Velvet Upholstery

There’s some sort of spring situation happening with our sofa that needs repair. It might be that our couch is just too good at being a trampoline substitute (how can I tell the girls no when I don’t give them a backyard to play in?!). Those springs have taken years of play from my girlies,…

I haven’t talked to my upholsterer yet about the fix, but I’m secretly hoping it will be an excuse to change out the fabric. The Sunbrella velvet has been really amazing these past two years or so. Stains wipe up really well. And the fabric is soft and super comfortable. But I’m ready for a change again. (what’s new)

I’m sold on the idea of choosing velvet again. It’s just so soft, and if a rogue juice sippy makes it over to the living room and spills on the couch, the liquid just sort of beads up on top for about 30 seconds before starting to soak in. I call it the golden window of opportunity. Cotton and linen velvets are awesomely kid-friendly.

I’ve let myself get excited by the idea of almost every color velvet under the rainbow. You know, I can honestly say there isn’t a color I don’t love or wouldn’t ever use in a room in some way. After some serious thought yesterday I’ve nailed down the color options to:

Rusty peachy orange (technical term)

Miles Redd

Pinky coral (though not this pink. The sample I have is a little more orange.)

Charcoal. Pretty neutral and hides a multitude of stains.

MSL

Mint. (the obsession continues!)

Kelly green (my easy console DIY convinced me that green is a good choice for that room! I have new plans for the tv anyway. Ch-ch-ch-changes!)

Palmer Weiss

Which color is your favorite?

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Bedrooms

Good Hotel Bedding

I will never tire of classic embroidered linens. These below from Schweitzer Linen are really amazing. The red is clear and bright (avoid those muddy rusts at Pottery Barn!) and the triple line is just perfection. This photo is from West Elm’s recent interview of decorator Nick Olsen (of Miles Redd/Domino fame). He is so…

This photo is from West Elm’s recent interview of decorator Nick Olsen (of Miles Redd/Domino fame). He is so gosh darn talented. Check out the interview here.

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Living Room

Room Tours: Kristin Lutz's Living Room

Kristin Lutz is a decorator based out of Traverse City, MI. I love these photos of her living room she shared with me. Enjoy! This is my favorite Oly Studio couch that I got at half price 5 years ago. Now it’s on their site for 3x as much. Still love it and have recovered…

Kristin Lutz is a decorator based out of Traverse City, MI. I love these photos of her living room she shared with me. Enjoy!

This is my favorite Oly Studio couch that I got at half price 5 years ago. Now it’s on their site for 3x as much. Still love it and have recovered the cushion once in Osbourne and Little fabric. The fun pillows were purchased on etsy.

This was a flea market chair recovered in a david hicks for Lee Jofa fabric. The lucite table was $125 at a local resale store.

Here is my other sofa with its Etsy pillows. I always keep all the big pieces neutral and change out the accessories to keep the look current.

Scalloped lucite side table is from The Paris apartment website, which is chock full of inspiration. And I was just at the Viceroy in Santa Monica, so I am obsessed with greyhound statues. Kelly Wearstler is my design idol and this year, I’ll see and stay in 3 of her hotels. They are amazing.

I love this Greek key side table!

This is the view from our kitchen…

I love my sconces!!

I bought the hide rug online. And the coffee table is from HSN by Nate Berkus.

I filled this little niche with a flea market cabinet I painted white and wallpapered the doors with a Thibaut pattern.

Thanks for having me, Jenny!

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Home Tours

Room Tours: Kristin Lutz’s Living Room

Kristin Lutz is a decorator based out of Traverse City, MI. I love these photos of her living room she shared with me. Enjoy!

This was a flea market chair recovered in a david hicks for Lee Jofa fabric. The lucite table was $125 at a local resale store.

Here is my other sofa with its Etsy pillows. I always keep all the big pieces neutral and change out the accessories to keep the look current.

I love this Greek key side table!

This is the view from our kitchen…

I love my sconces!!

I bought the hide rug online. And the coffee table is from HSN by Nate Berkus.

I filled this little niche with a flea market cabinet I painted white and wallpapered the doors with a Thibaut pattern.

Thanks for having me, Jenny!

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Brown

Room Tours: A Noelle Wright Living Room

Noelle Wright is a super talented decorator based out of Salt Lake. I LOVE this room she submitted for my call for Living Room tours! Here’s Noelle, sharing all the pretty details! This is one of my favorites rooms yet!! The family that I did this for are good friends of ours, so of course…

Noelle Wright is a super talented decorator based out of Salt Lake. I LOVE this room she submitted for my call for Living Room tours! Here’s Noelle, sharing all the pretty details!

This is one of my favorites rooms yet!! The family that I did this for are good friends of ours, so of course it had to be perfect. They are young and hip and he heads the company Skullcandy, so I wanted it to have a very unique and edgy vibe that represented them and their lifestyle. This family entertains like crazy…so flow and the placement of furniture was crucial. They also have two little girls and one on the way, so the trick was making it beautiful and practical all at the same time. To be honest, I was really sad when I finished this project, I had such a great time doing it!!

