Pethra of the Swedish design blog Design & Inredningsbloggen, wanted to share with us a bedroom she styled for her mom. It’s sooooo pretty, with lots of white and pink accents (my favourite!). In my opinion this is a perfect bedroom to bring in this new season. Lovely Pethra! (see more photos here)

Patrick Flynn is a designer/project manager at envelopeA+D, an architecture and design firm based in Oakland, California and he emailed us thinking we’d be interested in a project the firm recently completed (it was featured in the NY Times yesterday). Interested??? I almost passed out when I saw the photos. This home is so unbelieveably cool and funky and creative and plucked right out of my dreams. I am completely smitten with it. The Victorian duplex is located in San Francisco, and is owned by Claire Bigbie (an interior designer who now designs for the firm) and her skateboarder boyfriend Jay Shapiro. It was renovated to house a creative studio for Claire on the main floor and the living quarters upstairs. I adore absolutely everything about this home, including the incredible blue-black exterior (used to downplay the Victorian embellishments). Thanks so much Patrick for sharing this with us! Every photo below is going in my inspiration folder, and I imagine in many of our readers’ folders too.

I need your help with this one folks. Lauren wrote us with this problem: “I am going back to school, and my friend is oh so graciously letting me move into his house (rent free!). So, I feel like I should not complain too much, but the room needs a lot of help. I attached a picture for you to see the bedroom, just to give you an idea of the wall-to-wall maroon carpet I have to deal with. He has taken down the wallpaper boarder and painted the room a buttery yellow, but I think it kind of looks like a nod to McDonald’s now… He actually just replaced the carpet (but kept maroon, I’m not sure why), so I have to live with that – and the room is pretty large: 16′ x 13′. But he did say I can paint, which is a good start. So, my question is, do you have any ideas as to what color scheme would work with this carpet? I am normally a “blue” person, but just feel like I can’t completely disregard the carpet color. I was thinking maybe repainting the room white, and doing an accent wall – possibly relating to the maroon carpet, but I’m not so sure. Any ideas would be much appreciated!”

When I see maroon/burgundy I practically break out in hives. So I’m a bit at a loss as to what Lauren should do with this. My only thought is getting sisal rugs and trying to hide most of the carpet, and maybe painting the walls a pink (on the pale side). That’s all I’ve got. I’m hoping our readers might have better ideas.

Abena wrote us with a design dilemma she thought we could help her with. “I would love a post on how to decorate around those weird hanging fireplaces from the 60s and 70s. My husband and I are moving into a new (rental) apartment in June with one. I attached a photo from a similar apartment (w/my hubby in it, who you can see needs lots of space).

Our fireplace is rounder with no base in a larger, long room. It is also hanging near the back wall between a balcony with large sliding doors, but there is also a floor to ceiling window to the right. I would love something like what was achieved in this Richard Powers photograph.

Except our view is not quite as stunning, nor is the scary black fireplace in a nice symmetrical location. My husband just says we should put a tall plant in front of it and forget about it, but I think we should do more!” And I agree with you. Why not just place a couple mid-century chairs around it and make it a little conversation area? I found some photos of suspended fireplaces that hopefully will give you some ideas. For the record, I always wanted one and am REALLY jealous.

We have received several emails recently from reader’s who wanted to share their homes so I thought I’d feature a bunch of them today.

The first is from Melody, of the blog me melodia. The following photos are of her friend’s bedroom in Berlin. She posted them on her blog for a new series she’s working on of her friends’ interior spaces. It’s such a comfy, relaxing space, and I ADORE the branch used to hang clothes!

We heard from Julie of Belle Vivir who recently made over her bathroom. She sent us some before and after photos. What a huge difference! I love the colour scheme and the totally cute toilet paper holder. Bathroom redos always make me jealous, as mine are embarrassingly horrid. I’m taking notes. (Click here for more photos).

Jen Venegas sent us a really sweet email the other day. A 25 year old woman who loves the notion of people turning their home into something that’s a direct reflection of themselves, Jen just moved into a home and has been having fun making it her own. Her income is somewhat limiting (I hear ya), but she makes do with garage sale finds, and sort of prides herself on that (I hear ya again!). It excites me to no end that junk finds are making their way into so many people’s homes, as it adds so much character to a space when it’s not all item after item found in any major home decor store. (Jen, I will send you a great big virtual kiss if you hang your art much lower – I’m so anal about that).

Claudiu of Cluj, Romania wrote us wanting to share his work-in-progress home. He’s an artist and his creativity is evident throughout his home, inside and out. The kitchen looks so cozy, and I love that he took his artwork to the exterior of his house as well.

Thanks to everyone featured here for wanting to share their homes with us and our readers!