for the love of a house

i happened upon joans blog several months ago when i was googling the benjamin moore color "halo."
i have never used that color, but have large sheets of the paint color as samples because i always just loved it and wanted to use it.  when it came time to pick a color for repainting our main living areas, i really wanted to use it.  so i googled it to "check" and this was the first picture to come up

and my jaw dropped and i was like "holy bananas that is exactly why i thought i loved that color...that is BEAUTIFUL!".
i then proceeded to paint my dining room this color. and cringe as it was going up and then paint over it the very next day with a completely different color.
*sigh*
i still love it and imagine it looking amazing in a house with different lighting than my strangely-lit home.
{in support of my "strangely lit" accusation, you should have seen me try to paint my office five different tried-and-true samples of colors i use all.the.time. but they all looked ridiculous in that room.  something about indirect east light i guess....}
anyway in the snooping i found this beautiful blog about a couple in new england and their house is to DIE for.  its so perfectly "done" in my taste and opinion...its all about elegant subtlety and TEXTURE and the perfect mix of refined and rustic.

i am in house love.
throw in a green velvet sofa and three little munchkins and you have my dream house
{yes, even in my wildest dreams there are three little munchkins throwing their toys and selves around my dream house} 

here is a quick tour {check out her blog for many more pics! or pinterest, her house has made it around the design world}

{yes please falllllllllll}

and if her artwork ever goes missing she can put money on the fact that i have them all hanging in my house. she has my taste down to a "T"...i have found most of my artwork {that is yet to be hung and has been SITTING in random spots around my house for, oh, five years??} at local thrift/antique stores or by searching for "moody oil landscape" or similar on etsy and ebay. try it.

and this is the half bath in their BARN...its amazing

so, for the love of a house, go check out joan's blog! its beautiful and inspirational and just plain dreamy.

{all pictures belong to joan of fortheloveofahouse.blogspot.com }