Go Team Ghana!




"GO TEAM GHANA!" is a group of "designers, dreamers, moon watchers, doers and vagabonds."  They're former designers from ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition", who are "taking our (their) skills and passion for designing with a purpose and spreading it like wild flower over seas. This time all the way to Ghana, West Africa."
Their goal is to build  the "Connor's Creative Art Center" in Ghana, West Africa. Here's a bit I've taken from the website to explain what "Go Team Ghana" is all about & how we can help"
 
"THE BAD NEWS: Modern day slavery exists.Nearly 7,000 children are being trafficked in the fishing industry of Lake Volta, Ghana. They are sold for the equivalent of $20.
THE GOOD NEWS: People care.
A Touch of LIfe (one of the organizations they're working with) has rescued nearly 100 of the 7,000 children. They have outgrown their facilities, and are building bigger, in order to help more kids.


Connor’s Song, inspired by the creativity and imagination of Connor Deal who passed at the age of 12, is working to bring healing to hurting children. The “Connor’s Creative Art Center” will be built in honor of Connor, and will help restore these children through art therapy and creative healing.

Why ART? Why for these kids?
Glad you asked.


BECAUSE ART = FREEDOM.
These children are being empowered through the freedom of expression. They are learning, some for the first time, how to be kids and dream big. At one point in their lives, they were sold for the amount we pay for a few cups of coffee.

Please help us show these kids they are worth it!

All funds raised will go towards the following:
1) Fill a shipping container with furniture + supplies for the Art Center
2) Ship the 40' container with the supplies overseas to Ghana
3) Send the Design Team back to Ghana to help bring the Art Center to life

Thank you a million times over for showing your support.
We believe good design can change the world. "

I feel the same way about design & art being able to change the world.  Good "Design" is often thought of as a luxury or something "extra" that some people have...  But I believe it has the power to make people happy & to change their lives.  Our environments affect us in so many ways- they change our moods, our ideas of self-worth, they can encourage or discourage creativity, they can make us feel good or bad.  Giving these kids a place to go that gets them excited about creating things & dreaming is really special & affects them in so many more ways than just encouraging the arts.  I think it's a really special cause & if you have any time and/or want to help, go here:
http://www.stayclassy.org/events/go-team-ghana/e18912

They are at a little over $13,000 now and need $35,000.  Today's the last day if you have a moment.




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

Instagram Room Reveals & Closing on Our New House!!

I was recently introduced to Instagram & am crazy about it!!!  For those of you who don't know what it is, it's an app that you can use on your phone where you take pictures with your phone and then upload them into instagram.  People "follow" you and you "follow" others to share the photos. 

I've been posting a bunch of photos on instagram, which has been so much fun...  I try to take pics whenever I come across something that's interesting or pretty to me, and lately I've been taking photos of some of our clients' projects on installation days as they come together & the room is revelaed picture by picture...  (I will usually save the full "after" for later though! :)

To follow me on instagram, go here or go to instagram and find me (I'm @LaurenLiess)  (Or check to the right sidebar of this blog and click on the little instagram icon (which is the little camera logo)& you should be able to see pics.)

{Our client's living room, midstage}


Also, we're closing on our new house today & we're sooooooo excited!!!!   We love love LOVE the house and I can't believe how quickly the time's flow by!!  Fingers crossed that all goes smoothly for us today.  We're so thankful to the homeowners for letting us buy their home!!  I'll keep you posted!!

{our future living room!!! }





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

My Little Lovey Guys...




The smallest one is growing big waaaaaaay too quickly.  If I can get some time, I'll take some pictures of his nurery before we say goodbye to it next week.  I really love it in there & I don't know how but we've somehow managed to keep it clean & organized these past few months, which has made it such relaxing space to hang.  (It could be that all of the laundry is in the mound in our bedroom?? ;)

The past couple of weeks have been sort of the-calm-before-the-storm part of the moving process, and so we've been trying to take advantage of it...

{Dave, reading with the boys}
 


{me, snuggling with the baby}
 
We're trying really hard to remind ourselves that it's these momemts that are still the most important, even in the midst of all of the house deadlines, paperwork & packing.  I don't want to rush any of this goodness away.  We'll forget the messy jumble of moving memories but these are the ones I want more of.   




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

Finding Large Scale Botanical Prints

So, as you may have noticed, I have a thing for botanicals.  Small-scale botanicals are fairly easy to find- in books, on etsy, ebay, calendars, flea markets, antique shops, etc. (they're usually all bookplates or copies of bookplates so the size is no larger than the book) but large-scale botanicals aren't always as easy to come by. 
 
