Dressing up a Dresser: Hardware Installed

I was recently contacted by fellow blogger Gabbi (and a New Jersey blogger at that!) of Retro Ranch Reno about using my hardware for a dresser revamp.  She selected the F-02 satin brass faceted knob for her project and went to work painting - and repainting - her fabulous mid-century find.  The end product looks fab and the hardware really adds a touch of glam. 

Check out more of Gabbi's renovation projects here.

I love seeing all of these great install shots of my hardware. If you've purchased our pieces and have install shots to share, please email me for a feature on the blog!

Stylin' Mamma: Soft Like Leather

Fall is a transitional month here in San Francisco, with temps ranging from upper 50s to upper 70s over the course of a single day (the marine layer, and all that).

I am trying (tryyyyying!) to curb the shopping after doing a small wardrobe re-vamp over the summer, but I couldn't resist these "vegan" leather shorts.  For September and October, they will work with the last of my summer tan; once November rolls around I can wear them over thick tights.  

The price is right on these bad boys, and I'm discovering that they're wildly versatile; a must for a mamma who transitions from workday to school run to board meeting and back again between 6am and 8pm.

Don't believe me?  Well, behold: Styled with a soft pink tee, flat shoes, and a playful bag (plus that omnipresent watch...one must always mind the time!), they are about as non-threatening as (faux) leather gets.  

For a more decadent twist, try a still-feminine -- but decidedly dressy -- top, pop-of-color strappies, and (always) jewelry (bigger! bolder!).  A classic jacket keeps those shoulders warm when the fog rolls in.  And hey, because you saved such big bucks buying vegan, you should absolutely splurge on that Chanel, no?

- Jaime

Lamps on Chairish

Do you remember these awesome orange lamps that I had in our LA living room?

I got them at an antiques mall in LA and had new shades made for them.  They really worked well in the scale of our space at the time.

However, there just isn't a space for them in our house here. I'd tried selling them on Craiglist but they are so specific and also a bit nicer than your typical Craiglist find (as in more expensive) that nothing really happened. Then I stumbled across Chairish on Little Green Notebook.  It's such a great source - somewhere between Craigslist and V and M and 1st Dibs.  I decided to list my lamps there. You can see the listing here. Crossing my fingers that I get some bites. Also excited to have a new source for vintage finds for client projects!

A little garage makeover

Lately, now that our interiors have hit a certain stage of "doneness", I've been itching to get outside. I did some planting at the front a few weekends ago and plan to plant some bulbs later today.  I've also been thinking about how I'd like to dress up our backyard in the future.  Similar to the house, the garage is sided in vinyl so we can't really paint it.  However, I've been considering dressing it up by painting the door, adding some carriage house hardware and a large sconce that matches the sconces we currently have on the exterior.  Landscaping wise, once the sunflowers bite the dust, we are thinking about extending our privacy hedge of Green Giant Arbovitae. I'd also love to plant a purple leafed Redbud tree to soften the corner of the garage and put a little arbor in that leads to our back area (Not sure what our plan is for that area except to keep the poison ivy at bay).  Here is what the garage looks like now.

And what I'm planning.

Lonny Magazine features Nest Studio

Check out September's issue of Lonny Magazine that came out today.  Our F-02 faceted knob in satin brass is featured in the Bees Knees roundup. Yay!

The Classic Series Is Here!

Happy Labor Day everybody!  I posted a while back about my new Classic Series of hardware coming out. Well, after much trial and tribulation on the manufacturing end, it is finally here in polished nickel (chrome and brass coming soon).  It's up on the website and you can download tearsheets as well.  Be on the lookout for more prototypes and designs coming soon!

Stylin' Mamma: Travelin' Light

Summer travels by plane, bus, and car have had me searching for the PERFECT black dress.  You know the one: won't wrinkle, will be comfy on the four-hour drive to the mountains, can be styled appropriately for dinner in East Hampton...the Do-Everything Dress.  With my suitcase packed for our two-week vacation and 55 minutes to go before picking up the kids from camp and hitting the road, I set out on a mission, a quest, to find this dress.

Of course, I came home with two.

