TGIF

happy friday....i mean come on, how can this not put a smile on your face; this is fantastic wallpaper! i love this! if you are looking for some truly unique wallpaper, go to my new fav site http://www.walnutwallpaper.com/ . they have wonderful wallpaper, which conveniently enough can all be purchased at a great price by yours truly :) go to this site and go to their gallery and you can get a feel for all the crazy papers!! be bold and be proud and put some loud wallpaper in your powder room, or on one wall in your kitchen, or in your restaurant, or in your child's room! this is my fav room for the day! i love the industrial look of those floors with the raw wood as well!! have a great weekend and i'll see you next week!!

***maybe i should limit my intake of tea today...i think i ended all of my sentences with several exclamation points...i was just so excited about this website!!! there i go again with the !!

#10. painted molding and ceilings

i think you can really make an impact in a room by painting the trim, doors, and ceilings a color. i know, most people think that you have to use decorator's white trim paint but you can think outside of the box. why not use your color here verses the walls??

i think a great chocolate brown paint looks attractive when you use it as your trim color. it beefs up the look of the molding and looks stunning on the doors. now i am not saying that if you want to try this technique, you have to do it throughout your house. you could do this in the main living areas. if there is a door frame separating a room, you can go back to the traditional white on the other side.

if you aren't quite there with the painted molding and doors, try a ceiling color. if you keep the walls a neutral, pick out an accent color that will pop....a beautiful blue or green or light brown looks great against a cream wall. or if you have a coffered ceiling, play off the accents of the trim and paint in between the beams. or if you have used color on the walls, add a small amount of the wall color to ceiling white. it will give a slight hue of the wall color to the ceiling and prevents it from looking so stark white. these are simple ways to give your home a "designer" look!

#9. Baby Nurseries

i had the best time doing my baby's nursery. there is something about being able to be so creative and do things that your normally would not do in the other parts of your house. i spent months trying to figure out exactly what i wanted to do to her room and what furniture i wanted to use. i came across this amazing baby boutique in atlanta called b.braithwaite. it was run by an interior designer who went on a shopping trip to paris and decided to open this beautiful baby store. i would love to own that baby store. i will tell you that if you are looking for anything out of the "norm" with baby furniture, you will not find it in c'town.

anyway, i decided on bold stripes for one wall. i was going to do some great graphic wallpaper, but i started thinking that i could create the look of wallpaper with paint. so i came up with these bold stripes and i kept the rest of the room white. i love her stokke crib. its oval and of course a pain b/c you can only put oval sheets on it but i think its totally worth it. and last but not least, we painted "tex" the giraffe. my husband actually drew it and i went back and painted it w/ big polka dots. if you are having a baby, be creative. you can look through the pottery barn kids catalog and get ideas but make your room unique and reflect the inner-kid in you.

#8. Retro Fans

its hard for me to believe that i am writing a blog on fans and i am a designer....if you ever watch those design shows on tv this is the first thing they eliminate in the rooms!! but i know that we live in SC and since august has been unbearable, a fan really is needed in a home. with that said, there are some stipulations!

i was in columbia this weekend and the restaurant we ate in looked as if it use to be an old factory. it had great exposed brick walls and wooden beams crossing the ceiling and hanging from these old beams were really "cool" fans. retro fans are the way to go...you can find them in restoration hardware or at specialty lighting stores. they add an element to the design of your room without screaming "i am a white ceiling fan from 1980 when this house was built". i am not saying that you have to use these in every room in your house b/c i know they can be expensive...but it would be cool in your family room, kitchen, or sunroom as an accent. and i can even say that your friendly lowes has an industrial stainless steel fan for around $70 that can work for all budgets.

#8. The perfect find

in order to actually achieve the "perfect find", you cannot be looking for it...you have to stumble across it. and usually, when you find it, it won't be used for its original purpose...i love this vintage chalkboard that the editor from "cottage living" found; it makes this kitchen.

now if you are lucky enough to find this perfect piece, you than have to know what in world you are going to do with it and how its going to make the biggest impact. my "perfect find" was an old stain- glassed door from a civil war church. its was against the wall in an antique store in my hometown and the colors just drew me to it. i had no need for this huge door but it captivated me. and than it hit me, if i took the door and hung it sideways than it would make an awesome decorative accent above my sofa....a spot that desperately needed some kind of art form and on our budget a painting that large was out of the question. now that door is one of my prize possessions...i will take it to the next house we live in. and if for some reason we do end up winning the lottery and i can commission a local artist to do a painting above my sofa, than i will take my "perfect find" and create another perfect place for it...it could look really cool as the door to a pantry or out onto a sunporch....

#7. Inspiration

there is something about a collection of ripped out magazine pages, fabric, wallpaper, etc. that totally excites me. my cork board...i have two and its where i display things i love and want.....there is a method behind this madness...

