Pillows for everyone!

Well hello there! If you're here from Meg and Lex, co., welcome! If you're not, you might want to head over there and see what we cooked up for Lexi's living room, and then mozy on back here. 

I showed you one formula that we used in Lexi's living room, and here are three more that would also work for her room, in varying levels of neutrality and color. Ahhh pillows. One of my very very favorite parts of any room. There are so many options out there it is just so hard to choose. 

I promised to share my very favorite pillow tip that I am LOVING right now, so without further adieu: 

There are pillows, and then there are down pillows. Down pillows are so much more comfortable and amazing and they sit so pretty on the couch that it's easy to tell the difference between the real deal and it's cousin imposter- the polyester fill. So, what are you to do if you've fallen for something with the dreaded poly-fill (looking at you, number 3!)? Find the sewn line where the pillow was sewn closed, and take a seam ripper and pull all of that stuffing out. Sew in a zipper instead of the stitched line and fill the pillow with a down insert instead. Now you've got yourself a down pillow (win!) AND a washable pillow cover than you can switch out at will as well (double win!). 

Happy pillow shopping, friends! 

Sources:

Pillow Number 1  Pillow Number 2  Pillow Number 3 

Pillow Number 4  Pillow Number 5 

Pillow Number 6  Pillow Number 7  Pillow Number 8 

Pillow Number 9 

Tile Update!

Here was our sad sad drywall hanging out pre-tile. I'm so happy to tell you that that view is looking different now!

 

We went with a tile called Arctic Ice, a glass 1x2" subway tile from our local tile shop. It brings a nice subtle color in to the living room and it's totally better than those uneven paint lines that the painters left when they sprayed the mantle and masked off the fireplace box.

 The color is pretty, but the shine and texture is better. It's understated and pretty and I'm so jazzed about it! 

 I measured out 10 square feet of area that needed tile, and we ordered 12 square feet total. The industry standard for overages is 10%, but since this is our first tile job we decided to pad that number a little bit. In the end we really did end up using just 11 square feet- right in line with the 10% overage. We still need to tile the floor beneath and caulk the edges where the tile meets the mantle, but so far it's looking a million times better than before. 

A pulled back before and after you ask? You betcha. 

The post where Lexi gets upgraded from 3 plastic plates.

You may know a few of my favorite ladies, Meg and Lex, the beauty geniuses behind my eyebrows and their vloggy blog Meg & Lex, co. A few weeks ago we spoke about getting together to style Lex's open shelving and last week we got together and made it happen! I'm all kinds of excited to show you how it turned out. One of my favorite things about designing for clients is honing in on someone else's style and delivering it to them, and this one turned out to be exactly Lex in a shelf form, if there is such a thing. 

We captured the whole process, and Meg and Lex did their Hollywood magic so that you can watch it all unfold HERE! I'll wait here while you go check it out :) 

Good thing Lex needed some cutting boards! I love how much warmth the wood brings to the whole collection. 

 Can I tell you a secret about the smaller of these two fabulous mercury glass vases? It has a terribly unfortunate seashell on the "front" of it, but it was on clearance for $5 so we just turned it around to the back and voila! Fabulous. 

 This little unicorn I believe is meant to be a ring holder for jewelry, but it's the perfect amount of quirky to add here on the plates, which otherwise can look a little too stuffy and boring on their own. 

 I am so glad we were able to use this fabulous cake stand. Confession: I go to Home Goods probably an unhealthy amount. I found this guy on a previous trip and when it was still there when we went shopping for Lex's project, I was pretty thrilled. The color of the wood is so pretty! 

 DI books for the win! Cheapest way to get books... just have to do a little digging.

 This basket was another great deal of the day... only $8 and it has such a great patina. 

 These succulents are 100% fake, which is great because on the far side of the shelf it would be annoying to have to pull down to water all of the time. I'm loving the rope detail on the planter as well.

 I'm crazy about these bowls. The texture on them is so pretty and it's just enough. Not in your face, but still holds its own. We found these dish towels in this grey stripe and also navy stripe, which was tempting. In the end I'm so happy with the grey because it looks amazing with the paint color that we selected earlier this year (Sherwin Williams Worldly Grey).

 Love love love the balance of wood and ceramic and metallic, while keeping everything so cohesive. 

 Originally we were planning on placing some Pellegrino bottles here, but it seems they have switched to plastic bottles (at least at the shops where we were- we later found the glass bottles at Costco!) but I'm actually a lot happier with these bottles for Lex's space. The labels have both gold and silver, and it does such a great job of marrying the gold from the shelves with the mercury glass. 

Sources:

Mercury glass vases- Home Goods

Books- DI

Gold Sea Urchin- Hobby Lobby

Wooden Cake Stand- Home Goods

Wire Basket and Linens- Home Goods

Mugs- Home Goods

Picture Frame- Home Goods

Ceramic and Rope Planter- Target

Succulents- Hobby Lobby

Ceramic Bowls- Target

Plates- Tai Pan

Unicorn- Home Goods

Tonic Water- World Market

Wood Cutting Boards- Home Goods

Pull up a chair, friends.

I've been on the hunt for a really fabulous pair of occasional chairs for a client project, and I thought I would share a few of my findings here in case you're looking for something similar, or if you just like perusing fabulous seating options like I do. These 5 chairs all have a little something that sets them apart from each other, and it really depends what you've got in the rest of the room that determines the best fit. For my client, I'm leaning toward option 2 for her formal front sitting room, but I'm holding myself back from buying one of each to keep all for myself! Now the hunt for the perfect rug and side table to pair with it! 

