Sneakity Peek- Vignette

(ignore me in the mirror ;)

Here's a little pic from an install we did this summer...  I'll be sure to take better pics when the artwork is installed in the next couple of weeks but I thought this little {unstyled} vignette sums up the style of the rooms pretty well.  These particular clients have been a dreeeeeeam to work with and the results are very personal & comfortable & natural with the teensiest hint of a modern edge.  I want to go hang there and am slightly obsessed with the soft, comfy braided jute rugs we used.  :)

The dining room is beyond the living room and you can spy a bit of the green grasscloth on the walls. 

 

**update**  I've received lots of emails about the jute rugs.  We had these custom bound and the jute itself is from Stark Carpet.  Thanks!! :)

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Happy Fall Sunday

{image via http://nolongerdreaming.tumblr.com/ }

Hope you're loving this perfect Fall Sunday!!

(And I guess that would mean not reading this until Monday!! ;) ;)

It's crisp & cool here and finally dry.  We've been loving our lazy weekends lately... hiking, laying around & eating.  (Is that bad?? )  Today we're headed to the Renaissance Fair in Maryland for some turkey legs and steamed artichokes.... oh yeah, and to see costumes & such.

Have a good one.

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services. More Info

Patina Style

I've been meaning to write about this book for a while now.  When I first got it in the mail, I pretty much devoured every page & picture.  Patina Style is written by my good friends, Brooke & Steve Giannetti, and is one of the most beautiful, insightful, honest design books I've ever read. 

Patina Style is all about Brooke & Steve's unique design & lifestyle philosophy.  It's about celebrating the imperfect, appreciating the marks that time & age leave on your home & on your things, and juxtaposing masculine & feminine, curvy with straight.  Their look is full of soft muted colors that just sort of surround you rather than call attention to themselves. 

I first discovered Brooke's blog, Velvet & Linen, around the same time I started blogging & reading blogs.  I was seriously drooly over it & all of their work.  Everything the Giannaetti's do is just beautiful & has a soulful quality.  Brooke is a designer and Steve is a renowned architect & together they own Giannetti Home, a shop in LA.  We visited them & their kids last Winter at their home & it is one of the warmest, most personal & "real" feeling homes I've ever visited.  (Of course they are too!  Leila & Nick were so good to Christian and put up with him tirelessly chasing them around with toy cars. ;) ;)  But almost everything I touched just had a solidarity & a history about it. 

In this day & age, it's sometimes hard to get people to see that imperfect is beautiful.  (Read about creating "imperfect" spaces here.)  So many people out there want shiny & new and don't understand how beautiful pieces with history & patina are.  One of the first things I did when I got the book was show it to my dad.  If you've been reading my blog for a while, you might remember that we butt heads design-wise a LOT.  We're almost finished restoring my grandparents' old cottage and it's been a tug-of-war the entire time.  He watches a lot of HGTV and sees them constantly adding granite countertops, buying new furniture, etc.  and is constantly wanting to go there.  Showing him Patina Style was a breakthrough for us.  He started to get that there is beauty in the imperfect, that floors don't have to be shiny & new, and sratches & dings are okay.  (He is always telling me to get out a table cloth so we won't scratch the kitcen table- gah!)  But after looking through Patina Style with me, I got no more nagging for table cloths on the table and I think it made him a bit more open-minded about what we can & can't do to the house. 

{I love their aged natural pine floors}

Brooke & Steve definitely think outside of the box & love repurposing old things into new ones. One of my favorite examples of this is the dining room light fixture made out of an old industrial metal fram lined with linen:

The book is basically a manual on how to create the Patina Style look & incorporate it into your own home, making it personal.  It's full of real details and specific sources for things like paint, materials, shops and furnishings.  One of the things that has always struck me about Brooke is how willingly she shares information & how she genuinely wants to help others love their homes.  She's been a great friend to me & constantly inspires.

Congratulations to Brooke & Steve on a perfect (-ly imperfect! ;) book.  Love yas!!

To order the book, go here 

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services. More Info

My Happiest 6...

... Have been with this guy:

Happy anniversary to the person who knows me like no one else.

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Before & After Master Bedroom

We just finished up with a master bedroom installation so I wanted to share 'before' and 'afters.'  There's  still some art to be hung but you'll get the idea.  My clients' bedroom is pretty large and we loved their tufted headboard.  My clients kept their existing dressers, nightstands and bed, and we added the rest.  Their old room felt a bit dark and didn't seem to fit with my client's personality.  She's so sunny & cheerful and is drawn to warm colors and light so I wanted to create a space that suited her.  She was looking for warm & fresh & relaxing.  Here's the room before:

 And here it is now:

The bedding is by Les Indiennes and I want it. A hand blockprinted quilt overlays a blockprinted duvet cover in a smaller pattern.  I had so much fun making that bed!!!  We replaced the original sconces with iron ones from Pottery Barn and had the walls painted a soft cream.  I topped the nightstands with vintage yellow vases and leaves from outside. 