 
{Reproduction Cowslip & anemone botanical charts in our family room by The Evolution Store}
 
I've managed to get my hands on a few & when Erin @ The Impatient Gardener asked me where I'd found them, I thought I'd share some of my sources in a post.   (I hope you won't think I'm a one-trick pony when you see how many botanicals I've used in projects!!  I just have a serious passion for them!! ;)   The reproduction German education charts in my family room (above) are from The Evolution Store.    They have a wide (and gorgeous!)selection of botanicals, and in particular, a lot with black backgrounds, which are higher-contrast and feel bolder and more modern than those with light backgrounds.   I wanted my charts quickly & I needed a  pair, so going vintage wasn't really an option for me this time.  When I got the charts, I spent some time beating them up- I roughed up the edges a little and rolled and unrolled them a bunch, wrinkling them- so they'd more resemble my vintage ones.  I also splurged for the wooden dowels vs. the plastic dowels.  (ps- it's ridiculous that I spent all of this time making my new charts look old when I'm so careful & gentle with my old ones. hahaha  irony.)
 
The charts can be hung on nails like mine (above) or framed like these:
 
 {Room by S. Gambrel and the botanicals look like framed charts to me....  The Evolution Store carries all of these exact prints.}
 
The vintage botanical chart that sparked this post (below) is in my laundry room.  I found it at an antique store.  Any time I see rolled up vintage educational charts in a store, I go digging.  I unroll every single one and buy all of the ones that I love.  I keep them until the right project comes along. 
 
 
 
...And it always does. 
 
I found the mushroom chart in my middle son's nursery (below) at German Favorite Antiques, a local antique store in Leesburg, Virginia.  They have a nice selection of charts, though most that I've seen in the past are industrial / machine parts charts. 
 
 
 
Some of my favorite overscale botanicals are actual pressed botanicals or copies of actual pressed botanicals.  If you plan on buying actual pressed overscale botanicals, then get your wallet ready for it because they're not cheap (but OH MY GOSH THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL & I looooooooove them & do think it's worth the splurge if it's something you're passionate about...  Did you just hear me give myself an excuse to get one some day?? ;) ;))  BUT, there are a few posters around of overscale pressed botanicals.  Allposters.com carries these ginko leaves and they are so perfect:
 
 
 
 
Actual pressed plants will eventually fade over time whereas copies of the plants won't.
 
I wanted to do something similar but a little more personal for some clients of ours so, their kids & I went outside & found some pretty leaves from their back yard (from tulip trees.)  I took the leaves home and laid them out on my scanner and scanned them in.  Then I sent the images to an online company to have them blown up and printed on stretched canvas.  (below)
 
 
 
I came across this botanical (below) out at the Old Lucketts Store in Leesburg and I think it's a framed chart of a marsh marigold.
 

I found these two prints for a client's dining room (below) at Natural Curiosities, whose art work I love.  They purchase & acquire the rights to antique & vintage prints and reproduce them, often in large scale.  Everything from Natural Curiosities is even better in person than in photos because they "age" their papers and try to painstakingly replicate the originals. 

 


...Another great source for overscale botanicals (mostly charts) is etsy.  There are sellers selling actual vintage charts & there are a bunch selling new charts in the vintage style.  (Many of the new educational charts are actually being made on the very same machines that the originals were made on...  they are just 2012 versions of the originals, kind of like reprinting of books.  The vintage charts found online are typically more expensive than the new ones.)  It's sometimes hard to tell if a seller is selling vintage charts or reproductions so be sure to ask if  you're unsure. 

Anyway, I'm off for the day, but have a great one!!


 
ps- My blog was recently redone by my blog friend Carolyn V of Life in Graz Pittsburg & she is amazing!!!!  I've had such a great experience with her and you need to check out her adorable nursery!!!  (for her brand new baby, Alexander!!!)  Also, my other talented blog friend, Emily Thompson of Indie Shopography, did my online store (www.purestylehome.co) and she is awesome too!!  I can't recommend both of them enough!!

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

Our Laundry Room & Some Goodness

Since we're leaving so soon (we close in 8 days & move soon after!) I thought I'd share a few before & afters of some of the few spaces in my house that I haven't taken a million photos of.  Today it's the laundry room & I've never taken "after" photos of it because it's never been neat enough to take pics of.  oh well. 

Enter staging your home to sell and it gets there.  (We left our house with laundry the day of our open house!!)  SO I've been enjoying it for the past few weeks :)

Here's what it looked like when we moved in 3 years ago...


We didn't really change much at all.  I added curtains & a jute rug & some storage pieces.  I was proud of myself for making the little cafe curtains out of a ferny fabric.  They remind me of something my Grandma Maestranzi would have made for her lake cottage.

