A Comfortable Home: My Thoughts

As you may have on a read on a couple of the other DC-area blogs, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams held their book launch & signing for their new book A Comfortable Home at their store in DC last week. I was sad to have missed it but so thrilled that they sent me a copy for review!

The layout is almost like a work-book with step-by-step instructions. It's very "how to" and I love that about it. It's full of beautiful rooms for sure, but its purpose is in teaching readers how to attain beautiful, comfortable rooms that make them happy. For example, here's an excerpt below which describes the process of creating inspiration files & discovering what it is that moves you in a room:

There's lots of eye-candy of course:

The idea of "the comfortable home" really resonates something within me. I love beautiful rooms but I'm happiest in a beautiful space that's, above all, comfortable. I love attainable rooms. Doable spaces. And that's what this book is all about.

The rooms in the book make you think, " I can do that" and it's really encouraging. Yes, the book is full of MG + BW merchandise, but it's not pushed on you at all... it's merely used as a means to show you how you can easily create spaces.

There are several sections of the book where they show you how a room can be arranged in different ways & it's a great way to jumpstart your traditional thinking. It's definitely a book that you can write in, take notes in & really use. I recommend it to those who are trying to reinvent their homes & make them more functional & versatile. It's a great overall teaching book on the design process of making your home beautiful, functional & comfortable.

So, what makes a home comfortable to you??

xoxo,

lauren

Time Flies... Better Late Than Never!

Well, time's really flown since we moved into our new house. It's been 6 months! I've been pregnant the whole time & when we first moved (during my first trimester) I was pretty worthless with helping out. I fell asleep on the sofa almost every night around 7 & poor Dave got so much done.

Second trimester (and summer) just flew by with an insane amount of home improvement projects and travel plans....

And now, here I am with a baby due in a little over a month & I can't believe how quickly the time has flown!!! (haha and back on the couch again! - but not really ;)

First pregnancies & second pregnancies are VERY different. (at least for me.) For my first pregnancy with Christian (now 2) it was pretty much all we talked about for MONTHS. We had lots of name ideas & found out as soon as we could that we would be having a baby boy. (I really thought I was having a girl & wanted one badly!! haha) We talked to Christian the whole pregnancy long. The nursery planning & painting began in February & he wasn't due until July. It's really a magic time & there's nothing like it. (Christian's nursery below.)

Now for my second pregnancy... sometimes I forget I'm even pregnant! Christian takes up so much of my thoughts & energy that I just don't have as much mental room cleared out for this pregnancy as I did the first time. (I can only imagine how subsequent pregnancies go! :) We don't know if we're having a boy or a girl and decided that when Baby 2 gets here, he or she will be loved & coddled an insane amount so that for now (while he/ she is still "inside") we'll focus on Christian. But, when we sing & talk to Christian, this little baby is hearing it too so I'm okay with this.

Anyway, what this is all leading to is the fact that we've done NOTHING with the baby's nursery. eeeeeeeek It's definitely a lot harder to plan a nursery this time not knowing if we're having a boy or a girl. Of course we're keeping all of the same furniture, but I do want to do something a little different from Christian's nursery. (Hey, I'm a decorator! I live for this stuff! ;) And, let me be totally frank here: a nursery is for the parents. (in our case, for me.. Dave could really care less how cute it is ;) But no baby cares what his room looks like. They just don't. So when planning this nursery I'm under no illusions that this is going to make my baby happy or that the color of the walls will matter at all to him or her. It's for me. It will make me happy. Below is the seashell mobile my cousin & I made for Christian's nursery over 2 years ago... It really did make me smile...

Here's the chaise lounge that we're still using: (pictured in our old house/ nursery)...

And now sad & lonely in the new nursery:

Here's the new nursery... just waiting to be done!!! We're keeping all of the furniture you see along with the bumper & sheets. (We're doing a new blanket- the striped blue one I made for Christian & I'll do a new one for the new baby- and also new mobile, and crib skirt & pillows... don't worry the pillows won't go in the crib to suffocate the baby ;) And of course we need some paint!

So... I was thinking owls a bit back if you remember... and then I came across this awesome owl lamp from Gallery Designs: (top 2 pendants are from them as well.)

Finally when I saw this lamp, a vision started forming. (It took long enough! ;) Since we don't know the sex of the baby, I'm going to stay super-neutral: creams, browns, oatmeals, black and white... I can always add in color in accents once the little one arrives... (really more likely once the "3-6 month blur" passes over this house ;) But I just want it to be totally relaxing & subtle & textural with a little hit of fun. I loved the tone-on-tone stripes in Christian's nursery & want to do the same thing in cream in here. Since we sometimes call our house "the treehouse" I thought that owls & trees would be great for the nursery... So I want to make a huge tree growing on the wall behind the crib out of decoupaged newspaper... Then we can tape up photos and pictures & little notes & fun things all over it.... Sort of like this wallpaper tree from Romp but out of newspaper:And I'd love to add a sculptural natural chandelier similar to this one from Arteriors Home. (This one is unfortunately too big with only 8 foot ceilings.)

