Your Walls DO Talk

What does your space say about you?  Is it telling the truth, a lie, or is it not talking at all?  A room dosn't need to be filled to the brim with knick-knacks to tell your story, in some cases the minimalistic simplicity of it will speak volumes.  Calm rooms with a muted or neutral color scheme and clean lines, that has a single item which may look out of place because of it's random eccentricity (but it's this piece that perfectly represents you), is so beautiful.  Rooms like these seem very chic to me and I am jealous of them.  Sometimes I wish I was a person that could live in a home like this because I love the aesthetic about it and the non-chaotic mindset it puts you in.  But I think after a short time the walls in that space would have to become padded for me since it would drive me crazy!  I kind of have visual ADD, I like to look at a lot of interesting things all at once, and then change everything after a short period of time so it dosn't grow stagnant to my eyes.  I feel like constantly rearranging and changing things up keeps me interested and the creative juices flowing.  But I can't help to think where my imagination would go if I were living in a more visually sterile enviroment.  My brain would have to fill in all the blank-ness for it's self, but it wouldn't be obstructed by the chaos.  Who knows, maybe I need chaos to create?

My home is my canvas and my inspiration board for design ideas and paintings I use on the pieces Haley and I sell.  Each new design comes from some random thing I saw somewhere that started a thought process, color exploration, history search, or just a positive feeling of creative energy.  Its often not even that random thing that gets portrayed in the art, it can be something that made me think of something else.   I run with it, use it on whatever furniture pieces we have on hand, add it to ones that began with the last idea and weren't quite finished.  Then once we tire of it, it's on to the next inspiration.  Thanks for riding our roller coaster :) !!

Seeing the World Through Rose Color Lenses

I was born in San Francisco, CA in the early 80's.  My mom's Dr. was out of town when she went into labor, so the on-call Doctor delivered me and this Dr had a completely opposite style of my mom's ideal Dr.  So there she was in the delivery room on the table about to start pushing, when in walks the Dr who will be delivering me...who was a very 'lively' woman, dressed in a hot pink polyester track suit, rose tinted aviator sunglasses with rhinestone detailing, and bubblegum pink nail polish..then announces (as she's chomping on a wad of gum..which i'm sure was probably bubble-icious), "Somone put some 'tunes' on, this baby is almost out"!  A few seconds after the nurse 'pumped up the jams' I was welcomed into this world.  With my first sight being this completely eccentric, cotton candy piller of a woman...who by the way still had on her sunglasses...I believe this Dr contributed in part to my major affinity toward all things colorful (especially bright shades of pink), aestheticaly loud, and border-line garish.  But I thank her for this, because i'm sure this brief first encounter is now subconciously synonymous with the world as I know it and see it, (which is covered in a splattering of color, pattern, personality, and sparkle)! 

This delivery Dr didn't take life seriously, she was proud of who she was and comfortable enough in her own skin (and polyester clothing - which is only strange since it's such an itchy fabric), that regardless of the serious nature of her profession, she still showed up to work in full personality regalia!  The lesson learned is don't be afraid to be completely who you are and show it off.  Share this with others in how you express yourself in dress, speech, and especially living space.  Your home should reflect who you are, it should be reminiscent of your personality, your heritage, your experiences, family, and most of all your quirks.  If your living space exudes all these things, think of how much bigger a compliment it will be when someone walks into your home and says "I LOVE how you've decorated", because then they will also be completing the core of who YOU are.  Home is a safe place of comfort where you are completely comfortable to be who you are.  So make your surroundings comfortable to you too, which is best found when you turn your inside out.

