Meyers Movie Home

It is starting to feel a lot like Christmas. Nancy Meyer is releasing a new movie this holiday season. You don't have to be a design aficionado to appreciate the homes in her movies such as Somethings Gotta Give and The Holiday. Traditional Home is show casing the newest set home in their December issue. I'll be looking forward to getting my issue in the mail. Meanwhile, I'll have to settle for a few images I've combed from the web.

The house is warm, a bit eclectic, traditional but with a few modern influences. I recognize some Lee and Oly furnishings mixed with antiques.


Large oval table in the dining room open to an inviting kitchen with open shelving, Carrara marble on the console and zinc pendants. Meyers designs gorgeous houses but they also feel real, not like showcases. I'd like to sit at this island with a glass of wine and catch up with old friends.


The master bath with claw foot tub.

And master bedroom. This cozy room may be my favorite. I like the fabric headboard and simple bedding and colorful throw, mismatched bedside tables one of which is a writing desk, and the addition of an antique dresser and mirror.

Little Girl Room

Lily is quite content sharing a room with her brothers but I still cant help but plan for her big girl room. (btw, one of my triplets broke the apostrophe key on my laptop today). At some point I would like to move Lily in baby Holdens room (who is not really a baby anymore), and when he is ready move him in with his brothers.

Holdens room was designed with that trade in mind. The walls are a serene pale shade of turquois blue, BM Glass Slipper and the curtains are a cream linen. The chandelier is a bamboo lantern. It suits a baby boy but will be great for Lily with the addition of some feminine details and a healthy dose of pink. I'd like to add a trim to the linen curtains, perhaps with pink velvet ribbon (thanks lisa for the idea).


Im envisioning a full bed dressed in a pink quilt and polka dot or floral linen. Ive been eying this Serena & Lily pink quilt and their melon polka dot sheets.

courtesy of Porchlight Interiors

This iron bed from IKEA is darling.

courtesy of Swish and Swanky

I also like this low profile wood painted bed.

courtesy of Urban Grace

I was inspired by this adorable room and bought my own birdhouses at Michaels. Lily's, I mean Holden's walls just happen to be the same color, although it looks much more grey in this photograph. Holden even has the exact same crib, from Walmart of all places. It has the look of the modern and very pricey crib lines and even converts to a cute toddler bed with its own half side rail. The only thing wrong with the crib is that Holden never actually slept in it. He slept with us until 18 months. Then he moved to a twin bed that I pushed up to the crib to try to transition him to the crib. But he never would stay in that crib. And so he never used the cute dwell bedding either.

A happy coincidence occurred, when reading Erika's design blog Urban Grace I learned that she wanted to use his same polka dotted sheet in her nursery design, but then it was sold out so I was able to send her mine. I didn't charge her, it seemed like it was just meant to be. She said she was going to send me a little thank you. I thought it would be some small token but she surprised me with a $50 gift certificate to Sephora. Wow, so generous.

Anyway I digress from my little girls room daydream. In any event I have plenty of time to plan as shes not ready to separate from her triplet brothers anytime soon.

If you are interested in checking out more childrens rooms look over at my blog roll (right) and visit Swish and Swanky.

Simple Pleasures

This modest home conjures a grand emotion.


Delicious olive living room with electic furnishings.


Surprise, a bold splash of aqua doesn't feel forced in this small abode.


A mercury collection adds some sparkle. Perfect for the holidays.


Cozy quaters.


Want to recreate this room? Start here at Garnet Hill.

Room with a View

photo courtesy of Elle Decor

Need a place to unwind?

The All New Restoration Hardware Store

RH has completely revamped their collections for fall 2009. They have turned about 360 degrees and have embraced the Belgian/French antique look which has been all the rage by top designers in places like Houston for a while. It is gorgeous, I would love the vintage french square chairs (if I didn't have four toddlers with sticky hands of course).

I wonder...now that RH is making this look highly accessible and essentially mainstream, will designers take a significant turn of their own and forge new interior frontiers for their clients?

Before & After: Dining & Den

Before

Middle
This is a bit of a random photo, from the triplet's baptism party at our home. But you can see where the windows were, now there are french doors in their place.

After
Dinning room, peaking into the den. The new french doors give us access to our side yard and are flanked with Windsor Smith's Riad fabric in ming that she used for her sofas and chairs in her own living room. You can check out Windsor's gorgeous home in this month's Traditional Home. The lime green booster seats were not part of my design plan, but are a big improvement from our plastic high chairs.

A snapshot from the den *sigh*. The Thomas the Train table is not part of my design vision, but is part of my plan to survive a record hot summer with four kids under three years old. Notice the colorful paint on our white sofa? I'll be holding on to my white slip covered (aka bleachable) furniture at least until the kids are all over five. My pretty pillow with fabric from Raul Textiles made it out of the study just for this quick photo. Again, not a great photo, but the kids are in bed!