And for a fabric option, I love this: Does anyone know what it's called or where to get it?? I found it at southlandpology.com:

And I'd love to add a Dash & Albert rug:

Anyway, I'll be looking for some good artwork to hang above the toy/ book shelf and of course a bunch of fabrics, so if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them!! For the windows I'm just doing Sears Roman shades in 'natural.' (I probably won't add any ebellishments to them because I want to keep the window treatment pretty blank for future room switches..) We plan on painting in the stripes (SO TEDIOUS!!) this weekend...

xoxo,

lauren

ps- for the full story & photos of Christian's nursery, click here

***UPDATE: Ok, I decided to go "cuter" than originally planned. After talking with family & thinking about how Christian will be in there enjoying it too, I'm going a little more "baby" than I wanted to go. It's still going to be really textural with some hits of color (and we're doing the newspaper tree) but it'll feel like a little more of a vintage-modern mix & maybe a little more "fun" than originally planned. I ordered the Dash & Albert pale blue rug above (boy or girl, I like it ;) and am sticking with the cream striped walls, but am using this colorful mobile made by a super-talented etsy -seller.

I found this vintage concert poster & will have it framed with oversized matting for one wall:

I'm loving this owl fabric. Such a pretty pale blue... I'm thinking either for a blanket or a pillow or bedskirt or even as banding on the roman shades... depends "how" cute I want to go ;)

And I'm crazy about this vintage crewel owl family (below). They look so lovingly-created! I plan on layering them above the shelves with the toy baskets along with a large mirror, lamp & some other things...

Finally, depending on if we have a boy or girl, I'll still add in "girlier" fabrics, curtains & accessories or some more boy colors...

Living With Less

(room above by Chaffee Braithwaite) I was so excited to see our kitchen renovation on Design * Sponge and one of the reader's comments really got me thinking. The reader wondered about our losing storage space when we tore down the upper cabinets & replaced them with shelving.

(image above from channel4.com)

It hasn't been a problem for us & I actually have a ton of storage space for what we have (we have a pantry for our food & miscellaneous appliances & a large sideboard in the dining room for servingware & sets of china and our wine & most of our hangs from the wall) but it did get me thinking that there are things that we've gotten rid of or don't buy simply because I don't want my kitchen filled to the brim... and that maybe if I did have all of those things, this kitchen wouldn't work for me... Things like specialty appliances & gadgets that we would rarely use. We really just don't have these. (We have a blender, a toaster & a mixer & even one of those "set it and forget it" rotisseries... but we never opened the fondue set we got as a wedding gift, I borrow my mom's crockpot when needed, we don't drink coffee so the coffeemaker stays in storage until guests come and we have very few kitchen gadgets.)

Sure I'd love to have all of these things at my fingertips, but cramming my kitchen full of the latest & greatest and the "just in case" items would make my life more cluttered on a daily basis, and it's not worth it to me. I'd rather do without the amazing fondue we would make once a year... or make it on the stovetop instead and put it on a pretty bowl..

Living like this doesn't come easily to me & we have to purge constantly as I've said before. We have a cabinet in our laundry room with "giveaways" that we have to empty about once a month or so. Stuff just wants to sneak into your house! It's crazy!! We accumulate and have to fight off incoming-stuff daily or find places for it: coupons in the mail to restaurants we'll probably never use, mail-mail-mail!, paper clutter, cardboard boxes from packages, little notes & lists, purchases we decide to return, and somehow toys are always finding their way into our home... BUT, on top of fighting off incoming clutter, I think it's important to not have a lot of stuff in the first place. (room below, Susan Ferrier, House Beautiful)

What I mean by "a lot" is also very subjective. To the extreme minimalist, "living with less" might mean living with clothes and a few dishes and furniture, but to someone like me, "living with less" means having only what I need and love... and this includes lots of books & decorative accessories & dishware ;) The important thing is keeping what you need and use and love- whatever it may be- and then ditching the rest.

OK- OK -- I have a confession to make: I have hoarded some things from my childhood: I've saved all of my Barbies in case we have a little girl and am waiting for the day when we can play with them (she WILL love Barbies ;) ;) and also some of my stuffed animals and toys that are still in good condition. This may sound weird or cheap but we give them to Christian for birthdays & gifts because to him, they're new and it makes me so happy to see him playing with my old toys. (He loves them & so many of them are better than the new plastic toys!) (image below from vintagetoys.blogspot.com)

Ok, but back to "living with less": It's freeing and you honestly have more time when you live with less. (image below from Nate Berkus) We spend enough time as it is cleaning up our own messes: laundry, dishes, toys, and the 3 bibs that my dog drags into the dining room EVERY DAY arggg, but nothing makes me more frustrated than trying to find a place for something I didn't really want in the first place. So why let that stuff stay in my house? I don't. Living with less is a constant process and battle, but one I find very-worth fighting.

