Embellished

Sotheby's showhouse via lonnymag.com

Where oh where has this week gone?  

In between massive amount of work for my volunteer committments, design presentations, and new client meetings, I am still thinking about finishing.  up.  my.  house.

In the living room, I need to finish sewing the white curtains (Ikea ritva's that will get doubled and pinch pleated), and I am always going back and forth on embellishment for them.  I love the crazy modern-art aspect of the embellished curtains above.  They are almost like sculpture!  Perhaps I should focus on getting the panels sewed in the first place...I have been living with hug puddles of fabric on the floor for going on three years....

Pillow Mania from the Polar Vortex

You will be happy to know that I didn't leave you out while I was on break.  Nope.  I am right where we left off:  fretting about the living room rug.  Lonny just named Beni Ourain rugs one of the three trends they hope will die in 2014.  So that's nice.  Nothing like getting in on the way down.  (Does anyone else feel that the popularity of the beni can be traced almost single-handedly to the pages of Lonny?)

No, really, I love it, and I don't care so much about being "current."  These rugs are one of those items that have been trending lately, but the authentic ones are classics that will never go out of style.

Next up?  Finishing off the space.  In this case, that means pillows.  Since we haven't left the house in 4 days, I have had plenty of time to search the internets high and low and put together too many schemes.

(actually, this was helpful.)

It feels like the room wants to be sort of neutralish with so much going on, but I want color.  Who wins?  Let's take a look.

1. Major color

2. Minor color

3.  Gold and black

4. Black and tan

5. Green and Brown

What do you think?

Of course, I could always recover the green chair.  And those lamps could be spray painted.  Like a dog chasing its own tail......

New Traditional Living Room

I had a fun design consult yesterday with a woman who just moved in to a new home and needed some help figuring out her great room.  Huge windows with golf course views, gorgeous open kitchen with marble countertops and blue glass backsplash, and no clue what to do with the floorplan!

We decided to bring her brown sectional up from the basement (where a bigger seating solution is needed).  A long console will sit behind one side of it to divide the living room from the dining area.  Lamps on the console will further create a "wall."  A pair of slipper chairs will create a U-shape seating area with the sectional, and their short height will not impede the view.

Picking up on colors throughout her house (some of my faves, which makes it easy!)  here's what I gave her.

Love it all!  Every time I work on a sort of "new traditional" space, I wonder what I am doing in a modern house.  But the grass is always greener, right?

That second one makes me think of this gorgeous house that Nicole featured the other day.

But back to me.  Do you have a favorite?

But What Rug?

Ah, yes, I love a good saga, don't you?

In short: the beloved orange trellis rug that was living in the living room felt a little "hot" to me.

It moved upstairs to the rugless girls' room with the idea that I would rather invest in something new for our main living space.

I took this jute rug that had been layered in the guest room,

And put it in the living room temporarily (it's too small).

I like the look but not the size.

Then I lost my mind and ordered the wrong striped rug from Overstock.

It was a great rug and actually pretty good for the space, but did not play nice with the adjoining dining room rug.

Now we are all caught up.

With all the browns in the living room, I'd like something cool on the floor.  Ideally it will work with the existing green and orange accents, though the green chair will likely eventually be recovered.

I was planning to do a custom Indian Dhurrie in wool, probably in a blue and ivory where the blue was more like the blue of my dining room chairs.  One of these patterns (colors are fully customizeable):

But then I spotted this.

Too trendy?  Maybe.  (Less so because of the color, but still.)  I brought home a sample and my just-turned-7-year old said "Mom, I LOVE this swatch."  Because it is super soft and plush, much cozier than jute.

But here's the other thing.  This room is an odd shape/layout because of the L-shaped half-wall fireplace/storage.

This means that it is impossible to have a regular rectangular rug cover the whole floor, making the small space seem smaller than it actually is.  Unless I did something custom in sisal or jute, with a notched corner.  Like this.  (See the corner wrapping the fireplace hearth?)

Usually I don't love the look of an odd shape and I don't like spending money on something so specific (i.e. something that won't work elsewhere.)  But we plan to be in this house for a long time, and a rug that fits that space would make a small living room feel bigger and would help all the off center elements feel more centered.

So....the look/feel of a bohemian blue rug?  Or the function of a larger custom natural rug?  Perhaps I could go for the best of both worlds and find a natural rug with blue or metallic woven in, like the ones below, but that can be made to my space?

I think this post made up my mind for me.  Curious what you all have to say....

