Be Colorful Coastal

Vibrant Blue Living Room

It's been three months since we closed on our next chapter home and I am still struggling with color palettes and style. What can I say? I am a conflicted woman and I love it all. The trick is pulling what I love together.

I knew from the start that one of my colors would be coral. That perfect blend of pink and orange.

 

 

But what about accent colors? My first thought was pool blue.

 

 

And I've always thought that chartreuse is such a great neutral. I gives life to any color.

 

My design wheels are spinning.

I've never been a blue person. In fact, I've always run from blue. I think it is still a bit of a hangover from all of those country blues of the 80's and 90's. Somehow, though, here in a coastal state I find myself flirting with the cool blue side of the color wheel.

I have spent more hours than I would care to admit thinking and rethinking this whole color conundrum.  Primarily I am considering how the colors will flow throughout the house, but  I also  think about the view from the front door  towards the pool.

 My inspiration painting, that now hangs on the living room wall is also directing my color choices just like I had planned.

 

So, even though that pool blue was my first infatuation, my latest crush is maybe a bit more sophisticated shade of blue. Still vibrant, but a bit richer, I'm toying with cobalt blue.

 

 

This new color had me playing on Polyvore again and last night's creation looks like this.

 

 

 

 

Coastal Living Room in Bright Blue by pambecolorful featuring a tufted chair

Couture Lamps white light
insideavenue.com

Black and white table lamp
lampsplus.com

Outdoor patio furniture
shopwildthings.com

Blue bowl
artfulhome.com

Gold vase
$590 - luxdeco.com

Cyan Design home decor
purehome.com

Elisabeth Michael white throw pillow
purehome.com

Coral home decor
chairish.com

Ecoaccents coral throw pillow
purehome.com

Wood table
kathykuohome.com

Drawer furniture
kathykuohome.com

Tufted chair
onekingslane.com

Bashian Greenwich HG-283
rugs-direct.com

 

 

I think I'm getting closer.

:D

xoxo,

p

Starting With The Artwork

It is a daunting experience to try and decorate a home from seven states away but that is what I am attempting to do. I am, of course, reluctant to make any major decisions until I can actually walk through the space again but I have had fun pulling together some vision boards for the living room.

 

Sometimes inspiration can come from the craziest and most unexpected places. Recently I was shopping at Home Goods and I had a coral throw in my cart and stopped by gift wrap and added a gray and white stripe paper. When I put it next to that coral throw it looked amazing. Gray and coral, maybe that should be the color palette for Haydon?

 

The outside of the home, as you can see is coral. I never imagined having a coral house but it just adds to the tropical feel and I love it. So, it stays. Interestingly enough, the coral exterior is often visible from various spots inside the home so it needs to be considered when pulling together the interior palette. One of the color combinations I am drawn to is this color I call "pool". I really like it paired with coral. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For me, at least in this front room, it will all begin with the artwork.

This is what this room looked like the first time I saw it with our realtor.

 

 

 

My eye was immediately drawn to that colorful and uplifting painting. I became obsessed with the artist and have already located a gallery in the area that represents her work.

Since that first visit I have been squirreling away some mad money to make an art purchase the next time we are there. 

The artist is Sharon Erbe. All of her work is explosively colorful and energetic and it will be my inspiration for the design direction in this space.  I want the artwork to stand out so I will be going with a neutral paint color on the wall but I will achieve my color splashes with the paintings and accent pieces throughout the room.

 

 

 

The idea of a bold colorful rug is also appealing to me.

 

The addition of a bright pink also intrigues me.

 

I know navy is a trending choice right now and I think it could work as well but I'm not sure the hubs is on board with that. I might have to show him some inspiring images to get him used to that concept.

Oh decisions, decisions. I can't wait to walk through our Coral Casa again.

 

xoxo,

p

The Purchase

How did a couple of Midwestern kids like us end up here among the palm trees?
For several years now we have been contemplating making a purchase somewhere warmer and in a state with friendlier tax laws.   This wasn't a decision we made lightly. We still have kids and parents living up north. Consequently, we will not be giving up our old rambling family home any time soon but we are thinking of eventually downsizing.

So why Florida?  I always thought we would end up in Texas. Then earlier this year we came down to the sunshine state with our son and his new bride.

I was immediately smitten with this area.

We came down again in the heat of the summer and began looking at homes with a realtor. Yes, it was warm but in August it is warm almost everywhere.

We had seen our future home on Zillow and made a point to add it to our list of "must see" homes. We loved so many things about this home but we aren't quite as impulsive as we were in our twenties and we took a few weeks to think about it before making an offer. When we finally did decide to take the plunge we were every realtor's nightmare.

 

The market up north is drastically different from Florida and we received a quick and brutal education when we made a low ball offer. The seller didn't even bother to respond. We were disappointed but resolved to not let it get us down. Undaunted we planned another trip down to Florida and dragged our realtor through another dozen homes.

We saw some gorgeous properties and I was continually inspired by the myriad of design looks , decorating ideas and architectural styles. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My head was swimming with ideas and homes but it was time to make a decision.

We made an offer on our second choice home. We made a realistic offer this time. This home was already at the upper end of our budget so we really didn't have a lot of room to move. Immediately after we signed off on the offer we both had a sinking feeling that we were in over our heads. Fortunately for us, another offer came in right behind ours. Not wanting to get into any kind of a bidding war we decided to bow out. 

We returned home yet again with out making a purchase.  Scouring Zillow every night we kept thinking about the coral house covered in ivy. That was our house and we knew it. It was time to get real, swallow our pride and make a legitimate offer.

There was the usual back and forth this time and it took more than a week to put the deal together but to our realtor's relief and ours we were finally able to agree on a price and make a deal.

The house closed in early December and we couldn't be happier.

I'm so glad I thought to capture this moment when we turned the corner onto our street and got that first glimpse of our new home. We were finally able to say for the first time," There it is, our home".

 

I also loved it that our Amazon orders had beat us home and were already there waiting for us.

 Let the adventure begin!

xoxo,

p

 

Partying here

New Beginnings

The short version is that I am a very happily married fifty something woman with three young adult children. To many that must sound like one big huge yawn but on the contrary I think this may be the most exciting decade of my life yet. The freedom to travel unencumbered, finally having more discretionary income, and a better sense of who I am and where I am headed make this a fabulous time in my life.  I have been a blogger for several years now with a blog titled BeColorful.

There I have written about updating our nearly one hundred year old home, my functional art pieces, painted furniture, and the joys and heartbreaks of teenagers, young adult children, and aging parents.  

Recently, though, my husband, whom I lovingly refer to as Rosie, and I purchased a second home in a warmer and more tax friendly state.  We look at this as a new chapter in our story of life. It is a new beginning and like all new ventures it stirs up a realm of opposing emotions.  We are beyond excited but we are realizing that this excitement is paired with a nagging guilt that comes with putting ourselves first instead of our parents and kids. I intend to address a lot of these issues in upcoming posts that will hopefully be cathartic to me and helpful to you, the reader. But more than anything, I want this to be an uplifting read that will showcase our adventure and the remodeling and decorating decisions that will inevitably go along with a new home. It's going to be a great ride. I look forward to having you join us.