My Little Lovey...

... is here!!  He was born last Monday (May 21st) in the afternoon and weighed 7 lbs 8 oz.

{There is no better feeling on this Earth than the moment when you first hold your baby}


...And here he is all cleaned up and in his nightie:


His name is Luke David & we are so in love with him.

 {Here he is with his Daddy- David.  We've barely put him down all week.}

Anyway, I just wanted to share our news with you & hope you're having a great week!  I'm not sure when I'll be back in -  I'm really trying to devote all of my attention to the family right now- but when I am I've got lots to share on what we've been doing around here. :)

And a note on the exhaustion/ coping level-  I have to say that with my husband home for 1 more week, we're doing pretty well.  Life with 3 boys is DEFINITELY an adjustment but so far, so good.  Right now, we're tag-teaming & it's really manageable but I'm a little nervous about when real life & work picks up & we're not only focusing on the family & life at home.  I'm trying not to think about it right now & to just recup & relax...  On that note, I'm also sooooo excited to get to work out again.  I gained 60 (!) pounds so I'm ready to RUNNNNN... :)  (I gained 60 with each of my other pregnancies too =  FUN.  not.) 

ok, I'm off.  Have missed you all!!


xoxo, Lauren
If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Time to Chill...


...This might possibly be me checking out/ signing off for a little bit.  I'll either be back with baby news or back because relaxing's not always in my nature & it's hard for me to keep quiet for very long. ;)


xoxo, Lauren

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

The Nesting Continues...


This baby needs to come soon because my house is under attack.  (by me) 

{Most recently, I went after the lower level family room.  It's now cream/ white instead of blue.}

The room has gone through a few different phases over the 3 years we've lived here...

{I had an old ship painting from my son's nursery when we first moved in so hanging it made the place feel sort of coastal - which it isn't.}

At first I went with blues & orangey-golds & beiges, using the things from our old house.



Later I added in some more little coastal paintings I already owned and a crazy faux bois lamp.  ( I love this lamp & realize it's one of those pieces that doesn't appeal to most people but that I just have this strange kitcshy love for.)  ....


The room never really sat right with me, mostly because the fact that the coastal things in it didn't fit the house.  One day about a year ago, craving a change, I brought in one of my favorite rugs & tried out some teal curtains & it was just very wrong.  Totally not the fun happy space I wanted.  I think it only stayed like this for a few hours before I changed it...



 ...To this:

{I was getting there with the green addittion.  Green's my favorite color & more than that, to me it fits my house because we're surrounded by trees and have lots of windows in our house.  The outside is the backdrop for the interiors.}

In this pic below, you can see a couple of the windows in the family room's workspace during the Winter:

{photo by Helen Norman}

For a while now, I've been ready to say goodbye to the blue & bring in more white & green.  We just haven't had the get-up-and-go to actually do it... Until I neared 9 months of pregnancy.  OF COURSE that's the perfect time to attack the basement!  (I really love my husband for humoring me.)  We finished adding shelves to a little built-in book area...

Getting the book situation under control has helped immensely. Our family loves to read & not only read, but keep & collect the books we love. So... that's a major storage issue for us. We have books crammed everywhere. Adding the additional shelves in the nook has been life-saving (for now ;)

I'd like to make some botanicals with the kids out of the plants in our yard for the two frames above. 

{Maybe something like the ones we made for the playhouse}

SIDENOTE: Another thing I should probably explain is my obsession with botanicals & plants in general.  I've always loved them, and as a little girl, I had flower presses & enjoyed collecting pretty things to press.  When I was a little older (maybe around 12 or 13) I got very into researching herbs & flowers & plants.  I collected (still do ;)  books on them & the various medicinal uses for plants along with the folklore & & legends that surround them.  I actually have an "Herb journal" where I've collected all of the different information from various sources about the herbs I had access to complete with my own photos.  (Yes, I'm weird, I know this.)   Remember my zit cure, here? (pic below)

{Please don't be scurred.}

In high school I began making (and selling!) things I made out of herbs & oils.  (Lip balms, lotions, teas, natural body sprays, etc...  In college, my best friend & I sold more of the same things & expanded into pillows & clothing.  SO...  the reason you see lots of botanical artwork & nature-inspired spaces in my work is because it's something I'm really passionate about & it comes out, especially in my personal spaces & textile line. 

And now back to the family room....  It's finally getting to where I'm happy with it.  It just feels so much more in keeping with our house:


{While we have lots of vintage educational charts around the house, these two are actually reproductions from The Evolution Store.  I went with cowslip & anemone.  I'd gotten it narrowed down to five options and let my 4-year old pick.  (What 4 year old can resist the name "cowslip?" ...And we have peonies (from the anemone family) in the backyard.)

