"Themes" in Your Home
Moms View Message Board: General Discussion: Archive March 2004:
"Themes" in Your Home
I was wondering what themes, if any, you have in your home. I love home interior decorating, and I would find this interesting.
Our kitchen is in a Louisiana theme as a tribute to my home state.
Our living room is decorated Oriental.
Our hall bathroom is decorated fishy-style.
Adrian's theme is Scooby Doo.
Goosie's theme is Bob the Builder.
Seth's theme is Precious Moments.
In our bedroom, we have various wall hangings and figurines depicting the sun, moon, or space.
I love having a theme to each room in the house. It just makes me feel good.
What are some of the themes you all have going?
Cute question!! The house isn't very decorated here, as far as themes go. We have the bathroom downstairs done in aquatic, and the upstairs bathroom is just beige. Our bedroom is in blue tones, supposed to be calming. The kitchen is in black and white, but I'm about to update it. The living room just has pics of the kids, "Harry" the longhorn, and a fire department blanket on the walls. The kids room and playroom are BORING!!!! I need an interior designer QUICK!!!!
Master bedroom--Has stucco aged walls in carmel with glaze finish, palm trees and plants the theme I guess is a resort feel.
Son's room--Nascar from checkboard floor to huge banners from races.
Daughter's room--very 70s. Every other wall hot pink the opposite walls purple. Very "shagadelic"
Living room/dining room and kitchen--50s/coca cola theme. We even have a diner booth, coca cola dishes, black and white tiled countertop in kitchen, etc.
Yep--I am a bit theme crazy and I absolutely love faux finishes. My office is leather faux walls.
I always say if you can't come in my house and smile than there is something really wrong with you. LOL
Yvonne
Oh yeah my kids bathroom used to be "under the sea". I painted the entire room a mural of under the sea (different fish, etc) and on the ceiling I had a fish net with critters (fake lobster etc that had been "caught"). We got a lot of compliments on that bathroom but after 5 years I toned it down and it is now a boring bathroom. It will likely be a new project when I think of something wild to do to it next.
We've decorated our house to look like it might have looked when it was built in 1927. Most of our furniture is antique or reproductions. The hardwood floors are scattered with oriental rugs. The light fixtures, lamps, wallpaper, upholstery and window treatments are what I think would have been original to a home of this era.
The kitchen has modern appliances and cabinets but we tried to find colors textures and decorations that would give it a 1920s feel.
The bathrooms have the original tile and fixtures.
Only the sun porch is modern. It's decorated with a beach theme, with wicker furniture, seascape paintings, seashells and coral everywhere, and our collection of lighthouses.
Bea,
Is that a Hoover cabinet I see? I love those!
Your house looks very nice. Thank you for sharing your pictures!
I love antiques and collect old trunks. Our bedroom set is a maple set that was my husbands grandmothers. I believe it is from the 20's. I also collect art deco jewelry so that era is a favorite of mine.
Yvonne
Bea,
I just read your bio and you said you collect depression glass. What kind? I have my mothers entire set of Pink Decagon Cambridge dishes. They are my "china".
Amy,
I am interested as to what a Louisina theme is?
Man i wish i could do themes!! I am still trying to get my husbands JUNK out so i can get everything organized, lol. So far i got the bathroom in lighthouses and my ds has planes and jets. My dd is in the process of picking something new from her baby stuff ( she is 8). And the rest of my house is antique coca cola and i hate that, My dh collects it and it is EVERYWHERE. I am trying to push it to the kitchen only, i can handle that. WE have all coca cola dining stuff, plates, silverware, glasses, etc... so it can stay in the kitchen. I haven't decided yet what to do once i get it out but maybe everyone will give me some ideas too!
I love this!
Yvonne, Louisiana is known for many things, but mainly for its Cajun culture, Mardi Gras, and New Orleans. I have just started on this theme since our house burned down a few months ago. I have a few wall decorations of cajun cuisine like crawfish, red beans, etc. I also have several pot holders over my cabinets, each with a Cajun recipe imprinted on it. I have little figurines on the window sills of crocodiles, common in the swamps of Louisiana. Etc...
Crystal, your bedroom sounds so nice...I've always wanted a "calming" theme in our bedroom.
