Interior Design: Rustic Charm in the Polish Countryside

Oh, all know I have a soft spot for the rustic thing. I don't know if it'll ever go away, but there's nothing like a country style kitchen and a some reclaimed wood touches that get my heart racing. Yes, hearts can race for interior design and mine does all the time dammit! It was no wonder that this stylish country home caught my eye. 

Interior Design: Cozy Winter Cabin

Well, we're sitting pretty in the middle of a blizzard and when that happens, it's hard not to dream of cozy winter cabins and lots of blankets. So, in the spirit of the season, here's a chic and cozy modern cabin to dream about.

What I Wore: White Summer Dress Edition

A few weeks ago I talked about my love of summer whites, especially when you've got that sun-kissed summer glow going on. Something about that summer heat just screams a need for bright whites and bright colors, which was definitely the inspiration for today's outfit.

White Hot Summer Outfit Ideas

Summer fashion trends come and go. Neons, florals, boho — we see it all on a rotating schedule. Even though I'm always in love with new summer trends, there's one that I'm always really excited to jump back into and that's white. It's called a white, hot summer for a reason! There's just something so essentially summer about tan skin, white dresses, and bright details.

What I Wore: The 70s Summer Edition

Summer is here! Minus all the rain, it's been a pretty perfect start to summer. With music festivals, movies in the park, pool parties, and long days at the beach all around the corner, it's time to start finalizing that summer style. My style? 70s gypsy/biker. Does it suit me? Nope, I don't think so. Do I care? No! I'm going to make it work because I want to and that's that.

What I Wore: The Bomb Girls Edition

It's been freezing in Chicago. And I'm not just saying that because I'm a big baby when it comes to the cold, it's literally been dangerous to set foot outside for the second time this month. As you can imagine, taking outfit photos or wearing anything that doesn't make me look like the Queen of the Bag Ladies has been next to impossible. I am sick of it. I've even been wearing pants. PANTS! What is the world coming to?

The never-ending polar vortex has forced me to discover new shows on Netflix as well, because, well, what else am I going to do? After I finished all the seasons of MadMen (yes, I'm incredibly behind on tv), I had the urge to keep watching a period television series. That's where Bomb Girls comes in. The show follows a group of women working in a munitions factory in 1942 Canada and aside from the drama, the outfits are to die for. These 1940s style dresses have seriously re-newed my love of all things vintage.

Monday Design: Barn Renovation

Phew. It's been a long time since I've been sitting here typing on this blog. Life likes to take your plans and spin them out of control, huh? I'm settling into a new job and summer is winding down, so I think now is a good time to come back to blogging.

With life spinning faster and faster, I often want to take the time to step back for a little bit and enjoy the simple things. Not that I actually get to do that often, but thinking about it is nice. That's why I think this renovated barn house caught my eye.

What I Wore: The Twiggy Edition

Nothing makes me less happy like an amazing vintage dress that almost fits. I mean, come on fashion gods! Do me a solid? This vintage 60s shift dress is the most adorable thing I've come across in a while and my boobs are just not cooperating. Frustration! 

Monday Design: Best Use of Space Award

I've actually been meaning to post this video for a while and it kind of got lost in my back logs. My apologies if you've already seen it a million times, but I thought it was worth the share.

And the award for best use of space in a tiny apartment goes to.....

GIZMODO - The Tiny Transforming Apartment That Packs Eight Rooms into 350 Square Feet from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

Monday Design: New Blog Obsession

I'm on here all the time chatting about my design obsessions and my photography obsessions and my fashion obsessions, but never do I really talk about where I pull a lot of this inspiration from. I am a blog hound and I'm sure many of you can understand that. Working in online media makes it really easy to "stumble" across new blogs and awesome content curators. I can say I have favorite blogs, but I probably can't count them on two hands. Today though, I wanted to share a new interior design blog I found that I cannot stop browsing through.

Monday Design: Living in an Art Museum

Ever wonder what it would feel like to live in an art museum? No? Just me? Okay then. But I'd imagine that Luis Bustamante had the same thought when planning the design of this voluptuous Spanish apartment and in all of his work. The volume and shape of the furniture is balanced beautifully against the classic sculptural pieces. But what really caught my eye right off the bat was the perfect drama of interior design in all of Bustamante's designs.

Monday Design: Winter Perfect Pastels

So in the midst of getting over the death flu that everyone has contracted, I've been spending a lot of time at home scheming and plotting design changes for my apartment (an apartment that I might be moving out of in April, yes, I'm insane). This past weekend I finally started repainting the walls and it was super exciting! It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do. Now, I've been living in a sort of Barney playroom apartment with every room being two different colors for a little over a year. I also had pretty bright colored furniture for a while from a time where I lived in a dark basement apartment. Well, the bright red couch has been replaced with a subtle grey one and the walls are going back to white! Now my biggest dilemma is what color scheme I want to change to.

After a year of living in a rainbow, I've been really drawn in to subtle color palates which is why this pastel home decor really caught me eye. I love that there are still splashes of color but it's all so subtle that the design is still clean.

What I Wore: The Heavy Lockdown Edition

Happy 2013 to everyone! This is my second post of the new year, officially, and I feel some weird sense of pressure to make it awesome. I think I'm going to let myself down. HOWEVER, I do feel the incredible need to make 2013 awesome, so here I come world! Er...blogger?

Anyway, I skipped putting up my New Year's outfit since I was super sick with the plague right after the New Year, but my outfit wasn't that exciting anyway so forget that idea. Instead I'm just putting up a plain, old, borring winter shorts outfit. F.Y.I. if you're tall, wearing shorts and a baggy sweater makes you look like you're all legs. #WIN

Monday Design: Tiny Apartment Style

First thing first. New look on the blog! I am working on updating the look of the site so bare with me please! There are still some small alterations I want to make before it'll be all done, but when it is I hope you like it!