This would be the room interpretation that best represents the delivery Dr:

A combination of these interiors sums me up:



Photo Credits: HoneyLiving.blogspot.com and Decor8

Today's Post is Brought to you by the word: "Reduniture" (vb.Re-dun-i-tur)

  Re-whatiture???  Don't try googling it or looking it up in the dictionary (if you still own one) because you won't find it.  Reduniture is taking your current furniture and revamping it to give it new life and character.  Everyone has a piece of furniture in their house that they are sick of, don't know why they ever bought it or like the style but hate the color.  Reduniture is what we do to "that" piece of furniture by giving it new life.  For example, our friend couldn't stand the sight of this pepto-pink dresser (which was one of her "diy" fixes)and was considering purchasing a new dresser.  She didn't want to spend $400 (at minimum) to get a lifeless, laminate, cheaply-made, everyone has one, dresser.  So she asked us to professionally transform it from this....

to this....

  We took her 10-year-old daughter's old dresser and revamped it to a fuchsia and black eye-catching piece.  We boxed out the flat, rectangular drawers to add depth and softened them by adding flourishes around the knobs.  The black glaze brought out every imperfection in the wood to naturally age this piece and added tons of character to it.  The design on top was hand painted by our artista, Amanda, who is an incredible free-hand artist. 

  We saved our friend the hassle of searching for a "reasonable priced" dresser, hauling it home and then having to put it together.  Which I still don't understand how consumers get suckered into paying hundreds of dollars for furniture to take it home in a box, get into a fight with their spouse over constructing it and then having it fall apart one year later...Anyway, we saved our friend the hassle, gave her a 100% original piece for 2/3 of the price of a new dresser.  So our words of wisdom to you....go with reduniture instead of buying new.  You will save lots of money, get an original piece full of character and life while updating your space.  It's a win-win situation for your furniture, you and us!  Plus isn't going green the thing to do..

A Conundrum, A Question, And a Conclusion

For any given holiday or other gift-giving situation, I have become the go-to person for my brother to steal gift ideas from for his wife, but claim them as his own.  He has great taste and ideas without my 2 cents, but he also gives himself a three to four gift (per giving situation) quota.  So he runs out of ideas usually by the third gift..which is where I come in.  I was particularly proud this past Christmas when I was able to step in at the 11th hour and save him from getting her a gift that would really just be benefiting him in some way or portraying the wrong message all together (say like a vacuum or other such device or an XBox).  Being the fashionista my sister-in-law is, you can expect that her home isn't lacking any style, and it's not, except for one seemingly small relic of bachelor pad past (which actually was my husband's before my brother got it, because it wasn't old enough to be cool in our home and in the mean time it was annoying to look at because it only served a function.. and we all know fashion comes before function).  I'm referring to the black/gray/glass/maybe some silver, low-ish TV stand thing.  You know what I'm talking about, you see them everywhere.. who knows, you may have one in your family room right now and it's just begging for a listing on Craigslist, or a curbside alert.  So given the design distraction in his family room, I suggested that he refinish a dresser/sideboard that they could put their TV on, but it would also serve as a great versatile piece of furniture that would actually complete his family room as opposed to embarass the other pieces in the room.  He loved the idea..of course ;).. and before I knew it I had completed my first piece of furniture..and a great gift for Jen..from my brother..

The finding of the furniture, process of refinishing, and transforming results, was all so enjoyable and addicting I knew I was in for the long haul.  So in the end, it was a win for all of us, Jen got a great gift, Andrew got the 'atta boy', but I got the realization that you can actually "Do what you love and love what you do".



This dresser was the previous owner's grandmother's.  Prior to it's makeover it had been well loved by the last owner's daughter (original owner's granddaughter), who had carved her name into the top.  It wasn't very large and since it was pretty endearing, we decided to leave it there.  The hardware has been replaced with wrought iron handles, to give it a slightly more rustic look and 'de-feminize' it a bit (as per my brother's request).  This dresser is made by Dixie who manufactured a lot of case goods in this french style in the 1960's.  I love this style in particular because it's used a lot in French Provincial decor, which is a favorite style of mine.  Below are more of this style of dresser re purposed in various ways that I have found around the web and kept as inspiration.