I love owls, but my youngest may love owls even more than I do. This little switchplate from Anthropologie may need to find its way into his room redesign.
Image credit: Hoot, Hoot Switchplate from Anthropologie
Pink Lacquer Bath Accessories
When I was a little girl, I was forbidden to have a Barbie. My parents had this thing about bringing inaccurate female stereotypes into the house, and so I suffered an incomplete girlhood (sniff). As it turned out, after a brief moment of Goth-ness in high school, I ended up being just as girly as the girliest girls out there (seriously, if there was even a 1% chance that I wouldn't be laughed right out of the gates of the esteemed institution of higher ed at which I work, I would be sportin' my Blair Waldorf headbands daily). Anyhoo...my heart let out an extra thump-thump the other day when I got my weekly e-mail from Jonathan Adler announcing his new line of Barbie-inspired bath accessories. Seriously, what could be better than pink lacquer in my house full of boys? I might just pick up the Adler-donned Barbie and her very own mini-Lampert Sofa since I never got my Barbie-fix growing up.
Image credit: Jonathan Adler
Shaker Peg Window Treatments
After two years, we're finally hitting our decorating stride and beginning to make our house feel like a home. Next project on the list? Our youngest son's room, woefully ignored up until this point, except for a quick trip to IKEA for a big-kid bed when we started to worry he was going to crack his head open from jumping out of his crib. As I said, woefully ignored.
I'm not quite sure where we're going to go with his room, but I'm definitely going to integrate this super-simple (and budget!) window treatment idea:
[scribd id=20442123 key=key-1w8ga5uxgrom9eulodli]
Grommet panels hung on a shaker peg board -- brilliant, right? Easy-to-install and totally sophisticated. Love it. Image credit: Coastal Living
Cozy Sheets for Fall
I'm back!
Since I've spent the past month focused on the brand new world of having a school-age kid, I thought I would dedicate my first post-hiatus post to that very kid -- our sweet guy, Weston.
Weston is all about the sensory experience of his surroundings and is a big fan of "being cozy" in particular. In our house, jeans must be fleece-lined, socks must be super-soft and even the towels need to meet the approval of our resident King of Cozy. So a couple of years ago as Wes was transitioning into a big-kid bed, I was lucky enough to stumble upon the holy grail of coziness as I was shopping for his bedding. The chamois fitted sheets from Pottery Barn Kids are made from the same material as many of their baby blankets, ultra-soft but not overly warm. Wes loves them so much that the only way to convince him to change back to cotton sheets is by hitting a heat wave...
Pottery Barn Kids Chamois Fitted Sheets are available in Twin through King in tons of colors, and through October 29, take advantage of their Warm & Cozy Event to get 20% off all chamois bedding!
Image credit: Pottery Barn Kids
Making Bookshelves Pretty
A couple of weeks ago, I had a chance to spend the better part of a day with my good friend Marianne, helping to create a beautiful, practical space in her home. About year ago, Marianne and her husband Jim had a carpenter build three walls of bookshelves in a small pass-through room that would become part-playroom, part-library. But after having the shelves installed, life took over, and they became a mass collection point for anything and everything...books, piles of the kids' artwork, kitchenwares that were too big for the kitchen cabinets, toys, even laundry. It was time for an intervention.
In four hours, using items Marianne already owned, we transformed her stuffed shelves into works of art. Here's how we did it:
1) Cleared the decks: Using tables in the adjacent rooms, we cleared off everything from the shelves and made distinct piles -- framed photos, accessories, art supplies and artwork, books, and so on.
2) Decided on an approach: I quizzed Marianne....did she care how her books were arranged? By author? By genre? Did she care if I mixed accessories among her books? Was there anything that was critical to remain on display? Nope, she said, the only thing she wanted was to be sure that her cookbooks were together. Other than that, I had free reign.
3) Checked the angles: After the shelves were clear and I knew my parameters, I stood back and took in the views. Because of the central location of the space, it could be seen from almost everwhere in the house, so I needed to be sure that I was taking the purpose and feel of adjoining rooms into consideration.
4) Created vignettes: This is the part that is trial and error, more art than science. I reviewed the piles we had made (which were many), and began creating vignettes among the shelves. I started with the knowns -- she wanted all of her cookbooks to be together, and I knew I wanted to group their many, many travel guides. I knew I wanted the children's artwork and art supplies to be accessible (low shelves) and breakable items to be inaccessible (high shelves). I knew I wanted the wall that faced her coastal-inspired living room to be calming, artistic and elegant, and the main wall of the room to be filled with energy and color.
4) Hunted for treasure: After establishing the vignettes on each shelf, there was still a lot of space remaining (there were 28 shelves to fill artfully), so I went treasure hunting around Marianne's house. After hijacking a painting from a bathroom, a chinese teapot from her office, and a few other items, I filled the empty spaces and the shelves were nearly complete.
5) Assessed the situation: After finishing all the shelves, we took a hard look at what was missing, and it was only two things: a container to keep drawing paper accessible (but not all over the place), and a basket to hold the work of Marianne's prolific little artists. We made a quick run to the Container Store, and voila!, the space went from messy to marvelous.
