Archive for February, 2009
Blayne’s Second Design Dilemma: Solved
Oh happy day! Blayne just sent us the after pictures for her recent living room makeover and we couldn’t be more excited to share them. You may remember that we whipped up this custom mood board for her a little over a month ago. Here’s the before picture to refresh your memory:
And here’s the mood board we whipped up for her (see more details here):
Here’s the lighter and brighter after thanks to a new furniture arrangement, a blue fireplace accent wall, breezy curtains, a punchy graphic rug, and a few fabulous accessories:
We were especially inspired by Blayne’s request for a room that “feels beachy in the sense that you would feel like if you looked out the window you might see the ocean.” And this breezy bay of windows makes the room feel light and airy and oh so stunning. The fact that they’re $9.99 Ikea panels paired with some discount store bamboo blinds is the icing on the cake.
Here’s what Blayne had to say about her living room makeover:
“I was amazed at how much bigger and brighter it looks! And my husband loves it too. Yay! I was so excited to show it off that I invited some friends over last night. Everyone loved it. A few people who had never been over before commented that they loved the way the living room and bedroom were decorated (thanks John and Sherry!). I’m so happy to come home to this gorgeous room!” – Blayne
So what do you guys think? Didn’t Blayne do a steller job with her living room?! Oh and do you remember her bedroom makeover from a little while ago? It just feels so good to help such a lovely lady spiff up two of her rooms. Hooray for after pictures!
Update: We sadly can no longer find the time to take on client commissioned mood boards (we now whip up general inspiration boards instead) but if we ever reinstate them we’ll make a big announcement!
Palette-able Pictures
If you’ve ever considered designing an entire room around a photograph or one piece of art, Lifehacker has found the tool for you. The Color Palette Generator lets you upload an image and automatically generates a few color palettes that match. It’ll still be up to you to bring home a bunch of paint chips to find the perfect paint colors, but it’s great because it shows you three schemes – light, medium and dark – so you can pick a matching palette whether you’re going for light and airy, dark and moody or somewhere in between.
Below are some of our pictures that we played around with (even though we have zero plans to repaint any of our rooms).
A photo I took of the Blue Ridge Mountains from the summit of Old Rag:
Us vacationing in Florida last April:
Burger sunbathing in the back yard:
You can experiment for yourself (for free!) right here. Happy paint paletting…
Screenshots courtesy of CSS Drive
Crafty McCrafterson
Other than this age old post about creating a little wrapping paper station/craft table in our third bedroom, we really haven’t chatted much about organizing oodles of items as of yet. So here’s a rundown of our tried and true approach (this is written specifically with craft room verbiage, but the method will work for any organization project in the house- from your linen closet to your tool box and even your kitchen cabinets):
Step #1. Get Out & About- Take everything that you need to organize and lay it out on a table or bed or the floor so you can see what you’re dealing with. You instinct will be to skip this step, but it’s crucial to truly know what you have and find the perfect home for each item.
Step #2. Be Trashy- Select everything that you no longer want/need and toss it into a trash bag to bring to Goodwill. Don’t look back. If you haven’t used those stickers/ribbons/stamps/decorative papers/fabrics for two years you probably never will. Pare down to the good stuff and you’ll actually use it.
Step #3. Play Matchmaker- Take the remaining items and group them like with like in clusters on the floor or the bed (ex: painting supplies together, paper together, stationery together, scissors and hole punchers together).
Step #4. Take Note- When you stand back and look at all the little piles that you’ve created, it will instantly be clear what type of storage containers/folders/caddies you’ll need to keep everything organized. Grab a pen and paper and write down what you believe you need (big box for ribbons and bows, five folders for stationery, three clear plastic cubes that can be stacked with paint and supplies in them, etc).
