Darker Dining Room with one of Behr's 2018 Color Trends

As a follow up to my post earlier this week, I'm charging right ahead with my 2018 organizational goals.  This is the first step towards completion of goal # 3.  Behr recently released its 2018 color trends.  I picked up some color samples recently and ended up deciding to paint our tiny dining room in one of their newest colors - Unplugged.   It is this VERY DARK, really complex shade of brown that in some light looks brown, other lights looks nearly black and then other times almost feels an incredibly dark shade of army green.

Our house has a very small room in the back that I am sure was meant to be a breakfast nook.  It is right off the kitchen and has two walls of nothing but windows so it gets great natural light.  It also has two really cool built in corner hutches.  Originally I decided to make this little nook the playroom for our kids however after about 4 months in our house, we totally outgrew the space.  So, we made a swap and put the playroom in the room that should be the formal dining room.  Definitely not a move I ever thought I'd make (you can read about my decision to do that here) however for this time in our lives, it has dramatically improved how we live in this house.  So, the breakfast nook is now our dining room.  It's small but it can easily seat six for a dinner party so with the limited amount we are entertaining these days, it works for us.  Unfortunately, it has just been sort of neglected as I focused my efforts in getting the playroom and more "living" spaces in our house set up first.

To say this color transformed our space is an understatement.  I've got a few things to do to get it picture ready (namely a new light fixture) but in the meantime, you can get a gist of the color from these spaces:

Here's a swatch of it on our wall so you can see a sneak peak of the drastic change that is going to take place!

Happy weekend everyone!

Organization Goals

I don't usually make New Year's Resolutions however this year I have told myself that I want to get more organized.  This involves some simple things that I have been putting off that just need to get done.  In an attempt to hold myself accountable, I thought I'd document a few of the things here on my blog.  We moved into our house over a year ago and there are still a lot of things that are still sitting exactly where they were left when we moved in because I was too sleep deprived from the baby, trying to work and overwhelmed from a cross-country move with two babies and a husband who was gone all the time.  Not complaining, just sayin'.  I'm (somewhat) back to sleeping and I feel a lot more settled now so the time has come to do something about some things around my house.

1. Organize my closet.  I need to get uniform hangers, get rid of stuff I don't wear anymore and go through all of my shoes.  That thing is a wreck.

via Brighton the Day

2. Get rid of the clutter off of my kitchen counters.  We have a big junk bowl that houses anything from candy and snacks to random business cards and coupons to screws that go to I-don't-know-what, etc., etc.   I spent more time in the kitchen than probably any other room and I want it to have a little style.  One first step is to get the junk off of there and then a little styling/decorating can ensue.

via Modern Home

3. Finish organizing/decorating the dining room.  When we switched the playroom and the dining room, the dining room was kind of left behind and it needs some TLC.   The wonderful built-ins need to be styled and I think the space needs a little color!

via This Old House

4.  Organize our bathroom.  The space underneath the sink is a hot mess and needs to be dealt with.  Pronto.  I'm also sure I keep buying toiletry items we don't need because everything is just shoved in a ginormous basket under there.

via Simply Organized

5. Organize the attic.  I'm on my way with this one.  I took advantage of the January sales at Target, Home Depot, etc. and bought a ton of those clear, stackable plastic bins.  Now I can see what I have stored up there and not have to rummage through cardboard box after cardboard box.  Also, our hot water heater broke a few weeks ago and water leaked out.  Thankfully I was able to keep it under control and get the water switched off before any major damage was done but it did make me realize that those cardboard boxes offer things like old photo albums and keepsakes no protection in a situation like that.  Now that we have just purchased a brand new water heater (ouch!), we shouldn't run into that problem again but you never know...

So, those are a few of my small organization goals.  I will challenge myself to complete this list by the end of March.  We have dear friends coming from Scotland then so hopefully we (and by we I mean I) can get all of these little things done that I think will go a long way towards helping me feel a little less crazy! 

The Playroom Situation

Our house has a little breakfast room off of the back of our kitchen.  It is clear that its original intended purpose was for dining because of the old build in corner cabinets that I ah-dore.  Because the house already has a spacious dining room and because this little nook was easy to be closed off, I decided to make it a playroom for the kids.  In theory, my plan was nothing short of brilliant.  It was an adorable little nook of a space that the kids could make a mess in and visitors didn't see it right when they walked in.  I pictured myself making homemade dinners from scratch, dressed in an apron, while the children played quietly in the room together.  (Yes, I recognize that image is nothing short of delusional).  Anyway, the room has worked pretty well for us for a little while.

