Defining My Style

Personally, I've always felt the question

What is your style?

 The hardest question to answer when it comes to design especially if your like me and can appreciate many different design ascetics (Coastal,  Country, Modern, Shabby Chic just to name a few) 

Since buying our home four years ago, I've been slowly defining my style and editing down and finding what I love. Regardless where I lived before becoming a homeowner I loved decorating each apartment I lived and wanted it to reflect me, hope that makes sense. 

Anyways over the years my style has evolved, and now with our home re-building project underway, I'm really getting the chance to define my style all at once (Windows, Doors, Trim, Vanities, Fabrics and much more) 

The all at once approach for me at times can feel overwhelming, because I want to get it 'right.' I've been doing a lot of thinking about my personal design style and how I want the main rooms in our house too feel & flow. I'm a non fussy person, and I enjoy spaces most when they are comfortable

 but still feel very chic. 

The past few months, I started calling my design style 'California Modern Casual.' 

For me the look of California Modern Casual: is relaxed, chic with clean lines, natural elements, great natural light, layers of colors and pattern. For me this defines my California lifestyle. My family is chill, loves the outdoors, prefers being comfortable over formal most of all we live and play in our home.  

I pulled together a few pictures of living spaces that have the style I prefer for my home, all feel like my style. 

1. via Pinterest 2. via

Pinterest

3. via

Pinterest

4. via

Pinterest 

I adore the living spaces above, layered in pattern and color with simple lines on the furniture all feel pulled together yet relaxed. You can see my ideas for our living room

here

. 

I mentioned last week, we plan on making several

 floor plan changes to our home, read more about them 

here

 our living room and dining room will now be much more open to each other. We decided to widen the original door way almost double the size, this will make our home feel so much more open. Since our dining room is actually an eat-in kitchen / dining room I prefer dining rooms that flow effortlessly between the living room and kitchen that are casual enough

 for Sunday pancakes and chic enough for fine China that same night. I like this dining room below perfect mix of chic and kid friendly. 

It feels good to define my style and pin point my likes and dislike. Now that I've shared my style of California Modern Casual, What is your Design Style? And how do you define it? 

Consignment Finds

Recently Hasani and I checked out a local consignment store just to see what they had. We've haven't had much lucking finding must have furniture prices for our home. I've been on the look out for a vintage night stand for both boys bedrooms. Anyways, I'm so glad we stopped in there they had a great selection of like new sofas, chairs and vintage pieces with amazing lines that just need a new upholstery job. The problem I have when I'm out shopping is A. I forget to snap pictures of great finds B. My cell phone battery is low. I'm happy to report, I bought home three amazing finds. 

Last year, I went with my gut and got fun bright yellow lamps I loved from Target to this day I love those lamps! This time around, I've deiced to go in a new color scheme direction for our living room which I shared here. These days I'm really drawn to the colors blues, aquas, grays and chartreuse, so in terms of lamps I was up for whatever caught my heart and Hasani liked too. Well I'm happy to say a pair of lamps have stolen my heart, plain and simple they are fantastic. I spotted these lamps from across the room and was smitten! I love a good double gourd lamp, and they were heavy and a pretty shade of aqua. In the pics below they look brighter than they actually are in real life. In real life the color is a softer shade. When Hasani first saw them he was on the fence. So much on the fence that we didn't buy them until the next day, deep sigh. I was so worried someone else bought them, lucky for me they were still there. 

The lamps came with shades that were also in perfect condition. In fact when I was talking with the sales lady, I mentioned they reminded me of Robert Abbey lamps. She said the lamps were brand new from a model home and pretty pricey. We got the lamps for a steal only $59.00 each and the price included the shades. Same price I paid for my beloved yellow lamps & shades last year.

The lamps go so well with the fabric I plan on using for our living room. The pretty aqua lamps pick up the aqua shades in the floral fabric perfectly, its like I planned it.  

Here's the Robert Abbey Double Gourd lamp in Peacock Blue via Lamps Plus. At Lamps Plus they retail between $ 190 - $ 250.00 per lamp depending on the size. I'm 95% certain the lamps we picked up at the Consignment Store are Robert Abbey lamps. For sure they look like lamp twins. 

I mentioned several months ago, that I want to find a set of bookcases for Avery's soon to be big boy bedroom. Instead of re-creating a nursery when we move back home, we've decided to go ahead with a bog boy room since Avery will be close to 2 years old when the house is finished. While browsing in the Consignment store, I across a great solid bookcase for Avery's room. It's in a amazing shape and solid wood and super heavy, with two top shelves and a bottom cabinet. Here's the bookcase, I bought for a good deal $99.00 for solid wood in almost perfect condition. Sorry for the crazy sun glare, when I snapped this picture. When I first saw the bookcase and decided to buy it, I thought I would paint it white. Now I'm liking the dark wood color and think it will nice in his bedroom, but you never know I might paint it after all. 

I plopped a two of Avery's toys on the shelves and already like how it looked. They shelves are nice and sturdy & deep. The bookcase still needs a good cleaning, but I'll get around to that soon. I'm already picturing his new bookcase filled with books, toys. I like the idea of using the bottom cabinets to keep puzzles and toys as he gets older. 

Those are my latest finds for our home, little by little we are getting things we absolutely love to fill our home with. What do you think our recent finds? Have you ever shopped at a consignment store before?