The Powder Bath

One of the things I am most excited for with the new house is the bathroom situation. Mostly just that there is more than one of them. :) There is a powder bath on the parlor level, and any powder bath to me just begs to be adventurous! Look how sad the bachelors made this…

I can’t decide about that little sink. It’s original I guess and it could be sort of cute with a skirt? Wouldn’t something really quirky like this sink (and that mirror!) be amazing?

Elle Decor

For the walls, I would naturally gravitate toward a crazy, loud wallpaper pattern like this one:

Palmer Weiss

With an interesting mirror:

Houzz

But the room is tiny (like 3×4) and I don’t really feel like papering around mirrors and lights and fixtures with almost every single sheet. I’m thinking I might try a decorative paint treatment.

Martha Stewart’s Faux Bois kit might be perfect. I’ve heard it’s a really fun project and that the rocker tool is super easy/forgiving. (demo video here) But I’ll run into a similar problem af having to work around things on the walls.

I’m leaning toward hand-stamping the walls with a wood block. I bought this pretty 3×6″ floral stamp here and I think it’s worth trying. It could be a really quick, fun project. The hardest part might be choosing the color combos for the paint!

Also diggin’ that black trim in the corners. It really helps define the walls, right? Otherwise things might get a little dizzying in there with all the small pattern. Very nice.

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DIY

Canvas Sketchbooks

For gifts this year, the kids made personalized journals for their teachers. I picked up a few of these canvas sketchbooks from Blicks. I LOVE them and can’t wait to get a few more to play around with. The inside pages are not lined, which I love (though nothing beats graph paper for me!). And the canvas cover…

For gifts this year, the kids made personalized journals for their teachers.

I picked up a few of these canvas sketchbooks from Blicks. I LOVE them and can’t wait to get a few more to play around with. The inside pages are not lined, which I love (though nothing beats graph paper for me!). And the canvas cover can be customized with basically any medium you can come up with – markers, crayons, paints, stamps, etc.

We thought about using paint, but Chartpak markers seemed like a fun choice.

I taped off the paper edges to protect against stray marks.

The girls and I talked a little about what they were going to draw, we did a little sketching first and then I let them do their thing. They drew the outlines first with fine point sharpies.

And then colored in with the Chartpak markers. The markers bled a lot outside the sharpie lines, but it was fine. Who wants a perfectly-in-the-lines coloring job anyway?

Evie made one too and it ended up being a very pretty, dreamy abstract. I think Heather is going to keep it.

The notebooks were such a hit with the teachers. The kids drew stories and pictures of what each teacher will be doing during the summer.

Claire’s pre-k teacher, Al, is also a film maker (he is seriously the coolest, nicest teacher). He’s making this super hip indie film this summer about a man that leaves his wallet and his phone in his office building late one night and gets locked out. He has to walk all the way home to Brooklyn with empty pockets and he has lots of adventures along the way. I can’t wait to see it when Al’s finished. Claire drew a picture of him filming on the streets of NYC, and she and Evie “just happen to be walking down the sidewalk” and they get filmed too (Claire’s words – that kid!)

Gracie also had a really special teacher this year, Miranda, who we will love forever. It’s crazy how involved these lovely people are with our kids and then, bam, one day it’s over and they’re done. That can be hard to digest for kids, teachers and parents alike.

Miranda is summering in Spain and Morocco, so Grace drew a picture of her teacher taking a cab to the airport (Grace is waving goodbye from our building). And on the back side, Miranda is riding a camel in Morocco by the beach.

I made one for myself and used a blender marker to add in some water marks. Looks sort of like tie dye, right? I like it. The back side (with the bright orangey red, below), is my favorite.

Anyway, I feel like the possibilities are endless with these canvas-bound sketchbooks! I’m going to try some patterns next. Maybe like a Les Touches-esque stylized leopard print? Or a faux bois… or malachite… Tortoise shell…

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Inspiration

MSL Radio!

