Slipper Chair Dreamin'

I love slipper chairs, so I was thrilled when Cristin asked me and three other bloggers to imagine up a room using this beautiful antique from 1st Dibs.

Want to see what I chose to pair up with this chair? Head on over to Simplified Bee. (sneak peek: one of my picks was this amazing Robert Abbey lamp ($137) in watermelon pink)

Papier Mache Tray

I've been on the look out for the perfect container to use as a mold for this project. I really want to copy Lindsay from Everything LEB and make one of these beautiful papier mache trays.

Here's Lindsay's tutorial.

She used Martha Stewart's Araucana Tea lightened with white for the turquoise outside and a gold spray paint from Krylon for the interior (but she and I agree that the best spray paint is not Krylon. My hands-down favorite line is Rustoleum, especially for metallics).

I'm going to make a bunch of these to have on hand for hostess gifts. Pretty dishes and trays are so fun to put on just about any flat surface. Use them to corral soap dispensers at the sink, jewelry, house keys, candy, business cards, loose change, remote controls, paper clips, hair ties, perfumes...

Trimmed Out IKEA Besta

First off, Jennifer from Rambling Renovators asked me to participate in her blog series called Great Reads. It's an awesome round up of lots of bloggers' favorite post of 2010. Click here to see what post I chose.

Secondly, couldn't you die over this IKEA hack (also posted on IKEA Hacker)?

It's just some upholstery nails tacked into an IKEA Besta console ($125)!

This was the inspiration piece, the Visconti cabinet from Bungalow 5 (retails for about $2300).

Such a statement piece! Love it.

Thanks to Jennifer from Rambling Renovators for the heads up on this project. She found it from Anne-Marie at 10 Rooms.

Lilly Bunn Weekes

Last year, one of my clients emailed me and said something about seeing my blog mentioned on Vogue's website. I was curious and thrilled. The mention was in an Vogue 'It Girl' article about Lilly Bunn Weekes, a born-and-raised Manhattanite, mother of two and talented interior designer.

She is gorgeous, stylish, accomplished and is friends with NY's social elite, so I wasn't expecting much after reaching out to her to say thank you for the mention. But, instead, I discovered that Lilly is warm and very friendly and it's been such a treat to get to know her a little.

Lilly worked for Town and Country for five years and then McMillen for two years, where she started McMillen Plus with Ann Pyne. Now Lilly is taking on her own design clients, AND she has a new blog! Aren't we lucky?

Want to see some of her recent work? I knew you did.

This is a wider shot of the room Lilly is photographed in above. The repro antique chairs were upholstered in Madeline Weinrib's Purple Mu. The table cloth is made from Pindler & Pindler fabric with trim from M&J Trimmings. The rug is by Stark. Grasscloth by Phillip Jeffries.

Lilly blogs about some of her client ideas. These are two different renderings for the same room.

Could you die over these blue lacquered walls? This was one of the rooms Lilly designed while working on the McMillen Plus team. I think the Schumacher fabric on the chair is such a fun punch. The walls are painted in Benjamin Moore's Hale Navy in satin and then given a coat of poly. The lamps are from a really great store in Southampton called homenature.

And how adorable is this little girl's room Lilly is working on in Locust Valley? The decorative painting was done by Lilly's sister, Palmer.

I spy Porthault...

Lilly lives in the West Village. Here she is at home with her two adorable daughters. The sofa is the Petrie from Crate and Barrel and the amazing artwork is by Donald Baechelor. Lovely, right?

Don't forget to drop by Lilly's Notebook and say hello.

KFD Designs

I featured Kristen's living room last week, here, but in case you didn't get a chance to click over to her blog, I thought you'd like to see some of my favorite projects from her portfolio.

Kristen's hand-painted version of Cole and Sons Woods wallpaper.

Pet portraits!

Striped nursery (ala Jenna Lyons')

From another nursery. I like how simple and graphic the tree is.

Arrow table

Painted ikat art

I think Kristen's bedroom is pretty amazing! Check out her stencil wall:

If you have a project or blog to share with LGN readers, please email your submissions to jkomenda at gmail dot com.

Canopy Beds

I'm guest blogging over at Simply Seleta today and chatting about canopy beds. I spied this pretty canopy recently at FAO Schwartz:

And this gorgeous canopied bed belongs to one of my all time favorite girls rooms:

Palmer Weiss

So stop on over to Seleta's and say hello! Maybe tell me your favorite canopy style while you're at it.

Good Design, Kids in Mind

I'd be a wealthy lady if I had a dime for all the times, when I was pregnant with my first, other moms told me to "Have fun now because your life will never be the same!"

Our three girls are the spice in life for me and Michael. They are adorable, sweet and endlessly witty. Some days I want a dozen more! (some days I want to hide in the closet) But it's naive to think life isn't different, for good or for bad, with our children in the mix.