Step #5. Stop And Shop- Check the rest of your house to see what type of storage containers you already have. For example, a too-big caddy under the sink could be swapped out for the bulging basket of ribbons that’s no longer big enough. And these glass cereal jugs could also be used to corral ribbons or yarn:
Step #6. Go Get ‘Em- When you’re through shopping and swapping things out in your own house, see which items still remain on your list and hit up Target, Ikea, The Container Store or even Staples to see what types of storage options they offer. Grab whatever fits the needs that you have already established on paper. Resist the urge to get anything that doesn’t as you’ll be creating the very clutter that you’re trying to clean up at the moment.
Step #7. Keep It Common- When you’re selecting containers, folders, boxes, and caddies, you might want to keep a common color or material theme in mind so everything looks cohesive when it’s on display in the room. You could simply go for all white containers or all woven basket-type storage stuff or even with a color theme and pick up all green boxes, folders, caddies, tins, etc. You can even get creative with what you use as a trash can (for instance if you’re going for a woven theme, a big woven basket as a garbage can would be pretty and you can slip a tin or plastic garbage can inside if you’re nervous about the basket getting dirty). A wire basket might look great with lots of metal tins and wire baskets if that’s the material you’ve selected to organize your supplies. Similarly, a large planter makes an excellent garbage can (Ikea sells ‘em for around $8) or even a great wrapping paper storage container like our wedding present planter below:
Step #8. Up And At ‘Em- Also remember that you can go vertical with your storage. Be creative and hang storage baskets or boxes (wire, woven, wood, bright plastic, etc) from the wall or add a big shelf (check out the Ikea’s Lack ones) to corral more supplies and really take advantage of the entire space.
Step #9. Work The Room- After you place each group of items in its designated box, basket, bin or tin, try to arrange things in an appealing (and functional) way so you can see and access as much as possible. Stack a smaller box on top of a larger one, or display all of your folders in a wire organizer, basket, or fabric box (see the first picture above for an example).
Step #10. Polish It Off- And since you also wanna feel good in the space, add a few completely decorative touches to make it feel welcoming and personalized (a soft rug, a sculptural lamp, a vase of flowers, a framed picture, etc). Even the smallest (and cheapest!) details can make all the difference, so consider adding a pretty mug in your color scheme full of pencils & paint brushes or displaying your prettiest ribbons or stationery in an open box or basket for all to see.
It may sound like a big project, but the whole thing can really be fun and super rewarding. You’ll sleep better knowing that you’ve FINALLY organized items that you’ve been toting around for a decade, and you’ll actually get a lot more use out of the things that you love (which were buried among the not-so-great things that piled up over time). There’s really nothing like a clean, functional crafting space, and once you get started you’ll be surprised how easy it is to get to the end of the makeover. Before you know it you’ll be sipping tea and writing a sweet letter to a long lost friend at your newly organized desk… and wondering why you didn’t organize your craft corner sooner!
To tour a truly amazing craft room, check out Nicole’s studio from Making It Lovely
Fab Freebie: Island Style
We’re leaving the mainland and heading for the islands for this week’s freebie giveaway. Well, I guess I don’t mean that literally (unfortunately) but we’re leaving it up to So’mace Lifestyle, a new design boutique in Honolulu, to bring the Hawaiian experience to all of us.
So’mace Lifestyle is a new gallery & shop spawned from a design service that started in 2004 by former New Yorkers Kaypee Soh and Edward Macey. The new boutique, which has a focus on sustainable and green design, is chock full of great art for your walls (wallpaper), for your floor (rugs), for your dreams (bedding) and- here’s where the prize comes in - for your sofa (pillows).
Kaypee Soh’s line of original pillows (view full collection here and here) is a mix of nature-inspired florals and graphic retro designs, all hand-printed in Washington state and hand-sewn in Hawaii. They feature 100% linen covers with a 20″ x 20″ feather/down and hypoallergenic insert. Plus, with two different, coordinated designs on each side, you can give your couch a fresh look just by flipping the pillow over. And one lucky reader will have the chance to do just that…
To win your choice of any one of the six pillows shown below, just comment on this post with the words “ALOHA” by Wednesday, February 18th at 8pm EST. And since Hawaii is such a popular honeymoon spot, we’d also love to hear where you went (or are hoping/planning to go) on your honeymoon. As you probably know, we actually left the lower 48 and headed the other direction for an Alaskan honeymoon. Not quite as warm, but it managed to be just as romantic.
