Parrot on a PorchA Journey Toward the Little Mansion Dream

How would you want to have this space-saving and functional ironing board in your pad?

It functions as a mirror when the board’s upright then as an ironing board (fondly coined as “kabayo” locally) with a lamp on the side when the board is opened.

Designed by Nils Wodzak, this Mirror Ironing Board Closet is manufactured by Konzept Design from Germany. The price ranges from €200 to €300 (about Php 12500-19000).

Okay..now it’s crunch time. I haven’t met the required number of tasks I’ve scheduled to finish by this hour. Well, I got hooked and didn’t notice of the winding time as I just browsed nonstop for furnishing ideas for the house and researching tips on losing abdominal fat. I may be as skinny as a bamboo to the envy of many but the bulging tummy isn’t just right and unpleasant.

I may have lounged too long at home decorating sites but I feel accomplished. I found the exact design I wish to show our contractor for the kitchen cabinets. Also, I got some more bedroom cabinet inspiration. With the tons of clothes that we three have, it’s a requirement that we have ample spaced yet compact closet.

Wooden Cabinets with Glass Doors (photo snagged from Brandon Barre)

Cabinet from Deco-Designing

If my browser and its bookmark functions can just talk, they’d surely complain how I’ve been stuffing them with so much links these days. Links that are home-related specifically. Well, they can’t blame me. As the big day nears that the Little Mansion is fully constructed, I can’t help but collect, browse and peruse sites to get ideas and inspiration that we can apply to our humble abode. I’ve surely blogged and posted pics about our ideal room designs up to exterior furniture. Aunt Angie, who has an interior design background, has also drafted the interior styles for the finishing touches of the house. Now I’ll be sharing a few trinket inspirations that I want to adorn our soon-to-be little dwelling. These will be just options for the mean time as I prefer to see the fully finished house first before I finalize and select the appropriate accessories and embellishments to go along. I also have to consult Aunt Angie if these will blend just perfect with the house’s interiors, size and color.

Vases:
I want something contemporary for the living room such as a Luna ceramic vase by Eero Sairanen. For the dining table, I’ll experiment with these elegant crystal vases from waterford. Their glass works are so explicit and stunning.

Seahorse Vase

Lismore Vase

Irish Lace Vase

Picture Frames:
There is no better way to show off your loved ones pictures other than displaying them in elegant and lovely crystal picture frames.

Clocks:
To cap off that true little “mansion” feel, a Crystal Coliseum Clock will be the perfect piece.

Christmas ornaments:
I know it’s too early to put on and think of Christmas ornaments at this time but since this year will be our first in our own home, only the best decors should be put.

Does this living room look familiar?

If it doesn’t, it only means that you haven’t seen yet the latest movie craze in town, Twilight: New Moon. Although not really new because the first wave of Twilight fever hit last year. So it’s more of a craze resurrection, I guess. Actually, even if you haven’t seen the movie, this set would still look familiar because Bella’s Party Scene at the Cullen’s house is among the inviting scenes they feature on the movie trailer. Check out full Bella’s party scene:

A little trivia about the Cullen House from New Moon:

- It wasn’t shot inside nor is a part of the original Cullen House in Twilight or the so-called The Hoke House
- This is located in West Vancouver, Canada
- Built in 1950’s, this was originally designed by Arthur Erickson and restored by Brian Hemmingway
- This house is for sale at $3,298,000 by the real estate agent Jason Soprovich
- It has 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms
- It has a total floor area of 5,117 sq.ft. and lot area 20,690 sq.ft.

For more New Moon house pictures, check it out here.

Christmas may still be more than a month away but here in our home, we can already feel the Holiday festive mood. My mother-in-law has taken out the Christmas trees and the other ornaments from the stock room after the Halloween so they’ve been up and giving our home a Christmas feel for more than a week already. However, I think the Christmas tree still lack ornaments to make it a really glowing and lively tree. My MIL approved my idea when I suggested why not we use affordable and unique collectible Swarovski crystal figurines this year to adorn the tree. I found several collections in the Christmas & Ornaments section at QualityOverstock.com and truly they are eye candies.

Quality Overstock is a fine retailer of designer and collectible figurines with crystal product lines such as Swarovski, Lladro, Lalique, Daum, Baccarat and Armani. They also have designer watches such as Baume & Mercier, Ebel, Cartier, Gucci, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Longines.

As previously blogged, I really have a penchant with blue-colored or blue-themed rooms. I’ve come across a site that says the cool color of blue can actually make a small space appear bigger as it appears to recede from the viewer.

Here are just a few inspirations I pooled from my favorite home interior blogs:

Image Source

Image Source

Image Source

Sub-consciously, emotionally and mentally, our perceptions of colors affect and influence us. Colors affect our moods.

Blue is calming and soothing. Its different shades can be strong and steadfast or light and friendly. Interior designers say that blue is a good color for bedrooms because of its cool, calming effect and it can help you sleep. However, too much blue could dampen spirits as the phrase “feeling blue” conveys.

The color blue has always been my favorite.  According to an online quiz that I took, blue is my primary color and it symbolizes that I am a sensitive and reflective person..which is actually true.

Here are some of the blue inspired home inspirations for our future little mansion.

Photo Credits: Coastal Living

Wouldn’t it be lovely to spend a vacation here? So quite and serene as opposed to the colorful world of Las Vegas Shows.

This is one of the rental lodges at Camp John Hay in Baguio I took shot of December last year. The chimney, the wooden veranda, the homey and laid back style…everything about it is just so perfect. I don’t have an idea how much the rental costs for a night but I’m pretty sure they’re steep. Camp John Hay has several cabins sprawled in the vast land of the camp and I think this is one of the recent additions. In fact,  it was still undergoing construction and completion during the time that we were there before the Holidays.

It’s near the mini-golf course that we played at and instead of concentrating on the game, the shutterbug in me struck again so I took every pleasant things that our “Nikky camera” aimed at and shoot. Even the husband was awed and elated how lovely this house is and agreed that we will indeed own a similar resthouse in the future. Perhaps, even better, bigger and nicer.  There’s nothing wrong with dreaming, right? It is free anyway. Who knows, our wishes and dreams will come true someday.  By that time, we don’t have to book and stay in hotels whenever we go up to enjoy the cool city breeze of Baguio.

You may find this house unappealing from the outside because of the dark colored walls.

But hold your thumbs down sign because look what it got inside.

Don’t you just love the bare yet simple, contrasting black and white look?

And look at the dining chairs, the colors match the grass outside. Perfect color combination inside and out.

See the green basin sink?  It brings ultra modern look to the residential kitchen, don’t you think?

This, by the way, is called the Sinus House in Denmark designed by Cebra Architects. (Posted via Freshome)

If you have seen the movie Twilight, then it wouldn’t take you a second to recognize whose house is this?

It’s the Cullen’s!!!

The Cullen House, supposedly located just outside of Forks, WA, is actually known as The Hoke House or the “Nike” House. It was designed for Nike executive John Hoke and his family and was designed by architect Jeff Kovel via ‘Skylab Architecture’ it’s 4300 squares, built by Metcalf Construction, with Lucy Metcalf as the interior designer and landscaper.

Don’t you just love the interiors and exteriors of this modern vampire house?

Photos snagged from designtavern.com.