• Lulu DK- a master in fabric design...a young, hip girl who has awesome, geometric prints like the navy and blue color wheel fabric or the chant reverse chocolate brown fabric...they would make killer pillows
  
• modern lines of a simple sofa- would look stunning in the kelly green dot fabric by Hable
• Ben Moore paint- one of my favorite kinds of paint; Antiguan Sky 2040-60 is a dynamite color that was in this store in Beaufort and it looks amazing paired with black and white accents
• card- this was the card i received from my husband when i took the step to go out on my own...a must to have around...
• blue and green room- i ripped this out of a mag a while ago and i think it sums up the things i love....the paint colors and application, the zia-priven custom light, the bold zebra print on the floor...i think this room is awesome
• Holly Hunt Glass Stool- come on...this just screams cool
• Greek Key trim- a great trim to add to a window treatment, sofa, pillows...love the simplicity of the greek key
• Cole and Son Wallpaper- retro classic....these papers are just fabulous
• Anthropologie sofa- i love the new furniture line that Anthropologie has...they are so current with the design trends...and bold, which i love
• picture of my BFF's- there is nothing like going home to see your bestfriends
  

if you are considering hiring an interior designer, have some sort of inspiration whether it be in a notebook, a folder, whatever. its a great way to showcase your individual style and for the designer to get what makes you happy.

#6. Roman Shades or just custom window treatments in general

so itunes is not just a place for music, its a place for addicts...its a total addition and the cause of my delay in writing. monday, i started my morning with the usual bowl of cereal and put the baby on her playmat and had every good intention of writing a blog...and i started searching itunes and the next thing i knew it was lunch time.....so here i am today with a totally new outlook...only 30 minutes of searching itunes. i must focus and listen to ray lamontage.

roman shades are so fun much and can be modern, traditional, cool, classic...they can be anything you want them to be with the help of great fabric and a seamstress. there is something about custom window treatments that add class to your home. maybe its because they are totally created by you or your savvy interior designer....not the mail order catalog that just arrived in the mail. it displays your taste and can be totally original.

places you might want to do fabulous window treatments are: kitchen/ powder room/ nursery- great places for roman shades; dining room/ living room- long panels that just break the floor look fantastic here. i heart custom window treatments with bold fabric...your husband won't heart custom window treatments if he sees the bill so do yourself a favor and hide the receipt....

#5. Cool lighting

big smile...i love schoolhouse lighting or just any lighting that is outside the norm. and by norm, i mean, your basic lighting found at the nearest Lowes. you can always find cool lighting, you just have to look outside of the big orange store that ALL builders use. lighting can add so much character to your home. if you are on a budget, make sure to save a little dough to put fantastic lights in these places: kitchen- either ceiling or pendant lights, dining room, foyer, and if you still have some cash, the powder room. flea markets, antique stores, or your local interior designer :), is a great place to start looking. just b/c you live in a cookie-cutter neighborhood doesn't mean you have to have the same lights as your next door neighbor.

#4. white painted floors

i love the look of white painted floors. there is something about them that make me smile. maybe because it reminds me of a cottage beach house...i don't know. i just don't think you can beat the clean and simplistic look of these beautiful floors. if i were able to build a new house, i would love to have white floors. if you like the look of these but don't want them all over your house, you could put them in the sunroom or have them in the main areas of your home and put wall-to-wall seagrass in the bedrooms. i think these floors paired with great geometric print chairs or draperies would be divine....

#3. mix-matched DR chairs

i am sorry it's taking me a long time to get these 10 things out...i had all intentions of writing yesterday but my neighbor kidnapped me and made me go to lunch with her...i know, i had the rest of the afternoon after that but one draft bluemoon made me totally unmotivated...i took my daughter's lead and had nap time :)

i think that giving your traditional dining room a makeover is a must. and i see no better way to do this than by taking some modern elements, aka cool chairs, and placing them with a vintage/antique dining room table. i absolutely love it when you mix color or even a great "ghost chair" with a wooden table. i love mixing the old with new. I think it gives layers to your design. so if you want to do an instant update, get funky and think outside the box by getting chairs that aren't "matchie-matchie"....or if you happen to have already bought the "rooms to go" package, take some fun paint and paint those traditional wooden chairs kelly green or turquoise...your husband might think you have lost your mind but in the long run does his opinion really matter?? i mean, if it were up to them your entire house would be hunter green and burgundy with overstuffed pleather recliners everywhere.

# 2

2. CARRERA MARBLE is just fabulous and when people have balls enough to put it on their kitchen countertops, its flipping fantastic! now, i know that y'all are out there thinking "marble on countertops, is she crazy!" maybe i am, but granite is overused and in my opinion, out. europeans have been using marble on countertops for hundreds of years and i think its about time for us americans to take some lessons. now if you are adventurous enough to take the step of putting marble in the kitchen, i suggest going a little further and making it honed. when you hone a solid surface, it takes the shine out of it. you will love the look of this beautiful countertop and if you had a bad day at work and need to drink a couple of bottles of wine, don't worry about it when you spill that last glass while dancing to Fergie's latest hit...with proper cleaning and a little less "anal" attitude, your marble will be fine and over time will have a beautiful patina look.

10 things that make me happy...right now

as a designer i am constantly daydreaming about a client that would let me run free with their home. if that were to happen these are the things that i love at this moment in time....

ps. i have a two month old so it may take a couple of days to actually get all 10 of them out!

1. every house must have an awesome WALLPAPER in it....yes, ladies, wallpaper is back in a big way. and what better place to put it but in the powder room or foyer... its front and center where all of your guests will see it. and i promise you they will be envious. now i am not talking about running to the local Lowes and looking through the bins of palm tree and damask prints. (sorry those of you that live in SC and think that we must display our beloved palm tree everywhere.) i am talking about a "wallpaper" that makes a statement the second you walk into a house for a dinner party or step into the powder room to reapply your lip gloss. generally, these are small spaces so take the time and visit your interior designer (if she is nice like me, it won't break your bank) and get the hippest one...