Red, White, & Blue Rooms: 5 Ways

Happy early Independence Day! In the spirit of the upcoming holiday, and in celebration of the U.S. soccer team’s valiant effort yesterday (seriously you guys, they played hard. And Tim Howard is basically the goalie version of Superman), here are some gorgeous red, white, and blue rooms for your décor inspiration. I’ve also thrown in a few of my own tips on how to recreate the patriotic look in your home.

1. Go Classic

This living room by Tom Scheerer from House Beautiful has a classic Americana vibe. They did a nice job of using equal-ish amounts of red and blue in the room, but my favorite element is the gallery wall. What an easy way to add a splash of red (or any other color of your choosing).

photo via House Beautiful

2. Be Modern

Here’s another gorgeous red, white, and blue room from House Beautiful with a much different style than the room above. Mary McDonald kept most of the elements pretty modern (the sleek blue sofa, the sconces, and the ikat pillows and curtain trim), and added in just enough red via some accessories to give it a hint of patriotic flair. I really love the Chinese garden stool by the way.

photo via House Beautiful

3. Bring in Bright Accents

Lindsay Mens Craig relies on eclectic accessories to bring in pops of red, white, and blue to her living room featured in Style at Home. I love the red rug and the blue pillows and artwork paired with the otherwise neutral room. Of course the plus side of bringing in colors via accessories is that you can change up the color scheme without spending a lot of money.

photo via Style at Home

4. Go Bold

There’s nothing subtle about this Miles Redd foyer from Elle Décor and I like it. The cobalt blue lacquered walls make a big statement on their own, as does the red leather(!) door. Add in bright white trim and accessories like the wall mirror and you’ve got a room that nobody will forget.

photo via Elle Décor

5. Choose aqua

True story: this sweet, vintage kitchen from Apartment Therapy was one of the very first things I pinned on Pinterst on what feels like 10 years ago, but was really more like 3 years ago. I love how the red cabinets and chairs look paired with the light aqua walls. And it doesn’t scream “Fourth of July” like a lot of other red, white, and blue rooms do.

photo via Apartment Therapy

Thirty by Thirty Progress

Happy Monday everyone! Last year I decided to make myself a little “Thirty by Thirty” bucket list of things I’d like to do before I reach my next decade. I’m sad to say that in the 16 months since I published the list I’ve only completed 6 of my 30 goals. I’m hoping that posting my progress (or lack thereof) will motivate me to cross some more items off my list.

So here is my Thirty by Thirty list as printed last year, with completed items crossed off and my notes in italics.

1. Visit New York City

2. Travel to California

3. Take a trip with girlfriends to somewhere fun like Vegas or California

4. Go back to Europe

5. Complete JCCC’s interior decorating certificate (this May!) Completed May 2013  

6. Start my own interior decorating business Coming soon!

7. Be featured in a print publication like Spaces or KC H&G Not quite as big as Spaces, but last November our home was featured in Ink Magazine!

8. Be featured on a big blog like Apartment Therapy (and not as part of a contest I entered myself in )

9. Get 100 followers on my blog Might nix this one as “followers” is a loose term, but I am up to 84 facebook fans!

10. Get back to my wedding day weight

11. Have a baby. No rush on this one though, don’t get too excited

12. Become an aunt. Obviously I have no control over this but it would be nice

13. Run in a big 5k race like Race for the Cure

14. Eat breakfast at Succotash Last year during our Staycation week!

15. Have dinner at BlueStem

16. Explore contemporary art at The Kemper Museum Also during last year’s Staycation

17. Eat at one of KC’s BBQ dive’s like Gates or Oklahoma Joe’s

18. Attend the Plaza Lights Ceremony

19. Watch Gone with the Wind all the way through

20. Read one of the book club books all the way through and participate in the book club discussion Read “Tell the Wolves I’m Home” and went to book club in Columbia this past February

21. Watch Mary Poppins (yep, never seen it)

22. Watch The Sound of Music (never seen this one either) My friend Michelle bought me this for my birthday last year but I haven’t watched it yet

23. Read Emma by Jane Austen

24. Watch every best picture Oscar nominee before the Oscars one year

25. Go the Illinois vs. Missouri Border Wars basketball game

26. Try Brussels sprouts I’ve tried them a few times now, but the best version was the fried Brussel Sprouts at Big Grove Tavern in Champaign, IL

27. Throw a fancy dinner party for friends I’ve hosted dinner for friends several times, but none were quite what I would consider “fancy”

28. Attend a live taping of a national TV show

29. Learn to play golf decently

30. Practice yoga regularly (as in, at least twice a week for several months in a row)

Symphony Showhouse 2014 part 2

Happy Friday friends! Yesterday I started showing you pictures of this year’s gorgeous Symphony Showhouse, and today I’m back with pictures of the bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, and more!

