Happy Halloween!!!

martha stewart

pottery barn

isabella and max rooms

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rug a boo

we want a new rug for our living room. our vision is to one day live in a house centered around neutrals. (by the time we own that house - yes we still rent - we will have a different vision.) we are big fans of creamy whites, greys, woods and metals.

our couch is our only "real" piece of furniture at this point. meaning, it is the one new piece we bought together, post marriage, as a start towards furniture in our home. that said, I love other elements in our living room too. the peacock book case and the french/german trunk from my grandfather are a few. I do also love the coffee table, iron legs, thick wood planks similar to a farm table.

(west elm)

our actual living room (from about a year ago - the yellow table and lamp are no longer there)

I'm getting to my point. What I wonder is this, I am sick of rug patterns that ultimately end up pissing me off after about two months. I want a simple, neutral colored rug. and in truth, I want it to be somewhere in the family of white. now, we have a big ol' crazy dog that has black hair and likes to run laps in our backyard, often after rolling around in rotten apples. I realize that a white rug is stupid. but I want one. I love the pebble rug from west elm right now, mostly because it is the most affordable in that style (we originally fell in love with one at design within reach).

I fear the grey pebble rug will only clash with our couch. or be drab. BUT is the ivory too white (too bright)? AND will it be immediately nasty? thoughts?

felted garland

I just bought 8 different colors of wool roving to make this felted garland - can't wait!!!

small bird

awesome-ness

via pinterest

baby boy room reveal

We finally finished the room for the new baby! Notice I didn't say "nursery." Does anyone else get a creepy, Flowers in the Attic vibe from that word?



I digress. The space is small (8 x 10 feet) and so was our budget. We had to tackle some basics - adding heat (the room was unheated), moving an electrical outlet, adding a wall light switch (again...old house), fixing the plaster in some areas, etc. This work, plus the twin bed we bought for June, ate up some serious cash.

Based on our budget, we worked with a mix of things we already had and some new stuff.

Already Had
crib
curtain fabric (Amy Butler honeycomb in green)
cherry wood rocking chair

New Items
rocker cushions
dresser/changing table
art and wall decor

We bounced around a few design ideas but my husband is the design skeptic. Nothing too nautical or soft or modern or glam (i.e. no baby blue zebra print curtains). Very picky for a man who wanted to name our son Geronimo. Nick envisioned a "tough, bold, 70's room." This was his inspiration.

source

In college we owned a cherry red Subaru brat so this go-kart tugs at our heart strings. But dirt brown and 70's orange? No thanks. Okay, how can we make this work and still use the Amy Butler fabric?

Then Nick found this image online and wanted to replicate the red, orange and yellow stripes about midway up the accent wall. "Whatever you think is best, dear," I said, doing my best Betty Draper inpression, while suppressing my design dictator personality.

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Turns out...no like. Too circus-y. Nick thought it looked like a Burger King circa 1985. Bold, bright colors are great but this was just wrong. And no, I didn't take any pictures of the disaster. Imagine a fast food joint and you'll get the picture.

Plan B - use a more subdued color for the stripes (*cough*...my original idea). But that meant we had to re-prime, re-paint, re-tape, and then re-stripe the wall. Oh and re-mud and sand the wall because we could see the raised outline of the stripes through the first coat of primer.

In the end, we extended the horizontal stripes from floor to ceiling (see tutorial here), I finished the curtain, and Nick hung a new closet door and room door. Again, my hero - he had to cut, prime, paint, fit with hardware, and hang the doors. Added all the fixings and we were done!





Here's the rundown on sources...

Paint: walls are Navajo White from Olympic at Lowes. A great low-VOC paint we used in June's room. The stripes are a custom match, also in Olympic, of Benjamin Moore's Woodlawn Blue.

Crib: Graco Tuscon, a model which is discontinued. It's a fixed side crib though, so it wasn't recalled.

