best of the magazines // october 2014

i'm falling way behind on this column...the november magazines have been on shelves for a couple weeks now, and i'm only just posting october! oh well, as they say...better late than never... (i say this every month, don't i?) well, think of it as my halloween gift to you.

as you know my relationship with the magazines hit a little rocky patch last month, but this time my enthusiasm is back. eye candy yo!! let's get started.

from elle decor, october 2014, "fashion hits home" issue:

kitchen of robert rowe

from house & home, october 2014, "fresh fall looks" issue:

ok, so i know the watermark says veranda, but in fairness i first spotted the image in the "style files" of this month's house & home...plugging the book simplicity by nancy braithwaite (which looks beautiful). house & home's website didn't have any pictures that i can find, so i guess the magazines can share the credit. see the rest of the (amazing) house tour here.

from dwell, october 2014, "modern dreams" issue:

living room from the home of furniture designer gesa hansen. get in my house, all of you, like right now. i adore this room. 

exterior of the home of mark degraaf and sanne wisman near amsterdam.

backyard space like a dream (that fireplace! those logs! the pool!) from the home of andrew and amy weinstein in the hamptons.

an outdoor sauna from a swedish guest house. i want to go to there.

and finally, this house...maybe not visually striking at first, but in this setting, i'd be happy with a one room hovel as long as it was made of glass:

it's the home of ryan & mary finley on the coast of oregon, and i simply can't imagine waking up to these views every day.

bedroom 

porch. yowza. 

oh dwell, you perfect little magazine. you really made my heart go pitter patter this month (again). thanks for that!

from country living, october 2014, "fun & easy ideas for fall" issue:

first of all, i had been looking forward to seeing this profile of makers phillip and jackie wachter of fount leather. i got to meet them at renegade craft fair this year and they were just the sweetest.

next up, oh my gosh. this kitchen. it's CL's october kitchen of the month, from the home of victoria pearson, and it is perfection:

side note: it was styled by heather bullard, whose blog i stumbled upon as i was gathering these photos, and she is unequivocally my new design crush. you can see more photos of the kitchen and her behind-the-scenes commentary here.

this kitchen, from the home of joan osofsky, caught my eye too:

finally, let's vote on this room (heck, the whole house, why not) by brian patrick flynn. i can't decide if i love it, or if i'm still just stuck in mountain-top-man-cave mode, but i think i have developed a serious crush on all things buffalo check. and all the better in black & white. what do you think?

i just have to admit to myself that in general i'm a sucker for plaid flannel. mix it with gold and sleek lines and ...yeah, you got me. so i wouldn't call this house my "style" but there's something great about it. and i'm loving that he's got the same mantle i do and he makes it look chic. there's hope!

industrial office reveal: quetico in a 12 x 10

yeah, i know, i had to google it too. quetico is a national park in canada, and it is, in the words of my recent client, "how i want to feel every time i walk into my office." think blue lakes, tall mountains, open air, forests, and most likely lots of bears.

so my goal, along with my friend laura peacock, was to take a 12 x 10 office and make it feel like a mountain-top man lounge. to catch up on this project, you can start here. it's part of a greater industrial office overhaul that also included a meeting and lounge area. while the lounge was requested to be modern, industrial and colorful, this space was to be rustic and woodsy. with a dog bed.

the head pastor had the most specific wish list i've ever seen, and was so adorable, i immediately knew that his office was going to be my favorite part of the project. now that everything is done, i can almost hear the crackling of a fireplace and the soft fall of snow (or lapping of lake waves) out the windows. not too easy to pull off in an industrial office complex...but what can i say, we worked really hard at it. ;-)

as is common in my life (and one of my greatest frustrations of all time), i didn't get pictures that even come close to doing the space justice. the light was too bright, the walls were too washed out...but i promised i'd show you the results so i'm going to suck it up and post them. you just have to trust me that in real life it looked sooo much better. when he came in he was totally blown away. we even had the most manly scented fireside candle going, and i am sure that even camp wandawega itself wouldn't have felt more perfectly cool and cozy (ok, it probably does...but they've been working on that since 1925. i only had 22 days).

here's where we started:

and here is how it turned out!

speaking of camp wandawega, that was immediately where i turned for design inspiration after reading through our client's wishlist. the camp is just the right blend of cozy and masculine without being at all cheesy. and it's easy to get cheesy when your to-do list includes canoe pictures and fireside candles.

