Mena house decorating in the U.S??

[Aymsgirl 0]

Nawal...post the pics!! I love lights! Your deco sounds cool!! We are going to be moving and I thought of painting the kitchen like a burnt red and a cozy goldish country yellow...what do you think? It's a nice sized kitchen and I will make a sitting area to the back of it with wooden wicker and rod chairs and a little lamp. I want to put my computer in one of those enclosed cabinets so it will kind of be hidden. What are your thoughts on the kitchen colors?

[nunyab 0]

AWwwwww Nawal that is so sweet mashallah all that pretty lights and decoration for your husband's birthday. why not? lol

i have to tell you all something!

I found a computer desk the perfect size i needed in the dumpster area....imagine this: 7 am muslimah sister goes out spots a find... looks left, looks right and slowly slowly approaches the dumpster and beems with her most recent find. Then looks left and right and quckly walks her new find accross the parking lot and down her stairs into her appartment. Why do I feel like a squirrl???

You are like me...If I see something out on "trash" day in our development I'm always running as if someone is going to yell at me as I'm hoisting it into my jeep! As my grams says: One mans trash is another mans treasure! So true!

I knoooooooowwww I don't know why i feel like I have to sneak. and then after i am so proud of my find.

Nawal...post the pics!! I love lights! Your deco sounds cool!! We are going to be moving and I thought of painting the kitchen like a burnt red and a cozy goldish country yellow...what do you think? It's a nice sized kitchen and I will make a sitting area to the back of it with wooden wicker and rod chairs and a little lamp. I want to put my computer in one of those enclosed cabinets so it will kind of be hidden. What are your thoughts on the kitchen colors?

I'm not Nawal but i have to say I love the burnt Orange i went with i went Red and burnt orange but a blue red.... love it and toned down with dark blue......this is the first time in my life i have had so much fun with colors. I say GO FOR IT!

[Nothing1234 2]

Nawal...post the pics!! I love lights! Your deco sounds cool!! We are going to be moving and I thought of painting the kitchen like a burnt red and a cozy goldish country yellow...what do you think? It's a nice sized kitchen and I will make a sitting area to the back of it with wooden wicker and rod chairs and a little lamp. I want to put my computer in one of those enclosed cabinets so it will kind of be hidden. What are your thoughts on the kitchen colors?

Tasha, The colors sound awesome! I think it sounds so cozy and will make your kitchen so inviting! The sitting area makes me want to come over and hang out with you and chill out w/ some tea! I think putting the computer up is a great idea too! My gf has her computer in the closed cabinet as well and its so nice when you have company to just close it up and it all looks so neat!

[Y's_habibitk 2]

Rajaa, i thought of this thread today..i was at the market and saw some business card for " road to morroco" morrocan designs and furnishings.

It was on my way to mom's so i stopped in....awesome stuff, but wow, it was super expensive. The guy said you are the first customer(it was 4:30pm, poor guy) so anything you put your hands on, i will make you a deal lol

"we have these rugs, they were 1000, but they are 50% off" ya guy, i have 500 bucks to drop HA!

anyway, they had rugs and poufs and lamps and such.. I really amlooking for some arabic seating, I think im going to have to make my own <--NOT a seamstress lol

just thought i'd share heh heh

[Aymsgirl 0]

I painted some yesterday in the kids rooms. In my daughters room she has two pink walls and two brown walls. She is getting a new comforter set for Xmas that is kind of trendy with the different colored circles in it and wanted pink and brown walls. My son wants a camo room and I am not happy about it. I painted the base brown for it and will try and finish it up next weekend.

I am still thinking about the burnt red color for the kitchen. I think it would be nice and cozy too. Maybe one day Annie you can actually get to have some tea in my little cozy house!

Rajaa..is there a TJ Max or Pier 1 around you? I have love looking around at those places for deco.

Edited December 14, 2008 by Aymsgirl

[nunyab 0]

Rajaa, i thought of this thread today..i was at the market and saw some business card for " road to morroco" morrocan designs and furnishings.

It was on my way to mom's so i stopped in....awesome stuff, but wow, it was super expensive. The guy said you are the first customer(it was 4:30pm, poor guy) so anything you put your hands on, i will make you a deal lol

"we have these rugs, they were 1000, but they are 50% off" ya guy, i have 500 bucks to drop HA!

anyway, they had rugs and poufs and lamps and such.. I really amlooking for some arabic seating, I think im going to have to make my own <--NOT a seamstress lol

just thought i'd share heh heh

thanks... just imagine the money we could make importing from our husband's country huh???? geez i am sure he has overhead and all but $1,000?????

does he have a website?

I painted some yesterday in the kids rooms. In my daughters room she has two pink walls and two brown walls. She is getting a new comforter set for Xmas that is kind of trendy with the different colored circles in it and wanted pink and brown walls. My son wants a camo room and I am not happy about it. I painted the base brown for it and will try and finish it up next weekend.

I am still thinking about the burnt red color for the kitchen. I think it would be nice and cozy too. Maybe one day Annie you can actually get to have some tea in my little cozy house!

Rajaa..is there a TJ Max or Pier 1 around you? I have love looking around at those places for deco.

yesssssss i love those places and world imports.but they're kind of spendy

[Y's_habibitk 2]

i didnt look for a website rajaa, but he may. road to morroco is the name of the store..its in louisville

ya, i asked him if he makes trips to pick things out or what...he has a broker and he just picks from a list and then everything is insured and all. he buys by the container.

business ideas are popping into my head, but the fact that i was the first customer on a saturday at 430 is scary

[sereia 0]

there's tons of sites like that online, rajaa. just google it and you'll find tons of moroccan imports to buy online!

