When we finally find the house for us, Chris and I have talked about it frequently – we will spend the time and money to invest and create the house we really want. That will mean waiting longer to re-do rooms. Frequently spending more time really thinking about exactly what kind of cabinets we want, sink we want, etc. Our future home is really what we imagine spending many decades in. So we want to make the investment to create exactly what we want.

With that being said, I have spent a lot more time on Pinterest lately. In the past I have gone on Pinterest and spent time pinning things for specific projects and ideas. But now, as I brainstorm things I like, or how I want things arranged, I am finally really seeing the value in Pinterest. Isn’t that crazy? I know, ridiculous. But now with a lot going on, it’s wonderful to bookmark things. And, especially for me, creativity is a long process. It was the same when I was an art student – I would think about a project I wanted to do endlessly and revise and revise and revise in my head until I had thought about all the details and how I would fine tune it. And then, I would create it in a flurry. I find Pinterest to be helpful in the same way: I search for something and pin it as a placeholder and see if I really like it, then I’ll usually go back and revise boards about once every 2 weeks and really refine things to a point where I like everything. I don’t want to have a bajillion things pinned and forget why they meant something to me, I want these to be the things I really, really like.

I’m not sure where I should start, or if you even care, but it’s just kind of nice to share what’s going on stylistically in my mind at the moment. I can definitely tell how my tastes have evolved that last 3 years, and even the last year as I work more and more with clients. It makes me more sure of what exactly I like. ANd it’s kind of a modge podge really.

I will say the goal for me with the next house is to not take myself too seriously. I want to really do things because we like them. I have always been about function over form. That’s not to say I don’t want things to look nice, but I am all about efficiency and authenticity. But I want the girls to have KIDS rooms. I want them to look nice and go with the rest of the house, but if they want a loft, I want to build them a loft. I’ve always been enamored with the idea of having a swing in one of their rooms as well. I’d like to think we could do that. I’ve talked about it with Chris and I know he thinks I’m slightly fucking crazy and gave me a wide-eyed stare, but I really want their rooms to be a place that they love. A place in their home that is just for them and all about them. I want it to be fun and I want it to be indicative of each girl’s personality. I want bathrooms to be practical. I want kitchens to function as the hub of the house – because that’s so frequently what they are. I want our office to have space for the girls to hang out and do their homework with us too. You see what I’m saying? I want our house to be reflective of US. I think I felt incredibly tied to the idea of this house being a Storybook Home. I will confess, I absolutely hate when people make a Bungalow into a loft. It almost makes me cry. But I also wish I would have had a little more fun with the things I picked. But it was my first time in a lot of ways and I was nervous to take chances.

I want to take chances and really be ourselves. And I’m excited for that. I think that’s why I’m so eager to find the next house. I just want to create OUR space.

Now, enough talk, time for some pictures. That’s what everyone likes anyway 🙂

1. One Day Kitchen

I haven’t so much thought about layout, etc., because who knows what the fuck the place will look like. But I have thought about colors. I REALLY want to be ballsy enough to try a colored cabinet. I love me some gray, but gray and white are so trendy right now. Chris and I picked out white cabinets 6 years ago and I loved them, but I am eager to try something new. And I loooooove me some blue. It’s probably my second favorite design color behind gray. And white. Okay, so maybe my third. But don’t these cabinets look dreamy?

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I’m still not into the brass hardware, and I definitely don’t want one color uppers and another on the lower cabinets. But holy shit do I lust over these blue cabinets. Luckily Chris is pretty in favor of it.

The other thing in the kitchen that Chris and I DEFINITELY want, is a secretary area

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I don’t think we would actually put a computer here, but we definitely want a place where bills get written, mail can collect, take out menus are arranged…at the moment that stuff either gets put on the kitchen counter, piled in my office, on the cabinet in Chris’ office, on our pass-through, in Zoe’s hands…we just want a place where the “house administrative” stuff can happen. And where it can go. We could put it in our office, but I’d like to keep that to work stuff.