  I hung a botanical chart over the washer & dryer to hide the electrical box, which made the bggest difference to me:




Before the open house I had a glass collection on the countertop but I packed it all up and switched it with a laundry basket.

{My little bird print left too}

The shelves are filled with random things...

{wrapping paper & potting stuff}

My laundry is pretty much caught up (but it's the FOLDING OF CLEAN LAUNDRY (!!!)  that we're behind on.)


{see how empty this thing is??  You should see my bedroom though!! argggg}

... About a week ago I received a beautiful package in the mail from Gracious Style full of laundry goodies by Le Blanc & The Laundress.  Let me start by saying I don't like doing laundry. 

At all. 

 I have the strongest sense of smell though & I am for real when I say that I've actually kind of enjoyed doing laundry since I've gotten my goodies. 





The packaging is so pretty and the SMELLS-  OH MY!!!!!!!!

{LeBlanc Linenpress...  haven't used it yet.  Sadly, I rarely iron.}

The SMELL of the LeBlanc stuff is HEAVEN!!!!! Just sooooo good!!!! It's crazy.


They sent the Blue Violet scent and I am totally loving it!!!  The dryer sachet (not sure if that's the right name!!  good for 16 washes) is CRAZY.  My laundry smells sooooo good & I can't stop going in there to take whiffs!!!  (It's right near my office) 



I also sprayed some of this (below) on the things that I'd hung to dry for more goodness:



And I poured some of this in with my regular detergent:

 
 I can't believe what a difference all the goodies have made so far in my once-dreaded chore!!!  I am not just saying this...  This stuff is crazy good.  I'm scared I'm addicted and won't be able to go back to the regular stuff.  I think it's going to have to go on my Christmas wishlist.
 
Thanks so much to Gracious Style for letting me try out these yummy products!!  To get some of your own, go here
 
...But I still need a little elf to come fold at night while we're sleeping...
 
 

ps-  I normally shy away from doing any sort of product reviews because it usually feels like homework and I don't want to have to worry about writing a review of something I don't like, but I'd been wanting to try some different laundry products for a while now so I said yes.  So glad I did!!
 
 

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

Vines Indoors

{Rose Tarlow's home, featured in Architectural Digest in 1991, via Cote de Texas}

I've always had a love for plants despite the fact that I've killed (way!!) more of them than I can count.  I'm especially drawn to plants that go wild & take over.  (i.e. ivy-covered houses)  As a little girl, I was fascinated by the mysterious thorns ensnaring Sleeping Beauty's castle:


...and I've been known to fall in love with rooms just because there's a gorgeous green plant in the photograph of the room. 

I dream about a conservatory one day where I can kill beautiful plants one by one.. hahah no seriously, I'm going to get better with plants & one day hope to have a semi-green thumb!!

My best friend texted me this photo this Spring (taken on her phone) of a provate residence in Richmond on a home tour:

{and those laneterns too!!!}

There's just something about vines....

It reminded me of the conservatory at Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown that I'm obessed with:

{The walls are being seriously accosted by the various vines & I'm in looooooooove...  I desperately wanted to take our wedding photos here but it didn't work out.. rain & I'm not sure its allowed :(  I still regret not having those pics...}  The photo above is from the anthology of ms. emily & mr.ben.

Anyway, since we're moving into a new house &because my houses are my design labs, I really want to try to experiment with it & do some things I've been wanting to do for a while now, namely, attempting to grow vines indoors.  Like up-my-walls-indoors...


 {I think there's a planter up there with the vines cascading down...}

I cannot get over the fact that some people have been able to get vines (!!)  to grow inside their homes & up their walls!!!  I want it!!!!  so bad!!!!!!!!

In the photo below, it looks like the vines are growing from the large pots around...

{image via gardenista.com}

...But in some of the other photos I'm seeing, it looks like the vines are coming in through the windows:


My favorite parts of the vines are where they've attacked the walls & ceilings:

{Garden and Gun Magazine}

In the kitchen above & below, I've seen the vines tagged on pinterest as "wild fig" vines...  Anyone know anything about them??  I loooooove them!!!!

{Garden and Gun magazine}

Are they coming through the windows??

The room below looks like a conservatory:

{love.. would go apey to have this!!}

And some of my absolute favorite vines are in Rose Tarlow's home (published in Architectural Digest in 1991).  All of the following images are via Cote de Texas and it's worth clicking here to read all about the home & Rose Tarlow.  (I would move right in if I could!)

isn't this amazing?!!!:


It looks like the vines are coming in through the doors!!!   ahhhhhh so good!!!