Yvonne, all I can say is "I wish!" Your home sounds beautiful! And fun! If you ever wanted to post pictures, I would love to see.
Bea, of course you know I would die to have a house like yours. The time you've spent on it truly has paid off. It's gorgeous!
Kenna, LOL about the Coca-Cola theme! And I like your theme of lighthouses, that's an idea for me for the future.
Family Room - Lighthouses (yes, I collect them!)
Kitchen - Patriotic theme, I don't know how I arrived at this one, we have the tiniest kitchen in the world! We didn't have much money and the walls were paneling, so I painted them this midnight blue, it's not quite that dark, but it really looked nice against the natural woodwork. So I started adding things we had (dh was in the Navy and very patriotic, so I started placing a lot of reds and creams in with it. I really enjoy the kitchen!
Living/Dining Room looks like something from the 20', it's in a burgundy color. And we have most of our "antiques" in these rooms that we have acquired from loved ones.
Oldes dd's bedroom is a garden theme.
dds bathroom - tropical
youngest dd's bedroom is being worked on as an underwater theme.
Office/extra bedroom is country themed.
Laundry room - laundry room theme (didn't know what else to do and the least favorite room of the house)
Our bedroom and bath - no theme, I'd love to redo it, but I want to get carpet When we built on, dh talked me into getting light mauve carpet (it gets dirty to quickly) and very light pink walls. That's been 11 years ago, I'm getting tired of it!
Amy, I'd love to see a pic of your kitchen!
Bea, I would love my bedroom in that style! Your house is so beautiful;)
Well, my house seems to always be a work in progress........X and I bought it *way back* when we were married and there was brown everywhere....for the past 12 years I've been trying to get rid of anything that remotedly reminded me of him! LOL
It's really a hodge-podge of stuff, everything seems to be mixed....
My kitchen and my bedroom and bathroom are beach themed - shell wall paper in the kitchen and my bath. My b/r has purple mauve walls and a shell comforter set. I just printed some of my best beach and sunset photos and framed them in black frames with matting, which contrast nicely with the purple mauve and light furniture.
The kids bath is in rose/sage greens, and is floral....it's also the *guest* bath. I just printed and framed some of my pics that are in there also.
Jeff's room is a jungle.....dark green walls, leopard comforter, etc. Outdated I know, but he likes it...
Jen's room has red walls and is sort of retro - bright tie died comforter, etc. with blac shelves, etc.
Our den and dining room don't have theme yet, really. The furniture is light wood and lots of blues, tons of pics of the kids and various Mardi Gras posters. We have started accumulating *New Orleans* art work and are going to have to decide which room it will all go in.
I have a 4th b/r which I want to make into my office and do in black/white/taupe and hang black and white paintings/pics in.
My house, boring. White walls almost every where. Last weekend we painted the family room. The wall with the fireplace has a very dark green color and the rest of the walls are a golden color. It's very warm in there now. My dd's room is purple, no theme. My ds's room is a very pale yellow, theme is cars, trucks, planes, trains....primary colors. It's cute. Everything else is neutral colors.
My house is a expanded cape and I decorate all of if in a New England countryish style - kind of "shabby chic".
Decorating...mmmmmmmnnnnnnn.....I love this..!!
We have been so poor since we married...so our furniture is very cheap and thrown together. Nothing really matches....oh well.
These last 2 years we have bought a beautiful pine armoire for our coats and stuff, and a kind of matching armoire for our computer(don't know why we bothered-it's always open and messy!LOL).
My style would probably be defined as "shabby zen".I love the pinks and creams and old stuff of 'shabby chic'-but I hate too much clutter. I love the 'zen' look. So I kind of combine the two.
I love lots of natural wood...especially pine...I love antiques(we have an incredible art deco bar that lights up when you open it!)
When we move into our new house we will putting in wood floors...I want to do my kitchen in a kind of "italian bistro" style-don't know exactly how to describe it-but I want shelves on my kitchen wall and I want to have a lot of italian food products on it...like a lineup of Pelegrino or cans of italian tomatos(some of them have incredible labels on them.....basically I will be 'decorating on the cheap' with products that I normally use in cooking anyways....but other than that I don't know how else to decorate it...