Here are some pictures of the front room.

I love this view of the room, it captures all the unique details that make this room so great! Although we started with a clean slate, I wanted to make sure that it felt like the pieces that we used felt unique and eclectic. Every detail came with a lot of thought! It is a melting pot of styles with pieces found at Anthropologie, HomeGoods, local contemporary boutiques, custom made pieces and local vintage stores…to name a few, to create the overall effect. One thing my client was set on having was a zebra hide. That became my starting point, and was fun…because I could add color to the black and white. We also added all kinds of fun tables to provide a place to set down drinks for all their entertaining.

I had this chair custom made. I love custom made items because you get exactly what you want, it’s uniquely yours, and in most cases doesn’t cost more than buying it. Isn’t the classic houndstooth paired with the sleek lines of this chair great?

The throw pillows and cushions in this room are also custom made. I love an unexpected mix of fabrics!! Fabric and texture are so crucial to a room. The raspberry color is a little unexpected, and so fabulous… one of my favorite parts of the room. I tried to create symmetry in the room by using similar shapes and flow lines, the petals on the pillow and the petals on the mirror. This creates a needed balance.

We used an unusual combination of chairs in this room because we wanted to! I wanted this room to represent my client. Rules are made to be broken.

Don’t be afraid to mix it up!

All photos taken by Ashlee Raubach

These old books and urn add an unexpected touch that I just love.

List of Sources

Sofa: Bob Williams Mitchell Gold

Rug: Safaveih

Zebra Hide: Horchow

Black and White artwork/photography: Roma

Coffee tables: Pottery Barn

Chests: Hooker furniture

Lamps: Circa Lighting

Wall Color: Bennington Beige by Benjamin Moore

Mirror above fireplace: Anthropologie

Lotus mirror: available to the trade

Houndstooth Chair: custom made. Houndstooth fabric, available to the trade

Black Accent Chair: Horchow

Cushion on chair: custom made with Robert Allen fabric available to the trade

All Pillows: custom made with Robert Allen and Beacon Hill fabric available to the trade

Mosaic occasional table: Plantation Design

Horn-leg table: ZGallerie

Round Cigar Table: Worlds Away

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Inspiration

An All-Time Favorite

I’ve always loved seeing images of Ivanka Trump’s old apartment floating around the web. Her home was featured in both In Style and House and Garden in 2007. I hunted down the old In Style magazine on eBay that had some of my favorite shots from her place. It’s so fun to see the details!…

I wish there were more photos of this stripey Empire sofa on the left here. And I’m loving the small gold detail on the lamp shade! Gorgeous.

Ivanka says in the article that she decorated the apartment by herself, but I remembered reading in the House and Garden issue that (one of my very favorite decorators) Emma Jane Pilkington did it? Either way, the apartment is beautiful. Classic, but young.

If Ivanka didn’t use a decorator, she sure has an amazing eye for details. Look at the design on her brushed silk curtain panels.

I love this room with its library ladder. The blue is so pretty. I’ve seen other photos of the space and the color is actually much deeper and brighter in reality.

I love the punches of red in each room. Red is such a great, energizing color when used in tempered doses.

The bedroom looks pretty chill from this shot…

But then, BAM! Check out the dresser/mirror/lamp combo down at the foot of the bed. SO GOOD!!

(House and Garden)

Her dining room in In Style was pretty enough. I liked the turquoise chandelier, though it seemed small in this shot…

But this version of her dining room is A-mazing. The chandelier fits right from this angle and the scale of the art is much better here. She framed a vintage Hermes scarf.

House and Garden

(via Flickr, not sure of the original source)

Here’s a close up of that super crazy-good lamp with the red lacquered shade. Maybe she has a pair of these lamps and one still lives in the bedroom? And check out the ribbon on the bottom of that armless sofa. Home girl loves her trims. Almost every upholstered piece in the house is trimmed out which makes me think Emma Jane definitely helped decorate.

Ivanka’s home pulls off my favorite look so very well – traditional furniture, modern art, quirky accessories, great lamps. It’s a fool-proof recipe, really. I mean, look at this Napoleon – great colors and what a conversation starter! And how beautiful are those crystal candle sticks? Such a lovely little collection.

Don’t you agree this apartment will still look fresh 20 years from now? It’s a favorite for sure.

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Musings

And we mean it…

lots of love, Jenny, Michael, Gracie, Claire and Evelyn

lots of love,

Jenny, Michael, Gracie, Claire and Evelyn

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Musings

We're Back!!

Hi friends! We’re back in New York and wading through a round of the flu. I guess it’s to be expected after all that airplane time and the stress of the holidays. Despite the fevers and chills, I’m happy to be home and sort of working again. Isn’t this week SO EXCITING!? I loooooove the…

Hi friends!

