Design Inspiration Monday

This room.  The straight lines carry from the shape of the sofa to the lines on the rug.  The contrasting black and white is broken up with dark brown pieces mixed in.  The splash of color with the plum velvet accent chair is a pleasant surprise and doesn't draw attention away from the neutral flow of the room.  Also, my eyes almost instantly noticed that rose quartz colored pillow on the sofa and the faux cow head taxidermy on the wall.  I'm seriously obsessing over rose quartz and faux taxidermy right now...it may be a phase.  We'll see.  Moving on to the oversized bookcase, rustic reclaimed desk with the hutch.  Love how the faux fur on the chair at the desk makes more fun, cozier and less of a "work" space.

What's your favorite part of this room?

Image Source:  decordemon: Land of contrasts

Design Inspiration Monday

Most homes are centered around the kitchen, since it is typically the room with all the action.  Not only is it used for preparing and cooking food, but also entertaining guests and family meals.  Rustic decor looks like its been around for centuries.  The distressed worktable with casters makes it simple to move it as needed.  Unpolished silver on the walls and open shelving flawlessly suit the rustic design.

Photo credit:  Rustic Kitchen Ideas

Design Inspiration Monday

With summer in full swing, my mind is consistently concentrating on getting outdoors, whether it is going to the park, local events, socializing, or entertaining.  There is a brewery in St. Louis (Earthbound Brewing) that uses tree stumps as stools, which I absolutely loved.  Loving the idea so much, I went to the extreme Google search of "tree stump stools."  Lo and behold, this rustic outdoor dining area...the answer to my search results, a dream entertaining space with perfectly placed tree stump seating.

Photo credit:  DIY Ideas

Design Inspiration Monday

Hi guys!  As many of you know, I started Sparkles and Flamingos in 2013, focusing mainly on fashion.  At the time, my full-time job was social media, merchandising, and buying for the family furniture and home decor consignment business, Style Your Space.  Always being passionate about fashion, I didn't want to lose touch and dive solely into interior design, hence the start of Sparkles and Flamingos, fashion blog.  Since then, I've taken over and re-named Style Your Space's "boutique" as Sparkle Shoppe Boutique, SYS has expanded to a second location, and seen many changes all around.

Juggling a store, sales, social media, blogging, merchandising, and so on, it's easy to feel overwhelmed, leading to that funky, uninspired, "I have NO idea what I'm doing" almost-meltdown but not really type of thing.  SYS's blog has been on the back-burner because balancing it all, I felt I was losing focus and spreading myself too thin.  Last week, when I was getting my whole "I FEEL INSPIRED" groove, it dawned on me to just combine the two blogs (duh).  After all, this is my blog, I can blog about what I want, right?   Bottom line, there's so much more to me than just fashion, so it's silly for S&F to focus solely on that.  From here on out, what you can expect from Sparkles and Flamingos is a splash of fashion, dash of design, more lifestyle, DIY's, and life in STL.

What better way to kick off this re-vamp than with a Design Inspiration Monday?

For the past 6 months, I've been obsessing with neutral rooms, white walls and vintage, rustic decor.  The past few weeks, I've been obsessing with chair swings and swings inside.  When the best of both my worlds collided with this loft in Amsterdam, I couldn't help but feel a bit envious of this space.

Photo credit and see the full loft here:  C-More 'The Loft Amsterdam'