Talk about a couple with contrasting style!

In looking through last week’s NY Times House & Garden section, the biggest thing that struck me about this story (besides how cute the cottage is in general), is the extreme difference in this couple’s actual house (decorated “man-style”) and the wife’s little Victorian cottage escape up the hill.  She accurately describes their marriage as a tale of two cities.  When you see these pics, you definitely understand what she means!  (In my head, I’m hearing Paula Abdul’s “Opposites Attract” playing right now.)

The couple’s trailer that they live in together.

The wife’s little Victorian cottage escape on the other side of their yard.  It doesn’t have a kitchen or a bathroom.

The inside of their trailer.  Decorated in the husband’s “man-cave” style.

All white cottage style.

Thankfully, Nick and I have very smiliar style.  I don’t know that I’d be able to be as patient as this lovely little lady with the trailer living situation.  I find it to be very visually interesting in a photograph, but not something I could live in on a regular basis.  Read the entire article here.  It’s very interesting and worth the click!

Overly photoshopped MLS pics + Happy July 4th Weekend!

There’s not much that makes me laugh more than frightening interior pictures of a house listed for sale.  Hooked on Houses does a great job showcasing these, in fact.  However, the following house isn’t terribly decorated so much as the images have been photoshopped to the point of looking like a Disney cartoon.  It doesn’t help that the house’s style is “castle.”  Every girl who dreams of being a princess, can now have her dream home.  For only $2.67 million.

Check out all the pics at Huffington Post.  Oh, and while you’re laughing…don’t forget to have a Happy Fourth of July weekend!!

I have a blog crush…

on Layla and Kevin from The Lettered Cottage.  Apparently many of you already know them considering they have over 2000 followers, but I just discovered them from their house tour on Apartment Therapy.   So late to the game I am!  (Wait?  Why am I speaking like Yoda today?)

Anyways…this video of their recent ceiling demolition cemented my new love for this Alabama couple.  Ch-ch-check it out!

New banner illustration from Lauren Pope (Lavatican) on Etsy!

So I don’t have much time this morning to write this post (it looks like I’m going to be late for work again), so I’ll come back and update it later tonight…but I’m thrilled to have worked with Lauren Pope to create an illustrated banner for the blog!  She did an amazing job and was the best to work with.  Our original design (shown below) didn’t really end up working with the proportions of the blog (big lesson learned for both of us!), so she quickly photoshopped a previous sketched idea she’d had for the one you see above.

I can’t tell you what a wonderful person Lauren was to work with!  And I hope anyone who wants any artwork or illustration done will head over to her Etsy Store and show her the love.  She’s absolutely wonderful.    (And obviously ridiculously talented!)   Thanks again Lauren!!!!!!!

International Chapter of the Junior Society

I’m so loving this blog!  A co-worker of mine just turned me onto it yesterday, and I’ve been sitting here this morning digging through their archives.   Everything is SO adorable!  Yes, it is geared towards kids (or people with kids), but I think anyone can appreciate their aesthetic and the things they post about.   It was hard to pick just a few things to show, but here are the two that were just too fun to not re-post!

How much fun do you think it would be to create a BRAIN jello mold for your kids?!  OMG, I want to make one for the people at the office!  Ha!  Well, if you head over to their site, you’ll see their other ideas for creating a Mad Scientist party for your kids!!

Another post I really liked involved making a mini-terrarium!  (It actually reminds me of a post that I did last year about making terrariums in cookie jars.)  I love their version because how cute is the little chair & lamp in there?!  I also like how they etched a window on the outside.  That’s really completing the total vision, I’d say!

So anyways…add the International Chapter of the Junior Society to your list of reads.  Reading through it makes you wish you were a kid again.  It certainly did for me!

Ebay for rugs? Who would have thought?!

Some of you may already realize that you can find amazing rug deals on ebay, but I had no idea until just last week.  Rugs are one of those things that many of us need/want, but it never ceases to amaze me just how expensive they are.  Well, seeing as how I’ve been looking for a rug for my guest room and hadn’t found anything that I liked that was in my price range at the normal retail haunts (my price range being…as little as possible…on a rug as nice as possible), I decided to start looking outside the normal retail arena.  I started keeping my eyes peeled at antique & thrift stores, craigslist and discount places, however nothing was coming up that was both really nice and bargain priced.  So, as a last resort I decided to look on ebay… and I don’t know why it never ocurred to me before.  After figuring out the best way to weed out the crap, I was able to discover some really beautiful rugs there.  Just to prove that I’m not talking crazy, here’s a picture of the 8×10 wool Nepali rug that just arrived for the guest room.

