Brown paper wrappings... These are a few of my favorite things

I remember back in grammar school, at the beginning of the year when the teachers passed out your new school books. They would request that we cover our books with brown paper collected from bags from grocery stores.  But who would have thought that many years later, I would want to cover my books on my own. It looks so uniform and clean, I just wish my penmanship was as pretty as the penmanship on this example.

I walked into Restoration Hardware the other day and they were singing my tune. The books on the shelves were covered in brown paper or linen paper and they looked fabulous. This would be a great way to uniformly have your books stored if the color method doesn't work for you. 

I started the color method but I like keeping categories of books together and so this method... not so much. So do I go ahead and brown paper and label ALL the books. That seems like a lot of work but it might be worth it. Add it to the list of things on my to do.

Pipe Dreams

Maybe I'm late on this trend but I've been keeping an eye on this for a bit wondering if you can pull it off and it not look homemade but chic. I have come to the consensus that it's pretty plausible that it can be chic if used sparingly. There isn't one piece that stands out more than the rest, I love them all, but I don't think that you can do the whole house in this style. Just too much. Now if only I could get my hands on some  beaten old wood and some old pipes, that would be fantastic. Add that to my list of to do...

Rue the day!

At least I hope you won't have to rue the day you missed checking out rue magazine. It launched its premiere issue this week, unfortunately there is only an online version but I can still pull up my chair with a latte and flip through the pages with my mouse. Here are a couple of my favorite spreads and color combos - the navy and gold I'm lovin' that combo!

Antique Market in the heart of Chicago

Sorry I was away but summer had us pretty busy so I hope I can play catch up now with some of the things that we were up to.  A couple of weekends ago we went to the Randolph Street Antique Market, which happens once a month on Randolph in the heart of Chicago.  There is an assortment of junk and treasure depending on who you ask, but one thing that my friend and I both thought was true was that the prices were pretty fair for an antique market in Chicago.  Usually things are soo overpriced that I feel like I'd rather go out and buy the thing brand new and save myself some money instead. Granted there were a few things that were WAY overpriced. Like an edged tin 7' mirror that the guy wanted $1400.00 for, and he wouldn't budge. Not even one bit. No sale on that one.

But then there was a vender that was selling letters from signs that were for a pretty good price. I bought a few stainless steel ones for $2. a pop, and she had brass ones that were about 8" for $12. She also had a couple of moroccan tables I wish they were a foot smaller or if I had the room for a side table that big, sigh... need a bigger space.

Then there was this great cart although it was pricey but I can see someone putting  stuffed animals into it or if you had a large enough bathroom a bunch of colorful towels. What might be other ideas, I'd love to know what you would put into or do with it. 

Also there was a vender that had an old work table, I can see that as someones new workspace with a sleek laptop and high modern stool or maybe if you had a large enough foyer that can serve as the entrance table or even a buffet in a dining room. There are endless possibilities. She also had old railway lights that she was selling with the blue glass and she had a few that were in other color glass as well, although I don't remember which color those were. No matter, they were way to pricey for me. 

Check out these Chanel doors, I don't know where they came from but they were heavy. That might work nicely mounted behind a bed as a headboard on a dark painted wall possibly? Any other suggestions?

We ended the day with an impromptu jam session, Ari had spied some drums a xylophone and a little stool and once she started she roped my friend into playing along with her while she sang. She started to get a crowd of people checkin' her out, I mean wouldn't you watch if there was a kid singing and playing with no abandon. I should have put out a hat for some change, cuz I ended coming home with the xylophone in the end. 

At the end of Sept is the last Randolph Street Market for this year, they start again next year and if your here you should check it out; treasures/junk, food, and music all with a backdrop of Chicago city skyline.

Pantone Fall Color Forecast

I live by Pantone colors. I love picking through the Pantone picker to decide on a color. It's not to say that the clients always have the extra money in their budget to print with spot colors, but I like picking through those first and then changing them out to process color system after. Sorry for the shop talk.

So when Pantone each year comes out with their forecast for the year I always take notice. I mean not only does Pantone set trends in advertising, this reaches far more – to fashion, interior, design, etc...

What do you think, anything strike your fancy? Sometimes we think meh, but after seeing the combos gel a bit, I can see myself using those colors.

What do you all think, can you see yourselves using these colors in your next home project, if so I would love to know which ones and where.

Which natural fiber rug should I go with?

I currently have a ikea rug, it's not bad, but with a child and dog and shoes, it's seen better days. Not saying I don't try and take care of it, I try not to wear shoes in the house and usually someone ends up tracking in with shoes onto the rug.

Even last summer I washed it. Scrubbed, hard, on my hands and knees, to be exact, but it's not lookin' too pretty. So I think I want to go with a natural fiber rug. The one we currently have is a red rug with white and brown twigs on it, the white twigs aren't so white anymore. I don't even want to show you how ugly its become.

