color + pattern.

i' ve been going stir crazy in a weird way recently... wanting to rearrange all the furniture, paint things, hang more things on the walls, and i think it's coming down to the fact that our living room currently looks like this:

neutral. blank. plain. boring, honestly.

we live in a rental, so i don't feel comfortable busting out a wild paint color for the walls, so i've turned into this little squirrel, running around moving things from room to room. i've gone a little crazy spray painting a few random things, am working on re-upholstering a bench for the dining room, and we even painted the dining room chairs green. i had my hubby build us a small bookshelf that i promptly painted bright orange [photos to come!].

though i think neutral can be done artfully and beautifully well, i guess it just feels strange to live in tan-ville when what really inspires me is color! pattern! stripes and prints! how can i get rid of all the solid browns and blacks? i want things to [gasp!] not match as much. i want a little more of this:

[photos via red shoes]

i love how multiple walls are not only painted multiple different [bold!] colors in that kitchen photo, but also there's a wall of patterned wallpaper too! [photos via anna maria horner]

so in that vein, today i broke down and bought a yard of joel dewberry's orange damask fabric [which i've been stalking for months ]with a specific project in mind:
and i think when i finally get my little world all colored/patterned/printed up, i will wish i was wearing something like this with my perpetual tshirt and jeans!