Domestic Chicky

I have never been good at decorating walls. I think I reached my peak when I had Donny Osmond and Scott Baio posters on my wall, torn out of 16 and tiger beat magazines (ack – dating myself!). Luckily for me I know lots of creative chickies who can show me the way…

• The Happy Homebody turned a styrofoam pear into an adorable piece of wall art.
• Lindsay (who you met last week) has a guest tutorial to make a cute twig chair for your wall (I could totally see this by my door for outgoing mail)
• Decorating with Photos over at The Inspired Room
• This post is about paint, but the FABULOUS (and new to me!) 320 Sycamore has filled this post (and her whole blog! ) with dreamy ideas for wall foofing. I could spend hours drooling here…
• Another new-to-me blog is Reinvented - this woman is a genius for decorating on the cheap – I know I will get lots of inspiration here!
• Thrifty Decor Chick has a brilliant post using inspiration from Ballard Designs – SO easy and I could see using this in a few rooms in different ways…

…and last, I thought I would show you what I am working with – this is my living room just after I painted. Consider these the “before” pictures:

This gives you a good look at one side of the living room – the coffee table is soon to become an experiment in painting – I’m thinking black…the couch is a olive-y green.

This is the other end. I have lots of wall to fill, don’t I? I am lukewarm about the bookcase, but it will work for the time being…I am making pillows for the couches too!!

I would love advice, and to see your favorite links for wall art and decoration!!

Colors have been selected, and the we have decided the placement (I think)…

From Left to right: (all paints by Behr) Cocoa (rejected-looks like makeup rubbed on the wall) , Ultra Pure White (for trim), Butter Cookie (for kitchen and master Bedroom – although I love it so much I would put it in every room - can I do that?), Warm Nutmeg (rejected – too dark), Oyster Bay (a fav from The Nester-maybe the boys room), Svelte Sage (rejected – pretty color, but too blue). The bottom two are celery (the color for the breezeway/crafting room, and maybe the boys room) and Pumpkin Butter (living room). So it looks like the rooms will be the butter cookie, the celery, and the pumpkin butter. Not very appetizing a combo for food, but I think they will be pretty in the rooms.

Really – CAN I do the whole house butter cookie? It’s such a pretty yellow without being too sunshine-y or loud. It will go with what we have now, and will definitely go with what we have planned further down the road…I need you obi-wan-kenobi bloggers! Help a girl out!

I’m still here! Can you believe I have a kidney stone? Sheesh! I thought I was getting the flu or pulled a muscle, but about 4am Thursday night the pain started to move and I knew immediately what it was – ugh…

So anyway, I wanted share something new I wanna do here at Casa de Chicky…I am always inspired by the gorgeous homes and decor of some of my favorite blogs, so I thought I would share some of my favorites with you, and also share the before and after pictures of what I end up doing here at the Casa. I have been in this house for 4 years, and (cover your eyes Nester) HAVE NOT PAINTED ONE WALL…How awful is that? So, I figured since we probably won’t be moving anytime soon (yeah, thanks St Louis for the wretched winter you had this year – husband was so NOT convinced to move after that!)

I am hoping my decorating Guru The Nester (yeah, I’m calling you out ) will give me a hand with this, as I know what I like, but have an awful time actually DECIDING on a look or a style, since I like a little bit of everything! She has great style, and her style fits the shabby/casual/elegant style I tend to gravitate to the most…

I am definitely decorating on a budget, so you will see a lot of “inspired by” posts, where I take the stuff I love from places like Pottery Barn, Restoration, Crate & Barrel, and do it on the cheap. Here is one of my current inspirations from the new Pottery Barn Catalog

No-brainer, right? Plain white sheets, some beautiful Grosgrain Ribbon in colors that go with your bedding, and sew! You could do as little as one row of beautiful wide ribbon, to 3 or 4 rows with a row of ball fringe to finish it off!