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Friday, 6 January 2012

I'm Shopping For...

Yesteray I was thinking about how difficult it's been for me to find time to blog lately and how so much of my time spent at work entails looking for the "perfect something" for a project. We look at sooooooo many different pieces before selecting the actual piece to present in a plan & eventually install in a room. I have been having a bit of trouble keeping up with blogging lately because of life/ work and was thinking if I could show you more of what I'm doing at work and get some work done in blog posts (and let the blog posts do double-duty! ;) then I could be around a little more & share more with you.
So... I was thinking of yet another very irregular blog series I'd like to start called "I'm Shopping For..." where I can share what I'm currently looking for. (I'll try to post these once a week aroudn the middle of the week, but you prbably know me well enough by now so don't hold your breath every week;) When I posted the pics of my boys bedroom the other day, a lot of you asked about the swing arm wall lamps we're using so I thought I could start with that one.

So in the first "I'm Shopping For..." is swing arm wall lamps.

I wasn't even looking for the lamps when I came across this image on pinterest from Domino Magazine a couple of months ago:

I knew I ~~needed~~ wanted something pretty much exactly like this somewhere in our house. I had been thinking about doing wall lamps in our new office or in our boys' room above their beds...

...so I got excited and started "shopping."

I didn't have to look long at all & found them on my first stop. We bought a pair of these by Visual Comfort:

{The Boston Functional Library Two Arm wall Light}

{I loooove Visual Comfort and they also sell all of their lighting retail at Circa Lighting. }

We got them in the hand-rubbed antique brass finish:

I do like to look around for other options before making a purchasing, just in case I find something better, so I also looked at these from Shades of Light:

{Shades of Light}

It's pretty in their "Olde Brass" finish:

**Update- my friend Paloma from La Dolce Vita (who is also the Director of Marketing for VC) let me know that these lights are in fact the Visual Comfort lights being sold retail. (I had thought they were just straight up copying!!! hahaha)

Anyway... I was definitely looking for the pivot to be on the vertical, but here (below) is one with a linen shade. I thought about switching it up to a textured linen one:

{Found at lampsbeautiful.com by House of Troy}

...But ended up sticking with the Library Lamps from Visual Comfort.

I also came across this pic just now which shows them (or something just like them?) above a bed in brass & I love it:

{www.atticmag.com}

...And now I can't wait to get them up!!

Since I found the piece I was looking for at my first stop, this was a fairly quick "shopping trip" but as you'll see in future posts, I'm not always so lucky!

**UPDATE*** I had another thought... if anyone knows of similar products, it would be great if they could list them with links in the comments section for people who are searching for similar products. Laurel-Dawn of Abode Love just used some similar fixtures by Rejuvenation in a beautiful salon project recently! (be sure to check it out!!)

Hope you enjoyed and have a great weekend!!

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Close Call

Dear Navy,

Several times during my years on this earth you have threatened gray to move into my #1 favorite color space. It is a close race but this picture might put you in the lead.

Wednesday, 4 January 2012

Progress in My Boys' Bedroom

Over the holidays we did a little bit of work on our boys' (Christian-4 and Justin-2) bedroom. We moved Justin to his "big boy bed" and it's been a bit less than smooth at nighttime. He started climbing out of his crib a little while back & after whacking his head on the floor a couple of times, we knew it was time to switch him out of the crib to a bed.

{Putting together the new beds}

The boys' room is teensy and we recently reduced the size of the closet so that we could fit two twin beds in the space. We have no room for extras in here, and instead of dressers, both boys have drawers for clothes under their twin-sized trundle beds from Ikea:

The closet is directly to the left of where I was standing when I took the pic above and it used to take up more than half of the left wall. You can see in this before pic that the chaise could just fit sideways in the nook:

The room feels so much bigger now and here's a pic of how Justin's twin bed fits in the new larger nook:

{right now the bedding is just in cream & I'm adding Euro shams and quilts at the end of the beds for some color... }

The striped rug just happens to be in here right now & we plan on replacing the carpet with seagrass because there is a hole in it from where we removed the old closet. (Justin's bed hides it nicely in the meantime.) I'd like to layer a big cowhide in here for a soft play spot.

