House Crashing
House Crashing: Elegant And Fresh
We shared a smidge of Kirsten’s amazing house in last week’s Portland post just to get you excited, but here’s the whole House Crashing monty for ya. The exterior of her and her husband Kyle’s house is a rich gray color and the porch has the most amazing over-sized white corbels on either side of the door (note: house numbers have been changed to protect the innocent).
Here’s a shot o the outside of the house from further away (wish we had been able to see it in all of its spring/summer glory when more is in bloom).
When you walk inside, there’s a charming little entryway directly across from the door between the dining room and the living room. It’s such a sweet (and functional!) area that Kirsten squeezed into the room. They were actually made by a local woodworker (she said it saved her lots of money in comparison to some ready-made systems that she saw) and the awesome giant N is from Anthropologie.
Aside from immediately going crazy over everything from the awesome paint colors (this room’s Benjamin Moore’s Copley Gray) to that genius oversized map (from Schoolhouse Electric, by the way), we just snapped our way around her house – oohing and aahing the whole way.
The wood-burning fireplace actually works (so cozy) and Kirsten mentioned that the patterned rug from Crate & Barrel has been an awesome choice since sometimes a bit of soot or ash can get on it down at the end there, but it blends right in. Oh and that mirror above the fireplace is a craigslist find.
This wood-chest turned side table (found on craigslist!) was such a fun pairing with the colorful ikat chair from Urban Outfitters.
Oh and the coffee table was a wedding gift that a number of relatives went in on from Crate & Barrel.
Directly across from the living room is the dining area, complete with a cool slightly arched doorway…
… and an awesome fixture from Ballard Design.
Everything from the thin black frames on that back wall to the table made from reclaimed wood that has special meaning to Kirsten and her hubby Kyle (it’s from a barn that was taken down in his hometown of Sweet Home, Oregon) had us threatening to move in on the spot. Oh and the paint color in here is Quill by Olympic.
For more on those frames and the art within them, you can check out Kristen’s blog here (the prints have a really interesting origin, and the frames were garage sale finds). Even the little console table behind the dining area was really sweetly accessorized. I remember telling Kirsten that she has a serious knack for decorating, as in: she should do it full time – and I meant it!
Check out their amazing kitchen! It used to be a narrow galley kitchen (where those hanging pendants are was once a wall). Kirsten and her husband got their wood counter handcrafted by a local woodworker for a steal (a serious steal- like a few hundred dollars for the entire thing, including the hole for the sunken cooktop).
She said they had repainted the walls quite a few times, just to get the perfect color – and this putty color (Benjamin Moore’s Rockport Gray) was the bee’s knees. I loved how rich it made the cabinets look without feeling dark at all.
Here’s the sweet eat-in area on the other side of the room. Is that yellow poster the bomb.com or what? It’s from here (and the amazing yellow peppermill is from Anthropologie).
Oh and I had to share this shot of a small staircase right off of the kitchen that leads to an exterior door. Kirsten wanted to dress up the stairs without spending a ton, so she just used Benjamin Moore’s porch and floor paint (in White Dove and Van Cortland Blue) along with a stencil to give them a pick-me-up.
Here’s the guest room, complete with a charming metal bed and the coolest old wood dresser we’ve seen in a while.
It was totally something you’d see at Anthropologie for a cool grand, but it was actually a free hand-me-down that Kirsten inherited, painted, hated the paint, and then stripped and sanded. Isn’t that an amazing “accidental” effect that she ended up with? It’s so weathered and cool. Oh and the drawer pulls are from Anthropologie and the wall color is Behr’s Pebble Stone.
Here’s the backyard, which was so lush and green thanks to all that Portland rain. That little deck that you see is off of the kitchen, and there’s a fence and some pretty bushes behind where we stood to take this picture.
All in all: a super charming house, with a super charming owner. Thanks so much for inviting us to crash your house Kirsten!
For more on Kirsten’s paint colors, click here, and for more on her house/neighborhood, click here. And click here just to check out her awesome blog in general. Now let’s play the what’s-your-favorite part game. I am completely obsessed with the giant map in the living room, the dining room chandelier, and the wood trunk in the living room. And of course John wants to fight me for the map, and also loves the yellow sign in the kitchen along with the wood counter in there. Your turn.
Psst- Check out over thirty more House Crashing features right here.
A Little Bonus House Crashing…
Remember when we house crashed Jaime’s colorful and cozy home last June (more on that here)?
Well, she redid her back deck and sweetly sent the eye candy our way. And we were instantly in love. It’s so welcoming and full of awesome DIY inspiration.
What do I mean by DIY inspiration? Let’s look a little closer at the daybed under that sweet breezy canopy (that Jaime made here).
When you get even closer you’ll notice that the daybed…
… is actually made from pallets! Check out a full tutorial on how Jaime built it (all by herself) here.
And just look at this cozy eating area. I love the mix of smooth and natural (textured light + shiny metal chairs = be still me beating heart). You know I’m a sucker for that graphic chevron bench cushion and the sweet hanging fabric garlands (that Jaime also made herself – deets here).
Is that not a delicious outdoor room? Yes I just channeled Martyn Lawrence-Bullard from Million Dollar Decorators and said delicious. What can I say, I’m excited. I love how it feels enclosed and private yet open and airy at the same time.
This table setting = yesssssss.
And John is obsessed with the bike-wheel-ish details at the bottom of this sideboard.
Let’s not overlook the ceramic animal party going on next to this awesome oversized jug of pink lemonade. Makes me giddy.
Check out Jaime’s blog for all the where-she-got-it-details (and even more amazing photos). But first let’s play the what’s-your-favorite-part game. I’m gonna go with the awesome woven light fixture and the gorgeous pallet daybed. Girl power.