So’mace Lifestyle will ship this great prize anywhere, so don’t hold back all you international pillow lovers! We’ll be picking one winner using random.org and announcing it later in the week as usual. Now, what’s Hawaiian for “good luck”?
If you’re curious, you can get more details about our giveaways here. All images courtesy of So’mace Lifestyle and Kaypee Soh
Hunting For Rhinos
The story of Sherry’s Valentine’s gift starts last month when I got an e-mail entitled “OMG I need this for my birthday” that included a link to this white, ceramic rhino from Z Gallerie. Her birthday is in March (and I already had gift plans for that), so I figured this would be the perfect V-day gift, right? Wrong. It was out of stock and Z Gallerie couldn’t tell me if it’d be available in time for Feb 14th.
You see, Sherry had been searching for a ceramic rhino for at least a year, since she first laid eyes on this baby in the Nate Berkus-designed room pictured below. She even blogged about Nate and included her favorite image almost a year ago, never knowing that the most-likely-super-expensive-rhino (maybe this one?) would someday be duplicated by Z Gallerie for the masses.
Knowing Sherry should never be denied the company of a white, ceramic animal, I pre-ordered it anyways and offered it up to my sister Emily as a birthday gift she could give to Sherry in March. Well, I’m not a great liar. Sherry could tell I’d ordered it and quickly became convinced she was getting it for Valentine’s Day. Uh oh. She even went as far as to gush to Emily about this beautiful rhino I was giving her. Emily thought it was hilarious, but I was starting to panic. Even though the rhino did arrive last week (to my office), Emily wasn’t planning to give it to her for another month. Not to mention that the gift I did get her for Valentine’s Day was more on the practical side. Sherry was surely primed for disappointment.
Fast forward to Saturday morning, as I held Sherry’s real Valentine’s Day gift behind my back, I told her one last half-truth: “I ordered your rhino, but it didn’t come in time. You’ll get it for your birthday.” Then I handed her our digital camera which now contained a new Eye-Fi wireless SD memory card. Again, not the most romantic gift, but I knew my favorite little blogger would save lots of time uploading pictures now that our camera could do it automatically and wirelessly. It went over very well (a big relief to me) and seemed to distract her from the absent rhino for the time being. Being able to turn on the camera in any room of the house and effortlessly upload new pictures is pretty sci-fi. And Sherry loves anything that allows her to blog smarter so there’s more time to fit in more projects that we then get to blog about.
Later that evening we headed over to Emily’s house for a Valentine’s Day party as planned. Sherry didn’t know it, but her horned ceramic mammal awaited. Emily and I decided it’d be too cruel to withhold the present for another month, so she decided to give Sherry her birthday gift early. But not without having a little bit of fun first.
Emily took me aside when we arrived and started pointing to various picture frames around her living room. Inside each of them was a picture that she and her kids had staged with Sherry’s rhino (see a few samples below). We figured the usually-very-observant Sherry would notice in no time. Instead, it took her nearly an hour. During which, by the way, she even pointed to the photo of our niece Olivia reading to the rhino and said “ahhh, cute” without noticing the ceramic animal snuggled nearby. We basically had to say “Sherry, did you look closely at all the new pictures?” for her to finally catch on.
Needless to say, Sherry was thrilled and the scavenger hunt ended with the happy reunion of girl and rhino. I was relieved that I didn’t have to keep secrets for another four weeks and that, with the help of my sister, I hadn’t disappointed my wife on Valentine’s Day. And I’m sure the rhino is very content in his new home in our living room:
All-in-all, a very happy (if not intricately schemed) Valentine’s Day. Do you guys have any funny V-day stories to share? Any gifts you gave that went over particularly well or particularly, um, not so well? Do tell.
Images courtesy of Z Gallerie, Eye Fi, and Nate Berkus.