another before shot:

and after:

the first pieces we found were the campaign desk from world market, and this vintage table from craigslist. their light wood tones were perfect against the dark walls, and they both felt perfectly un-finished. after that, we chose taboret chairs in the vintage metal finish to break up all the wood, and an antique english bookcase from craigslist in a darker tone to mix things up. 

the desk chair was such an exciting find. i had fallen in love with the style of this restoration hardware chair, but at $495 there was no way. laura ended up finding the exact same thing- even better in a finish that matched our bookcase- for $30 on craigslist! i might have jumped up and down a little bit about that. and it was so sweet...the woman who sold it said it was her son's and he was a pastor too. meant to be. this chair cushion from ikea fit perfectly.

our original intent had been to get a freestanding bookcase for the nook to the left of the desk, but when we found this wall-mount antique instead, we just couldn't pass it up. it was such a unique piece, in great condition, with distressing in all the right ways. so laura suggested we grab a lounge chair they already had and use it to fill in the corner. the chair might not have been exactly the style we would have picked out, but it certainly offered a ton of coziness for its zero dollar price tag. i sewed a little pillow out of leftover fabric from the dog bed.

most of what is on the bookcase were personal items that we were asked to keep in the office. i tried to use mainly red and white books when i styled it to tie in with the rest of the color scheme in the room. my favorite thing is the antler, from heritage beam & board's october barn sale. it just so happened that laura's mom was there and was nice enough to be our personal shopper between hectic texts and instagram tagging. 

i also love the fern fronds i had left over from this project that i stuck in an empty maple syrup bottle. free accessories make me so happy when they're this cute.

the little bookshelf was from homegoods and the green lamp was another craigslist find. the large scale artwork (and a deer print between the windows that i don't have a good picture of) was another heritage beam & board score.

for inexpensive bookends, we turned to the local garden center. laura found these rocks- which have great heft and a shape perfect for propping books- for about $2.

our DIY painted dog portrait was a huge hit. i felt kind of bad that remi's picture made the desk and his family was relegated to the bookcase...but we can blame the frame. it just fit better! ;-)

one request was a covered whiteboard. those are so ridiculously expensive; what would we do?! well, we spotted some old pallets behind the church, and guess what? russ franceschina, the same guy who made the metal "10" out front, is making sliding barn-style doors out of the wood for us! i can't believe how cool his drawing is. unfortunately, handmade pieces this stellar take a little longer than 22 days, so it'll be installed at the end of the month. maybe that will give me a good excuse to go back and take my girl ellen so i can get some decent pictures.

this branch wall hanging was a DIY i did that popped into my head, probably thanks to my obsessions of late with woven wall hangings. i'll post how to do it very soon! i love how it turned out- and again, free accessory. yesss.

the hello adventure print is by lindsay letters, also found- this time by the pastor's wife- at the heritage barn sale). the "wander" print was yet another free DIY i did. you can see the tutorial and get a free printable copy of it here.

i made the dog bed using men's flannel shirt fabric from joann's. i just sewed the whole thing the same as you would a pillow, stuffed it with washable, hypoallergenic stuffing, and used a ladder stitch to seal it up. i couldn't stop smiling when i got a text with this sweet picture of remi lounging on it!

my one giant regret for this room is that we didn't have it in the budget to get a great rug. but sometimes you have to live with brown carpet. at least remi doesn't seem to mind!

i'd just like to say thanks to laura and the church staff for bringing me in on this project- i had such a complete blast and loved every minute, and i'm so happy that you're using it and loving it.

i'm kinda looking around at my navy nursery now that it's ready to become a big boy room, and wondering if it might need some flannel going on .... 