For the Sporty-Spice mamma, there's Lucy.  The fabric is a little on the tennis-y side but the neckline is flattering as heck and the built-in support avoids the constant summertime Undergarment Conundrum.  With flat sky-blue sandals, statement sunnies and a beach bag fit for a family of four, it's a travel no-brainer.

For a slightly softer look, consider this from Curator. Throw on a few happy strands of beads, replace the flip-flops for something a little sexier, brush out that beach hair and call the babysitter.  Mommy's got a date. 

- Jaime

Table Refinishing Project

A while back I blogged about my client's living room which I've been working on.  Here is the concept board from a while back.

You can see on the left hand side a photo of a table that she'd inherited from her mother.  We knew we wanted a sort of washed finish on this to coordinate with some of the other items in the room like the settee.  Well, it's sort of amazing how much people will charge to do a small job like this. So, I figured that since I knew what we wanted I would attempt to tackle it (and cross my fingers that I didn't lose a client in the process).  So here is the table after the first sanding. I managed to remove a drink ring from the burled top without ruining the veneer which was nice.  And I didn't have to sand all that much since it seemed like someone had already sort of stripped it somewhere along the line.

And here it is with some stain on the top, which we decided to keep dark to show off the burled grain.

And here is the scary part where I applied a grey oil-based paint on the rest of the body of the table to give it a washed appearance.  Eeeeek! Reminds me of a cheesy shabby chic redux that you'd find at a flea market (LA peeps, you know that stall at the Rose Bowl).

Here it is the next day when I applied more paint but did a bit more rubbing and sanding. Looking a little less scary!

And getting closer to the final product.

Finally, after a coat of polyurethane.  Not bad! Can't wait to show it to you all in the space.

Digging in the Dirt

Now that our interior is mostly complete (for now that is - until I decide I can't stand my office or the basement), I've decided to focus my energies on some inexpensive upgrades outside.  Our landscape in the front yard was seriously lacking.  There is a nice cherry tree, some laurels and azaleas in front of the house and a beautiful hydrangea net to the porch that you can't see, but there are no planting beds persay. In other words the grass (which is probably 30% weeds) runs straight up under the azaleas and is impossible to trim.  So for my birthday I told Scott I wanted to spend the day gardening and let him take care of the kid.  I also conveniently got some birthday bucks from the in-laws that allowed me to buy some plants for the front as well for a little DIY curb appeal. 

Here is what it looked like before. Ick!  Look at that long grass in the planting strip between the walk and the driveway.  That was from when I planted pansies and our yard guy seeded grass over top.  At least we can say that our lawn did some serious growing due to the recent rains.  Green and lush and out of control!

I got out the spray paint and painted myself a line for where I wanted to create my beds.
Then I got to work digging with our pick axe (which by the way is seriously useful when you are digging in hard packed dirt - I'd say more so than a shovel).  I attempted to use our neighbor's roto-tiller for a while until I jammed it with all the grass that got tangled around the blades.  In the end the pick-axe was more labor but also more effective.  Here is the final product.  The plants look sort of dinky but they will grow in and in person this is a huge improvement.  Eventually I will add an ornamental plum to the planting strip up closer to the house.  I think the purple foliage will contrast nicely with our yellow door and help to soften the right hand corner.

What sort of projects do you have planned for the end of summer?

Goin' Back to Glen Arbor

As most of you readers know, this blog has followed me through the renovation of our house in LA on Glen Arbor and now our house here in NJ.  One of the things I never got around to doing in LA was the kitchen.  There was so much potential with the 1940's glass front cabinets and the vintage stove.  Before we left, we slapped on a coat of white paint and changed the hardware to freshen it up. But I'd always had plans to paint them a dark color, put in new counters, rip out the tile floors to expose the concrete as we had in the family room, and add a window seat.  If you recall, here are the photos from our house sale (of course the fish eye lens helps):

Well, luckily we sold the house to a great couple and their vision was pretty much on par with what I had planned (not that it really would have mattered if it wasn't). The new homeowners revamped the cabinets in a hunter green, put in new subway tile backsplashes and carrara counters and added a stainless hood.  The did exactly what I had hoped with the floors and added a super fun rug to complement the space.  Don't you love the result?