More Shots of Home

Let's move from the kitchen on to the living room now...

The entryway chandelier and red bookcase are both from Ikea. The green vase in the nook is from Home Goods, one of my favorite places of all time.



This is the first home I've purchased, so I was really excited to be able to wallpaper. This yellow and cream print is Cow Parsley by Cole and Son, and it's more beautiful than I could've imagined. It gives the room a contemporary, vibrant feel. All throughout the room are things that are beautiful and meaningful to me, as well as lots of photos of family. Above the mantel are two red and gold Peruvian mirrors I bought at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach's gift shop many years ago when I worked there, a spiky vase by Leah Nobilette from Tilde in Portland, a gorgeous wooden I'm-not-sure-what from the San Diego Zoo, a framed luna moth and praying mantis encased in resin that I gave to my husband and some golden crow's feet from Rare Device in San Francisco.





The main wall color is Coir, by Eddie Bauer paints. I got all my paint at Lowe's. It's a great non-boring neutral with green undertones and I love the way the other colors in the room pop against it.

I don't get to search for treasures at boutiques or flea markets nearly enough since I work full time and have a very energetic 3 year old, so I found much of the furniture at retailers like Ikea, Pier 1 and Crate and Barrel. Mixed all together I think they sort of cancel out the "I'm from such and such store!" feel you get when you have a room of stuff from the same store. I fell in love with the green floral chair from Crate and Barrel. I love that the pattern will hide stains and wear, and the fabric's really durable. I picked up on the reds and yellows in the chair and splashed them about the room, like in the pagoda shelves, table lamp and pillows from Pier One and Target.




I did artwork on the cheap, with frames from Ikea and Aaron Brother's and some creepy prints by Marcel Dzama and images of birds and snakes from the Cabinet of Natural Curiosities book.



This A-frame bookcase is from Cost Plus World Market, and the cream iron chairs are from Home Goods, topped by pillows from Ikea.



I'm definitely a 'more is more' person, and I'm an equal opportunity shopper: I'll look anywhere because you never know where you'll find something great. My idea for the room was based on a naturalist's study. I wanted an elegant room that was masculine enough for my husband and that also had lots of great things to catch the eye. At the same time it had to be a very durable room; I've got two boys, ages 15 and 3. I included a tasteful little basket for my 3 year old Max's toys at the fireplace. I think it's really important to integrate your kids into your design scheme whenever possible so they're not always banished to their bedroom or a playroom (my 3 year old actually calls this room the playroom!).

My favorite color is green, so there's green somewhere in every room. It was really hard not to do every room in green from floor to ceiling. I'm glad I restrained myself though, it might have been a little crazy (Or totally awesome, you never really know till you see it, after all). Everything was bought on a budget, but I love the way it all turned out and think it looks like a million bucks!

Home!

I managed to snap a few pictures this morning while Billy and Max were out. They weren't taken in the best light, but you get the idea!

Let's start with the kitchen.




The plate display was inspired by this plate, one of a set of four from Anthropologie, and Kelly Wearstler's plate display at the Viceroy Hotel. I'm lucky to have such tall walls in the house. I made good use of them with this display! All of the other plates are from Home Goods, Marshalls or gifts from friends.


I've got my collection of milk glass on display above the cabinets, and in the big window.


The wall color is Rosemary by Martha Stewart paints. I love it. It's the perfect background to the plates and sets of all the green and white accents in the kitchen perfectly. I've got a bit of a bird theme going on in here. That sort of just happened. In fact, animals popped up all over the house while I was decorating!

This is Max's kitchen. I couldn't stop myself from decorating it also!


The dining room.



I have a collection of carnival themed photographs that were inspired by my purchase of...



This one, at top.


I really hadn't intended to have an entire collection, I just really loved that photograph. Now I really love the whole collection!


More rooms to come!

Dorthe Alstrup photograph

I was perusing Design*Sponge when I ran across this photograph in a sneak peek of someone's home.




The photographer is Dorthe Alstrup and the work was sold on the super cool site 20x200 (www.20x200.com), which sells original works of art in limited editions starting at $20 (!!).

