Showhouse Inspiration: Decorating with Color and Pattern

Sometimes you just need a vacation!

How else to explain the unplanned, unanticipated blogging vacation I took last week? Clearly, I needed a little break from the busyness of life, and all that juggling of home and family and work and blog. Plus, there was the wind down of school and the start of summer break.

I enjoyed a week of snuggling, crafting, pillow-fort building and adventuring with my kid; gardening; lounging way too long in my PJs; vegging out on TV; hanging out with friends; getting lost in a few good books; tackling some organizing projects; a frigid trip to the pool and just generally unplugging.

But I’ve missed sharing projects and chatting with you here, so I’m back with a full slate of decorating projects, DIYs, parties, crafts and recipe posts planned to inspire us all to live a little bit more creatively, boldly and colorfully.

On that note, today, I  wanted to show a few photos from a designer showhouse I visited recently.

The house, a renovated 1912 Tudor Revival in High Point, N.C., was furnished with a blend of traditional and modern motifs.

There were many beautiful spaces, but I was most impressed with how boldly the designers blended color and pattern.

I have never shied away from decorating with color or mixing patterns, but this home really inspired me to consider an even broader palette and wilder combinations.

And I’m more enamored with wallpaper than I was before.

For a while now, I’ve been wanting to add some gorgeous wallpaper in our dining room. But I’ve held back because everyone says removing wallpaper is such a chore when it inevitably goes out of style.

But these wallpapered walls and ceilings are making me think the hard work will be worth it.

And as much as I love the serenity of neutral tones, there’s something so enlivening about color in a home.

It just makes me happy.

And if these funky, crazy patterns can coexist.. .well the possibilities of mixing and matching are limitless.

I can’t wait to show you more of the Traditional Home/Junior League of High Point 2015 Designer Showhouse.