Friday, January 29, 2010

Friday Link Love

Happy Friday everyone!  We made it through another week!  I hope you all have a fabulous weekend.  I'll be busy thrifting, catching up with friends, gardening, fabric shopping for some quilt projects I have in the works, and working on other various home projects.  Phew, hope I can find time for relaxing in there!  

Here are some fun finds from around the web to get you through your weekend.  Enjoy!

I just ordered myself some very expired and very expensive polaroid film for my growing polaroid camera collection.  I'm hoping to make this my new hobby and I am so digging this Polaroid journal to keep my photos in...

We are in the market for art and I am really in to Print Society's selection...

My friends had the cutest engagement photo session in the West Village....so excited for their wedding in April...

I am so in love with the portfolio of Jessica Helgerson....interior design genius is putting it mildly.  This mid-century modern residence is my new inspiration for my home renovations...
  

 A weekend project perhaps?

Thursday, January 28, 2010

All in the Details...Part One

At the time I got my wedding photos back, I was in the midst of the crazy holiday madness and only had time to throw up a few photos.  Now I would like to share some of the details that made me so crazy for the year leading up to our big day.

Our table cards were by far my favorite wedding project and probably the one we received the most compliments on.  Over the year and a half leading up to our wedding I scoured the wedding blogs constantly looking for inspiration and ideas.  I had seen many people who used photos of themselves and hung them around the guestbook and the gift table and this sparked the idea that instead of using photos of us (because honestly by the time the weekend was over, people were probably sick of seeing photos of us!) I decided to make our table cards photos of our guests.

We had a very small wedding (60 people) and from the beginning we wanted it to feel very personal and a reflection of the fact that we only had our very close friends and family in attendance (we put our foot down on every…”you should invite my neighbor’s cousin who I went to high school with and haven’t spoken to in 10 years but met you once when you were 5 and should get an invitation!”  If they didn’t know us well, and as a couple, we kept them off of our guest list)  We collected our favorite pictures of all of our guests (this is when Facebook came in very handy!) and pasted them on card stock to make them look like Polaroids with the table number printed on the bottom of the card.  We attached them onto twine with miniature clothes pins.  It was such a huge hit and one of my favorite details.





I have always loved “Thank You” wedding photos.  I made this thank you bunting with fabric scraps and bias tape.  Using Snapfish, we made our thank you cards out of the photo.  I love the way it turned out.









 

Photos: Kyle Hale

Next week I will share more of our wedding details which includes our centerpieces, flower arrangements, and wedding favors

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

"Before"

This post is inspired by Laura's "before" home tour.  I figure posting my horrible "before" pictures will not only help me document my home renovations but also keep track of my progress, or lack there of!

Before we get started, please ignore the mess.  Remember, this is the raw, real, "unstyled" peak inside my home and yes it was the weekend, and I don't like to clean on the weekends.  So here we go......Welcome to my home, please come in!

Here is the front of my home, not bad if you like 70's retro stonework.  It's personally not my thing but I have a whole bunch of it if you know anyone who is interested!  So needless to say, the stonework is going.  Mike has already tried chipping away at it and it comes of pretty easily, so consider it gone!  We have a cute little front porch that I want to fancy up with some chairs, maybe a porch swing and we would like to do some landscaping and painting.  We are thinking gray exterior, red door, new lighting, but the wreath stays....it's a family tradition since my mother in law's maiden name literally translates to wreath, she always has a wreath on her front door, she changes it out as the seasons change.  It's a tradition that I don't mind carrying on....Now, that's enough standing around outside, let's go inside.....



First we'll check out our office.  This is one of the first rooms we started working on but we are far from finished.  The paint color stays, that is our doing.  As are the Billy's up on the wall.  We also bought a Parsons desk and we have a little chest of drawers that the printer is sitting on now that we want to refinish.  Once we get electric run in the closet the printer will go in there along with lots of shelving and storage.  My sewing machine will stay in this room, right now it's sitting on an old vintage school desk in the corner (can you see it behind the pile of sewing?!)  I'm not sure if this will be its permanent home but it's functional for now.  We plan on doing hardwood throughout the entire house and the ceiling fans all need to be replaced, crown molding and base boards need to be installed.  We need an office chair, I'm thinking something mid century modern (maybe an Eames?)  I also want to get a nice comfy arm chair for reading and knitting, sewing, etc.  Right now the office serves as a catch all for all the stuff we are tired of tripping over in the rest of the house but I want to make it a cozy and inspiring place where we can both work, and I can sew and be creative.  Basically, not at all what it is right now!



So here is one of our bathrooms, and well, basically it looks like someone took a bottle of pepto bismol and shook it all over the room.  Have you ever even seen a pink bathtub?  The reason there is a pillow and a blanket in here is not because this is where I make Mike sleep when we are having a fight!  This is actually where Peewee gets crated when we aren't home.  Obviously this room needs a complete makeover but it's big, and that's the one thing it has going for it.  Florida bathrooms from this building era are not typically this large.