If you read a lot of blog, you've probably seen this image before:


perfection.

Here (below) you can really see the vines coming down from the ceiling:

{This one looks like ivy}

ANd in some of the photos you can even see how the leaves are golden/ orangey:


Here, they look green:

{I love the recessed bookshelves}

...So.. does anyone know anything about this?  Many of the walls featuring vines look like plaster...  Is this a requirement?  How do the vines "stick?"  Do they just start cracking into the drywall/ plaster?  How can I do this?  I'm guessing the pot method?  Or could I grow them through a door without keeping it cracked?  I have a huge slider in my new living room...  What  type of vines can I grow??  I really love the ones with the smaller looking leaves...  Anyone have any experience or kow how to grow these?? 
S.O.S.!!! :)



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

ps- I will tell you all about the new look on the blog as soon as the blog links are totally ready to rock. 

Our new House

Since I've been thinking about it pretty much nonstop, I thought I'd share our new house with you.  I am CRAZY about this place but want to mention a few things first:

#1 :  It is SMALLER than our current house (!!)  It lives larger because there are 3 bedrooms (instead of 5) and
#2- there is NO storage in the house.  (We do have a garage now, which we didn't have before.)   

The yard is massive (we have a nice private back yard now, which is one of the most important things in a house for us....  We don't want our neighbors to have to see our crazy antics)  and we could stay here for the rest of our lives or leave if something else comes up.  (After this whirlwind house-buy-and-sale we've decided that we'll pretty much "never say never" again.  We have no idea what our future holds and are totally open to staying forever or moving on..)

So...  welcome to our new house!  It was built in the 70s (like our current home) and it has sort of a rustic-contemporary vibe.  The wooden door you see below is the front door and it walks into a teensy tiny foyer:


I guess foyers weren't big in the 70s because I have another small, super-challenging entry to try to try to do something to. (We have so many bigger fish to fry that I haven't even gone there mentally yet.)  I love the massive metal windows & doors throughout this house.  The stairs in the front walk up to an upstairs loft, one of the features that really sold me on the house.  We'll tear down the drywall on the stairs and add simple iron railings for a simpler look...  (for details on the stair plans, read the post I wrote a few days ago here)


Here's the view into the living room (the front room shown in the other pics) and you can see we've got lots to do in here...  The wood burning stove will be switched out with a modern recessed gas fireplace between the two windows.  I'd like to change out the windows to larger ones to let in more light & so that we can see outside better.  The view out these windows is one of the prettiest views the house has and I feel like we can barely see out with these narrow windows as they are now.


Here's a view of the living room from the stairs.  (photo below) The tile and carpeting throughout the house are going.  Wide plank white oak from the Mountain Lumber Co. is on its way!!!  The pine beams will be sanded down (to get rid of the red-brown finish) and then refinished so that they resemble antique beams.  The rest of the ceiling is actually plywood so it'll be painted white to match the walls.  I plan on having two sofas face each other for a cozy seating area down there: 


...If you walk through the doorway to the right of the (future) fireplace, you enter the kitchen:



The door is just out of the photo on the left so you basically walk in and see the side of the peninsula...  The kitchen isn't really much bigger than our current kitchen & we're starting from scratch in here.  I'll be going with open shelving instead of upper cabinets again to open up the space & we're continuing the hardwood floors into here too. 

The area you see in the back (in the pic above) with the cathedral ceiling is the breakfast room. 

Here's the main area of the kitchen:



We're rearranging a bit & moving the dishwasher over by the fridge so the sink can scoot over a little to the left & has a little more room to breathe.  We're going with a smaller fridge and using this one as a second refrigerator in the garage.  (My husband is OBSESSED with meat & has been dreaming of having 2 freezers/ refrigerators for years now, and as our boys get older, we're find there's never enough milk  SO having two refrigerators will be a cherished luxury for us.)

Here's the view from the bar:


 {The door on the right in the pic above leads to the dining room.)

I really love the big peninsula/ bar!!  ("Big" is a relative term here...  it's probably not big compared to normal homes, but it's much bigger than what we currently have so I'm excited.)  I picture my 3 boys sitting up there hanging out while we cook.  (My two older ones are at the age where helping is fun!  How long does this last??? ;)  And I kind of have a thing for the bar stools...  Super-retro and I'm wondering if I could find something similar in leather??   

Here's the view from the breakfast room into the kitchen & you can also see the living room doorway...



