living room inspiration

After we finish cleaning up the exterior of the house, the next big project in my sights is a huge DIY bookshelf in the living room.  We've got a sort of awkward wall that I haven't been able to figure out what to do with, but after seeing these images of Mattson Creative's studio space, I knew that I wanted to make a shelving unit out of pipes and wood shelves to hold art, books, and cool knick knacks.  Not only will it function as a great way to make that space beautiful and interesting, but it'll also be an awesome way to display prints!  I've got a few prints of my own, and some prints from other artists that I love, and I think a cool shelf like this would be the perfect way to show them off.  I love how the shelving at Mattson Creative has that perfect balance of art, books, and interesting, eclectic pieces to fill the space just right.  

ampersand light // sunshine print // camera print // teepee print

the earth laughs in flowers print + winnebago print are my work

I've been slowly acquiring prints and artwork, and a few of the pieces I know I'll want to display are the ones above.  I just got the "I love my family" print for Christmas, and got the camera print a few years ago.  I just got the ampersand lamp and sunshine print the other day and I'm excited to see them in action.  I love big letters saved from old signage, and while the ampersand is new, not salvaged, I think it still has that vibe.  I definitely want to find some more big letters/numbers as I absolutely love the graphic, bold look that they have.  The Winne print is one I made a couple years ago during my Brave trip, and I made the "earth laughs in flowers" print back in college.

We're planning on doing a small test run version of this in our bedroom that looks more like the smaller version below.  I want to thrift a little dresser as the base and start the shelves on top of that, and then go for the bigger, living-room version after we've figured out all the kinks!  

inspiration images via Mattson Creative + Hindsvik at Home

a peek into our new home

So far we don't have any room in the house completed, but things are looking better than the boxes everywhere after moving in.  We had our housewarming party on Friday night so I cleaned up the house (read: shove piles of stuff into cabinets), and it looked pretty sharp, so I took some photos.  I still have tons of painting and decorating to do.  I only have one piece of art hung so far, and I'm in serious need of some drapes in the living room to really pull things together.  But we've got more pressing, non-decor house stuff to do in this coming month, so finishing up my decor ambitions will probably go on pause for a little bit.  I'm super happy with how things are coming along, though, and it's so fun to see things come together!  We put up the bunting from our wedding in the living room for the party and it just looks so festive I don't want to take it down!  We get so much more light in this house than our last place, and I'm totally in love with it.
  
quilt/urban outfittters :: iPhone dock + lamp/modcloth :: sidetable/target :: basket + rug/ikea
  
rug + pillows/ikea :: teepee print/beauchamping :: camera print/christine berrie chair/thrifted :: couch/ikea (craigslist) :: mt. mckinley print/ranger doug