Below is Christian's bed on the other side of the room. The art is up over here and I wrapped fabric around a Euro sham (in my Filigree Chevron in Autumn} & tossed fabric (Fern Star in moss) at the end of the bed to get an idea of how it will feel with the pillows and quilts.

I did a lot of thinking on the Ikea beds. Christian originally had a similar black Ikea bed in his other bedroom and we really liked the clothes storage & trundle bed feature. (They can get their own clothes out & help put away the clean ones because the drawers are right on the ground= awesome.) Christian's black bed took up a bit more space (both visual space & physical space) as it had side & back rails and two of them would really cramp the new bedroom. The two new beds together were also $100 less than the 1 black bed with rails so we ended up saving too by not having to buy another black bed. (It took all day to put them together btw... we love Ikea's wordless directions ;)

I've thought about adding upholstered headboards to the beds in my filigree chevron fabric (and leaving out the Euro shams) but the arrggggg window isn't centered so the headboard would overlap the window. I'm playing with ideas for shapes that might suit it better but I'm not sure it's worth the hassle... That left bed does look especially lonely though.

We're installing these fixtures (by visual comfort) above both boys' beds so that will help:

...Except they're in burnished brass:

...And artwork & color on the bed will do a bit more to add interest... I think I'll wait & see how it all looks installed before I make any headboard decisions. The globe mobile is a Christmas gift to the boys from my good friend Elise, who also owns the Design Center of Northern Virginia.

{Justin is thrilled to be hanging out on his big brother's bed while he's at preschool... ssshhhhh!}

We keep their toys & books in this oragngey-reddish piece I found years ago (for around $27) at a thrift shop:

{Again, I love how they boys can clean up on their own - okay with me telling them over and over and over- and we have baskets for toy storage underneath.}

...Anyway, there are still a bunch of details to finish up before I'm really in love with it, but the boys are thrilled with their new room for now. We're hanging the rest of the artwork & lighting this week and I'll be sure to keep you posted!

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

If you are interested in any of the fabrics mentioned, please visit my online fabric store http://www.purestylehome.co/

Client Progress...Seasons of Change

How you remember time is an interesting thing. With building clients my memories of the job are often tied directly to the weather since building from the ground up progresses through many seasons. Last winter I sat across from a new client at a local Starbucks (pre office days) and we discussed her future home that was being drawn up. It was cold and dreary outside but the images of a place the family could nest for years to come kept us warm. I also clearly remember telling her I was pregnant, "but not to worry, we will work around it".

Quickly the winter turned into spring and as the days got longer we used the extra daylight to study and debate decisions like type of brick and various counter tops and tile options.

And then came the HEAT and the bump was in full force. Oh those many July and August days on the various job sites, they were something else....

The months continued to fly by and here we find ourselves again; winter bringing the cold weather back, only this time the house is no longer a dream. I stopped by on Monday to see the progress and it was a great way to start the new year. Months of dreaming and planning coming to fruition....and good looking fruition at that.

Can you see the memories that will be made in this kitchen? I can. The best thing about being an Interior Decorator is not the creative outlet (although that is a huge perk), it is working with people to make a house their home. Large job or small, it always feels just as good.

Sneak peek: A slate backsplash and gorgeous counter tops (hard to see in this picture) = a good time in the upstairs entertaining/guest area.

Oh those countertops I am so obsessed with.....

And as much fun as this day was, I know even better days are ahead in the coming weeks...move in day! Beauties like these will be unwrapped and placed in their permanent home. Of course everything takes time and I know when the warm winds of Spring arrive we will think back to this cold day and how far everything has come, all the while knowing more seasons will come and go before we are ever "finished". And that is okay.

Tuesday, 3 January 2012

The New Year...

Happy New Year! Hope you had a great time over the holidays... We relaxed as much as possible and it was amazing. We took a last-minute trip to Williamsburg & Christmastown at Busch Gardens and the hilight of the trip was hanging out in our suite overlooking the river with a fire & my husband, while both kids took a nap at the same time. Heaven.