Spring Challenge: Airy But Colorful Living Room

Hello, lovely ladies, how are doing today? Is it raining, yeah? In my home town it's raining, too. But that never stopped me from getting ready for the joys of Spring. I put together a colorful living room, following a few simple steps:

1. Keep it airy. Gather as many light surfaces as you can. Put a white cover on the couch! Switch your art with pastel paintings or photos! Fortunate enough to work with white walls and creme leather seating, I just made sure that my gallery wall features some items in light colors.

2. Ground it. Choose a little contrast for the floors. This way, the all-white-furniture in the room won't look like it is floating on a space base. I used my beautiful traditional rug with a powerful geometric pattern.

3. Add colorful accents. There are no rules here, the light background allows you to throw in anything small and colorful that you already have at home. I just dragged in some colorful pillows, the gay lamp and the hyacinth bulbs in ceramic cups :)

Good news, everyone! My colorful living room has been featured at Becolorful, Simply Designing, Him And Her, Sugar And Dots, Craftionary, One Project Closer, What-About Co, Five Days... Five Ways, The Gingerbread Blog, Dreamsicle Sisters, That DIY Show Off and Tidy Mom. Thank you so much for the support, lovely ladies!

The Light Walked In

Good morning, sunshine! The light finally walked into my home like it owned the place. It went sliding on the walls, caressing them with tender glow. It measured the floors, the perfect pacing. It played with the plants, the animals and even with me. I wanted to take its picture, but the light was not in the mood for posing. So I just have this image of light simply ignoring me.

Bedroom Light

"Here comes the sun, little darling... Here comes the sun... It's alright (Tananananana...)" is the first thing that comes to my mind. A song to celebrate the sun. After 4 weeks of really dark skies, after yesterday's snow, came a little sunshine to brighten up my day. And my mood (now that I have the fever, I might use the cold remedy tea sooner than I expected). I had no time to prepare anything with a Christmas touch, as I was already running late for work, so I just snapped some pics with the light slipping on the bed cover and onto the wall.

On my nightstand (a re-purposed, moved around the house powder blue Ikea Lack coffee table) there is all the goodness in the world. The stuff that dreams are made of: a children's book with wonderful illustrations by a Romanian artist (entitled "The Day That Mr. Sleep Ran Away") - check!, a pocket-size handmade journal with red polka-dot fabric and coptic bound in turquoise wax thread (from the days when my friend Ana and me were only fantasizing about opening our Etsy shop) - check!, tap dancing metal plates - check! and an old handmade bookmark - check!

Just looking at these pics makes me smile - who knows when are we going to enjoy another sunshine day like this? The weather prognosis is dreadful, so all I've got left is the pattern the light makes when it comes crawling onto the crochet pillow and the orange bed sheet. Note to self: need to change them soon and figure something else for the upcoming Christmas celebration...

Opposite the bed is that one DIY project that never bores or disappoints me - my beloved purple plum accent wall and the vintage cabinet I inherited from my grandfather. I've got my childhood turntable and my favorite vinyls in there, plus a plethora of matryoskas and other ethnic dolls collected over time. Far in the back, the Burberry style cardboard boxes. I already grew tired of that look, so I need to paint them soon!

September Light

The complete title for this post should read: September light with sleepy kitty and explosive fern. The weather has been very generous these days. It's the middle of September and we enjoy incredible warm weather, which I can't get enough of. The light is not so destructive as it was in August, and still it lacks that golden glow quality that makes me love Autumn so much. I think this time of the year is just perfect. 

There is an old saying in my country which claims that ferns bring happiness to the homes they live in. My fern usually lives on the small balcony. Only I felt like making it a part of the house and I invited it into the sunny living room. That was a big mistake and I remembered in a second why we only admire this lovely plant from a distance. My feline friends seem to be attracted to the gracious leaves like moths to the light. In conclusion, I don't know how many more days I will be willing to clean the little leaves of the floor (several times a day!) so I guess the fern will spread its good karma from the balcony, just like before.

