Guest Blogger: Design Shuffle, Colorful Interiors

Hi there! I’m Joanna, a blogger for Design Shuffle, a premier source for all things interior design from designer portfolios to the latest news and trends in the industry. I love my job. I get to scour the web for the most beautiful images of interior designs and bring them together to share with blog readers like you. Thanks to The Cuban in My Coffee for letting me share some splashes of color today.

Color has the power to transform our moods and touch our senses. Bold color energizes and inspires us. We love pops and splashes of color applied with confidence. Take a look at the beautifully colored rooms below to find decorating ideas of your own. Which room is your favorite?



A traditional living room takes on a whole new personality with lipstick pink and peacock blue. The use of two differing panels on the windows is a clever touch.



A gorgeous space is filled with vibrant hues from walls to floor. Modern furnishings mix playfully with traditional ones. The natural lighting really makes the color pop.



A modern family room sports an interesting mix of color and pattern. An accent wall is dressed in a cranberry hue. All in all, it's a space filled with cool contemporary decorating ideas.



This brightly colored room is playful and fun. It makes you want to sit in the blue arm chair and spin. The sofa fits the feel of the space perfectly.



Soothing lilac walls and furnishings are quite at home with vibrant pink accents in this living room design. Love the pink velvet chair with gold.



A pure white space gets blown up with pinks, oranges and purples. The contrast between the white furnishings and boldly hued accents is beautiful—a lovely family friendly interior design.



A white canvas gets lovely touches of color from boldly hued books and accessories.



This dressing area is a blank canvas--the shoes and accessories add pops of color to the space. Who wouldn't want this in their bedroom design? Images 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Ready to go bold? Get some more motivation to use bright colors at Design Shuffle! You'll find fabulous inspiration from the top San Francisco interior designers, Boston interior designers, and many others!

I hope you guys enjoyed the guest post today.

DIY Ikat Bowl

Good morning and Happy Monday (booo!),

While I was decorating my new closet this weekend it needed i lil' something extra on a little table. I looked around and I came accross the most amazing ceramic Ikat bowls! It should come as no surprise that I love all things Ikat and this was no exception.

Just look at these amazing pictures and vignettes and you'll see exactly what I mean.

 I did some searching and found this Nate Berkus bowl for HSN  which is awsome, but costs 29.99, and it's sold out!

My second choice were these cute little bowls from Anthropology, but sadly they are no longer sold.

Poor me. I had no where to buy these little guys from so Idid the next best thing, and made one!

                                                     (sorry for the crap i-phone pics)
                         

It started with a cute little bowl from Home Goods for only $2.99, score!

Then I took my Sharpie gold paint pen from a local craft store and I drew a zig zag random pattern and filled it in.

When I made mistakes, if you make mistakes just use use nail polish remover and redo.

Here is my finished bowl (plus a small sneak peek of my unfinished closet)!

It was so easy, and it's so cute!!!! This is the perfect little bowl to place my keys or lip gloss in.

~Have a great Monday 

The New Look Of The Cuban In My Coffee

Happy Friday!!!

In case you haven't been by, or maybe you just didn't notice The Cuban In My Coffee just got a shiny new make over!!!

Remember the post I did here about my new years resolutions??? Well I am making them happen one step at a time. It started when I read rave reviews from a fellow blogger who had herself a shiny new makeover from Kristin at Simply Klassic Blog Design . Since I am not very savvy with these sorts of things I went to her page and checked it out for myself.

If you're not already familiar with her, Simply Klassic Blog Design can take your blog and customize just about anything from your header, to your style, to your font and colors. She can add tabs and side bars to help make your blog easy to navigate. The results for me speak for themselves.

You can easily see Kristin's work on her blog where she has her projects listed.

Kristin was so wonderful in answering all my millions of questions and she made this process easy and fast! She delivered every thing that I wanted and was on the ball. Thank You Kristin for making one of my resolutions happen!

Things to expect and what she did for me:

I kind of winged it, and as a result had to scramble to figure out the patten, colors, font etc that I wanted. This was much harder than I originally planned or thought it would be, but Kristin worked with me and even helped me figure out a nice font and made my personal signature amazing. My advice is to have some kind of idea on what you are looking for. Be it a print, a color, a style, or what you are aiming to achieve with your blog etc etc, doing a wee bit of research will help you out.

Things you will find new on my blog are: Contact info, My Services, My Portfolio (which is the next step in my resolution...to show you'all my work! More of that coming soon), My DIY Projects (so that you can give them a try for your self), Home Tour (so that you can finally see our house before, after the HGTV Color Splash Makeover, and now since I never quit making changes to our house, EVER!).

I hope the results are easy to navigate and more pleasing to your eyes. I also hope my mom who is NOT a blogger and who lives in Utah far far away from us can now easily see what pictures are actually our home, and what pictures are random ideas and inspirations.



Now go enjoy your weekend!

My Dream Closet: Part I: The Inspiration

Good morning,

Have you ever looked at those dreamy celebrity closets and found yourself star struck not at the celebrity themselves, but at their AMAZING closets?!

Well me too. One of the hardest parts for me in our entire down size was figuring out how and where to put all of my "stuff" in my closet and yet have it still somewhat resemble those dreamy high end, uncluttered, totally organized closets that we find in the pages of magazines.


To start with, a dream closet has to feel like a dream closet. It has to exude glamour so that we feel amazing while we are getting ready.

It has to have lots for places to put all your shoes because let's face it don't we all have a ton?!

And let's not forget that we also need a place to put all our purses and bags (next to all our shoes).

You have to make sure that you have ample room to hang all your clothes both high and low.

Make sure you add tons of shelves to neatly fold and stack your clothes on, extra storage is key.

You've got to have a big dresser right smack in the middle to store clothes, undergarments and jewelry...and of coarse to put fresh flowers and a candle on!

Then add trays to organize all your gems in.

AND place this on top of your dresser for more accessories and a little edge.

Everyone needs a place to sit so add a pouf , or better yet a big comfy pink velvet chaise.

                                                                           (pouf)
                                                                     

                                                                (pink velvet chaise)


You MUST add a large gold mirror to see yourself in.

Then add a huge glamorous chandelier preferably in black.

Next add somewhere to showcase your outfit du jour by adding pretty hooks to the sides of your closet.

Make sure you have ALL matching hangars in there. No wire dry cleaning hangars allowed!

Lastly, throw down a big awesome rug!

That's it, pretty simple right? Just so that we're all on the same page, Part II of My Dream Closet will be the reality check! How to make a small closet in to your dream closet on a budget! Stay tuned.

Room Reveal: Budget Modern Make Over Before And After

Good morning,

I'm back from a small weekend get away down to the Florida Keys so I didn't have time to post. It was a much needed trip!

I recently posted a sneak peek of a budget make over that I worked on for a family who has a huge love and passion for color. This one had to be done to the penny on a budget since they will be moving soon and don't  know what will stay and what will go. What they ended up with is an elegant and grown up version of their style. I chose elements that could transition easily in to other spaces such as shelves and smaller pieces of furniture while taking advantage of the enormous height of their ceilings and the window nook.  We grounded the clients existing paint colors that she wanted to keep with loads of white and grey accents, and also added visual and textural interest with organic materials, bands and pops of color. For this budget room makeover it was all in the details that really made this room stand out.

Before:

After: