Nate hits clearance

I have to admit, I have been stalking the end caps at Target, waiting for the Nate Berkus Home collection to hit clearance.  I am such a fan of his elegant-masculine-traveled aesthetic, but I didn't really "need" any accessories for my home.  (I did use several items from his collection in this project, which needs to be properly photographed and shared.)

But.  I am staging a house this week, and while I made a clean sweep of Target's clearance throw pillows in my client's color palette, I also picked up a few things for myself.  I am loving Nate's little hammered brass bowl on the side table above.  For $7, I think I can justify it.  It is empty now, but it will be filled in about 30 seconds with a collection of painted rocks, shells, my mom's old clip-on earring, squinkies, or whatever else my girls are treasuring these days.  In fact, my four-year-old's eyes lit up when she asked "is that for US?"

Money well spent.

Small Measures

Source: designsponge.com via Heather on Pinterest

Two words: Rainbow dresser!

The perfect antidote to all this winter.

Where you'll find me

Remember this?

Well.  It has been quite a project.  Approximately 38 frames up, approximately 60 to go!
I have done a lot of gallery-style walls, but this one required a good deal of planning.  I will do a how-to next week.  Today, I will put a lot of holes in that wall!

Have a great weekend!

Heather

Inspiration

Plans on the fireplace progress.  Yes!

We have selected tile and formalized our plans for the wood column.

Wood along these line (width, stain, grain):

Source: bottegatokyo.com via Heather on Pinterest

Color combo sorta kinda like this (mid tone wood, taupe surround):

Source: houzz.com via Heather on Pinterest

Insert floating, kinda like this:

Source: afflante.tumblr.com via Heather on Pinterest

I love how the fireplace design will reference the 50s (the house was built in 1950) without being retro. We're basically taking the 50s paneled wood ceiling (or wall) and putting it on the chimney.

Source: c497280.r80.cf2.rackcdn.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: houzz.com via Heather on Pinterest

And taking the idea of the 50s fieldstone fireplace and using it for the surround.

Source: augustvintage.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Can't wait to see this one come together. My client's can't picture it. But I see it perfectly, and it will be fab!

(Want to see more 50s inspiration?  check out my pinboard here.  And tons of fireplaces here.)

Classic Bath

I don't do a lot of bathrooms.  For the most part, I think this is a unique skill-set and requires a lot of specialized knowledge.  However, I can (and will and do) design the look of a bathroom, so when a repeat client came to me for selections for their basement renovation, I jumped on it.

In this case, I hewed very close to the spirit of her inspiration image.

Source: umamigirl.com via Melissa on Pinterest

And came up with this

We switched from ceramic to marble on the floor and walls and went a bit more vintage/modern with the fixtures.  It always amazes me how many profiles there are for a toilet these days, you know?  I like that this one (sink, too), feel like they could be original to the 1930s house.

What do you think?  Have you ever looked at the vast variety of toilets out there?

Banishing the temporary

I wrote the other week about the problem with temporary items that come in to our homes: namely, that they become permanent.

While I try to avoid this situation, I have been known to succumb.  The biggest temporary-item problem in my current house?  The white vinyl roller shades in the upstairs bedrooms.  When we bought the house, I thought the window treatments were staying, so I was surprised to find myself with bare windows upstairs.  In order to get my kids to sleep on time in a different timezone and in the midst of summer, I ran to Home Depot, paid $30 a piece, and came home with White. Vinyl.  Roller shades.

In the girls room, I did what I could, block printing them into something quite cute, actually.  In the guet room I simply ignored them.  What I really wanted?  Bamboo blinds.  I love them.  I have pretty much always had them in every home ever.  And I knew that at the size I needed they were custom, and therefore expensive.

Or were they?

I recently discovered, thanks to Bryn Alexandra's blog, that overstock.com stocks bamboo blinds in virtually every size imaginable, and in many color to boot.  I used my birthday money from my mother-in-law and had a pair on their way in no time.

 (To remember the "before," go here)

So much better.

(Do you like that my 6-year old has already entered her "goth" phase?  And that her hair sticks up like she never washes it?)

I chose to put the same type in both of the bedrooms for continuity, and chose a light tone similar to the wood trim to keep the blinds from becoming a new element.  While I was trying with all my might to ignore the old shades, I am so happy that I was able to banish the temporary solution for the permanent fix.

Until they break, that is.  I will admit, you get what you pay for.

Woven leather seating

Do you ever have an obsession just sort of sneak up on you?

When I recently uploaded my phone pictures, I noticed that I had photographed these vintage woven leather chairs not once, but twice (H& B Gallery),

And then snapped a modern version with the leather strapped on a sexy chrome base (Francis King Showroom)

It's official: I am suddenly, inexplicably into woven-leather chairs.

Jens Risom is the classic, but there are a ton of options out there, new and old.

Fabulous, no?

Tell me: any surprise obsessions these days?

Also.  Someone local please hire me to do a room with those vintage chairs!