On a Whim

"On a Whim" is a beautiful little store in a converted barn in Lucketts, Virginia right before you get to the Old Lucketts Store & Lucketts Design House. You can't miss the polkadotted siloh!! The owner, Donna, and her daughter are as sweet as can be when you go in there & they have handpicked their dealers with a beautiful an eye for display.

I think they will soon be selling online so check back!! I'm off to run out to go clothes shopping (you know you buy too many things for the home when you have to say, "clothes shopping." haha It's been so long since I've bought clothes & some of you bloggers out there have gotten me in the mood for some goodies!! ;) but I think these pics speak for themselves. Enjoy the "shopping trip!" ;) (ok, one thing-- i LOVE this chandelier!!! )

Hope you enjoyed checking out this awesome store!!! The prices are amazing & it's always changing!!

xoxo,

lauren

The Search for 'Home'

Yesterday we went out house-hunting. Well, it was more of a trip to see what's available in our price range. And it wasn't pretty. (I'm being kind.) I tried searching for a picture to insert here as an example & didn't want to hurt any feelings by using actual listings, so I googled "dilapidated house..." and sadly, I liked the dilapdated house pictures better than what's on the market in our price range. (They have character & potential!) So, here is a picture of the type of house I love:
In Northern Virginia, although housing prices have dropped some due to the economy, it's still a really tough situation for young people like us who want to buy. Our goal is to find the saddest, ugliest house in the best neighborhood we can afford & to renovate. If a house has new cabinetry & granite countertops & beautiful touches, we're not interested because we don't want to pay for someones else's renovations (I think we all know how defined my tastes are) and I'd feel terrible ripping something pretty like this out:

Give me this baby (below) any day!



SO I am constantly reworking floorplans for these tiny little houses & figuring out what we'd need to do to make them liveable & beautiful and then trying to estimate the costs. Here's a typical home here (we would love to get our hands on something like this in a year or so.. maybe sooner if something pops up):


And I'd want to do something like this: (from seamanandsonsbuilders.com)

or this... (from istockohoto.com)

I love the idea of changing the pitch of the roof & adding dormers although we couldn't justify this unless the roof needed replacing. Lucky for us, many of the houses in our budget need new roofs... in fact, my favorite house yesterday had a huge hole in the roof that the rain had poured through & ruined the floor beneath too! yay (ok, am I seriously saying I was happy about this??!! yes, because I saw it as money off the price & in reality it's all we can afford.)

This house (below) from Cottage Living shows some great ideas for adding charm to the typical 70s ranch (which is very likely what we'll end up in.)

The homeowners, Tyler & David Colgan, turned it into this adorable little cottage with coach house details:

Check out their beautiful kitchen. A wall of windows over the counters instead of uppers is a must in my dream kitchen.

Oh-so-pretty!And here's a cool little thing they did in the back of their living room. They made his & hers office nooks for each of them. (He's an architect & she's a designer, aww) The doors slide shut when they're not working.

And here's a picture of their adorable little baby girl sitting at her pretty changing table. Such a functional & useful space... we used the closet for Christian's changing area too & it saves so much space in his tiny bedroom!

Well, anyway, I'll be posting more about our search for a house in the coming months. Just to sum it all up- because I live, eat, breathe design & all things houses, I've never wanted any material thing as much as I want a house. haha but I'm dealing ;)

xoxo

My Parents' Living Room: Before & After

I'm totally a sucker for before & afters. So here are some photos of my mom and stepdad's house which we recently mini-revamped. Below is the AFTER:

Haha, no just kidding! ;) Above & below are the "befores" which had been done in the early 90s. The fabrics on the sofa, chairs, throw pillows & swag were a coordinated set! (How things have changed!) (I remember how excited we were picking it all out when I was about 1o or 11!)



My mom's style has definitely changed. It's more laid-back & comfortable yet still feminine & includes some old-fashioned elements. She's drawn to intricate patterns & viney-floral motifs but she doesn't want a fussy look. (My stedad is happy if she's happy! :) She's got me & my husband, my 11 year old sister & a grandbaby, so she's a busy lady. She wanted less pattern, more relaxation in the living room... a quieter space. (There's a TV in there which I didn't photograph... we're looking for the right piece of furniture for it right now so I'll post on that later.) She's into softer colors now, so we pulled those out from the existing dark Oriental rug for the sofas & revolving pillows. The mantle (below) is constantly changing & today's display is a bit moody/ stormy because we're hoping for snow ( it's a house full of teachers!! :) My mom found & fell in love with the wicker rocker at an antiques shop. The fabric's a bit off but I still think it works because it's totally her style.


