The Perfect Throw Pillows

While I waiting for the UPS man to drop off my gallery wall shelves and my new favorite man "Romeo" to reupholster the cushions for my vintage rattan chairs, I'm contemplating the perfect throw pillows for the library room. I've found some that I absolutely really love. Now I just have to decide which will go with rattan chairs once they're recovered and the other accents on the first floor that can be seen from the room.

I love Thomas Paul. The other pillows in our family room are Thomas Paul and I love the whimsy, character and brightness he brings into our lives! This throw pillow is no exception and is on Amazon right now for $73.26. It's 22 inches square --- nice and huge! --- and 100% linen. The feather / down insert is included and the edges are piped. I like the espresso and white color and I think it would merge the turquoise and charcoal we've got going on in the library, with the lavender and khaki we've got in the family room.

Oh but peeps, look at these pillows from Cooper Grey on Etsy. I found this shop tonight and I can't believe how beautiful these pillows are! This one is called High Voltage Chevron. It's 22 inches -- love that size! -- and is all handmade in linen. The fabric is by Schumacher and I think the pillow has been done so beautifully. It also features a feather / down insert. The colors are similar to the Thomas Paul above, but I love the vibrancy of the chevron print and particularly the scale of the stripes. I love the edging! Check out the Cooper Grey blog at www.cooper-grey.com. It is really awesome!

Hold onto your seats. I think this is my favorite. Also by Cooper Grey, this is another 22-inch pillow done in Kelly Wearstler's Katana fabric in Teal. This might just be the perfect teal color, peeps. It's vibrant, can work with the rest of the house, and yet it still feels calming. The problem with teal sometimes is that it tends to take over and be the spotlight. I love this for its muted tone!

Dreams! I love all of them...

Jet Lag Aids Blogging.

Peeps what do you do when you're away from home for work, jet lagged out of your mind and missing your beloved Hubs and babies? I don't know about you, but I obsess over design. Hmm. Doesn't sound any different than a regular day at home.



I got back to my hotel room this afternoon completely pooped from a long day of seminars and sessions and completely crashed -- Ralph Lauren dress and all -- on my fabulous hotel bed. I normally don't show these types of things for fear of being too personal but you HAVE to see this bed. It's fabulous.

Oh well. Back to the Olioboard. I've been wanting to put a more realistic Olioboard up of what the room is really turning out to look like and I finally had the chance to get to it tonight - after waking up from my 4 hour coma, taking a fabilis hot shower, and ordering room service because my preggers behind was too lazy to walk downstairs to get food.

I'm pretty happy with the way the room is turning out. I ordered some white shelves for my gallery wall above the couch, along with a stretched canvas photo I took of my Little Guy last year on the North Shore. I love this photo of him and I love that it hasn't been photoshopped and still looks great. :0) We were poolside and he had ordered a virgin "fancy drink."

On the wall above the turquoise buffet, I'm thinking of finding salvaged white, window frames I saw recently for a whopping $2 each at Reuse Hawaii, a very cool, green salvage yard in Honolulu.

Wouldn't they be a fun weekend project? I don't think I'd keep the glass or screen. But I like the distressed finish to the frames and the peeling white paint (which would be gently sanded down, bien sur). Part of me wants to take a piece of plywood and paint it with chalkboard paint and frame it with the window. I love the vintage beach feel.

Oh well. Enough for one night. I seriously need to get some sleep. It's 7:30pm in Hawaii, it's 12:30am where I am, and I have a full day's schedule starting tomorrow at 7:00am. You gotta love travel! It will kick you in the butt, but sometimes lets your creative juices flow.

Transforming a Lane Mid Century Buffet...into Turquoise Loveliness Part I

This awful quality photo is of a Lane Mid-Century Buffet I was lucky enough to find on Craigslist for $50 this week. I can't even tell you, peeps, this is Craigslist gold. For $50 and from a nice man named Bob, I got his very cute piece for the Library/Bar.

(BTW, If you're looking at those doors on the left and crinkling your nose, I'm not offended. I did the same. More on the doors below.)

Here's an example of the same type of buffet I found online.

Adorbs.

Now here is the actual piece again, this time, with the rattan doors gone and wearing its matching wood doors. Ha! The doors are something like the dress on my Peaches-n-Cream Barbie I had in 1984... Reversible! If you had that Barbie, I'm your soul sister. But back to the doors and their reversible abilities... How mod, I swear.

But the buffet is so solid, peeps, and was in such great condition. No veneer, it is all wood. There were some watermarks on the top, but the drawers glide like buttah.

& my favorite part? Those legs.

*Sigh*

I'm a sucker for Mid Century Modern legs!

Now here comes the tricky part. The piece is GREAT, but if you remember my blog post about the library / bar, it's part of a grand plan! & I want to paint it turquoise. My inspiration comes from pieces like these:

A great turquoise dresser from Primitive and Proper. Check out Cassie's blog. I've only recently discovered and I love it.

Another gorgeous piece featured on Cococozy. Coco offers daily eye candy for me and I love seeing what she finds!

