name 5 things.: March 2011

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Houston Home Crush.

Remember this fabulous Houston home that I ~~was~~ still am slightly obsessed with? Well, I recently came across another amazing Houston home, via the Newlywed Diaries, which was featured in Lonny last year. Like the previous house, this one is also a perfect example of mixing traditional and modern.

I just want to sit down in the perfectly worn leather chair and read a book (or just admire the space).

The pops of pink work beautifully in this room!

See that gorgeous antique secretary back there? They repurposed it as a bar! Genius! I love that the stemware is displayed behind the glass. And I spy gray and white stripey straws!

How stunning is the dining room? What an unexpected color, but it works so well with the white. The table and chairs are lovely. I am totally digging that chandelier.

What a fabulous view looking back into the living room. I would always want to sit on that side of the table! How fun are the rug and the lamp globe in the entry way? Everything works together so seamlessly.

Of course, the kitchen is great too. Love the open shelving and all of the natural light. And check out the floor!

The bedroom is just fabulous. The bedding is so pretty with the scalloped edging. I'm also loving the gallery wall above the bed.

Who doesn't want a fireplace in the bedroom? This one is styled just beautifully.

The wallpaper just screams glamorous! And the glossy black door is a showstopper.

One thing I noticed in nearly every room were well-styled vignettes (and fantastic gallery walls). How pretty are these?

(photos: lonny)

It is so fun to get to peak inside some local homes that are absolutely gorgeous. This house makes me want to put up several gallery walls, as well as scour craigslist and thrift stores for some antiques!

Sunday, March 27, 2011

West Elm.

How amazing has West Elm been recently? There was a period of time when nothing really did anything for me there. I am pretty sure the exact opposite is true now! And it looks like I'm not the only one . . . Elsa, Michelle, and Cassie all did posts this last week on their West Elm favorites. I have had my post in the works for a while now and thought it was so funny to see their posts too -- I guess great minds think alike. (I thought about not doing my post any more after seeing theirs, but I enjoyed seeing what things catch everyone's eye.)

Here are some of the things that rock my world:

striped shower curtain

modernist mugs and bowls (these are very anthropologie-ie)

Some of these things have made their way into our house! I'm excited to show you them to you!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

5 things . . .

5 things I am loving right now . . .

1. This living room. There's a lot of goodness going on in this room (gallery walls, lamps, mirrored side tables, pouf, fab rug, sunburst mirror, etc.). I don't even miss curtains.

(photo: decorpad)

2. This bag. I think my hillier needs a big sister.

(photo: neimans)

3. Jeans for Japan. If we made a donation at work, we could wear jeans 2 days a week this week and next. I don't know what it is, but it makes me so happy in the morning to throw on jeans rather than a suit (and it's for a good cause too!).

(photo: nordstrom)

4. That we just booked tickets to San Diego!

5. The Instagram (and Hipstamatic) app on my Iphone.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Chevron Inspiration Boards.

I recently made some inspiration/memo boards for our office, generally following the instructions Bryn posted.

I picked up 2 plain bulletin boards from Target. Zoey was my ~~helpful~~ cute assistant.

I covered the frame portion of the boards with painters tape.

After it was taped off, I sprayed spray adhesive on the cork portion. I then lined my fabric up as best as I could and smoothed it over the board, working from the inside out and from one side to the other. Once it was in place, I removed the painters tape from underneath. Make sure you iron your fabric before adhering it to the board. Wrinkles = no good. The fabric I used is from Premier Prints and was $9.99 per yard.

I wanted to use nailheads/thumbtacks to jazz it up a bit, but as I've mentioned before, I am not the most patient person in the world (and I'm slightly OCD). So the thought of putting them on one by one on two boards equally spaced made me twitch a little. I got the idea to use nailhead trim from Centsational Girl. I ordered mine from Fabric Farms for $16.95. While it is a little more pricey than the thumbtack route, it was well worth it to maintain my sanity.

It comes on a roll and you just hammer in (or push, in this case, since it's a bulletin board) a nail every fifth spot. (True confession: I asked Justin if he had a rubber mallet so that I wouldn't mess up the finish of the nails when I hammered them in. He said he didn't, and I was upset that I wouldn't be able to finish the project that night. Then he nicely asked why I even needed a mallet since it was a bulletin board! So smart that guy is. I felt like an idiot.)

It perfectly spaces them for you and it took me less than 10 minutes to trim each board.

I skipped the step of spraying more adhesive on the trim and just pulled the fabric tight around the back and used a liberal amount of staples to secure it.

And there's one of the two finished boards. As you can see, this was done before we painted the office. (I forgot to get a picture of them both hanging above our desks before we took them down for the painters.)

But now that our office is painted gray, there's a bit of a problem.

Yeah, so there's too much gray/blue action going on. I am not a big fan of the boards paired with our newly painted walls. So now back to square one with a new (non-blue gray) fabric!