It's Complicated

Finally watched "It's Complicated" with Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin last weekend with Jimmy.  We loved it - and I especially loved the house that Meryl's character lives in, in Santa Barbara.  It is a Spanish style ranch house.

Upon googling it, I found these fantastic photos from the movie from another great blogger, Hooked on Houses.  In fact, I found that it was quite a popular subject for many design bloggers!

I absolutely love the design decor - going back to the search for my own personal design aesthetic - I think that this home hits the mark!  Designed by Jon Hutman - who also did "Something's Got to Give" (remember that fantastic beach house?).

Lots of grays and neutrals, but it has a pop of black here and there (window frames) and best of all - it seems so lived in!

LOVE this table and its simplicity!  I need to learn how to do better tablescapes....  an art I haven't quite attempted yet!

I want this patio!

Aunt Anne would love this yard and garden to work with!  (Visit her at Simply Gardens here.)

Room Colors!!

I posted the layout so that I can refer to it when I am deciding the colors of the rooms, other furniture, etc. Since painting will come first when we move in, I think it is important to consider all the colors sooner rather than later!

Kitchen as is:

I love the kitchen in the new place, and especially the fact that I now have a window ledge over my sink! However, it is a bit drab despite its brightness. It needs some contrast between the all white cabinets, backsplash, and counter, with the walls. I love greys with whites, they seem so crisp. But, I want to avoid the darker and more basic man-grey, which can seem way too much like a scary metrosexual bachelor pad! So - I may keep the color I have in the Chapel Hill house kitchen, Paris Rain, which is a green-grey! You can see it below, in the foreground. It looks really nice against the white. Following this picture is a picture of Allison Godwin's kitchen, with a similar look.

But I'm not going to lie, when I see the two pictures below (also from runner-up houses in Birmingham), it makes me want a color that is more grey than my Paris Rain!! I don't know which version! help anyone!!

Dining Room as is:

Ok, I hope they can't find me online, but I am really really glad that the people who lived in this house before wanted to take those curtains! I guess they are ok, but I don't want to be tempted to leave them up! So....since the flow from the den to the dining room to the kitchen is nice, I may try to go by the words of advice from Julie Lemen, my mom's best friend from the DC area, and let the colors flow as well! Below is a picture of the color of my dining room here in Chapel Hill, Texas Sage. I do really like it, and I like the idea of the dining room being a darker color (and I have a chair rail as well!).

The Office as is:

This office is so adorable! It gets great light during the day. I can picture a piano in here instead of desk maybe too, especially if we end up using bedroom #3 as a psuedo-office. We will need a good desk regardless... In addition to some paint! What does anyone think of the odd inverted ledge at the ceiling top?? Should this match the wall color, as they did, or be white? This next picture is of another house we really liked, and I loved this fireplace color! It kindof reminds me of raccoon hollow from Benjamin Moore but a bit darker. We have Raccoon Hollow in our study here in Chapel Hill. I might want to use it in the office in the new place as well. I actually really like this color for the outside of a house too, or maybe a color a bit greener.

Raccoon Hollow - in our Chapel Hill house

Bedroom #2 as is:

First of all, I hope you see the great plantation shutters! Initially I was thinking we could keep this color, as it is pretty similar to the color we would change it to (see the next picture). But now I am wondering if these two are totally different! The existing color is almost Carolina blue (yuk when it comes to walls), and the color upstairs in our Chapel Hill house is really a blue-green-grey, much more subdued. I might need to switch it, while we are at it! This color is Wythe Blue. Following is my awesome print that I now have framed to put in this room to tie it together.

Bedroom #3 as is:

Kindof grandma. I actually like the color of this wall. This is the room in the back of the house that you can get to from the kitchen or from the hall (you are looking at the hall door), so we can choose to use or not to use the kitchen door. Jimmy really wants us to put up our bookshelves in this room, and make it a reading room since we both will be studying our cases each night. I like that idea, otherwise we'd have to try to study in the den on the couch....zzzzz..... not so efficient. So, here is my corresponding room in the Chapel Hill house. Yikes I need to make some headboards too...

And this room - regardless of whether or not I do the bookshelves & reading area, I want to make a color similar to the study. Below are two prints from online some other blog, with the perfect palate of colors! The third picture is of Allison's fireplace, which also has such an awesome color! This room gets a ton of light, so I think this color will be safe.

You might notice - hey! no master bedroom or bathrooms! No den! just a little more to come. I will post it in the future when I have more time!