Also, for the record, last week I helped a friend moving in to a new house choose paint colors for every room as well as several furniture decisions, all in one day.  At the end of the day my friend said "I can NOT believe how many decisions you just made."  See?  I can be very decisive.  Just not for myself!

The Universe Has Spoken

And it has whispered thus:

Go on, go ahead and get a rug for your living room, and don't cheap out:  make it the right rug.

Don't you love it when the Universe is on your side?

Do you want me to tell you the whole story?  (It's okay if you don't.  My husband has spent the last 10 years trying--in vain--to train me to skip all the backstory and get to the point.)

Okay.  I'll tell you the short version first.  I bought a rug on overstock one late night in a panic of SELL OUT RISK: HIGH.  I knew it was probably not right but I went ahead and done did it anyway.

See?  Kind of sort of almost great.  But truly the stripes should not be variegated (but more even, like most of these) and the blue is off--too True Blue.  Too coastal.  I lived with it for a couple of days kind of squinting at it to make the color work because the price tag worked.  (I am a professional: do NOT try this at home!)  I even tried to pretend that I needed to boot the dining room rug in favor of this guy.  (Long story here.)

The truth is, I am not very good at saving up and patiently waiting for perfect.  I am much better at finding really good right NOW.  Plus, it's hard, structurally, to save up for a purchase like a 9x12 rug when you run your own deal and your income ebbs and flows accordingly.  My husband, bless him, said to me, as I rolled up the "really great deal" in really great despair: well, you'll just have to find some extra money to get the right rug.

Yes he did.

And the very next day I got a call about a freelance writing gig, and I spent the weekend before the fourth holiday single momming it while my husband was at a bachelor party out of town and writing 5 articles to the tune of almost the price of a new rug.  (Very excited about this new gig and hope to tell you more about it soon.)

(Oh, and that's a picture of "single momming it," in case this is not self-evident.  Yes, I carry my children on my back, crawling on my hands and knees when my husband is away.)

And then last week the phone rang and a major magazine that I subscribe to invited me to come to a paid focus group, for just about the amount I think I need to close the gap on new rug-hood.  And that's what we call "finding extra money" folks.

Now.  It is possible that the universe intended to hand me this money to pay the hospital bill for my 4 year old who was sent to the emergency room by an over excited Target Clinic employee.  Or it is possible that the universe wants me to pay to take down the near-dead tree in our front yard that could have caused major damage during the recent storms that brought down a ton of beautiful old trees.

But, as I make a collage and wait to see what is in the next envelope for my focus group homework while making out with a Coke Zero to keep myself up at night, I am accepting only one earmark for these dollars:  One new rug.

(making out with a Coke Zero.  Is it weird that I'm kind of palming it?  

In all honesty, these are the kinds of pictures my husband chooses to take of me.  Isn't he sweet?)

Thanks, Universe.

Now, what kind of rug shall it be?

Bohemian Living Room

Thee living rooms were the most fun to put together.

New client, a recent transplant to the area, great taste and a house with great bones.  She is off to a good start with some solid pieces--in the living room, a casual-modern gray sectional, a bleached-wood media cabinet, a black and white abstract painting--and brought me in to help pull it together.

Based on the color palette in her existing kilim, I gave her three fun choices.

These were a joy to pull together: one of those designs that make me want to start over in my own home.  Occupational hazard.

What do you think: do you have a favorite?

Happy Monday!

out of respect for my clients, I do not share sources for designboards without their express permission.

Three Ways

Hello from NYC!

I'm feeling blessed to be here post-storm, for a beautiful weekend with friends and family.

Before I left home, I was digging through my photo archive for another post, and I came across these images of my living room three ways.  These were taken a LONG time ago, when I was experimenting with different art and accessory choices for an overall look/feel.  The room feels so unfinished to me now without curtains or some of the other layers that have emerged over time, but it's still fun to see how you can produce various vibes around one major piece, like our brown Bantam couch.

In the end, I'd say the living room has progressed in a more eclectic, sophisticated way, and looking back makes me love what it has become.

I think the lesson is that there's no "right" or "wrong," and playing around with all the pieces you have to work with can sometimes yield surprising results--or teach you what your style really looks like.

Am I alone in this?  Or do you play with your stuff this way, too?

The dominoes keep tumbling (occupational hazard # 231)

I will share something useful with you some day soon.  Promise.

But for now, let's continue on my recent journey to rearrange my living room, shall we?

So, I painted the fireplace wall.  Then I inherited this beautiful behemoth.  Next I started to consider a natural, more neutral rug. and just this weekend I upholstered a top for the bench by the fireplace.