I am definitely doing a banquette in the breakfast room and probably shouldn't call it the "breakfast" room since we'll probably eat most meals in there...  I'm thinking about doing a little herb/ plant station on the blank wall (in the pic above) but it might be smarter to add some sort of storage piece with a countertop there instead...  (I have hopes of a sort of huge plant trough full of ferns & herbs but it might not be practical enough... we'll see.)  And even though everyone in blogland might be over it, I need to decide on a spot for chalkboard paint somewhere in the kitchen...  The chalkboard fridge we currently have entertains the kids (freeing me up!!)  and my husband and I use it all the time for lists and notes, so it's going somewhere.  I thought it might work on the herb garden wall & how fun would it be to label the herbs on the wall??

Moving on...  The dining room is the toughest room for me in the house...  When you walk in to it through the kitchen, you see this:







The view out the dining room window is of bushes.  (There's a raised garden bed ouside of the windows) and so it's really dark & feels so low compared to the rest of the house.  We also have to add in duct work to this room so it's going to get worse.  I think I'm going to make this room cozy & moody and I'm a little excited about that.  It's a pretty long room so I have some options floorplan-wise...  The room you see behind it is our future family room/ office and the door in the back leads to the garage.  I'm playing with the idea of doing our books in the dining room, but there might not be enough space...




The cabinets separating the dining room from the family room/ studio are going and I'm still on the fence about adding new ones...  I think a floating piece of furniture would be prettier, but the family room will also double as our office and we really need storage in there.  I'd like to keep the rooms open to one another for entertaining purposes but I also like the idea of a wall with storage on both sides in both the dining room and studio...  so that's to be determined...


The family room/ studio has a view of the bak yard and TONS of light!!!  I can't wait to work here!!!



Because the office will double as a family room, I'm rethinking my office storage a bit...  It might need to hide away a bit instead of being all open as it is now...

...Also on the first floor is the master bedroom...  We're moving doors and creating a new entry for it so it's really changing...  (Currently, there are two entries to it:  from the foyer and from the office and neither are great...)



As it is now, I think it rivals the dining room in "eh"ness....  It's fairly small as master bedrooms go and has an oddly placed closet (below)....  Its two windows overlook a little u-shaped courtyard in between the garage and the house.  There's a maple tree in there and a few plants....  BUT we're going to wall off the courtyard and turn it into our own private little garden.  We're taking out the windows in the master bedroom and are replacing the entire wall with sliding glass doors so that you feel like the garden is a part of the bedroom.  Once we wall it off, the garden will be completely private & I want to add an outdoor shower out there.   (This has been a dream of mine for a looooooong time!!!!)   I can't wait to watch the maple tree & other plants change throughout the seasons and feel like I'm living outside!!


We're swapping the location of the closet with the current master bath & are adding a powder room.  (As it is now, the only bathroom on the first floor is the master bath.)  The closet you see above will become our bathroom...  We'll add a skylight for some light in there...

When you go upstairs, you're in the loft:


It's twenty-two feet by thirteen feet and I am soooooo excited about this room!!!  The boys' bedrooms are off of it & it will be sort of a family room/ playroom/ hangout room.  For years, I've loved the idea of a nursery with bedrooms off of it, (like in the Velveteen Rabbit! ;) and I couldn't believe it when we found a house with this feature!!!!  We'll keep all of the boys' books and toys in the loft (and maybe our books too) and only store clothes in their fairly small bedrooms. I've pretty much reached my limit with my boys taking all the toys & books off their shelves during naptimes so now they'll have only clothes to play with! ;)  I picture them mostly playing in the big room and using their bedrooms mainly for sleeping.

We're removing the loft's current built-ins are leaving & we're bringing in our massive hutch from our family room for toy & book storage ...  The upstairs will be wall-to-wall seagrass which we have in our current house & has been a LIFESAVER with kids & pets.  (My friend Brooke Giannetti recommended it to me a few years ago when we moved into to our house and I've mentally thanked her a thousand times as I've wiped muddy paw prints or some other type of nasty thing right off of it.)


The boys' bedrooms are almost exactly the same as their current bedrooms so I'm pretty much just going to move everything right over.  Christian & Justin (2 and 5) will continue to share and Luke will have the nursery to himself.  I'm thinking that the nursery might double as a guest room and then when it becomes becomes a "big boy" room, I might do a queen in there, so I can easily move a boy out to the other boys' room and bring guests in.

...Anyway, I have so many plans going on & I can't wait to share them with you!!!  SO many (fun!!!) decisions to make!!    I know the place looks pretty dated, but that excites me even more...  I don't feel terrible for removing things that are older vs. removing other people's updates that most people like & that we don't want.    Would love to know what you think!!

We close in 2 weeks!! YAY!!!
If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.