We have a gross pink bathroom with all pink fixtures and tiles....I think I will 'shabby chic' it by putting beautiful pink chintz rose wallpaper on one wall...painting the other walls a really great pink colour...then put in a lot of black wrought iron stuff and maybe some twig stuff.Maybe I will 'masculine' it up a bit by putting in chocolate brown towels. Then I will throw in some cute antique type stuff(I have an antique sugar and creamer that are cream coloured with pink cherry blossoms on them-I might put q-tips and cotton balls in them)......
Might have to fight with dh over this girly bathroom!
fiona
No themes here. Hardwoods throughout the house, with oak and hunter green with splashes of burgundy in the kitchen and family room. Technically I might get away with saying the family room is 'book themed' as I have old books on the fireplace mantle and on various decorative shelves and they, plus brass candlesticks, are my decorations.
The three bedrooms we use as bedrooms are all pale pink with Queen Anne style cherry furniture and four poster beds. (Well, as of this moment one bedroom has a cherry canopy crib, but the BIG GIRL BED is coming!!) Both girls' rooms have white eyelet bedding and curtains while our room is a floral mauve pattern.
I don't like my living room. It has a pale blue area rug over the hardwoods, and Queen Anne cherry tables and piano, and a mahogany organ. The furniture is blue/mauve/sage green floral print with a solid wedgewood blue Queen Anne chair. It's very boring, but I haven't figured out what, exactly, is wrong with it. I think it's the lack of interesting pictures on the walls.
The computer room and dining room are worst of all. Dining room is a very visible playroom with original green and cream wallpaper, and the computer room is BRIGHT YELLOW (I hate yellow) with cheap, fake oak desks and a wrought iron white daybed.
Have I bored you all enough??
I'm so jealous of those of you who have any kind of decorating sense!!! Bea, pictures of your house are always a treat to see!!! Amy, don't be jealous, it's not actually a theme or even a well put together scheme, just blue and cream linens, and the computer desk is next to my bed because that was the only place TW cable would hook the modem up. Anyone want to come decorate my place?!
We really don't have many themes. Just color schemes.
Our living room is blue, pale yellow, and sage with light oak tables, frames etc.
Kitchen is white with oak cabinets. We switch out the decor in the kitchen quite a bit to change it up. Currently it has a sage and yellow theme going on.
Dining room is light oak table with pictures on the walls.
Family room is plaids. Dark green, burgandy, navy blue and cream. Coordinating wall pictures. Dark wood entertainment center and computer armoire (which, as some one mentioned above, is always opened and a mess....unless company is coming!)
Girls bedroom is light purple, light pink and pale yellow. Flower/heart theme. White bunk beds, shelves and frames.
DS's room is still a work in progress....I can't find a comforter set that I love. He has scooby doo sheets, that's about as far as the theme goes in his room LOL
Kids bathroom is light blue with a "bath" theme. They have a wall board in there that says "Splish Splash I Was Taking A Bath". Coordinating towels and rugs.
Our bedroom is sage and light blue. Medium colored wood. Bathroom is the same.
Laundry room has no theme. Just a bunch of laundry 
This was a fun question!
I forgot to mention our basement. It is a concrete theme. Some 2x4's scattered throughout and some pipes here and there. Boxes line one of the walls in a very pretty fashion. Very modern! ;)
LOL Mommyathome!! Our bedroom could be called a combination "dirty laundry/dusty remote controls" kind of theme...... dh's dirty clothes lining the bed and floor-plus several remote controls always lost among the unmade bed. The focal point would be the beautiful black and dusty large screen t.v... complete with a soccer game to add some visual impact to the room....
fiona
LOL This is fun. Come on Gals! Show us some pictures. It sounds fascinating.
I never have the money to do what I want...Sigh...
We have a full size basement that runs the full length of the house, awsome for parties and such. But my husband has taken over with a big screen and guitar pictures, then of course the kids have added their touch, toys, toys, and more toys. The laundry room is a room under the steps that leads to a band room with carpet for walls and ceilings, it's really pretty...HA.