Sources:

1. Frankie Chair, Urban Outfitters  2. Maxwell Lillian Wing Chair, Overstock  3. Threshold Modified Wingback Chair, Target  4. Patrice Chair, Crate and Barrel  5. Dhurrie Occasional Chair, Anthropologie

Things people do that they should stop doing.

A few weeks back, a friend of mine came over to see our new place, and she asked me "where is all of your stuff??" and I was like, "ummm... right here?" and then I realized that my efforts to declutter and streamline ARE WORKING! It's so freeing. At the same time, I'm working on layering in more decoration and design and accessories in my home, which is where you can really go wrong. Here's the secret friends. Don't buy ugly things. Seek out the things that you want to be looking at on the regular, because you ARE going to be seeing things on the regular. Notebooks, backpacks, your kid's shoes... all of it. I get it, houses get messy. I mean, I really get it. So, let's all do ourselves a favor and stop settling for ugly things. And, lest you think I'm advocating that you go bust your budget for silly things that you can't even take to heaven, I'm totally not. And so, a tale of soap dispensers. 

 These dispensers, actually. I had been on the hunt for soap dispensers for a few months, ever since we moved in really. Most that I found were in the $10-$15 range, which is fine. I didn't find anything that I HAD TO HAVE, so I just didn't buy anything. Then, one magical day in HomeGoods (where all magical days begin, really) my girl Meg found these beauties on a shelf for five dollars. FIVE DOLLARS! So, the lesson. Beautiful things always, be picky, be thrifty, be diligent in shopping always. 

 I mean, if you're going to have a candle, buy a pretty one. Right? By the way, this one smells AMAZING. It's Target's knock off of Anthro's Volcano, if you aren't already aware of it. The packaging has changed since I purchased this one, but you best believe I'll be buying an update when this one is all out of wax. 

 This is my centerpiece on my table currently, and this is a notebook is one that I picked up the other day. I don't hate it when I leave it out around the house, because pretty! 

 One last one just to really drive this silly point home... I LOVE this planner that I picked up at Christmastime last year. It's minty and gold and it's going to match my fireplace tile so well- ha! Seriously though, it's consistent with the styling through the rest of the house so it feels intentional and not messy. 

 Maybe I should start my search for a new one for 2016 now? Probably yes. Happy shopping friends. 

Let's get this party started.

Hello there, internet friends! The first post is always weird, so let's just get that out of the way and pretend that this is not in fact post number one. Good? Good. 

So. This is my living room! It's a really lovely place and I've been enjoying the process of layering in furnishings and decor to make it work just right for me and my family. We built our home with a builder a few months ago (another post for another time) and made all of our selections at the design center affiliated with our builder. 

 I chose a tile I didn't love but didn't hate, and the design center bid it out at a cool $400. That seemed a little steep to me, but typically there's not a lot of flexibility within the design center, so I figured that I would choose something standard and rip it out later (not ideal).

A lot of our options there were non-flexible, but then our consultant presented us with an option: to leave the fireplace surround without tile at all, to be selected and installed on our own after closing. We would need special approval, but she looked in to it for us and it was approved. Plenty of my other requests were not approved, so I was pretty surprised so say the least. 

As we've settled in to our house I'm so glad that I was able to have the extra time to really consider the material that I wanted to use on the fireplace. Overall it's about 10 square feet, and even considering a generous 20% overage order, it's such a small area that price isn't as much of a factor in the selection as it can be with larger projects like back splashes and floors and such. 

There are so many different tiles that I would love to use, but my main concern for this selection was making a choice that would lend itself well to a future selection in the kitchen back splash, as well as striking a great balance between being special enough to grab a little attention, but not so much that it was too loud. I'm crazy about the clean lines on the mantle, so something messy just wouldn't be a good fit. 

 The fireplace surround was looking a lot less crazy until just a moment before closing when the painters came through and painted the mantle finally. They did a crazy masking job on the fire box, and I've been staring at it like this ever since. I can't wait to clean that mess up with some tile on top! 

I set out to my favorite tile shop to ponder on some options. These hand painted tiles had me at hello... I love so many of them! Unfortunately our firebox is slightly off center, and tiles like this would really draw attention to that. It will just have to happen on another project.

This wall of penny tile options was also super exciting to look over... So. Many. Colors! It was so hard to whittle it down to decide on a sample to take home. 

I've been crazy about carrara marble hex tile since the fabulous Katie Bower used it in her kitchen backsplash, and I was excited to bring home a larger sized sample to see in my own house. 

I grabbed a handful of samples, all with different feels, to bring home and see what would sit best. This intricate mosaic was my very very favorite (still super crazy about it) but with the difference in sizing on the two sides of the fire box plus the price, which would be over $600 just for this area, I was interested in finding something I liked just as well without the huge price tag. What can I say? #bargainshopper

After staring at these for awhile I decided that my favorite was the white penny tile, which also happened to be a really great price. Win win! Everything was going smoothly, until I went to the tile shop to return my samples and came across final contender number two.

This glass mini subway is hard to capture in photos, especially with all of the LOVELY beige from the tile shop all around, and on the dark sample board, but it's just slightly minty. I think it will be so pretty paired with the crisp white on the mantle and in the mix with everything else that I've got going on in the great room. Plus, SHINY! It's on order and should be here any minute, and I'm so so anxious to get it up on my wall. Pictures to follow, of course. 

What do you think? Do you have a large or small tile job coming up in your life? What would you have chosen? Drooling over samples is one of my favorite things to do. There are so many options! The project can go so many directions depending on what you choose. Ahhhh. Happiness.