Résidence de l'imaginaire: Floor Plan

This is going to sound weird, but the other night I had an Interior Design dream. 

Good lord that sounds super nerdy. But I guess it's less nerdy than dreaming about living in Middle earth or something like that. (But who am I kidding, I've totally had those dreams too). Anyways, back to the point! The Ikea visit during our Seattle vacation brought back a surge of emotions. Specifically an intense desire to have my own apartment where I could decorate however I want. I dreamt up this beautiful and efficient single bedroom apartment. Sure it was extravagant in my dream but its a dream, I can do what I want. Don't judge. I've decided that it would be a fun project to have here on this blog and a good exercise for me. 

So here's what's going to be happening. I'm going to design an imaginary apartment! And share everything with you all. From the floor plan to the cupboards, from the flooring to the pillows, I'm going to do it all. I'm going to call the project: 

Résidence de l'imaginaire  

(Imaginary Residence in French)

So here is part one of résidence de l'imaginaire, the floor plan. (And you'll have to excuse me, I don't have CAD [computer aided design] yet, so my floor plan is made in paint)

This is my single bedroom apartment! I'll be designing a home from this floor plan and we'll see what I come up with. I'm looking forward to it but it's also going to be a lot of work. 

Update

After finals week Rhanden & I flew to Seattle to visit my best friend Melissa. It was an absolute blast! But also, no internet access so I've been missing from el blog. I stupidly forgot my camera otherwise I would have lots of pretty pictures for you but alas my brain failed me and the only pictures we took were of my lovely boyfriend and Melissa's fat cat Tobias.

But we did get to visit Ikea! Which is one of my favorite places. It makes me want my own apartment so freaking bad I can't even explain it! I don't usually buy much but it's such inspiration!Using your small spaces wisely and reducing waste! (We've recently been studying urban sprawl and wasted space in cities and it's now an issue that really urks me, if urks is a word). I grew up in Washington and forgot how adorable some of the houses are. Washington and Oregon definitely have a unique style. (I tried finding pictures on google of what I mean but it failed). Anyways I don't have any pictures from the trip but I did buy some things from Ikea. I'm getting a bigger bed so of course I had to get a new comforter!

I realize that it looks REALLY busy in this picture. But it's a simple white comforter with a leaf pattern in navy blue all over it ($15) and with the accessories I picked out I don't think it will be too much. And honestly, in real life it doesn't look so chaotic. I got navy blue sheets from Target ($15) and a blue decorative pillow from Ikea ($3) that I plan on decorating somehow (I'll keep you posted). I really want to get this blanket to add some texture and reduce the pattern:

 

It looks like a cable knit sweater and I think the extra texture would really make the whole set look complete. Textures and patterns can clash if you have too much going on but the added texture here will really balance out the pattern of the comforter. Once I get everything put together I'll upload some pictures. I'm moving into my new room around new years so I'll have pictures of it around then. 

An update on the painting situation. I painted my bathroom a light turquoise/blue and the bedroom a grey and the leftover blue from the bathroom. Again, pictures around new years. Anyways, there's a quick update!

-Rae Rae

Things Are Starting To Look Up...

I have been MIA recently and that's because it's college kids hell week: FINALS.

It was a stressful week of finals that got worse because I got sick. But now finals are over and I'm headed to Seattle in a few days for a much needed vacation. 

But what is more awesome and actually relevant to this blog is I'm moving into a new room with my own bathroom. And I actually get to paint! I'm awaiting landlord approval on my paint choices at the moment but I will keep you guys updated on the process. My landlord is trying to sell the house next year so colors can't be too brash and need to help the place sell. I'm trying to pick some neutral yet lovely colors to put in 2 rooms that don't have the greatest light sources. Here's my ideas so far:

I found this lovely inspiration photo for the bathroom on stumbleupon:

I'm mostly looking at the colors. I want to use a blue like this on the walls because it's not too dark and very neutral. And then I can go in with a coral shower curtain and accessories to really brighten it up and make it feel happy. 

For the bedroom I'm thinking a pale peach or a light gray. "Sun kissed peach", "Apricot Lilly", or "Twilight Gray" by Behr were some of my favorite choices. 

