The Big Reveal

There is nothing like the thrill of pulling an almost all-nighter getting a space together. Great team, great boss, great mid century house. 4 hours of sleep, a night spent at a seedy local motel and a great 'big reveal' this morning for the homeowners and the cameras. They cried. And I want to live in the space we put together for them in just 5 days. Thanks to Morgan and Heather and Mike and Mark. I'll let you know when the show is on air. I'm glad we have another episode to do together. And I like the idea of BIG REVEALS.

I Heart Merchandising

Happy Friday Everyone! My week ended up being packed with a lot more than I thought it would be, including helping my friend merchandise her storefront. I only have this crappy iPhone picture but we had so much fun rearranging the space and I had forgotten how much I love physically putting rooms together (and not just photographing them). It was a nice change of pace (to not be glued to my chair in front of a computer and photoshopping all night long).

Next month there will be an official launch of the showroom so I'll keep you posted so that you can go there, too.

I also nailed down plans to go to New York for the launch of Rue Magazine (did you see the latest sneak peek on coco and kelly?) and get some East Coast in me before the long hard California winter. Also, before I turn thirty one. Yes. Thirty. One. Sigh.

Also, have you guys seen what Morgan has been up to? Yes, she is finally officially offering design services. Hit her up, she will school you (in a nice way, I promise, she's really very nice).

And for those of you obsessed with tomatoes (I mean, who isn't?) check out Emma's gorgeous post on the subject.

Happy Weekend Everyone, stay out of trouble!

Letter To The Weekend

Dear Weekend,

I'm so glad you were able to make it today. The natives were getting restless without you. We welcome you lovingly into our home and hope you make yourself comfortable and stay a while.

Love,
Laure

(I love this old letterhead I found on leaterheady via dwell. Happy Weekend everyone and send me a message if you're planning to be at Dwell on Design next week so I can say hi!)

Spring Flowers

I have been good about keeping fresh flowers in this vase on this credenza in the dining room since we moved. And when I'm feeling flexible I'll even get stargazers, even though they inevitably fall apart and leave staining pollen dust on everything. They're just so beautiful they're hard to say no to.

But hands down, my favorite flowers right now are ranunculus. The way they always look wild and the petals feather out and they come in all these colors, they just make me feel so happy. So these sit next to the bathtub and in front of Elliott's zebra (the one he got from his gramma).

Busy Bee

More soon, but for now I'm deep into another install for the Kor Group with Nadia. This one is in Long Beach and it involves this wallpaper:



It's been described as a floral that's not a floral. I like it, it's jungle-y and floral-y and retro-y and still a little modern. We'll be close to done friday, right now the space is empty. The next 24 hours will reveal a lot.

WestEnd Bullet Planter

Here is the last planting I did for the project I've been working on. I've been project managing the design and installation of a sales office and 2 models at a new live/work loft place in the Marina that the Kor Group are behind called WestEnd. It's been long hours and lots of work, but the ladies I'm working with are awesome and I'm really proud of what we've done. The launch is tuesday so I'll have lots of photos and details then. For now, back to work.

Paris

Hello! So after 2 days of terrible internet issues that are keeping me from my regular posts on AT I found a free 30 minute connection at a cafe. Phew. I've missed the internet, let me tell you. I think I might have a problem.

Anyway, I'm in Paris, it's very Paris and I plan to go to as many as these places as I can manage in the day and a half I have left: colette, palais de tokyo for some real art, ilovemyblender, ugly home and le bouclard and the marche d'aligre.

It's going to be a lot (if I make it) but I'm only here for a couple of days and want to soak it up! Much more, very soon!

Making a Garden

So I'm working on a garden. I finally got tired of the dirty, ignored, weed infested, spider filled situation happening outside the door of my guesthouse. I decided it was time to do something about it.

And since my mom is a landscape designer I figured I had a good chance of making something nice.

The whole garden is covered in this sand (like what you'd find in French jardins) so I knew I wanted to create a planting bed and not just a container garden. You know what that means, hard labor:

First my mom and I layed out the edge of the planting bed with the garden hose. Then I shoveled all of the sand out of that area. Then I had to cut away the protective layer between the dirt and the sand. Then, the good part, I turned the soil.


It all would have been really overwhelming and I considered hiring one of those guys outside of Home Depot to just do it all in an afternoon, but part of me wanted to be able to say I did it myself. So i set the timer for 15 minutes at a time and just did it. Over 4 days I got it done and it only took about an hour and a half total. The key is just doing that 15 minutes at a time.


Today I amended the soil so that it would be ready for planting later this week. My mom's go-to is worm castings (Worm Gold is the brand I used) which help to add minerals and fertilize the soil. I sprinkled that on the turned soil and then added a top layer of potting soil:


Also, this probably isn't a good idea, but I did all this work in my 'garden shoes'.


Next is picking the plants, which I'll be doing this tuesday. The area is small and mostly in the shade so I'm thinking chartreuse and green and easy to maintain. If I'm really ambitious I'll do a drip system and document that too!

Formal Beachiness

Here's a mock up of a sweet 1 bedroom I'm working on in Venice. I'm using the existing furniture and adding a dining room table and accessories to pull together a relaxed but grown up beach-y feel good for entertaining.

