Sophisticated Nursery

I get lots of emails asking for boys' room/nursery inspiration. In case you didn't notice, we're sort of lacking in the little boys department at the Komenda household. But if I were to have a little guy, this nursery would definitely be in the inspiration file. I love how sophisticated it is! You can just tell this kid is going to be so cool when he grows up.

Check out the whole room on the great blog, Design Crisis.

Mint and Cobalt

Do you ever look at a piece of clothing and wonder why (WHY?!) don't we make home fabrics in colors and patterns as gorgeous and fresh as fashion fabrics?

Today I am shopping for a fabric or bedding for a client's master that looks just like this Rebecca Taylor skirt.

I'm going to swing by ABC to see if there is anything new for me on the bedding floor. And speaking of ABC, who's joining me for the Madeline Weinrib sample sale this week? 40-70% off this Thursday through Monday, in the clearance basement at 881 Broadway.

I want to go to there

Oh, thank goodness it's Friday. It's been one of those weeks. Perpetually behind and completely exhausted. I'm ready for a day or two of sleeping in and eating out! Who's with me?

Dec 2009 House and Garden

P.S. My secret wish is to have a weekend/country home some day. And in my dreams it looks just like this house. Serene, but still fun and colorful. I feel better just looking at this photo.

The Map Room

Summer vacation is just around the corner, and I'm dreaming of quiet days on the beach.

One of my friends from grad school days in Boston sent me these photos of her family's summer home in Martha's Vineyard. It's an old carriage house with cottage-style bedrooms.

This room is named the Map Room or Chart Room. (PS I want a house someday where the names of rooms have nothing to do with who usually sleeps there. I remember when I was a kid, my grandparents had a Butterfly Room with the *coolest* wallpaper.) Anyway, I guess more than 25 years ago, my friend's uncle went out and bought a book of maps and pasted the cut out pages to the walls between the rafters.

He also pickled the beams. And I think they are the prettiest shade of blue! So lovely.

I think this idea of wallpapering with maps is perfect for a beach house, but it would also be great in a little boys bedroom (or maybe a boys bathroom? Or closet?)

Thanks for sharing this lovely room, Aubrey!! xx

Inspiration Round Up: Part II

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you have a lovely weekend planned. Here are some more LGN reader projects to inspire you. And, as always, if you have a project that you'd like me to share, please email jenny @jennykomenda.com.

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Natalie, from Natty by Design, hunts for vintage furniture with good bones and then transforms them with paint and sells them in her shop. She did a lovely job with this desk!

It was such a cute piece in the first place, but I really love the green! I could see this desk used in any room in the house.

Heidi from A Thousand Laughing Starfish has posted some great tutorials recently. My two favorites were this DIY curved headboard:

And this handpainted wall mural:

Natalie from Mint Loves Social Club has all kinds of inspiring projects going on. She wanted to share this credenza she bought at a thrift store.

The owner of the thrift store offered to lacquer the credenza for a really great price and I think it turned out amazing!

You can see her pretty credenza, which she uses as a bar (the inside is super organized too!), in these after pictures of her seriously stunning DIY Bubble chandelier project.

Lisa from Lisa Fero Interiors used my Happytape wall tutorial to transform her client's entry.

I think it looks especially awesome looking out from the living room she also did.

Alicia from 12 Devonshire added Greek key trim to the ladder pulls on her bathroom blinds.

What an easy way to dress up plain-jane blinds! Her tutorial is posted HERE.

Jen from Organized Design used this bed from IKEA

as the base for making her daughter a really cute custom bed. Check out her really thorough tutorial HERE.

Vanessa recently redid her kitchen. She used my pelmet box tutorial for her windows and I love the look! I think she made a great choice with the fabric. Visit her post HERE for the details.

Naomi from Design Manifest sent me two really beautiful projects from her Philadelphia loft. She used inexpensive wall mirrors from Bed Bath and Beyond to back her Expedit shelves. Such a great idea!!

She also cleverly outlined a pretty mirror in her entry with hot pink paint on the wall. This makes such a statement - very Moroccan feeling. And what an easy, unexpected way to add color to a room.

And I love the combo with the La Fiorentina fabric on her bench!

An extra big thanks to the contributors!! xoxo

Inspiration: Book Shelf Styling

When I'm styling a bookshelf, I try to keep the tchotckies under control. I like books a lot and think they should be the star of the shelves normally. We're going to have a wall of books in the office (no accessories at all probably) so for the bookshelf under the new sconces in the living room, I'm going to mix things up a little. Probably like half books, half accessories.