The room is one of my favorite spaces in the house - it is filled with light, an adorable rug, and lots of fun toys for my little ones.  Problem is, now that we have put the theory into practice, we have discovered it is a really, really small space for a playroom.  My two year old loves to dump out all of his toys and now my 8 month old has started crawling.  In about two seconds flat, there is no room for either of them to move.  And I had to put an adult chair in there for me so that I had somewhere other than the floor to sit and that just clogs the space up more.  So, what happens is that after just a few minutes of playing, the kids become overwhelmed by all the toys around them and are (I'm projecting my feelings here) most likely clausterphobic, and they want out.  And that is just with me and the two kids in there.  Forget about having friends over to play!

Here's the playroom as it is right now:

And when the kids inevitably evacuate the small playroom, where do they go?  Straight for the living room with my brand new custom upholstered furniture.  YIKES!  But I don't blame them for wanting to get out of there.

In between the living room and the kitchen is a large dining room.  When we moved in, I toyed with the idea (pun intended) of making the dining room a second living area/playroom but then ultimately decided I really wanted a dining room.  Three main problems: 1) We just aren't entertaining as much as we used to.  We are exhausted from running after the kids or my husband is travelling for work. 2) The house is just too small to have large formal dinner gatherings because we only have one living room to accommodate 5 or so people max comfortably (in my opinion).  3) We moved from an even smaller house in DC and have only a dining room table.  To furnish a large dining room the way I want to would mean a pretty substantial investment.  I just don't know how long we will be in this house and so I don't want to buy furniture to fit this space when I'm not sure what the needs/set up of the next house will be.

Sooooo, my plan is to turn the now dining room into the new and improved playroom and move the dining table to the breakfast room.  Not only will that offer the kids more space to play but it will be much easier for us to entertain more people with another place to hang out.  I'm mentally wrestling with this plan since I can't imagine not having a proper dining room.  I also really didn't want to succumb to having my kids toys so prominently displayed in our house but after a lot of thought, I just think it will be more comfortable for everyone.  This isn't a forever plan...this is just what I think will work for us right now.  Stayed tuned for the big switch.

#cameronjonesinteriors #playroomdecor #kidsspaces #playroom #moderntraditionalmix #colorfulplayroom

Antelope Head for the Dining Room

Some people probably feel that the whole antler trend is over.  I am not over it yet.  I have been loving some of the different items in West Elm etc. but just couldn't make up my mind on which ones I loved the most.

My husband and I went to downtown Frederick, MD a few weeks ago on a little day trip.  We found this great home design store (of course I can't remember the name of it now) and I fell in love with this antler head.  It wasn't white like I wanted but I loved how the antlers formed a heart.  At $25 I couldn't pass them up.  All they needed was a little paint...

Here is what it looked like before:

And then after a little high gloss white paint all "mounted" up on our dining room wall.

My plan is to do a gallery wall of art around the mirror but one thing at a time...

Eat In Kitchen Inspiration

In our new house we don't really have a formal dining room.  The previous owners remodeled and busted out the wall between the kitchen and the dining room so we have one large room (okay, well, this house is still small but you know what I mean) separated by an island.  The cabinets and appliances are in good shape but I am not a fan of the backsplash or the counter tops. 

Anyway, I've been looking for some inspiration and have found some of the coolest dining spaces on Pinterest lately and I thought I'd share some. 

Seriously, every time I start thinking I've read every design blog under the sun, read every design magazine, and shopped online at every store and that there can't possibly be anything new out there, I get proven wrong...I'm pretty obsessed with these spaces and they all feel so fresh to me.

This one is my absolute favorite.  There are two images so you can see it from different angles.  I want to move in IMMEDIATELY.  I'm wild for the artwork, the pattern on the chairs, everything.

Here are some other pretty amazing spaces...

Now I just need to get to work on my own...

All images via Pinterest.

Ahead of the curve?

I did a little squeal when I saw the most recent cover of Traditional Home:

Why?  Cause, do you remember my dining room chairs?  Do they look familiar??

Flatware Art

Saw this picture the other day and it reminded me of the flatware art I really liked from Wisteria that I showed on my blog months ago.

via Loft and Cottage

from Wisteria

another view of the Wisteria art

I don't know if this type of thing in a kitchen or dining room would be something I would tire of or appreciate for a long time.  I saw these oil paintings of flatware which I love even more - so realistic looking!

via Paintings in Oil

And this one of all forks...

via Ria Hill Pastel Paintings

The more I looked, the more I noticed flatware art was everywhere! 

via Home Decorators Collection

Vintage Flatware Print on Poetry Paper via Etsy

via Flickr

via Hue

via Sweet Tea and Linen's Etsy Shop

Why would you go out to eat?

If I had a dining room as beautiful as one of these, it'd be easy to motivate to never eat out...

I love the unexpedtedness of all of them - from the color and fabric choice to the type of seating around the table.

Katie Leed via High Street Market

 via My Little Happy Place

via My Little Happy Place

 Elle Decor via Coco and Kelly

via Life in the Fun Lane