It needs more of the beach (which for now are only in the flowy curtains) but with some wood chairs and comfy cushions I think it'll make the transformation...It also helps that it's close to the beach, so some of the vibe is just inherent.

Beyond the Lawn

I've been reading Attack on the Front Lawn, so stumbling onto Yvette Roman's blog Beyond the Lawn is perfect. She's basically created an entire vegetable garden in her front yard in Mar Vista and it's stunning. She also made apricot jam recently and I'm totally inspired (it's the whole boiling the jars part that I get hung up on).

I found her through Design Sponge, here are some pictures of her house:




Also, did I mention that Yvette was my photo mentor in high school? She even gave me her twin reflex camera when I graduated. I still have it! She's always been an inspiration to me, I'm going to email her now to get back in touch!

Washington Post Mention

Wow, thanks Robin for the tip that I was featured on the Washington Post Blog for the headboards I made for the little girls. I'm so honored, and surprised! So if you're here for the first time, welcome!

Thought I'd show a slightly closer up version of the 2 boards since people are looking for them.



I used Amy Butler Fabric for both. The light pink is pink wallflower and the other is Nigella Twill Water Lotus. I bought 30x40" foam core from staples and doublestick tape. I washed and ironed the fabric and then 'stretched it' over the foam core and just taped the back. It really was that easy. I had considered doing the whole padded headboard thing, but this way we could change out the whole shebang easily if the girls get bored with the fabric or change their minds about their favorite colors!

What I'm working on

I mentioned being busy last week. Well I was workingon the girls' room in the house I'm helping with. First priority are the two girls' rooms. We have to work with the wall color as is, it's a rental so no painting.
Here's room one (or purple, pink and green room) before:
Here it is in progress, that's jamie putting up some blinds:



And here's a close up of the bed. I still need to hang things on the walls and put things away on the shelves, but I'm happy with the room overall:


Here's room two (or light pink, dark pink, green room) before:

Here it is in progress with a bunch of stuff in it. My job is to simplify and unify. I'll have an after as soon as it's ready:


I made the girls headboards out of foam core that I bought at Staples and Amy Butler fabric that's just stretched over and taped behind. I had originally wanted to do a whole diy padded headboard, but realized that this would be light years easier, cheaper and would still look really nice this way.

Most of the rest of the furniture is from Ikea or is a craigslist find. I still want to get these magnetic strips for each girl to be able to hang their artwork on.

In my zeal to get this done I've been bad about photos, but more soon I promise!

Bedroom Inspiration

I don't know, there's something so natural, but still stylish, about Maxwell's Bedroom. Love those pillows and that the room looks like people live there. Normally I'm a real blue and green person but I really love these warm colors.

Stuff I love at Dwell Studio

Last month at ICFF we checked out the Dwell Studio Booth and, even though it's mostly for kids, fell head over heels. I'd like to have these toiletry cases now (though i don't think they're available yet)...


...and I wish we had the budget to have these blinds for the girls' rooms.

More Good Days in Brooklyn

My favorite day might have been when it was raining and I had the day to myself, but every morning I got to wake up and see the trees through the windows on the 4th floor. I also loved the brisk, breezy days where the sunshine was clear and crisp through the trees.




(How great is that blue against the new green of the spring leaves?)

Feeling Scandinavian Today

I've been reading this great book (that I got from the library!) and it's part of what's inspiring me to want to go to Sweden.





Plus as ICFF, I got to see the OFFECT booth and loved their playful take on the mod furniture of the 50's and 60's.




And I've been using this Swedish skincare line that so far I really like. It's called Hakansson skin.

And any guesses where I might be headed this afternoon? Yes, the watered down version of all of this: Ikea.

I Heart Fabric

Since I'm decorating the bf's house, I've been paying more attention to different fabrics (I plan to make 2 fabric headboards for the little girls). I am loveing Anna Maria Horner's designs. Don't know if any of them are 'right' for the girls, but I'm just enjoying them anyhow.

An Afternoon on Sawtelle

I spent an afternoon on Sawtelle a couple of weeks ago and have gotten behind on letting you know how much fun it is. I think most people go because Giant Robot is there, but I like some of the other places along the couple of blocks of Sawtell just north of Olympic.

First we stopped by Satsuma Imports that has great sake sets and tea sets and good prices. It looks completely unassuming and as though no one ever comes in, but then once you're in you realize that they must be really popular.






Next was Tokyo Japanese Outlet. It is jampacked with notebooks, housewares (like wooden spoons, chopsticks, bowls and tea strainers) and cute Japanese-y things like bento boxes and great bags to pack groceries in:







Next door is crepes to go. I resisted but...man they're good.



And the main reason I go to Sawtelle is to stop by the Japanese Supermarket. I like to pick up Peach Soda and sesame vinegar. This time we noticed this gorgeous box that you would get if you bought the sake bottle in it:




My inner Louis came out when I saw this:



And finally we did stop to eat (something healthier than a crepe, but not by much). I had potstickers and edamame oh and pickled sliced cucmbers. Yum. Louis had a weird salad that tasted like bad, or in his words: that tasted like fail. And I do apologize, I can't remember exactly where we ate.



The End. (Thanks for coming with lulu and rambo)