Holiday Decorating - On the Mantel

I decided to keep our holiday decor simple this year: white and gold accents surrounded by fresh greenery. I'm not usually one for minimalism at Christmastime, but I have to say I love how calm and peaceful it looks. I did have plans to DIY a white wreath out of felt, but I've been too busy to indulge in just-for-fun crafting, and I didn't want to wait until Christmas Eve to put up our decorations. So I bought this paper wreath kit from Paper Source as an alternative. It's so pretty!! I don't know if you can tell from these photos, but half the leaves are made from paper with a shimmer finish, and half from paper with a matte finish. It has just the right amount of shimmer to catch the light, particularly when the candles are lit, without being too over-the-top and glittery.

I'm not gonna lie though, it did take forever to put together. I probably would've been able to design and execute my own DIY in the time it took! But I honestly don't regret it at all; it looks beautiful above the mantel, and I think it fits in perfectly with the decorations we already had.

We've been trying new holiday-scented candles lately too...maybe I'll share some that we've liked if anyone's interested in that sort of thing. I never really thought I'd be a candle person, but it just makes the whole room cozy and warm (especially now that the nights are drawing in), and lighting candles has become a daily habit.

Hope everyone has had a great start to the week! And to my fellow shop owners in the midst of the holiday rush, remember to take a break now and then and breathe. Don't worry, it will all get done. xo, Mary

Today's Finds

This week is all about cute patterns!

Lightening bolt wall decals from Little Sticker Boy

I can't look at a lightening bolt without thinking of Ziggy Stardust (that's not a bad thing), and I think these decals would be so fun in a hallway or entryway. I like the idea of trying out removable decals if you're not sure you want to commit to wallpaper but want to do something, you know?

Cactus twirling dress from Thief&Bandit

I originally saw this adorable cactus print on a little girl's dress and was like, "Once again, toddlers get all the best clothes." Then I realized there's an adult version too! (Is it weird that I still like the style of the kid's dress better?)

Wavy chevron pouch from Gracie Chai

I love all those little wobbles in the hand-painted squiggly lines, and it seems I can't ever have enough pouches.

Avocado pillow from Earth Cadets

These hand-printed pillows come in lots of color combos and sizes and they're made from organic cotton. Aren't they cute?

Handmade polka dot bowls from Baskakova

Polka dots are perfect on anything, if you ask me, and these bowls would look so pretty on open shelves.

Yep, I'm pretty much a sucker for any cute pattern or novelty print, especially if it's hand-painted or drawn, but that's probably no surprise. What patterns are you loving right now?

Kitchen Update

A few people emailed me after the dining room update and asked when I would post more photos of the house. Every room is still a work in progress, but I decided to just go ahead and post them one room at a time and update the photos as we make changes. So without further ado, welcome to our kitchen! :)

The kitchen was renovated right before we bought the house, which we were thankful for despite the fact that the countertops and cabinets aren't exactly what we would've chosen if we'd been renovating ourselves. I should stress that they aren't bad at all; I actually think the warm wood cabinets complement the cool granite countertops nicely. It's just not exactly our taste, but like I said, not bad at all. We definitely looked at some what-were-they-thinking kitchens when we were house hunting. The pendant light over the island was really terrible though, and we changed that first thing. (You can see what it looked like here if you're curious.)

The one thing I didn't love (besides the light fixture) was the light green painted walls. The color has grown on me over the last (almost) two years since we bought the house, but we're still planning on repainting at some point in the future. I did go ahead and paint the back wall with chalkboard paint as that was a no-brainer and didn't require moving any appliances. I love the way it looks. There's actually only a bit of green now peeking out over the sink, the stove, and over the closets on one wall, which you can see in the top photo.

The two retro stoneware containers are from Sagaform. I bought them from a small boutique, but you can find them lots of places online. The Russian doll is actually a set of 6 measuring cups that fit together like traditional nesting dolls. I found both those and the blue enamel storage bin at The Container Store.

Here's the whole gang. :)

We've been using the Radish hand soap from Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day, and it smells so good. (Is anyone else a fan of those soaps? What's your favorite scent?) That bird tray in the corner is from IKEA, if anyone's curious.

I don't know how many years we've had that Cuisinart coffeemaker, but it's been a really long time. It still works great and makes good coffee. The paper towel holder is by simplehuman, and it works pretty well too. The sink caddy is from Joseph Joseph, and it's, by far, the best one I have ever owned. I went through so many sink caddies that rusted or fell apart over time before finding this one. It's made of plastic, so it won't rust, but it somehow manages to not look cheap and plasticky. Also, the whole thing comes apart and is dishwasher safe, though I just wash ours out in the sink. It's lasted a couple years with no problems.