Help me decide which rug to go with. I like the dark chocolate since it is so dark, stains and dirt shouldn't show up to easily on it. But the diamond juste from west elm is pulling at my heart strings. Its thicker and that fab diamond pattern is a bit more contemporary than the jute/sisal rugs I saw at pottery barn. But either way I would like to know if you have experience with either of these rugs or natural rugs in the past and any comments are welcome.

It's so hard to say goodbye to cherry tree

I know its corny, but I have to admit, it was hard to say goodbye to our purple sand cherry tree. When we bought our house 5 years ago the thing that drew me to the house was the full size cherry tree that was cascading over the property in front of the windows.

This was taken two years ago, but you can see the tree in the background, how big the trunk was.

From this angle you can see the branch that cascades over the front lawn.

Unfortunately I don't have a pic of the front of the house with the tree in bloom, never thought I wouldn't have the chance to take a pic.

Last year we noticed that the tree wasn't getting  leaves through some of the top branches, and I noticed some white stuff growing on the bark. I took a pic of the stuff and took it to our local nursery. They took a look and said it was lichen and that it was ok, its not going to harm the tree. Well in the spring we usually get beautiful pink flowers all over the tree not so much this year. I called an arborist out to the house and he said that there was nothing we can do to save the tree, it had gotten peach tree borers. It was 60% dead. 

Thats sad, I was hoping we can spray something on it but unfortunately this type of tree, which is a purple sand cherry doesn't live past 15 years, and its probably right at that marker. Plus our neighbor has the exact same tree and he got the peach borers also. So not only is my full grown tree going but so is theirs.

This is what it looked like before we cut it down, it wasn't really blooming, except for the lowest branch everything else was dead. Look how pitiful it looks, by this time it would have had a mound of pink flowers on it. 

But today after cutting it down, even the skies are sad, well not really I just took the photo later in the day.

It really is EMPTY now. We are planning on planting something in that spot and I thought of adding some other type of tall plants but thats going to take me a bit before I get the plan together. I really wasn't planning on replacing the tree at all and in the last two weeks I have had to come to the decision that curb appeal means a lot if you want to sell a house. I know that is what drew me to this house so we will have to do our best to liven up the curb appeal before we think about selling. 

Steel Drum style in the Windy City

My awesome friends, Ann & Vince, have a house in with a back deck. When they bought the house they intended on tearing down the deck and making a huge multi-level wraparound porch. It seemed that the deck always went on the back burner as they got busy with other projects. But last spring, Ann decided that enough was enough and with a caribbean inspiration, a little of Bob Marley and Jimmy Buffet she decided to bring the caribbean to Brookfield. I know she talked about this project for awhile and people kinda thought this was going to look horrible, but she's a designer as well and I think her vision was really thought out before she went along with this. Plus I think she had to get her husband on board so this had to look phenomenal.

This is the before, pretty sad looking when the sun isn't out don't you agree. Especially with all the dead plants and bare trees.

The procedure was pretty simple, the first step was to clean the wood. They applied this deck cleaner and left it on for a couple of hours, washing it off to reveal nice, clean wood that was ready to get stained, once the rain went away.

You can't tell, but it made the deck fresher not so gray, as it tends to get with rain and snow covered for several months out of the year.

Next it was time to stain. They went with a product from Sherwin Williams Deckscapes. They have a ton of colors to choose from and three different finishes.

After staining the deck with the help of a couple of extra hands and drying time it was finished. It doesn't hurt that the sun was out when this photo was taken since it gives it that extra feeling like you might be somewhere tropical.

Can you hear the steel drum playing? Well if that doesn't inspire you to turn a dingy, gray heap of wood into this wonderful and marvelous concoction I don't know what will. I know some neighbors were thinking this was going to look like a Vikings Deck when they were told that it was going to be stained in purple and yellow, but after it was complete, they were all pleasantly surprised that it came as well as it did. 

Now take a look at the finished product, the all weather wicker deck furniture with the turquoise cushions and the light-up palm tree totally ties this thing together. 

How wonderful and gorgeous is this deck? I love the vibrant colors of it set against the white. I think if the white stain was not there it might be a little loud. But I think it has the opposite effect, very calming. They did an awesome job and I think everyone can take a page out of this and not be afraid of trying new and crazy things. After all its only paint (stain in this case). Now get me a daiquiri. 

Reupholstered chairs

I might have mentioned that I stalk craig, on a regular basis. I have a restraining order put on me by my husband as of late; so I can't go and buy anything currently. But I have to show you my best craigslist find. It is a pub table and {6} – really 6 pub height chairs. All for $300.00 Thats a steal in our neck of the woods, new ones don't come that cheap and this one has 6 chairs AND the table expands.

My dad and I drove 45 minutes to pick it up, we stuck it in his van with all 6 chairs and didn't need to disassemble anything. The table and chairs were in a great condition. The only thing that I did not like was the cushions that came on the chairs.