We'll see how it goes and I'll post pictures of the room remodel as it progresses.

And I'll be updating regularly from now as well. Now that I actually have time. 

D.I.Y. Yarn Letters

Finals week is totally kicking my ass so instead of spending time making my own things or coming up with a unique D.I.Y. here's a sweet idea I found online. These are so cute especially for the coming holiday season.

Full Instructions from here: http://jenloveskev.com/2011/11/29/d-i-y-yarn-letters/

Little Attic Room

I think this little attic room is simply beautiful. 

Found it here: http://www.designsponge.com/2011/03/past-present-history-of-curtains.html

Label Chair!

How sweet is this chair?

This is the Label Chair designed by Felix Guyon, a french furniture designer. This idea is so cool! I'm so amazed by people's ingenuity sometimes. 

Gray!

Gray! Gray is a completely under-appreciated color. It's neutral without being as bland as white. As a poor college student who has only enough money to rent, one has to get use to white walls. Bleck. I love white as an accent color and if done right, it can look ok on walls. But it's so boring! Maybe it's just more frustrating because we can't do anything about it, we have no power to change the walls. Either way, I'm totally diggin' gray. It goes with everything, isn't in your face, and is neutral. Here's some pictures to show you what I mean.

Above: This was designed by the Heather Garrett Design team. Notice that there aren't any accent colors in the room. They're all neutrals. But the gray wall offsets all the whites. Plus! Textures! There's a lot of different textures going on here and that makes it more interesting and keeps the neutral colors from being too bland. Seriously, the more I look at this room the more I'm falling in love with it.

 More gray walls! Both the above and below photo's I found on Tumblr. But I couldn't find the original source, bummer. Anyways, gray walls and colors! 

Above:  

Let me be frank. I'm a sucker for turquoise. It's my favorite. Of all time.The turquoise retro fridge? Amazing. What else am I sucker for? Peacock feathers. There's so many different elements in here that I love.  The gray walls accent off the old woods and retro colors in a way that plan white or even cream couldn't. It's the perfect way to have bigger accessories, (in this case the fridge, chandelier, old wooden cupboards) and balance those elements out. Also, how genius is a chandelier in the kitchen?

Below: 

I thoroughly enjoy bring outdoor elements inside, the tree wall decals are lovely! There's a lot of gray in this room but I don't feel like it overpowers anything. The patterns in the pillows! I think that's something that we can take away from gray. It gives you like free range to use shiny textures (like the first picture) or a wide range of patterns (like the pillows below). 

 Below:

There's not a ton of gray in this picture but I just wanted to show how lovely yellow and gray look together. It's a combo made in heaven. 

Well! It's my first blog spot! Hopefully it wasn't too redundant or anything. I'm getting pretty excited about this so I hope you guys like it. And think about putting some gray in your house.

Starting Out.

Well Hello.

Ok, I'm going to be honest, I have absolutely no idea how to use blogspot. (I'm a tumblr person myself). So it's going to take me a little while to get use to everything and make this look like a legit blog. So just hang tight with me for a bit. 

So why did I make this blog? Well I'm studying Textiles and Merchandising with a minor in Interior Design (which is my true passion). I decided it's time for me to get on the ball about this stuff and emerge myself in the world of design. This is going to be my career and I want to be full of inspiration when the time comes to get a job. I want this blog to be a place where I post things that inspire me that will hopefully inspire you. I'll hopefully be posting D.I.Y. stuff, ideas, beautiful pictures, etc. Anything related to design. The next two college years of mine are going to be very intensive in the world of design and if I can share that knowledge with other people, that'd be fantastic. 

With all my heart I believe that everyone deserves to live in a beautiful place. The reason I want to be an interior designer is to take things that people view as ugly and make them beautiful. There's beauty in everything, you just have to find it. Living an optimistic life trying to find the silver lining is my life's goal. And I choose to show that through interior design. I also think it's important for everyone to express themselves and homes are wonderful way of doing that. 

So yeah. I guess we'll just see where this goes eh?