Now, I often think that I need a bigger place because my little one bedroom can feel fairly cramped at times, but what I'm starting to realize is that what I really need is less stuff. Or better storage, but less stuff is probably the best solution. There are a ton of awesome small apartment designs out there, but they all seem to have that one thing in common. This apartment is no exception. Where do people hide all their stuff?

Monday Design: White and Brown Interiors

Ah white wall inspiration. Ever since I decided that I'm going to repaint my technicolor apartment and just make the walls white again, I've been scouring the internet for white wall interiors. I do love color, but I guess there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Can you believe it? Well I have to repaint my apartment if I'm ever going to move out anyway, so I figured I might as well do it while I have the chance. But I've become obsessed with the idea of having white walls with wood trim, just like most old Chicago apartments do. Alas, inspiration for white interiors with brown details!

via

Monday Design: Perfect Pastels

I am growing increasingly tired of the color on my walls. When planning painting my apartment, I did an incredibly poor job of figuring out how the rooms would play together. And now I can't stop dreaming about getting the original white walls back. Finding this simple and stark apartment while real estate stalking did not help one bit. I think I'm going to have to repaint soon and bleach my couch cover. Does anyone know if that's safe to do on couch fabric?

Monday Design: Obsessed with Swedish Style

Summer is here. Get ready! The eat waves are going to start hitting. In this currently unbearable heat, I keep looking to white space and clean designs with pops of bright color. Sometimes when I'm browsing the internet at all these amazing home designs, I feel like I would want to change my apartment design every other season. I am in love with Swedish design when it comes to clean simple, so this apartment is where I'm dreaming of hanging out right now. Anyway, apologies for the short post, but I'm going to get some Memorial Day barbecuing on.

Happy Memorial Day! Hope you're having a relaxing weekend!

Monday Design: 8 Church Renovations

Would you ever live in a church? It's one of those questions that really depends on your beliefs. I've gone back and forth with myself on this topic. I'm not religious by any means, but there is something about living under the stained glass faces of saints that feels...creepy. Fortunately, my love of interior design and architecture always seems to overwhelm the creepy vibes I get.

I love church renovations. Ever since I realized at a not-so-young age that people could actually LIVE in old churches, I've been fascinated by the idea. Generally, I think that churches have an alluring interior design scheme all on their own, but throw in some homey accents and it's a whole different world.  I would love to have the chance to redesign a church because their layouts are so fantastic! Think about all the open space, high ceilings, and the winding hallways. I don't know if any of you have ever spent much time inside a church, but trust me, they're spacious.

The following is a little round-up of my favorite church reclamations. If you have any favorites please leave a link in the comments, I'd love to check them out!

via Desire to Inspire

This one is most my style  with the cement trim and rustic touches. Unfortunately there was no exterior picture for this church, but there are a lot more interior photos if you love this kind of design.

 

 via The World According to Carrie

This old chapel maintains that old southern charm even with the renovation. The interior design elements are definitely classic and elegant - very appropriate for the exterior.

 

 via FreshHome

This church reclamation looks like it took no remodeling effort. I image a white paint job and some well placed furniture was all it took to make this space entirely livable.

 

 via FreshHome

The exteriors of this church home do not give away the completely modern design hidden inside. Chic and artistic, the open floor plan of the layout in this church are a perfect fit for the design.

via FreshHome

I love this one because the design shift was so subtle and simple. The architecture and layout of the church was already so perfect that it only took a few furniture installations and some regal armchairs to make this space feel like a mansion. Check out more photos in the link.

via FreshHome

This was done in an abandoned abbey outside of Paris. Another don't-judge-a-book-by-its-cover renovation that relies on clean, modern furniture and pops of color to make you forget the original purpose of the building.

via Desire to Inspire
All I have to say about this one is someone took a church and turned it into a medieval castle. Win.

via Loftenberg

Adorable. Keeping the brick walls and the classic church windows, but infusing the interior with sleek, modern furniture is a brilliant combination. This would make an incredibly chic office space.

Alright, I'm done gushing. If, I mean when, I become rich there are a few renovation spaces on my list of homes and churches are definitely one of them.


So what do you say? Would you ever live in a church?

P.S. Don't forget to keep up with me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Tumblr! I'm everywhere.

Clean Yet Rustic Simplicity in Interior Design

This morning when I checked my Google reader I was greeted by the most delightful design photography. What a great way to start the day (err...well maybe not if you're not into interior design). Of course I can always count on Desire to Inspire to find amazing interior designs, it is my go-to in fact. Anyway, these photos are from a farmhouse renovation shot by Paul Brissman, an amazing photographer, who I now intend to follow regularly.

I love everything about this farmhouse. It's rustic yet clean. I think it can sometimes be difficult to create this combination seamlessly. You "rustic" can sometimes look "shabby chic", which usually just looks cluttered to me (but good cluttered, I do enjoy my shabby chic style here and there). There is just somthing that sooths me about natural, exposed wood beams. I know, I'm a weirdo, but guess what? If I'm going to be living somewhere, I want it to be visualy soothing and this fits the bill for me.

Another win: large, open, sunny spaces.

This rustic sink is what I mean by rustic yet clean. It looks rough and worn around the edges, but I wouldn't be scared to lay my toothbrush on the counter.

  

  

 

  

All I can say is that I would have fantastic dreams in this bed, no doubt.

So you can very obviously see the kinds of things that make up my dream home. What kind of this designs make up yours?