I loved all of the bedrooms, especially the unique pieces of furniture. I don’t think I would put a giant gold headboard in my house but it definitely made a statement in the showhouse!

The kitchen in this house was absolutely stunning! A dream kitchen for sure. I wish I had better pictures to show you but these will have to do.

I couldn’t believe the cabinet on the right is actually the refrigerator! So fancy!

And I was in love with all of the light fixtures throughout the house. Some of them were modern and swanky and some of them were historic and majestic. All of them were gorgeous.

Isn’t the dining room amazing! So many showstoppers in one house. If you’re in Kansas City you should definitely make it a point to stop by the Symphony Showhouse next spring.

I’ll leave with one last, bright little picture for the day. I love that they styled the closet with an open umbrella in my favorite Scalamandre zebra print.  

Have a great weekend!

Symphony Showhouse 2014

One of the things I love about Kansas City is the design community. They put on a lot of great events throughout the year, including one of my very favorites, the Symphony Showhouse. I went last year and it blew me away, so of course I had to go again this year. Ben and I went on a Friday afternoon in May and I dare say, this year’s house was even better than last year.

Here are a few pictures to give you a taste of the amazing-ness.

This year’s house was a gorgeous three-story house that was built in the early 1921. A lot of the original features were still intact, including the gorgeous leaded glass windows with stained glass insets.

The main living room, nicknamed the “Blue room” for obvious reasons, was one of the highlights of the tour. It was designed by John Rufenacht, an incredibly talented designer I know through Dining by Design.

Other gorgeous living spaces included a sunroom and an attic game room.

The attic even had a cute little doggie room off of it!

The house had the most gorgeous bathrooms ever. Seriously, I was die to have any of these in my house!

So pretty right! The good news/bad news it that there are too many pictures to show in one post, so come back tomorrow to see the rest of the showhouse!

Kansas City Staycation Highlights

Yesterday I mentioned we spent last week staycationing in Kansas City. Kansas City is such a fun city and there’s so much to do here, especially when special events are going on. Sure, I would have loved to spend a week in Mexico or Paris, but I had a wonderful time just taking advantage of some of what my home city has to offer! We stayed busy all week doing fun things, but here are the top three highlights from the week.

1. Ben Folds at The Kauffman Center

We Kansas Citians are so lucky to live in a city that has so much offer in the arts. There are a lot of options for places to visit to get some culture, but one of my favorites has to The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. It is such a stunningly beautiful building, both outside and inside. They host a lot of different special shows in addition to regular performances by the Kansas City symphony orchestra, which is incredibly talented.

One of my all-time favorite artists, Ben Folds, played a show with the KC symphony orchestra there on Wednesday so of course we had to go. Wednesday also happened to be our three-year wedding anniversary, and our first dance at our wedding was to Ben Folds’ song “The Luckiest",” so it was was the perfect way to celebrate the day together. The show was just phenomenal; the symphony hall is small and has perfect acoustics, and I really loved Ben playing with the orchestra. He even played our wedding song which made the night even more special!

The front of the building is all glass which provides gorgeous views of the city. I especially loved the view once the sun went down! And the outside of the building is just as or even more gorgeous at night, don’t you think?

2. The Hotel Sorella

We had thought about going away for a view days to Vegas so we could stay in a nice hotel, eat out at some really good restaurants, and enjoy some time at a fancy pool, but since we can do all that in Kansas City we decided to save a little money and just stay for a few days at a hotel here! The Hotel Sorella at the Country Club Plaza is brand new to KC and it is incredible! The lobby and rooms were gorgeous, it had a killer rooftop bar and pool, and the service was perfect. They’ll even chauffeur you around town in a Cadillac Escalade for free! The prices are on the high side for Kansas City but it’s worth it. If you want to treat yourself for a few days I would highly recommend checking out Hotel Sorella!

Here are a few pics of the lobby:

The room and the view from its balcony:

And the rooftop pool area:

3. Boulevardia

Our vacation dates happened to coincide with the new Boulevardia festival in the West Bottoms. The event was organized by Boulevard, KC’s beer empire, so naturally the festival featured lots of beer as well as yummy food and live music. I was a little disappointed that they only sold Boulevard beer outside of the special Taps and Tastes Experience (which cost $75 and sold out in minutes), but otherwise it was really fun. They had a bunch of really great food trucks there and there were live bands playing all day and night. We got up close to the stage for the last two bands of the night, Catfish and the Bottlemen (who were playing their first show in the U.S.!), and the headliner, Capital Cities.

Other highlights included our anniversary dinner at Osteria Il Centro, ice cream at Glace, happy hours in River Market, and a performance of The Pirates of Penzance at Theater in the Park in Shawnee Mission.

What are your favorite things to do in Kansas City?