Well, the other day I was helping this friend (and client) sourcing accent tables and ottomans for her living room and family room.  We were liking the Target knock off of a Panton table (that Erin write about here), but couldn't find details (like measurements) online.

Then I remembered:  not only did I have one of the tables in my trunk (for this client), but my friend and I havebasically the same couch--this one, in different colors and lengths.

So like any good friend/ crazy designer, I brought the table in to see if it would work with the couch.  The verdict: no go to use two as a coffee table (too tall), but they sure are fabulous as side tables!  When I was at Target this weekend I bought a second one (on clearance already!?!) and have been testing them out.

With a rug swatch, naturally.

It's a pretty big shift from the solid tables I'm so used to (remember?).  So we'll see.

It's funny how making one change in a nearly-finished room can lead to reconsidering everything.  Has this ever happened to you?

P.S.  Hi all you new followers, thanks so much for being here!!  Am I scaring you with this nonsense of late? I hope you'll stick around....

Adding to the fireplace vignette

When I revealed the black-painted fireplace wall, I mentioned that I was planning to add an upholstered top to the mid-century bench.  The wall needed a textile for softness, the new coffee table meant I needed a little extra height for the bench, and the wood-slat, though I love it, was reading a little too casual for where the design of this room is going.

Using a leftover piece of glazed linen (it was welting for client pillows), a piece of plywood I already had, and leftover foam from a headboard project, the only expense to this project was a couple of dollars in batting.

I also went looking for baskets to use under the bench a couple of weeks ago, and came up short.  Friday, however, I hit Consignment Central and found this pair.  They were exactly what I was looking for.

Because they were $12 each--pricey for consignment--I almost didn't buy them.  Then I remembered that most of the baskets I had looked at (at Michael's, World Market, Target, Home Goods) were more expensive and less perfect!  I'm thinking of giving them a dipped effect with either gold or silver rub n buff or spraypaint.

Kind of like these two combined:

both photos, Martha Stewart

This way my husband and I will have his-and-hers magazine bins, eliminating the conflict of who/when/how magazines get sorted and recycled.

Isn't it funny how we almost walk away from what we want because we are expecting a "better deal"?  I also almost bought just one of the baskets, but the truth is, you should never split up a good pair!

Playing around with a jute rug

I love the layered look.  Love it.  Escpecially in a house like ours, which has simple, clean lines and little patina.  Sometimes the problem with layers is that it means A LOT of individual items that may not be strictly "necessary", and that can add up to the big bucks.

In the small guest room, where I have a beloved turkish rug in the small area of free space at the foot of the bed, I have long thought that a natural woven rug underneath would add texture, depth, and a soft place to step in and out of the bed.  But the room didn't "need" it, so I wasn't going to buy it.

And then.

Then I found a rug that I FORGOT THAT IT HAD.

Is that weird?  (I know there are all you hoarders out there who are shaking your head: no, not weird at all.  In fact, I just found a dining room set in my storage locker.)  But for the rest of you, I know.  But it can happen.

The rug is a 6x9 jute rug from World Market that we bought in Boulder for our dining room (above).  When we first got here, I put it in the dining room, too, but that room is big.  (BIG: It now has a 9x12 rug).  Apparently, when that didn't work, we put it in the loft above our garage, a dark scary place that I never ever venture, until the other day when I thought maybe my husband's bike was stolen and went up there, hoping against hope that he had just stashed it for the winter.  (He hadn't.  Stolen.)  Silver lining?  Jute rug.

First, i used it to test out whether I REALLY want a natural rug in the living room what with the arrival of the new coffee table.

The verdict?  Probably, yes.  (But what do you think?)

Then, I realized that because it is the wrong size for anywhere in this house, and because I own it already, I can layer it up.

What do you think?

P.S.  sometimes the posts I think are quick posts end up being the longest ever.  My brain just makes these circuitous connections and I want to tell you the WHOLE STORY.  My husband is trying to cure me of this but so far, no dice.

Trying to do it the easy way

My husband does not like curtains.   But he concedes that sometimes window treatments are a necessity.  Like in our west-facing living room, where the huge window casts a whole lot of afternoon light on our TV.  The afternoon, in case you did not know this, is often when they show football games.  So window treatments are a good compromise if they improve the football watching experience.

Here's the problem:  Huge, modern windows.

Wood blinds came to mind, and I found the right size at Home Depot for $100.  I can't even remember why these got the thumbs down.

