I’m totally elated right now. This is due entirely to the fact that I recently finished the most fun design project ever. If you follow Emily Henderson’s blog or Oh Joy!, then you know about Joy’s awesome new studio space. It was a collaboration between Emily and Joy and the end result is so gorgeous. The part I’m pinching myself over is the fact that I got to work on this amazing project!

Let me back up momentarily. How, you might ask, did my involvement come to pass? Well, it started a few months ago when Emily ran a nightstand styling contest on her blog. To my delight, Emily chose my nightstand as the winner of the contest! As busy as she is, she not only ran this contest, culled through the hundreds of entries and wrote a huge post about it, but she also contacted me herself to congratulate me on winning and thank me for entering. Much respect to her. Here’s what my “winning” nightstand looked like.

Anyway, that was how we got to talking, I sent her my resume, interviewed and ultimately wound up helping with the design on Joy’s amazing studio space!!

I’ll admit, when I drove up to LA to meet Emily and Joy for the first time to discuss the project, I was totally nervous. I just have so much respect for these creative ladies and did NOT want disappoint them! Plus, they’re both so cool and LA, whereas I feel like McLovin most of the time.

That is to say, a huge dork hoping to pass for cool. I was relieved to find, however, that I had nothing to fear. Emily is just as hilarious and friendly as you would expect from reading her blog and so crazy talented/creative. And Joy is totally friendly, warm and hardworking (she has EARNED this amazing studio space for her expanding business!). And Ruby, well, she dresses cooler than I do.

There will be more posts coming up from Emily and Joy detailing the design process, sources, and how we DIY’d several areas of the space, so stay tuned for those. I’m so insanely jealous of this office space!

 

Above photos of studio designed/styled and Emily Henderson and me. Photographed by Zeke Ruelas.

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I’m not gonna lie, this week has dragged for me (even though it was a short one!). Probably because I’ve been anxiously awaiting my little trip down to San Diego which starts today! As much as we love where we live now, David and I really do miss living in San Diego. We miss the food, the variety of each neighborhood and the fact that there’s always something going on. With that in mind, we plan to eat our way through all our old favorite spots and, of course, do some shopping/ thrifting. Can’t wait! Time to finish packing…

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I’ve never been a huge fan of personal photos scattered throughout the home. I think it’s because the tendency is to use photos that, even though they were taken on a special day, may not be the best photo compositionally. Add to that the fact that they’re usually framed haphazardly and propped all over the house, and the photos just read as clutter.

It’s important for me to have family photos in my own home, but I like to approach it a little differently. In the case of our house now, I had a HUGE wall in our stairwell that needed something really dynamic. To fill this wall with art could have gotten expensive. To hang only a couple pieces on it would look anemic. So I decided this was the perfect spot for a gallery wall of family photos. I started by gathering a ton of photos of my husband’s family that my mother-in-law had. Then I dug through all the photo albums my mom had so meticulously kept over the years. I was looking for photos from special occasions, sure, but more importantly I was looking for photos that were special in and of themselves. Here are a couple examples of what I mean.

The first is my husband’s grandpa around age forty at work in the auto mechanic shop he owned. I love how the shot is framed, looking slightly up at him with all the equipment in the back. It gives a sense of what an average day would have looked like at that time in his life.

The second is my awesome mother-in-law, pregnant with my husband. I just love the casual, funny, not posed nature of this photo.

Lastly, is a shot of my mom chasing after a baby me on a beach in Hawaii. My mom just looks so young and happy and beautiful. I love the colors and sense of movement here too.

These are just three of the more than 75 (!!) we ended up hanging on the wall. After choosing the photos, we had to resize, frame and compose them. Rather than hanging a million 4×6 photos, we had some blown up large, and some of the very old photos we kept very small, which adds a ton of interest.

