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The Three Words That Define My Personal Interior Design Style

January 24, 2017/15 Comments/in Interior Design /by Mila

(If you are here to see the progress of the outdoor painting I promised to make a couple of weeks ago, you will have to come back next week. Sorry. It has been raining a lot in LA, so creating an outdoor painting has been out of the question)

Lately, I have been looking into defining my design style more clearly.

In 2016 I decorated and re-decorated my home choosing pieces and colors that pleased me, but feeling a lack of focus on my style. My biggest problem is that I like everything. If you look at my Pinterest page, you will see a lot of good images that could fall in a zillion different design categories. Emily Henderson has a style quiz on her website that is supposed to help you clarify your style dilemma. I took it and got “modern” – a person that likes no color, straight lines, and minimalism. Say what????? That is the exact opposite of my style. I retook it and got contemporary glam… glam?? I don’t think that is my main feature.

Then I found this post from Swoon Worthy. It gives you ideas about how to use Pinterest to define your personal style. I got to work on it right away. I pinned images that I absolutely LOVE to a secret board. It was difficult because it is hard for me to LOVE an image totally and completely, so I asked myself, would I live there? That exercise worked. Here are some of the images I chose:

The Apartment
Fixa & Dona

Within no time I had plenty of images in my secret board so I started looking for patterns. This is what I found: color ( LOTS of it), tiles, plants,vintage pieces, eclectic oil paintings, edgy motifs, wicker, velvet, wood, and brass. All those elements show up in my images a lot.

The art and color on this photo, for example:

Element Of Style

The wallpaper and shelves’ color on this one:

Hus & Hem

Tiles and green on this one:

My Domaine

Colorful wallpaper on this one:

@meghanmcneer

Plants and bright pink on this one:

@mcblakewich

Velvet, brass, pastels, and mid-century furniture on this one:

Style by Emily HendersonStyle by Emily Henderson

After doing this exercise, I had to come up with words that describe my style. Here is what came to mind: bold, vibrant, mid-century, family friendly, bright, vintage, cheerful, eclectic, edgy, and bohemian. Now, I just had to choose three words to define my interior design style this year, because who knows what I will be into in 2018.

@justinablakeneyhome
Revista Ad Spain

Revista AD SpainRevista AD Spain Apartment Therapy @shophesby

Now, about choosing the three words that define my style. From the list I wrote above, a lot of words can be clustered into one, for example, bohemian style tends to be bright, cheerful, and vibrant. Eclectic is a word that is used by every other designer to define their style, so I didn’t want to use that one…

Revista AD Spain Revista AD Spain Anthropologie

Finally, after some thought, I chose my final three words: Mid-century Vintage Boho style! Is that a thing? YES!

This year, every time I take a design decision, I will ask myself if that decision falls in the Mid-Century Vintage Boho style vibe. If yes, I will go for it, if not, I will throw it out.

Just thinking about this has decluttered my brain and given me new focus. I hope it works out!

And remember to visit this post from Swoon Worthy to read more details about” how use Pinterest to define your personal style”. It worked for me!

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One Room Challenge – Week 5 – The Beauty Of White Walls

November 2, 2016/9 Comments/in Interior Design /by Mila

(Note to future self: Do NOT participate in the Fall One Room Challenge ever again, unless you have a clear plan and timeline. If you happen to make this mistake, Halloween and other Holiday events will be extremely stressful because, how could you possibly: hang spooky decorations, figure out the custome situation, host carving pumpkin parties, attend parades and carnivals, buy enough candy, AND be emotionally available, while having your attention diluted in the pressure of re-decorating a room of your house? Not possible, future Mila, not possible.)

On that note, we made a LOT of progress this week on the One Room Challenge– while my kids suffered major sugar crush breakdowns. Here is what we have been up to during the last couple of weeks:

Week 1 – Week 2 – Week 3 – Week 4

This week (Wk 5) our main push was to paint the walls of the living room. We used Decorator’s White from Benjamin Moore and it made such a difference.

Our living room is small – 240 sq ft – but gets a decent amount of light during the afternoon.

As a way of opening and brightening it up, I decided to paint the walls true white. Off-white wasn’t working for this space because it gave it a dull and dirty look, plus, walls and molding needed to be freshen up.

