Beach Dwelling

Beach Dwelling is one of my favorite online stores to browse through for inspiration.

They carry items from manufacturers such as Shabby Chic & Canopy Designs. (And tons more, I just haven't figured them out yet!) Check out this amazing pearl chandelier:

The images they use are beautiful. Love all the calm contrast in this room:

They have a nice collection of Swedish pieces too. Their simplicity is perfect to me.

I LOVE the armillary sphere in this kitchen. Actually, I love the whole kitchen. The grays are gorgeous & make it a great space to do seasonal colors with. (Nothing makes me happier than reaccessorizing often! :)

What a great mix of antiqu- modern with that hint of natural I LOVE:

These trestle tables are on my "dream list" that goes along with the house. So beautiful. And we've been seeing lots of horns lately, so here's a fun one. A bit lighter & more feminine-looking than usual.

Hope you enjoy checking out the store!!

Need to Clear My Head

Well, my husband & I have been doing some budgeting & are trying to save up for a house & have done the math & are looking at a little over a year from now. But this is at practically breakneck pace & only if the market keeps doing what it's doing. So many things need to align & we've just created this insanely packed & strict schedule to get it all done & my head's spinning so I need to relax. Hence, the photos of relaxing rooms. :) (from Domino)


We just sold our townhome this summer & have moved with our toddler into my parents' house. It was a tough choice for us but one we felt we had to make. We love to relax at home, do projects, entertain, have houseguests, etc. & we've had to give a lot of that up.

My parents are great but it's still a tough situation. It's going better than I thought it would though, and in the past 4 months (we moved in July) I've gotten my interior design business to a point I thought I wouldn't reach for years. Career-wise it's been amazing for us. It's also a really humbling experience. In the design industry, at first I almost wanted to hide the fact that I live in my parents' basement because I'm definitely slightly embarrassed about it, but I've realized that we all have to get started somehow, so I'm out! :)


By nature, both my husband & I are doers. We make our decisions & then execute them right away. We purchased our townhome weeks before our wedding in 2005 & spent the week before our wedding moving. Our parents warned us that the market was too high but we didn't care. We had a plan that we could ride it for 5-7 years in that house.


Enter baby. Unexpected baby. Well, that really moved our timeline up a bit. We figured out that we wanted the house & the yard & all of that & that if we stayed in our townhome, we'd never save up for it quickly enough. My parents have a walkout basement with 2 bedrooms, a living room & an office... so, we sold our townhouse, taking a huge loss, a deep breath and moved in with my parents.

We're back on track & have our plan & it's just all sort of sinking in for me right now. What we need to do to get there- how we need to work our tails off yet somehow still have good qaulity time with eachother & not wish our time away because we can't ever get it back.


I'm in a good spot though, just a bit overwhelmed. We know what needs to be done & now we're just doing it. It's only going to make us stronger. (Haha, did I just give myself a pep-talk?!)


So, in the future, you can expect to see photos of my Christmas tree in the basement, our little basement house & you might hear me complaining about spider crickets in the Spring.

xoxo,
Lauren

Flowers: Adding something extra or carrying the room?

Greenery or flowers in a room: It's like the hair & makeup for a model before a photo shoot. They are always there in our favorite magazine rooms. To get rooms looking their best, photo stylists almost always add these finishing touches. And look how much they add:


I remember when I was younger, I used to look through catalogs & cover up the plant/flowers in the room & realize that I didn't like the room nearly as much without it. (I still do this & it's almost always true.) Sometimes the greenery stays (potted plants) and sometimes it goes (a vase of fresh flowers) but we rarely see rooms photographed without it. Sometimes I even don't like a room without the greenery... other times it's just another layer of beautiful, like this room from House Beautiful:

Without the Christmas tree, this room (West Elm) doesn't really do it for me:



In college, I filled my rooms with ferns I'd dug out of the woods (is that illegal?!) & slowly killed them as the school year went on. (oops) But because I didn't have the money to spend on the room (or the know-how), I let the ferns carry the room into this kind of conservatory-feeling place. But without them, the room didn't have much going for it design-wise. The photo below (from idealglazing.com) is what I was going for in an apartment bedroom -and haha ok on a really embarrassing sidenote, I actually went to the dollar store & hung a fake plant garland around as crown moulding.. WOW - hey, we all start somewhere, right?


