Coastal Design: by Angie

I'd like for you all to say hello to a new friend I've met in blogland, Angie with Angelica Grace Designs and Angie Seaman Photography. I came across her home on a kitchen tour and fell in love with it, as well as the rest of her beautiful home. I asked Angie to come by here and do a guest post for me and show off her familyroom. You are going to LOVE it. I know many of you really enjoy coastal and seaside decorating and Angie has got it going on. Be prepared to be wowed, as you see Angie's room. You'll have to go over and check out her pretty blog to see the kitchen too. Reading through this post has allowed me to get to know Angie better and I'm so happy that we met. I love making new blog friends. Angie, I love your story and all the inspiring ideas that you've dived into head first. I think it's SO important to follow our dreams and let our creativity shine. Welcome, Angie!

Hi - I'm Angie, a life long Hoosier from the Midwest. I've been born and raised in Indiana but have a deep, deep, love - rather obsession with the sea. I'm known for trying to keep things positive in life and rely on my Lord and Saviour to help me accomplish that hopeful, optimistic, positive attitude. My husband and I were high school sweethearts and I have been married for 15+ years now. We have two beautiful children - our son, Brennen, who is 10 and our daughter, Kenidi (pronounced Kennedy), who is almost 6. Kenidi has special needs so we are continually encouraged and inspired by her on a daily basis.

I worked in the corporate world before having children. After they come along, I became a stay at home mom. Once my daughter was born, I found myself very consumed with her medical diagnosis. I needed something positive to focus on amidst all of the medical visits, details, etc. we were enduring regarding her future. There were many times when I was so upset over the latest test she underwent, etc. that I just felt like we were drowning in bad news. I told my husband that I needed to find an outlet or a hobby to focus my down time on. I just needed something to deter my thoughts from the last medical procedure or doctor visit in general. In 2004, Angelica Grace Designs, came along. I had never sewn before in my life (with the exception of a few home-ec classes back in school) but yet decided I was going to buy a sewing machine and begin making little girls clothing. Thus, how the AGD designs were born. To learn more about that story and how I almost quit the idea on my first night of sewing class, read HERE. My husband encouraged me to stick with the classes and even recruited his friends Mother to come over and help me learn to thread my sewing machine. From there, AGD was born. Since then, along with the designing and creating of women's jewelry and children's clothing, I've begun pursuing my passion for photography. I've always loved photography and took some college courses back in the day for it, but just now decided to devote my life to it. It's been such a rewarding decision thus far. I can't imagine ever going through life without it.

In the end, my need to design and create always spills over into my home somehow as well. Our family spends a great deal of time in Southwest, Florida. We build many memories there every couple of months at the most. In doing so, our full time residence/home in Indiana has come to mimic our home near the Sea. I find that I love walking in the door each day (here in Indiana) feeling like I'm near the beach just because of our decor. I've been told over and over again that our house propels visitors to another location - to a far off resort or retreat. That is the best compliment anyone can pay us in my opinion. Love that!

With that said, I have to thank Rhoda for even wanting to feature our home here on her blog. I'm beyond flattered and extremely humbled by her interest. Considering the fact that I rank her as queen of decor, I'm honored to be here. We just moved into our new home last August so we haven't even lived here a full year as of yet. So...step on in...let me show you around our great room (within our home in Indiana). This room is the room that Rhoda asked to feature and I'm happy to do so. Make yourselves at home...

The room shown above is where I feel closest to the beach when I'm not actually there. The oyster colored cotton ball comfy sofa really lets me relax and hang out with a good book. It makes a great conversation room as well when guests are over. Eventually the right hand side wall will be adorned with several photography canvases of our children done in a black and white theme. We are saving that space until all of those canvases are completed and ready to hang all together. During the day, this room puts off some serious light as the natural warming of the sun shines through the big open windows. The old antique style church pew bench has storage inside it which makes a great home for all of my tons and tons of photographs.

This view below is actually a view from inside the great room looking toward part of the kitchen and hearth room areas of our home. As you can see, we like to mix whites with blacks and blacks with brown tones, etc. when it comes to the wood and furniture. I was always taught that the more color the better in a home. The more diversity, the more interesting. The more "non-themed" approach in relation to furniture is best. When you look through decorating magazines and books, you'll notice a trend in how nothing matches anymore. So in an effort to follow the trends, we strayed away from the "matchy matchy" decor. Now, who knows how true all that is but it is something we ran with inside our home. In a year, it will probably all be back to matchy matchy. Ha ha! I apologize for the yellow tones in these pictures. It appears as though all of our lights are brass or gold, however, they are a nickel brushed silver. The camera had a hard time picking all of the correct tones up apparently.

And back to the heart of the great room itself...

Just some miscellaneous decor/accessories on one of the end tables...couple of my favorite books and a large oyster shell.

And some more accessories on the coffee table...

And the fireplace which houses some additional mis-matched accessories from other travels as well as some more of my favorite books. Again, the use of more whites, blacks, and different toned/colored wood items together.

And there you have it...our great room. I cannot tell you guys how much I appreciate your willingness to even browse through this post. I hope it has been an enjoyable topic for you today. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my own personal blog which can be found HERE. And should you ever have a photography need, you can catch me via my photography blog HERE.

Lastly, a huge thanks to Rhoda for even allowing me to guest post here on her turf today. What fun this has been. Thank you Rhoda! You are the best! And for those of you wanting more of Rhoda (like me), she has done a guest post for me over on my blog today as well. Feel free to come on over and show her some love while checking out her guest blogger topic for the day. Too fun!

Blessings, Angie

Thank you, Angie! That was SO much fun to have you stop by. And yes, I'm guestposting over at Angie's today too, so check that out also. Aren't ya'll glad you stopped by today?!