[nunyab 0]

yeah the best import is my husband and his family

[Y's_habibitk 2]

yeah the best import is my husband and his family

totally!

i got some handmade pali pillows while i was there in jordan..well i wanted some more and i thought i would take a peek onlline....80 bucks!?

So, my husband is on a mission to find some similar to the ones we bought there(10-12jd's) and will send them, or bring them with

You can put that on his resume when he gets here rajaa...self employed import/export lol

[nunyab 0]

That's an awesome idea... gotta make that resume' sparkle

[nunyab 0]

ok so update got the chair but it's in black the orange cost $50 more and got burnt orange curtains instead to cover the sliding door blinds.

[MrsAmera 41]

The thread has been rescued!!

So my plan is a big one and I'm sure it's going to take me all of the weekend to get through. Soooo here goes:

Bedroom:

Hang curtains over windows (we have floor to ceiling windows with mini blinds that I hate). I have to actually use and/or buy these....

Make bed canopy (I posted the link to the design I'm going to use in the Thursday thread). I'm thinking this is going to be relatively easy aside from hanging the two pieces from the ceiling...

Master closet - we have a large walk in closet that really is our only decent storage space in the apartment. Sooo it has totes, clothes, suitcases and laundry. We have a friend with a house so the totes are going to her basement. Then I plan to hang a curtain in the back 3' of the closet to cordon it off. I am going to put in a fold down ironing board on the wall and put in a dirty clothes sorter. Both sides currently have a rod that goes the length of the closet with a shelf on top. I plan to hang another curtain on tension rods on each side to sort of "hide" our clothes and other things stored in that part of the closet. I am also moving my bookcase into the bedroom and possibly recovering the side tables and getting new bedside lamps.

Bathroom

In the bathroom I plan to put a removable tiling over our existing cruddy 1x1" white dingy tiled floor (gotta love rentals). Our under sink area is fully exposed so I plan to use a tension rod and curtain again to close this area off.

Living room

One of our walls has 2 sliding patio doors. I am going to hang curtains again from the ceilings to cover these up. (We have plaster walls so getting anything to stick in them is a nightmare)

I am making pillowcases to redo all of my pillows and some artwork to add to the walls (in frames of course).

Kitchen

The biggest kitchen issue is space. I am going through all the cupboards and throwing/giving away what we don't use. I also am getting a magnetic strip to put all our bigger knives on so they free up drawer space. I'm also considering hanging the pots and pans on the wall on hooks to empty one of my cabinets for more free space.

Boys Bedroom

This is the biggest challenge. Right now they have a toddler bed and a crib in a pretty small room. I am going to empty out their closet, sorting out all the clothes and packing away what I can and getting rid of the rest. I am also going through all the toys and purging the ones that are half missing, broken or not played with. They have plenty of closet space it just is not efficient right now. I plan to build on one side a small desk for Mikhail. It will be built in and have organization spaces on the walls for all of his "supplies". I am hoping this gives him some seperation from his brother. I'm also considering getting him a twin loft bed, creating more floor space, just not sure if he's big enough for that yet.

So that's the grand plan. We'll see how much I can manage to get done! I'll do before and after pics for sure!

[caybee 21]

Yay for more decorating!

We're moving into a larger apartment starting next week, so we're really starting to think about this. Our sofa and chair are older than I am. My husband isn't fond of them, but they're solid. They do need more padding, and the slipcovers are a faded floral that my mom made. I've ordered slipcovers for them in garnet. I'm thinking of tacking or stapling mattress toppers over the backs and under the seat cushions, and something similar over the arms, as well as adding batting to the cushions before adding the new covers. Good replacement cushions are so terribly expensive! My husband wants to put those two pieces in the spare room and get something new, but if I can make them look and feel good, he may hold off. If I can find (or make) some large, square pillows to put across the back and against the arms, big and solid enough to toss down on the floor to sit on, that may take care of it. My other wishes for that room are a glass-doored china cabinet to keep our breakables away from the cats, and some floor lamps. My husband's mom may visit in a few months, and he wants her to bring us some "real" pouffes (guess my old Turkish one doesn't count!). And I think my husband has just about decided he needs a hookah to take out on the balcony and make an impression on the neighbor lady across the way. We'll have sliding doors, and I don't want to block the light with heavy curtains, but I do want some color there. My husband's keyboard will go in one corner, probably with my cello (gah! that will mean I have to do something with it!). And that will do it for that room, except for stuff to hang on the walls (I always forget that part!) and a carpet of some kind. This will really be the first time I've made a conscious effort to decorate, so we'll see.

The other ongoing project is clutter control and mending my packrat ways. Lots of paper to shred, and a lot of old VHS tapes. My parents just got a DVD burner to copy their old tapes, and I plan to borrow that for a while and then dump the tapes altogether. Oh, and I don't even want to think about the boxes of National Geographic dating back to the '60s! Hubby thinks we can sell them. I'll give it a shot, but I think we may end up passing them off to Goodwill or to a teacher/homeschooler to be cut up for projects.

I do love coming here and hearing all the great ideas!

[Staashi 371]

Y'all - I posted this in the Thursday Thread but here you go:

For those of you getting the decorating bug, last night at Target they had some totally awesome pieces in their seasonal part of the store. I swear I was ready to throw even the baby out with the bath water and start all over again in decorating my house. Too, too COOL!!!!

Caybee - try to put the NG mags on ebay.