Whenever I have rooms photographed, flowers or fresh leaves usually go in & I'm almost 100% positive that my clients don't constantly freshen their flowers in every room of the house. (Unless you're like Martha (image below) and/or obsessed with the way your house looks -like I'll admit I sometimes am- there's probably a pretty good chance that there aren't always fresh flowers or greenery in every room of the house- who's got the time?!) ... So it's really important that the room be beautiful on its own, without the flowers/ plants.


In a perfect world, we'd always have these little luxuries, but most of us usually end up doing it before parties, when guests are coming, when the seasons change or when we get a nice bouquet from the man. Which is what makes it special. (On another sidenote- Sometimes, because I'm constantly evaluating rooms/ homes, I feel this crazy pressure to have mine always looking its best. And right now it frankly does not. There are toys scattered everywhere, laundry baskets full of clean clothes waiting to be put away, and there's a dying branch of something that used to be pretty in a ball jar in my bathroom. AHhhh!!)

In the photo below from Martha Stewart, I love the old-discovered feeling of this room but it's the little bouquet of lilies that makes it really special to me. It brings the just a hint of the life that I think the room needs. I'm really not as into the room without it.

If the hit of life or green is what the room needs on a daily basis for the design to work, then put something that can stay there like moss or a living plant, like this room from shift (a blog I love and the room is done by Christine Lane Interiors who I will be writing about shortly as I cannot get over her amazing her rooms!):

Adding flowers and/or greenery to a room is something beautiful that we can do whenever we want to freshen up our homes without spending a bunch of money- it just takes time- but let's also remember that we can't let them carry the room either (like I did in college! .. If I had a picture of my room I'd put it up to give you a good laugh! :)
Have a great weeekend!!

When Something's Off

I was reading Celerie Kemble's new book, To Your Taste & one part really got me thinking. She was doing a showhouse & she added an accent pillow that was a bit off because she wanted it to seem as if the imaginary woman of the house had insisted it be there & had overruled the decorator. Here's a photo of some of her work:


But I got to thinking... there's definitely something to that concept of putting something off into a room. It feels real. Ever since I first saw this house by Leslie Klotz in House Beautiful, I was in love. It's just so perfectly off.

I realized that it's these little inconsistencies & quirks that bring life to a room. When something's just a bit off, the room becomes so right.

Part of it is because it makes the home feel personal & un-decorated, but there's also something intrinsically beautiful about it. Like this painting below that has so much more green in it than blue, but the blues in the work perfectly. It looks effortless & much better than if the tones had matched more closely. The room is deeper & more approachable.

It sounds like it would be easy to do. But it isn't always. Lots of my clients are young people starting from scratch. They don't have any collections. They're busy & they often don't have time to find meaningful things for their home. They may have a few special things that they love with which I can spring off of, but sometimes there's really nothing they want to keep & that's why they've hired a designer in the first place. In these case, it becomes the designer's job to find them meaningful things & to provide them with something a little imperfect. a little fun.

Here's a nightstand I did. The little vase is a rough touch to the glamorous lamp & photograph:

Here's a room from Domino. Check out the gray ticking on the headboard and the lamp. They're not obvious choices for this color scheme:

People may think they want Pottery Barn, but in my opinion it's not real enough. It's too perfect. (I do still love a lot of their things & the photos are beautiful, don't get me wrong-- I just feel they're just missing something.) Pottery Barn:

I know we all talk about using a nice mix of high & low and old & new, traditional & contemporary, etc., and yes, I TOTALLY believe in that... but what I'm trying to pinpoint is something more, something wrong with a picture that makes it right. Something that makes the a place feel like a home. Like these mismatched frames:

Clients give me photographs of rooms they love & more often than not, they tend to be advertisements & furniture catalogs which lack that realness to them that makes a room sparkle. I create inspiration boards from what they give me & then I let the fabrics guide me. So after, creating a beautiful spread of fabrics for all of the furnishings, draperies, etc., I look at my fabrics & try to replace a fabric or add another that will make the whole things feel a bit more normal & less perfect. It's SO tempting to go with the perfection that we see in advertisements (how great is it to find beautifully coordinating fabrics?!) but we have to get past that & create real homes for people. -- add a little something off & make it feel like a home, not a showroom.

In the photo above, it's the brown fabric that's starting to do what I'm talking about. It comes out of nowhere but just works. (A sunroom I'm working on.) You don't have to be seriously off, but just teensy bit out of left field. I'll still need a really quirky thrift store or flea market find to get the room where I want it to be.