I was immediately drawn to the colors and the balloons. I'm not a huge fan of balloons in real life (especially if I'm the one that has to blow them up) but I've discovered that I love them in photos. Who knew?! When I looked up the print I found that it's called Untitled (Max). Just like my little monster! Unfortunately it's sold out. DAMMIT! I was totally ready to plunk down my $20 plus shipping too. Instead, I'll post it here, so that I can come back to it and pretend I do own it.

Wallpaper

If I was rich, I'd wallpaper my closet in this gorgeous paper from Anthropologie. I say my closet because it would complement the faux parquet floor I just put in fabulously and, that is one of the few areas of my house that's wallpaper free.

Hmm, on second thought, my kitchen isn't wallpapered.....(Sigh, I wish!!)

Oh My...

I just stumbled upon the website for the boutique Lealand Eve this afternoon while getting my daily Design*Sponge fix. These vases are fantastic! The silver one would be SO perfect for my brother's wedding table centerpieces, alas, the budget doesn't allow for it. I, on the other hand, have birthday and Christmas gifts to ask for!

The fish vase is awesome and a paltry $12! Consider it mine. I might have to get one for my cousin Myrna as well. We're updating her apartment and the look is sophisticated beach bum (more on that later).

www.lealandeve.com

Max's Room

This is Max's room. He's three now. I was originally planning to do a nautical sea captain theme, and make his room sort of like the captain's quarters, but then I found this wallpaper with the crowned monkeys flying in balloons and I had to have it! So the theme changed to flying monkey pirate captain, which, if you know Max, is much more fitting. In my head the monkeys roam the earth, exploring and studying other animals, hence the maps, suitcases and numerous animal pictures.

There's a lot going on in here, I guess that's just how I roll. Most of it I like a lot, but I may scale things back just a bit. I put in some things recently, like the red toy holder to the left of the bed, and some photos that Max took at my parent's house but looking at it through pictures now I think it's a little bit much. If I revise I'll definitely post those pictures.

I filled his room with a lot of personal things, like pictures of all his favorite people and pets, and even some artwork that Jake and I did when we were younger. It's a happy room--there's lots to look at and most of it is at Max's eye level. I defintely wanted the room to be a kid's room, and for him. I hate kid's rooms that are completely adult, and maybe if the kid is lucky, he or she will have one color coordinated toy on display. That's bullshit. Kid's rooms should be fun and cheerful and kinda stuffed with toys and cool stuff. Max seems to like it, and I love it.

Petite Shell Mirrors

Stunning and so affordable! $18 an $22 each! From shoestringhome.com.

Home--Entryway and Side Yard

I'm finally getting these up! It's taken me ages because we're always working on something so things are always sort of a mess. I finally got things cleaned up a bit in the side yard one day and managed to snap a few pics! A few of Max's toys still make an appearance, but eh. They add character, and anyway, that's where they live. Here's the walk up from the entrance gate to the front door. I LOVE all the brickwork. I've just been filling this area up with plants. This area gets a lot of shade so I've been trying to find plants that do well in shady spots and are fairly low maintenance--so lots of coleus, lamb's ear, spider plants, some tropical plants that I don't know the name of and a couple of succulents tucked in for good measure because they're adorable and hardy no matter where you put them. I just want the house completely surrounded by plants! Is that weird?







And here is Billy's succulent/cactus/California Native plant garden. This came out great. We just keep tucking more and more succulents and cacti in over time.







We inherited that charming Native American woman pouring water fountain. It will be replaced one of these days but it's not super high on our list of priorities.

This is our tropical section with elephant ears, birds of paradise, papyrus, some lamb's ear, mint and moss. I know these last three are not tropical but they work here. In the past few weeks since I took these pictures the papyrus has grown completely out of control and this spot is pretty overrun and in need of a good pruning. At least the plants are doing well!




You can't even sit on that bench at the moment without getting a face full of papyrus. I love this spot--it was great for smoking. Sigh! Ah well, now it will be great for sitting and sipping tea while Max plays with his construction trucks nearby.