Tag Archives: interior design

Room Renderings as Frameable Art?

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What do you think? I say YES!

I’ve always loved sketches of rooms – especially ones that pick up on details like textiles and lighting. So pretty room renderings always catch my eye.

Kelly from Design Ties brought my attention to designer, Michelle Morelan’s A Schematic Life when she won a personal room rendering. Michelle took this picture of Kelly’s living room…


…and came up with this:


Apparently it is more grey and less lavender when viewed in person – but I wouldn’t care! I think it’s gorgeous.

I immediately added Michelle’s site to my reader and have been charmed by her work. Here are a few of my favorites:






Not only is she a successful designer, she is also an accomplished artist (though her paintings are very different from the renderings – large canvases and far less representational). Between her own creations, her photography and her writing, she writes one of the most interesting design blogs out there.

Check it out HERE.

Little Green Notebook

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I recently found Jenny Komenda’s wonderful blog, Little Green Notebook and every post wants me to try to do more DIY projects. Or more accurately, ANY DIY project since my current tally on those is ZERO.


And I don’t know why since my mother was a DIY queen before anyone was saying “DIY.” Not sure what they called it back then…probably something along the lines of “can’t afford the expensive stuff.” But either way – I grew up in a beautiful home full of refinished and refurbished treasures.


Even more inspirational, this blog was ultimately a springboard for a decorating business, Pearl Street Interiors. Who knows what mom could have done with a blog way back when…


I also just love the site design. If you’re not familiar with the site check it out today!

Cool Looking Staircase, but…

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(click picture for source)

…it probably won’t work for people who:

1. Have children under the age of 18.

2. Have grandchildren.

3. Have friends with children.

4. May possibly have a child in their house for more than 10 seconds.

5. Sometimes have grandma come to stay.

6. Indulge in a drink every once in a while.

7. Wear socks around the house.

8. Wear heels.

9. Like to slide down the bannister (does anyone ever do that anymore?)

10. Want to sneak up on an intruder in their living room.

11. Experience extreme paranoia about weight gain.

Okay – so the list can go on…but seriously, it’s just an accident waiting to happen.

Nice to look at though.

Color Palette Generator

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I find the best stuff on Creature Comforts. It’s a must read in my out of control Google Reader which is so often subject to “mark all as read” cleansing.

A couple of weeks ago, Ez featured something called the Color Palette Generator.


As a lover of “things,” I’m charmed by the idea of taking a picture of a favorite objet or painting and generating a color palette to use for decorating a room. This is exactly what the Color Palette Generator does, and Ez provides a little tutorial:


I immediately tried to do this with a couple of images that I’ve featured here.

This lovely little painting by Liza Hirst:


And then this magnificent chair found on Absolutely Beautiful Things:


Unfortunately, neither worked for me. So I think I need a tutorial for the tutorial… In the meantime, I’ll just have to look through existing palettes. Let me know if you can figure out why I’m getting errors. Or…maybe not. This could be a major time suck…

The Birds Return

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Remember this birdie wallpaper I featured the other week?

Well Viv from ish and chi recently used it in a DIY project. Instead of papering a room with it, she created a beautiful display above her bed.




I love how something that looks so fantastic can be just a fraction of the expense that a large piece of art would require.

Elegant, modern and a perfect way to display a favorite wallpaper or textile. Brilliant.

Beautiful Things Tend to Inspire, but Absolutely Beautiful Things Inspire Absolutely

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Or maybe it was “absolute power…” Anyway – that’s one of the very few quotes I remember from school – and I still had to look up who said it.

Speaking of Absolutely Beautiful Things – don’t you just love Anna Spiro? I’m obsessed with ABT and find her images and writing to be a true source of daily inspiration.

I particularly love her Friday Flowers:




She also indulges us with pictures of her own interior design work:




And of course, I find great inspiration in the paintings that she commissions for Black & Spiro:




That last one may be for herself though…

Everything from her color choices and love of textiles to her eye for art and flowers makes me want to move to Australia and beg to be her personal assistant. (Don’t know what she’d think of the three toddlers I’ve have in tow, but maybe we could keep them busy sorting fabric samples…)

Really – I just love everything about this site. Every day is a gem, and I’m never disappointed. If Absolutely Beautiful Things isn’t currently in your reader, add it today!