Shine bright like an emerald

You’ve probably heard by now that Pantone’s colour of the year for 2013 is Emerald.

"Lively. Radiant. Lush… A color of elegance and beauty                       
                        that enhances our sense of well-being, balance and harmony."

There are lots of blog posts and discussions about the yays or nays of this jewel-toned green, so I’m just going to post some pictures and if you’d like to share your thoughts in the comments, I’d love to read them :-)

Would you go big with Emeralnd and use it on the walls, or go small with emerald fabrics and accessories?

Image via [kreyv] | Design by Laura Britt Design

Image via Houzz |Design by Laura Britt Design

Image via Re-Do it Design

 Image via Houzz | Design by Tobi Fairley

 
Image via Houzz

Image via Houzz

Or maybe you’d rather just have a pretty emerald ring and call it a day :-)

How do you feel about Emerald?

PARA Paints Blog Crew project: Craft room reveal

First there were the Kelly Wearstler-inspired walls:

Then there was the Tiny Fey Sexy Librarian Desk:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then the purple door with turquoise edges:

And now my craft room is ready for its final reveal! Come on in and let’s take a look around…

As scary as it was, this is how the room looked before I got up the mojo to clean it up.

Hubby built a bulkhead to hide that silver duct pipe…

Which now doubles as a magnet board! The three magnets on the left are glass pieces from RAVEK architectural glass art – I just hot glued small magnets to the backs of the pieces of glass.

I hung some colourful jewelry from these dog butt magnets :-)

As you can see in the before pics. there was no ceiling and just one bare light bulb in the middle of the room. Hubby installed a ceiling and pot lights…

And then I convinced him that the room really needed a chandelier – especially because I found the perfect sparkly purple chandelier at HomeSense :-)

I also picked up a couple of orange ceramic boxes and a bright pink clock at HomeSense.

I saw these pink pencil holders at Ikea – perfect to add another touch of bright pink to the room.

As I walked towards the cash with the pink pencil holders, I though to myself it was too bad Ikea doesn’t sell pink trash cans and OH MY GOD, THEY DO SELL PINK TRASH CANS! I snapped one up, and now it’s holding foil for more foil art.

I originally planning to paint my old Ikea Billy bookcase and use it for display and storage, but by this point I was tired of painting and just wanted something done and ready to go. The Expedit shelving unit from Ikea was perfect…

But the unit sits flat on the floor, so it would have to stand away from the wall in order to clear the baseboard. Unless we added legs to it – and it just so happens the Stuva Grundlig legs come with green feet in just the right shade to go with the desk :-)

The back legs are positioned far enough in on the base so that the unit clears the baseboard.

This baby is solid and definitely won’t be tipping over! Even filled with my craft stuff and projects and a few knicknacks, like buttons and pieces of costume jewelry and beads….

These white boxes from Ikea hold all my bottles of paint. The labels are paint chips in the colours of the paints that are in each box. Now when I need green paint, I know where to find green paint :-)

One of the end walls in the room has a big opening. I assume it’s there to let in some light from the patio doors, seeing as there aren’t any windows in the room. It really didn’t serve any useful purpose before…

…and then I had an AH-HA moment – why not create  a little something like this:

Image via Houzz | Design by Martha O’Hara Interiors

Hubby added strips to each side of the opening with holes that metal rods from Home Depot sit in.

 

And voila, a gift wrapping holder that doubles as a privacy screen from the rest of the basement :-)

I want to be able to use the desk from any side, so rather than pushing it up against a wall, it’s in the middle of the room. I like to paint and work on crafts standing up, so hubby modified it to be counter height. But for the sitting down kind of projects, there’s a purple counter height stool from Wicker Emporium.

I picked up some colourful plastic baskets at the Dollar Store to corral my stuff in the desk drawers.

The ledges are the perfect place to put my finished artwork and some more knicknacks….

A huge thank you to PARA Paints and Bonds Decor for providing all the paint for my craft room. Here are the colours that I used.

	P5216-14D	Climb the Mast	Desk legs, ceiling, trim, stripes on walls
	P5021-41D	Shopping Spree	Desk body & legs above brass bands
	P5021-34	Splurged Again	Door edges
	P5021-24	It’s A Steal	Walls
	P5072-65	Sunkist	Inside of drawers
	P5044-62	Leek	Top of desk
	P5196-51	Platform Sandals	Door

I’m so happy with how my craft room turned out. It’s bright and colourful and functional, and all my craft supplies are now in one place and within easy reach. Well, for now, anyway – knowing me, it won’t be neat & organized for long!

Do you have a craft room or a designated spot in your house where you work on your projects?

Linking up here…