TV console

We moved into our new house about a month and a half ago, bringing a lot of our old furniture from our previous home to be used for the meantime. These furniture were mostly cheaper 'placeholders' before I find something more pretty and value for money to replace it with. 

I currently have a TV console that we bought for our previous apartment from Houz Depot, and it cost us about RM200. It was relatively cheap, although not pretty (cherry-coloured, fibre board), it has been serving us for the past 2 years quite well. 

Now that we have moved in the new house, my quest for new furniture begins! Okay, I've still got to wait until the baby comes out plus another 40 days of confinement. Sigh.

I'm thinking of getting the Ikea Besta cabinet, it looks great here. 

Source here.

I like the 2 little baskets in the small shelf. So last night I looked it up under the Ikea online catalogue and found it. Here it is! 

Ikea

It costs RM944. And that's not including castors and other stuff required. Not sure if the hubby would be willing to fork up the money. But as usual, we always prefer to see it first before actually purchasing to see whether it would be worth the money. Of course it looks gorgeous in the first photo, right? 

Have a great Thursday!

Guest Post - Green and Blue

Hi everyone, due to the lack of posts here, I was more than happy to get an offer for a guest post by Arcadian Home blog. Just to keep everyone informed, I'm actually expecting a new member in the family, thus the rare updates on my blog! Have been resting for the past months. My actual due date is this Saturday! Hopefully the little one arrives on time or earlier. Pregnancy is tiring during the finals weeks.

Anyway, I'll let Mari take it from here. Hope you enjoy this guest post... xoxo

Hello, everyone! It's Mari here from Arcadian Home blog, a fantastic place to find lots of decorating inspiration, including winning ways with beautiful table decor, interesting wall art and lovely lighting fixtures. I'm so happy to be visiting with you at Weekend Escapades to share a guest post about spaces with wonderful green and blue color palettes. Amnah inspired me to choose this topic with her post about how much she loves blue, but is becoming interested in green. I've pulled together eight images that illustrate the versatility of the great color combo—blue and green. As you will see on our little virtual tour below, greens and blues are lovely together in all sorts of rooms, from the traditionally elegant to those with a contemporary minimalist look. Whether it's just a pop or two of these lively hues or a room saturated with vibrant blue and green, I hope you'll find inspiration for your own colorful interior or outdoor spaces. Please enjoy!

 
 This formal dining room is kicked up a notch with a brilliant green wall and eye-catching shapely chairs with gorgeous backs dressed up in chartreuse and turquoise burnout velvet.

 
 With a much softer background color on the wall, this living room also includes touches of deeper shades of blue and green. I love the blue sky peeking through in the canine painting.

 
 This lofty bedroom is a restrained blend of blue and green—stylish and inviting. It's one of my personal favorites. The pale walls are painted in a perfect blue hue.

 
From pale blue walls in a bedroom retreat, we turn to soft green walls in a lovely dining room with watery aqua chairs. The embossed pattern on the chair backs adds texture and visual appeal to the design. Buffet lamps are pretty in a color that seems to be a beautiful blending of green and aqua.

 
 Think green and blue rainbow. This living room and nearby office are dressed up in a lovely array of green and blue hues, from pale seafoam to a toned-down version of chartreuse. A contemporary striped rug ties
the room together.

 
 This pretty pale corner vignette gets a bit of color with a blue unframed painting and green buffet lamps. I love the wide gold detailing against the muddy shade of green on the lamp bases.

 
Pale turquoise walls and apple green cabinets create a spa-like space in this large bath with marble floor and shower surround.

 Green and blue is a great color combo for an outdoor space. Here a vintage porch goes for cool contemporary style with stripes, patterns and solids. The hanging ferns are fabulous and so are the contemporary floor lamps created from a classic form.

Images 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 

What do you think of these color combinations? Leave us your thoughts below and be sure to visit our website for more home decor and lighting inspirations!

Thanks, Mari! Oh yes, due to the amount of spam I've been getting lately, I've activated the word verification in the comments section. Hope it doesn't put off genuine human beings from commenting!

My pins over the year...

Hi! I'm back with a short update :-)

It's probably been more than a year since I joined Pinterest, and I was looking at my pins back then to see how my preference for decor has changed over the year. You know how when you keep a diary and read back to the days when you were younger, and thought, "really? I wrote that?"

Well, in this case, it would be, "really? I pinned that?"

Okay, my pins from last year were not bad at all. Let's take a look at a few of them, shall we?

Source here

I'm still into neutrals and blues and browns like in the photo above. This room is still pretty - clean and modern.

Elle Decor

I like the herringbone floor and again - clean and modern.

Rue

At the time, I was sourcing for inspiration to decorate my sister's bedroom. I like the image of this room. I particularly love the patterns on the bed sheet and the texture from the grey-blue velvet pillow.

Houzz

This is a nice dining room - and I've always loved lanterns. Loved and still love white upholstered dining chairs, too.

Source here

Another handsome living room made of greys, blues and browns - my favourite colours.

Though all photos above are beautiful in their own ways, I now find myself gravitating towards rooms that look less than perfect, lived-in and maybe a little under decorated?

Let me share with you some of my recent pins to show you what I mean.

Source here

This is what I call an effortlessly beautiful room. It just doesn't look decorated - the rumpled bedsheets, the aged wood of the side tables, the 'real' reading books in the niches and a cute personal photo of a baby. This could be anybody's room - and it just happens to be beautiful.

Source unknown

I love the relaxed look of this area. The patina on the frames of the two identical mirrors makes a beautiful contrast to the reflection of a more modern chandelier.

Taken from here

Another undecorated room - wouldn't you just love sitting here, doing mundane daily stuff, but it wouldn't be so mundane because everything around you is so pretty. The bookshelves are messy - but that's what brings character to the whole room. It looks like a real room.