I love the ruffly linen bench at the end of the bed. It adds just the right amount of femininity to the room.

Here's the window nook before:

And here is is now:

I love the idea of two chairs and an ottoman in a master bedroom.  (The perfect spot to read books and play footsie! ;)  ...Or more likely in real life, the spot to cozy up with the kids or to throw clothes on.  Ah vell!

You might recognize the yellow magnolia linen on the chair pillows from my new fabric line.  (And of course you can catch my repeated vintage vase on the garden stool-  oops! Never said I was a stylist! -  (In real life it's empty for a drink or a book. ;)

I had so much fun with this redo beause I think it shows how much palette & soft goods & lighting can change a room.  The main pieces of furniture like the bed & dressers stayed the same but the room now has a completely different vibe.  It feels like my client now.

Hope you enjoyed!! 

We have 4 more installs in the next month or so and I'll be sure to share before & afters when I get pics.  (I still have a few from this past summer that I need to get pics of- very behind- but I'm trying to catch up!!)

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services. More Info

Exciting News for Friends!

Have you seen that One King's Lane is partnering with 9 design bloggers to do a tastemaker tag sale starting tonight?  Some of my favorite girls are in this great round-up & be sure to check it out!!

Also, did you watch Million Dollar Decorator?  (looooved that show.)  If you did, you probably loved Kathryn Ireland.  She's one of those people you just immediately want to be friends with.  She is hysterical & insanely good at what she does.  This summer I read one of her books, Creating a Home, and it got me itching to find some crazy cool rundown house and make it gorgeous the way she did.   Anyway, she's also having a tastemaker tag sale on One King's Lane this Saturday with items from her archives, collected from her summers spent in France along with her brand new bedding collection.  Check out One King's Lane to shop. 



And, my friend Nadia Subaran of Aidan Design and her partner John Schmiedigen are opening a lighting division at  Aidan Design this October!

Nadia also designed a room in the DC Design Showhouse this past Spring (see gorgeous kitchen above! the Apt Therapy Event mentioned in the pic was from last spring; sorry for the old news ;)  and she is one of the most talented, kind and genuine people I've met in the industry.  Congratulations Nadia!!

And finally, today we installed a client's master bedroom and I can't wait to share pics.   (tomorrow or tonight!)   Here's the 'before' & I'll give you a hint that the we kept the bed and the 'after' has Les Indiennes bedding- mm mm mm!:

{My client's bedroom BEFORE}

ps- Is anyone going to Market in High Point this Fall?  I'm heading down for the weekend & Monday so hope to see you there!!




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Peek at the Boys' New Room & Plans

Our boys are now sharing a bedroom and so we've been doing some rearranging.  Christian moved into Justin's nursery and we reduced the closet so we could fit two beds.  I loved Justin's dark navy nursey while it lasted, but with two in the room, it needed lightening up.   Here's a pic of Justin's nursery as it it was.  Dark & cozy & perfect for sleeeeeeeping:

I had the walls & ceiling painted in a soft gray-green-blue.  (The color's called 'Contemplation' by Behr and we had it color matched in Benjamin Moore Aura paint.)

With these pretty blue walls, I want to be sure that the room doesn't get too sweet and I want to bring a bit of an earthy- curious vibe into the space.  We have a lots of cool collected artwork & Christian (my 4 year old) and I picked out a few of his favorites for above his bed.  It was so fun laying in bed afterwards, telling him stories about the pirates in the ships & the monkies that turned into men.  (yeah, I'm pretty sure he'll get a much better explanation in science class one day ;)

The black trundle bed is going to my new office so I'm having custom twin headboards made out of Filigree Chevon, one of my new fabrics, for the boys as soon as Justin's ready for a "big boy" bed:

Up-close you can see that it's a rusty red with olive green leaves:

It's one of those very "off" fabrics that isn't at all what you'd call "pretty," but for some reason I just love it.  (Especially mixed with the blue-gray-green, which shouldn't work, but does.)

  I'm doing big Euro shams on both beds with a mossy fern star placed right in the center:

And we're doing these are going over the beads in antique brass:

{Visual Comfort}

Anyway, I'm off for the day.  We're presenting a plan that I'm so excited about to a new client for her condo!!!  Will keep you posted.

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services. More Info