The Estate of things

I noticed something recently…

that I really love the looks that appear thrown together,

 no frills, casual, effortless style

do you think these women just grabbed something from their closet or is everything on purpose?  Olivia Palermo would never leave the apartment without careful selection would she? Is it their appearance and the way they wear the clothes that is appealing?

From what I can glean from Pinterest a lot of you appreciate this same look. Wondering what fashion blogs you read?

all images via Pinterest

Sometimes I have a crazy good memory, Betsy will tell you, my friend Joel will tell you-she’s got a memory like an elephant. I’ve noticed since I had children, it loses a little super strength every year.

But I’ve still maintained this memory to draw connections and remember things on the internet, especially all things design related.

Grayline Fabrics is something that popped up on my radar a couple of weeks ago on Pinterest. Bryn Alexandra pinned one of Grayline’s color cards and mentioned that it was $7 a yard. Well that caught my attention cause I’m always in the market for some affordable linen. So I visited their site and I liked what I saw.

Without a color card of my very own I still had some question about quality, plus I emailed them a question and they haven’t responded.

Then I read a post Emily Henderson wrote about how she uses Grayline all the time. So now I’m thinking well, if Grayline is good ’nuff for Emily Henderson then its got to be good for the gander.

Conclusion–You should know about Grayline AND I plan to order my own color cards and select some linen for my Mom’s cushion and Kristin’s chair quick like a bunny.

An argument for purple glassware,

 and if you feel so compelled you may want to check these out,

The May bath renovation is complete and because its been a few months since we’ve talked about it we should probably review. 

The before post is here and I did some planning and inspiration gathering here

The May house is a 1920′s cottage with  three bedrooms and two baths. The largest of the two bathrooms is on the second floor. All of the bedrooms are upstairs which makes that one bathroom up there pretty important. The problem was that the upstairs bathroom did not have a shower, lacked storage and was of course totally 80s complete with oversized whirlpool tub.

Here is the transformation,

Everything was removed including the entire floor,

the 20 year old particle board vanity was replaced by a custom vanity with a carrera marble counter top.

We installed PVC wainscotting ordered here, it looks just like wood but is completely waterproof.

the awkward empty nook below the slanted ceiling gets put to good use,

I brought the wrong lens with me so I didn’t have the proper range so you can’t see BUT we kept the window in the shower. I decided to make a fixed window, no grids with obscured glass to eliminate working/moving parts that would be subjected to water and we trimmed the vinyl window in Azek which is a wood composite that won’t rot. I’ll let you know how it holds up.

A rain can showerhead was installed in the ceiling.

The details,

Had to get a new faucet,

The affordable octagonal tile everyone loves with gray grout. The tile was purchased at Lowes.

The wall color is Benjamin Moore’s Palladian Blue. I thought about reducing it but in the end decided to go full strength and I love it.

Green is everywhere– accents, wall color, wearable green and so good in different tones like British racing green, emerald, lime and softer mint greens.  My personal favorite right now is a deep, rich green.

Are you noticing any patterns with the use of green?

All images via Pinterest

Everybody is doing it…

Mark Sikes

Sara Ruffin Costello 

Amanda Nisbet

and now you can too.

 Vintage Brushed Silver Enamel Bowl

Its been almost four months since we discovered that the site had been hacked and I wrote a real post. When Betsy told me that we would have to basically dismantle the blog I was almost nine months pregnant and feeling pretty overwhelmed and emotional. I mourned the loss of Teot for a couple of days and started to adjust to the idea that it might not ever be rebuilt. A week or so after Betsy took the blog down we got a chance to discuss it on the telephone and as Betsy usually does she eased my mind and with the help of some of her friends in CA she cleaned Teot up and got her up and running again…and here I am.

Since November a couple of things happened, the biggest being I had a baby! This is our second child and our second little girl…we’ll call her Laney.

Laney came fast and furious in the middle of the night on November 30th. Its a pretty cool birth story but I don’t want to go all Mommy on you so I’ll just be brief and say that her birth took one hour and 15 minutes from registration to birth. The labor and delivery nurses that didn’t even have time to introduce themselves to me said I should be the poster mom for giving birth.

Here is Laney today at two months old…

So we’ve been adjusting to having two children, doing the newborn sleepless thing, juggling our jobs and thinking about home improvement. Seems like one sentence doesn’t do this challenging time justice but some of you out there know what I’m talking about.