This is our kitchen.  It hasn't been updated since the house was built, in 1969!  The picture on the right is where phase 1 of our kitchen reno is starting.  We are basically taking that empty wall you see there and building cabinets on it, around a bench seat and we will have a kitchen table here as well.  (I will finally get my nook!)  It's a pseudo nook really, I don't know how "nookish" it will really feel but it makes me happy so my husband is obliged to build it!  As far as the other side of the kitchen goes, we are ripping out the header to make room for larger wall cabinets.  We are replacing the appliances (why did they ever make bisque a color option?!)  We want to add recessed lighting, remove the ceiling fan, paint, tile, etc, etc. The wall which you can see the edge of in the picture on the right will come down and the brown cabinet that juts out of the wall will also be removed and the kitchen will come around in a U shape and will be open to the back room in the house, which we will see next....



The back room of the house.....this room has been a huge thorn in our sides.  First of all when we moved in, it had dark brown paneling, ugh, another building element along with popcorn texturing that I just can't understand.  We have struggled with this room for many reasons.  This is a typical "Florida Room" It is original to the house and at one point we assume was not air conditioned and full of jalousie windows. The room is long and narrow and doesn't really make it useful for much in terms of furniture layout.  We figure the best thing we can do is turn it into a dining room.  Where the two large picture windows are above the purple couch, we will put in doors to the outside and the brown door you can see in the photo to the left will be framed in and closed up.  Right now the room is full of our kitchen cabinets and that part of the wall where the drywall is exposed, needs to be repaired.  That was a half wall a couple of weeks ago and we framed it in so the cabinets could go on the opposite side of the wall. We would like to have a big farmhouse style table back here and on the opposite side of the room some cozy arm chairs.  We would like to eventually put a fireplace back here as well, you know for the two times a year you actually get to use it in Florida!





Here is our living room.  Nothing major here in terms of renovation except for replacing the ceiling fan and adding crown molding, etc.  This room just needs a complete design overhaul which we are in the process of now.  The couch is going, we are shopping around for a new one now.  The arm chairs may or may not stay depending on which direction we go, they may get split up and go into the back room and/or the office.  The coffee table will go and the credenza which you can kind of see in the picture is the new one I mentioned before.



Here is our guest bathroom, another room that hasn't been touched since 1969.  This is the bathroom reno we are going to focus on first and soon!  Everything will be gutted and replaced.



Phew, so that's it.  I'm exhausted from showing you around!  Hopefully you didn't mind me sharing all the raw "before" shots of the house.  Over the next few weeks I will share with you my design and inspiration boards for each room so you can get an idea of the direction I want to go in.  I'm open to any ideas or suggestions you all may have.  I have lots of ideas but nothing concrete...I'm terrible at making decisions which is one of the reasons why it has taken this long to get started.

That's all for today, thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Decorating Ideas

Over the weekend I took a decorating class at my local Pottery Barn. Have any of you ever taken one of these classes? This is the second one I've gone too (my mom kind of has a thing for them!) They are a little product heavy, obviously, but you do get some take away from them.  So, I thought I might share with you some of the ideas I took away from the class.

The instructor mentioned a lot of things she did in her own home, one of which was decorating with pictures.  She stressed the significance of this by saying that pictures are one of the few ways we can be unique in our design and decor, and also tell a story about ourselves and our life experiences.  It is a way that people visiting our home for the first time can get a look at who we are.  She explained that she has a constant rotating display of photos throughout her home. 

I love the idea of displaying photos throughout the house, especially when you can veer away from typical vignettes and create unique displays of your photographs and artwork.  Here are some great ideas...hopefully this can inspire you to come up with a non-traditional spin on a timeless decorating idea.





 






Monday, January 25, 2010

Daily Design Inspiration


Behind the Design - Knack Studios

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend, mine was way too short, but fun none the less.

I know it's been a while since we've had a Behind the Design but it's something that I really enjoy and want to get back on track with making it a weekly 'regular.' Soooo, to start the feature off again, we have Barb from Knack Studios. Barb is a furniture repurposing genius if there ever were such a term. She takes old pieces of furniture and makes them beautiful by painting and restoring them and putting her own special touches on them. Well without further ado, here is a little look into the designer, behind the design...

Where does your inspiration come from?
I find inspiration in so many places, but some of my favorite things are photography...looking at the colors and compositions of different shots, my 11 year old and her fantastic ability to pull outfits together that are stunning in both color and texture, signage, numbers, travel, and relationships {because being in a truly nurturing and loving relationship inspires the fire outta' me!}



Do you have a spot you like to go that helps you feel creative?
I have the greatest little studio, in a historic flatiron building here in the arts distric of Greenville....creativity seems to live there....and I love to visit.



