The Art of a Pillow

Current decor obsession = throw pillows.

If changing the look of a room without a spending a ton of money isn't enough reason to love throw pillows (particularly pillow covers), once you get tired of the color scheme or patterns you can just get new covers to create a whole new look anywhere from Crate and Barrel to West Elm.

Presently, I'm particularly fond of throw pillows with geometric patterns and those with nautical/beachy prints.

About a year ago I ordered a few pillows for the bedroom in my first condo from Etsy. One of these pillows came from KainKain's shop. The quality of the pillow's embroidery was great, so I paid another visit to this shop and here are some of my current fave embroidered pillows with a nautical/beachy vibe that I would love to use use in my currently-being-updated living room. The geometric patterned pillows are from various Etsy shops (all sources below).

PILLOW SOURCES

(from left to right, top to bottom)

gray rope / coral rope / gray ikat / navy anchor

coral link / gray coral / navy wave / gray link

navy lighthouse / blue swirl / coral coral / gray coral ii

After some online research into how to best coordinate and display throw pillows, I gathered some pretty helpful information. Some rules of thumb:

• Place geometric prints with solids
• Small prints (of any design) with large prints (of any design) for contrast
• Floral, geometric and/or stripe, and solid makes a good combination
• Colors should coordinate and there should be only about three colors used in the pillow scheme

As for now, below are the two styles of pillows I purchased for my living room, both patterns from the Threshold line at Target and on sale in-store (just under $18 each).

As an aside, I was with my mom when I purchased these pillows among too many other things. I just so happen to really enjoy the current Threshold line, so when I stepped  into the aisle and saw a sea of red clearance tags on a lot of the items, I entered this crazy shopper trance. At one point I had about 3 pillows, a ceramic lidded canister, and an accent table in my arms and just happened to make eye contact with my mom. Her reply out of concern/astonishment was "Kristin Marie!!! Oh.My.God!" This is probably why I shop alone.... Judgement free zone right here!

                         

 

The image above makes the pillow to the left very orange, but it looks more coral in person (to me anyway). The pillow to the right has varying shades of aqua and stitch-work making it super pretty. Now to decide if one more color should be added into the pillow scheme mix in my living room. Navy? Gray? Just white? I do enjoy those embroidered nautical pillows from KainKain.... So many choices!

I must say, the best part about throw pillows is that when you have lost your love for the design/pattern/color of the pillow you can buy a new cover and start anew!

Anyone else down with throw pillows? (Pun intended!)

-Kristin

At Home: Bathroom Board

As the renovations in my full bathroom slowly progress, I wanted to share a board of all of the items that will be incorporated into this small, just under 5x8' space. 

I wanted to subtly bring in a coastal vibe since I'm close to the beach and I find it relaxing, so I decided to achieve this look through color and accessories. 

I haven't decided on the exact paint color for the walls, but I picked the two colors on the board based on their appearance online. After trial and error, I will definitely be purchasing samples of these two colors to be sure I like one of them before investing in a whole gallon. For curiosity's sake, I went ahead and purchased samples of Pewter Tray by Behr (a recommendation from a friend) and Lime Light by Glidden last night. After testing them out on two walls in the bathroom, I found that Pewter Tray was too dark for the look I am after and Lime Light looks too icy/baby blue.

For the hardware, I am mixing metals! The faucet is a polished nickel, the towel bar and toilet paper holder are an oil rubbed bronze, and the curved shower curtain rod (not shown) is dark oil rubbed bronze/black. I might keep the shower head, faucet, and dial (I may have just made this word up to describe the device that turns on the shower) since I don't want to rip out the shower wall and that is polished chrome.

It's hard to tell from the image of the mosaic tile, but the colors include a seaglass green-blue, ocean blue, seagrass green and white and gray veined marble tile. The marble in the mosaic coordinates nicely with the marble floor (see my post on laying out the marble tile to ensure an even distribution of primarily gray and primarily white tiles). 

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The other day I completed the shower inlay using the above mosaic tile, so be sure to check back for the post on the entire process, from demo to sealing. You will also get a better image of the curtain panels that I hung and used as the shower curtain. I got this idea from Pinterest. It gives the bathroom a more formal, classy look, but the material and pattern of the panels keeps things from appearing too stuffy. Having the two panels flanking the shower also makes the room feel bigger since you get more visual space inside the shower.

Also, stay tuned for a post on the accessories that I will be using in this bathroom. 

-Kristin