Creatively Chic Podcast Featuring muah, Adi Edlen!

I'm so excited to share with all of you that I was featured in a Podcast, Creating the Perfect Room, hosted by the beautiful and talented Carly of Chic Steals!

Check out her blog post with a few great pictures of some of my past work and take a listen to my very first Podcast here.

I had so much fun - thank you so much Carly!!!

Guest Post: Decorating with Black White and Gold from Arcadian Home blog

Today's post is all about decorating with Black White and Gold - one of my favorite color pallets to decorate with in my own home.

Hi, everyone! It's Joanna from Arcadian Home blog, a fabulous place to find lots of interior design inspiration for lovely decorative accessories and a myriad of wonderful light fixtures from stunning chandeliers to ornate torchiere lamps. I'm so happy to be guest posting here at The Garden of Edlen. To inspire your decor dreams, I've brought along eight images of rooms dressed up in black and white with  gold. Enjoy!

  

  With gold metallic artwork, white tufted sofa and a huge zebra print rug, this living room with black walls is fabulous. Patterned toss pillows and a faux fur throw add visual interest and texture to the sofa.

 

  White walls and ceiling are a great choice to keep this glamorous living room and with black floors, coffee table, bookcases and velvet seating from being just too dark. Gold accents can be seen in touches of brass in the table decor and lamps around the room as well. I wish we could see more of the gold wallpaper surrounding the fireplace.

 

  A black and white contemporary kitchen is pretty with a restrained use of gold-- brass fittings and decorative accessories make a case for less is sometimes more.

 

  This pretty black and white eclectic dining room is dressed up with golden accents. I love the black dining chairs with chic white upholstery and graphic Greek key pattern on the chair backs.

 

  Antique black furnishings, contemporary rug and glam chandelier meld to create a comfortable, beautiful and interesting living space. The glow from splashes of bright pink in the surrounding rooms is a brilliant design idea.

 

  Gold velvet adds color and texture to this black and white bedroom. I love the Greek key trimmed linens and the gold on the mirrored lamp.

 

  This foyer vignette in black and white with gold is a lovely mix of styles and periods. At first glance the tall floor lamps topped off by chic white and black shades seem to be contemporary but are actually vintage.

 

  White nurseries with black and white rugs like this one allow for quick change-outs of color. Here a single pop of metallic gold on the Moroccan pouf adds a touch of glam for Mom. Mini pendant lights and tiny chandeliers are perfect for baby's first room. 

Images 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 

 What do you think of these black, white, and gold inspirations? Leave us your thoughts below and be sure to stop by Arcadian Home for more home and lighting inspirations every day!

Decorating with the Magic Rule of 3

I realized that in my previous post about staging your home, I might have left you wondering what I meant by decorating in "Moments of 3"
so I decided I'd better get my story straight and illustrate a little! From now on we'll call it the Magic Rule of 3. Phew, much easier!

So here we have a before and after. In the before picture, we just needed to finesse a little by adding a couple of items.

I went straight to the Magic decorating trick by arranging the accessories in groups of 3:

To style the mantel I did:

3 frames

3 pretty things grouped together (1) votive (2) orchid stacked on books (3) mercury glass vessel

Which creates the overall look:

1 mirror +

1 group of frames +

1 group of pretty things =

The Magic Rule of 3

This is not the kind of rule that is punishable by law if broken - decorating is supposed to be fun, not scary after all. Accessories can look beautiful in pairs - like matching lamps for example. Or your favorite candle sticks. Or 2 chairs side by side - always a classic look.

But when you have a ton of gorgeous things you want to display together all at once, the Magic Rule of 3 can help you every time!

So I hope that clears some things up and helps you to be confident in your decorating skills for forever more!

ps... if you want to learn how to make that awesome mirror, check out this post from Adventures in Dressmaking

5 Tips for Staging a Room

Staging is the most time consuming yet rewarding part of decorating a room.

I can blast through a store and buy a dozen things in 5 minutes flat, 

but when it comes to placing those things in a room - I'm more like a snail.

Today was a perfect example of my signature snail-stylin'

I literally spent 3 entire hours styling my friend Suzannah's living room before her gorgeous home was photographed for a feature in the Oregonian (congrats Suzannah!!!)

I brought over some accessories from my home, because her house is so new that we just needed a few things here and there.

Take a peek for yourself what an incredible difference a little staging can make in the feel of a room:

Before                                                                                      After

Adding some things, subtracting others - shelving is the ultimate opportunity to add style to your home.

Don't be afraid to place a mirror in your shelving - it adds light to a dark space.

Before                                                                                      After

This one was a toughy. I really scratched my head on how to utilize this console table. There's a pesky thermostat behind the lamp so placing a mirror or art was limited - 

so I placed a round mirror to direct the eye up to add some height to this space. 

Add some pretty books and throw in a cute handbag and voila - a useful space!

Before                                                                                      After

I made such small changes to this mantel but look how elegant the space feels after - 

just swap out dark art for a light reflecting mirror and add some flowers for color. 