The cute little print hanging above the sink is a silkscreen by Robert Darr Wert that we found at a flea market a couple of years ago. I'd seen his stuff at vintage shops mostly, and it was always a bit too pricey, so we were super happy to find this one for $15. Wert was a print maker and textile designer known for his mid-century modernist folk art style. I love folk art, and I love mid-century furniture and accessories, and Wert's art is like the best of both worlds.

If you're wondering what the other side of the room looks like...most of the wall is taken up by a closet that houses the washer and dryer. The striped rug is from Crate and Barrel; we bought it just after we moved in, and it's held up really well considering it's in the kitchen. I've spot-cleaned a few coffee drips here and there, and I vacuum it regularly, of course, but for the most part, it still looks great with minimal effort. The trash can is from simplehuman. I can't find the exact one we have--we did buy it three or four years ago, so it might be discontinued--but here's a similar one. I know not everyone really cares what kind of trash can they have, but I have to say, this one is pretty fantastic.

I'm a sucker for cute straws (haha), and there was no way I could pass up these sweet gingham straws from Kikkerland. I bought mine at a local shop, but you can find them at Paper Source too. I've heard people complain in the past that paper straws get soggy, but these are coated in beeswax so that's really not a problem. I guess they could still get soggy if you left your drink for a really long time, but it's never happened to me in the time it takes to drink a smoothie, and I drink smoothies fairly slowly to avoid the dreaded "ice cream headache." Also, they get bonus points for being biodegradable and compostable. (The solid color straws in the back are from IKEA.)

This little napkin holder is also from IKEA. I bought it last spring, I think, and it was the first napkin holder I've owned in my life. I never saw the need for one before as I guess I never used napkins all that much. But this little cloud is the cutest and was probably the best $1.99 I've ever spent at IKEA. And of course, I had to fill it with cute napkins, right? These are from Target, but only available in store.

I bought this kitchen towel from Kitch Studios on Etsy, and I love it. A lot of the printed tea towels I come across seem like they would be impractical to actually use and are more suited for display, but this one is 100% soft cotton, and it's absorbent and washes/dries well too.

So that's our kitchen! I hope you enjoyed this tour. :)

I'll update again if we should change anything. I do have ideas for the chalkboard wall. We will also probably tile the backsplash at some point and relocate the Wert print to another wall. And we are going to paint too...not sure what color, but definitely something brighter than the pale green that's there now.

How much else we do really depends on how long we stay in this house. Like I mentioned earlier, it was renovated right before we moved in, and even if we had the money to redo the whole kitchen right now, we wouldn't. There's so much waste in the construction industry already; we don't really want to contribute to that. If we end up staying in this house a good long while, we might think about it in the future.

I'm not going to add a source list because I think I already linked to everything above, but if I missed anything, just let me know in the comments. xo, Mary

Dining Room Update

As promised in last week's post on these chairs, I'm sharing more photos of the dining room today. We aren't finished in this room, or any room in the house, but we have made quite a bit of progress since the last update. I've told you all about the table and chairs already, but we've acquired a couple more pieces of furniture over the past year. You'll probably notice first that the walls are a different color; we painted them Stonington Gray by Benjamin Moore. It's a really nice neutral shade, not too dark or too light, and more importantly, not blue-tinged or purple-tinged or green-tinged...just a really beautiful color. We went through a lot of samples at our local Benjamin Moore shop before deciding on this one. It's been almost a year, and we're still really happy with it. You might remember that the pendant light was the very first thing we changed in this room, before we even had any furniture.

This sideboard is just to the right of the window. That drawing was done by my dad's cousin in 1961. It's a little funny because she signed and dated it, and we have the same first and last name (we were both named after the same aunt). Handmade things from family members are the most precious heirlooms to me. :)

We bought this cabinet from Crate and Barrel to house china that's been passed down to me. It ended up being the perfect size. Initially, we were looking for something vintage, but we couldn't find anything with the right dimensions. I love this little cabinet. The paneled glass doors echo the window in the back door, and the shape is a good compliment to the red bench that sits on the same wall (in the next photo).

Here's the other side of the back wall. Yes, there's always a random assortment of garden things on that bench, and usually muddy shoes underneath. This is right inside the back door, and since we don't have a mud room, I tried to make a cute little corner for stashing stuff until it can be moved elsewhere. The handmade bench is from Signed and Numbered and the blueberry print is from anek.

An assortment of treasures on top of the white cabinet. I always wish people would talk about their collections rather than just say, "um, here's stuff and things." So, each object gets it's own photo below.

This pink house is actually a little box; the roof comes off, and the house is hollow inside. It was made for my grandparents by a friend of theirs many years ago, and my grandmother gave it to me when I was just out of college and moving into my first apartment. (Maybe this is when my obsession with pink houses began? I don't know, but I sure love this one a whole lot.)