We kept the frames super simple because we didn’t want the wall to get too busy and we didn’t want to spend a million dollars. It’s amazing how quickly frames can add up! All the frames are from Ikea, Aaron Brothers and Target. We chose various white, black and birch frames for some variety, while still keeping things cohesive. We started by hanging the large photos first and tried for a pleasing amount of space between them. In other words, we didn’t want to cram all the big ones together and all the small ones together. With the big ones in place, we moved down to the next size and so on until we were filling in gaps with the tiny ones. Another important feature is that we filled the whole wall, from floor to ceiling. Don’t be afraid to be bold with this! I even decided to wrap a few pictures onto the side walls for a more sculptural feel and to help visually lead you up and down the stairs.

As busy as David and I are, and as long as we sometimes go without getting together with our loved ones, it’s nice to still be able to see them every day in this way. Plus, this is something that can totally evolve over time! Whenever we have kids of our own you better believe we’ll be adding and swapping for a long time to come. That’s all part of the fun!

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This ottoman is insane. I want something in my house to have rainbow tufting immediately, if not sooner. I might have to dream up a DIY based on this.

Photo by Magnus Marding for tmagazine, interior design by Ilse Crawford

This print is very colorful and fun!

Print available for purchase here

I love wrapping gifts in simple kraft paper and using interesting ribbon, tape, etc to add some interest. This is such an easy, and seriously cute idea!

Image sourced here

This pillow is on my “want now” list. It’s also available as a kidney pillow.

Available for purchase from Anthropologie

It’s all very cheerful, don’t you think?

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I was definitely happy to see the article about artist, Britt Bass. I was first exposed to her work through Instagram. I don’t even remember how exactly, but you know how it goes on IG, you start clicking around and before you know it, you’ve stumbled upon some really cool people and images! After following her on IG for the past few months, it was cool to see this article highlighting her beautiful work. AND, she even created an exclusive painting just for this issue of Anthology which is printed on the back cover of the magazine. The article explains “it was designed to be cut out and framed, or simply propped up and displayed.” What a cool idea! I’m totally going to frame mine!

You can buy original paintings by Britt Bass here, and she sells prints of her work in her Etsy shop, here.

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The console you see houses my printer, and below the console I have containers filled with all my stuff for work. But above the console, nothing. Boring! So I decided this would be the pefect spot for a mood board. It’s so helpful for me to have space for a big mood board for when I’m working on clients’ projects or just gathering inspiration for myself. After all was said and done, here’s my wall now!

It was really easy, so let’s get started! One thing to note is that I used cork tiles rather than a large roll of cork. This was more a “buy now and decide what to do with it later” move than anything else. I just saw the tiles at Target and decided to buy them without a clear idea in mind yet for how I’d use them. In hindsight, a roll of cork would have been way easier to deal with than tiles, so you might want to consider that if you decide to tackle this project! That said, here’s what you’ll need:

Cork (either cork tiles or a roll of cork)
Primer (optional)
Paint colors of your choice (I used two colors – a light pink and a slightly darker pink)
Painters tape
Paint brush
Kraft paper
Small nails
Hammer
Level

Start by laying out your kraft paper and then lay your cork tiles on top. It helps to use a little rolled piece of painters tape on the back of each tile to stick them to the kraft paper. I went over the tiles with a quick coat of primer just because the cork is so porous and I wanted to make sure my colors went on nicely. The primer doesn’t have to be pretty, just slap it on there. You can skip this step if it’s a little too nit picky for you!

Once the primer is dry, paint all the tiles with your first color (in my case it was the lighter pink). Let this first coat fully dry (a couple hours). Then tape off your pattern! I just did a simple triangle. Layer on your second color and again, you’ll want to let this coat dry fully. I also found that when it was time to start handling the tiles, it was helpful to take an Exacto or box cutter and cut along the cracks between the tiles to cut through the paint that settled in the cracks. Then the tiles pulled up easliy.

Then it was time to hang! Going one by one, I hammerd a tiny nail into all four corners of the tiles and used a small level to make sure I was keeping everything staright as I went along. It only took a few minutes to hang the whole thing! At this point you could hit the nail heads with a dab of paint so they blend in.

