Apartment Therapy

One design degree away from Emily Henderson (who did the prettiest things here and always here) and our bedroom? Yes please and thank you! Thrilled to see our bedroom featured on Apartment Therapy yesterday. Totally out of the blue. I'd love to spend time in any and all of these rooms and hop a degree to grab that Cross Blanket.

Click here to check out the Six Degrees of Separation between the rooms.

Here's our bedroom before: (yikes)

Yay!

I have had waaay better luck transferring plants into containers before (it was a 7 a.m. hot mess), but that doesn't lessen the love I have for this succulent arrangement my sister and nephews sent over for good wishes in the house, plant style! I love them so much! Thank you!

Let Them Eat Cake

Adventures in Cooking

How amazing is this brown butter pumpkin cake from Adventures in Cooking? Come over for your birthday so I have the best reason to make it. I'm going to start putting flowers like a fancy headpiece on everything I bake from now on (which will now have to increase, obvs.) That may be the best part. Too pretty.

Rain Date

Our housewarming party got rained out! Too bad. But it was a seriously good call on canceling it. We're not trying to get mud errywhere. And really, it's enough to ask car-less friends to come to San Leandro on a good day - who wants to do it in the rain? Who even wants to go outside? It worked out. Tocco and I had much to discuss and some great friends came over anyway, and it was perfect.

This dude came over and was like, I'm a party of one. I can do it allll myself. So much so she needed a bath before coming back in and passing out on the couch. Oh Dora! Who are you, even?

Currently Accepting Donations

for this awesome Hans Wegner chair :) Free shipping!

Link love

Drab day dreaming: I am digging these photos of the Rhoads family's ivory, denim, plant, and sun-soaked home. So great. I already have that robe and I'm thinking that's a pretty crucial start. ;-)

from kinfolk- california dreaming

Their own beautiful photography thisaway: we are the rhoads

Beach House

 We also scouted our dream home lot location last weekend. Swoon worthy spot for a pre-fab or awesome container house. Eyes on the horizon.

Last Weekend

Over the weekend we got to do exactly what we bought this house for - to spend the day outside, at the beach, Tocco getting time on the water, me with something great to read, then coming home, fixing a salad from the garden, firing up the grill, a drink, the sunset, talking about the day. Coming back inside I realized my shirt smelled like campfire and it reminded me of our road trip a few years ago - always a sweet, welcome surprise. California! I really love you. Looking forward to so many more spring and summer days around the house with friends and family. 

A few more pics from the weekend after the break

Pretty things for a Friday

A Perfect Room

Tiny Shelves for Tiny Spaces

A Classic Plywood Chair

A Squishy Rug in Great Colors

Organization for Garden Supplies and Tools

Have a great weekend everyone!

Ironing Board---> Cookbook shelf

I love this little project Tocco surprised me with one day after work. You know those long nooks that, back in the day, housed the ironing board? They're really sweet, and I love knowing that our house is old enough to have had such a quaint life- ironing in the kitchen, yellow counter tiles, probably some flowerpots on the windowsills, and some Patsy Cline on the record player or something.   

Less charming is the wild green paint, again. The previous owner had made this nook into the spot for her phone and at the bottom, a special holder for her yellow pages. She probably logged hundreds of hours on that phone, sitting at her kitchen table, like my Mom and Aunt Judy. ;) But since it's 2014 and we need neither a phone, nor the yellow pages, T got to work sanding, scraping and clearing away the old set up. 

Then he made these awesome little T-shelves x4 in his workshop... 

Secured them with special brackets... 

Nailed them in place in equal measures, and painted them white...

And now this old space that was a big eyesore has been transformed into something useful for us, and also so pretty. I really love how natural it looks, like it could have always been there, or that it's a custom built-in we had made from scratch. 

It currently holds my cookbooks and a wedding present from Tocco's mom, Brigitte, which we love. But I can see it changing out with a variety of objects over time.

Thanks Tocco!

