Beach House Chic. With a little Vintage to boot. Finally.

Happy Sunday / Early Monday! Well, the Library / Bar / Old Dining Room is finally finished. I don't think there's anything else I would add or take away from it and I'm happy with the way it turned out. What I wanted in the space was a beachy, modern vibe, where I would feel relaxed when I walked in, and I think that's what I got. I scoured Craigslist for 1950's / 1960's pieces in great condition to keep the space feeling fun. But the upholstered pieces, like the slipcovered Mitchell Gold sofa and the rattan chair's cushions had to be nap-worthy. I wanted the space to be comfortable and enjoyable, and one can't enjoy if one's butt isn't happy in its chair.

I had been waiting for my vintage 3-strand rattan chairs to be re-upholstered in this print from Waverly. I love the groovy edge it brings in to the space.

A $50 Craigslist find, this 1960's Lane buffet was the perfect piece for me. It holds all our bar needs, as well as extra china and vases. The beach feel extended to the coral lamp, a Pier 1 find. The sea glass colored print on the wall is by artist Heather Brown and is flanked by family photos.

I found old window frames at the local salvage / renovation store and reclaimed them. At a $1 each, they got gussied up with some old paint we had in the garage and now hang above the couch. A friend had given me a gift certificate for my birthday for one of those canvas photo prints, and I put it to use on one of my favorite photos of my son. The throw pillow I ended up choosing is by Thomas Paul.

I come home from work, peeps, and I literally just want to be in this room all evening. That's got to be a sign of success, right?

Dreaming of Nurseries - What's Your Baby Style?

As my library / bar comes together, my focus is on the nursery --- hard core like, peeps. 7 more weeks to go before Keanu's arrival and I'm envisioning a bright, somewhat seashore/beach-ish nursery fitting for a baby with a Pacific Ocean view from his lanai.

**Yes, that's one lucky little boy.**

Loves the blue and greens -- and that light!! I love it!!

The ultimate baby closet right here. Hubs is a "closet" man.

I've got to share this one with him.

What do you all think? Are you more traditionalists when it comes to baby rooms? What's your Baby Style?

Classic Hawaii Homes

Here's a home in the Old Pali neighborhood in Honolulu. I would love to live in Old Pali, peeps. This house has it all - charm, character, space, close to downtown, but far away enough to "get away." The price tag? $1.399M. Um, yes, there's an M at the end. It's Hawaii.

As Rachel Zoe says, OMG, I die.

Classic Hawaii Home

Neighborhood: Old Pali

Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 4

Square Footage: 3,481 on 36,045 square feet of land

(That's basically the equivalent of a plantation in Hawaii standards)

Built: 1930

But wait! Check out this Garden Lover's gem in the Honolulu neighborhood of Manoa. This one is also minutes from downtown Honolulu and Waikiki, set back near the University of Hawaii, in a neighborhood of classic homes. Can you just see yourself, all green thumbed, sitting amongst your plants and flowers like a regular Martha Stewart. The inside of this home is filled with antiques. & lots of them. So I've spared your eyes of the clutter. Good thing the furnishings go with the sellers! & you are left with the spaces and plants you see here. Asking $1.595M.

There's that pesky M again.

Queen Anne Revival

Neighborhood: Manoa

Bedrooms: 3 Bathrooms: 2.5

Square Footage: 2,471 on a 7,500 square feet lot

Year Built: 1902

Loving... Reclaimed Wood

There's something about the lovely look of bringing something older into your home. Is it the character it has, or the history? Or both? In keeping with my beach house feel and in a fit of Etsy-driven satisfaction, I've found that I'm loving...

This Sea Breezes Wood Wall Frame, in all its beachy goodness.

Etsy - kraftworx

17 and a 1/2 x 15 and a 1/4 frame with a 5 x 7 opening.

This mosaic recycled wooden frame

Etsy - Apple and Pie

9 and a 1/2 square frame with a 3 and a 1/2 square opening

& this one in its Sea Foam color, made of reclaimed wainscotting after Hurricane Katrina.

Etsy - Second Line Frames

13 x 16 as a frame with a 5 x 5 and a 1/2 opening

I don't have the wall space peeps, but I'd make room for these.

Which do you prefer?

Ode to the Perfect Man.

This is the Hubs --

Supportive and patient of the many J.Crew- and Craigslist-infused phases of my life, and the best Daddy of two lucky boys.

Well, one's still baking. The technical tally is one and a half.

Fire Captain by day...

& most impressive chicken griller by night.

Everything a girl needs, in a 6'2" package.

This is your day, Babes of mine.

Enjoy!

Scenes of an Unfinished House

So close, but yet so far, peeps. Patience is a virtue that I've yet to learn. Here are some images of the house thus far. Just a glimpse, as I work my way to the finished product. Happy Hump Day!

The Hangover... According to Moi.

Longtime followers of this blog know I am overly analytical, aka, I am incapable of making split decisions. Deciding things on a whim is just never going to happen for me. Today, folks, I feel like I just got up from a bad hangover. Oh, I totally know what those guys were going through.

In a haze of shopping euphoria today, I walked out of West Elm with a pair of 108" curtains for the french doors in my library/bar. I present to you, Exhibit A, below.

Concerns (because you know I got 'em) :

1) I was supposed to walk out of there with a pair of white, sheer linen panels. The ones I'd been staring at online for the last 2 months. The ones I'd told myself were going to work in the space. Of course, when I saw them in person, I thought they were on the thin side. I mean, yes, I get that they were sheer, but I wasn't expecting ultra see-through.

2) Grommets. These curtains have grommets. Nuff said.

3) Did I mention that my mind was set on plain, white curtains?

Now here's the kicker - I've actually looked at these curtains over and over, too. Oh you know I did. I'm not that spontaneous that I could have bought these without some thought over them. & no, they're not a terrible print or even crazy colors. But I'm so worried the room will look overwhelming!

So what do you think? Do you think they'll be too loud in the room? Do you think they won't "go?" I've over thought everything and stayed pretty sober in putting this room together and this one shotgun move has me woozy and light-headed. I just keep thinking, I was supposed to get sheer white, linen curtains!

Maybe this is the panache I need? Am I that boring that panache is delivered in the form of khaki ikat? Oy vey...

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.

Changes in Just 6 months

I was going through some photos and had a good little laugh at the decor changes we've made in just the six months since moving in.

Here's our living room now. & I can tell you that lamp in the foreground is already replaced by a Jamie Young tripod leg version that I heart so much more.

Here's the Before version. While the Thomas Paul pillows, coffee and side tables stayed, the couch was nicely replaced and what a difference it made! I love, love, love our massive white sectional. We can literally have the whole family over and have enough seating for everyone. Plus it looks fabilis. The leather set we had before sat just a few people and was seriously bulky. The only plus it had? I didn't have a fit if the dog tried to sit on that. Nowadays? Cardinal sin for Rocky to even try to jump on my massive white behemoth of a sectional.

Speaking of Before photos, here is the room with the most change since we moved in. It was originally supposed to be a dining room, but we are a family that doesn't "dine." So Hubs and I decided it should be a library-slash-bar. & it's first evolution? Very Mid-Modern, Mad Men, complete with a cowhide on the floor. Rocky liked Bessie.

Ah, but that didn't last very long. Numero uno, Hubs hated the Mad Men look. He wouldn't step in the room at all, except to make a quick exit to the front porch through the french doors. Something had to be done, so here is the After.

Comfy, beachy, but still a little vintage in the feel. Now that the big pieces are in this room, it's just coming down to the accessorizing and we'll be done! Can't wait!