Barefoot Contessa

The use of natural materials - the rug, the basket under the desk, the wooden stool and painted desk, brings the warmth into this little hallway. It looks so inviting, doesn't it?

From here

And this kitchen, although the cabinets are modern with no handles and a clean, streamlined look, the use of wooden countertops, antique trays and aged wooden beam just brings the kitchen back down to earth that I love.

So as you can see, after a year of collecting images on the internet, my preferences have changed from that clean, modern look to a more lived-in, undecorated look.

Have you found that your preferences have changed over the years? 

Orange

If you had asked me, what is my least favourite colour, I would have said "orange".

Without a doubt.

But.... I find that orange works great as an accent colour to add life to any setting. I mean, even Blogger is using orange as the accent colour for their theme! :-)

When you feel like your home is lacking in colour, throw in some orange!

Orange and blue looks great together. Here, the orange place mats bring zest in to this neutral coloured room.

House Beautiful

Or, how about some orange trinkets styled on your shelves in the kitchen? I absolutely love this kitchen and the deep blue colour with the bright orangey-red.

Helen Norman Photography

Even an orange book in a bedroom would do. Love the little birdie on it.

via The Pink Pagoda

I love the texture and look of this single vibrant orange cushion in this grey-toned sitting room. This is such a beautifully-styled room.

via Belgian Pearls

Or you can go bolder by throwing an orange cloth over your dining table like this one. I love the velvet texture of this fabric. It looks so rich.

via Belgian Pearls

This beautiful room by John Saladino uses orange and green - colours that complement each other well. Don't you just feel like hanging out here all day?

Veranda

This room, decorated by Giannetti Home uses orange cushions as an accent.

Velvet & Linen

Orange-coloured flowers brighten up this pretty little breakfast nook.

BHG

Or, you can just use oranges - and I mean the fruit - in a bowl to brighten up your kitchen!

Martha Stewart

So how would you use orange in your home?

Have a great week!

Sheers and panels

Our house renovation is almost complete, and now, it's time to think about how to dress our windows!

Personally, I like decorating room by room, so thinking beforehand on what curtains to use for all the rooms in our house is quite the challenge for me.

I have an idea of how I want my curtains to look like - a neutral colour in a natural material that I won't get bored of over time. I'm not really into patterns, as I like the flexibility of plains where it can go with any theme.

But the thing that has left me scratching my head is on how to layer day with night curtains. You see, houses here are so close together, that day curtains are a must - it keeps sunlight in, but gives us the privacy we need during the day.

I was thinking of going for sheers and pair them with panels - but I really can't find much inspiration out there. Here are a few photos of rooms that have dressed up their windows with both sheer and panels that I will refer to as inspiration.

Velvet & Linen

This is from Brooke Giannetti, I love the use of this gauzy sheer fabric, layered with linen panels for night curtains. Gorgeous.

Phoebe Howard

Phoebe Howard

Phoebe Howard

Phoebe Howard mentions in her blog to stay away from polyester when you use sheers, and she likes using double poles to pair sheer curtains with panels. Aren't the three photos above just beautiful?

The photos of the room below uses double poles with sheer curtains and panels. The room is just beautiful, so I thought I'd just put in all three for your viewing pleasure. :-)

The sheers bring that elegant and romantic touch to the room. I love the use of natural textures of linen, sisal, antique chairs and console. 

You can better see the double poles used here in this photo. I love the stripe on these chairs. 

Source unknown! Let me know if you know who the designer is!

The below room has a modern touch to the interiors as well as the sheers used. You can't really see it, but the sheers to filter in light and maintain privacy is hung as blinds and pulled all the way down to the floor. This is a gorgeous room.

via Eclectic Revisited

The below is one of my favourite photos of sitting rooms - you can't really see the curtains, but they have also used sheers and panels here.

via Mark D Sikes

A beautiful dining area uses sheers and panels here too. I love the ornate chandelier.

House Beautiful

Well, I guess I'll be referring to these photos when I'm making choices for my windows! Have a great week ahead!

simple, elegant and beautiful

I found this photo on Pinterest that I fell in love with.

The designer is Alexandra Siebelink, and I visited her website and found beautiful photos. You can check them out here.

I love the look she creates - simple, clean and a wonderful mix of natural textures. Beautiful!

floor cushions...

I got this message from a dear friend of mine...

"Amnah, what should I do when my idea of living room decor is not materialised because my husband's idea of decor is a sleeping mat and pillows on the sofa 24 seven? I can't seem to decorate it because it just looks like a big messy bedroom... should I move the TV elsewhere so that the living room does not look like a bedroom?"

My suggestion would be to either move the TV to a bedroom...

modern bedroom design

Or if you don't like the idea of having a noisy TV in your bedroom, how about getting comfortable and pretty floor cushions for that extra comfort the husband is craving for while he watches his favourite shows?

These would be my picks for flat floor cushions...

Pottery Barn

Kaboodle

Kaboodle

Etsy 

And oversized pillows look great too like the striped one in the photo above!

Here are some images of pretty rooms that look comfortable without the sleeping mats and extra pillows from the bedroom...

Home Design

Floor poufs and cushions make hanging out on the floor as comfy as sitting on the sofa in the outdoor room above.

via American Gypsy Living

On a good day, oversized floral pillows sit atop flat floor cushions neatly.

via Home Interior Design

These two floor cushions sit beneath the coffee table and can pulled out for extra seating when there are guests.

via American Gypsy Living

Textured floor pillows look great in this eclectic room.

source unknown

Floor pillows makes a room look more casual, inviting and less formal.

source unknown

source unknown

I really do like the idea of having floor pillows! It would be great for those lazy days enjoying my favourite shows on TV!

Happy Wednesday!