Craving Color. . .

via Belle Maison

via Unknown 

via Angie Hranowsky

 via La Dolce Vita

 via Belle Maison

via House to Home

via Elle Decor

via Family Circle

via Wisteria

via House to Home

Last weekend I went to Tahoe with a group of girls to celebrate my bachelorette party and I spent all day yesterday in bed recouperating from the awesomely fun weekend. I'm not sure if I'm catching something or just in some sort of funk, but I need a major mood adjustment. There's nothing like some bright, cheerful and colorful interiors to put me in a better mood and inspire me! What about you, what makes you happy when you're feeling blue?! 

Party Time!

all images via here

I'm headed to Lake Tahoe for the weekend with a bunch of girls for my bachelorette party! We're staying at a cute cabin near the water and plan to kick back and relax, enjoy good food and drinks, great company and hang out by the lake. Of course there will also be some shopping, dining out and we'll be hitting the casinos and clubs Saturday night! I've been looking forward to this weekend for quite some time as you can imagine. Thanks to all the girls (you know who you are!) who are making this possible. I'll be back Monday with so more design-loving goodness to share. Have a great weekend everyone, I know I sure will!!!

Room of the Day & Giveaway Winner

via Lonny

Also, I wanted to make a little announcement. . . The winner of the Mod Clay giveaway is Melissa! Congrats!!! She's won an owl vase or coin bank of her choice, in any color she wishes. To see more of Mod Clay's awesome and adorable ceramics pieces go here.

Wedding Wednesday: DIY Bouquet!

A couple of months ago I found the perfect tutorial for making your own wedding bouquets. The instructions seemed simple enough, so I made the decision that I would DIY all the bouquets for my upcoming wedding. I wanted to do a trial run, just to make sure this would be a task simple enough to do the night before the wedding. (I'm imagining me and all the girls having a big slumber party, sipping on champagne and ya know, assembling flowers. This is normal, right?!)

I bought $10 worth of flowers from the grocery store consisting of yellow and pink carnations and pink alstromeria. (When I make the actual bouquets for my wedding they will be different colors.) I brought them home and left the flowers in the kitchen sink until I was ready to go to work!

The first step was removing all of the access foliage off of the stems. Then I trimmed them down to about 14 inches.

I started with three center flowers and using floral tape, wrapped the stems starting at about an inch below the bloom, wrapping all the way down leaving approximately 5 inches of stem exposed at the bottom. I'd place two or three more stems in the bunch in my hand, and wrap again with the floral tape. Once all the flowers were placed I wrapped it one more time with the floral tape, just to make the bouquet was as solid and sturdy as possible. I cut a strip of burlap fabric that was about two feet long and 2 inches wide (instead of using ribbon like most bouquets) and wrapped the base of it to conceal the floral tape. I secured the burlap with a couple of floral pins and voilà!

After completing the bouquet I realized the stems could be a little shorter, but other than that I think it turned out fabulously!!! It took me about 45 minutes to make, I was a little slow going in the beginning but picked up speed and confidence as I got going. (I think it should take about 2 hours to make 4 bouquets the night before the wedding.) Total cost, including the floral tape, floral pins with pearl heads and flowers, I spent around $15 to make this bouquet. I let it sit in a vase of water for several days, and by the fourth day it started to wilt, so I am super confident that making them the night before they will still look fresh the next day.

Since I was a bad blogger and didn't (couldn't) take pictures of the entire process (my hands were a little tied!) you can view the awesome tutorial I followed here.

Library Lights

I am loving the use of simple and traditional library lights installed in unexpected places. This chic and semi-industrial look seems to be popping up everywhere!

via Pinterest

via Circa Lighting Blog

via unknown

via Urban Grace

 via Domino

via Richard Bubnowski Design

via Remodelista

via La Dolce Vita

Circa Lighting sells these fixtures in an array of finishes. Black just so happens to be my favorite! 

Boston Functional Library Two Arm Wall Light, $336

Here is a more affordable option, available from several different online retailers. You can also find this same fixture at Lowes!

Available here, $57

What do you think of these uber-popular library lights? Would you put them in your home? 