And for the rest of the space...
I want to add some BRNO chairs around the table & I'm looking for the perfect ones with old-looking brown leather... Similar to this but not quite: (This pic looks like suede to me.)


My Gustavian desk is going black (it's a few pics up & is currently pale aqua)  & I'm slipcovering my Madhatter Chairs in a natural linen & flanking the hutch with them:

{Madhatter Chair}

Everything else just got a bit restyled & of course that'll sort of continue.  I'll take more pics when I can.

On the pregnancy front:  Having contractions but nothing strong enough to constitute labor yet.  With my past two pregnancies, my water just broke with no warning, so that was fairly straight-forward.  This contraction thing is a little different for me so I'm wondering how this one will be.  Here, our  whole family saying hurry up! hi!! ;) to the new baby:

And it's bigger than it looks here.  my husband & I have big hands ;)


xoxo, Lauren

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

"Pretty Little Things" Fridays

Life's so hectic & busy that I often forget to slow down enough to appreciate the little things.  And it's the little things- the simple pleasures- that get me excited & make me appreciate my life.  If you've been reading Pure Style Home long enough, you probably know that consistency in blog posts isn't really my thing, but I thought it would be nice to try to post about little simple pleasures on Fridays.  I'm home with my boys on Fridays & only have a few spare minutes to do posts, so I thought "Pretty Little Things" would be a nice way to share a little something good that I've come across during the week or have going on at my house. 

This week, my simple pleasure is being able to bring in massive pink floppy roses from my garden:


{They smell like Heaven!!}

The roses echo the old-fashioned black & white cabbage rose wallpaper in my kitchen nook...  Eating breakfast (mm-mm pancakes!) with the boys and the little white pot of roses on the kitchen table just made me happy.  So simple. So easy. 

What simple pleasure have you indulged in this week?


xoxo, Lauren

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Sneakity Peeks from Last Week's Install

Our client's living room installation last week turned out beautifully & I thought I'd share a few details.  The spool chairs are covered in my "Squircles" in Oatmeal/ Fresh Blue.  (It's a custom coloway we had done for our client on the oatmeal groundcloth so she wouldn't have to worry about white.)  And you can just spy the teensiest bit of the curtains that we had done in my Happikat in Fresh Blue.   We paired the more traditional spool chair with a Saarinen side table for a fresh mix.   


We had the custom mortise and tenon coffee table built by one of our favorite companies to work with, The Lorimer Workshop, and it is INCREDIBLE.  (I want it.)  You can't really tell from this photo but the legs are splayed and hand carved.  The finish is perfection.  It sits atop a vintage hemp dhurrie that's layered over seagrass.


We had fun with the pillows by John Robshaw and I'm gaga over the needlework design on the edges of the orange & pink pillow:


Like I mentioned last week, we're waiting on a couple of backordered wall lamps so when I have final pics of the whole room, I'll be sure to share!  (To view the 'before' of this room, click here.)

And a personal update:
I'm just about 9 months pregnant (due Saturday or Wednesday...  they gave us 2 dates at different times- go figure )  & am hanging in there & feeling pretty good.   (At least in the mornings ;)  I have this crazy urge to get our house "just right" which I honestly haven't really had since we first moved in and went gangbusters on it .  (I was also pregnant then.)  My poor husband painted our lower level for me last week & we organized it to death, which feels amazing.  I'll share pics when I can but it's so refreshing to have everything in its place.  (I'm not gonna lie, you can't even really walk into the back of my laundry room storage area though ;) 

I'm trying to tie up loose ends at work & am really excited to get to enjoy our new baby.   When our last baby was born (Justin) it just flew too quickly and I worked way more than I planned, so I'm going to try really hard this time to just focus on my kids & on the baby for a while before going back.  I've been spending as much time as possible with my boys because I know how nutty it'll be with our new little one & I want to give them as much attention as I can now.  I'm off for the day but will keep you posted!!


xoxo, Lauren

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.  We are booking for July.

Little Houses & The RTMC Playhouse Project

There's something about kids' playhouses that I'm crazy about. I used to looooooove my treehouse when I was a little girl & I spent hours up there making it perfect.  Today in our own backyard play"shed," I love seeing my boys (4 and 2) so entertained & excited.



I've been in touch with a local housing nonprofit organization, Rebuilding Together Montgomery County, for the past year or so about an amazing fundraising event  taking place this May.  RTMC is auctioning off 8 one-of-a-kind playhouses & the money raised will go towards the organization, which provides free home repairs to low-income homeowners in Montgomery County.  They focus on helping those with disabilities, making homes safer for seniors (fall prevention) and they place a huge emphasis on serving our veterans.  RTMC strives to help others maintain homeownership and helps keep its families warm, safe and independent.  They've recruited 8 builders/remodelers to construct playhouses in a variety of themes to be auctioned off (& display through the month of May in Bethesda)  on May 31st.  