Well, we finally made it to the last day of school for my girls. I’m taking full advantage of this last day and I’ve packed in all sorts of appointments before we launch into full-blown summer mode tomorrow. First up is a dash down to Brooklyn for a meeting with the contractor at the brownstone…

We’ve been thinking a lot about it (thanks so much for your input by the way), and because of all the stairs in our place and especially because of the very short window of time when the house will be empty, we’re probably just going to hire out this project. I’m hoping our guy will say they can do the floors for just some fabric advice and a big plate of fresh cookies, but something tells me it might cost us a smidgen more than that. I might be waiting on my DREAM fridge a bit longer than I hoped. (but seriously, isn’t that fridge perfect?)

Some of you mentioned you have used 50/50 Jacobean and Ebony stain mix on your floors, which is the formula used on these white oak floors (from here). We have red oak though and might need a little more ebony stain in the mix. I’ll have to play around with it. I’m also considering going very very light, which might better suit our narrow space. Decisions!

In other news, I’ll be joining the fabulously talented Kevin Sharkey on Martha Stewart Living Radio this evening from 5:00-6:00 pm. We’ll be talking about all the good stuff. Blogging. Decorating. When to DIY and when to call in a professional (let’s see what I’ll say after getting the quote for my floors just minutes before the show! ha.).

Call in! Let’s chat. (PS If you don’t have a subscription to Sirius, the folks at Martha have generously offered up a free 30 day subscription here.)

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Bedrooms

Flokati Rugs

I love the idea of stepping out of bed in the morning onto the softest, furry pile of wool. So I’ve been thinking a flokati rug would be so cozy and swanky (I vow to never use that word again – it had to be done) in our soon-to-be-dark-walled bedroom. I’ve been looking around for…

I’ve been looking around for a nice flokati (aka one that doesn’t shed like C-R-A-Z-Y). But I also want one that won’t be a huge investment, since, let’s be real, it’s a white rug in a house full of kids and maybe a dog. If I didn’t have about a million other places to spend our money right now I would be tempted by a real Beni Ourain Moroccan rug, like Jenna’s.

Living Etc.

I’ve had my eye on this flokati for a couple weeks since it has pretty decent reviews and the price was good. As is typical for me though, I let it sit in an open browser tab for about three weeks – until I noticed it was 75% off (still is!). And since I’m a total sucker for marketing gimmicks like that, I just couldn’t pass. A little over $100 for the 5×7 seemed like a very fair price for a well-reviewed flokati.

Elle Decor, March 2010

Anyone have this particular rug? Or a flokati in their bedroom? Spill!

PS If you’re feeling adventurous, Danika at Gorgeous Shiny Things used a little bit of fabric dye to recreate the Beni look.

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Inspiration

Contest Closed: Clorox Wipes $500 Give Away

This post is sponsored by the makers of Clorox® Disinfecting Wipes, the quick and easy way to clean and disinfect your home! Congrats to Hallie the winner of the $500 give away to Target and the Container Store. Hallie, please email me your info as soon as possible to claim your prize. Thanks to all…

This post is sponsored by the makers of Clorox® Disinfecting Wipes, the quick and easy way to clean and disinfect your home!

Congrats to Hallie the winner of the $500 give away to Target and the Container Store. Hallie, please email me your info as soon as possible to claim your prize.

Thanks to all that entered!

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Musings

BHG and Pillows

I got back to New York late Saturday night and playing catch up has been a little crazy. But it was so fun to come home and see this little piece in the July Better Homes and Gardens. They let me share some of my favorite tips for zhushing up a home on a budget….

follow me on instagram: @jennykomenda

I’m going to be posting on the BHG Style Spotter blog a couple times this summer. Each post will focus on a room and a very specific way to mix it up a little without breaking the bank. Pillows are one of my great weaknesses and I’m sharing some of my currently available favorites that will instantly update your living room (and a fool-proof method for mixing colors – it’s simpler than you think). Go check it out!

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Musings

Frisco and Floors

Hello from Hotel Vitale in San Francisco! I’m here for the weekend with a few other bloggers, and many of them live here. It was fun over dinner last night, getting the inside scoop about all the great things this beautiful city has to offer. We’ve thought about moving to San Francisco a few times over…

Hello from Hotel Vitale in San Francisco!

