How to create a style board for your space

how to create your own style board

When I moved into my house – it was a blank slate. It was a 1970’s house that had been pretty much untouched since it was built, so when I saw blank slate..I mean wood paneling, white walls, and standard lighting, I was a excited. There wasn’t anything crazy going on, which made my work easier, but blank slates can also be very daunting! Even as a designer, I was perplexed with my family room. It’s so uninspired and just BLAH. I painted the wood paneling a beautiful boho white, and after that, I was stuck. It took about 2 months until it hit me, I needed a vision. I don’t mean I was going to space out and it was going to come to me in a vision what to do in this room…I mean I needed to visually see it instead of thinking about it! So I did what I do for all my clients; I created a style board! This is my style board below. It has all the elements I want to see in my space, the color palette I want to carry throughout, and has some of my existing furniture pieces I’m working with. Now i’m going to break it down for you, so you can learn how to make your own for your space! First I will say, style boards are like dream boards. They are meant to inspire and reference – so when you’re mindlessly walking through Home Goods and you have the […]

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Modern Boho Budget Bathroom Makeover

modern boho bathroom makeover

  I’ve been teasing you all about a bathroom makeover since I moved into my 1970’s house. The vanilla color on the walls..cabinets, countertops..paired with the grey floors made for a horrific sight. Plus the faded green curtain on the rusty metal rod? So cute, right? I know, I know, it could’ve been worse. I wasn’t dealing with yellow or pink tile or some horrific peeling wallpaper, but still, it was uninspired for lack of a better word. Last week I shared my inspiration for my bathroom and the elements I loved from each picture. You can check that post out here.  There were elements I knew I wanted in my bathroom, like brushed gold (DUH) and high contrast design. I also always loved the idea of a Vintage/Persian style rug in a bathroom space, so I made it my mission to find one. Just like my thrifty kitchen makeover [if you haven’t checked that out yet, you don’t want to miss it] I didn’t want to spend an arm and a leg – I capped my budget at $200, and ended up spending $170! I love budget makeovers, especially when I surprise myself and come in under budget. A lot of the items I already owned, like the soap holder, tray, plants and some of the baskets. What I really was searching for were the big impact elements, and I was on the hunt for deals! Before I show you the after, let me show you what I was working with. There […]

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My $400 eclectic kitchen remodel

I wish I could sum it up in a sentence, the journey of my kitchen. I’ll start with prefacing that this is my first house! My boyfriend and I bought a home in the suburbs of Raleigh, and in my own words, it is fabulously 1970’s. When we first walked through at the showing, I fell in love. Was it the original walnut wood moldings everywhere or the wood paneling in the basement..or the so-yellow-they-are-pink tiles in the master bathroom you may ask? It was none of those – actually I didn’t even notice all of that when I walked through the home. I noticed the layout, how much light flooded every room, and the gorgeous moss-covered backyard! I am an interior designer after all..any cosmetic issues in the home didn’t even phase me. If you know me, you know I always bite off more than I can chew, it’s kinda my thing. So the kitchen was no exception. Oh..the kitchen! The cabinets were two-toned..and not the trendy kind you are imagining. The cream and brown paint that covered the cabinets made me want to shower immediately…but I also knew this was the first room that needed my love. Another thing I knew – being only 2 years of out college, and this being my first house, my budget was gloriously tiny. At work, I had won $300 in Amazon gift cards, so I decided that those gift cards, plus another $100 would be what i’d work with. I honestly didn’t […]

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Move-In day & Pinterest Overwhelm

If you are anything like me, you are a Pinterest addict. Before I even go to Google, I go to Pinterest, and I search for answers there. I mean..to be fair most of the things I’m Googling are home decor and food related, but I can easily spend an hour a day on Pinterest just going deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole of Paleo cupcakes and gallery wall inspiration. Even though Pinterest is by far my favorite website, and I use it for business, it also is super overwhelming. As y’all know, I’m an interior designer. I own Honey Bee Interior Design  and I often ask my clients if they have a Pinterest board or inspiration images to help me better understand what they are dreaming of for their space [a picture is worth a thousand words, am I right?]. However I also know the extreme overwhelm…let me explain. You want a farmhouse style living room, so that’s what you search. Two hours later, you have 100 “Pins” of what you like for that space, and no real direction on where to start. It’s not like the pictures say “Here, buy this sofa first, then do this to your walls, and the paint color is _____, and the budget for this room is $2,500″. It’s just a picture, sometimes linked to a blog post…but still it’s just a starting point. Now let’s get real. I tell my clients something I started to tell myself..and actually had to practice what I […]

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how to get the space you want on a budget

*Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you if you click through and make a purchase, I will earn commission. The opinions are completely my own, and I only refer to products that I absolutely love and have tested*   We all want to look like a million bucks..and a $100 budget. It’s not to different when it comes to ours homes. As an interior designer, I have clients who want the same thing; they come to me with a low (realistic in my opinion) budget and want a room that they see on Pinterest. Instead of saying “Yeah goodluck with that!” I say “challenge accepted”. I grew up pretty humbly. Instead of buying new things, I would make something if I wanted it. I guess you could say i’ve been honing in on my DIY skills since I got my first hot glue gun and set of paints! So it’s no surprise that when I was 8, I painted the inside of my Barbie dream house, because I believed Barbie needed a blue bedroom wall instead of pink. How does this help you? I’ve been making things look like a million bucks for pennies for years now, and I want to share my tips with y’all. If you want a space that’s stunning on dime, you must be open to putting in a little elbow grease, using your investigation and negotiation skills!   If you want a piece of furniture that is totally out of […]

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