{in case you missed it, see how part 1 of this project, the lounge & meeting space, turned out here!}

industrial office reveal: lounge & meeting space

just a couple weeks ago i introduced you to this office redesign project that my friend laura peacock and i were beginning to tackle for her wonderful church. well, 22 days after our initial meeting, it was done! we mainly worked on two spaces: a meeting & lounge area and the head pastor's office.

today i'll show you the results of the meeting space. here's a reminder of where we started:

above was the view as you walked in the front door of the offices. since then, the walls were completed and painted, flooring was switched out, and that giant crazy reception desk was removed. here is the view that greets you today:

isn't it a crazy difference?! we were so excited. we kept the results a surprise until the day of the installation, and the staff was really excited when they got to see it too. it was so fun to watch them come in and freak out.

as i mentioned before, the budget for this project was tiny, so we kept the existing sofa. in the new space, the light grey color fit perfectly. after that, we turned to some retail shopping secrets to get the major pieces at major discounts. the chairs, laptop tables, and rug were all from world market, where we were able to take advantage of their friends & family sale and score some floor samples. the table and pillows are from the crate & barrel outlet. in the end, we actually came in well under our budget, which i initially thought would be impossible.

we knew in order to stay in budget, we would have to get creative with accessories. clearly, that huge stretch of wall needed a collection of gallery frames. but even at inexpensive soures like etsy or minted, that many pieces would add up. that's when i started stalking their instagram, and realized the church had a huge library of personal artwork already at our disposal. every time they do a new sermon series, they have a graphic to go along with it, and those were a perfect jumping off point.

i collected our favorites and laura asked their graphic designers for these and some other prints of their favorite moments. this way, we had free artwork that also told the church's personal stories.

for frames, laura bought an assortment at good will and spray painted them all the same color white. that is such a great resource for frames- they're only usually around $2 - $6 each.

we also used some other personal elements. these rocks had been part of a special service, so we found some shadowbox frames (with a trusty hobby lobby coupon of course) and laura used tacky glue to mount them.

the number 10 represents the ten communities surrounding the church that they are specifically committed to ministering to. it was made out of galvanized sheet metal by an architect, russel franceschina, who also makes really cool custom furniture on the side. they are my favorite part of the whole wall because of the way they tie in to the metal finish of the ceiling. i also love the way they break up all the rectangular shapes on the wall with something different.

our map was a DIY that also showed "the 10" communities. we bought a map and had it blown up on a large format printer, then used mod podge to adhere it to a canvas. i wouldn't necessarily recommend that method on canvas because we had a lot of bubbling to deal with, but some sand paper helped get the bubbles out and gave it a distressed finish.

here's another look at the before:

the paint we chose was benjamin moore kendall charcoal. we thought that painting the two walls that wrap around the lounge in this dark shade would feel more enveloping than just the standard one accent wall. (and since an all-white space had been vetoed, haha). i love the effect and how it separates the lounge from the rest of the office and makes it feel cozy in spite of the huge ceilings and open floor plan.

the floor was added by the builder at laura's request, since he had to replace it anyways after construction. it ended up being about the same cost to him as the carpet would have, and it was so key...this room just wouldn't be the same with commercial brown carpeting!

it was called delaware bay driftwood from lumber liquidators. here's how it looked when it first went down (and when i got this picture from laura i freaked out because it was so pretty!):

when we arrived the night before the installation to drop off furniture and get started on prep, this is the empty shell that greeted us:

let me tell you, i was so excited to get started and just absolutely loved how the floor and paint came together, and that all the furniture finishes worked so well too. whew!

the tv hadn't been installed by the time i left so i didn't get a good picture of the media wall, but this locker-style cabinet from ikea was one of my favorite finds. we salvaged this "finished" sign from a wood pile behind the church. it was left over from their easter service and is a reference to john 19:30. to give it a weathered grey finish, i washed over it with a solution of white wall paint & water, then when that was dry went over it with a little antique glaze.

my favorite thing about all of this was this picture that the pastor sent us the next morning:

the staff had installed two tv's (surprise!) and was loving it for their morning creative meeting. i love the coffee and snacks on the table...the starbucks, the comfy chairs...it just looks like a perfect space to work. and the pastor's text said, "it's happening." hahaha...making people happy like this could keep me on a cloud for weeks! oh, and a quick note about that white board. it turns out that home depot sells white board sheets in 4 x 8 and will cut them to any size you need at the store. you can just use screws with washers to drill them straight into the wall. if you've ever looked into the cost of giant white boards, you know how expensive they can be, so this is a great trick to get them cheap! looks like they have a lot of notes...we might have to add one to the other side!

well thanks guys for being so supportive and encouraging and sharing in the fun of this project with me!! the staff is already calling laura and me "laura & laura incorporated"....hahahha....ya never know what might happen someday. 

{update // check out part 2 of this project: the pastor's woodsy man-lounge of an office here}