I’m here for the weekend with a few other bloggers, and many of them live here. It was fun over dinner last night, getting the inside scoop about all the great things this beautiful city has to offer. We’ve thought about moving to San Francisco a few times over the past couple years. Maybe down the road in a few years (if Brooklyn doesn’t work out for us)…

Speaking of Brooklyn, this weekend I’m trying to figure out if we should refinish the wood floors of the brownstone ourselves or if we should hire it out. If we’re going to do it, I feel like we need to do it first thing, before we move anything in the house.

I have a meeting next week with my contractor, just to get a sense from him how much it would cost to get some of the bigger projects professionally done. In the meantime I need to get online and do some research on DIY floor refinishing. The current reddy stain bugs me, but honestly – it’s not *that* bad. I do think a new stain would help the house feel more finished and updated. Less…70s. But we’ll have rugs in most rooms, so maybe this is a place where we should save our money.

Have you refinished your own floors? Or maybe you went with a professional service and you were glad you did? I’d love to hear about it as we’re weighing out our options.

Have a lovely weekend! See you Monday. xx

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Musings

Black and White Striped Throw

If you have $20 burning a hole in your pocket, I know how you can spend it. IKEA’s Eivor throw is such a great little blanket. It feels like everyone has one, and for good reason. It’s soft like a knitted sweater and it washes well, but the biggest selling point is the great black…

If you have $20 burning a hole in your pocket, I know how you can spend it. IKEA’s Eivor throw is such a great little blanket. It feels like everyone has one, and for good reason.

It’s soft like a knitted sweater and it washes well, but the biggest selling point is the great black and white stripe – a pattern that is surprisingly hard to find in throw-form. And it is SUCH a fun addition to any room. Buy one. Buy three!

You may have noticed an Eivor throw hanging out on our old headboard. I was so sick of the old fabric on our bedframe! We had plans to reupholster it ages ago, but our bedroom was definitely on the back burner. Finally I’m picking out a fabric to order this week and I’ve decided to go with the velvet route. I’m leaning toward the silk coral on the left. There will be brass nail trim and new bedding too. Yessssssss!

What’s your vote? The peacock velvet on the end is lovely in person, but I think it might match too much with the painting.

Also, do you have the Eivor throw? Link party in the comments section if you want to share how/where you use yours!

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Art

DIY Gold Leaf Art Frame

I love big art hanging over a bed and have been on the look-out for something large and in charge for above our headboard. Recently (actually when I was shooting that IKEA commercial spot), I spied a HUGE frame in someone’s cart at IKEA and was surprised to hear from them that the artwork/frame combo was on $50! Not bad at all for 55″ of wall decor! I was planning to pick up one of these and replace the print with some of my own artwork.

Then last week at the flea I found the absolute perfect, perfect piece of art for above our bed. It’s a vintage watercolor featuring all sorts of lovely blues and greens and some black for contrast.

The only part of the art I didn’t love was the heavily grained oak frame (I prefer natural wood frames to be birdseye maple, burlwood or birch).

Since deciding on dark walls for our next bedroom, I thought a gold frame would look lovely here. I love using my trusty gold leaf pen for smaller frames, but this frame is huge – also around 55″ wide. Plus, the gold leaf pen can end up looking a little flat (sort of like gold spray paint can) when it’s used on large surfaces. Real gold leafing has almost a lightly distressed look (at least when I do it myself!) that actually I love.

It’s easy to assume that taking on a gold leafing project will require a big investment for supplies. Not so! This little kit from Speedball has the glue (called ‘size’), 25 sheets of leaf and even sealer, for only about $10. That’s as much as a gold leaf pen costs!

The step-by-step is a breeze. It took me about 30 minutes to gold leaf this huge frame, and that includes 15 minutes of size drying time. First, just lightly clean the frame. Remove any gunk or dust. Then run a line of painters tape along the inside edge of the frame to protect the glass. If it’s easy for you to remove your artwork, leafing an empty frame is ideal. (my art was backed with kraft paper, so I needed to go the tape route).

Using a 1″ foam brush, dip and fill the brush in the size adhesive bottle. It should fit perfectly in the bottle. One dip was plenty for one entire side of the frame. You don’t need a lot of glue here. Less is definitely more. Also be careful to avoid any puddling with excess size. Everything needs to dry evenly.

