Emersyn's Big Girl Room

I feel like it was yesterday that I posted Emersyn's nursery reveal... pause for a tear.

(find her nursery post here) 

I loved her nursery at our old home.  I originally designed that room so that it didn't have to do a whole lot to make it a 'big girl' room.  I thought the color scheme and decor would transition perfectly when it was time to switch a crib to a bed.  Well fast forward three years and that perfectly designed nursery is now some other lucky little girl's room.  I truly hope she loves it!

So of course at the new house, I have yet another blank canvas to create Emersyn's new room.  Like always, I went to Pinterest for inspiration.  Here are a few of my favorites from my Eme's Big Girl Room Board.

I want her room to be sweet and girly but also fun and whimsical.  I also really want to use as much from her nursery as possible.  With that in mind, I plan to stick with the navy, coral/blush, and mint color scheme.  Her last room had sea foam colored walls but Eme has asked for a 'pink' room, so I am working hard to find the perfect shade of pink.

Here is my design plan so far:

I was immediately sold when I found this Pillowfort comforter from Target.  Not only was the price amazing, but the colors were PERFECT!  It has a great balance of coral, blush, and mint with a navy background.  I feel like finding this comforter really helped me envision the whole room!  I am slowly piecing items together, and I can't wait to share more details as her official 'big girl' room comes together.

How to Effectively Use Pinterest when Building or Remodeling a Home

I love Pinterest… you love Pinterest… we all love Pinterest!!  It helps us craft, cook, dress, DIY, decorate, highlight and contour…you name it!  So of course the second I found out we would be building a new home, I started my ‘Molyneux House’ Pinterest board. 

I searched and pinned pictures for just about every decision needed to be made along the way.  As we are now on the last leg of our building journey (moving in HOPEFULLY next month), I have learned how Pinterest can really help you and hurt you when it comes to building or remodeling your home.  Here my Top 5 lessons learned…

1.Use Pinterest pictures as inspiration ONLY!

This can be tricky.  We see these beautiful pictures on Pinterest and the only thing we know is we want to replicate them for ourselves.  The important thing to remember is that most of these pictures are of homes that cost an amount most average people like you and I can not afford! Keep focus on the big picture and inspiration these pictures supply- don’t get caught up in wanting to recreate exactly what you see.

Example:  I showed my designer these Pinterest pictures of kitchens I liked.  I saw white cabinets and a clean/crisp kitchen.  What she saw, as the expert, was inset cabinets that are custom made and insanely expensive!  So when showing your builder, contractor, or designer Pinterest pictures make sure you are clear about what catches your eye in these pictures and what caused you to pin them.  For me, all of these pictures were pinned because each kitchen space gives me the same airy feeling and that is what I want to capture in my own kitchen.

2. Use Pinterest pictures to clarify your vision.
While building our custom home, I have been to every meeting and making every decision.  That means I am working with electricians, framers, carpenters, painters, stone smiths, etc.  I quickly found that I did not speak the language of these experts.  This is where Pinterest helped A LOT.  With each walk through or selection meeting, I would arm myself with pinned pictures to show what I was trying to explain.

This is the pinned picture I used to show the marble/granite company as we discussed the design for our powder bath floating sink. 

Pinned picture for our pool mud room lockers.

I had a hard time explaining what I wanted for the trim in our home.  So having pictures helped me get across clearly the look I was going for.

3. Use Pinterest as a color idea board
When it comes to understanding and deciding upon color selections, I found Pinterest to be really helpful!!!  If I couldn't imagine two different tones of cabinetry in the kitchen or what dark trim work would look like, I looked on Pinterest. 

Dark doors and trim work for our basement?  This is one of the pictures that helped confirm that decision.  *I am still a bit nervous to see ours but willing to take the chance!

I love how 'manly' this office looks.  It was for sure an inspiration pic when creating the vibe for Ian's office.

This picture helped with deciding to have our butler's pantry a different color.  At first it was white cabinets, but now I LOVE the grey cabinets in there and I have this pic to thank for that decision.

Navy cabinetry in the Jack and Jill bathrooms...check.