In the one above, the reptile fabric is getting us on the right track. (This the beginnings of a Living Room/ Dining Room plan)

Below, it's the table that seems to add the imperfect feeling to the room from Domino. (I think it's Aidan Gray)

I know I'm probably rambling & being really philosophical, but anyway, it's something I'm trying to work on- To make rooms deeper & more real. It's a fine line to walk (if you're too off it'll look terrible) but I'm going to keep trying. The more rooms I do, the more I feel like I can grasp this concept. I'm going to make a serious effot to keep pushing my designs to be more real. Any thoughts?

High Society

Ok, so my husband & I were waching High Society - with Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby & Frank Sinatra- and I just had to share some pictures of the gorgous interiors. (I had it on our Netflix queue & when it arrived he said I was banned from picking out movies. :( But then when he actually watched it, he loved it. :) Here's the awesome turquoise & green room:



How fun are the white Chippendale chairs with funky green seat cushions?! And the stenciling?!!


I also love the hanging lantern & the atrium feel. This is just such an energetic color scheme & I definitely want to use it in something soon! And that table!!!

The outdoor furniture is great too. More funky green with a large rose patterned-fabric on the cushions.
Who would think to pair this combo together?! It's laid-back yet stylish. Rattan furniture is so easy to find at garage sales/ thrift stores: Put a coat of paint on it & add some fun cushions & you've got a chic outdoor space.

Here's Grace Kelly's character's room. Again, I'm loving the painted Queen Anne side chair with the pink seat. This room is definitely a little too feminine for my taste, but I do like some elements. Check out the chair in the background with the blue seat.

The designs throught the movie are just so fresh & still work beautifully today. Look at how cool & classic the pool setting is... Very Restoration Hardware/ hotel look. Love the metal lampost & the pedestal table. (I think it matches the one in the turqouise/green room.)

Ahhhhh.. okay okay. I just can't get over this foyer. It would scare me if it were mine (Carrying up the laundry?!) but I would LOVE to go to a party here. :) The potted palms, statue & crystal chandelier are so simple & elegant. The room itself is so detailed that the restraint they used here was perfect.

Hope you enjoyed. There are more amazing rooms than I posted throughout the movie. If if you haven't seen it in a while, go rent it!!! :) It's really a great one!

my dad's kitchen

Well, my dad's long-awaited kitchen is finally done! I'm so happy with the results & had to share.

We battled long & hard over the countertops & he won - we both wanted black, but I wanted a honed finish to go with the old cottage he lives in, whereas he wanted the polished because he thinks patina equals old & crappy. ah vell , it's still gorgeous :)

The beamed ceilings are inset with white beadboard & the cabinets are actually standard Home Depot cabinets with added custom detailing such as crown molding, beadboard and glass in the area over the built-in hutch (below) where I displayed all my grandma's old china. The chandelier is from Currey & Company & we're puting another one over the island.

The carpernters are amazing & made this awesome arched nook for the oven & hood that mimics the archways throughout the kitchen & rest of the house. I hung some of my go-to botanical prints (these are of Queen Anne's Lace & Thistle, which grow wild in the field accross from the house & remind me of summers there) above for a make-shift backsplash. (My dad rarely cooks.) The adorable vintage blue rose linen towl is from Volo, where we LOVE to go antiquing.

Since the curtains & shades aren't in yet, I hung fresh garlands up. It smells like Christmas in there!

I found this huge antique rustic bowl in Volo & it's one of my favorite purchases ever. Everything looks good in it! (We had family over the night before & served french bread in it & I joked that we couldn't eat until we got a picture!-- But we're Italian, so obviously with our appetites that didn't happen.)

And here's my first attempt at a "real" flower arrangement. (With the green spongey-thing inside) I found everything at the grocery store & it's filled with freesia, chrysanthemums, carnations, lilies and gerber daisies. (I wanted it white & fresh) I think my Grandmother will be proud & I know Eddie Ross's blog definitely inspired me to try for more with flower arranging. I put them in this really pretty aluminum bowl I found at Volo (shocker!) with a chrysanthemum carved on the inside.

Some of the plates are my Grandma Maestranzi's and I found the sparkly glass tumblers & center plates at volo. The mercury candleholders are from Target. The apothacary jars (below) are from Target & are a $35 substitute for the $350 white Fire King set of cannisters I found at Volo. Now I think I'm happier with these!

The island is huge & so much fun to sit at. We need to get a few more stools though because there was stool-stealing going on.

Still on my TO DO LIST: window treatments, dining room rug, dining chairs (we're going with wing chairs on the end) and some more artwork/ wall arranging. But for now, I'm happy with where the kitchen's at (which is a good thing, because I think my dad's DONE.)

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

ps- pair of candlesticks = $5 at Volo-- that place is awesome!