Have you seen this feature on the Martha Stewart site? Some of my recent favorites include the bamboo steamers used as organizers, the paintbrush rack, and the fabrics remnants rack.
We have built-in shelves above our (new!) washer and dryer, so we're planning to add a curtain to hide the supplies (just like Martha suggests):
I met up with Christiana yesterday for brunch and shopping. Things worth noting from our outing:
The rest of my weekend was spent watching the Olympics, unpacking more boxes, hanging out with Jon and his college friends, and removing the last few pieces of furniture from our old house (okay, Jon actually handled this task).
After stressing for weeks about the sale of our house, it turned out, there was no reason to be concerned. The house hit the market on a Friday and by the following Wednesday, we had a deal. As expected, the realization that the old house — which was our first, the house we purchased just one month after getting married — is not really ours anymore was a bit emotional.
I came across this photo on the Ferm Living blog and immediately went over to their online shop to order the "Branch" wall sticker for our bedroom:
See, we live right along the San Andreas Fault, so hanging anything above our headboard makes me nervous. This is the perfect solution for adding a little visual interest, without the risk of anything falling on top of us if there's an earthquake.
Also found on the Ferm blog: A sneek peek at a couple of new (not yet available) designs!
Grace posted today about Amenity's fantastic new holiday collection. While it's a bit early for me to start thinking about stockings and ornaments, I was delighted to find that their online shop now offers fabric by the yard.
While going through some old pictures on my camera's memory card, I came across these two from this year's Decorator Showcase in San Francisco:
I love the fashion illustrations hanging from lucite hangers in the lady's dressing room. I think I'm going to have to search Etsy later today for some illustrations for my own closet. (BTW, the DS room was designed by Melanie Coddington.)
I wish I had some old grade school math exams or homework that I could blow up into artwork similar to the one shown in the bottom photo. Maybe I can take one from my nine-year-old niece or seven-year-old nephew? (Unfortunately, I don't remember which room the artwork appeared in, so I'm not sure which designer was responsible for this selection.)
UPDATE: The artwork is an original by Michael Scoggins. (Thanks, Hannah!)
Since I was in NYC last week for less than 48 hours, I didn't get a chance to visit ABC Carpet & Home. But I did make it over to Barneys housewares department, where I picked up this Madeline Weinrib rug:
Also at Barneys, I spotted these cute stools and ottomans done up in Judy Ross patterns:
And at Anthropologie, they had a bunch of vintage suitcases that had been transformed into tables with the addition of some wooden legs:
Those suitcase tables are now officially on my DIY project list.
What a week. In the middle of all of the moving madness, I had a writing deadline *and* ended up going to NYC for a couple of days. All good stuff, but very tiring!
Oh, here is a snapshot of the only box-free room in our house, the dining room:
And in case you're wondering: Yes, we are short several chairs in this photo. But they have been ordered and should be here any day now (an amazing housewarming gift from my sister). The candelabra is a holdover from the previous owners that I'm still debating about. And we need a longer runner now that we've expanded the dining table.
Have a great weekend!
We've spent the past few weeks packing up box after box and it's finally moving day! The previous owners of the new place vacated this past weekend, so Jon and I went over and snapped a few photos. Like this one:
There are skylights in pretty much every room on the main level of the house. And Jon informed me last week that those windows way up there by the ceiling are called "clerestories."
This photo is taken from the dining area and you can probably tell that there's a faux finish on the walls. I am not a fan of faux finishes. But Jon claims that he likes it. (I think he's just saying he likes it to avoid having the walls repainted.) I'm willing to live with it for a bit and see how it works with our furniture, but I'm skeptical that the finish will grow on me. I think the space would look better with a nice coat of white.
I've been ordering all sorts of fabric swatches lately and they usually arrive in a plain ol' envelope from the retailer. Well, leave it to Anthropologie to take things up ten notches with the coolest packaging ever for free swatches:
Included in the little box are: a handwritten note about their fabrics and furniture; cards detailing the various sofas and chairs they offer; the swatches themselves; a small pencil; and a measuring tape. Seriously cute.
Remember those great pocket-sized floor plans that were posted on Apartment Therapy? I decided to take that idea and modify it a bit by using a Russell + Hazel mini-binder.
Each room has its own tab, which includes: a layout of the space on grid paper, fabric swatches for furniture, and clippings of possible future purchases. I'm also keeping track of paint chips and wallpaper samples that we might incorporate in the house later on.
Did I mention that I'm going to have a gift-wrap/craft room in the new house? Indeed I am! So I couldn't resist when I spotted these spool stands on Mighty Haus. I immediately picked up a set at KarenElizabeth's Etsy shop to store my ribbons:
Yay for cute organizational goodies!
Must. Mark. Calendar.
Earlier this week, the de Young announced a 40-year Retrospective of the Work of Yves Saint Laurent. It opens November 1, and the San Francisco museum will be the only venue in the U.S. for the show.
I can't wait!
I seriously want one of Berkeley photographer Aya Brackett's chromogenic prints for our dining room or kitchen:
Saigon Cafe
Problem Solving
You can see more of her work at The Beholder. I love the travel photos on Aya's website, too.
Today's AT:SF House Call was a real treat to put together. It's the home of Maggie Mason. Yes, THE Maggie Mason, aka Mighty Girl. This painting has got to be one of my favorite things in her place:
Maggie and her husband, Bryan, commissioned the awesome painting by Diane Feissel.
It looks like JHill Design has released even more cities in the "Places I Have Never Been" series, including:
Traverse City, Michigan, might be my favorite of this bunch.
I read quite a few blogs.* And one of my favorite things to do is check out the comments. But you may have noticed that I don't have the comments feature turned on for my own site. This is something that I've been going back and forth on for a while now. The main reason I don't: If I activate comments, I get an email every time one is written so that I can approve/publish it. This is great because I get instant alerts ... but it also means I get a lot of spam comments/emails.
However, with the new house will come lots of new decorating projects. So I'm hoping the Internet (i.e., YOU out there) will give me lots of feedback and advice. And if I have to delete a few additional pharmaceutical, online gambling and no-interest home loan spams in my inbox every day? It's worth it.
* My newest regular reads are: In(side) the Loop and Urban Grace Interiors.
So I have this idea for our new house: a Wii Room! Jon's not fully on board yet though ... And that could be because we don't yet have: 1) any furniture for that room (including a TV), or 2) a Wii. But here's just what we need to get motivated to start putting together our Wii Room:
Nintendo wall stickers by Blik! (via Apartment Therapy)
A while back, Meg put out a call for some helping hands for her fabulous Modern Economy sales. I couldn't make it to the SF event in April, but signed up for the Portland sale. It went down this weekend, which also marked my birthday. Initially, I was going to travel solo ... But then my sister wanted to join me, since her best friend lives up there. And then Jon decided to tag along as well.
So, in the end, I got to spend my birthday weekend with all sorts of great people. Which, of course, makes me one lucky lady. But on top of the awesome company I kept? I picked up some fantastic stuff at the sale. AND I enjoyed meals at Clyde Common and Saucebox. AND I met Lise (from Apartment Therapy) and Sally in person! AND I just had to squeeze in multiple trips to Stumptown Coffee.
Not only was the Stumptown coffee excellent, but they had these beautiful glass light fixtures. Pretty, pretty.
Ever since Sasha at BellJar sent over this photo of her shop (for an Apartment Therapy post), I have not been able to stop obsessing over the wallpaper.
My dream: To line one wall of the laundry room with this pattern. And, on the opposite wall, hang a few of these little guys:
And, um, no. I still haven't really given the washer and dryer much thought. I'm too busy figuring out how to make that room pretty!