Dresser: Ikea Tromheim

Curtain: DIY lined curtain using Amy Butler fabric (tutorial here)

Nightlight: Kinderglo

Tote: 3 sprouts

Rocker Cushions: black, ikat cushions on sale here

Elephant Stool: family piece passed down from my stepmom. This pachyderm got airlifted out of Vietnam.

Wall Art: red painted H from Joann Fabrics, Charley Harper memory game collage by me, and a lovely fox print from my blogging partner in crime and uber-cool cousin, Bridget.

All in all, we're quite happy with how the room turned out. Somehow the design concept went from Bold 70's to Burger King to...what is it now? Preppy/ethnic? I can't tell. Clearly, the Bambino will care less, but June loves it in there, so I'll take that as the seal of approval.

DIY wall stripes

We decided to do a striped accent wall in the baby's room. Uncharted territory for us. Originally I wanted stripes on the floor, in the form of a Dash and Albert striped rug to lay down over the carpet. But given how small the room is (8 x 10 feet), my husband thought the door would keep catch on it and annoy the snot out of us. He's probably right.

Here's the wall before the stripes - the room is painted in Navajo White from Olympic, a great low-VOC paint from Lowes.

BEFORE

We wanted about 4 or 5 colored stripes on the wall, plus equal-sized "negative space" with the wall color. So based on that and the wall height, we went with 10 inch wide horizontal stripes. I used this great tutorial from Young House Love as our guidance.


The stripe color is a custom match of Benjamin Moore's Woodlawn Blue in Olympic paint from Lowes. Gotta love that they have the colors for designer fan decks in their computer.

AFTER - daytime

AFTER - nighttime

Not too shabby. We did remove the tape while the paint was still wet, as recommended by Young House Love. A little scary, especially with a toddler underfoot, but it was definitely the right move.

More on the baby's room to come!!!

baby boy's room teaser

Here's a glimpse of what I've been up to lately....

public bikes

founder of design within reach, rob forbes, recently focused his design eye on the biking world with his new project public bikes. read more about it HERE. his vision is to make biking more comfortable, chic and enjoyable. personally, I *love* these bikes. they are beautiful and I want one.

we currently have beach cruisers that are heavy and without gear shifts making them impossible to ride in hilly northern california. I want the look without the weight. but good grief, look at the price tag.

white, wood, metal

I have always believed I wanted a very eclectic home. a sort of anthropolgie-style house decorate with furniture, artwork, rugs and accessories from our travels, our friends, our memories, etc. but, being a hater of clutter and a lover of the very clean and simple, I am wondering if maybe this isn't what I really want. after seeing kerri russell's house in elle decor recently, I love the idea of paring down to the basic elements of whites, woods and metals.

feast your eyes on this:

love the wood on these cabinets; espresso stained reclaimed fir. never thought I wanted a darker wood cabinet in my kitchen until I saw these bad boys.

(and I love that her husband basically built the home and all the wood furnishings while she decorated to match his earthy style. amazing talent).

memory

I stole a brilliant idea from fellow blogger dandee for a certain toddler's upcoming birthday. the game of memory. instructions HERE (my bag is not as cool).

total work time was about 30 minutes (maybe a little longer because I have never been good at making a star).

trough sink

I am sick of sharing the bathroom sink with my husband. we are like WWF wrestlers that have to tag in in order to brush, floss, and wash every night before going to bed. but I hate double sinks. there's something so irritating about them (maybe all those saturdays growing up when my mom would demand, "just clean the sinks" before guests came over). the more sink, the more I dislike. however, the trough sink trend is emerging rapidly and I find myself digging it. I want.

(apartment therapy)

(site)

I especially enjoy when the trough steers away from being too modern.

(a spot in the sun)

waverly modern essentials

I was at Joann Fabrics the other day and spotted the new Modern Essentials collection from Waverly. Pretty sure I said "ooooo" out loud and walked over in a trance.

It's so yummy - the weave on the fabric feels great and the patterns and colors are gorgeous.