Once the size has dried for about 10-15 minutes and is completely clear (not milky), it’s time to start leafing. If you’re working with a very small frame, you can cut the sheets down to size to help reduce wastage. I should have cut my sheets in half before using them to make my life a little easier.

There’s really no going wrong with the leafing process. You just carefully lay the sheet down, trying to not let the leaf fold over on itself – thought it’s not the end of the world at all if it does. Then burnish the leaf into the frame with your finger or a clean paint brush. You can just rub in bits and pieces of extra leaf and it will stick to any amount of the size. You can see here where even the tiniest bit of size got on the frame at the end of a brush stroke, and the leaf stuck to every bit of it.

I went around the frame one side at a time (I’d be leafing one side while I was waiting for another side to dry and get tacky). Once all the leafing is done, and you’ve filled in all the missing parts and the cracks, use a clean cloth to further burnish and rub in the leaf sheets. This is the best step for me! The gold starts to look finished, and so pretty!

If you would like the extra protection of using a sealer on top of the gold, here’s when you would do that. I didn’t bother since picture frames don’t usually get a lot of wear and tear.

I like to pull out my vacuum with the upholstery attachement on to clean up all the gold leaf specs left over on the frame and on the drop cloth. It cleans up very well with the vacuum, even though you feel like you’re making such a mess during the project!

I’m so glad I changed the frame to gold. Much better than that reddy, grainy oak! And see what I mean about the lightly distressed look? I love that.

I’m just itching to get into the new house and paint my bedroom black now. :)

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Bedrooms

Black Walls in Our Bedroom

There are four bedrooms in the new house. Two on the garden level and then two more on the floor above the living room/dining room/kitchen. It made sense for us to be on the same floor as the girls (who will all be sharing a room for the next couple years at least). The bedrooms on the garden level are pretty large and equally sized, but we decided to use that floor as my office (since that floor has an outside entrance) and the other bedroom on that level will be my sister Heather’s, who’s living with us currently.

AB Chao

Domino

Chicago Home

The upstairs bedrooms share a bigger, nicer bathroom, which is good, but one of the bedrooms is majorly smaller than the other. There wasn’t even really a choice for us – it makes way more sense for Michael and I to take the small bedroom and to let the girls have the huge 20×15 bedroom. That way there is plenty of room for them to spread out and play. Hopefully the toys will stay mostly upstairs in their room!

So our little ‘master’ bedroom (ha!) is proving to be a bit of a challenge layout-wise. There’s no closet. Or rather, the head of the bed is in the original closet. So we’re going to add a wall of Pax units. There’s also a large hall closet that we can use for additional clothes storage.

I’ve been thinking a lot about painting the walls of the room black. There’s just no getting around how tiny this room is (it’s about 9 x 11 — EDIT: I just double checked the measurements and I was off. It’s about 8×13. Eesh, that’s so narrow!), so I’m just going to work with it and play up the coziness aspect. I’m telling myself (and Michael) it could end up being really restful.

I’m planning to install a lot of new moulding everywhere in the house, including the bedroom. I’d paint the moulding black too though and I think the dimension will be really cool. I’m hoping with a light rug and white bedding/curtains, and oversized artwork, the mix could be just right with the dark walls.

Lonny

I never jumped on the black walls bandwagon a couple years ago, but I’m sure a few of you did. So I have a question for you: Do you still like your black walls? And did you paint them flat or glossy? I’m thinking high gloss or even lacquering might be really nice in our tiny room…

Elle Decor

High Street Market

all images found here

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Musings

Murano Glass Lamps

My parents just returned from a trip to Italy and stopped over in NYC on their way home this weekend. It was so fun to see their photos and remember all the beautiful things in that country. At the end of our summer living in Brussels, Michael and I took a couple of weeks to tour Italy by ourselves, sans kids. That was probably the best trip we’ve ever taken. It was just beautiful, everything, across the board. And I can still taste the delicious food. Yum.

We were in grad school at the time, so we didn’t splurge on much during the trip. When we were in Venice, we stayed on the island of Murano, a quick boat taxi ride away from Venice proper, to save money. It ended up being a really lovely little bed and breakfast near some of the coolest glass-blowing factories on earth.

