Elsie’s Forever Home Mood Board

I’m so, so excited to explain the inspiration for our 1965 home remodel. It’s taken me a minute to fully get my head around it!

We love the new home and over the past few months have really begun to bond with it (this is a thing!!). There are a few really amazing original features, including the front elevation (hello, Brady Bunch windows) and a stone fireplace. Beyond that, most of the home has been remodeled through the years and the kitchens and all bathrooms have ’90s and 2000s remodels that are the definition of “meh” (but they are CLEAN and not gross, so I’m happy for now!)

Over time, we plan to add some 1960s inspiration back into each room of the home. We’re also planning an addition that will add quite a few rooms, rework the kitchen completely, change the outdoor living spaces and overall improve the entire home … but we haven’t gotten far down that road yet. So for today, I am mainly going to focus on phase 1-2 (what we are doing before the addition) because it’s stuff we are doing this year … and a lot of it we’ve already started.

First up! Above, I have some of my exterior inspiration gathered up. One of the main things I want to splurge on are windows. The front of our home has the most amazing 1960s windows, but the rest of it has traditional windows and moldings, so we’d like to transition to matching them all to the original ’60s windows.

I like black window frames (in other people’s homes), but for our 1965 home, I always knew I wanted to do white metal windows. And these inspiration photos really seal the deal for me. I love how they look from the outside and the inside.

Sources above: one, two, three, four, five.

Color was an area where I may have overthought it, but I’m glad I did because after probably 10 different mood boards I finally feel so confident in my choices and ready to add some color to our home. Our color scheme will be a base of whites, creams, light wood and neutrals with some warm tones mixed in—and a tiny bit of pickle green and mustard yellow. This palette feels like magic to me!

I waited to make any purchases or do anything with color until I had this mood board complete. If you’re interested in learning how to make a mood board, listen to this podcast episode.

I am planning to make a very white, on white … and neutral home. But I like color too! One of my favorite things in the universe is seasonal decor. So I plan to go crazy for my favorite holidays—Halloween and Christmas, as well as adding a lot of extra yellow in spring. VERY excited about that seasonal color—it makes me incredibly happy!

One more thing … let’s talk about pink.

So, I assumed years of people calling pink “millennial pink” would ruin it for me a bit. One of my least favorite nicknames ever—no *thank* you to whoever coined the term. But honestly, I still love pink. I even did a couple of my bnb makeovers using zero pink just to stretch outside my comfort zone … but I’m not over it.

Now, being on the other side of the big pink “trend” and still just loving pink, made me realize that I truly love it—no matter if it’s in style or out of style. So, while I will probably use it in small doses, it is definitely here to stay. You know, I almost had a pink wedding dress—damn! Maybe I should have!

Sources above: terrazzo, chandelier, wreath, indoor room, outdoor room, flower pillow.

Interior inspiration was the toughest one for me to make into a collage because there’s really nothing on my pin board that looks THAT much like how I’m imagining these rooms. I pride myself in doing something unique in each room, so I would never be able to use an inspiration photo too literally. But still, this is the general vibe we are going for.

That first stairway image is a HUGE inspiration. Jeremy is obsessed with this image and it’s a photo we reference over and over when we’ve been planning the flow for our addition. It’s probably the most formative inspiration photo we’ve found.

I’m loving the tone-on-tone tile with a shape that nods to the ’60s! I’m into the idea of incorporating breeze block into our outdoor, and maybe even indoor spaces. I’m VERY smitten with the idea of a sunken living room … if it’s logistically possible we will absolutely be doing this. Fingers crossed.

Sources above: one, two, three, four, five, six.

At the moment, we are so excited to move in and begin slowly decorating and making choices! I hope this post gives you a good feel for the inspiration of what we are trying to create, but it will take TIME. A lot of time. 🙂 Our last renovation took about three years and I can see this one taking that long or even a bit more.

Thank you for coming along with me on the process! I am excited to share more as we go. XX- Elsie

P.S. You can see our 2020 project list here (I’m still feeling good about completing everything on that list!) and if you have any questions (like, “why are you even moving?”) I probably answered them here. xx- Elsie