I Want To Go To There

This past Weekend If the Lamp Shade Fits posted soul-crushing pictures from a bed and breakfast in the south of France. The whole spread was just lovely and I strongly urge you to go check it out, but first I want to show you the room I just can't get enough of:

Ok, so admittedly those suspiciously adirondack-like chairs have got to go, but the rest just warms my very heart. Of course, the designer utilized my go-to pallet of black white and yellow, so I instantly feel at home in the room but this house differs from mine in that it's got a more sophisticated yet comfortable feel. When I grow up I'm totally doing this to my room.

Backyard Inspiration

Ever since the back porch demo last weekend, my mind has been racing with ideas for our backyard.  Seriously, I woke up at 5am Tuesday (thank you Rowdy!) and I could not fall back asleep because my mind was racing with ideas on how to best beautify our new outdoor retreat. Due to an annoyingly intrusive work schedule, I have yet to lay hands on the newly exposed soil but (hooray!) Erin and I have an outing to the Natural Gardner scheduled this week.  I'll give you a full report provided it's the shangri la of landscaping that I envision.  While I'm there, I plan to keep a few images from my outdoor spaces inspiration folder in mind:

Let's keep in mind that it's the feeling of these spaces not the exact look that i'm going for.  Much as I would love a crazy stairwell over my lovely exposed concrete wall, I don't think I'm going to get either structure.

I have wanted  a pergola covered in vines for as long as I can remember.  It had been my plan to build one at this house.  In fact, part of the reason our backyard demo took so long was that I was waiting for my husband to have the time to build one.  Reality finally set in and I realized that my children's children would probably off to college before Matt ever had the time to construct the pergola of my dreams.  I decided the sun sails I bought were almost as good, and the fact that they can go up immediately make them even better.

Oh, but for the record, don't you love this picture?

I can't even find a spot to hang my new chair, much less a crystal chandelier, but I do still love the structured greens in this photo.

I want a pool.

This is my very favorite style of landscaping.  Slightly structured chaos, lots of overlap, mixed textures, native grasses, lush without being tropical, zero shrubs and not too many flowers.  It's pretty much perfect.  Raise your hands if you think a novice planter like myself can recreate this look.

And here are a few more random images I like:

And that is that, I will keep you dudes posted on progress.  But I do promise that this won't become a landscaping blog.

Morning Wood

Despite my long standing love for hardwood floors, I extolled the virtues of carpet in Monday's post. This mystifying self revelation came about when I started to calculate potential renovation expenses, because carpet be cheap. True, carpet can be crazy ass expensive (Camilla from Designalogue wrote in to say she installed wall to wall ALPACA freaking carpet in a client's home), but if you're a careful shopper, it can also be quite reasonable. Although I've never had carpet installed, Collyn of ModFruGal has, and she quotes her price for hardwood flooring plus installation as being around $10 (our cost was similar when we redid the kitchen floors), vs carpet at around $4. So, if you're covering a lot of sq footage like The Hunny and I may be in our new/old dream home, that is a HUGE difference. Still, I'd like to explore all possible cheap flooring options, and lovely reader Michael pointed us in the direction of plywood floors. Say what???? First I wax poetic about carpet, and now plywood?

No really. It's kind of awesome.

I mean, would you be mad if your floors looked like this? (Thanks to Michael for the image!)

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at this woody turn of events, since this isn't the first post I've written about how chic plywood can be. But it is interesting to see it used as flooring in homes where hardwoods or concrete would traditionally have been the materials of choice.

Marine plywood in a super modern Italian designed house. via Dezeen

And of course you could always paint your floors, like this plywood floor in an art studio. Since it's plywood, you don't have to feel bad about covering your beautiful hardwoods.

These plywood floors were painted to look all rusticky and stuff. Via Coastal Living

Perhaps imperfect floors would give you the perfect excuse to experiment with designs. Although the next set of images are traditional hardwoods, these ideas could work equally well on inexpensive plywood. via Design Sponge

I always like a good checkerboard. In muted tones, the pattern remains very neutral.

This room isn't really my style, but I like the idea of painted stripes.

These are marble, but there's no reason you couldn't inject some hot geo drama into your floors, as in this Miles Redd designed home.

But of course, white painted floors are always a popular choice. Check out Door Sixteen for excellent info on how to paint your floors white here. Image via Living Etc.

Although an opaque paint would most easily disguise flooring imperfections, a nicer plywood floor would look awesome with a translucent stain that allows the grain to show through.

Stenciled and stained chevron hallway via Alicia B Designs.

This room is a little too country, but the floor rocks. via Country Living

This diagonally stained room by Mark Cutler is AWESOME. He explains how to do it here.

The simple, ebony stained floors in this home designed by Sabrina Bignami could still be gorgeous in plywood.

So I'm thinking plywood sounds like an interesting flooring option, but I'm a little concerned about installation. Do you glue the boards to the floor? Nail them to each other somehow, so that they float? What happens when the boards expand and contract? Does anyone have plywood floors, or have experience installing them?

Inquiring minds need to know.