Here are some inspiration shots. Let's play a little game of I Spy.

I spy with my little eye books arranged by color, but not in an annoying perfect sort of way. Sort of just stacked and piled by tone. Also, I like all the family photos grouped on the shelf. It's a good idea to keep things that are meant to be examined at eye level.

Kelly Klein via Habitually Chic

I love the square shape of these shelves. It makes it easier to display larger pieces like the coral and that big turquoise pottery. I would want to check out the contents of these shelves a little closer if I were a visitor here.

It's a good idea to add some bigger pieces to break it up and add a little storage. Try hat boxes, shaker boxes, baskets, lacquered boxes, lidded candy dishes, etc. I also love the yellow on the back of the shelves here.

House Beautiful

This designer left out some of the shelves to make space for bigger artwork and taller accessories. What do you think of this look? I do like some of the bookends here a lot. Pieces like the brass rams are easy to find in thrift stores or on etsy.

M Designs via La Dolce Vita

These shelves are really pretty. Not many books, and the ones here are covered in kraft paper, which is pretty for a more styled look. I love that ostrich egg and that cage/terrarium thing on the bottom shelf. So cool. Also, pretty obsessed with this color of gray.

I looove the coziness of this photo. The slouchy couch. The laid back book arrangement. I also love the Staffordshire doggies, the ginger jar and the bullseye mirror. The little checkerboard is also awesome and a nice graphic touch. I've been wanting to incorporate some sort of game board in our house too. Checkerboard or maybe backgammon...

Look! A television!! I like this idea of incorporating a TV into your built-ins.

Lonny

Lots to love on these shelves. I think the designer did a good job of leaving just enough empty space on the shelves (though I would probably prefer more books in the mix here). I think it's easy to overload the shelves and the layers, so be careful there. I think you'd want a maximum of five types of accessories on a single shelf (books count for one type of accessory here).

Martensen via Desire to Inspire

These shelves are more crowded, but I think the trick is the colors are all pretty muted. I love that these items all feel very purposeful and collected - like the owner probably has a cool adventure story behind each object.

Jaime's (I Suwanee) Bookcase of the Day

Another one with some shelves removed for art. Love that ladder!

Martha Stewart Living

Fun and quirky for a teenager's room...

Betsy Burnham via Decor Demon

I love the burl wood frame here. And this is just the right mix of books to accessories for me.

Summer Heckman in Lonny

More square shelves! Galvanized metal here maybe? I like how these are casually stacked. The color groupings flow nicely for a great overall composition.

Nuevo Estilo

Colorful and pretty. Love the turquoise vase and the modern artwork up top especially. I also spy a pair of candlesticks, two different types of coral, a beautiful tortoise shell glass vase, a zinc letter and little framed pieces of art on easels.

Ashley Mcaleer in Domino

Off to style my shelves which I'll share soon. (P.S. You're going to love the paint job!)
xx

Layering: Floral Pillows

**Wow, this turned out to be a wordy post. Apologies in advance.**

When I posted last week about how I like to work in layers on decorating projects, I got some comments and email feedback asking for elaboration. I've been wanting to share my new pillows anyway, so I thought maybe I'd share a little bit more about my overall approach to decorating a space. It's not fool-proof, but this has been pretty tried and true over the years for me.

Here's how I get to the first foundation layer with a client. If I can have these three questions flushed out at our first meeting, we are in good shape.

1) How do you live in the space?

So, the first point is obvious, but so important. What is the primary function for the space? And be honest with yourself. It's okay if you mostly watch tv in your living room. It's easy to convince yourself that a pair of lovely little antique chairs would be perfect for your space because they are so amazing to look at. But if the chairs are uncomfortable - no one will ever sit there. Waste of space. Waste of money. Function comes first.

{BUT! If you have the room in your budget, get those chairs you love and put them where the function of the seats would be different, like in a bedroom or in an entry.}

2) What has to stay?

Deciding what has to stay and what can go is a really great way to overcome decorator's block. People will sit and stare at their old furniture and accessories and work and rework configurations and feel like nothing fits right. Or, and this is a really tricky one, people will fall in love with a handful of fabrics and run themselves in circles trying to figure out how to use them all together. Don't let that happen to you. It's okay to love a piece of furniture or a fabric and decide to not incorporate it into your home.

Be a ruthless editor. Do you love it? Do you use it? Does it work well with what you DO love and use? If not, can it go elsewhere? Or can you sell it and then maybe buy something better for the room? Try to only keep things that have both form and function perfectly suited to your space and to your budget. (which is a whole other post for another time - decorating for your budget)

3) What's your inspiration piece going to be?