Their coffee table is super-functional. That whole drawer pulls out in both directions & it's stuffed with games.


For drapes, we went with these crewel ones from Pottery barn. They work really well with the colors in the existing Oriental Rug.


Here's a close-up of that old tray on the coffee table (It moves around the house too) that was such a steal at $8 from Lucketts!

Below, is a silhouette of my little sister looking pretty above the antique secretary my grandmother gave to my mom when she was in college. This contributes to the old-fashioned feeling my mom loves.

Here's a close-up of the oak leaf lamps. They create a nice sculptural element behind the sofa & pull some more pattern into the room without being obvious & adding more colors/ fabrics.

Here are 2 chairs we scored along with a settee at a thrift store. They're "temporary" seating substitutes for my mom's dream chairs.

One last shot of the "after:" up-to-date, relaxing, comfortable with a hint of feminine tradition. (It's still missing some elements & I'll show more pics when we're finished-- er I guess we're never really finished... so I'll post pics at our next stage! ;)

Thanks for reading!! xoxo,

Lauren

Synesthesia- do you have it?

Synesthesia - from the Ancient Greek σύν (syn), "together," and αἴσθησις (aisthēsis), "sensation" — is a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway (definition taken from Wikipedia)


(Image from yale.edu)

Studies show that anywhere between 1 on 20 to 1 in 20,000 people have this condition. (They really narrow it down! ;)

(image from national geographic)


During my sophomore year of college, I was sitting in my Public Speaking Class & our professor popped in a video of an example of an informative speech. The speaker in the video began with the question, "What color is the number five?" (I automatically answered "red" in my head.) He asked a series of questions that I instinctively answered. When he was finished with the questions, he said something like, "Now these questions but sound strange to you, but they are perfectly simple questions for a person with synesthesia to answer."


I'm thinking.. "Whaaaaaat?!"


And he goes on to explain the condition known as synethesia in which some people, called synesthetes, have a sensory connection between one or more of their senses. How these people can described certain numbers & colors in pitches and how others see a number & taste something or hear a note and see a color or smell something. I sat there looking around at the class, dumbfounded, because I had thought everyone felt this way about numbers & letters & colors & sounds. I was looking for nodding heads or some sign that others in the class identified with what the speaker was saying. nadda.

When the speach was over, I raised my hand & asked the class if anyone had those thoughts. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy and I was like, "I think I have this."




So I went home to my computer & started doing some research. It was mind-blowing to me becaue I'd always had these feelings and had never thought anything of them because I simply assumed that everyone felt certain colors when they looked at letters or numbers. Or associated personalities with them. Or felt certain pitches when they looked at things.

I went on to read that it if often genetic & can also be caused by LSD or serious head injuries. (And I've never done LSD or had a serious head injury ;)


(image from tblayden.com)


There are a couple of theories out there as to why people have it. One is that there is increased wiring between the senses of the synesthete which communicate with eachother & get blended into one another. The other is that everyone has this wiring but that in the normal brain, there's a balance that keeps these areas from talking.


There are over 20 different types of synesthesia & here are the ones I have:

"In one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme → color synesthesia letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored, while in ordinal linguistic personification, numbers, days of the week and months of the year evoke personalities." (wikipedia) I also associate a certain pitch with colors & letters & objects (it sort of goes hand in hand with the personalities) and there seems to be a sort of innate vibration in everything. (So a faster vibration, like in the color yellow, is higher pitched than say a gray-blue which is slow & lower.) Maybe this is why I like white so much?? No vibration, no pitch... it's just the baseline for all the others.

A high-pitched room from domino mag:

"Very little is known about the overall cognitive traits associated with synesthesia ... However, synesthetes may be more likely to participate in creative activities,[16] and some studies have suggested a correlation between synesthesia and creativity." (wikipedia)

(image from artsandindustrycouncil.org)

Anyway, my whole life I've always loved art: drawing, painting, singing, music. The problem was: I was not any good at any of them. Hahaha and I'm not just saying this. I could always color between the lines & make nice crafts, but I really couldn't create or make anything beautiful. Seriously, sometimes I would have this crazy urge (ok, like last year) to paint & when I try, it's just not good! :)

So anyway, I sort of view rooms as my canvas... My way of getting that creativity out. It wasn't until I found interior design that I truly felt like I had an outlet for my urges that actually looked good when I was finished.