Office you say…

2. Dreamy Office

This room is VERY important to us. Maybe the second most important room behind the kitchen/living space. We run a home-based business, and I also work from home for my brother. Having a fully functioning office where Chris and I can interact and where the girls can hang out with us too is extremely important. Right now we have 2 half offices and Chris constantly uses my computer (it’s where we have Quickbooks installed). Our filing is in my office, but our office supplies are in another room. This split would also be remedied if we had a larger space. And we pine for a larger work space. I pine for an office where we can have: both computers for Chris and I, work space for us to have things laid out, a work/play area for the girls, filing, office material storage, places for samples/fan decks/catalogs, etc. Ohhhh the dream. Hence the name: Dreamy Office 🙂 And I’ve got a lot of Pins for this room going 🙂

I L.O.V.E. the dark blue on the walls in my office. I dream of painting the future office BLACK

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Dreeeaaaammmmyyyyy

We also need a lot of shelving storage. We have binders for bookkeeping, projects, reference and design books, catalogs, samples, inbox, etc. And ohhhhh the though of a giant wall of a bookcase just makes my heart flutter

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And while a giant wall of built-ins is awesome, you know what is more awesome (and space saving?) a giant wall of built-ins and desks!

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And I really want the girls to feel like they belong as well

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And filing cabinets are so boring. I like how I redid ours that we got for free, but it would be nice to have a pretty one too that didn’t feel so filing cabinet-y

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And, of course storing office supplies could be made fun

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I don’t need my paperclips and thumbtacks to match. But they certainly are stored in an accessible and aesthetically pleasing way. And I can get behind that.

3. General ideas

This board is just for the feel of the house and little ideas I have. There’s very little one it mostly because it’s impossible to pin ideas when you don’t know the feel of the house.

I love the idea of creating a little nook of wasted space. It has such a romantic feel

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And we have a shit-ton of books, CDs and DVDs, so it’s not like a space like that would be wasted at all.

I also like the idea of a giant cork board somewhere to just toss stuff on. We have 3 small ones in the kitchen and they’re always full of stuff

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4. Bathrooms

There are basically two things I have become completely fixated on in terms of any future bathroom(s). Patterned tile:

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It’s not even borderline obsession, it’s like, needs to be sent straight to a 90 day rehab addiction. Luckily Chris is totally into it and sends me photos of tile he likes from time to time that’s patterned when he’s out o jobs. That would be fatal if he didn’t like it too, lol.

The other is a trough sink. And preferably a double faucet trough sink

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Luckily, again, Chris is totally behind the idea. And even had the brilliant idea of having the guy who has made his stainless steel inserts for his truck cast one out of metal. That would be fucking awesome.

5. I have thought of LOTS of idea for the girl’s rooms

This one will be harder. I want their rooms to feel whimsical, like THEM, put together. I think it’ll be a challenging balance, but their rooms are probably the thing I’m most excited for because it’ll be FUN.

A loft, ooohhhh a loft

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Just like you Nikki.

And the idea of some crazy ridiculous paint job gets me super excited

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Zoe LOVES books. So it would be cool to have a fun way to store them for her

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And a cool way for them to display future (hopefully) art projects would be exciting

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A fun dresser just makes me smile

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And a magnetic wall and a swing feel like just about the coolest things

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Did I mention I wanted these rooms to be fun? 😉

6. And lastly, the exterior

This is totally up for whatever style the house is, but I long to go for it and paint a future house a really dark color. Lllllloooonnngggg for it

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Chris has even gotten into the Pinterest game and spent an evening on my phone pinning things. Is it wrong that I found this completely adorable?

So, there you have it, where my brain has been at. This could of course all get thrown up into the air depending on what kind of house we get. And, we likely won’t be making any drastic changes or tackling a kitchen or bathroom first thing when we (if ever) move into a forever home (I wissshhhhhh). But it’s nice to have these things bookmarked.

What do you guys think? What do you hate? What are you pinning for yourself?