Once you've put on your Editor's hat and made an inventory of the items you're keeping, the exciting part starts! When I decorate rooms in my own house, I like to pick one serious statement item for each space. A piece of furniture, a fabric pattern or a colorful work of art.

This is key: Don't get caught up in matching everything in the room to that inspiration piece. Just use it as the first piece of the puzzle and build from there. A room where everything matches perfectly can feel lifeless and flat, so try to mix it up. Throw in a random color that's nowhere to be found in your inspiration. Use an accent color that's four shades darker than the color found in your inspiration fabric.

Rather than mastering the matching of fabrics and furniture, focus on nailing the mix.

Here's some applied theory. I am probably on the second layer of decorating my living room and it's starting to come together. But, this is how I figured out the first layer.

1) For us, our living room is used for one part tv-watching (just keeping it real here, folks), one part hosting (we like to have friends over), and one part kids play room (though toys are usually corralled in the girls room, just a few feet away). This all means we need kid-friendly and comfortable seating and lots of floor space. I bought a new slip-covered sofa and had our green linen LEE roll arm reupholstered in an outdoor velvet and I bought a pair of arm chairs (posts coming soon about the specifics). We opted out of a coffee table so we could have more room for the kids to run around. And we got rid of the old ottoman because I'm not planning on having another baby for a while (ba dum dum).

We do have lots of side tables and the big red credenza as flat surfaces for books and drinks, etc. And we have a pair of extra benches that sit in front of the tv for extra seating (and to keep Evie out of the DVDs). Also, despite my huge sale last summer, I still have ridiculous amounts of stuff, so the two armoires act as great storage for china collections, picture frames and other accessories not currently in rotation.

I tried to buy and place things in our living room with purpose. I sold stuff that I still liked, but knew wouldn't work for us here in a loft apartment. And I kept things that fit the space and our needs and that were investment pieces, like the LEE sofa. I'm pretty sure we'll have this thing for decades to come. It is as sturdy as can be and I love the pretty shape. But best of all, it is so dang comfortable. We call it the nappin' couch.

Since the LEE is the last thing your eye stops at when you walk into our apartment, I knew the inspiration item needed to be some killer pillows. I searched high and low for just the right pattern. I wanted something colorful, floral and modern. I thought a lot about this Designer's Guild pattern, called Rugosa, but the scale is really better suited for drapery.

But right next to it was the heart-stopping Orangerie. For some reason, I had never seen this pattern before (though I've recently seen it used as wallpaper).

The colors are amazing. The pattern is big and bold, with a crisp white background and there's lots of black, which I like in florals. And I love that the flowers have this really lovely hand-painted quality.

It's a pricey fabric, but I only needed a little more than a yard to make two 12x36 lumbar pillows. To help justify the cost of the fabric, I sewed the pillows myself and I'm so proud of the black piping and the invisible zipper. Each side has a different scene (the repeat on this fabric is huge), so I can flip and switch these up to see different flowers and colors. Also, they're fully lined and the inside edges are serged to help them stand up to washings.

We've had a chance to live with these pillows for a bit now, and I have to say that I'm a big fan of the long lumbar style, especially for a deep couch like ours. The pillows provide nice back support, but don't get in the way at all like big square throw pillows sometimes do.

PHEW. 10 points for you if you're still reading this.

I'm beat, so here's the conclusion in a nutshell: Once we had figured out the function of the space, the main pieces we needed and then the inspiration fabric, I have been able to sort of build a master plan. After deciding on the floral pattern, I knew I wanted a striped rug. From that, I knew it made the most sense to do a solid color on the curtains. The next step is reupholstering the arm chairs in a small scale print and making a skirt for the tv console with a more organic/flowy pattern, like an ikat. The next layer will be the smaller stuff: reupholstering and painting the rope benches, pillows for the chairs and the gray sofa, lamp shade changes, throws, accessories, etc. I'm not really even thinking about what I'll do for that layer until I get there and can see what colors and pattern scale I'm lacking in the room.

I've learned the rooms I like the best aren't usually designed with moodboards in one day or even a week. I think you'll be most happy with your space if you move a little slower and try to decorate in layers.

Aaannd, I just want to point out lastly that it's 75 degrees here in NYC today! Awesome. I'm looking forward to lots more one on one time with Evie's belly, which has been absolutely neglected all winter long and needs lots of tickling and squeezing.