FROM MY OLIOBOARD ESCAPADES...

Not surprisingly I had no responses to my "Olioboard--which one would you choose" post.  I didn't figure I would since I didn't link it up to any parties, but never mind that...

Other peoples opinions of my home and design style aren't (or shouldn't be) important to me.  It's the other people who live in my home whose preferences should be important.  That would be my husband and my two children because; after all, they live there too, and that's the precise reason that I had RED furniture delivered to my house.  The hubs liked it and wanted it and it was my pleasure to make him happy.

At first I thought designing around this red furniture was going to be very difficult.  Red's not my color and having so much of it in the living room was intimidating to me.  However I believe Olioboard has helped with that.  I had asked for your opinion and help choosing which board was best but then it dawned on me to ask my husband for his.  Now let me just say that he could not care less about my design dilemmas or anything else that concerns decorating and he's definitely no designer, BUT he will usually give me his honest opinion about whether or not he likes something....so I showed him the boards.  I must say I was really surprised at his choice because it's the one I like too.

What gets me, is he didn't even have to think about it...he just said....I like this one and pointed to this...

He said he liked the green curtains and the crab picture.  Now I hope he wasn't joking because I am so getting a giant crab picture for over the fireplace. LOL!

Now you know I can't just stop at designing the living room since the dining room is open to it...so I designed a little board for the dining room as well.  It had to have some red of course,  those same green curtains and some zebra print too.  This is what I came up with and I totally love it...




I think the two rooms look great together.  I can't wait to get started.  It will probably take a while to get everything together as money is tight, but at least I have a vision and I can finally start looking for the things I need.

Here they are side by side.  Don't they look lovely together?

I'm in love and I am SOOOOO glad to finally have a plan in place.  Oh how I love Olioboard.  It has made my life so much easier.  Everything is all in one place....in picture form... and I can go back and refer to it as often as I like.  I can even keep a picture with me for when I am shopping to help me remember what items I am looking for.

All I can say is........YAY.  What a relief to finally be on my way to getting these two rooms put together, and one more thing...

Doesn't my husband have good taste in design?  Yes, yes he does!  HaHa.

Have a fantastic day!  Ciao






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Coastal Charm...Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

OLIOBOARD...

Hey, how you doin'?  Are you enjoying this fabulous spring weather we have been having.  I am sooooo loving it!

So as you may have heard, we bought some red furniture last week. Admittedly I have been all up in the air about designing my living room around it.  I have never owned ANYTHING red in the way of furniture.  Truthfully, it intimidates me.  It's so bold and so in your face, right? Well, as I mentioned the other day, I turned to Olioboard for a little direction in designing my living room while incorporating my new red furniture.

I heard about Olioboard a long time ago from Rhoda at Southern Hospitality but had never tried it until the other day.   Now I am addicted...IT'S SOOOOO MUCH FUN!!!  It might even be MORE fun than Pinterest...doh, did I really just say that!

In case you have never heard about Olioboard, Olioboard is a free site where you can choose from tons of room backgrounds, furnishings, rugs, fabrics, wallpapers, accessories, etc. to help you design a room in your own style.  You can switch things out until you get the look you want.  I like that idea because for me it means that I won't be randomly buying things and then returning them later because they didn't "WORK" for me.  I can get the full picture of what I want before I buy. It gives me a design game plan and I like that. Besides, like I said...it's just plain right down fun!  Think of it as paper dolls for grown ups only instead of a doll, it's a room and instead of clothes, it's decor.

Now since I have been trying to come up with a game plan of incorporating my new red furniture into my living room and come up with something I can live with, I have designed several rooms using the same two pieces of furniture...A red sofa (the exact one I have) and a tan chair (similar to the recliner we purchased with our red sofa and loveseat) but switching out pillows, rugs, curtains and accessories in each.  Wow, it's totaling amazing the different looks you can get using the same furniture!

Now my problem is that I love all of them and don't know which look I want to use.

Maybe you can help.  Which one do you like?



In this first one I used a mixture of metals to go along with my existing brass accents.  I also added in a little navy blue, which I love and some animal print, which I also love.


This one is probably the boldest mixture of color and pattern, but I really like it.  It's bold and alive and has lot of movement.  Very casual and comfortable.


Again this one has lots of animal print (which I absolutely adore) and a nice bright green for an accent color.  I love it too.  I love the rug, the curtains and that awesome crab picture.  The seagrass ottoman is great too.



Now we all know that red and navy play so well together so I added a ton of navy in this one.  It's kind of nautical don't you think?  I love it!

Well as I said, I am in a quandary of which design I like best because truthfully I love them all.  Maybe you could help me choose.  Leave me a comment on which one you like best, and...

Do yourself a favor...go to Olioboard and have some fun today.   You deserve it!






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Coastal Charm...Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

WHEN THINGS DON'T QUITE GO AS PLANNED...

So, I had a vision for my living and dining room redo.  I had planned on Revere Pewter walls as a backdrop for my beautiful drop cloth covered furniture, wonderful modern trellis, chevron or striped area rugs, perhaps adding a few coastal elements and some brass accents...ya know, since brass is back in style and I already have some lovely aged brass in my home due to it's historic age and all.

Sadly that vision was thwarted thanks to dear ol' hubby.  He said NO to gray walls!  He said gray is too institutional, cold and industrial.  I said oh no, no, no, gray is so sophisticated, warm and friendly now.  I even showed him my painted samples of the lovely Revere Pewter I had picked out, but he said NO and that's final.  What a meany!  He wanted beige, the beige buckhorn by Colorplace that was in the dining room...and since we had plenty of it leftover, that's what he got.  Yes, I am a nice, loving and accommodating good wife like that.  Admittedly I like it.

After saying no to the gray walls he also downed my drop cloth furniture.  He politely said, "I think you did a great job recovering the loveseat in that drop cloth fabric and I know you have plans to recover the sofa too, but I really think it's time we get new furniture...We need something darker.  I was like darker....No......and then we went furniture shopping.

On the way there all I could think about is what type and color should I choose.  Waaaa, I don't know what to do.  He completely ruined my plans.  Then it hit me, how about gray furniture.  Yes, that would be perfect...only they didn't have any gray furniture that I liked.     Waaaaaaa!!!

In the whole store they only had two sets of furniture that either of us liked.

They had this lovely light tan, NEUTRAL set that I liked:

and they had this lovely RED set that he liked.

Guess which set we got...come on, guess....Yep, we got the RED.

I was leaning toward the tan because it's neutral and not so in your face, but he LOVED the RED!  His argument, "the tan is too light.  It won't hold up to dirt and stains good enough."  So, once again I conceded.  I know, I'm just so nice like that.  I'm such a good wife, right?

It actually is very beautiful and looks great with our new beige walls.  But what about my design plans?  They went by the way side and now what in the world am I going to do with these beige walls and red furniture that I was totally NOT anticipating?

What do I want in the way of curtains, an area rug, yada, yada, yada.

So guess what I did (after I called the furniture store only to find out that it would cost me $125.00 for them to come get the red set and exchange it with the tan set), I did what any self respecting woman, who is not paying $125.00 to some ridiculous furniture store would do, I put together a little Olioboard to help me achieve the right look for my room.  This is what I came up with...

What do you think?  I added a lot of golden beige tones to counteract some of the red and I think I am going to like it.  The hounds tooth area rug is to die for.  I can't wait to get it all lined out.

So now you know what happens at Beyond the Portico when things don't quite go as planned...YOU GO TO PLAN B!!!  Whatever that happens to be, hahaha.

I hope to be back soon with some updates and pictures.  Until then, ciao.