The result is beautiful because of its simplicity. I like it so much I am considering not adding art or anything else to the walls… -Whaaat?! I almost believed that for a second! -Who am I kidding??? If you follow this blog or my Instagram account, you know color is my thing and minimalism is NOT my thing, but I am so tempted to leave the white walls as is.

My house is small and any extra space and openness is addictive. Now, four days after painting, I still haven’t added much decor yet. When you see the photos below, you will know why.

I did go on a photo frenzy though. I took many pictures of my vintage pieces in front of the white background because they all looked gorgeous.

Take a look at how the room has improved already:

As a reminder, here is a before picture of the same space:Here are other photos of art in front of the white walls because, why not??

At the other side of the living room we built a bookshelf. We bought all the same materials that we used for the shelves for the One Room Challenge on April. I sprayed the metallic parts with gold paint and it looks really cute. I was very happy with the result, but, something in me wants to leave the shelves empty and clean, as they are right now, don’t you think? Here is a photo:

OK, that is all I have for you today. Next week is the big reveal. Hopefully you will like what you see! Thanks for stopping by.

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One Room Challenge – Week 4 – Living Room Update

October 27, 2016/5 Comments/in Interior Design /by Mila

I am late with this post about our living room, I know, but if you knew what I have been up to this week, you would congratulate me just about posting something.

Let’s start with the main reason you are here: an update on the One Room tChallenge. Here is Week 1 – Week 2 – Week 3 of the challenge, in case you missed those posts. (Also, a post about the challenge I participated in last Spring, if you care to see.)

The good news is that I have a much better idea of what I am doing (see photos above and below). The bad news is that I wasn’t able to implement any of these ideas this last week because: 1) I have a job, 2) I have two children, and, 3) my husband decided to launch an Indiegogo campaign for one of his BBQ products on Monday.

The problem being? Well, last Friday the girl from Indiegogo emailed him to say that his photos and graphics were not great. She recommended delaying the launch of the campaign a week. After all the hard work he had put into it that was NOT and option, so we had to reshoot all his photos and d his graphics all over again… two days before going live… it was crazy, but guess who had to do most of it… You guessed right: ME!

(If you have friends and family that like to BBQ and you need a Xmas present for them, you might want to get what he is offering. Here is his Indiegogo campaign – The Chimney of Insanity-. Also, I want to give thanks to my friend Miguel, who is an art director and sat down 5 hours in front of a computer on Saturday to create some of the graphics.)

Now you can understand why the One Room Challenge was not a priority this last week, but I am not giving up, and this weekend we are working on major updates to the living room. First of all, we are painting all walls Decorator’s White from Benjamin Moore, to bring light and create that white canvas I need for the mural.

By we, I mean my friend Daniela and I. Dani is an artist and graphic designer. She has offered to help me in this adventure and I am truly grateful. The only worry I have is that she is very detailed oriented and won’t allow for any cheats or half a** jobs, which sets the bar very high for my next two weeks.

Why is this a worry? Because winter is coming (yes, GOT fan here) and I just want to lay under my covers and eat cookies all day while watching romantic movies. Daniela won’t let this happen, I know.

See below the final colors I am using. Among them is the Benjamin Moore color of the year 2017: Shadow 2117-30.

Isn’t perfect?

Other photos here:

Photos done by Daniela with the Pantone app. If you like interior design and colors, you need to get that app!

See you next week. I promise a good post with updates.

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One Room Challenge – Week 3 – Vintage Decor

October 19, 2016/19 Comments/in Interior Design /by Mila

Hey Interior Design aficionados! If you read this blog once in a while, or follow me on social media, you know that I have been working on the One Room Challenge situation – the challenge for bloggers that Linda from Calling it Home hosts twice a year.

I almost didn’t enter this time because how could I possibly make the time (and the money) to change one of the many rooms at my place that need fixing! Then I came out with the brilliant idea of focusing on a vignette of my living room. A space that is in desperate need of an upgrade. (Here is Week 1 and Week 2 of the challenge).