When in doubt, Decorate in "Moments of 3"

I like to call accessories or groups of things a "moment"
 because it should mean something to you when you look at it.
It should make you pause and smile because it looks so good!

So for example:
 3 frames grouped together = one "moment of 3"

The votive + orchid/books + mercury glass grouped together = another separate "moment of 3" 

and lastly the mirror one it's own with the other 2 "moments" = the third "moment of 3"

Before                                                                                      After

This space just needed a few accents - this is George the dog - he normally lives in Jack's room

I went to every part of the living room and made purposeful and elegant moments through accessorizing. Each space your eye travels to should look polished.

Don't be afraid to take the time required to stage your home - here are some tips I use when decorating:

• using the rule of "moments of 3" when I'm stumped (see pic of mantel for description)
• don't shy away from moving things around - take it out, put it back, take it out, put it back
• steal things from rooms you don't go into as often so your main rooms are polished instead of unfinished
• step back from your project and walk through it several times to give yourself a fresh eye
• if you're having a party (or photo shoot...) borrow accessories or furniture from friends for the day - because then it's FREE!

Blog Update - Follow Me!

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to work on my blog, and hopefully reach out to more fabulous readers. I'm a little embarrassed to say I only have 17 followers - so let's work on that


You can follow my blog by clicking the pic below. I would most likely LOVE it if you did!
PS - THE SITE IS BEING FINICKY - IF IT DOESN'T WORK, PLEASE TRY AGAIN :)

Follow me, will ya?

I'm also simplifying the look of the ole blog - so you'll notice it looks a liiiiittttle different, no?

I noticed that a lot of the blogs I really like are all very simple - so I want to like my blog too!

And since I'm blogging about blogging - here's an super rad link to some blog planning tools
made by the FABULOUS Jenni of A Well Crafted Party.

Anyhow - I'll be tinkering for the next few days. Unless I get impatient and start throwin stuff.

What do you think? 

Living Room Inspiration

My style is becoming  so much more sophisticated lately - I feel so, ladylike ;)

It's good for my clients but bad for my own living room (which never gets the chance to rest) 

I just want to change it up every chance I get!

Anyway - Here's a peek at what I've been working on lately - I can't wait to share the finished product!

It makes me want to remove everything black from my entire house - but I'll refrain... for now.

HomeGoods shopping with a girlfriend

One of my favorite things about blogging is the friendships I have made in "real life".

I met the beautiful Suzannah of Adventures in Dressmaking almost a year ago at a Portland Bloggers event. 

She is one of the craftiest and creative people I know - there is nothing this girl can't do!

She recently bought a new home, and has been busy decorating away! 

And since I love to shop, I accompanied her on a fun trip to HomeGoods and helped her pick out these fun things.

I love this sweet little ceramic pineapple - it makes this little space so cheery! 

It's small moments like this that make a house a home.

Check out the versatility of this beaded glass bowl and pedestal - from Holiday to Everyday just by switching out decor with produce.

As simple as this round jute rug is, it makes a huge impact welcoming you into the entry way (and catching those fall leaves we have here in Oregon).

So there you go, just a few adorable things we found recently at HomeGoods. 

What's your favorite find from your home?

Preserved Flowers

OK, why did I NOT know about these? 

I love faux flowers because they obviously last - but not everyone likes a fake flower on display in their home.

Enter this phenomena - PRESERVED FLOWERS! Real - gorgeous - flowerrsssss!

Someone out there is saying to themselves, "Yeah, Adi - this is not a new thing..." but it's new to me and I'm totally stoked about it!

I mean LOOK at them! So gorge!

I should also mention that the website I found them on is amazefest as well - it's called Save on Crafts, and just as the name says they have great prices for super cute stuff. Check em out!

Woohoo!!!!

Working on my bedroom (FINALLY!)

I've noticed with myself and my clients that the bedroom is usually the last place to be decorated. 

Whenever I find cute things for my home I want people to be able to see them so they usually end up in my living room.

Well I've decided to put my big girl pants on and start working on a grown-up bedroom (with a little bit of my whimsical style mixed in).

It may seem like a small step, but buying these gorgeous crystal lamps from HomeGoods was a big deal for me. 

I've been searching for the perfect lamps for a long time now - not too feminine since my husband has to have some presence in the decor - and these were perfect!

I bought them because they look like whiskey glasses - you know, for the hubs.

Next will be changing out the bedding. Right now it's grey and yellow - here's my inspiration for an all white look:

Image via Pinterest

I just love how soft and sophisticated this bedroom looks.

I realize that the little pink gnome would probably have to go - In fact, a lot of my tchotchkes would go by the wayside. A challenge for me, no doubt.  

So I already have a cream tufted headboard - I just need some curtains and some more bed linens before I can show you an update.

iPhone Wallpaper Backgrounds from Pinterest

I love finding new iPhone wallpaper on Pinterest. 

Here's a few I've pinned as of late - Enjoy!

All images via Pinterest