Brown door in a wood tone or a painted door.  I went back and forth with this one.  After seeing many pictures on Pinterest, we went with a dark front door and coordinating dark garage doors!

Excited we went with white perimeter cabinets and a grey island.

Looking at different colors for cabinets, trim work, walls, hardware, etc. on Pinterest can really help narrow what look you are drawn to.

4. Be Careful of All the AMAZING IDEAS you will find...NOTHING is free!!! Especially if is isn't DIY!!
This was a hard one for me!  I would see all this great ideas and I would show my project manager.  That is when reality hit and I would find out how much it would cost to replicate all those great ideas.  Unless you are a master DIY gal or have a great DIY hubby, I caution on those 'fancy' pins.  All of the following pics are ones I pinned thinking- "those look cool and convenient."  Then I found out how much my builder would charge to create each of them; needless to say none of these fancy pin ideas made it into our home!

5.  Pin Specific Pictures
This one kind of goes against my #1 of using Pinterest for inspiration only.  If you are looking for something specific and you find it on Pinterest- PIN IT!!  I went back to my Pinterest Board so many times to look at a light fixture I wanted to buy or a faucet that I had selected months ago.  Looking at some of my more specific pins helped keep me organized when thinking of the overall style I wanted my home to have!  Right now I am pinning hardware like a mad woman.  But these pins are like my memory.  Below are some specific pins that are of items that will be making an appearance in our home very soon...hopefully!!!

So remember when pinning ideas for your home- stay realistic, consider what is DYI, and have fun pinning pictures that can inspire you to create your own unique space that makes you happy!

All pinned pictures in this post can be found from my Pinterest boards-For the Home and Molyneux House.

Friday Favorite- Tile Inspirations

I love tile!!! Let me just get that statement out of the way.  There is seriously so many beautiful tile selections for both flooring and back splashes.  When this selection meeting rolled around I was a bit nervous because I was so worried that all my hopes of beautiful tile would be shot with the simple phrase "over budget"- which I have been hearing a lot throughout this process!  However, much to my surprise, this was the easiest meeting of all.  I learned that because there are so many tile choices, you really can find amazing looking tile for just about any budget.

Here are some of my original inspiration pics from my Pinterest board.

I am so thrilled that some of my original tile selections will be the actual tile in my new house!!  We really stuck with classic selections throughout the home such as marble subway, linen 12x24 tiles, white hexagon, and penny tiles.  I was pushed out of my comfort zone for the small powder bath- but I am excited to see how it turns out. (for a little look check out my sister's design blog at Jessica Stout Design).
On an exciting note: the house is getting closer and closer to being FINISHED!!!!  Excited to share some actual photos from our home soon!!!

Friday Favorite: Lighting

Let me just say 'I LOVE lighting!'  it is something I normally always notice in homes, and I truly believe that lighting can completely transform a room.  So when I first began the home building process I thought lighting would be a fun thing to select.  I am sad to report that lighting is quickly becoming something that is overwhelming me!
Our home is pretty open concept, but also has distinct rooms within that space.  So the issue that creates is selecting lighting that is not too matchy, matchy but has an overall style flow.  No problem I thought.  So what's the problem... I like too many things and I am having the hardest time deciding on which overall lighting feel I want.  And once I decide the feel I want then I am left with the question of what finish (antiqued gold, silver, black, bronze).  I find that I like some modern fixtures while still loving the country cottage look.  How do I decide and make all of my lighting styles work together???!!!
While I stress over something that really doesn't need to be given this many hours of thought, I will give you some of the fixtures I have my eye on.

Which of these do you all like?  Any lighting suggestions right now are so very welcome.  The hubby's opinion only revolves around price (men).  So I am turning to my talented designer Jessica Stout Design for some major guidance on this one- I am about burnt out on all this decision making.

On an exciting update, we have drywall installed and stone on the outside!!! Progress makes me happy!!

We had a slight nervous 'ahhhh' moment when we saw the stone mortar as such a dark color.  We want everything to be very light and blend all together... we have been assured it will dry MUCH lighter!!