The Kitchen I couldn't decide what to do because I can't really change it ($$). It has electric blue counter tops and a bright red floor with blues and reds it's the first thing people notice when they walk in the kitchen..they always say how neat it is. I have shelfs everywhere and I kind of went for the cluttered thing. The shelves are covered in antique toys, old glass milk jars, etc. Around the top of my cabinet I have my great great Aunte Stella's cookie cutters, they are from the turn of the century and they run all around the top of the cabinet. I have a wall with cross stitch, old cross stitch, new cross stitch you name it. I have an old radio flyer sled on the wall with black and white pictures of snow days from when my DH and I were kids, it also has hats my grandmother made for my dad when he was a baby.
The living room is everything my mother gave me that she had in her living room before she redecorated. It's not really my color but a lot of nice oak tables.
The boys rooms are "bugs" and "camping". I can't find comforters I like that are under $400 (like I would spend for a kids room) so my mother and I are making some.
My room, please I haven't gotten there yet. I have a beautiful amish wedding ring quilt I got for our wedding with reds and blues and would like to do something with it but who knows if I'll get to it before the kids grow up.
The bathroom is "dragonflies and leaves" and the boys bathroom is "fish".
Lets see. Our living room is sage green. I have greens, reds and taupes in that room. Our dining room is the same sage green and I added creams since my dining room chairs had cream colored cushions. My style in these rooms, along with my kitchen/family room is a contemporary-french. All the wood in my living and dining room is a rich antique honey color. I then added black accents with pictrue frames and decorative stuff because my family room has black coffee and end tables. I wanted it all to flow. I really like the way the dining room came out. It looks really elegant with the cream and black accents. Our kitchen is painted red with a taupe glaze finish. It is open to our family room which is painted taupe. I have red/taupe/cream striped curtains throughout the kitchen and family room. Our sofa and loveseat is taupe and I have pillow in the same stripe as the curtain along with some red ones. I also added a little green to tie it all together.
Upstairs we have a playroom. It was painted bright blue with a jungle border. We left it and then I recently added a jungle mural that I bought on-line. It covers one wall. I then bought a thick rope and added artificial leafs to make it look like a vine. I hung it from the celing with some of my dks stuffed monkeys. I also stamped animal footprints around the doors and windows.
My oldest ds has a sprorts room. He has a quilt with several sports patches. It has a green and blue stripe along the edge, so I painted matching stripes along the top of his wall. He has a baseball fan and then baseball pennants covering one wall. My dh found some neat baseball hooks and put them on another wall, so he can hang his baseball caps. Can you tell his favorite sport??
My youngest has a Thomas the Tank Engine room. He has the bedding and border. I also bought the Thomas wall decals and did a Thomas scene above his bed.
The master bedroom was painted the same sage as our living/dining room with a mustard colored sitting room off it. I loved the colors and didn't want to paint over it, so I got a new quilt with sage, mustard and a kind of burgandy color. It worked out great because I had some burgandy chairs from our old house that I used in the sitting room. Our bedroom has kind of a country feel.
We finally finished the decorating last weekend. Not bad since we just moved in December. Now, we are thinking about finishing the basement.
Nope, not much of a decorator here. Sorry.
I am cracking up at Robin and Feona!
Well, we have just finished decorating, to some extent, every room in our house except for the 2 bathrooms. I love to decorate!! For those of you who say you don't have the money (we don't either) I promise a can of paint and a couple of pillows or accessories can make a huge difference. We have been married 13.5 years and still have all hand-me-down or homemade furniture except for 1 sofa and a rocking chair. I am coming to love our mish-mash eclectic style though
MBR--bed and breakfast feel, sort of Country Frence. Medium blue on lighter blue rag rolled walls with a blue and yellow scrappy Yellow Brick Road quilt I made. My grandparents' antique Queen Anne bedroom suite. Focal points are a huge framed Picasso print and a beautiful Monet print framed inside an old window I found--looks like we are looking out on the French countryside. Lots of candles, with some photos, flowers, and books for accessories.
Oldest DS' room--based on an abstract painting he did--very geometric with triangles, square, rectangles separated by black with bold colors (similar to Mondrian's art). I painted one whole wall to replicate his painting (other walls are a pretty green) and made him a quilt like it with greens, purple, red, burgandy, blue, white, yellow, and orange. He has mission style furniture made by FIL. I painted it black and put chrome knobs on it and got him a chrome bookshelf. Very cool and modern looking.
