megan & kevin's breakfast nook makeover

My sister-in-law Megan and her hubby Kevin (the only other Dallas Cowboys fan on that side of the family - solidarity) moved into their Houston, Texas area home about 2 years ago. A definite pro was that they got to select their finishes since it was a new home development. The con, however, is that you still have a very limited palette to choose from...unless you want to spend BIG BUCKS.

The result of that is the dreaded builder-beige walls E-VE-RY-WHERE. M&K focused their dollars on fitting out the most important spaces first - the living room and master bedroom. The little kitchen nook is outfitted with relics from Megan's first apartment. The space is nice, new, and large, but needs a bit of personality. 

Enter their Interior Designer sister-in-law (me) to the rescue!

Their style is warm, casual, a bit rustic, and colorful. They are naturally drawn to warmer colors like rust, orange, and tans. One danger of loving earth tones is that you can get sucked into a brown vortex from which you never emerge. You wake up one day and everything around you is a shade of muddy beige. 

To prevent this beige-coma you need to infuse some cool colors into the mix. Aqua blue works great with their earth tone palette. Once you've got a bit of aqua in there, aqua's cool sea glass toned friends feel welcome at the party. 

I've mixed rustic elements (the farmhouse style table, bench, and classic ladder back chairs) in with some more lush pieces (velvet nail head chairs, anyone?) alongside fun patterns and geometric shapes to keep it all from seeming too fussy. It has the feeling that these items were collected over time, when in fact they could all be purchased in the span of a weekend.

All of the items above are pretty budget friendly. The happy couple is at that all too familiar life stage of your late 20s - you don't want everything in your house to be made out of particle board and assembled yourself (ahem, IKEA), but you don't quite have the stomach to spend 3 grand on a kitchen table either. Here's the happy medium.

M&K - hope you like what I've done with the place. Now get shopping.

WHERE TO BUY

Curtains - World Market

Pendant lamp - Shades of Light

Napkins - World Market

Glassware - West Elm

Ladder back chairs - World Market

Upholstered chairs - World Market

Table - World Market

Runner - Anthropologie

Bench - World Market

Dishes - Anthropologie

Cheese Board - CB2

Rug: Rugs USA

YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY:

long live chesterfield

kim's living room

why every piece can't be your favorite piece

house tour: our first place