(room by sarah tuttle for domino)

And rooms & interiors are also (like the rest of life) places where I feel vibrations & pitches & use color. So, I sort of wanted to explain this thing about me so you get where I'm coming from in certain posts. (This whole post started because I realized I was writing a post on the vibration and motion in a room & then realized it might not make sense without explaining the whole synesthesia thing.) Below, a very low-pitched room from House Beautiful:

For more info, here's a video on You Tube- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvwTSEwVBfc

Now, my question is, does this make sense to any of you? (Because I've asked so many people I know & have had at least 2 friends who identified with it.) Do you think you have it?? What color is 5 to you???

"Real" vs. "Kitsch"

As you know, I'm constantly trying to define my style, hone my skills & figure out what works & what doesn't work in spaces. Well, a concept I often think about is real or authentic design, art & accessories. vs. what make something kitsch or scripted or forced or "decorated."

I used to be THE culprit of kitsch when I started out. I wanted my college apartment bedroom to feel like a conservatory, so up went a huge painting of a conservatory & palms & a whole dollar store's worth of fake flowers along with it. eesh (I've mentioned this room before & still haven't found a picture of it- my albums are in storage!)

Anyway, since kitsch is often one of the easiest & cheapest things to do and one of the most readily available, we see it a lot in real life. Picture the person who wants their house to feel like a farmhouse so they buy farmhouse dinnerware:

When instead they could do something more authentic, like this home from Country Living, below:

Using materials & details that would possibly be used in a true farmhouse make this space authentic. The cow print is a fun playful addition to the room & it's not trying to be anything more than it is. The white ironstone is appropriate & beautiful.

Or picture the person who wants a Tuscan-feeling kitchen & fills it with an unusable amount of bottles of oil in the kitchen,

or dishcloths with winebottles on them, wine bottle artwork and throw in a mass-produced Tuscan scene or two. Now I do not mean to judge here, merely to get us thinking. I have been the culprit of this many a time. I think it's a really easy way of designing to get into for the inexperienced & I've SO been there. (how do you think I can describe this room so perectly?! ;)

But the interesting thing is how to figure out how we can evolve out of it, to figure out ways to create the spaces we desire without being inauthentic. To really evolve & become better. I like this styled buffet from Pottery Barn, below. It gives the Tuscan feeling without being as obvious:

Why show a picture of a bottle of wine with no intrinsic artistic value when you can simply have a wine rack? (This isn't to say that I think art with wine in it can't be beautiful, because I've actually very recently seen some amazing art with wine bottles in it) And, why have a picture of a potted palm when you can just head to Home Depot & grab a real one? (yeah, I know, you have to keep it alive ;) And I'm not talking about botanical prints of palms (which I love & I do think of as authentic), I'm talking about the early 90s looking artwork:

If you have stuff like this home, don't feel bad. Just maybe take a minute to reevaluate it. Ask yourself if you actually love the piece or if you just picked it up because it was inexpensive & came in 4' by 3' & fit the "theme" and in the blank space above the sofa. If those are your reasons, I'd say ditch it. If you actually look at it & do love it, then work with it. Thomas Kinkade (below) is one of America's top-selling painters & his name is also one of the first that pops up when you google "kitsch art." A lot of people love his work & the happy feeling it gives them. I say that if you really love something even if it is considered inauthentic, then keep it. If you love it, it's authentic to you.

I also do think it's possible to be ok with certain aspects of kitsch. For example, check out this space in decorator Kirsten Hollister's kitchen (below image from turquoisechic.com) where she uses a bunch of kitschy little paintings of flowers & groups them together casually, irreverently & has fun with them. She's using them for the pops of color & fun they add to the room and it's not displayed as precious art:

And I totally have a thing for really cheap old paintings of landscapes, boats, people & the water. I get them for around $5- $30 & I absolutely love them. I know they're not great art and are considered kitsch, but something about them makes me happy. I think the key is to just display them casually or en masse. The way you display art says a lot about it. (Is it lit up & in a $400 frame? Then that baby better be art in your eyes!) Image below from interiordec.about.com:

Here's a $5 cheapie I love (below) that I have on my mom's mantle right now. It's just causually leaning there & it's not a permanent fixture. It doesn't speak to me in any profound way, it simply added the color & feeling I was on the mood for in the room. It's more to create atmosphere than to be gazed upon as a work of art.

On this road also comes the fabric question. There are those who say that flowers belong in vases & not on fabrics. I really do see the logic & realness to this idea, but I'm still not there yet. I still love a pretty floral on a pillow or blanket. (I'll write more on this later)

One thing I am learning through all of this is that I don't believe in absolutes when it comes to design. Make your rules, but if something comes along & doesn't jive with your rules & you're okay with that, break 'em! I just think it's important to be aware of why you're making certain decisions & to be aware of why you're breaking the rules.

("They're more like guidelines anyway." ;)