What’s been going on while Teot has been out of commission? Well…

I finished a bathroom remodel in December at the May project. The finished product will require its own dedicated post. But the before images are here and my pinboard for the project is here. Here’s a tiny peek,

We’ve also been making some headway on a couple of projects around our house,

The nursery is a pretty big deal, my plan for the room is here. I’m almost there and I did end up buying the Rubie Green East Village fabric for the bumper and bench cushion. Here is evidence of progress,

Dan got the gallery wall going in the upstairs hallway–almost complete. You can see the remnants of the brown paper templates I used to arrange the gallery. I cut out the shapes of all of the frames I have now and then labeled the brown paper and then taped them up to arrange them. The silver plate covers an electrical box for a sconce that the previous owner of the house took with her.

And my Dad and Dan installed a new toilet in the upstairs bathroom in about two hours. I’m pretty proud of them. The toilet that was there was original to the house which means that it was 80 years old and running every time we used it and using six gallons of water every time it was flushed. Now we have a brand spankin’ new potty, a Kohler Memoirs in classic white. Great style and only uses 1.5 gallons in each flush, yes!

And I’m not done yet…we ordered these sconces for the living room, install begins Wednesday. Let there be light!

It feels good to be back.

If the only thing you’re missing in your fabulous kitchen with grey cabinets is a white footed bowl?

your search is over because I’ve got your bowl in the Estate Sale shop,

To date in the nursery we,

• removed the white carpet when we moved in, pulled out hundreds of carpet staples out (barrel of laughs)
• removed all of the furniture, some was sold on Craigslist
• removed the chandelier
• sanded the window trim and trim around built in dresser with orbital sander
• painted
• assembled crib

I went through loads of paint chips before narrowing them down and then getting samples from Lowe’s of BM’s Whitewater Bay, SW’s Marshmallow and BM’s Pink Damask. Those three sat on the wall for a few weeks until finally I chose Pink Damask for the wall and Marshmallow for the trim and ceiling.

The painting was complete. I got home from work and went straight to the nursery and it just didn’t look right. The trim appeared to have a pink cast to it. I called the painter and said I thought the trim and wall colors had been confused but he was adamant that he gave his crew the right instructions. The painter and SW claim that Lowe’s actually color matched the color below Pink Damask and the trim was correct. So to create more of a contrast I had the trim painted SW Extra White, the wall was repainted Pink Damask (Lowe’s darker version) and the ceiling remained Marshmallow.

Still with me? OK.

Here’s a primitive blueprint of the nursery so you can get a better idea of where windows and doors are,

So we’re working with a room that is roughly 9 x 10, which is quite small according to the standards of most but I think offers enough space for what a baby needs especially when the child has additional play space in the house.

This 9×10 space comfortably accomodates a small 3-drawer dresser,

a rocker like this,

this crib,

a bookcase turned bench like this,

an accent table that has yet to be located and all the shelving and art you would want.

And…I’m still gathering fabric samples for crib bedding like these,

Taj Paisley

 

 

Spoonflower

Here are the samples I have collected shown together,

I was considering the Taj paisley on the far left of the frame for the backing of the quilt my grandmother is making but its not working plus the fabric itself is really thin. So Taj has been eliminated.

The zig zag samples are for the bumper and although I like the two lighter pink zig zags they are little too large in scale for the bumper or the trim on the bench cushion. Because of their scale I decided to request a sample of Rubie Green’s East Village in light pink and I’m likely to go with that.

 

The striped fabric and the Globalweave block print are for throw pillows that will sit on the bench and the solid pink is what my grandmother used in the quilt.

So whats left in fabric–I need to choose a solid white linen or linen blend for the bench cushion, the interior side of the bumper and window treatments. I also need to decide whether or not I’d like to do contrasting ties and trim on the bumper in brown or pick up the pink of the chevron. Does anyone have a source for their favorite affordable solid linen?

In addition to fabric, I found some cool casters to attach to my IKEA bookcase for the bench transformation,

 

Van Dyke’s

Here’s another example of the look I’m trying to achieve with the bench,

 Lulu Powers, Lonny

And I found this little guy at a thrift store,

I’m still on the fence about buying off the shelf roller shades or having them custom made with a brown greek key or simple band much like these,

I’ve never gone custom with fabric shades before but I really want to. I’ve read some positive accounts in blogland. I considered the DIY route and I have seen Isabella & Max Rooms tutorial and I def respect that but I’m not that crafty, I’ve got a million other JOBS and I’m almost 32 weeks pregnant, shall I go on–no I’ll spare you. So if you want to share your custom shade experience with me I’m all ears, please email me. I know there are designers reading this, do tell.

When I bought this covered emerald green dish I had Rita Konig in mind,

I remembered some of Konig’s casual and thoughtful vignettes in her own apartment and then what do you know…