Five for Friday: Homearama Edition

This is the last one, I promise! After this, we'll put down the notepads and step away from the Homearama recaps.

But, before we do, a Homearama-inspired Five for Friday!

Five design trends we spied at Homearama on our trip last Saturday that got us really excited. 

First up: Stenciled Walls

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The Statement Wall 2.0. All the fun of wallpaper, none of the disgusting paste or hassle of removing it when you want to change up the look of a room. This room is from the John and Sherry Petersick designed showhouse. (Aside: oh, my goodness, how much do I want that chicken painting? It's called "Princess Truthful" by Lesli Devito and if I had oodles of money you would all be getting a chicken portrait for Christmas.) 

We are planning a stencil wall (actually, a faux stencil wall; we're just free-handing it) in Grayson's Viking Bedroom, but right now we're torn: swords or arrows?

Next up: Rain chains

 

We noticed several houses had swapped out traditional downspouts for rain chains. Now, we know rain chains may not actually be a practical replacement for all downspouts, but for certain areas, like a front porch, they do look a little nicer. These copper ones are from Target and run about $40.

Three: Shutter-free windows

 

Some of you already know how we feel about shutters. We like real shutters just fine, but we're tired of seeing faux shutters slapped on houses to beef up windows. But, as other people have said, sometimes windows without shutters look a little, well...naked. So we were thrilled when we saw several show homes embracing the "shutter-free" look and instead choosing chunkier window casing. We think it's a win-win: no improperly-sized vinyl rectangles, no feeling like your house is too "exposed".

Four: Dark floors, light walls

 

This isn't really a "trend", because it's so classic, but it still gets us every time. Dark-stained wood flooring paired with light colored walls. It positively glows!

and finally: Statement Bathroom Tile

We saw this:
 

 

and this:

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and we immediately wanted to run home and re-tile our bathroom. Not terribly expensive, either (of course, I suppose it depends on the size of your bathroom; if you are one of those lucky ducks with a bathroom you could host a party in, I suppose it could cost a bit more). Home Depot carries hexagon penny tile for around $6 a square foot.

That's it! No more Homearama talk, promise! Next week we're in birthday-mode. A certain someone *coughJosephcough* is turning the big 3-0! He's pretty excited. And by excited, I mean not having a panic attack at all...