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 decorative pillows. I tend to go for rich earthtone colours. Our living room has pillows with reds, gold, orange and browns. And I definitely second how great it is to have plants in the living room.
I love how you decorated the place! I agree… color scheme is everything. My room at my parents’ house from before I started college never really had the right theme to it… I love it because it’s mine, but I get so much more excited shopping for my apartment now because I immediately began shopping for specific color pieces (a blue/green/white with some wooden pieces). My friends and I went to iKea the other day and I just about fell in love. I envy you for your many gift certificates! Your place looks gorgeous.
I would actually leave your windows just as they are! If you do want to add a treatment, though, I would look into the silk drapes at Pottery Barn – my parents have them and they’re so elegant.
http://www.potterybarn.com/products/peyton-linen-cotton-grommet-drape/?pkey=csolid-drapes-shades
I adore your decor! I love reading your blog and trying your yummy recipes! I think the engagement pics would look fab! I would try to utilize all the natural light you can from your windows- not a shabby view. I am really into the curtains that are triangular. You could use a fabric that is a solid pattern or one that you prefer from a fabric store. You can also change them over the years.
Beautiful house! I think you could be in Martha’s magazine. Love lime green.
have you thought about painting your fireplace a light color to brighten up the room and make the space feel more cohesive? i probably wouldn’t have thought about painting a fireplace myself, but after looking at what they’ve done over at ‘young house love’ it seems like the only way to go!
LOVE your blog by the way! i recently found it and it’s my new favorite daily read – so inspirational =D
ha ha, we had the same Ikea coffee table that just fell to pieces. We of course replaced it with another Ikea coffee table (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30045484), just one that was a little more sturdy. It is a dark wood and might go nice in your space as well. Love the lemon and lime theme. I always find it so hard to decorate as well. We decided on a floral scheme for our living room…it didn’t narrow the range very well! Curtains are a bugger…it may take me years still to pick those out. One helpful hint is to find an inspiration piece. That one thing that stands out to you and purchase it (cheap or expensive) and then base the entire room off of that piece. I like to find one piece that is very classy and it usually ends up being pricy, but then I can balance it with lots of cheaper pieces. My inspiration piece in my living room is the lamp shade from Anthropologie (http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/productdetail.jsp?subCategoryId=HOME-LIGHTING-SHADES&id=860028&catId=HOME-LIGHTING&pushId=HOME-LIGHTING&popId=HOME&sortProperties=&navCount=35&navAction=top&fromCategoryPage=true&selectedProductSize=&selectedProductSize1=&color=bla&colorName=BLACK&isProduct=true&isBigImage=&templateType=). Love it! Hope that helps!
I’m loving all the green!!! Looks very frest and clean! Can’t wait to see what you do with those walls!
Diana
i loooove your color scheme! pillows really do add a great punch!
i’m trying to love the color scheme in my home..
I think you should go with curtains that are neutral with some kind of texture that way if you get tired of your color scheme it’s easy and cheap to swap out the accessories. Curtains are so expensive. You should also put up your picture of that beautiful chard.
I tried making VOO but it came out so watery. I left out the chia seeds. Did that make a difference in the thickness? If so, can I use flax meal? I love reading your blog. So funny!
So domestic. I consider home decorating one of my weaker points. As for curtains, you may wish to consider a simple white valence — this keeps with the clean and fresh feel of the room, isn’t too expensive, and can be used in later window treatments.
I put together some photo collages for us, as well as some for friends and family, and they were a huge hit. A large collage of photos that make you happy when you look at them, is defnitely one of the best things you can put in a room!
I love the bright green as an accent. Really pops.
your house is just… incredibilmente favolosa!!! W-O-W i like the brics in the wall!!!
And love the acid green you choosed as an accent, my mom has the same color, she think it’s wonderful with brown and with the plants she has in the living room. She is right! ;)
She has neutral courtains that suits the brown of wood and of the sofa, but she added some fabric stripes of the same acid green. This is very nice and (crazy mom) sometimes, when she is tired of the acid green, she take the stripes off and she change it with orange stripes, as well as she puts orange cushions and some orange pots.
I don’t have a particular favorite room in my apartment. In fact, none of the rooms are decorated. I have random things hung up that I’ve made, things that we’ve inherited, and a few pictures. But no color schemes or anything like that. I’m just not creative like that and I don’t pay much attention to that kind of stuff! But your room looks beautiful.
I just want to copy you all across the board! That oat parfait looks out of this world and I love the pops of color in your house! That room is gorgeous.
As for a favorite room, in both my own apartment and in my parents’ house, I have not a favorite room, but a favorite sitting place. In my apartment, I love to curl up in this huge, comfy chair that I scored for $25 off ebay. In my parents’ house, I love to read on their sofa in the living room. I’m getting nostalgic just thinking about it!
I LOVE your living room!!! My favorite room’s my kitchen- which also has a green color scheme. :D The walls are green, the dishes are either clear or black and white..the appliances are white for the most part (but they’re old and don’t really match, that’s the only downfall!) :)
I am so in love with your couch! I have always wanted a big, comfy, stretch-your-legs-out couch like that – heaven!
Is there any way you could take the blinds down and spray paint them in a different color to go more with your theme? Maybe then you would appreciate them even more. I have always been so lost when it comes to curtains but I would maybe pick a neutral color in the beige family. Something lighter than your couch but not green as the room has a good balance of green in it already and you don’t want to overwhelm the room. I think your house is just amazing by the way- I love those windows!!
I totally think green curtains (to match the green pillow) and those wooden blinds would do the trick! It’s looking great so far!!