Youngest DS' room--One whole wall is decopauged in vintage Spiderman comic pages and the other 3 walls are painted a bright "comic book" blue. Furniture is painted red or black. I made a red, blue, black quilt for his bed--a day bed--and bought red pillows for the back and SPiderman toss pillows so it really looks like a couch during the day. His room is very small so DH made a desk that folds into the wall and acts as a display shelf and can be pulled down into a desk.
Living room--library theme since we have tons of books in there. Medium grey walls with Duncan-Phyfe sofa, 2 barrel tables, and 2 Queen Anne chairs, all of which will ultimately be recovered to make them more casual looking.
Kitchen and Den--Mary Englebreit-like, comfy, casual, shabby chic...an explosion of color. Yellow walls with beadboard below a white chairrail. Armoire is red, small dresser acting as a side table is green, leather sofa is navy. Lots of antique coke signs and trays hanging on the wall, as well as coke bottles in several different languages. Window seat covered in a quilt and holding lots of pillows. Still need to paint the kitchen cabinets white. Red bookshelf in kitchen with bookbooks and lots of Mary Engelbreit knick-knacks...same for kitchen windowsill.
Study has been painted burgandy and FIL made 2 computer tables which need to be stained. they'll be stained dark. This is the one room DH has total decorating control in, so not sure how it will ultimately evolve. He's been looking at a lot of Pottery barn catalogs though.
So far hall bathroom is going to be really modern and masculine (since I have 2 boys). I have a burgandy, green, and gold striped shower curtain. Think I will do the walls in a terra cotta colored venetian plaster treatment. I plan to carry the B&B spa feel into the master bath when I get to it.
I love decorating, too. We've been in this house for 3 years now and I just do a little bit at a time. So far these are the rooms I have worked on:
Family Room-hunter green, dark blue and tan with a few sunflowers thrown in for some color. The walls needed to be repainted soon-they are white now-not sure if I want a different color.
Kitchen-Blue, green and cream-I just stenciled an olive branch border around the room near the ceiling-so it is sort of an italian theme. I'm still working on adding the accesories.
The girls bedroom is transitioning from Barbie themed to Disney Princesses-it is pink, purple and light yellow.
Master Bedroom-Wine colored walls, white bedding, and sage, wine and tan pillows, curtains-my favorite room in the house. This was my first real attempt at decorating and I am so happy with the results. The master bath is mostly white, with sage colored accents. We just finished re-doing this bathroom almost completely by ourselves. My DH did an amazing job!
Right now we are working on re-doing the girls'/guest bathroom. I chose a pink toile fabric for the bottom of the shower curtain and the curtains. The rest of the shower curtain is a white creamy color and I am going to attach small ribbon roses to it. The tub and sinks are almost a brown color so I'm trying to keep everything else pretty light.
The rest of the rooms in our house are in the process of being redecorated or planned. I like to have a couple projects thought out ahead of time incase I see any good deals why I am out shopping for fabric or whatever.
I was thinking about this again and both of my kids sort of have a retro thing going on in their rooms with lots of bright colors.
In my room, I have a sunflower print bedspread and matching valances. Wanted the curtains, too, but Domestications discontinued the design before I got a chance to buy them.
I would like to take pictures, but as usual Dh has the digital camera. Even though he has 2 fancy digital cameras that work provided for him.
Yvonne, yes it's a Hoosier cabinet. It's missing the roll down front, but that was perfect for us, since we wanted to put the microwave in there. I collect pressed glass and crystal candlesticks and depression pressed glass dresser sets.
I LOVE anything country.
My kitchen is country all the way. My living room is as well. I LOVE blue and mauve.
But my bathroom is tearose. The border in my bathroom has tearose, light blue and seafoam green.
The only rooms in our house that really have a theme are the kitchen which is in Apples and the kids bathroom which is in Pooh. The rest of the house is just a lived in country/americana/military theme. This kids are still sharing a room because we have bunkbeds so they really don't have a theme in the sleeping room. Dd has Dora on her bed and Ds has Spiderman. And the play room, well its just that a play room.
Your themes all sound beautiful and Bea your pics are awesome!