"Keep and seek only what you love and your home will be truly yours."

xoxo,
lauren



So how about you? Do you try to "live with less?" And what is "living with less" to you?

A Kitchen Table

Well, since it's Thursday & we're finished with our kitchen & I received a special gift in the mail, I thought I'd join Tablescape Thursday on Between Naps on the Porch!

This table setting was all about simplicity. No tablecloth, white linen napkins and an easy combination of our daily Pottery Barn dishes paired with the vintage Camelia dishes I scored for $33 (for a set of 8!) this summer.

I love how the plates mimic my black and white etching wallpaper in the breakfast nook...

Here are some armatel-like silver bowls with a vintage serving bowl set inside. I found it for $1.50 and just love the old platnium detailing around the rim:

And to add some height to the table, I used this aluminum serving dish ($7) on top of an aluminum jello mold (69 cents!) ... It's like a little stand:

And I added in our wedding crystal for a little sparkle: (Waterford Tall Lismore)

And the inspiration for this table was the pair of 18" tall black handmade tapers:

I'm SO excited to share with you that Eddie Ross now has his first line of handmade candles!!! (that's the link to the Eddie Ross Etsy store) They come in this simple elegant packaging (surprised anyone?) and in 12" and 18":

They're black so they go with pretty much everything & I think this table setting shows that they can work in any season. They're long-lasting and are black to the core. (I've never had 18 inchers before!!) I'm hoping these will be the first items in a long line of Eddie Ross products!! (A tabletop line anyone?!!!) I absolutely love them with all of the black touches in my kitchen!

And of course, I had to do the king of cheap chic justice by placing his candles in these beautiful etched candleholders I scored for only $8! (below)

SO there you have it: a simple setting in our new (old) kitchen:

Hope you enjoyed and also thanks so much to Eddie & Jaithan for the gorgeous candles!! You're gonna rock this industry!!!

xoxo,

lauren

to check out the whoel kitchen, click here

Guest Bloggers Update

Thanks so much for your feedback! I've scheduled the guest bloggers for the 4 months following Baby 2's arrival! If you all like the series, which will be called "Spaces" and feature rooms designed by some of our favorite bloggers, I'll definitely keep it going after the 4 months & would love to add on more of our favorite bloggers to the list & will be looking to have new bloggers come show us their stuff!


(image above from Cottage Living via Everything LEB)
I appreciate all of your input and I think you'll be really excited when you get to peek into the spaces of some of amazingly creative & talented bloggers/ designers/ DIYers!

xoxo,
lauren

Baby & Blog Plans

Today I'm looking for your feedback. I'm due to have another one of these on Christmas Eve:

I'm planning on keeping Pure Style Home up & running, but I will definitely be needing to take a small step back for a little while. My goal is to have at least 3 posts a week: 1-2 from me & I've had some very sweet blogger friends agree to help with some guest blogging. ( I think you'll be very excited!!) My plan is to have 1 guest blogger per week. What I would love to know is what you'd like to see from them. (image below from Eddie Ross)

-Before & Afters?

-Pics & explanations of design choices in a favorite room they've designed? (kind of like the ones I do when we finish a project)

-Something about their design philosophies?

-And my brain is shutting down (eek!) so would love your ideas here!!

And also, I don't have my whole list of guest bloggers yet & haven't contacted anyone yet (just in the very beginning stages & a few friends offered which is what started this idea) so can you let me know of anyone you'd like to see & maybe I can ask & see what they say?

Thanks so much & I can't wait to hear your ideas!!

xoxo,

lauren

ps- thanks so much for all your really sweet feedback regarding our kitchen!! it made my day- no week!!! :)

My 70s Split Redo Part III: The Kitchen

(Click for Part I: The Living Room/ Dining Room , Part II: The Family Room) warning: I use the word "love" a lot in this post because I'm just so happy with the space.

Well, I finally took some photos of our finished kitchen. You've probably seen lots of of midstage pics, but I have to say, I've never been happier with the kitchen than I am now. If you remember back in April/ May, here's what it looked like before: maple arched cabinet doors, yummy flourescent light fixture, dirty linoleum...

And here's what it looks like now:

We ripped down all of the uppers the first weekend we moved in & Dave put up beadboard & shelving. The whole thing was under $150 or so. We replaced the kitchen floors with click & lock Elm from Home Depot (read details here) at the same time we did the rest of the house. The cabinets are painted in Behr's "Witch Hazel" in semigloss. (For prep, I sanded them down with a hand sander, cleaned them & then just painted them with the semi-gloss.)