And finally a view from the dining into the kitchen so you can kind of get a feel for the floor plan. I have dreams for a lovely painted antique hutch here in the future. Something blue-gray or green-gray, not matching my drapery, but complementing.

Before & After: Front

I went way back for this one. Here is a photo of our house when we first purchased it. Initially we just repainted the trim and the door. We replaced the hunter green and purple with a more mossy natural green.

The homes in our neighborhood tend to be eclectic and I am all for the fun colors but they work best on the wood homes. Our stone house calls for more earthy Hansel and Gretel colors.

After remodel:




We added a second story, increased pitch of the roof and added dormers in the front and sides.

We used BM Fairview Taupe for the woodwork trim, which I adore. The siding is BM Manchester Tan. We were trying to go with a color that would blend in with the stone. But if I were to do it over again I would go a tad richer darker, or paint all the woodwork Fairview Taupe. Overall I'm still pleased with the results. And I am very happy with the mossy gray shingle color. This isn't the best photo, taken in the middle of our record setting hot summer. It is not even 9am and the sun is too bright for a good shot. It is surprising that anything is still green.


You can see the colors a bit better in this photo taken later in the day.

Before & After: Library

Entrance/Library Before

These are photos from when we were about to purchase the house...we lived in the house a couple years and changed all the paint colors before remodeling.




After our remodel.
Our front 'library' - totally real life here. The kids have pulled down all the books so many times we don't bother arranging them, we just toss them all on back on the shelves. I'd still like a new front door, the one we have is cute, it's just that the Victorian style doesn't fit with our English Cottage home. And while I'm on wish lists, I'd love to have two more chairs to create a set of four around a round coffee table, instead of the small sofa.


We had actually repainted the shelving when we first bought the house, during the remodel half the shelves were destroyed to put in a gas fireplace, then we rebuilt and repainted the same dark grayish brown BM Black Fox.

Before & After: Kitchen

I've been wanting to post some 'before and after' photos of our house remodel, but it has been challenging to find time to take photos with four tots underfoot. I decided to go ahead and post what I have, even though my photos aren't that great. Over the next few days I will share different areas of the house.

Kitchen Before


Kitchen After

Gorgeous Kitchen

I've been following the tale of an Australian designer/blogger A-M, building her own custom home. She is just wrapping up and the results are amazing. Look at this gorgeous kitchen with creamy white cabinetry and cream stone countertops. The island is perfect for serving up grilled cheese to a hungry crew. Early on in the drawing design phase, I suggested she move the stove so the windows flank it rather than off to the side. It was a small thrill to contribute a tiny bit to a project half way around the world.

Her blog is listed off to the right in my sidebar but I think she is keeping it private for now.

Charcoal

Loving HGTV's Kristan Cunningham's kitchen with charcoal lower cabinetry and creamy white uppers.


The library bin pulls are Restoration Hardware, I considered the same for my kitchen but went with the more traditional pulls but these do look fabulous. To break up all the wood she removed the doors from under the stove top. She replaced them with a curtain of tea towels stiched together.

She continues the moody colors in her hip living room.

Swim suit by J. Crew in dark charcoal.

Design Delimma

Hmm, what should I do with my blank dining room wall? I haven't been able to find any inspiration to fill it.


My latest idea is to hang four or six vintage prints of birds, ferns or something (not terribly feminine since there are four guys in the house) in frames with just clear glass around the prints, versus a mat, so you see the wall color. Above is a pic from Amanda Peet's house, check out the framed bird prints.

And I like these framed ferns in a grouping.

Bachelor Pad Update

Here is a rough unstyled photo of the bachelor's living room in progress. I helped him select the sofa, console, coffee table and rug. Before I snaped this pic on my phone I threw a few books on the table just to show him how he could warm up the space and personalize the room. But I didn't have the time to make it pretty.


He picked up some great photography when he was in Cuba and is working on getting that framed. On the sofa now are pillows he previously owned but I'd like to see a suzani draped over the back. Perhaps something similar to Nate Berkus's suzani - see it on the sofa at the bottom of the photo.


There are several interesting suzanis on ebay like this one.


We ordered this gorgeous Oly leather chair which should arrive soon.

Spied Raoul Textiles

Lovely living room by Palmer Weiss. Note the center pillow fabric by one of my favorites Raoul Textiles. I have two large pillows for my living sofa in the same fabric, one day I plan to get a similar colored sofa for them to rest on. But for now my pillows are relegated to the study out of reach of my four toddlers. And good thing too, my white slip covered sofa has taken much abuse. The latest of which is today's abstract art with green, pink and chartreuse paints. I'm wondering if the bleach will work on today's masterpiece.

Lulu DK

Lulu DK has been one my favorite fabric designers for a while. Here is a fabulous room showcasing some of her lastest fabrics.

I have been enjoying having a bit of her clark fabric on our window seat bolsters.