I thought that's an easy fix. I was going to go and buy fabric for them right away but I wasn't sure what I wanted to put on them, plus I didn't feel like spending a lot of dough on fabric either. So being the resourceful girl that I am; I used the leftover fabric from our couch fix that the upholsterers left for us. Which essentially was FREE since they were repairing a tiny rip and they kept sending us the wrong side, after the rip was repaired the guy who was out here fixing it let us keep it, which came out to 5 yards.

So thats what I did I covered the chairs in the leftover couch material. It was ok, but was not what I really wanted in the end. Plus it was way to matchy with the couch being in the next room and I can see from one into the other. They were microfiber, which is fantastic when you have kids, cuz everything comes right off. But they were boring.

As you can see, it's not bad, just well, ho hum I guess. They come clean real easy. I know since my daughter, Ari, drew with ball point pen, red marker and highlighter all over that material on the couch. It all came out. Thank God for her sake.

But one day on a whim I was trolling Hancock fabrics and out of the corner of my eye in the discount bin I see something. Ohh its grey, and yellow, grellow, my favorite combo and its reduced. I look at the pattern and I instantly fall in love. I have to have it. So I went home without it. 

I know, what the hell was I doing? I didn't want to impulse buy so I went home to think about it for a few days. Needless to say I couldn't get it out of my mind so I went back 2 days later  and was going to get a few yards.

As I was at the cutting table it seemed like such a waste to grab only a few yards, I took all of it, all 6 yards for $32.00. I thought that was a great deal. I wanted to come home and change the cushions out right away, but I held back. Don't ask me why, maybe I was just lazy and didn't feel like striping all 6 chairs again and stapling with that heavy duty stapler. *Note to self or to whomever reading this, if you are ever going to use a staple gun, get a good one; one that is comfortable in your hand cuz after awhile the sucker hurts.

I waited till after the holidays and after the winter blahs and decided that today was the perfect day. In between making Rick Bayless enchiladas, come back for pics and recipe later, I recovered the chairs. 

So without further ado, tada... oh wait I'll show you the material closeup, it's a nice heavy nubby material. 

And NOW for the chair, who knows, maybe in another year or when we move into a different house they'll get another makeover. But for now I love them.

Upholstered Dreams

I'm constantly lurking on craigslist, and I always find something that needs to be taken home, to the dismay of my husband. 1. Since he needs to haul the item and 2. I really have no more room in my home for such purchases. I don't know what it is, I love chairs, all kinds of chairs I would put them everywhere, but that starts to look real cluttered real fast. But if I had a bigger bedroom I would totally get this chair and put it in a nice nook.  

Designer: Beth Dotolo  Photography Kevin Dotolo

Isn't this pattern gorgeous, and look how wonderfully the shapes line up with the cushion and the frame. This is not the work of an amateur, I should know. I have a book on upholstering and it looks easy but it's really not. The only thing that I have done are my kitchen chairs. I bought them with an off white microfiber on the cushion and it was from craig, so they were used. I had this leftover fabric from my couch when it was broken we had it fixed and they sent over soooooo much fabric that I decided to keep it.  Well I was able to reupholster the chairs but it's a boring fabric choice . So I'm doing it again.

I found this fabric in the discount bin, and all Im saying is its a little grellow. You know... grey and yellow.

But until I actually do them, I will show you a few of my other  upholstered benches that if I had the space or little grubby hands weren't a problem than I would totally get.  

That is if my local salvation army weren't such greedy bastards and actually sold something that wasn't an arm and a leg. I mean come on'. How is it other people can find all these gems at the salv army or thrift store and cost $15? I find a chair thats stained and the wood is nicked and they price them at $60 and up. After you factor in the fabric and the batting the chair will come out total 300 buckeroos. And if you decide to take a stab at it yourself, forgetaboutit'. 

If you see a nice chair or bench that has great curves and doesn't cost a fortune, send her my way, but leave her on my back stoop so my husband doesn't see. 

Have you seen Lonny?

Lonny February Issue is out, I have read Lonny since its premiere issue, but this is the first time blogging about it. If you haven't check it out. It is online only so no need to spend a dime on it. 


I would have picked a different photo for the cover, there are many more interesting ones inside. They seem to have a knack for picking meh covers.

Here are some outtakes from the mag itself... 

Simple don't you think, which is really not Lonnys forte. I have something like this, I'll save it for some other post.

Not particularly crazy about this kitchen, its too much for me. I thought the wallpaper was fabulous - in small doses. 

Here is another one, it did not have all these antiquey mementos all over the place like some did in this issue, or the stacked books on the floor which is clutter and space hog. Too much stuff everywhere, your eye has no place to rest. Also there wasn't a styled tray of stuff, not to say its not apropos in some instances but does one really need to dust all that crap?


I think I picked this because I'm a sucker anytime I see orchids en-mass like this. I cant seem to grow them after the flowers drop. But thats another story.