Happy Times

The smell of hot coffee on a rainy morning.

Magazines full of visual inspiration.

These things make me happy.

I am so antsy to get back overseas and into our new apartment. We already have an apartment lined up, although we've never actually seen the inside (long story). Short version: it's at a price we can't pass up, and we can live there long-term. And best of all - we'll be able to decorate however we like, with one caveat: the apartment comes partially furnished. I've been told the living room has a black leather couch / loveseat combo; not what I would have picked, but what can you do? At least we won't have to worry about the dog getting the cushions dirty! ; ) So any color palette I use has to incorporate those big black pieces. Right now I'm tossing around either pale blue or light warm grey for the walls (paint or fabric; not sure which). Or I might just leave the walls white and put up floor to ceiling bookshelves in a warm brown finish, like these BILLY bookshelves from Ikea:

I've been meaning to put together a home inspiration notebook with all my color swatches, inspiration pics, etc., but in the meantime I've discovered this new feature from Domino called My Deco File. You can upload pics from your computer, or use their "image tear tool" to grab pictures from other websites, and sort them all into different categories in your "books." I would still prefer to have a hands-on notebook, but this is a nice backup.

Poor Seth, if he had his way the whole place would be ultra-modern: stark white walls, sleek black and chrome furniture with shots of brilliant red. Me, I lean a little more toward mid-century modern with a splash of contemporary: organic materials like wood and pottery and lots of textured fabrics; warm colors like brown and orange. I try to include him in the design process, but he pretty much tells me just to do what I like, and he'll be happy if I'm happy. Now that's true love!