Reminder...

I'm kicking off the house tour Monday! I'll start with a recap of Ana Claire's nursery plans and then hit you up with some photos on Tuesday.

I hope you have a lovely holiday weekend planned for you and yours. Have a great one...see you Monday!

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L'Indienne Fabric from Alessandra Branca

Funny how tastes change, right? I'll swear off a color or pattern or style deciding it's not for me...and then I see it done well and I jump on the party train. Am I fickle? Or just a lover of everything?

One thing I've never really been keen on is paisley. Not really my jam. But then I started seeing these gorgeous block-print type paisleys mixed with traditional furnishings and that was it - sign me up!

Alessandra Branca's new collection for Schumacher is fab, and my favorite is her take on this type of warm, rich paisley. It's called L'Indienne:

The differences in colorways are very subtle...the first is a little more pink than the last and the middle one incorporates blue. But they are all gorgeous, no? How about we use it as curtains in a wood-paneled study with a shiny oxblood leather Chesterfield sofa? Sounds good to me!

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Catalog Picks: Grandinroad

Usually, a particular item will catch my eye in a catalog and it makes it to these virtual pages as one of my picks...but I recently spotted a slew of items in the Grandinroad (yup, Grandinroad) catalog that I felt the need to share.

Check 'em out:

 Jaipur Sumak Rug - $1,199 (8x10)

Love, love, love these colors! So beautiful and the palette is so vast that you'll never be stuck...this is the kind of piece that will last a long time in your home because it will evolve with you.

 Ovala Hanging Pendants - $179-$279

Love the look and feel of these guys. The big one would be perfect over a dining table and the little ones would be great used in pairs or a group of three...maybe over a glam kitchen island?

Cambridge Cabinet - $399

Love the finish and the herringbone pattern. Would make the perfect bar in a living room with useful storage to boot.

And that's not all...definitely a couple more items caught my eye (especially rugs). If you haven't looked at Grandinroad lately, give it a whirl. And no, they are not paying me to say this.

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Announcing...

Finally.

Let's look at my house! All this yammering about interiors and y'all are maybe wondering how I've been translating my blog thoughts into my own spaces? Maybe?

You've seen bits and pieces here and there but then I fell off the photo train...for a looong time. But I have taken photos! They are not great but they will do! You will see AC's nursery! And our basement family room renovation! And so much more!

So, we'll kick things off Labor Day with a little refresher on Ana Claire's nursery plans and then TUESDAY I'll serve up Ana Claire's nursery pictures. You've been so patient.

From there, I'll aim to post a room every week with a little back story in the first post and then some photo goods in the following post...it'll be a weekly twofer.

Happy Monday!

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Friday Crush

Design by Bill Ingram, Photo by Laurey W. Glenn via Southern Living

If given the choice of an old home or a new home, I will likely choose the old one. Unless the new construction has the charm of this Alabama lake house. My favorite part is the paneling...I love the texture and dimension of a paneled wall. And that ceiling color - a gorgeous deep aloe green - gives the neutral room the zhush it needs. Third place points go to the gorgeous butcher block island with that lovely brass hardware. Love. I might switch out the light fixture and stools to bring in a little more color, but the bones of this kitchen are beautiful...especially for a lake house.

Hope you have a great weekend...see you next week!

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Best Planned Community: Beaufort, South Carolina

Southern Living just put out its annual Home Awards honoring the year's best in Southern architecture and design. Like most all things Southern Living, I devoured the content and was thrilled to see one of my favorite places on this earth - Beaufort, South Carolina. Remember this post? Heaven.

But I was struck by the award it won - Best Planned Community. Huh? Beaufort is known for its OLD Southern charmers...not for its new construction. But apparently, a little slice of downtown underwent a recent revitalization and the results are gorgeous!

How could you not want to live in one of these adorable homes in one of the prettiest areas of the country?

All photos by J. Savage Gibson

Hold the phone. Those brick steps with that Chippendale railing trimmed with a black top rail, AND floor-to-ceiling black shutters? Just stop. Hello dream house.

It's great that this kind of revitalization went on smack-dab in the middle of town. "Planned community" tends to be synonymous with suburbia, but these homes are taking advantage of what the small city has to offer within walking distance for the residents.

Love, love, love.

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Thibaut Resort Frogs

Love this frog situation from Thibaut's new Resort collection. I would LOVE to design a child's bathroom using this paper...perfect for a jack and jill layout where said bathroom needs to be cute for both brother and sister.  I see lots of red tile and maybe a fun aqua mirror. Putting this one on file...

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Chinoiserie Monogrammed Trays

If you need a little retail therapy to get through this Monday, check out these monogrammed trays from Etsy seller Sarah Hansen:

Love the flourishes of her monograms paired with crisp fretwork borders to create pretty ottoman trays with Chinoiserie appeal. Her shop has a great selection of trays in various sizes - check it out here. And she's in Annapolis, so a neighbor to the DC area!

Hope you had a great weekend.

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Friday Crush

Design by John Knott and John Fondas, photo by Bjorn Wallander, via housebeautiful.com

You guys, IT FEELS LIKE FALL!!!! This whole week the weather in the DC area has been nothing but crisp and delicious and I've been tempted to break out my boots. Seriously, nothing makes me happier than the transition to autumn and I came across this warm, cinnamon-dusted hallway in this spectacular Maine home featured by House Beautiful and it spoke to my eagerness for fall to arrive. And that is some amazing wallpaper - Vanderpoel Stripe by Quadrille.

