Top of the morning to you!
I had a fabulous 8 hours of sleep last night! Wheeeeee. No nicky nicky nine door antics. This is progress.
My Vegan Overnight Oat Parfait was killer this morning. I feel like I haven’t had one in forever!!! Her Mix-A-Lot has been getting all of my love and adoration lately.
Carob, Cacao, & PB Vegan Overnight Oat Parfait
Ingredients:
- Carob Vegan Overnight Oats (1/2 cup oats, 1.5 tbsp chia seeds, 1.25 cups almond milk, 1.5 tbsp carob powder)
- Peanut Butter Banana Soft Serve (1 frozen banana processed with 1 tbsp peanut butter)
- 1/4 cup Rice Crisp cereal (for layering)
- Cacao nibs (for layering)
- Carob powder, for garnish
- Homemade raw chocolate, for garnish
- Unsweet. coconut, for garnish
Directions: Make the carob Vegan overnight oats by whisking the ingredients together in a small bowl and leaving in fridge overnight or for 1-2 hours. In the morning, Make the PB Banana Soft Serve. Layer the soft serve with the VOO, cacao nibs, and rice crisp. Sprinkle with carob powder and coconut. Add two chunks of homemade chocolate and enjoy!
This was incredible! I love, love, love the rice crisp added as a layer in the middle. Same with the cacao nibs. So crunchy!
My Simple Decorating Trick: Pick a colour scheme!
Ok, so last night I promised you some decorating footage!
On Sunday, I realized that Eric and I still had gift cards that were given to us for wedding gifts almost 2 years ago! We had gift cards to William Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Winners, and Crate & Barrel. I asked Eric to come with me and he said he ‘trusted me’ to do it alone. aka…he hates shopping! So I tackled it myself like a champ. One of my favourite things to do is decorate, so I didn’t mind.
We finished renovating and painting the family room in Fall 2009. And then we left it. No decor, no colour, nothing on the walls. We were scared.
It occurred to me that the reason why we never ‘finish’ decorating rooms is because we never develop a colour scheme to guide us.
I thought the colour scheme of chocolate, lime, and lemon would look awesome together (with yellow and green being the accent pieces). I picked those colours because there is a lot of chocolate already in the room (couch, wood, bricks) and I picked yellow and green because there are some engagement pictures I want to blow up that have yellow and green in them. The room naturally has lots of green in it with the large windows and the trees in he backyard too.
Now that I had three colours in mind, it automatically narrowed down a ton of options. I didn’t feel overwhelmed as I usually do when looking for home decor. I just scanned the stores for those three colours and it was so much easier!
One great way to add accent colours is with fun and bright pillows…
The two pillows on the right are from Crate and Barrel and the one on the left is from Wal-mart.
I got 6 so far and might pick up another 2 or 3 as I see fit.
I love how something as simple as pillows can transform a room!
Then I bought some accent pieces to add to the room…
This lime green pot is from Winners and the faux fruit are from Pottery barn.
Love this sculpted piece from Winners.
Also both from Winners!
The lemon tree is from Pottery Barn (sorry the pic is blurry!)
Right now all of that stuff above is on the fireplace because we don’t have any family room furniture aside from the couch and the Ikea coffee table.
My plan for the fireplace is to remove the large picture on top and add a print with the accent colours to give it more of a pop of colour. Maybe one of our wedding or travel pictures would work there?
I would love to purchase a nice coffee table, corner chest, and small table, but that won’t be for a while. I drooled at all of Crate and Barrel’s furniture…they have some gorgeous things in there.
What I am focusing on right now:
1) Prints for walls (see below)
2) Coffee table
3) Decorative Curtains
Something is definitely still missing to pull this room together!
We will also eventually be putting hardwood on the floors and removing the carpet.
I want to do prints of a few of our engagement pictures. I am going to pick some with the most vibrant green backgrounds. Luckily we have a lot of engagement pictures with bright green in the background so it works perfectly! I am going to do one huge one and 2 smaller ones.
I also want to hang curtains, but I find it so difficult to figure out what would look good!
Ideas?
I really dislike the hunter green blinds that are up right now. I would like to keep them up though because they were custom made and they are good when you need to block out the light. I would just like something to cover them up.
I also haven’t showed you the other side of the room with a fireplace. I will do that in another post.
Today’s question: Do you have a favourite room right now in your living space? Do you have a favourite colour scheme or colours that you are drawn to for home decor?
I am also looking for a colour scheme for the entry way and eventually dining room. Right now we have Biscuit by Sherwin Williams on the walls of the entry way, but that is it.
I’ve got a busy day of work and I am going to squeeze in a run at some point. See you later and enjoy your day!
I love your style! If I win the lottery I would like to hire you as my decorator along with a lifetime supply of Glo Bars :)
Loving the color scheme you went with…it’s the same as my house! I also have an ‘unfinished’ living room as furniture is expensive! We need new couches, coffee table and possibly an area rug, but for now I’ve gone with using pillows for pops of color- they are the same green as your fruit bowl! Love it!