I bought this assemblage art piece/clock, what I call my "Good Day Box," about 14 or 15 years ago at a craft show in Baltimore. It still makes me happy every time I look at it. (I can't remember the artist's name at the moment, and I've misplaced her card. When I find it, I will update this post.)

This stoneware doe vase came from Anthropologie last year, and I got the flowers from a local antique shop. I might change out the flowers for other things in the future, but right now I think she's really pretty like that.

This brass candleholder was another gift from my grandmother and those are my great-grandparents in the background. (You can see a clearer photo of them in this post, if you're curious.)

I took a couple of photos of the sunflowers just because they're nice.

So what do we have left to do? Well, I want a large painting for the right wall, and it will probably take us a while to save up for that. I might paint something myself, but I don't know. It's funny, when we went to Gari Melchers' house a few weeks ago, the docent made a note that although his paintings were hanging in the living room when we were there, he would not have actually hung his own paintings in the house. She went on to explain how a lot of artists don't hang their own work because that's their "work," and it's hard to get out of the critical mindset you have when creating it and just enjoy it the way you would enjoy other art. I was like, you don't have to tell me lady, I get that. I really get that. So, we'll see.

We've also been back and forth about getting a rug. It would be nice to add some more color and pattern, but what you can't see from these photos is the other half of the room, the living room. Our house is an open floor plan so it all needs to work together. We're thinking we do want a rug for the living room area, so having a rug in here also might be overkill. But if we do, again that would be something to save up for because most of the rugs I really like aren't cheap.

And the last big addition is two more dining chairs for the heads of the table. I want chairs that are different from, but still complement, the chairs we already have. We haven't really even started looking properly for those.

So that's our tiny dining room! I'm hoping to get to a point in other rooms where I can share more updates soon! I posted sources below, and I linked to specific items when I could find them. If I missed anything, let me know in the comments. xo, Mary

Source list: chairs/vintage; dylan dining table/CB2; curtains and curtain rod/West Elm; sheer curtains/Pottery Barn; Paterson white cabinet/Crate & Barrel; Norden sideboard/IKEA; lined wire baskets/World Market; blue planter/Home Depot; white pitcher/IKEA; everything else I think already mentioned above. :)

Let's Talk Chairs!

A couple of weeks ago, One Kings Lane contacted me and asked if I'd like to post about a favorite chair in my house to help introduce their Complete Guide to Modern Chairs, and I thought why not? I think it's great when companies help educate consumers about design and finding a style that works for each person...because you know what? It's hard. Even for those of us who are design conscious, pinpointing exactly what you want in a piece of furniture and then somehow making it work with other pieces of furniture in the same room (and on a budget) is challenging. Whether you've just moved into a new place or you simply want to change up your existing decor, identifying characteristics of different styles will help you decide what you like and guide you in your design.

Chairs are a really good place to start because they are frequently hallmarks of different design eras, with defined characteristics, and you need them in almost every room, right? So, I'll tell you a little bit about finding our chairs, the design elements I was looking for, and how I made them work in our home.

Here's what they look like in the dining room, which is obviously how we use them most of the time. Those of you who've been reading this blog since we moved into the house have seen them before, though the rest of the dining room has changed quite a bit.

I looked for a long time before finding these chairs. I knew I wanted modern or mid-century modern chairs for several reasons. I like clean lines. What does that mean specifically? Usually it means a lack of ornamentation (or carving on wood pieces). People will often say it means "straight lines" or "simple design," but that's not exactly true. A piece of furniture can be sculptural or curvy and still have clean lines, and a lot of engineering and ergonomics went into the design of most mid-century chairs, which isn't all that simple. Basically, it means that the lines of the chair are clear and defined. For me, I like long tapered legs on furniture. I like smaller scale pieces. I like honest materials and economy of design. And comfort is very important too. Do you see how the seat is curved and tilted slightly? And if you look at the top photo, you'll see that the spindles in the back are also tilted at an angle and the top rail is curved, which all serves to mimic our bodies and the way we sit, thus making a more comfortable chair.

Visually, I like the silhouette of this chair a lot. If you look at the top photo again, you can see how the angle of the rear legs mirrors the angle of the back. That is a handsome silhouette if you ask me. And I knew that the scale and lines of this chair would work with our dining table, which has an iron base with architectural lines of its own. I wanted warm wood chairs that would complement the table, but not compete with it.

So what are those chairs anyway and where did I find them? They were designed by Folke Pålsson for FDB Mobler in Denmark in the 1960s, and I found them in a vintage shop. You can find them fairly often if you look online at ebay or etsy, but we were fortunate to find them locally, in an original set of four (so they have the same wear and coloring) and at a price we could afford. (If you're curious about the dining table, you can read more about it here.)