If you go the route of using a roll of cork, I would suggest you start by hanging the cork on the wall and just paint it right in place! Throw some painters tape on the wall at the edges of the cork so your walls stay protected. You eliminate the Kraft paper step by using the cork roll which is nice (if you tried painting the tiles in place on the wall, paint would get in between the cracks and end up on your wall). I do, however, like the grid pattern the tiles create, so just go with your own preference!

I love the bold graphic nature of this mood board. I also like that the colors aren’t too intense so it doesn’t take away from the pictures and materials I tack up there. It’s so nice having a spot that is totally dedicated to inspiration!

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Ok, anyway, I felt a little more validated today when I stumbled upon this! A really cool pendant named…GLUCK!

Gluck Pendant, designed by Naomi Paul. Available at shopfolklore.com

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A couple months ago we headed north on a road trip to the Monterey Bay. We had the best time! Not only is the destination wonderful, but the drive on the 101 is so pretty. It’s the sort of trip that reminds me of all the reasons why California is such a special place to live. We stopped for lunch at Metropulos Fine Foods in Santa Barbara. OMG, go there, it was so good!  We stayed at the Spindrift Inn right in the heart of Cannery Row in Monterey.  This was the view from our room.  I miss it!

We packed a lot of fun into this little trip including hiking in Big Sur, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, watching the sunset at Pebble Beach and eating delicious food (here and here).

Best of all, we even got to do some antiquing! I really do have the best husband in the world for not only agreeing to spend part of our trip looking at old things in an old building, but actually getting into it. If you ever find yourself in Monterey, check out the Cannery Row Antique Mall.  I had my eye on a lot of things, but ultimately settled on some very cute accessories that will be great for my own house or for clients.  I got all this loot for under $50.

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I found this adorable outdoor dining set at a local vintage shop and had to have it. I think I paid only $150 for the whole set!

 
The upholstery on the seats was not original. Someone else had gotten their DIY hands on it before me, and actually the fabric was pretty cute. It’s just that the colors weren’t really what I wanted, so I decided to go with this awesome Trina Turk fabric instead!

This is probably a good time to introduce my executive assistant/ mascot, Jack. This is basically his contribution to all my projects: lay right in the middle of them. He’s the best.

My husband, David provided more helpful assistance by holding everything taught while I stapled. Anyway, I guess this is less a DIY post and more of a before and after, since I don’t think anyone actually needs detailed instruction on measuring seats, ordering fabric and stapling said fabric to said seats. It was that simple!

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I’ve started this blog as a way to chronicle and share not only my work, but all the little things that inspire me.  I thought the best way to start would be to invite you into my world (well, my house anyway).

You see, my husband and I bought our first house, a duplex, just over a year ago that needed a lot of TLC and design rehab.

The front unit was in good condition (pictures not shown) and we were able to get some really great tenants in there quickly.  However, the back unit, where we live, was another story entirely.   Here are some shots of what it looked like when we closed escrow.

 


 


 


 


 


 


 

It was such a mess!  Just looking at pictures of that green shag carpet makes me nauseous.

In hindsight, I wish I had started this blog earlier, so I could have chronicled the remodel process, but with the house so torn apart and us crammed into one room with no kitchen for much of it, I guess I just didn’t think to add it to my plate at the time!  I’ll be going back room by room to explain the process, and what changes we made, etc.  But OF COURSE my house is never really done as far as I’m concerned!  I know I’ll keep changing, adding and updating.  I just can’t help myself.

Below are some lovely after shots of our house.  It took a lot of vision, time, hard work (we did the majority of the work ourselves) and of course money to get it to where it is now.  But after all that, it is finally done and I got to enjoy all our efforts during the photo shoot at our house recently.

The whole experience of the photo shoot held extra meaning for me since exactly three years prior, my mom passed away.  Home and family meant everything to her and I miss her constantly.  When she passed, she left a little something to my brothers and me as an inheritance.  It wasn’t a fortune, but it was a little boost that enabled my husband and I to put a down payment on our first house and fix it up.  This house is now our home, and it is likely where we will start our own family.  So exactly three years after my mom moved to Heaven, I was photographing the home that she helped create, and would have been so proud of.

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