black and blue ideas

The thing I love about the design blog world is that there is so much out there for inspiration.  I've come across two things lately that made me say "oh! I must do that!"

The first is from Little Green Notebook.  Jenny is currently painting her fireplace black, and she posted a number of inspiration photos.  I have planned for a while to paint our fireplace white, but I haven't gotten to it yet.  But seeing all the black fireplace pictures I was seized with a "ACK MUST HAVE BLACK PAINT NOW" moment.  

Here is our fireplace in the living room.  I think the black would be fantastic focal point to break up all the white. 

Eventually when we redo the floors I plan on redoing that entire fireplace, but for now, I think that would look so fab.  (You can look at more black fireplaces here, if you like.) 

The other thing I saw was this gorgeous living room at Nuestra Vida Dulce.  

I love how the green chair and colorful painting play off the navy blue curtains, the metallic lamp and the white walls.  I am using this room as inspiration for the guest bedroom.  I put together our guest room a few months ago using what we had on hand, but as one commenter said, "its so...brown."  

Here is a sneak peak of where I'm going with it.