Wanderlust

Dreamy

I have such extreme wanderlust lately. I have the itch to go somewhere so badly!! It doesn't help that Instagram is seemingly full of nonstop vacation pics. We do live somewhere super vacationy in real life, but our home has been endless messes and renovation for the past 4 months. I am crazy to have my feet in the sand, a good book, cocktail, hammock, warm clear blue water, no reno, and then renting a car and driving around the local area. I realized Tocco and I have only had one vacation together where we stayed put (Montauk/Hamptons). Ordinarily we are zooming around seeing people or road tripping and trying to fit it all in. I'd like to see how we do with a solid stay someplace. For example, that hammock above and wherever that is. x

Wes Anderson's palettes

It would have been game-over if I'd seen this tumblr before decorating our rooms. I'm definitely into a buying a Steve Zissou blue paint can.

All photos from Wes Anderson palettes tumblr

One of those days (We built a fence!)

The day started with a plan, a plan that led to internal anxiety and desperation, even though it was sunny, warm, and beautiful outside. But there was this plan, something we didn't account for, a thing, our fence - the neighbors complained since the first day about it, that it wasn't willing or able to stand on its own any longer. We tried everything to avoid a repair, but no matter what, as soon as there was a breeze, the fence fall in the direction of the wind.

Same procedure as usual. Since we don't want to waste too much time fixing the fence, it means we get up early, and since Home Depot opens at 6:00 a.m., it shouldn't be too hard to save some hours by getting a head start. What do we need - we guessed around 6 new posts, between each post two beams, one on top, one at the bottom, concrete to fix the post in it's deep hole, which we need to dig, hundreds of screws, motivation, steam as long as there is steam. Off we go!

The tools to demo the old fence, and carefully please, we want to reuse the old panels since they look kinda cute, much better than 50 yards of brand new shiny ones.

This is the old sucker, only still standing because last time the wind came from the south, so the fence could lean against the tiny little orange tree you see behind the fence, don't know who was helping whom here, the tree to hold the fence or the fence trying to cover this little sad looking tree.

The rest of the story after the break...

Last weekend

Major front yard reno

From the ickiest front lawn to the second ickiest. We have a long way to go in the front. But man, we worked hard last (and this) weekend. 

The plan this first spring in the house is gaining control and getting rid of all of the things we don't like, as opposed to adding new plants. So, last weekend we hauled away tons of rocks, a few wild "hay" plants, a few chunks of dead lavender, our weight in weeds, and then Tocco trimmed the dreaded juniper bushes that he says he has to get drunken to shape just right. ;) Eventually, we'll remove all those little stones too. Want 'em? 

We ran out to buy a wheelbarrow to transport some of these insanely heavy rocks from the front yard to the back. Not quite sure what to do with them ultimately - considering building a short wall with them and filling the insides with soil and succulents. That could look good? At the very least they're in the backyard, collected, instead of in the front, for now.

We're exhausted. Bye!

All the clean lines please

I want at least everything in this video. So much cute! I especially love the storage options, little bench and little balance beam/seat for outside. 

Guest Room Love

Major inspiration coming in in the form of these textiles. I think the guest bedroom wants to get on board with this look pronto:

Love

a few more favorites after the jump

Quick before and after

You guys we are getting closer to halfway done! The adventure to slowly sand, scrape, peel, buff, and paint the kitchen cabinets from pastel lime green to grey/white/aqua continues. We are creepin' down the cabinet line...

Sand 'n scrub

Last night we worked on details. Tocco sanded and primed these sweet little shelves (check out that speed) for their new future in a warm grey, while I cleaned the ten coats of paint off of one set of kitchen cabinet hinges. Aw yeah

 Initially, we bought all new hinges to replace these, but we realized we couldn't use them. Our cabinets are custom built for the space, which is really the best part about them, but that is also what makes them so damn fussy. They do not want any hinge other than the one they were built for! So, we have to work each one for about 15 minutes to uncover the silver under all that paint. Tedious? You bet. Luckily, we came up with a solution that seems to work well. 

Put those little suckers on the stove, add a few squirts of dish soap, and let 'em boil.

Carefully pull one out at a time. They look unsalvageable. But they're not.

Add more soap, scrub like nuts, get a few layers off, then put them back into the water. Pull out the next hinge. Repeat. Pull them all back out for a final cleaning... 

Et violà! Not perfect, but you'll never know.

Screw them back into place. Cross your fingers you chose the right hinge for the right hole or you'll need to take them off again and figure out where each came from. But it's all worth it. I think these are prettier and better suited to the space than the new Home Depot ones anyway. There's a subtle Art Deco vibe to these that I know very well now, and quite like.