Where do you do most of your work?
Knack Studio

How did you come up with the name of your business?
Well, my husband is in the marketing/design field and at the time he had recently done a study on some of the most popular brands and their names. Turns out that companies like Coke, Kodak, Starbuck's and the like all ended in the soft "k" sound and that seemed to be a pleasing sound to people. I had always loved the name "knack" because of what it means: a special skill or talent; a clever or adroit {resourceful, skillfull, etc} way of doing something....because of my approach to furniture.....So, it stuck like white on rice!



What is your all time favorite piece from past or current collections?
Man....that's like trying to choose one child over another....impossible!



Your favorite thing to make?
My absolute favorite things to transform are old chests.....never get tired of the challenge. Turning something forgotten into fantastic is so rewarding.



You couldn't run your business without?
Chai Tea, and a fantastic accountant.



What advice do you wish someone had given you when you first started your business?
Man this is a hard one.....I guess that when discouragement comes.....remember all the positive times and focus that thinking in a forward direction. Never dwell in the pit!



Coffee or tea?
Tea.....hands down.

Favorite magazine/blog/daily read?
Favorite magazines are abundant, but my top would be Living, etc., BoHo, and Ready Made.  Blogs are a dangerous area because I have so many friends and daily reads so I'll just name a few: Design*Sponge, Decor8, Poppytalk, Remodelista, Blue Moss, Reading My Tea Leaves, Our Little Love Nest, Bliss, Oh Hello Friend, Lovely Clusters, This Lovely City....oh I could go on and on!

If you could follow one person around for a day, who would it be?
Jillian Michaels....what does she partake in as far as food?...I want to see her sweat....and maybe yell at her to go faster.....{just a friendly little yell......}

Do you have any hobbies or creative outlets other than your work?
Oh my.....I used to run, before knack!.....and am making some changes so I can get back to it this year!  I love to run marathons and half marathons.....and miss the shape I was in while training. 

If you could travl anywhere in the world, money and time being no object, where would you go and why?
I want to to all over Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.....I am so drawn to its raw and earthy beauty.....the castles......the cliffs.....the stony meadows......the loch ness monster......:)

If you had to spend a year on a deserted island, what 5 things would you take with you?
Well.....I would have to have my family....even though I wouldn't want them deserted.....I would miss them terribly.....so that's three things.....and then I would need a years supply of sunscreen (because I am the fair freckle queen and hate sunburns!}.......and my rubber boots for wading......

Thank you Barb for participating!

Photos courtesy of Barb, Knack Studios

Barb can be found at
Etsy shop
Blog
Knack website
Facebook
Twitter
Flickr

Behind the Design - Knack Studios

I apologize but there have been some formatting issues in today's Behind the Design post. I had to re-write and re-publish the post to correct the problem. I apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Friday Link Love

Ahh, Friday has arrived...rather quickly I must say thanks to a short work week.  What are your plans for the weekend?  I think we will be hanging kitchen cabinets and doing things around the house...sounds riveting doesn't it?!

Inspired by this post, I will be giving you guys a little pre-reno house tour next week and sharing some of my wedding diy details, oh and there is a Behind The Design scheduled for Monday with this lovely artist. Now, here are some of my favorite finds from around the web this week. Enjoy and have a fabulous weekend!

I. Die. for this turntable


A bachlorette party in the desert, with a teepee....genius.


Bestow my heart...I love these tea towels.


I am so looking forward to this online mag coming soon!



Daily Design Inspiration

I am determined to stick a chalkboard wall somewhere in my house. We had one while living in Manhattan and Mike claimed we never used it (so?! functional isn't always the point!!)  I want to put one in our kitchen nook, the jury is still out on whether or not I will actually win that argument but this is one idea I love...putting it in the bedroom. You can leave little love notes for your spouse, or "honey-do" lists...in any case, it's genius.


Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The Couch Debacle

Lots of exciting things are happening in our home these days. The biggest being, we are starting to decorate and renovate. Phase 1 of our kitchen remodel has officially begun, we went to Ikea yesterday and bought cabinets which Mike is putting together as I write this.

The next big design decision that has to be made is which couch to buy. Here are the contenders...Dr. Pitt is my favorite, simply for all the possibilities later on down the line, I mean you can literally build the biggest sectional known to man which will be nice as our family grows. Buuuuut, I also really like the linen option that Pottery Barn offers (all these couches are slip covered by the way, a must for us dog owners!) Then I really like Ikea for the affordability and then there is the Restoration Hardware option which has extra long cushions and is sooo comfy. Ugg, I think I might have to flip a coin on this one, I really cannot decide - stay tuned!  Which one do you like best?