There are photos of the 8 houses being auctioned online (you can even bid online) but they're exterior photos of the houses sitting on their display sites in Bethesda, so I thought it would be fun to take a look at a bunch of other playhouses that are installed in permanent spots & also check out some interiors.  Above, I love the cedar house & its wavy roofline.  It's nestled under a willow tree, which is perfection!!

This Victorian cottage below is adorable.  I wouldn't want a pink house in my backyard (I've got boys) but I just love how the roses are growing up the cottage and the curvy garden path that leads to it:

{image via pinterest}

OK, this next one is Heaven...

A rooftop deack?!!!  loooove!!
{image via pinterest}

And I kind of want this one (below) to be my real house:

modern-shed.com  (I think this one might be for grown-ups but I had to include it because I'm so in love with it.)

Even the interiors of kids' playhouses can be amazing... 


How cute is this?!:


And seriously???.....



Ok, these might be better than most kitchens!!



Here's a shed version where the family converted a standard shed into a playhouse like we did... 

{I'm actually not sure if this is for kids or for a very girly gardener...  The boots look kind of big.  So cute though.}

And the next playhouse has 2 floors.  Here's the kitchen on the first floor:



And here's the upstairs little loft!!!:


Would love to nap there!!!

And finally, here's a look at our playhouse (shed).  From the outside it looks like a normal shed:

{can you please imagine it with lots of pretty landscaping around it?? we're still in the middle of that ;)

But inside, it's the "fun" shed:


I covered the floors with an outdoor area rug from overstock.com and we've filled it with our nature finds & old bottles & "kitchen goods" (ie empty cans ;)



We made the botanical prints above out of plants in our yard, which we photocopied & labeled. 

The boys feed me when I hang out in there on the bench... It's usuallya meal of olive oil and leaves...



Here's where I've been flopping lately:


My boys are actually pretty calm when they play in the playhouse (a big change for them) and they'll even cuddle with me and we look up at the ceiling at our globe & sing songs...


Lately we've been pretending the playhouse is a pirate ship.  We were out there during a rain storm last week & it was perfect. 

...Anyway, our playshed is one of my favorite things we've done at our house & we actually spend a good amount quality family time playing there.  (It also converts into a bar during adult parties where we stack the kitchen shelves with beverages & load it up with coolers ;) ;) I can't recommend doing one of these enough if you can.

And finally, here's a look at a few of the sheds that are being auctioned off....  (in case you've got the perfect spot for one!! ;)

The epitome of the "playhouse"-

{I love this one and the window baskets are so sweet!!  The door is beautiful.}

And check out the General Store:

{This one is actually being donated to Walter ReedNational Military Medical Center & you can help.}

A bunch of them are incredible & very themed:

{I can imagine clematis growing up this one}

My boys would FLIP over this Lighthouse:


...Anyway, to view all 8 of the playhouses up for auction, click here.

The event is for such a good cause & there are so many ways you can help, even if you're not local: 

* Check out their website at www.rebuilding-hope.org<http://www.rebuilding-hope.org> and pass it on to your friends and family, especially if you're local.  (Don't forget about your schools, congregations, neighborhood parks, and civic groups - anyone can bid on a playhouse!)

*Twitter about it!  Every little bit helps!

* Shop at Bloomingdales in Chevy Chase on May 12th...  They are hosting an in-store campaign, where Rebuilding Together will receive 10% of your purchase total as a donation from Bloomingdales if you request a duplicate receipt and drop it in the Playhouse Collection Box. (This is a pretty easy one if you're local!! :)

* Purchase a raffle ticket for a chance at a gift basket valued at over $5000 and still climbing! Tickets are $10 or 3/$25, and you can place your order online and RTMC will mail you ticket stubs. The drawing will be held the night of the event, and you need not be present to win. For a complete listing of the items included in the basket, check out the website.

* You can make an online dontaion.  Again, every little bit helps! Rebuilding Together has designated one of the playhouses (The General Store I showed you) as a community fundraiser. Their goal is to raise $15,000, at which point, they will give the house to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for their playground. DONATE HERE

* Join them on May 31st for the Live Auction & Reception in the plaza at The Shops at Wisconsin Place. All details can be found online, but tickets are $75, and it includes music, open bar with beer/wine, heavy appetizers and desserts, the raffle drawing, and of course, the playhouse auction!

Again, here's a link to the website & if you have some time, please try to pass it on: RTMC PLAYHOUSE PROJECT

Good luck to the playhouse project!!

xoxo, Lauren
If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.