So enough about me and my chairs. How do you know what you like? First and foremost, I would say to look at the lines of the chair: the legs, the shape and height of the back, the feet (if there are any). Do you like the overall silhouette? Look at the materials, colors, pattern, finish. Is it something you can live with long term? A chair is an investment, and you want a quality piece of furniture in a style that can work in a variety of settings. It's easy to change paint colors, artwork, and accessories, but unless you are working with an unlimited budget, most chairs will need to be loved and used for a long time.

Think about the other furniture in the room. How will it fit in? Antique pieces and modern furniture can work together. It's about balance, scale, and finding lines that are harmonious. For example, we have a very old iron bed that came from my great grandmother's house that's painted a warm white. I wanted contemporary dressers for storage, so we chose these simple Sveio chests from IKEA. Staying in the same color family, with simple lines, helps these furniture pieces from different generations get along nicely. If you have a family heirloom dining table that's solid wood with heavy turned legs, think about balancing that with an appropriately scaled contemporary chair. In that instance, my dining chairs would not work because they would seem much too small, even dainty, by comparison. Upholstered chairs often have a little more heft as well as slightly curvier lines that can complement and even "lighten" a heavier table (if upholstered in a lighter fabric).

It's helpful to take pictures of furniture you're contemplating and place them side by side. Do the colors and materials complement each other? And don't forget to measure before you buy...not just to make sure furniture sizes will work together but to make sure they are appropriately scaled for the room. Also, I've seen many people order sofas only to find they won't fit on the elevator in their building or even through the front door! That is no bueno.

I think everyone has a style; some people just need a little help discovering that style. If you find yourself wanting a change, take a peek at the Complete Guide to Modern Chairs and see if anything speaks to you. You might be a Bauhaus lover at heart and not know it. Or at the very least, it might help you identify what you don't like and then work from there.

I realize that was a lot of information for one post, so if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask away in the comments. I don't claim to be an expert on all things design, but I did get a Master's Degree in Interior Design once upon a time, and maybe I should use it every now and then. ;)

Also, since I was taking photos of the dining room for this post, I decided to take a few more and do a proper dining room update post. It's been sooo long since the last one. So look for that in a couple of days. xo, Mary

House Hunting

Let's play another round of fantasy house hunting, shall we? This one takes us to a cute little rowhouse near Primrose Hill in London. I actually know this area a little bit, which is rare because usually when I play this game I just pick a random place in the world, often some place I've never been. Anyway, this house is in a pretty part of town, near Regent's Park where I spent lots of days a lifetime ago.

I should maybe explain how I play this game as last time I think some people didn't really get what I was doing. My object is not to find the best designed house or the nicest house. I'm not really looking for design inspiration here, and to be honest, it's rare to come across a house on real estate sites that looks like it came out of a magazine. It would just save a lot of time to look at design magazines, haha.

When I play this fantasy house hunting game, I just like to pick a city, any city, and see what random houses look like inside. I like to let my imagination wander to what life might be like if you lived in this house, in this city.

Every once in a while, I will come across a house that strikes me in some way, again, not because it's necessarily the best. Often, the ones that touch my heart the most are in need of some real work. But there's something special about them, something that tugs at nostalgia perhaps, or some emotion...I don't know exactly. Anyway, this house is like that for me.

There are design elements I do love here, of course, like the herringbone floors and fireplaces, but lots of houses have those. There's something else special here, maybe that many families have lived in and loved this house?

Happy weekend, everybody. :)

House Hunting

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it here, but I love to look for houses online...just pick a city anywhere in the world and see what's out there. I don't know why, but I find it very relaxing and a really good way to kill some time and de-stress. I should clarify here, I like to play the fantasy house-hunting game, the kind where you find a house somewhere and your mind wanders to thoughts of what your life would be like if you lived there, not real-life house hunting, where (in DC anyway) it's very stressful, very competitive, and basically the stuff that nightmares are made of.

So anyway, last week I was looking at apartments in Stockholm, as you do, and found this little gem and thought it was too good not to share. It's one of those romantic little nooks at the top of a building that's not very practical but irresistible all the same.

I don't care that it has zero closets or that the bathroom is teeny tiny (it appears to be one of those micro bathrooms that's so small they just put a drain in the middle of the floor and the whole thing basically becomes the shower). Look at those exposed beams! The floors! The window between the kitchen and living room! I should maybe mention that I have an inexplicable weakness for windows and glass doors inside houses, i.e., transoms above bedroom doors, glass-paned doors or french doors that lead from one room to another, etc.. So basically what I'm saying is who wouldn't want this adorable little hideaway for their very own? I guess someone did because it already sold. And probably for a pretty penny from what I gather of Stockholm real estate.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this episode of fantasy house hunting. Maybe we'll do it again some time? xo, Mary