I have to say that I absolutely LOVE it!  N and I were more than pleasantly surprised at how nice it is in person.  The wool is super soft, and oh did I mention that it came with FREE SHIPPING!  Anyways…I’m gushing.  I love it so much.

At any rate, if you’re looking for a great rug too…definitely give ebay a try.  Although here are a few helpful tips that I found useful.  1) Hit up some rug stores first to see what styles and/or countries you might be most interested in, for example I knew that I was most interested in rugs from Iran or Nepal because I liked the way they felt and I liked many of their patterns.  2) Start with a fairly generic search like “Wool Rug Iran” and then whittle down from there in the filters on the sidebar.  It will help cull down the mess that you don’t want.   3) Stick to your guns on price.  If you only want to spend $150 or less on an 8×10 Persian rug, don’t worry…there will be quite a few that come along!

I did a little more digging tonight to show some of my other ebay finds.  Here they are:

As of the time of my posting, this 7×8 rug is only at $9.50 and has Free Shipping to boot!  Here’s the LINK.

This wool 9×12 rug is more expensive at $275, but is still a great price for that size!   Here’s the LINK.

Okay, so it’s a 5×8 Pottery Barn rug…but I sometimes still kick myself that I never bought it when they were carrying it because I love the Moorish pattern so much.  Anyways, it’s HERE for $299 Buy-It-Now with Free Shipping.

This 4×7 is at $235 with Free Shipping, but they’ll take a lower offer!  Here’s the LINK.

Anyways…these are just a couple that caught my eye.  As you can see, I have a thing for geometric patterned rugs.  Good luck rug shopping!  P.S.  If you have great pics of your FABULOUS bargain rugs (and how you used them in your home), I’d love to see them!   Email me at houseobsession [at] gmail.com

Sometimes there are no words: The “For Sale” Sneak Peak

A friend of mine, who is looking for a house in the neighborhood, posted a link to a home for sale with interior design that would make Liberace weep with joy.   There really aren’t words to describe these interior shots, so I’ll just let the pictures do the talking.

Wow.  Right?  I mean, am I right?!  A custom made ROUND satin bed?!  Holy crap!  The cajones of the owner of this house is astounding.  I’d love to meet this person because that is A LOT of look!   I mean, it’s not for everyone, but if  you are into that kind of thing and want to buy a new house, here’s the LINK to the listing.

On another note, I have to say that I really miss the process of buying a house.  Getting to look into other people’s houses is extremely intriguing…especially if they have really out-of-the-ordinary decorating skillz like this one.

House Obsession now on Twitter

I’ll be honest folks…I travel & work [at my daytime job] too much to sometimes be able to post as much as I’d like to on the blog.   However, I’ve found that micro-blogging on Twitter isn’t nearly as difficult seeing as how I don’t have to stress out about the photo, correct grammar, etc.  It only takes 140 characters after all.  So if you’re on Twitter and want to follow me, you can follow my posts HERE.

Cuban Film Posters!!

I’m so excited!  After haunting ebay for weeks, I finally pulled the trigger and purchased two authentic silkscreened Cuban film posters for the living room.  Yay!!  I LOVE THEM!!  I can’t wait for them to get here!!

Obsessed with…Domino’s new web tool “My Deco”

Today sfgirlbybay posted about the new “My Deco” tool on the Domino website, and so I headed over there to have a peak.  I have to say that I wasn’t optimistic about what I was going to find.  Most of the online decorating “tools” are clunky DIY-style visualizers, but this is like an online folder to store all those great images you love.  And what’s better, be able to search through other people’s deco files for great stuff that you may have missed.  I spent several hours today messing around with it, and found lots of great stuff.  Here’s a glimpse of what I’ve started so far.

If you haven’t already been toying with it (which I suspect many of you have since their website got REALLY slow later in the day), then you should go over and test it out.  There’s lots of great photos to see!!