So Dreamy

This month’s House Beautiful is so, so good!  It is filled to the brim with inspirational shots.  Whenever I get a magazine, I always flip through quickly to see the pictures and then I go back and read.  This month, one particular home stopped my flipping, I fell in love with it and I had to know immediately who the designer was.  It turned out to be Ken Fulk, who I worked for last year in his staging department.  He is genius!  And this is his special retreat spot in Provincetown.

Every little detail is so inviting and interesting.  His second home has a light and airy quality to it; it has such a relaxed vibe that I’d imagine you’d feel at peace as soon as you walked in the door.  I feel incredibly fortunate for my opportunity to have worked at Ken Fulk.

Vintage Chairs Revitalized

Who knew that one little weekend trip to Palm Springs would drum up so much material?  I’ve got to talk about the trip again.  While there, I spied six tall back dining chairs that had huge potential for a client’s dining nook.  I wish I had a better before picture but here is my before shot…

The chairs had a great look to them but the fabric on it was not going to cut it for my client’s little ones.  This is the breakfast table where they eat most of their meals and so I wanted to replace the fabric with stress free faux shagreen vinyl that mom can wipe off with a sponge.  For the back, we went with a Trina Turk indoor outdoor fabric (how Palm Springs of us).  I just love how they turned out…

I love the chairs in her kitchen nook and I’m so happy that I could bring a bit of Palm Springs home for her. 🙂  Vinyl and Indoor Outdoor makes it possible to go with light fabrics and to have red spaghetti for dinner without worries.

Let’s Get Nautical

Over Memorial Day weekend, my brother threw a clam bake party on a beach and it got me thinking, I haven’t done a nautical home post in a long time.  Nautical has got to be my very favorite look ever; it comes from the part of me that wishes I lived in Connecticut, wore strictly Lily Pulitzer and Vineyard Vines and sailed on the weekend.  The part of me that wishes my husband wore red pants with lobsters on them and boat shoes with no socks.  The part of me that wishes that the first image below is our Nantucket, or perhaps Martha’s Vineyard home and we’d hang that huge flag for our annual 4th of July party that the whole town is invited to.  So far from who I really am.  Anyway, I digress…tis the season to get nautical –

Apartment Therapy

Nursery Notations

Houzz

See what I’m saying?  Doesn’t this appear to be a fun life to live?  Ahoy matey.

Project Progress Update

Last week, I shared with you the beginning stages of an office project that I’m working on.

When I was called on the scene…

Where we were at last week…

This week, new paint went up and it made a huge difference on the room.  We also switched out a standard flush mount fixture to the fun semi-flush Moravian star light.  Here’s where the room is at now…

Doesn’t paint make such a huge difference in a room?  I can’t wait until the romans go up because that too really finishes off a room.  I’ll be doing another progress shot in a couple of weeks as new items arrive.

Happy Friday everyone!!  Have a fabulous memorial day weekend!

Dining in the Kitchen

The other day, Graham and I were over at a friend’s apartment.  Our friend has a very large open kitchen and then a spot off of the kitchen that is more of a nook for the dining table.  He wanted room for a larger dining table.  I suggested to him to move his dining area into his huge open kitchen.  Graham and our friend looked at me like I was grade A crazy.  To prove that it isn’t quite time to drop me off at the funny farm, let me show you some truly fabulous ways to plop a dining room table right smack dab into the middle of a kitchen.

I say, if you’ve got the space, you love to throw parties and you don’t mind people seeing the dirty dishes stack up, go for dining in the kitchen!!  Isn’t it always where everybody congregates anyways?

Small Space Huge Character

California real estate is expensive – depressingly so!  It makes all the Texas humidity seem downright charming compared to the paralyzing monthly mortgage bills a California shack will bring your way.  So, if you do opt to live in the sunshine state, often times it’s all about small space living.  That’s why I was simply smitten with interior designer, Leslie Landis‘ 300 square feet place.  Talk about packing in the charm!

Who needs wide open spaces anyway? To read more about Leslie’s home, check out her apartment tour on Apartment Therapy.

Over Dyed Rugs

Gilt Group had a sale yesterday on over dyed rugs which reminded me that I should do a post on how beautiful over dyed rugs are in a home…

Sabbespot

Munahome

Mimi and Meg

The Room Blog

Anthropologie

A great resource for over dyed rugs is Rugs USA.  If I had the room or need for a rug, I would go with this fuchsia one…

For a huge selection of over dyed rugs, check them out here.

Shopping Deals

When looking for a good deal for the home, a good place to look is JCP.  I paruoused their online shop, and here are some goodies that I will keep in mind for projects:

Ottoman

Windsor Bench

Gourd Lamp

Rectangle Table Lamp

Plaid Rug

While on the website, I couldn’t help but also check out their clothes…

Pin Blouse

Printed Blouse

Woven Dress

What do you think about JC Penny?  Have you shopped there recently?

In Progress

I really only like to show the finished product of projects because the in progress shots are not nearly as pretty.  But I thought it would be fun to see a little more behind the scenes.  Keep in mind these are all I phone pics and the project is NOT finished!

The office that I was referring to yesterday will be getting 8″ horizontal stripes in the alternating colors of Pale Oak and White Dove by Benjamin Moore.

Here is what the room looked like when I was called onto the project:

The first thing to get changed out were the chairs.  We wanted to do comfortable office chairs with a large impact since that’s what you see as you enter the room.  Enter these vintage ETSY chairs which I blogged about before…

And in the room…

I love the high back, the interesting shape, the happy green color with the white banding and my client is so thrilled that the chairs are on casters and they are super comfy.  My client has two adorable girls and she will often sit in between them on the stool while they are doing their homework.  She found a super cute stool that goes so perfectly with the new rug.  Please note – the rug is NOT in the position that it will be in permanently.   We’re going to wait until the painters move out the furniture to paint the room and when they move it all back in, we’ll be putting down the rug first.

We have custom romans and a custom settee, lamps, a coffee table, a bookshelf, a new overhead light and a large whiteboard to go but we’re getting there.  The paint job should be finished next week so I can show you an update next Friday.

Happy Friday everyone!!

Tone On Tone Stripes

I’m meeting with a client this morning to finalize paint colors for some tone on tone stripes that will be painted in their family office.  I really like the look of large horizontal stripes in a room and when they are tone on tone they have a very classic look to them.

Apartment Therapy

Young House Love

Sara Richardson Design

When going for the tone on tone look, just pick a paint colors that are about two shades away from each other to get that subtle look.  If you would like a bit more differentiation, you can do one color matte and the other glossy.