I love what you have done with your den/living room so far! I am in the process of decorating our new house (we are just renting, but we still need to hang pictures, curtains, etc.) I have always liked curtains that go to the floor. They add so much drama to any room! I don’t like spending much money, so I have bought curtains from Target (their store brand) and I really like Walmart’s Canopy line. I think a neutral color would work well for your drapes, like a tan/taupe color. Happy decorating! : )
Oh my gosh! I just realized I have that same pillow from Walmart. I actually bought it the other day. Good choice!
A color scheme seems so simple yet I’ve never thought of it before. What a great idea! I’ll keep it in mind… for when I actually have a real home (college student, moved 5 times in last 2 years). :'{
Those oats look so good! I’m drooling over the chocolate. :)
I love your bowl with the fake lemon and limes.
Maybe I’ll redecorate our living room today? Thanks for the tips!
I just added some new accent decorations to my living room as well! Everything I had before was kitchy souveniers from our travels and NOTHING matched. It was driving me crazy! Plus the shelves themselves were a mess and needed some tidying up.
I went with a cool blue/silver color scheme and took out any accessory that wasn’t that color. I picked up a couple of things at Hobby Lobby (a craft and home furnishing store, not sure if you have those) and had some things at home that already matched the scheme.
It looks way better now if I do say so! http://fitfunandfabulous.wordpress.com/2010/07/21/living-room-redesign/
Your home is so beautiful!!! I would love to live somewhere that has a little more nature present. I live in a concrete jungle.
Hi Angela! Thanks for the great post. I’m moving into a new apartment on Saturday and am going to be doing some decorating. I get pretty overwhelmed too but was thinking about using green and was confirmed by how great it looks in your living room. There is a lot of brown and cream in my apartment and so I think it’ll really pop and still look clean. :)
Our living room is actually a lot like yours – few pieces of furniture, dark brown couch & chair. We went with a dark brown & blues scheme, so very similar to yours! We can’t paint since we’re renting so that would have helped, but the one thing that REALLY brought the room together was the curtains. They’re just a nice blue color but they really accented everything nicely. If you find some green curtains I think they’d have that burst of color that would help make it stand out more. We also put up shelves in our living room so we’d have more room to put decorative stuff like the things you picked up since we don’t have a lot of space otherwise. We filled up the shelves with frames, decorative stuff, etc, and so they serve as a focal point for the room with a few of our favorite things! :)
I love my basement, which has a lot of black, white and red. I also love my bedroom that is blue and brown.
I finally made my first VOO this weekend! Clearly my excitement over oats goes completely unappreciated at home, so I thought it more appropriate to share here. I used Almond milk, Choc. Amazing Grass, Chia (which I am completely in love with), and vanilla. Pretty basic, but SO good! My food processor is broken so I chopped up some frozen banana chunks and mixed them in with PB. Amazing, thank you! P.S. I am new to Almond Milk, I actually don’t drink any milk really. The box needs to be used within 7-10 days, and other recipe ideas to not waste it?
Lovin’ the VOO! Yumm! and the green accents in the pillows and other decorations is gorgeous!
I think that a cream white or pale yellow would really bring light to the room and still fit within the color scheme. I am not a fan of mini blinds (or any blinds) so I would just take them off and do a cloth window treatment in both or one of those colors. But thats just me :)
Love this post
In addition to curtains, an option for the windows is to paint the blinds a different color if you don’t like the hunter green, but don’t want to replace them – maybe in a chocolate brown color? This DIY site has some instructions (although it does a bit time consuming): http://www.doityourself.com/stry/paintingblinds
Oh my goodness what a BEAUTIFUL breakfast!!! Your house looks adorable, I especially like how green it is outside (miss that now that I’m living in the desert). You are one talented chica!
I never used to be any good at decorating, but now my friends ask me for advice. That’s exactly what I tell them — get a color scheme. Once I did that, it was a lot easier. Mine is blue, green and white. I have a studio apartment, so it was even easier because I HAD to make my “bedroom” blue, green and white, too, since it’s in the same room as everything else.
I love the colour scheme you picked! The room is looking great. :)
For me choosing the colours is the hardest part about redecorating! I’ve been redoing my room this summer and I’m really struggling to pick some colours right now!
I love your posts on decorating! I think you have great taste and I love reading the comments from your readers for even more ideas! I have been wanting to hang original photographs for some time and can’t wait to hear about the canvas outcome, I think that would look fabulous! I am currently trying to peice together some ideas to make my office at work a more enjoyable place to spend 8-9 hours of my day. I started with plants, and am now onto art/photos!
I love the green and brown combo! My bedroom and living room is blue & brown, wedding colors were pink & brown and we have a guestroom that is green & brown. I think there might be a pattern ;)
Sweeeeet color scheme! I love the citrus colors paired with chocolate. I wouldn’t have thought to put those together, but it rocks! :) You’re such a creative decorator! I’m really digging wall decals right now. They’re like ginormous stickers for the wall (and they remove cleanly and easily). There’s a lot of Etsy sellers who can create custom decals. Might be an idea for that bare wall. Have a fabulous day, girlie!
The billowy white semi-sheer curtains as per YHL would be fantastic as they will soften the blinds you already have while still letting the green peep through to go with the room! I personally think this is the best option as anything linen or ivory (while fantastic) are too solid and might make your room heavy looking. Especially considering the gorgeous view and light that your windows provide. But that might just be the summer feel I’m getting. Keep in mind all the seasons here =)