Wish You Were Here...

Phew! We're finally back on the grid!

With only a couple precious days unofficially left of the summer, Chris and I have been doing our best to live it up. I swear, I think we've done more in the last couple of weeks than we've done in the seven years that we've lived in New England.  So just a few days before Irene hit, we packed a bag with our swimsuits and headed out to spend the day on Block Island.

 Block Island is a 30 minute ferry ride on the Hi-Speed Ferry from Point Judith, RI.

 There's such a cute main drag right off the dock where the ferry dropped us off.

 We saw lots of examples of Second Empire Victorians.

Many of the restaurants have sweeping front porches with views of the ocean.

 There's a beach club on the island where you can rent beach chairs and an umbrella for the day at their private beach. It has a bar, live music, and beach wait-service. The vibe there was 30% yuppie New Englander, 70% MTV Jams, but Chris and I have just enough Jersey Shore in us to enjoy a fruity cocktail at the bar. How could you not with a view like this one?

Seriously, does it get any more classic New England than this???

Sigh...already can't wait to go back.

Goldfinger

A couple of years ago, I visited my friend while she was in the process of cleaning out her husband's family summer home, where I found Mr. Elephant in a pile destined for Goodwill. He was missing a tusk and glazed a dated shade of gray. So I rescued him, took him home, and spray painted him to a perfectly lovely & updated glossy white.

But now I'm kind of over the whole glossy white animal movement. Time for another makeover, Mr. Elephant.
My inspiration:

Areaware

Houzz

My original plan was to try my hand at gold leafing, but when I saw what Annie over at Hello Newman's did to her old chandelier with only 30 minutes a $4 tube of Rub-n-Buff I decided to take that route instead.

 I just rubbed him down with the stuff.

Before long, Mr. Elephant was almost gold and so was my finger. (I swear! The instructions on the package actually say to use your finger!)

 I'm pretty sure all these bumps weren't supposed to happen, but I don't mind. Mr. Elephant was free and my materials were only $3.99. Most of them went away after I gave him a good buffing. But if I ever use Rub-n-Buff on something more precious, I'll buff as I go instead of stopping halfway through to go have lunch and watch a dvr'd episode of the Real Housewives. Or maybe I should have done a better job of dusting him off first. Oops.

 And now, let me introduce Mr. Elephant Fancypants.

Look at him all proud and smiling :)

How Do You Sleep At Night?

When Chris and I lived in our old house, we couldn't fit a King size bed in our bedroom. We didn't think anything of it until we put our house on the market and it seemed like EVERY potential buyer had a King size bed they weren't willing to give up.

 Our poor bedroom was so small in our old house, that we couldn't even stand far enough away from the bed to get it all in the same shot! It is a wonder how we sold that house...

Now that we have the room for a King size bed at Hazard Ave, we've been considering trading up, and I'm curious...

Do you have a King or a Queen size bed?

Thoughts on coffee tables

Coffee or cocktail tables are always a challenge when designing a room. It's easy to go out and buy a matching set of coffee and end tables, but you will have a set of three things the same colour and design.  Three is good in design but all the same is not! Mixing it up allows you to add variety in texture, scale and colour.  The eye seek interest. Here's a little variety in coffee table options. 

Glass or lucite

LDa Architecture & Interiors

Susan Kennedy Design

Sometimes you do not want a coffee table to dominate a room.  Perhaps you have a small space between furniture pieces or you want to control the amount of weighted colour. Maybe you are not fond of wood tones or you have a colourful rug you want to show off.  In all of these cases a lucite or glass coffee table fits the bill.  

Organic

Dufner Heighes Inc

Organic shapes or the real thing can make an interesting conversation piece and serve as a coffee table. Large pieces of driftwood and a piece of tempered glass make a great do it yourself table. 



James Cleary Architecture

 
Dillard Design Group, LLC

Ominous artwork but great coffee table. The combination of organic wood and hard edged metal really works.  The lucite end tables are insignificant when paired with it.  Rethinking might be in order.

Trunks 

 twenty7 design

 

 Kelley & Company Home

Valerie Wills Interiors

Think trunks when you want interest and function. You can find great thrift store finds or buy new.  

Upholstered

Busybee Design

 Casual  and functional

Mascheroni Construction

More sophisticated  

Benches 

 
Feldman Architecture, Inc.

Sometimes you need a long,  narrow coffee table but they are very difficult to find .  Think outside the box and look for benches.

Nesting Tables

Vanessa De Vargas

There's so many options one post isn't sufficient to explore them.  Stay tuned for more on this topic.

Family Room Wallpaper

 Remember when Chris and I toured this open house while we were visiting San Francisco? It was covered in grasscloth. As soon as I walked through the door I knew we needed to have grasscloth somewhere in our house. It made this San Francisco home feel so warm, sophisticated, and RICH.
What?
Oh, it was the $2,275,000 asking price that made it feel so rich?
Whatever. It is exactly the feeling I want to have in my Beacon Hill Brownstone Chic family room and I'd like to think that the grasscloth had something to do with that.

So the decision to use grasscloth wallpaper in our family room was a no brainer, but which color? Which texture? Faux or real?

Well, the faux or real question was an easy one. There's actually faux grasscloth on our family room walls now and I hate it. Sure, faux grasscloth has come a long way since the 60's or 70's when ours was probably hung, but unless we were planning to put it in a bathroom where moisture is a factor or in an insanely high traffic area, we'll stick with the real thing.

As for choosing a color and texture, I just had to see for myself.  I ordered some samples and while my parents were in town visiting last week, my Mom and I spent an afternoon picking our favorite.

 Ugh. I can't wait to put that sorry old wallpaper out of its misery...

 And the winner is...

 First one from the top!
It's not too dark, not too light, not to beachy, and not too brown. It has a beautiful spun gold color & texture.

Since we're keeping the bamboo shades and adding white curtains, my Mom wanted to see how that would look. So we hung the sample in our office where that situation is already going on.

 Not bad.

Finally, here's the winner with all the fabrics going in the room.

Are you as excited as I am?

DIY wreaths

Want to liven up your entrance?  A wreath is always a quick way to give a nice jolt of colour and texture.  Of course there are lots out there to buy, but there's something special when you make your own.  Here are some of my favourite DIY wreaths.  For instructions click on the link under the photo. Hope you find one you fancy.

 Domestifluff

Take a little felt and...

source

Beans you say?

The Cottage Chick

Who knew a coffee filter could look like this?

Design Your Revolution

Everybody can find twigs and yarn.

Craftapalooza

Button wreaths look especially good when you keep them monochromatic.

Curbly

A great way to display old photographs.  You could make a temporary one for a special birthday by using "poster sticky stuff" which can be removed. 

Curbly

and for those who like it modern.

 

The Rag and Bone Boutique