Monday: Hope you had a relaxing weekend.

Besides the super cute boys, our new lamp and side table are pictured.

The side table is from World Market. I hope you all got to relax a little.

Tuesday: Blog designs, you vote

It didn't work out with Kelly from Fabulous K. We parted ways and she gave me back my full refund in a very professional way.

These headers aren't forever options. I did them tonight in 20 minutes and I'm not a graphic designer! Something temporary until I find someone new.  I know the first one doesn't have Match in it, but it does have cool pictures of my four favorite things. I can still put Match back in. Is the second one too girly? Oh, and a shout out to Missy Heid for the photograph of us. She's a really wonderful photographer and captures all those perfect moments.

* I caught the typo.

Wednesday: things that happen when you rent

We moved the crib downstairs into the living room/office because no one was getting any sleep. So now it's the living room/office/nursery.

Here are some specs:
The sconces are Jonathan Alder from Macy's.com and the blue print pillow is a sale item from WS home. The sheets are from Target by Dwell and the prints are Sharon Montrose's baby animals on Esty. The cute animals in the crib are Fonte (Satchel's) and Oliver (Eero's) from Anthropologie (neither of them have the slightest interest in them, but I keep them around hoping). The blanket is the best baby blanket and it's from SFerra. It's not as expensive as you might think.
*SFerra is a top of the line luxury linens brand.

Lamp dilemma. You know how I posted about the Buster lamp? I ordered it and they e-mailed me saying it was back ordered until February 10th. Bummer. So today I went to my favorite baby store to buy Eero some teething rings and the lamp was there and I asked if I could buy the floor model. It looks the same but I think it's slightly different? They said it was Jonathan Alder but it looks identical and Robert Abbey makes his products I think. So for 20% off I got it for $40 less than it would have been to ship it. However, just as I was about to call and cancel my order I got an e-mail saying the lamp had shipped! And I got a parking ticket today. I hate that. And then my christmas lights weren't working so I flipped the breaker and it shut off my computer and I lost all of my unsaved worked for my blog design from the night before. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be, me and this blog re-design.

Tuesday: Christmas stockings

I found these at the flea market this weekend. The seller threw in the pink one for free. More of the goodies I found this week.

Monday: Toddler bunk bed

KEVIN: "I need to build something"

WHITNEY: "OK"

SATCHEL: "Flying Treehouse bed for Firemen and Superman and Swordfighters and puncher-guys?"

IN UNISON: "Oh Yeah"

We saw this picture (Below) somewhere in the blogosphere, and both liked it, it was a similar space to what we were working with.

     From here, Lets just say that Whitney and I have different design processes.  

She is organized, well planned, thoughtful, and balanced. She starts a process by organizing her thoughts, writing them down, scheduling time to get them done, and realizing that sometimes other things are a higher priority than that project.
For those of you who may be wondering, THIS IS THE CORRECT WAY.

I, on the other hand, drive immediately to home depot and wander for hours just getting more and more confused and stressed, and then realize that there are just too many ways to accomplish a single task, and the only difference is how much money each option costs, and that I don't have as much disposable money as I thought, and that there has to be a better way. And, I haven't eaten or drank in 6 hours.

Then I come home without buying anything, and then start to do all the things that Whitney inherently already knows.

In this case, I tried a different approach. 

I did some research. I planned, drew, and then began.

I wanted the modern look of the horizontal slatted fences, so I knocked on a guys door who happened to have a really nice fence. He told me it was IPE wood. So I called a local hardwood and asked for ipe (pronounced ee-pay).

The phone call went something like this,

"Hello, do you carry ipe?"

"Yes, it is $9 a foot."

(Silence)

(More silence)

"Okay, thanks." (click) 

Sorry Satchel, unless there is ruby-studded-gold-plated-titanium-laden-cancer-curing edges on this wood, I will not be purchasing ipe. Sorry. But then a quick phone call to a reclaimed lumber place over in Half Moon Bay, CA gave me some hope. The guy on the other end said yes, I have some IPE, come on over.

When I got there, he said, "It's back there" >>>>>>

We walked down the hill by those trees, and had to hang on a branch of a tree to keep from rolling down the hill into a river. 

But there it was: ipe. 10 year old moss covered ipe.?? WHAT?? Yes, 10 year old moss covered ipe. But I had done some ipe research, and I learned something. Ipe is one of, if not the densest wood on the earth. It can last for 80 years buried in the ground. It has the same fire rating as steel and concrete. Awesome. 

So I took all he had. Oh, and it was $0.65 a foot. 

Then, over the next couple of Tuesdays (Project day around here), I made some sawdust. I had to "mill" (Re-sawing each board to be thinner, and cut to size) my own planks, and I only had a tablesaw. There are a number of other faster, easier ways to achieve this, but Novice woodworkers don't always have planers, or bandsaws, or joiners. Oh, and they don't have fancy things like vacuum systems by the way. (But I did wear a mask)

Gluing, and Fastening.

The Facing

I wanted to build it straight into the corner of the room, without any noticeable legs, but then realized that we are still (alas) renting, and sizable holes in the walls were probably a bad idea.

But it turned out, and he loves it. Sleeps up there every night, and stays in his bed finally. The vintage flags and boxing gloves?-  Flea market. Dress up clothes?-Dollar store. And the ladder? Found it by the trash can.

Sometimes the stars just align.

Kevin

Happy Friday!

If your interested, check out my old blog for inspiration too. I love it. It's full of great pictures and great design quotes.

http://the1struleofdecoration.wordpress.com/

These picture are to celebrate my commercial work. I love doing commercial projects. We are working on the building front and bathrooms. I know it doesn't sound very exciting, but I love it. It took a lot of searching but I think I've found the very coolest bathrooms on the internet. Do you love bathrooms as much as I do? Every great hotel or restaurant I have to check out the bathrooms.

This is my inspiration:

This week I've been spending most of my time designing and decorating a room for Creches to be displayed for the 24th Annual Bay Area Creche Exhibit. It opens tomorrow and I had the most wonderful time working with the most incredible people. If you live in the area come check it out.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I'm heading to a few estate sales and flea markets. Wish me luck!

Whitney