Next up, a flat roman shade.  These can be expensive, but I planned to teach myself to make them.  (I'm not very good at squaring corners--on anything--so that might have been a problemo.)  The bigger problem?   My husband is very wary of shades because they obscure the top foot or so of the window, and he basically wants all light in or all light out.  There's no middle ground on this issue.

So in a weird turn of events, my curtain-hating husband determined that curtains were the way to go.

Enter fabric paralysis.  I needed at least 15 yards, so it had to be cheap.  I happened to have about 18 yards of a GORGEOUS Irish linen in hot coral from some project I can't even remember, many moons ago, and I spent a lot of time with it taped up next to the window, acknowledging that it was CRAZY with the bright orange rug, but that design is about taking risks, right?

Finally, finally, it dawned on me.  The opposite.

White.

White curtains!!  I never even think of such things because it seems too "boring."  But my mother solved the same problem--a wall of modern windows--with the same solution: floor to ceiling linen drapes in the same color as the wall.  And I love the way they disappear, but soften the room at the same time.

Just the right white linen can be expensive.  And most retail curtains do not come long enough--I needed 102". But then I noticed on Bryn's blog that certain Ikea curtains come in a much longer lenth--112" or 118", I think.

And so I decided to do it the easy way.  Well, kind of.

I bought two sets of curtains at Ikea--the same ones Bryn used in her parent's room, which are cotton with a linen-look, and some actual linen ones, which were shorter, but I thought I could add a panel of a color at the bottom.  (See, I resist the easy way.)  When I got home a couple of hours later and unloaded the car, there were no curtains.  I bought 4 pairs of curtains and came home with none.

So my family "got" to have dinner at Ikea while I straightened things out.  The return trip convinced me to just get the curtains that were long enough and not mess with the panel.  See?  I'm learning to go for the easy way.

Now I just need to sew the panels together, hem them, and pinch pleat.

And my total cost for the panels is $75.   That's about $5/yard, and I don't have to put in the side seams.  Score!

Love this room.

After various product and project posts this week, I thought this little blog might need some inspiration in the form of an awesome room.  Luckily, my latest batch of passed-along magazines came from my mother in law not too long ago, and with the start of swim lessons for the girls comes a nice little 20 minute pocket of time to myself for sitting and flipping the pages.  (And peeking in on their progress now and again.)

Chicago Home and Gardens put out a Color issue in September, the perfect treat for a color hound like me.  I can't seem to get over this quirky living room, decorated by the homeowner, and full of risks that somehow look completely natural.  Check it.



This picture reminds me that:

- I want to paint the office built in shelves a deep, saturated color  (or stain them dark, like these)
- I'm still down with orange, green, and blue
- A velvet couch goes to the top of my "someday" list
- Paired chairs can mismatch in every possible way and still work.

Let's talk about those chairs a bit more.  With all the balance and symmetry on the couch side of the room, I love the mismatched pair to throw things off a little, but not many people would take a tall skinny leggy midcentury piece with an overscale bold pattern and sidle it up to a squat barrel-back intricate wood frame chair in solid upholstery and call it a day.

I think it also helps that this pair of chairs sits off to the side.



So the room gets its symmetry after all.

Have you seen a room lately that you wanted to just move into?

Letting the poufs go

I know: enough already with the poufs.

I was so sure they were the perfect solution for extra seating in my living room--so FIXATED on poufs (square ones, making my own) that I couldn't see in my mind's eye that the scale would be all wrong.

Enter Lisa, lovely homeowner whose master bedroom got the two-day business.  She happens to have a sister-in-law who happens to import crates full of goods from India every time she redecorates, and Lisa just happens to be the happy recipient of some of the leftovers.  Like a pair of leather poufs that she wasn't really using.

Loaner poufs.

(Just to give you context, the other side of this wall is in the dining room, with the paper-art)

Actually, my kids loved the poufs so much that Lisa suggested we keep them, but the moment they plunked down in front of my fireplace, I knew they were too low.  (OR my fireplace is too high, but I don't think that will change anytime soon.)  And then I had a use-what-you-have moment, which produced these chairs from the basement.

I figured if I liked the shape I would spray the bases gold and the chairs white.

But wait!  I have some white chairs!

With the arms, a pair feels like too much (there's a Danish Modern armchair off to the left.)

Just one is just right, especially if you balance the other side with a big modern all-white lamp (which I have) or a spine bookcase (which I don't, but could build like this.)

That wall will not stay white--with the floating fireplace, it just looks too unfinished to me.

Stay tuned.