Paint will be my main tool (I am creating a mural, in case you didn’t know), but, in the mix, I also need (WANT, HAVE TO HAVE) vintage articles, because life is soulless without history and a room is sad without at least one vintage piece – although, in my book, you need more like 20 or 30.

I went to the Rose Bowl last week in search of goodies. Why is this flea market SO AWESOME!?? Every corner has a beauty. Every stand has something worth stopping for. It fills my soul with vintage happiness. I will be writing a post about it soon because I have been to the Rose Bowl so many freaking times, I might as well write a post about it, don’t you think? Stay tuned. Useless to say, the trip was VERY successful and I bought my share of unique, crazy, gorgeous things, because I am a thing hoarder.

But then, perusing my Pinterest feed and my older posts, I found some amazing ideas and decor that I want to try to emulate. The image above this post is one of them. Here is the other one (BTW, if you don’t follow my Pinterest account, please do so here! I am working hard on getting my stats and followers up on that app. It might just work. We will see):

Seeing these photos has given me the idea of hanging old vintage portraits in front of the mural. Which ones you might ask?

A couple of months ago, I got these two painting from my dad. They have been in our family for as long as I can remember.

They are not in perfect condition, but they are PERFECT in my heart! And living room! I want to place them in front of the mural, in some strategic spot that stresses the dichotomy between old and modern. and that shows the awesomeness of seeing two opposites in the same space. It is unpredictable and risky. Let’s see if it works!

Other pieces I am considering using are the following (all of them purchased through long years of thrifting and shifting)

These theater chairs are close to my heart because George got them for me as a Christmas gift. They are the best gift anybody has ever given me, which is a little bit weird to say because George is not the best gift giver, but with these ones he got a million points that will serve him for years to come. I wonder if I should finish them again, though. Probably yes, don’t you think?

This vintage mannequin is something else, don’t you think? I saw it at a thrift store and RUN for it… I NEEDED TO HAVE IT. I asked for the price, then requested a discount, paid for it, and left the establishment with a grin. This is NOT how most of my trips to thrift stores go. Usually, they are a humongous disappointment, but not that time my friends, not that time.

This lectern also comes via my daddy.

This lamp was $15 at a thrift store. It didn’t work when I bought it but my personal handyman fixed it. I really like it. It can be adjusted to different heights and it has that cute knob to turn it on. It is from the 60s or 70s.

This weekend I am going to finalize the design for the mural and will start painting soon. Wish me luck and wisdom.

Thanks for stopping by! I really appreciate it.

Image 1 via Carla Aston/ Image 2 via Anthropologie

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One Room Challenge – Our Living Room

October 5, 2016/4 Comments/in Interior Design /by Mila

The One Room Challenge is here!

Don’t know if to get excited or terrified.

Here are the basics: Linda from Calling it Home hosts this challenge twice a year. It lasts 6 weeks and a lot of bloggers participate. It is a great opportunity to meet others (via the cyber universe) and share ideas.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to participate this time. Participating back in April was a LOT of work and very expensive. It is not easy to re-do a whole room in a budget. You might remember I decorated my kids’ room. The final result is in the photo above. For more details about that, click here.

OK, so, what to do? My living room needs a major change, but I can’t spend a bunch of money replacing everything that needs to be replaced so, what about changing just some of it? A whole corner if you will.

And, how to do it in a budget? I want something that strikes you as soon as you see it and makes me (you) very, very happy. Thank goodness I have the perfect solution: paint.

If you follow this blog or if you follow me through social media (if you don’t, please do! Here are my links to my Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter accounts), you know that I have posting a lot about murals lately.

Why? I have seen photos in design magazines that have made me jump with excitement after seeing the potential of paint for decorating. Let’s take a look at my inspirational photos.

INSPIRATION

Aren’t all of these beautiful?

Here is a photo of something that is NOT beautiful: my living room.

BEFORE PHOTOS

Everything about these photos scream boring, don’t you think? Well, by the end of this challenge, hopefully, this wall will be screaming greatness, sophistication, and happiness. Let’s see if I can pull it off.

Here is Week 2

You are welcome to follow along. There is a sign up form in the right side bar of this post or at the bottom. Also, make sure you check out all other participants. There are some great things happening out there!

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