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Designing from Blank Slate to Reality

by | Mar 31, 2016 | Decorating Inspiration, My Dining Room, My Seattle House

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Designing from Blank Slate to RealityThe Design Files

As I mentioned this week, it’s pretty fun to pull my furniture around and start to “live” with the rooms arranged closer to what I envision. But at the same time, it’s a bit frustrating to have to wait to really see everything I imagine! I don’t want to be patient, ha, I’m ready to DO. Everything seems like it takes so long, at least here in our house (TV shows spoil us, I guess).

I know it can (and will) take years to get this house the way I really want it (many of you will relate to that), but I feel really good to finally have the vision in my head of what it will become. A blank slate of a house brings its own challenges, so it was not always an easy feat to get my mind wrapped around the vibe or how to pull it off in this house and on a reasonable budget (and at a pace and scale that we can handle).

Designing from Blank Slate to RealityAmie Corley Interiors

But now that I actually can visualize the house and am already at the point where I have many of the details are decided and a few more are getting close, it’s just a matter of starting what we can do right now, working with the budget (darn budgets) for bigger projects, setting reasonable timelines for what should be done in what order, finding the right contractors and things like that.

It’s like a full-time job to remodel a house, even simple projects can be more complicated than you wish they were. I feel like this house already gave us a good head start, though, with its solid bones and amazing light pouring in the big windows. It will just be up to us to maximize what we have and enjoy it both how it is and how it unfolds over time.

Today I’m sharing a round up of some lovely breakfast rooms! Some of these rooms have elements I can see for our dining room and some not-as-much, but I hope you find some ideas here to inspire a project or style for your home!

Do you listen to your home before you make bigger remodeling or decorating decisions?

Designing from Blank Slate to RealityAmanda Peet’s Home / Vogue Living

Designing from Blank Slate to RealityWorkbook / Design by Barbara Westbrook / Photo by Erica George Dines

Designing from Blank Slate to Reality
Lexi Westergard Design

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Designing from Blank Slate to Reality

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13 Comments

  1. Lois Layne

    Love everything you post! It gives me such inspiration. I plan to paint all the walls in my home this Spring white. Please share with me the wall color used in each room above or a few of your favorite whites.

  2. Christie

    The breakfast room idea is really fun!

  3. Lexi Westergard

    Thanks for featuring my work Melissa!:)

  4. Melisa Lissa

    Love everything you post! It gives me such inspiration. Excited about this book!

  5. Barb

    How does one find the carpenter who just builds what you want and has the vision to do it right? I need Clint from Fixer Upper! “Here’s the nook, Clint, Build me a banquette with storage that doesn’t block the heating vent.”

    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      I wish we all had our own personal carpenter on hand at all times, it is sometimes hard to fulfill our vision without one, ha! :)

  6. Eliza

    What a gorgeous round up. We have historically been so nervous about renovating we’ve ended up just moving (although other factors were at play too). So yes, we do in a way let the house speak before taking it on. Soon, though, I think we will take on a renovation project.

  7. Corinna - A Designer At Home

    I’m a pretty on the whim kind of person. I am immediately inspired and go. And then it doesn’t work just right and I have to keep changing. Ha. But it’s all fun.

  8. Serene Spaces Living

    Great inspirational rooms, I love the inspiration posts. Love all the different layouts and designs for dining rooms. Hope they inspire you for your dining room.

 

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