Decor | Musings on Momentum

DIY Terracotta Pots

March 17, 2016

One of the things I have most been looking forward to about our balcony makeover is having the opportunity to infuse the space with some much needed greenery. We have palm trees directly below us in our courtyard and while they’re lovely, we are always looking down on them. Not at them. I’ve been yearning to have some plant life right outside my door.

As I mentioned last Thursday, finding plants that would tolerate limited amounts of direct sunlight was quite the challenge, but I think I found some winners in mint, parsley and chives. I have been assured that, while all three plants prefer direct sun, they’re each quite hearty in their own right and should tolerate our setup.

I was so excited to bring my little plants home from the nursery last weekend (they’re from Anawalt Lumber Company in Hollywood in case you’re in the market) and knew I wanted them to live in pots that have a little something special to them. I had been seeing various terracotta pot DIYs cropping up all over the place, particularly ones involving gold foil, and decided to take the idea and make it my own.

Planning a Small Balcony

March 10, 2016

I have always been a bit of a planner, particularly when it comes to mapping out living spaces. As a child I would draw out floor plans and room layouts in my spare time…you know, for fun. Totally normal childhood behavior, right? Okay so maybe it isn’t the most common of hobbies for a kid to have, but it has served me well on many a move.

Following our most recent move last September I didn’t have an occasion to map out any spaces and I was starting to feel like I needed to get my fix. It comes as no surprise that I went a bit overboard when planning out our balcony. By overboard I mean that I sketched out a basic design months ago and then actually put mouse to graph paper and did a rough mock-up online at Home Styler. The company’s online tools are incredibly straightforward to use and they have a huge selection of furniture you can choose from to add to your space. I stayed pretty true to my original rough sketch and think the below little mock-up turned out pretty well!

When planning our small balcony I took three main things into consideration: the budget we wanted to work with; our lifestyle, meaning how we hoped to use our outdoor space; and the amount of light the balcony gets.

Balcony Plan

Budget: We are not planning on staying in our current home past the end of next summer. It therefore doesn’t make sense for us to invest a large sum of money into the space.
Lifestyle: We have lofty dreams of sipping wine and dining on our balcony at twilight. I envision a little perch for Lola to lounge on during the day. I’d love to have some greenery in our life. So many ideas for such a small space!
Light: You’d think that we would get tons of sun because we are in LA, right? That turns out to not quite be the case. We discovered that due to the layout of our building we don’t actually get much, if any, direct sunlight during the day. There go my dreams of growing rosemary and other sun-loving herbs!

So to recap, we are working with a small self-imposed budget, want the space to serve several purposes and can only put plants that can handle zero direct sunlight out there. It turns out those are quite a lot of variables to work with, particularly when I envision the space looking something along the lines of the gorgeous small outdoor living inspiration I shared last Thursday. In other words, I envision perfection!

If you need me at any point over the next few weekends you will be able to find me crisscrossing Los Angeles between IKEA, Home Depot and various nurseries. Stay tuned for a progress report…

Small Balcony Design

March 3, 2016

When we unexpectedly found out that we had to move last year, one of the aspects of our new apartment that I was most excited about was having outdoor space again! Our previous apartment was the first home I had lived in without some sort of access to the outdoors, be it a yard or a balcony. While I did not particularly utilize such features when I lived in Seattle I did always envision myself having some sort of space to enjoy the Southern California sunshine in once I migrated south. A little piece of the outdoors, even the tiniest of ones, is especially nice to have in the middle of Hollywood.

That being said, between our move, our wedding and our honeymoon, a balcony makeover was put on the back burner. Until now. With Spring in the air and the days getting longer I decided that there is no time like the present to create a little slice of outdoor heaven in the midst of the hustle and bustle of Hollywood.

Being the planner that I am, I have been collecting inspiration for our balcony for months and am sharing my images with you today. What do these spaces have in common? (Aside from the fact that it appears the majority of them exist in picturesque European cities! That certainly helps with the charm factor, doesn’t it?) IKEA furniture, splashes of texture and color, and little bits of greenery, that’s what!

With March in full swing it is the perfect time to get inspired, set my plans in motion and turn these images into my new reality!

This wins the award for the sweetest of spots. Soft blues, crisp linen, teacups, and lavender plants make this a charming little slice of heaven.

DIY Anthropologie Mirrors

February 25, 2016

Back in January I shared some of my favorite fresh interior finds for the new year. One of my picks was a set of Anthropologie mirrors that featured plated brushstrokes around the edges. I adored the mirrors; I pined for the mirrors. The only problem was that they started at $108. That felt like a little too much to pay for a relatively small mirror that looked like something I could come close to making myself. Besides, I was looking to take on a new DIY! And so it went that a couple of weeks later I found myself gathering up materials and getting down and dirty with some gold and silver foil. One short hour of crafting later I was the proud owner of two DIY Anthropologie mirrors.

DIY Anthropologie Mirror Completed

An Interior by Maison Hand

February 18, 2016

I told myself I wasn’t going to do it…I wasn’t going to give you two home tours by the same designer back to back. That was until I came across this interior by Maison Hand and just couldn’t help myself. I have officially become ~~slightly~~ obsessed with the work of this Lyon-based design team and check in on their website at least once a week in hopes of coming across a new home reveal. Yes, I am in fact a complete Maison Hand fan girl.

The first Maison Hand home tour I shared was a study in contradictions. It was classic; no, it was modern! It was open and airy; it was cozy. It was everything my dream apartment would be and more.

This month’s tour offers a very different perspective into their work. You’ll still find large, sparsely furnished, white washed interiors here, but you’ll also find bold, dark and dramatic elements that elevate this space into something really special. Certainly into something worth sharing.

To be fair, I don’t feel as if that much work had to go into making this room gorgeous. A corner apartment with floor to ceiling windows spanning the length of the room AND herringbone floors? I can only dream.

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