Project Update: Jordyn's Bedroom

There has been a whole lotta painting go'in on around my house, that's for sure! Last week I revealed the bookcase in my soon-to-be stepdaughters bedroom that I revamped with a little paint and restyling. Well, the painting shenanigans didn't stop there. . . I'm in the midst of tackling another piece of furniture from her bedroom with a coat of fresh, new paint. Here's a picture I snapped yesterday of the progress:

I've since applied primer and am getting ready to throw on the first coat of glossy, white paint. Once I'm done painting and sealing the desk, I think some cutsie new hardware is definitely in order. I'm considering something like this:

  Urban Outfitters Pink Jewel Knob

I'm also considering this lamp I saw at Lowes yesterday: 

I have a soft spot when it comes to turquoise, gourd shaped lamps! This one is the perfect size to sit on top of the desk, and at only $24.99 I think I can squeeze it into the budget.

I found a really fun and funky starburst mirror at HomeGoods recently to go above the headboard (more on that project later.) I love it, and for $12 it can't be beat!!

(I'm not sure why the walls look like they are painted a pink-coral color?! They are just boring beige until I work up the energy and find the time to re-paint them! It must be a camera-reflection-thing.)

Yesterday I ordered this chair from Home Decorators to go with the desk:

It's called the 'James Side Chair' but we all know it's a Bertoia look-a-like! Although I am a huge fan of the mid-century designer chair, I could never in a million years consider spending $539 on the real Bertoia version, especially since it's just going into a kid's bedroom. When I saw the look-a-like from Home Decorators on sale for $79, I was SOLD! The vinyl seat pad of course with get a cover made out of a cute, colorful, coordinating fabric.

I'm so excited that this bedroom makeover is finally starting to come together! I'll share more with you later as I get closer to being complete! (If you want to see my initial design plans for this space, go here.) 

Wedding Wednesday: The Invites!

As most of you know, I'm getting married soon. . .We will be having a small, casual wedding on the beach with our immediate family and closest friends. I have been planning, crafting and DIY'ing every last detail over the last several months! The invitations went out a couple of weeks ago so I thought it was time I shared them with you all. . .

Note: the date of the wedding has been removed for privacy reasons

Being the do-it-yourselfer that I am, I created the invitations myself. I printed them using an ink jet printer on white card stock and I think they turned out quite lovely. The envelopes are 'brown paper bag' from Paper Source and I used scrapbook paper from Michael's to make the envelope liners. I wrapped the invitation, map and rsvp card together with a strip of burlap fabric and tied it with hemp twine which gives them that beachy-rustic feel I was going for. I was very pleased with the way they turned out. What do you think?!

Don't forget, JPM Design offers Event Styling services. Event decor isn't just about flowers, it's about creating an atmosphere! The fundamental role I play as an Event Stylist is to work with you to translate your visions into a special celebration that truly reflects YOU. We'll work together, one-on-one to design, plan and coordinate your wedding, social, corporate or celebratory event! Contact me for more information.

Room of the day

Source Unknown

I adore this femanine, bohemian inspired bedroom! If I was a single gal, I could totally see my own bedroom looking a little something like this. (However, I'm not, and I can't imagine my honey letting me paint the walls lavender. . . darn it. . . sigh!) There is so much great texture and pattern going on here that plays nicely with the bold pops of yellow. Oh, and how glam is that mirrored bedside table?! Somehow, this all just WORKS!

Giveaway from Mod Clay

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend and is back in the swing of things today! I thought we'd kick this Monday off with a giveaway. (Free stuff is a sure fire way to cure a 'case of the Mondays', right?!)

 I've recently teamed up with Mod Clay which is an Etsy shop filled with adorable and unique ceramic items which are made from new and vintage molds. The vintage molds are right out of the 60's and 70's and you can customize the pieces in almost any color. Take a peak at a few of my favorites:

Scalloped Shell Bowl

 Cupcake Cookie Jar

Owl Coin Banks

Conch Shell Planter

Elephant Bud Vase

Owl Vase

Mod Clay will be giving one lucky reader the choice between one of their owl vases or owl coin banks, in whatever color you wish!

Vintage Ceramic Owl Coin Bank

Vintage Ceramic Owl Vase

To enter the giveaway you must be a follower of JPM Design. (If you're not already, it's easy. . . just click the 'Join this site' button on the right sidebar.) You have two opportunities to enter:

1. For the first entry, go to Modclay's Etsy Shop and take a peak around. Come back and leave a comment letting me know what your favorite item is.

2. For an additional entry, go to JPM Design's Facebook page and become a fan by clicking 'like' and leave a comment letting me know that you follow us on Facebook as well.

It's that easy! Just make sure you are a follower of this blog and leave a comment for each entry. The giveaway ends on Monday, September 19th at 5:00 Pacific. I'll use random.org to select a winner and notify the lucky lady (or gent) by email and then announce the winner on Tuesday, September 20th. Good luck!