The Estate of things

Sarah chats a bit about how her move has transitioned her aesthetic from “modern cottage” to a “new traditionalists” leaning! Check out the full article here.

New in store–the newest addition to your vintage, modern pottery collection?

 

Like so,

Ruffalo home, Domino

What’s been going on with me, well mostly painting or intending to and endless yard work. Don’t we always have good intentions of doing some home/design improvement. I’m full of good intentions when it comes to design.

The results of a recent Iphone unload,

What happens when paint isn’t stored according to the directions on the can? Peanut butter paint–this is Martha Stewart’s Rainwater. 

These are all the colors I’ve sampled in my dining room. 1. Glacier Lake 2. Stonewashed 3. In Your Eyes 4. Silver Crest 5. Pale Smoke 6. Healing Aloe 7. Palladian Blue 8. Iceberg 9. Martha Stewart’s Rainwater

Healing Aloe is in the lead!

Healing Aloe is in the middle.

Really like this pot my Mom bought on OKL, its by Evergreen. She planted Japanese Forest Grass in there which is an awesome plant, great for borders.

Still at Mom’s place, Irish Moss in a bright blue square planter, like the color contrast.

Agave popping off, sorry I don’t know the variety but could find out if you really want to know

Dan and I seriously considered this print at Anthropologie, we like bunnies

 

Love the vintage dresser I bought at a local thrift store for my office re-do, got to paint her glossy white–I think

color happening in my office, Ben Moore’s Blue Note. Move over Hale Navy, this navy blue is fantastic

this is Ted, I bought this print from OKL, very pleased. I’m trying to collect mostly black + white art work to arrange over the bookcases in my living room, Ted is contributing to this effort.

Checking out some carpet for my Mom. Didn’t I see cheetah carpet in a little girl’s room recently?

 Oh and here’s my girl, Laney having fun under the IKEA play gym. Love that thing. 

Sometimes I fall in to this rut –where as vast as the internet is, nothing new seems to come around. It doesn’t last long but it happens.

But recently I was searching things like ”driveway hedge lighting” and “hedge landscape lighting” in Google just to see what I would come across and I discovered casaCARA.

It was clear from the beginning that Cara is a renovation junkie like me and so I kept reading. I didn’t get very far and I settled on Cara’s post about the Rockaway Bungalow. The story of M.’s Rockaway Beach New York bungalow combines some of my favorite things; stories of family and the salvage of an old house. I think Cara has some photos of her visit to M.’s bungalow to be posted soon. I’m looking forward to seeing the progress, I have a special place in my heart for the restoration of the truly dilipadated.

In progress, looks like some new windows are in and the new front door is in.

A new coating of stucco going on the side,

 

As it turns out Cara is not new to design or renovation, she is a professional writer and editor contributing to Coastal Living, Hamptons Cottages & Gardens, NY Times and Metropolitan Home. And Cara collects old houses…I think I like Cara.

And Cara wants to rent her East Hampton beach cottage for the month of August this summer.

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.

We’re back online, but only after we got severely hacked. With the downtime, we got together to talk about what steps to take next. So we’re in the progress of putting our site back together.

Also, Sarah is having a baby in less than 6 weeks!!

Meanwhile – Find us on Facebook where we’re sharing our daily inspirations and things: http://www.facebook.com/theestateofthings 

Sarah

Location: Southern Pines, North Carolina
About me: An admitted design junkie with a passion for remodeling old houses. I love decorating, DIY, renovation and everything in between. Follow along with remodeling projects and design chat with my friend Betsy and me at our design blog, http://theestateofthings.com
My favorite style: Traditional with a bohemian twist
My next house project: Installing sconces in my living room, we’re currently working with lamp light only!

Betsy

Location: Los Angeles, California
About me: Hobbies abound, but I’m more of an internet nerd, music lover and home decor enthusiast than many things. I’m into DIY and artsy stuff, color trends, furniture make-overs, and living out home decor fantasies via your design blog – and ours. http://theestateofthings.com
My favorite style: A sentimental mix of genres…. mostly boho, but there’s definitely a lot of Southern California influence sneaking in – casually.
My next house project: It’s time to turn the LA Apartment Hunting blog series into the LA HOUSE Hunting series!

The Estate of Things on Etsy
http://www.etsy.com/shop/theestateofthings?ref=pr_shop_more

The Estate of Things on Pinterest
http://pinterest.com/sarahf/

The Estate of Things on FlickR
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30368801@N02

The Estate of Things on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/theestateofthings

The Estate of Things on Twitter
http://twitter.com/#!/estateofthings

The Estate of Things on Houzz.com
http://www.houzz.com/user/theestateofthings

Last week One Kings Lane ran a feature on five different foyers that were styled with items from the inventory.

If I get accessory block I look through images of other vignettes. Maybe these setups will give you a little inspirational  jump start in creating a vignette in your house.

Its hard to pick a favorite but I think mine is the modern entry above. I think its that red console table.

I do love the traditional mirror mixed with the vintage lucite lamp and the blue and white vase to the right. I am loving blue and white ceramics right now. One morning last week DC randomnly remarked that the blue and white ceramics in our living room “were pretty vases Mama”, she’s 3, is that unusual?

Because we’re all about stylized living at TEOT…have you seen the new Volkswagen Beetle? I think V-dub did a pretty bang up job on design.

Sleeker than the Fiat…yes

Sportier than the Mini…I think so

Although the first day of fall is not until the 23rd of this month and we are probably weeks away from temperatures dropping out of the 80s here in North Carolina, I couldn’t help but daydream about the change in season.

Maybe these images will help kick start your cozy transition,

 

 

All images via Pinterest

As previously mentioned I find the Flor catalog to be a good source of interior inspiration. Sure they are in the business of selling carpet tiles (which I like and have owned) but they also have some pretty great stylists.

There was a standout image in the recent catalog which features a gallery wall.

I’m getting ready to start a gallery wall in our office/library/guest room and I don’t plan to play it safe with the same frame color so you can see why I appreciate this image.

While we’re talking about the Flor catalog, I’d like to point out that they now offer stair treads. This is a good option for those of us that can’t afford a custom stair runner and don’t want braided or traditional stair treads. Flor’s “treds” are a little pricey, $140 for four and they are already on back order. I think I paid the same price for a dozen braided treads two houses ago…