Things I Like

I work in the home design industry. I draw blueprints to build from for additions, renos, kitchens, baths and new homes. I do not make decisions on color or furniture choices for clients. With that being said, I do appreciate good decor. I think we all have a tiny decorator inside of us, we like and dislike colors, trends, furniture, styles, etc.
I am very frugal, partly because I am from an old New England family and old New Englanders tend to be frugal, and partly because we are young and don't have a ton of money to spend on nice things! Let's not forget, where would I put more furniture in a 650 sq ft condo? A girl can dream about pretty things. I online and in-store window shop a LOT. A few things have caught my eye recently, some I love and some I question.

Loves:
Crate and Barrel Bench I love how simple and versatile it is. Ottoman, extra seating, entry bench, end of bedroom bench.

Bedroom Closet Before

We moved here in August of 2007. I was in heaven! We had 14 feet of closet space in our bedroom. 14 feet. 14 whole feet. It was one rod with two shelves above it. I knew at some point we would want to change it and make it more efficient, but it worked for a while.

Conquering Our Overworked Hall Closet

After our wedding this fall, our already overloaded hall closet just about exploded. We use it for a pantry, linen closet, coat closet, broom closet, and anything else that needs a home. We have remodeled our bedroom closet, but because this one holds so much, I am having a hard time committing to a configuration I will like. So in the mean time, I will make it work for us and our "stuff"

Before

New Drawer pulls

We had a large TV hutch for the first 3+ years of living here. It was beautiful but we needed something with less mass. We had narrowed our choices down to 2. I happened to be at Ikea, on my way out I stopped in the scratch and dent room. Thank goodness I did! There was our "b" choice, all assembled with a few minor nicks. It was 50% off, plus an additional 20% off special they were running that day. Our decision was made and we had a bran new tv cabinet the next day! Our old hutch went to live at my aunt's house. She was lacking closet space in her new house and with some editing it works perfectly for tops.
My only issue with the new tv cabinet is the drawer pulls. Today I bought some at Target. I am not sold on them at the moment, what do you think?

Before

After

Portmerion Pt 2

After moving all of our glasses (or as many as would prettily fit into our glasses bookcase,) I now had two LARGE shelves available for all of our dishes! We didn't have any small plates before, but we did have some adorable dessert plates that happened to be the same size. We also had some bowls that had serves us well and somewhat went with the Portmerion. Everything has a home in our new dishes cabinet!

Portmerion Pt 1

For Christmas my wonderful mother gave us 10 sets of our Portmerion Botanical Garden dishes to add to our previously slow growing collection. It was a wonderfully thoughtful gift. Until we got home and reality set in: we have a 7 ft x 7ft kitchen. So my space planning abilities kicked into overdrive. The cabinet I needed to house the dishes currently had our glasses in it. So, I had to move the glasses, but where to? To a bookcase that housed DVD's in the living area of course! I unloaded the bookcase and moved it into the kitchen/dining area and loaded it with glasses. I am thrilled with the result (for today.)