Progress on the Yellow Door

I had an extra hour yesterday (which never seems to happen!), so I started work on the yellow door. I really wanted to add some architectural detail to that cheapest of cheap hollow-core door. This image from Patrice Cowan Bevins was my inspiration. I picked up three lengths of inexpensive shoe moulding from Home Depot,…

I had an extra hour yesterday (which never seems to happen!), so I started work on the yellow door.

I really wanted to add some architectural detail to that cheapest of cheap hollow-core door. This image from Patrice Cowan Bevins was my inspiration.

I picked up three lengths of inexpensive shoe moulding from Home Depot,

and six of these shorter mouldings from Michaels (the same bin I got my studded trim from).

This little hand saw has been my best friend today.

I absolutely zipped through the cutting of the moulding using the saw and my miter box (both are about $5 at Home Depot).

The bigger outer square is 20.5″ wide and the inner square is 16.5″.

I used some Liquid Nails to glue the squares on the door (I very roughly marked out the lines on the door first as a guide), but I think tomorrow I’m going to nail some wire brads in too before I caulk the whole thing and give it a paint job. I’m excited about the yellow! I think it will be a really fun and unexpected.

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Why Don't You

Yellow Door

This photo is a few months old now. The pink and black shelves have been styled and restyled a few times (sometimes by me, but mostly by Evie) and the Gossip Girl sconces have been put up (post to come!). I also changed out the door knob. I’m hoping this week I’ll get to adding…

I picked up a quart today of this pretty color by Glidden called Spicy Banana Pepper. It’s a happy and bright yellow with a hint of green – not quite chartreuse.

Here are some inspiration photos. I like how the yellow pops in a room with lots of white, of which I have an abundance in my loft:

SF Girl by Bay

Hooked on Houses

Elle Decor

Calamondin (Indoor) Orange Trees

If it smells like an orange blossom (candles, perfumes), I usually like it. I grew up in Arizona and can recall the smell of orange blossoms on command. It’s one of my favorite scents – just smells like home. So how could I resist placing an order for a calamondin orange tree yesterday when I…

So how could I resist placing an order for a calamondin orange tree yesterday when I read that the best part about the trees is they blossom and produce fruit year round? I can’t imagine anything better than smelling real orange blossoms in your home all the time (though fresh homemade marmalade is a close second place).

Cliff notes on caring for calamondin orange, meyer lemon, or key lime trees (which all make great, hardy indoor plants):

– Plant in 1-3 gallon pots, depending on the size of your seedling.
– Keep in as much direct sunlight as possible and temperatures between 65 and 90 degrees (you might want to keep the tree outdoors in the summer and in for the winter)
– Fertilize in the cold months

– Water only when the top inch of soil is dry. Over-watering will quickly kill these trees.
-It takes a seedling 2 years or so to start producing fruit. So pay attention to the age of a tree when you’re purchasing. You can buy one year old seedlings for cheap, but it will take a while before you get to enjoy the pretty fruits.

design*sponge

-It takes another whole YEAR for the fruit to ripen! Not so great for harvesting, but awesome for ornamental purposes.
– The flesh of the tiny fruit is super sour, but the peel is supposed to be pretty sweet, a lot like a kumquat. Perfect for flavoring drinks (frozen calamondin halves as ice!) or for jellies or cakes.

– Also, if you live in a citrus producing state like FL, AZ, CA or TX, you can’t buy citrus trees online due to agricultural laws. You should have some luck at your local plant nursery though.

I’ll be sure to report on how my little tree arrives and (hopefully) thrives. Do you have any experience with indoor citrus trees?

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Living Room

Framed Butterflies

Over the weekend I bought a beautiful piece of butterfly taxonomy at the flea market. I’ll share some photos of it hung up later this week. I’m loving what the color, pattern and dimension of these pieces can add to a room: Pinterest Pinterest Lonny Mag Nuevo Estilo Southern Accents Decor8 Kate Spade Here are…

Lonny Mag

Nuevo Estilo

Southern Accents

Decor8

Kate Spade

Here are a couple of eBay listings that caught my eye:
I love the round frame. This seller has two round pieces.

I like the flowy, non-traditional pattern of this seller’s butterflies. Feels a little more modern.

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Inspiration

Coral and Ivory Chess Set

Check out my latest favorite thing: I picked up this vintage stone and brass chess set at the Chelsea flea for $35. Isn’t that coral color beautiful? It’s inspiring me to a) work on my seriously lacking (aka non-existent) chess skills and b) finally get around to painting the little library table I have between…

Check out my latest favorite thing:

I picked up this vintage stone and brass chess set at the Chelsea flea for $35. Isn’t that coral color beautiful? It’s inspiring me to a) work on my seriously lacking (aka non-existent) chess skills and b) finally get around to painting the little library table I have between the bergeres, which are going to the upholsters this month! Yay!

Do you have any weekend plans?

**I just realized the pieces are in the wrong order in the first photo. Haha! Told you my skills are lacking. :) xoxo

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Inspiration

Speaking of Acrylic…

It has been a crazy week of deadlines and installations. I feel like this is the first moment since last Friday that I’ve had a chance to breathe! I’m so looking forward to the weekend! I had the camera out yesterday and my post about acrylic shelves reminded me to snap a shot of my…

It has been a crazy week of deadlines and installations. I feel like this is the first moment since last Friday that I’ve had a chance to breathe! I’m so looking forward to the weekend!

I had the camera out yesterday and my post about acrylic shelves reminded me to snap a shot of my favorite little tea table from my friends at Plexi-Craft. I visited their offices in Williamsburg a couple months ago to look at some pieces for a client and let me tell you, they are a lovely and talented group of people! If you can dream it up, they can make it in acrylic for you.

