The day we walked in to the Mess Hall, we found homeowner Pam's lovely Hoosier cabinet standing in the far corner of the kitchen...
See it back there?
I've always had a thing for Hoosier cabinets, so I was really happy to find it waiting for me to decorate!
(BEFORE)
Before we got here, Pam told me her main concern was that the place felt like a great, big mish-mash of random stuff.
But sometimes digging through all that "random stuff", and picking out the things that play nicely together, is all it takes to create a pulled together look for less.
Since the vintage kitchen table Pam brought over has a yellow top, and the bar stools she re-covered are now blue and white, I went on a treasure hunt for things that worked well with those two colors.
Here's what I found in various nooks and crannies around the house...
(AFTER)
We brought the seaside-inspired flag we made this Summer, and hung it on the wall above the cabinet.
And we left Pam some room on top of her handsome Hoosier, so that she could have fun expanding on her collection of blue & yellow goodies!
(And wouldn't a row of white ironstone pitchers look lovely too?)
"Wrangling" decor from around the house is one of my favorite things to do in the whole weird world.
I seriously have a really bad habit of breaking out into Wranglefest 2010 mode within seconds of entering someones house.
Do you do that too?
(Please tell me you do that too!)
I've found that most women are open to the idea of a quick re-fluffin', but that their hubbies sometimes get a little weirded out, what with me digging through their cabinets to see what kinda cool decor stuff they've got hiding in there and all.
Over in the "Twin Room", however, it wasn't quite as easy to pull together a fresh look for Pam without spending a liiiittle bit of cash.
(BEFORE)
She decided on a color scheme of blue and green in this room, so we went shopping for new bedding based on her inspiration colors.
We found a couple of pretty, reversible euro shams (for 50% off!) at Macy's.
One side has a colorful, floral pattern on it...
The other side is white, and has a little green detail around the edge...
The pillow case in front of it also came from Macy's (also 50% off!), and I'll have to post a closer up photo of it sometime because the pattern is TOO CUTE!
The throw blanket across the end of the bed came from TJ Maxx ($14.99), the white pick-stitch quilt on the bed came from Bed, Bath & Beyond (on clearance for $49.99) and the beige and white striped quilt was something Pam already had.
(Update: Pam got two sets of blue and white striped sheets this afternoon, and we look forward to putting those on the bed tomorrow!)
As for the rest of the stuff, we pulled the green, metal lamp in from the front porch, got the mason jar from a cabinet in the hallway, got the books from a bookcase in the living room, the flowers came from a bush in the front yard, and the shells came from a bag I found in the bottom of the Hoosier cabinet.
The suitcases were already there, and the headboard (Pottery Barn) was purchased from someone on Tybee for $75. (We got two of them so both beds will match.)
But the green lamp in the photo above was sorta just for fun (we thought it photographed well), because Pam actually got two little milk glass lamps for each bedside table in this room...
I ran the idea of adding some blue (or green) trim to the top and bottom edge of the shade by her, just to give it a little extra sumpin' sumpin'if she felt like it needed it.
(Hey Pam! I photoshopped some trim onto your lamp so you could get a visual- check it out!)
Anywho, Wranglefest 2010 will continue at the Mess Hall bright and early tomorrow morning.
We've only got three days to get the place done, and there's still LOTS of stuff to fluff!
Want more hoosier cabinet inspiration?
Liz decorated her pretty hoosier cabinet with stuff from around the house too!
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