Show me your interior projects! Your favorite inside places to be!

I tend to concentrate on the outdoors, My gardens and critters are where I spend the bulk of my time on when time is available. I make theses spaces as pretty as I'm able and love creating areas of Zen outdoors where I never want to leave.  But I work from home at a desk 8 hours a day, Cook nearly 2 meals from scratch everyday, Host D&D sessions that can go on for 12 hours and live in a cold climate and for a whole host of other reasons I spend the bulk of my time indoors. We recently moved and I realized looking around that my house is very beige. It is not a peaceful or exciting place that I strive to enjoy, It is downright dreary. I don't feel inspired to do the necessary work like cooking and cleaning because it still doesn't feel like a home for me and my family. So iv decided this winter project on my low low budget is to make the steps to love my indoors nearly as much as the outdoors! Please if you could share your areas of your home you are most proud of and love to be in!

This isn't the colorful Zen look that you're describing, but it is my favorite place. I love being in my baby's room and watching her master her pull-up bar. We've had so much laughter and joy in this spot. My sister made the latch hook rug, so that makes it more special.

My favorite spots are colorful, functional yet cozy, easy to keep clean and organized, and conducive to entertaining.

I like to create one or two small spaces in the house that are like an oasis of calm and comfort.

One is the room I sleep. Furniture-wise there is only a sofa and a tall bookshelf turned on its side (this is earthquake country). The bookshelf is full of books. I sleep on a Japanese futon which gets put away. The floor is tatami and all the kids toys get easily put away into a toy basket (we have one in each room with toys). The windows look out on my garden, which inspires me to work on it!

The other is my desk top. It is... actually usually covered in things, but all of those are things I need to get done. And when I get them done it is clear and so is my brain. Otherwise I have a globe, a sanseveria, an old unusable oil lantern (the oil compartment doesn't open), and a picture of my wife and me on top of a mountain looking out to the pacific ocean.

I suppose the kitchen is sort of an oasis in flux. The window over the sink and counter looks out onto the vegetable garden beds. I keep a lot of herbs and regenerating plants and such on that window sill. When we can we also keep a vase of flowers (often from the garden) on the sill too. I try to keep the kitchen counter cleared as well.

If the rest of the house is a disaster zone, then I can at least retreat to one of the oases.

I redid my master bedroom a few years ago, using my sawmill to cut the wood for the headboard, matching end tables and footboard bench; and yes all from the same tree! The side tables even have hidden compartments so I can store my guns out of sight for self-defensive, for things that go bump in the night.

I spend a lot of time here.

I feel everyone's tastes are going to be really varied.

Dear hubby spends his time in his LazyBoy recliner.

I spend my time at my desk which is in my pantry.  I like to look out the window occasionally during the day. The window is in the living-eating room so I like pretty curtains.

For my wall color, I choose something similar to the color of my stove because dear hubby liked the color in our other house.  The color name was something like "pale straw".

I really wanted our bedroom to be a light blue though it got painted the same color as the rest of the house "pale straw".

The theme of my house is "hunt cabin" aka none.

You mentioned 12-hour D & D Sessions so I asked Pinterest what that was.  Here are some suggestions from Pinterest:


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The cheapest way to add emotional warmth and interest to interiors is paint. Pick a color you love, and paint one wall of a room that color. If you love it paint another wall. It's usually more restful to have most walls neutral and one or two walls in a light shade of a color you love.
Dark colors can be depressing - I plastered my strawbale house with earth plaster and sealed it with oil, but eventually we painted the walls, mostly a warm yellowish cream, and the way the place brightened up was amazing - we realized how depressing the dark walls had been, despite lots of windows.
The exception to that is the bedroom - a dark wall behind the bed makes the room inviting and cozy. Purples, pinks and reds are sensuous, blues and greens are restful.
You can paint window frames bright or dark colors for more interest.
Plants indoors give a friendly feel. I put a few cuttings into cheap little plastic pots or yogurt containers and set them into plastic food containers that I painted on the inside with black acrylic craft paint - they look great, like ceramic. Be sure to paint the inside not the outside.
Curtains are also a good place to add color. If you have curtain rods you can make very cheap colorful curtains by sewing together scarves from a thrift shop. Look on Pinterest for ideas.

We recently made some new lights in the Great Room. I found some old wagon wheels on a potato sprayer from 1902 and turned them into lights.

Here they are over the islands

My favorite indoor space.. water is 106 degrees F. Real nice year round, but especially on a cold winter day!

Hi Sarah,

Welcome to Permies.

Ted Abbey wrote:My favorite indoor space.. water is 106 degrees F. Real nice year round, but especially on a cold winter day!

Wait, what IS that exactly?

Personally I don't have a favorite indoor place yet. We are in the middle of building our house, so I'm gathering inspiration. I'm really excited for finishing yhe basics, frankly, after living nearly two years without basic modern amenities (and not in a cool off grid way). I think my bathroom will be my favorite place for a good long while. We found an old cast iron tub wth clawfeet to install which is pretty dreamy for me. But the basic toilet and hot water itself will be nice too

OP, did you start any projects indoors since posting?

Bridget Vandel wrote:

Ted Abbey wrote:My favorite indoor space.. water is 106 degrees F. Real nice year round, but especially on a cold winter day!

Wait, what IS that exactly?

“That” is a hot spring bath house. Originally built over a spring source to provide water for steam engine trains that serviced mines here in the late 1800’s. Later converted for use as therapeutic/recreational soaking. I use this bath twice a day, everyday.. and couldn’t do what I do without it. (Well, maybe I could.. but it wouldn’t be as pleasant!)

This particular spring puts out about 50,000 gallons PER DAY, and is one of many on this miraculous desert oasis property located just outside of Death Valley.

I've since had to take it down, since we're moving, but this gallery wall was one of my fave interior jobs. It's the inside wall of a east-facing sunroom.
( due to the direct sunlight, all of the art was either: oil/acrylic, pencil, charcoal, pastel, not valuable or wearing uv filtering glass)
The stained glass is the other side of the room. ( not my stained glass work, but made by my aunts)