On the pink coffee table you can spot two of my latest thrifty finds: a cone striped vase and a hand painted wooden stand. Their lovely blues go perfectly with my [still] summery mood and with the lighthouse painting on the wall. This one is...? A candle stand, perhaps (with a bump on the top, ha ha!)?! Never mind, it is very beautiful and the traditional decorations make me imagine it came from a Swedish home. A little bit of Scandinavian design right in my living room :)

Meanwhile, my kitty Anais is dreaming of hunting for some tasty pray, I presume. She left me rambling about Swedish design, as I do every day, and then she changed her sleeping mode with a deep, deep sigh... It's so complicated to be a spoiled pet these days! I leave you now, because this warm light is tingling the corner of my eyes and I am feeling a little sleepy myself. If any of you friends could help me with the other find which looks like a striped cone, I would really appreciate it. I thought it was a vase, but if you look carefully you will see a whole at the bottom (so there's no way it can contain any water). Please tell me what it could be! 

The Hunter In The Dark

Or should I say... the hunter in the light?! Junior, my white and orange cat, is on a mission. A pigeon family nests is my heater exhaust, right outside the kitchen window. Their young are learning to fly and the whole family is in constant agitation. Junior watches them without moving, for hours. I'm truly sorry  my pics don't come with a sound recording, because he croaks at the birds... for hours and hours. 

So my cat is a singer. He can do jazz, blues, Renaissance hymns, Italian opera, French chansons and a Bach fugue. Good for us, since a musical home is a happy home :)

My Princess

My princess has got this tiny waste line that she wraps in a delicate lace belt. She dresses in pretty voile and her texture is so light, that even the slightest breeze can steal her away, on the wings of the summer wind. She is as white as the snow and as delicate as the sea foam from the Mediterranean. When she walks, her gown caresses the ground with a touch of whimsy songs from the never-ever-land. Can you guess who my new princess might be?

Meet Alba - my little thrifted lamp. Lamp-shade, actually, for she didn't even have a body to go with that wonderful airy head of hers. Notice the little fringes and the intricate design of the lace accent. I think I'm in love! Against the hand-made wallpaper in my study, she looks like she is the queen of the world! Her presence lights up the room and sets the mood for a quiet dream. I dream of a gigantic polar bear named Arr. He lets me ride on his back around the North Pole. We'll go visit his cousin Ulah and we will all have rum and raisin ice-cream treats.

I've toned it down

The bedroom, that is. You might remember the colorful Spring Bedroom from an earlier post, which was supposed to cheer me up and get me out of the spring depression. Well, it worked!

So now I reduced the bedroom color scheme to restful shades of green and purple. The sheets are simple, with a single pair of pillows (the only ones that matter). For a little hint of happy color, I went with a bright yellow pot holder and a matching crepe paper bunting (there used to be two buntings, but less is more in my book).

It still looks like a teenage bedroom, but I am sleeping like a baby.

Pink and Green

Ana brought me pink tulips.

These are the last tulips of this Spring. Of this year, in fact.

They lost their rich color and waxy glows. They turned to dusky shades of light purple. Their lovely crown shape weathered slowly, hour by hour, until it became a splendid star. You can't even tell that these used to be tulips, anymore. 

Messengers of the Spring sun!

The beautiful pink stars are sitting on my kitchen counter, next to my green plates and other dishes of the day. Pink and green, my favorite color combo for now, bathing in the afternoon light. Sweet and tasty as an apple, exotic as a hot May morning, mysterious as a whisper and tender as a summer cloud.

I love shooting this kind of random, impromptu domestic scenes, where nothing has been staged. Beauty smiles at me with the promise of a brief moment of perfection.

Bedroom morning light

8 AM and the first thing I see is my purple plum wall in the bedroom. The morning light dances on the wall, caressing the delicate flowers of my pink azalea. Slowly, the ray of light moves to the right, leaving the little red Ikea lamp in a cone of shadow in glorious jewel tones.

The azalea will not survive the last hot days of May, so I may as well enjoy in while I can. Sunbathe, my lovely, and spread your beauty into the room quietly, without asking anything in return. Your splendor is vivid in my heart.