Rooms with a view.

Do you know what makes me truly happy in life?

Chocolate.  Obviously!

But after that?  Home decor.  Hands-down.

My mother earned her degree in interior design, and not too long ago, I wrote a letter to Joel Mozersky asking if I could be his intern.  In fact, I almost posted it on this blog.  Then I figured maybe not.

Anyway, now that Ross and I are settling into the new house, I go back and forth between viewing our rooms as:

A) Haphazardly arranged with previous owners' paint choices on the wall and a mystifying lack of shelving (true)

B) A clean slate, ready for us to make our mark! (potentially true)

I'm focusing on B.  Fortunately, our new house is what I like to refer to as "petite" so decorating shouldn't be a HUGE challenge.  Right? 

At our last house, Ross and I lived with a roommate named Caleb, who we miss very much.  We also lived with Caleb's grandmother's paintings, quilt, grandfather clock, "Fun Machine" (a pre-programmed electronic organ, fun!), and globe of the world.  Somehow, I like to think it all came together: Caleb's (grandmother's) style and mine.  Here is a story the Statesman wrote about it.

This is me, "working from home."  For which I typically wear sweat pants and a tank top a tailored dress, tights, and special yellow heels.  Oh absolutely.

Anyway, I guess you could call our home decor style Granny Chic.  I like vintage.  And Caleb's grandmother's stuff was about as vintage as you could get.  But now in our new place, what do we want to do? 

I'm putting together an "inspiration board" of sorts to help me figure it out.  PEOPLE.  Have you been to Pinterest yet?  I discovered it via my design hero, i.e. the girl who made over this blog, Kelly Ann Mount of The Flowerchild Dwelling.  Everything you see here comes from Pinterest.

This kitchen is ever-so-slightly "we just retired in Boca Raton!"  But, I adore the clever pops of color.

Yes.

I enjoy shabby chic when it's less overtly estrogen-y.  And has a weirdly cool edge, like this one.  Doesn't the 19th century portrait make it?

Totally practical.

Whee!  These prints are fantastic.  Our house currently has stained concrete floors (that kind of look like wood) as well as a green couch, so maybe this could happen?  Yes? 

If I get really brave, I'll do a before / after photo shoot of the house.  The "before" will probably include a photo of Claudia, our cat.  With the move, she was just turning into a lunatic, but I'm happy to say we've now sedated her with copious amounts of catnip.  This is what she looks like when she's on it.

Are you insane for home decor, too?  Where do you go for decor inspiration?


UPDATE: My friend Lani just shared this poster with me, AND I LOVE IT.  Little deer, you have a future home at Chez Moseley-Carnes!

UPDATE #2: Poor Blogger! They went through hard times this week and lost some data. Which is being restored this weekend.  If you left a comment and don't see it on this post, it should be coming back soon.  I mean we were having such a fun time and all down there in the comments section.