It seems like once you reach the college age, you have recurring conversations with your friends about “Don’t you wish you lived in a place you could decorate yourself? And just take over?” It’s like we go through this chronic nesting phase that inflames when we live in a dorm, and then move to off-campus apartments, and then switch into better-but-not-long term rentals.

Reading Design*Sponge makes me pine for a space to call my own (that I want to call my own). I don’t do domesticity when it comes to making things to eat in the kitchen, and since I’ve been spending so much time at home in my apartment (the better-but-not-long term deal), my creativities have just been itching to splatter some paint on the walls. or maybe some Swarovski-encrusted wallpaper.

Some snapshots of inspiring images from D*S. Click on the pics to see the full entries.

It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but the view from inside that shack would end anybody’s creative mind block. Is that a roll-down garage door with panels of glass? I hope so. This just screams “breath of fresh air,” doesn’t it?

I absolutely love how the wallpaper’s reflected in the mirror here. Umm, and check out those pufferfish…

Although I personally could never keep such a space so “clean,” I love how the designer made so many separate spaces in this one room. Hanging that large picture in front of a panel of fabric? So simple but genius! Wall decal fireplace? Hell yes.

Umm, this is just beautiful.

I’m such a sucker for combinations of “urban” and “embellished” that I’m really just a cliche. I’m fine with that.

This table was a throw-away, and now it’s refurbished! Makes me want to go garage sale hunting. And makes me want a workshop…

And finally,

Swarovski-encrusted wallpaper! I was not joking. These prints look awesome. (And are crazy expensive.)

Ikea may have 50-cent hot dogs, but in my mind, no single store sells the innovation of the people who created the spaces and pieces above.