start with art, inspiration: hijirik's live what you love

I'm starting a new column here at Art Wall to keep me inspired. I like regular columns because they are clear taskes to keep me focused. I really like putting elements of a room together in 2-D so I thought I'd design a room around an art piece.

This room is inspired by Hikirik's Live What You Love letterpress piece. My favorite of Hikiri's pieces are the large poster-sized pieces but I was more inspired by the baby blue color in the smaller print for today's room. I found fun pillows that coordinated color-wise and went from there. This room is designed for a fun young family that needs a dark colored couch but didn't want to settle for brown. The pillows had lots of great colors to work with so I kept the color palette open, which can be harder to pull off but makes for a more unique and eclectic room.

1) I'm really into navy right now. This Crate and Barrel sofa is a great investment at $1,269.00

2) I've been obsessed with this trellis/lattice print for the last five years. I saw it first by designer Lulu DK (at about $100/yard) and spotted a very similar pattern on a great quality fabric here for $9.99/yard. I would use this to make drapes. (estimate: 4 panels @ 5 yards per= $200.00) Side note: I used this fabric for (lined) drapes in my own home and found the quality/weight perfect for this use.

3) Although I left these pillows out of my top 12 list from yesterday, I really love this pattern and all the colors gave me a lot to work with in the room. $185.00/pair.

4) I adore pairs of vintage chairs in a room. They make things interesting and these chairs definitely shake things up a bit and add some pizazz. These are a splurge at $1995/2 but could be used as inspiration to find something local with a similar feel that would be easier on the pocketbook.

5) This little accent table for $99.95 would ease the pain of the budget-buster chairs a bit.

6) Another penny-pincher, an 8x10 West Elm rug for $495.00 in the best pattern.

7) For a mantle or shelf (to keep away from little hands) these ginger jars are nicely priced at $39.48.

8) I've always loved the CB2 Peekaboo clear coffee table. Not as hard (or sharp) as glass, and without any sharp corners. Perfect for little guys to run around safely. $249.00

9) I would never stop at just 2 pillows and would love to keep going after three, but for the sake of time and coding, I picked this chartreuse printed pillow to bring out the green in the dragons. $55.00.

Grand total with chairs: $4599.93, without chairs: $2604.93.