We added inexpensive nickel drawers pulls and knobs from Home Depot:

Now remember my appliance disasters??!! Well, the dishwasher from the Stone Age is back to being painted the same color as the cabinets. I used the exact same seim-gloss paint and did no prep for it. (I really recommend this if you have no money for new appliances... it just sort of recedes & your eyes doesn't really catch it at all..) It's nothing pretty to look at for sure, but it's better than the beige it was originally.

And thanks to you all I LOVE my fridge painted in chalkboard paint!!! I never would have thought of that on my own & after so many of you suggested it to me during the appliance diaster, I gave it a shot & I just love it!!!

It's a great spot for "to do" lists & pictures and the black works with the counters & shelf hardware. And, as you can see, Christian really loves it too:

I found the chandelier on the first flea market tour we took with Eddie & Jaithan. I debated & debated about buying it but walked away & Eddie offered to pick it up for me & mail it if I changed my mind. Well, a week or so later, I decided to go for it & Eddie & Jaithan were sweet enough to go back & buy it & mail it to us. Originally it was going to be for my dad's house but when we moved into our new place I knew the kitchen would be perfect for it! (I still have intentions of adding pretty wax drips on it but that's another day.)

As I've said before, I love having my shelves open: it makes my life easier. I can see everything at a glance & things are so easy to put away & grab.

People have asked me about dust and we use almost everything up there all the time so it's not an issue, but for the occassional cake stand or seldom-used bowl, I simply rinse them out before using & it's honestly no big deal. And I love all of the things that I have up on the shelves that I've been given & have collected over the past few years. This way I get to see them all:

Everything on the shelves is either white, cream or silver. (usually aluminum or stainless) and I love the combination.

I've shown you this before but it's my Grandma Maestranzi's colander:

thrift-store bust I painted white:

And I had to take a pic of the cakestand full of gorgeous cupcakes that my friends made for our Halloween party this weekend: yum yum!!

And you know how much soup we eat in this house so I just hung the silver ladle right on the wall between two nails next to the stove for easy-access:

And I also wanted to explain my decision on the black $3 Home Depot shelf brackets I chose for the shleving. I had received a comment or 2-- my dad being one of them :)--- in a previous post suggesting switching out my cheapie Home Depot brackets with pretty wooden brackets. And also to add moulding to the shelves & walls. And I do think that would be a beautiful kitchen, but my house is very simple & contemporary & clean-lined. As much as I love ornate woodwork, there's not really a place for it in my home. Antiques work, but I tend to go for clean-lined ones such as Gustavian or Shaker... I want to stay true to the architecture of the house & while we've made lots of changes, simple & straight is where I want things to be in this kitchen, so I'm actually really happy with them:

Below are a couple of other views of the kitchen 'before':

We turned the little lost counter into a bar area by adding these wine racks from Pottery Barn and stocking the cabinets below with drinkware & drinks:

The pic below makes me laugh because there's so much empty space in our wine racks. ahhahaha With me being pregnant, we're not really buying much wine so it'll be empty a bit longer:

Here's a bunch of our pretty wedding gifts that I love seeing displayed. People (the moms) used to be paranoid about us having our Waterford crystal out and bumpable & breakable, but to me it's one of those things that you just have to use & so what if some break?

We covered the doorway to our pantry with dropcloth curtains & it's great for hiding the organized mess that lives in there:

I found the plates at Lucketts! shocker. (but they work so well with my wallpaper!! :)

Here's our little breakfast nook before:

And here is is now: wallpapered with a vintage saarinen reproduction table, thrift-store found Swedish chairs, smith + noble bamboo shades, and a chalkboard (oh yeah & Target booster seat! ;)--

We really love it & eat most meals here. I used a pair of Murray Feiss crystal sconces from our old house & painted them black so they'd work here... We so needed them to add some light to the space for nighttime meals. I got the wallpaper for a steal but unfortunately it's been discontinued. :( (I wanted more but oh well.)

Originally this was "the" chalkboard in our kitchen. (below) We probably seem chalkboard-crazed because now the fridge is also a chalkboard, but my originally intentions were to have one place for menus. I got these topiaries & am adding lots more rosemary into my meals lately because it's right there for the picking. One of the topiaries is fake.. (hee hee hee I know how bad fake plants are but it's a pretty good fake & seems to fool people since two of them are real.) So far the topiaries are still alive and I am so proud of myself!!!

As you can see, there are still a few things that will need to be upgraded some day, but for now I have the look & the feeling I wanted in my kitchen: it's both light & airy & a little cozy... It's a mix of old & new, food prep & clean-up are a breeze, and it's one of my favorite places to be in our house. (It also makes me want to add wallpaper to other rooms now!! :) Hope you enjoyed my too-many-photos-and-words tour!! ;)

xoxo,

lauren