Have a fantastic weekend...see you next week!

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House Hunters Spanish Bathroom

It's rare that an episode of HGTV's House Hunters provides me with a dose of design inspiration. But the other day, Carter and I were watching one of the House Hunters Renovation episodes where a family bought and renovated a Spanish bungalow in California...nothing special there....until we saw the bathroom.

Woah.

Here's the before...pink & brass galore:

And here is the after...oh my word, it's beautiful!

I love black and white bathrooms (more so than gray marble ones, actually) and the touch of turquoisey-green in this one is just to-die-for. Just stop with those triangular turquoise tiles...and the wall color! Like a grayish-seagreen. And then there's the floor tile and the black-painted window moldings and the claw foot tub and the vintage-feeling fixtures (though in the episode, they buy new).

Did anyone watch this and recall the name of the designer they used? Very talented lady...

What do you think? Are you as impressed as I am? I'm bookmarking this bathroom as an all-time favorite whenever C and I get to do a bathroom renovation...which will not be any time soon.

Check out HGTV's video here (where I got these screenshots from..sorry they are a bit blurry!)

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Jungle Jubilee and Macaroni

I have loved every fabric from the Lulu DK Child collection for Schumacher...adorable textiles in punchy, sweet colors. And I just came across a two-fabric combo that is just so good - Jungle Jubilee with Macaroni. (Love the names too...)

Imagine Jungle Jubilee on the front of a nursery armchair with piping and a contrast back done in Macaroni!

I'm crazy for the saturation of these colors - they are just gorgeous. And those animals are just the cutest and make a perfect pairing with the smaller geometrics in Macaroni. Oh my, what about a crib set in this? Like a skirt from Macaroni and bumper with Jungle Jubilee with a solid-colored crib sheet. Yup, that would be good.

Adorable!

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Friday Crush

Photo by: Laurey W. Glenn, Styling by: Elizabeth Demos via SouthernLiving.com

This gem of a dining room is located in a little beach pre-fab cottage in Florida, home to Onno Horn and Jennifer Hunter (she's a designer...can you tell?) I am completely digging the table - I L-O-V-E how it works with the artwork. It's like the table is almost a pedestal atop which the artwork sits. Gorgeous. And the light fixture gives the perfect organic shape to this super crisp dining space. So fresh, so clean.

Happy weekend, y'all...see you next week!

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Vervain's Balanaisia

My clients Suzanne and Bob recently introduced me to a stunner of a Chinoiserie fabric - Vervain's Balanaisia - a soft, surprisingly neutral, whimsical linen print.

They opted for the last colorway with a terrific combination of greens, browns, mustard yellow and little touches of blue for a wingback chair (with milk chocolate piping!) in their living room. It is going to be STUNNING, y'all. I can't wait to see the finished product and will share it here when complete!

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Parapluie Five Ways

For my latest Houzz ideabook, I decided to take one of my recent wallpaper loves - Scalamandre's Parapluie - and imagine a foyer five different ways using five of Parapluie's colorways. It was an exercise in using color as a foundation for creating five various aesthetics, using the same building blocks - wallpaper, a mirror, a stool/ottoman and a light fixture.

'Twas fun. Here's a peek at what I came up with:

Same wallpaper...but I let the color guide me as to how to put it together for an entryway vignette.

Check out the combos and links here...any favorites?

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Friday Crush

Design by Molly Luetkemeyer, Image via apartmenttherapy.com

Love the art. The walls are cool...the fabric on the chair is hip...the chair itself looks just like a faux bois one I used in a project last year...and the overall styling is awesome. But it's the art that gets me! Those colors.

Have a fabulous weekend...see you next week!

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New Velvet from IKEA

Apologies in advance if I'm one of many bloggers who post about this furniture. This one's going to make the rounds, but IT'S SO GOOD!

The new IKEA catalog dropped in my mailbox yesterday...a nice, thick catalog that only shows up maybe twice a year and reads more like a magazine than a catalog with product styled extraordinarily well. Now that's a big catalog worth getting.

But I digress...the new catalog introduces IKEA's latest iteration of its Stockholm collection...and there are VELVET covers in delicious colors. VELVET.

Just look at the Stockholm sofa in GREEN VELVET. Green. Velvet.

They have gone to a 3-cushion back and the legs, though still a bit MCM for me, are better. But forget that and look again at the GREEN VELVET.

And then, THEN, they have YELLOW VELVET in the new Stockholm swivel easy chair:

SWIVEL VELVET. It's just too much to take all at once.

I wouldn't hesitate for a second to pair said sofa with said chairs with all sorts of traditional burled-wood end tables, oil paintings and a kilim rug.

I think I need that sofa in my life. And two of the chairs. This is thrilling product, y'all.

Why are there no links you ask? IKEA has a bad habit of putting out catalogs with new items before they put these items up for availability online. Maybe they want folks in the stores first...who knows, but I did a long search on their website and these babies didn't come up.

But, check out the catalog by clicking here so you can see all the goodies in IKEA's new lineup! There are wing chairs!

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