizable light fixture.  I want it to coincide with our brushed nickel cabinetry hardware and I want it to make a statement.  How I approach our home decor is kind of like this...."common areas" such as living room, hallways, bonus room, dining room, etc are the family spaces so they should be decorated in a way that the whole family would like.  The master bedroom & bathroom are both Jake & my areas so they shouldn't be overly girly.  Jake typically always defers decor decisions to me anyway, but he does appreciate when things fit his taste and are a color palette that he likes.  However, the kitchen is mine.  It's the one area of the house that I claim as my own and I will decorate it however I want.  

This kitchen is a totally different color scheme than our last house.  The last house was an earthy granite with grays & tans, and the cabinets were a crimson cherry finish.  This house I'm going for something with a little bit more pizazz...Maybe a touch more girly?....Let's use this Pinterest picture as the inspiration picture of the Espresso cabinetry and white granite counters...

Now imaging the above kitchen with something eye-catching over the island, a la something like this:

This is one of my favorites. I keep eyeing it for a sale.  It just makes my heart happy :) I love the style, love the number of lights, and I love that it has diffused light (frosted around the bulb) so that you don't get blinded looking at it. Dare I call it sexy?

I'm also a fan of the lantern style fixtures.  I think they give a room so much character and bring in beautiful lines.

This giant lantern is gorgeous but wayyyyy over budget at about $1500! Yikes!

The framing of this one is really fun.

I'm hoping to keep my eye on some of these and pray for a labor day sale just before we move in to seal the deal!