Monday, April 30, 2012

Etsy Coral & Teal Roundup

This Spring I am loving Coral & Teal together. Both of these colors are so fun, light and spring-like! Enjoy a few of my favorite finds on Etsy. 


1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16

Friday, April 27, 2012

Feature Friday: Crazy Wonderful


Today I am featuring the home of Shelley from the blog Crazy Wonderful. Here is how Shelley describes her style:
















You can see all the details and resources of this room here

Thank you so much Shelley for sharing your home with us! Make sure you check out her blog here

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

I Finally Have a New Kitchen Table!

If you've been reading my blog for awhile you know I am in desperate need of a new kitchen table. 


Our current table was a hand me down from my parents and while it was a fine table it was pretty beat up. If you read this post then you know that I got a great deal on some new kitchen chairs last year. 


The new chairs have been amazing and have totally lightened the kitchen up. But there was still the issue of that dang table. I have really been struggling with what to do. I was nervous about white because my white chairs get pretty marked up. I didn't want to have to worry about constantly cleaning it. I didn't want dark either because my kitchen already has so much dark wood. So as a result of not knowing what to do I've done what most people do... nothing. 

But if you follow me on Facebook I announced that I finally made a decision and bought a new table! 


I purchased the Rustic Kitchen table from West Elm at DownEast. I got it for a great deal because there was a little bit of damage to it. I scored it for $300! 


I am totally in love with it. 

It has a stainless steel top which really worried me. But while I was at the store I ran my fingers all over it and it actually doesn't really show fingerprints. 

I also wipe it down daily with one of my favorite cleaning products. 


I love this stuff and it smells sooo good. 


I really like having a little industrial vibe to my kitchen. Plus the stainless steel top keeps the kitchen from feeling too dark. 

What do you guys think? 

If you are curious about any of the sources in my Kitchen visit my home tour here

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

New Desk Accessories From Poppin

My desk is constantly needing to be organized. I can't believe how fast piles stack up.  Let's just take a look at what I work with on a daily basis. 

Am I the only one that suffers from a cluttered desk? 


I was really excited when the folks at Poppin offered to send me some desk essentials to try out. 


You can check out all of my picks over on their blog

I did a little de-cluttering and dispalyed all my pretty new desk accessories. 


Hopefully it stays this nice for at least a few days. 


I ecspecailly love this stackable inbox. I needed this so bad to organize all my paper piles. Thank you Poppin for letting me review their great products. 
Make sure you check their blog here to see a little Q & A I did with them. 

Monday, April 23, 2012

Etsy Roundup and an Announcment


Last week we had our ultrasound and I honestly and truly had no idea what to expect. I kept telling myself that I didn't care either way and I dont' think I did. But I was ecstatic when the ultrasound tech told me.... 
All those weeks and weeks and weeks of being sick and throwing up felt so worth it when we got to see our little girl on the monitor. I have already started buying little girl stuff and it's kind of addicting. I've put together an etsy roundup for you with some of the items I'm loving. 



1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16

Now I need to design a Nursery! 

Friday, April 20, 2012

The Story of a Room: The Finished Room



If you are just tuning in check out the intro to this series here.

Thank you all so much for reading my series this week. I have had a great response and I feel like it's been good for readers to know that most design stories aren't just a before and an after. There is so much more that goes into each project. And I want to thank my amazing client for letting me share this story and her home with all of you. 

Let's review what we started with:


And here is what we ended up with! 


At that first initial consult I think her and I were both looking for something bold and maybe more modern feeling but in the end we came up with this beautiful, breezy and easy feeling space. 


The Swivel chairs and ottoman are from Lee Industries. The rug is from West Elm



Bird figure and pinecone from Alice Lane Home Collection


Trophies and vases from Alice Lane Home Collection. Basket and Books owned by client. 



Small houses and Orbs from Alice Lane Home Collection


Pillow sewn by Plush Studio in Schumacher Bleeker. Lamp from Visual Comfort


Leather sofa is from Alice Lane Home Collection


The floral pillows are done in Schumacher Hot House in Spark


The wood side table is antique from Great Exchange in Laguna Beach. 


Matches and candle snuffer are from Alice Lane Home Collection


Coffee table bench was custom made by the client's husband. White shams from Debbie's Porch



The set of mirrors are from Ballard Designs, no longer available. 

One thing that we really struggled with was where to put the piano. Pianos can be tricky to decorate around. 




We tried to break up the brown by having a custom slipcover made for the bench. 



Turtle Shell from Alice Lane Home Collection

While I was helping her with her Living Room she also enlisted my help with her Foyer. 


Mirror is from Star Mill in American Fork, Utah. 



The bench was a great consignment find by my client and she painted it white. It's an amazing piece. 


All photos by the amazing Jessica Kettle 

This will probably be one of my most memorable design experiences. It took almost a year to complete from start to finish so I felt like I evolved a lot as a designer through the process. My client was wonderful to work with and she really has great taste. I think she and I both taught each other a lot. She needed reassurance and a second opinion along the way and I needed someone to help me look outside my own "style". I pushed her to look outside of her box and she pushed me to look outside of mine. Designers can be pushy and sometimes they need to be. But this project was about letting the client's voice and personality come through in this space. Not mine. 

I wanted to share this experience with you on my blog so you could see how the process of a room comes together. Of course every room and every client evolve differently but this helps you see how much thought and effort goes into each room. With every project I encounter obstacles and it makes it that much more exciting to see the finished project come together. 

Just like a person, every room has a story. There is a history and an evolution to the spaces that we live. I love it when I get to be a part of that!