We just moved into our house last Nov and unfortunately, no themes in any room yet since we havent had the extra money to do so. But I can't wait! I am so sick of plain white walls!
I love the old country victorian theme and would love to do that theme in my home.
Well, I lied.. my ds does have nascar curtains and bedspread so I guess he has that theme.
My living room, dining room and kitchen are all one big open room so they have about the same theme in there which is country. My border has covered brideges, a farm housew/barn, deers and an antique car.We live in the country but, the town that's near us has a covered bride so this is the local theme.I have lots of family pictures through out the house. My first bathroom is done with out houses on the border and the country theme. My master bathroom has a more feminime theme. Mine and the DH's bedroom is antique blues and family pitures. Oldest DD has a couple themes going- the sun/moon theme for her bed and cutains and her border is like paint swipes of pastel colors. She loves horses so she has lots of horse stuff all around on shelves.
The youngest has a horse border and has her horse collection going also all around on her shelves. She also has lots of disney stuff left from when they were both babies and that was the theme I had. I have a playroom for the daycare that is done in ABC/123 stuff and lots of disney stuff. I have one wall of nothing but, pictures Iv taken of all the kids Iv watched in the last 12 1/2 years.
The basement is the DH's and it has a sport theme of Notre Dame, Dallas Cowboys, and Louisville Cardinals. He has lots of memorabila stuff all over down there.
I really like the Modern Country look so thats what im trying to acheive for my living room.
The kitchen is sunflowers and blue/white checkers,
Kaitlyns room is Precious Moments,
the downstairs bathroom is yourtypical "american" military bathroom,
upstairs bathroom is blue with wolves and eagles (DHs idea)
and our room is not really much yet. Im starting on redecorating it and dont have a clue as to what I want yet.
Bea I love your Hoosier! I have one too, a gift from dh when I was pregnant with ds.
I decorate in a country/ retro look. I love old tablecloths, advertising items, depression glass,etc. My mbedroom is retro/floral. The kids are Thomas the Tank Engine and girly floral but both the girls want to redecorate in polka dots (yikes) and moon and stars. My summer projects!!
The master bedroom is a sage green
My DD room I painted as a garden with the sky on the ceiling and flowers all around and over her bed I have the night sky with the moon and stars.
The guest bathroom is lighjt purple.
That room sounds fantastic, Rayanne. Won't someone please post pictures? I'd love to see these rooms.
KITCHEN: Italian bistro
DINING ROOM: Stained oak with wrought iron detailing and accessories. The wrought iron is an extention of the Italian bistro theme in the kitchen, so that the "feel" blends from one to the other, but unlike the kitchen there's no specific theme -- just the wrought iron -- because the living room then has to blend in to the living room on the opposite side.
LIVING ROOM: Cats (paintings -- I collect cat paintings)
BATHROOM: Haven't decided yet. I don't want to go with the usual water themes, I want it to be different.
BEDROOM: Local country landscapes (again, I collect landscape paintings featuring local farm and Amish scenes).
Cheekymama....I want to hear more about your Italian Bistro kitchen.
The kitchen in my new house is white walls and ugly 70s brown wooden cabinets. It will be the last room in the house that we redecorate so I would like to do a "quick fix" for now... We don't have a lot of money to play around with so I thought I would just paint all the cabinets cream(same as the fridge and stove)...then do a kind of bistro theme.I was just going to buy a lot of Italian foods(which we use a lot of anyways)and kind of decorate with that in mind...(a shelf with really nice olive oil cans and balsamic vinegars etc..big jars of really neat pastas..etc.)
In my mind I can see a "bistro theme" but when I really try to decipher what it means to me-I just see a bunch of pasta and oil and vinegar sitting on my counter!
I tried to find some stuff on the internet describing the "bistro theme" but can't find anything!
I would love some decorating help here!
I don't so much want a rustic look...I'm thinking more of the sleek,modern Italian cafes I used to go to when I lived in an Italian district years ago in Vancouver....but it seems to me that they used a lot of Italian flag colours(red green white)... I don't want an Italian flag in my kitchen-that's for sure!
fiona
Thank you Bea As soon as I get some pics. on my digital, I will attempt to put them on.
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