Psst- Jaime’s friend Raya snapped these photos for her, so we wanted to give her credit over here too. Oh and click here to check out all of our other House Crashing adventures (or sort things by room or color here).
Psssst- Speaking of House Crashing, one of our favorite houses that we ever crashed is officially for sale. So if you’re looking for a gorgeous casa in Charlotte, click here for more info (and here and here to see two house crashing posts devoted to it).
House Crashing: Downsized & Upgraded
I don’t usually write these House Crashing posts, but this home in particular is very special to me. Well, at least it will be over time – it’s my parents’ new house here in Richmond. Since we literally crashed their pad for a few days post-Hurricane Irene (when our house had no power) and have spent many an evening hanging out over there, we figured it was high time we snapped some pics to share with you guys.
That’s Dad and Mom right after moving day back in May (they’ve since painted the lavender door bright red). I’ve mentioned before how they sold their house of 32 years in Northern Virginia (aka, my childhood home) and relocated two hours south in Richmond to be closer to some of their kids/grandkids and downsize to an easier-to-maintain home (part of my mom’s retirement goals was to never have to mulch again). They landed in a beautiful new-ish community of duplexes about 15 minutes from our place and, despite it being smidge smaller, in many ways it feels quite grand in comparison to their previous digs. Just take their half bath as an example.
A lot of the design of the house is courtesy of the previous owners (my parents have been there less than 4 months) and when house hunting, my parents feared their style was a bit too formal for their tastes (their last bathrooms were more of the bold paint variety, not the floral wallpaper type). But somewhere along the way they figured “I’m retired, so who says I can’t have an ornate gold mirror in my half bath?”
We totally dig it. Maybe it’s partially just the pleasure of seeing my parents embrace a new style, but it’s also just fun to go into a house that takes risks or makes decisions you wouldn’t necessary think of for yourself. You know, it helps you stretch a little. And clearly my Mom is learning to love her new look, as she purchased this light fixture from Ballard Designs to replace what the previous owners had taken with them. She said she “never thought that she’d purchase something like this in a million years” but it’s really playful and goes perfectly in there.
Even at just four months in, my parents are making the place their own. For instance, the previous owners left them the great drapes and large ceiling medallion… but no chandelier. So my parents actually moved this slightly-too-large-for-the-space fixture from their breakfast nook into the dining room, where it’s much better suited. Three cheers for working with what you got.
While they’ve definitely had to purchase some new furniture to better fit the space, they’re also have fun mixing in their existing pieces – like this awesome wicker chair scored at Pottery Barn a few years ago. The side table is a new on-sale find from Ballard Design. Sherry has said it’s her favorite thing in the whole house. It has little clawed feet clutching a ball on the bottom, and it is of course her favorite finish (ORB).
That chair sits in the large open living room, which has great lofted ceilings, some sweet built-ins and a cozy electric fireplace.
Of course, the most popular conversation piece in their new home is this custom cabinet. Most of the houses in the development have a little builder-basic white closet here, but the previous owners went all out and had a piece designed using reclaimed wood and ironwork from Caravati’s (a local architectural salvage place). The old owners used it as a liquor cabinet, but my non-drinking parents display frames & dinnerware on its top shelves (those top doors flip open and slide into the piece so they’re invisible) and store photo albums and games in the bottom drawers which are hidden behind the two doors on the bottom.
The cabinet sits beside their kitchen, which has an awesome island in the middle (it houses the sink and dishwasher) as well as a killer pantry cabinet at the far right. Not to mention another pantry closet that’s not pictured (it’s on the far left beyond the magnet board on the wall).
We’re jealous of a lot of things in here – awesome black-but-still-subtly-flecky granite, extra-hight ceilings, stainless appliances, etc, etc. Good thing we get to come over for dinner regularly.
Oh, and here’s that breakfast nook I mentioned that once housed the much-bigger dining room chandelier, which they replaced with a more modestly-sized one from Ballard Designs. And see those colorful chairs? They’re from Pier 1. My mom called us up and said “come see the chairs I got for the breakfast nook, they’re unlike anything I would ever have chosen even a year ago – I’m so in love with them.” It’s so fun to watch them have fun with new things for their new house.
Just beyond those big bright windows in the kitchen is their patio. It’s perfectly sized for them… and the fence is great for keeping the grandkids from running away! We’ve already broken in a plastic baby pool out there (Clara didn’t want to leave).
The second story of the house features a large landing that acts as my dad’s office and a play area when grandkids are visiting, plus two guest bedrooms – including this one that we stayed in during the whole no-power-for-three-days-after-Huricane-Irene thing. It was already painted that warm color (wish we knew the name to share it, but my parents inherited already-painted walls in every room, so they don’t have a clue). Oh but the bed frame is from Ballard Design (my mom likes to wait for sales and use coupon codes).
We didn’t get pics of the other guest room (Clara was napping in it) or the master (that’s still sort of a work in progress) but maybe someday we’ll snap those for you to complete the tour when my parents have had a bit more time to settle in (they’re such good sports for letting us crash a house they’ve lived in for, oh, 380 fewer months than their last place).
Oh, and I can’t forget one of our favorite features of the house. This is a brick from our old house (removed during our first home’s kitchen doorway widening project) that we gave to them a few years ago. I can’t remember the exact occasion (maybe there wasn’t one) but they’ve had it out on their new doorstep since day 1.
Oh, and in related news, we heard the new owners of my parents’ old home are having a great time there. They’re a family with young kids that are having a blast befriending other kids in the neighborhood, so it seems that the ol’ cul de sac is once again seeing some of the action it had back in the ’80s when my generation was there. Though I did hear that my sister’s old bedroom is now Baltimore Ravens purple. Wow.
Psst- Check out a ton of other House Crashing adventures here, or search through individual rooms for inspiration (by color or type of room) here.