(this little drinking fountain outside our window woke us up every morning)

(Some of the glass-blowing shops in Murano. Our bed and breakfast was in a little town square behind the white building on the right. It was so quaint and perfect.)

Michael was a good sport and pretended to be interested while I was dragging him all around the glass shops. I desperately wanted to buy a chandelier or a pair of lamps, but our suitcases were already so full from treasures we found at flea markets in Brussels and Paris during the summer, we were at capacity. Plus, the prices of some/most of the pieces were completely out of our budget. We bought a few little trinkets, including a glass paper weight (which I collect), but nothing big. And I’ve always sort of regretted that for some reason. I guess it’s just not often that souvenirs fit my aesthetic so well.

via

Anyway, shortly after we got home to Cambridge, I found a pair of vintage Murano glass lamps on craigslist for a great price and bought them even though it wasn’t love. I really like them, but I probably should have waited for the perfect pair to come along. The blues are not quite as bright in person, but maybe they just need a room with more light? They’ve been sitting in storage for a couple of years, but don’t worry – they’re in good company with lots of other lamps. :)

I actually always had my heart set on a pair like these from Swank Lighting, but the multiple-thousands price tag convinced me it just wasn’t going to happen. Ever.

They reminded me a little of this lamp in Kristen Buckingham’s living room (she is one of my favorite designers).

Persistance pays off though sometimes and I found a pair of vintage green glass lamps recently on eBay for about the cost of a new pair of lamps from West Elm. I am so crazy about the jade color. These are going in the new living room, I think. And they almost make up for not getting a pair straight from the source when I could. :)

PS I don’t know who the maker was, but Home Goods was selling a jadeite color lamp a year or two ago. Might be worth a little digging if you’re in the market for a lamp in a similar color.

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Musings

Gathering, Planning

We had an appointment yesterday to take measurements at the brownstone. (Quick side note – someone commented that I shouldn’t be calling the house a brownstone because it’s technically a brick face, not stone. I always thought of ‘brownstone’ as a more general term, but I’m probably wrong there. Should I be calling it a…

We were there for about two hours, poking behind and under the bachelor’s grubby furniture and measuring every last nook and cranny. I left feeling both more excited and more stressed about our decision to move to this house. You know how when you see a space for the first time, it’s like there’s a fuzzy lens on your eyes? How it’s all rainbows and stars from your excitement about the potential? I totally fell victim to the fuzzy lens trap last time. And plus, we were sort of rushed with the first walk-through, so there wasn’t an opportunity to really inspect the house.

This walk-through yesterday was different though. I had my designer’s hat on and there was no allowing for giddiness or stars/rainbows. This time I got to really look at the place and the reality has set in of just how much cosmetic work it needs. The house was last renoed in the 70s and I’ll just leave it at that so your imagination can run wild. It’s just as bad as you are thinking. THEY TORE OUT THE MOULDINGS YOU GUYS. We have a serious project on our hands.

I think I’d like to refinish the orangey wood floors and the kitchen needs to be gutted. I would love for those both to happen as soon as possible, hopefully before we move in. The bathrooms all need help. Every single room and walkway, every last piece of trim and every door (including the front door) needs to be sanded, patched and painted.

But, I guess after walking through for the second time, I’m still feeling pretty great about the whole thing. The bottom line is we are really lucky to have found an affordable townhouse (with a backyard!) in an awesome Brooklyn Heights location, that’s in totally livable condition. It’s just not pretty yet. But we are also incredibly lucky to have a landlord who is thrilled to help us renovate and doesn’t care what we do. Her quote was, “I don’t need to hear about it unless you’re planning to move walls, cause we’ll need a permit for that.” It’s a dream come true for me, actually. I love doing this kind of work and am anxious to get my hands dirty again after two years of only light-weight DIY projects. We’d love to buy an older house of our own someday, so this will be good practice for the reno we hope to take on in a couple of years.

So while the reality of the thing is sinking in for me a little today, as I sit here with pages and pages of notes from the walk through, I’m still excited. I have some big decisions to make about how I will manage my day, or at least my working hours, after the move. I’m wrapping up all my big projects, and it’s looking like client work can take a bit of a back seat to personal projects and blogging, and I couldn’t be happier about that. It feels like good timing.

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