Dreaming of a Beach Cottage

Since I was a teenage girl, I have dreamed of living on an island someday, it was more like Fiji, but I will settle for the Florida Keys.  I also dreamed I would have a lovely beach cottage to call my own.  So here I am in my late 20's and I think I have gotten pretty close to that dream.  We have recently purchased our first home in the Florida Keys, and it is a canal front, ground level home with beach cottage potential.  

Outside is currently painted an ugly light brown, with an even uglier dark brown trim and a lovely(not really) gravel yard!  That same lovely color scheme had been carried in throughout the entire house!  So we painted the inside white on white right away! My husband didn't believe me when I said paint everything white, but am always right! He also didn't know there is more than one kind of white (this may be a long journey for us).  Anyway, what a difference the change in paint color, furniture and furniture layout can do for a home.  At least the color anxiety goes away after I walk through the door.  It is also getting a little easier to see the potential this home has now that it is more of a blank canvas.  My addiction to Pinterest, Pottery Barn, HGTV, and Coastal Living Magazine also helps!

So I am beginning this adventure and sharing it with you, as I transform this house into my dream beach cottage.  Here are some basic before and afters of what just changing the paint has done for this house.

Before


After

 

As you can tell these photos this is from before we moved in and immediately after.  I have rearrange the furniture many times,  purchased and sold a kitchen table, then purchased a new one,  and also fixed up and finished my son's room.  So there will be many more before and afters to come.  I can't wait to go completely Coastal Living Magazine on this place!  In the meantime, I will go back to pinning all my house ideas on Pinterest wondering why when I pin stuff it doesn't magically appear in my home and religiously stalking the mailbox waiting for my Pottery Barn catalogs and Coastal Living Magazine!

Monday's Color Inspiration - Coral ~ Seafoam ~ Khaki

So my inspiration for this comes from our current living space.  When we first looked at our current home to rent over a year ago I a noticed the deep sunset red wall. (there is a tinge of pinkish orange is think).  Anyway, I was not excited about the color so we asked if we could paint the red wall...we could as long as we did a good job.  We have a seafoam green couch and chaise set so I chose a light gray shade.  Only to return to our new home just before moving in with a gallon of paint and seeing it was not one wall like for some reason I had in my head, but all four walls in the large open living space - complete with archway.  Whoops - I still have that gallon of paint!  So we moved our stuff in and it didn't clash after all.  I used a brown throw and some khaki colored pillows and it all seems to tie in nicely with our dark wood accents.  Wa-la - my version of Coral, Seafoam and Khaki...with out any painting. (Yay!) So the moral of this story is color inspiration is not exact and can be pulled from the same color family and still work.  And moving things from another room or location from the house can pull a look together without any added expense. You don't have to break the bank to create a new look.  And as time goes on I can pick up things I really like here and there.  It's a pro-cess.

Monday's Color Inspiration - Yellow, Blue and Green

These are my dream colors for my dream tropical wedding.  Inspired by a comforter and the start of my inspiration for my baby girl's room which then evolved into what it is now.  The perfect mix of tropical colors without being totally in your face tropical.  It kind of reminds me of sorbet.