Gracie has a school concert today in the park. We’re going to pick up a pizza and some gelato and have a little picnic. I hope all this lovely sunshine can wash away the stress of the week. :) Hasta manana!

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Why Don't You

Acrylic Shelves

Celerie Kemble used pieces of acrylic as shelving in her Kips Bay Show House room and I loved how modern it made the built-ins feel. It reminded me of this photo from Domino, where they used acrylic shelving in the kitchen. It’s a great way to add storage without all the visual bulk. PS I…

Celerie Kemble used pieces of acrylic as shelving in her Kips Bay Show House room and I loved how modern it made the built-ins feel.

It reminded me of this photo from Domino, where they used acrylic shelving in the kitchen. It’s a great way to add storage without all the visual bulk.

PS I bet my friends at Plexi-Craft could help you if you’d like to do something similar in your home…

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Living Room

Hands

Aren’t hands fascinating? You can tell a lot about a person’s journey in life by looking at their hands. And isn’t it interesting that we all have such unique hands? I can recall the look of my grandparents’ and parents’ hands almost as well as their faces. I was so struck with this simple black…

I was so struck with this simple black and white photograph of a hand (a self portrait by John Coplans). I would love to try something similar. Wouldn’t this be an especially cool art series? Maybe photograph your child’s hand every year on their birthday or something? I’m trying to figure out a good way to photograph Evie’s hand before she loses all that gorgeous baby chub. What’s better than wrist and knuckle fat rolls?

(Images via this great post at Habitually Chic on Fredrick Malle’s apartments. I am CRAZY over his style.)

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Office

New Office Chairs

I’m working on getting pictures of my office to share, but I thought you might like to see the desk chairs we decided on in the meantime? Our new desk is really long (long enough for two large work stations), so I wanted to buy a pair of matching desk chairs. I wanted them to…

I’m working on getting pictures of my office to share, but I thought you might like to see the desk chairs we decided on in the meantime?

Our new desk is really long (long enough for two large work stations), so I wanted to buy a pair of matching desk chairs. I wanted them to be good looking and super comfortable, so I figured I needed to buy vintage. I scoured craigslist and eBay for a month or two looking for a pair of reasonably priced Miller/Eames aluminum group management chairs. But since I needed two, and I didn’t want to buy a new knock-off version, I struck out a lot in my pretty specific search. Most pairs were going to cost at least $1000 or more (no bueno).

Then I saw this gorgeous chair on the One Kings Lane Windsor Smith sale.

It was about $1000 I think, but it had been newly reupholstered (I LOVE the lavender linen!!).

Anyway, it got me to broaden my search parameters to just simply ‘vintage office chairs’ and that same day I found the perfect chairs for my office space.

They were made mid-century by company called Jansko. They are super comfortable (though I’m sure not as comfortable as the Eames chairs would have been) .

And the price? Only $135 for the pair! I got them from this great eBay seller, who has lots of fun retro/vintage furniture. He shipped them well and fast.

I love the bright blue color! Sort of reminds me of Kate Spade’s (much more beautiful) blue leather desk chair.

Happy Memorial Day!! See you next week. xx

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Kids Room

Sophisticated Nursery

I get lots of emails asking for boys’ room/nursery inspiration. In case you didn’t notice, we’re sort of lacking in the little boys department at the Komenda household. But if I were to have a little guy, this nursery would definitely be in the inspiration file. I love how sophisticated it is! You can just…

Check out the whole room on the great blog, Design Crisis.

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Musings

Gold Hangers

Our closets are getting reorganized this month too. Is it strange that I want all new hangers? The interior of my closet is getting painted a bold color, so I really want hangers in a brass or gold tone, but they need to be slim. image I almost bought these gold hangers from Gracious Home…

image

I almost bought these gold hangers from Gracious Home (here’s another source). They are heavy gauge aluminum wire – not cheesy dry cleaners hangers. While I’m sure I’d love these forever, they are pricey at about $2 each. Do you know of any good subs?

My friend here in the city swears by the huggable hangers line and says her blouses never slip and she has much more room in her tiny closet now. I like that these ones are in a brass finish.

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Utility Room

Lateral File Tool Storage

Living in an apartment again, with no garage or basement, has reminded me how important it is to have a place for everything. I have a bad habit of small scale organizing – where I organize things sort of wherever they happen to be, rather than designing an organization plan. We have two areas in…

We have two areas in our loft mostly dedicated to storage – the pantry and Evie’s room. Right after we moved in, I painted out an old bookcase and stuck it in the pantry/laundry room and sort of filled it with whatever had been put in the room during the move.

Somehow all of our tools got put in Evie’s room, which is super annoying because I usually need the tools when Evie is napping! I don’t know how I lasted this long, but I’m finally get our house really, really organized. I made a game plan last week:

Evie’s Room:
Sewing machine and supplies
Crafts
Linens
Bedding
Musical instruments
Suitcases

Pantry:
Tools
Paint
Laundry supplies
Stroller
Cleaning supplies
Accessory kitchen appliances

I want the pantry to sort of act like our garage. I considered getting a big tool box to organize everything, but space is pretty tight. I found a 36″ wide lateral file cabinet on Craigslist that I think will work perfectly for tool storage with very easy access. And I like that I can lock the drawers to keep the girls out of the sharp stuff.

Buying a tall file cabinet reminded me of this project from Mary McDonald’s office featured in Domino years ago. She photocopied a sample of her favorite wallpaper and had kinkos blow up the image to fit the drawer fronts.

A version of this project could be fun for my cabinet, but I’d maybe go a little more subtle with the pattern.

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