We’re back in New York and wading through a round of the flu. I guess it’s to be expected after all that airplane time and the stress of the holidays. Despite the fevers and chills, I’m happy to be home and sort of working again.

Isn’t this week SO EXCITING!? I loooooove the New Year. It feels so fresh and so full of possibilities. A wonderful excuse to celebrate accomplishments and an opportunity to plan for the future!

We’re just hanging out with some friends for NYE, but I’m still hoping to do some little party decorations. My assistant Colleen and I rounded up some of our favorite New Years decor ideas here.

Also, here’s a little tip – the next two weeks are AWESOME for thrifting. People are cleaning out their homes to make room for the new Christmas acquisitions and there are treasures all over the place. Even though I didn’t have a pound to spare in our jam-packed suitcases, I did some thrifting in Mesa before we left town and HERE’S what I found.

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Musings

We’re Back!!

Hi friends!

Isn’t this week SO EXCITING!? I loooooove the New Year. It feels so fresh and so full of possibilities. A wonderful excuse to celebrate accomplishments and an opportunity to plan for the future!

We’re just hanging out with some friends for NYE, but I’m still hoping to do some little party decorations. My assistant Colleen and I rounded up some of our favorite New Years decor ideas here.

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Musings

All I want for Christmas…

…is for this vacation to never end. It’s been the perfect mix of adventurous and relaxing. I also wouldn’t turn down a few more design books to add to my library. I tried to be really thoughtful while putting together a list of these favorites to share with you guys (you know, in case you…

…is for this vacation to never end. It’s been the perfect mix of adventurous and relaxing.

I also wouldn’t turn down a few more design books to add to my library. I tried to be really thoughtful while putting together a list of these favorites to share with you guys (you know, in case you need some really last minute gift ideas), but I feel like I’m missing some special ones. Do you have any very favorite design books you’d love to get or give?

Check out my list HERE.

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Inspiration

DIY Leather Tassel Keychain

I’m forever losing my keys in my bag, so I decided it was time to make a keychain. I love the look of leather tassels on keychains – it feels expensive and chic. Luckily you can make your own for less than $10, even when using really high quality products. Here’s how: If you’re here…

If you’re here in the city, JEM Fabrics in Tribeca has an awesome pile of leather to hunt through. It’s only $6 per square foot, and there are sooooo many colors and textures to choose from. Also, you can easily find leather scraps for sale online for just a few dollars. You’ll need about a ruler’s worth of leather for each tassel. I would steer clear of suede or super thin leathers.

You’ll also want to grab a pretty key chain for your new tassel. I’m obsessed with brass, so I found a solid brass option at Gracious Home for about $5 that I really love.

Mine is a trigger snap so it cost an extra dollar or two, but this one is also a great option.

To make the actual tassel, just cut a piece of leather into a 3″x7″ rectangle, though you can make yours as short or as long as you like. Then using a heavy duty scissor (I used kitchen shears), cut fringe into the leather, leaving about half an inch uncut. My fringe pieces were teeny tiny and I totally recommend going that route rather the fat, stiff widths. Try to be uniform in the widths, but it’s not a huge big deal if the fringe is not all exactly the same size.

Next, cut a 1/2″x3″ piece of thicker leather. This will be your tassel’s tab top. I used a darker, contrasting leather for some color interest.

To assemble the tassel, simply fold the tab top piece in half and glue the very ends with Magnatac to create a tab or loop for your key ring. Then lay down a thin layer of Magnatac on the inside of your fringed leather. Tightly roll your tab top inside the fringed leather. You’ll want the tab to be sticking out about 1/2″-3/4″.

Keep lightly gluing while tightly rolling.

I used a scrap of kelly green leather to make a little belt trim for my tassel.

I just cut a little piece and glued it around the tassel. I love the pop of color, but it also really helps to cover up any inconsistencies in my fringe-cutting.

I tapped in a mini brass nail head to secure the ends of the rolled leather (you’ll want to use the really small nails that are just over 1/4″ diameter – this site sells them, but I would check your local hardware store first). I love how the little shiny bit helps the tassel look less DIY.

And that’s it! This takes only about 15 minutes to make. I’ve been enjoying mine for a couple weeks now and at least a dozen people have asked where I bought my tassel keychain. Success!

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Wallpaper

Jill Malek Wallpaper

When I went to visit Corrente last week, I fell in love with their back wall. It was papered in a really cool, abstract patterned wallpaper by Jill Malek. Isn’t it pretty? The colors are so soft and in person it has this really lovely hand-painted quality. It’s like little floating light bubbles. PS Don’t…

When I went to visit Corrente last week, I fell in love with their back wall. It was papered in a really cool, abstract patterned wallpaper by Jill Malek.

Isn’t it pretty? The colors are so soft and in person it has this really lovely hand-painted quality. It’s like little floating light bubbles.

PS Don’t forget to enter the wallet give away here and like Corrente on FB for another chance to win!

Happy weekend! xoxo

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