Well, with all that in mind, here are three shades of turquoise I've narrowed down that I'm thinking of for the fab mid-century buffet to put in the modern-esque pacific coastal room I'm putting together.

No.1 Tropical Tide from Behr.

No. 2 Surfer from Behr

No. 3 Lagoon by Martha Stewart

Very subtly different. I'm leaning towards Martha's color. Up close - and I'm not sure if it shows up in the photos - it has a grey-ish cast that tones the color down a bit. If you don't know, I'm afraid of color. I'm one of those people. But I'm breaking out of my shell, peeps. I'm embracing the turquoise.

So... which do you like?

The Vintage Mid-Century Modern Sofa is Mine, All Mine

Hello! Just a quick line I wanted to drop with some up-to-the-minute photos of the library/bar. My hunt for a vintage mid-century modern sofa has come to an end with this awesome brown vinyl/pleather/not-really-leather sofa below with the great lines and awesome wooden legs. The room needs fun things in it now to keep it from feeling stodgy, but the bones are to my liking!

Have a great day!

Do you think Don Draper would approve?

Sofas are a crazy thing. Vintage Mid-Century Modern ones even more. For whatever reason, I have to have the real deal - must be vintage, no recently made lookalikes. Which means I must live with imperfection. But you know me, I find the beauty in that. Here is the latest sofa find I'm thinking about for our library/bar. I am in love with the lines and the legs on this thing! Worst of all, Hawaii is so, so small that finding a vintage piece is not the easiest task. I'd rather wait than get something I won't really love, but I think this piece would look great with the right touches. We're still in the dating phase, so I can't get my hopes up completely because she is technically not mine, but I think she'd look fabulous in the space. What do you all think?

I'm planning to put together a board that would combine the pieces for the library/bar. I'd like to keep my other mid-century modern find in the room with it. This is the chair I wanted to re-cover in cowhide, if you remember from a previous post. I spoke with an upholsterer after getting nervous about doing the job myself and the cost seems a little high for two cushions. Alas, the chair will stay as-is for now, but I have hope! It would look great either way, and if I can't cover the chair in Bessie, the cowhide can live on the floor and would still look great in the space.

By the way, I'm seeing cowhide peak out everywhere, most recently at my favorite source of inspiration, Restoration Hardware. Here are some pieces that I'm ogling at the moment. But alas, usually with Restoration Hardware, I can only ogle from afar. Their prices freak my wallet out more than the J.Crack ever did.

1950's Copenhagen Chair Hair on Hide Front, Restoration Hardware

Brazilian Cowhide Pillow Covers, Restoration Hardware $69 - $99

I'm picturing some book cases, preferably a thin tower version, on either side of the Don Draper sofa, to be filled with bar accoutrements and books to complete the theme. I like the two shelving units here.

Vintage Industrial Tower, Restoration Hardware

Reclaimed Elm & Iron Leaning Shelving, Restoration Hardware

Must go now and get the Little Guy ready for school, but drop me a line and let me know what you think so far of the bar/library? Is it the vintage feel I'm going for?

My Very First DIY: 1930's Norman Bel Geddes Vintage Metal Dresser

Scrolling through my new favorite, Cracklist -- oh my bad... Craigslist, I found an awesome, two-toned, rather beat up metal dresser. The guy wanted $20. I had to have it. It had these rounded edges and good genes. I knew it had potential.

I primed and repainted the bad boy in a hammered metallic black finish, and threw on some spanking glass knobs to give it a little something. & I love how it turned out. :0) Those girly glass knobs really look cool against that industrial, utilitarian dresser. & the best part is if I get tired of the look, I'll just change them out!

Next time, I'll take lots of photos of the process. I wish I had kept photos of what the bad boy looked like originally. It wasn't pretty.

What I did find, is a manufacturer's sticker with company name and found similar dressers online... those rounded corner edges really gave it away. The dresser was designed by a man named Normal Bel Geddes in the 1930's - 1940's. Geddes was an industrial designer who brought the streamlined metal look to fruition. He believed in form following function and perfect aerodynamics. I also found dressers that are in original condition selling for more than MacBook Air.

Well, I spent $20, invested in a few cans of paint and glass knobs, and I love what I have. It makes the entry way look amazing and I feel like I have a piece of history! But now... this DIY thing is catchy. Looking for something else to restore and repurpose!

More House Fixing Up

I have house on the brain. I admit it. I'm almost no fashion, all house these days. Thought I would snap a few pics and show what's been new in the house decorating department.

Pillows: Thomas Paul, bought from Gilt

Glass Sea Urchins: Roost

Pharmacist's desk lamp: Target

Spider Mums: Whole Foods

BTW, I am in LOVE with these sea urchins.

Pendant lamps: Roost

All installed and with some great Edison bulbs to boot. I think the next set of bulbs will not be as strong. These were 60 watt. I'd like to see the filaments! Hello! That's why I spent more on the bulbs!

Pendant lights off. I think they add to the clean palate I'm trying to go for.

What do you all think?