Having kids often changes the way we think about our careers, how we spend our money, how and where we travel, how much we sleep, what we eat, what we wear, and (ahem) how our bodies look. It's an all-encompassing life change. And a part of adjusting our lives for children includes consideration when decorating our homes. We talked a little about that here.

This week, Kirsten from 6th Street Design School interviewed a few mommy bloggers in a series call Good Design, Kids in Mind. You should go check it out and see what we all have to say about being design-minded moms. Find out what I was like in junior high (poor Mom!) and how I keep this almost-walking 10 month-old from destroying every lamp, jar, vase, bowl, and accessory in our apartment.

Nate Day Recap!

Yesterday a lot of design bloggers came to New York and met in a long line in front of the CBS studios on 57th st.

I'm glad I didn't have to pay for a flight to the city - the show was a little underwhelming. Absolutely NO mention of the 100+ design bloggers in the audience? What a huge bummer for all of us and a major missed opportunity for the Nate show.

I did enjoy the few minutes that Nate took to answers some Q&A from the audience. Emily (standing up in the fuschia and black) is asking him a question about blogs here. Nate said he didn't really have time to read blogs on his own, but that he has a research intern that reads all of our blogs and gives Nate the highlights.

Also, I felt really lucky when they sat in me in the front row. And just before they started taping, they put Emily, the winner from Design Star, right next to me during her segment. We didn't get to chat, but she seemed so cute.

Do you read her blog? She's got a great writing style - she's one of those girls that you instantly want to be BFFs with. Emily, will you be my BFF?

Regardless of the disappointing taping, the day was not a total bust. I got to meet so many of my
blogging friends.

Kirsten from Simply Grove, me, Nicole from So Haute

I had grand intentions of all sorts of photos, but of course, I forgot my good camera - and I left with only two crappy phone photos! Bummer!

me, Kirsten from 6th Street Design School, Bryn from Bryn Alexandra Interiors, and Traci Zeller

Camila threw a little after-party with the Nest. It was so fun to meet the girls from Rue there! Have you seen the first issue? Congrats to those ladies for a job well done! I'm so inspired by women who have a dream and then take the bull by the horns and make it happen. Amazing!

Anyway, it's pretty crazy to think about blogging vs the real world - and when the two spheres collide. It was cool and strange to meet people that I've been blog stalking for years. I loved hearing your voices and seeing how beautiful and stylish you all were in person! I even heard Nate comment to one of his crew members about the exceptionally gorgeous audience. :)

Thanks for the good times yesterday! I can't wait to meet more blogging friends in the future.

xx

Full House Girls' Room - The Details

I know a lot of you have seen Christina's twin girls' GORGEOUS room, but I love it too, and had to post about it. PLUS, Christina and I are actually like second cousins or something (and we've never met before - I love blogging.) I played the "We're family - give me the detes on the room" card, because I know you're all as anxious as I was to hear all the what's and where's with this adorable space.

Turns out Christina pulled together this room for less than $250. And it happened my favorite way - with lots of DIY and a healthy dose of bargain and thrift shopping.

Christina searched through her Benjamin Moore decks for the perfect pink wall color but ended up using Coy Pink from Behr. Such a pretty color!

The duvet covers were made with two flat sheets from Wal-Mart and vintage trim was sewed onto the tops of the covers.

The wallpaper-esque panels behind the beds are actually pieces of big cardboard that were modge podged with scrapbook paper. Then Christina had MDF trim from Home Depot cut to fit around the cardboard panels.

Christina picked up the most inexpensive shelves she could find at IKEA and covered them in burlap. Then she spray painted the cheap silver hardware off-white.

Resources:

*beds - Craigslist $20 (painted these white)

*vintage lucite chair - Craigslist (payed an additional $30 to have the cushion reupholstered)

*vintage wicker chair - Craigslist $10 (spray painted)

*dressing table - vintage, already had

*green stool - Home Goods $30

*2 Flower mirrors above beds - Home Goods $25 each (Does anyone know a cheaper-than-$500 resource for these?)

*pillows - Home Goods $30 total

*monogrammed pillow cases - Wal-Mart $5 (Christina's mom monogrammed these, but it's easy to find a local shop to do something similar)

*upholstery fretwork fabric - Home Fabrics $50

*watermelon silk velvet trim - SAS Fabrics $7

*watermelon fabric on cushion - SAS $1

*vintage Mar Lou Goertzen flower prints on shelves - thrifted $2.50

*owl bookends - thrifted $3

*vintage My Book House books - thrifted $10 (can be found on Ebay by searching "my book house sets")
vintage initials - $2

*trophies - thrifted $2

*lamp - thrifted $5

Big thanks to Christina for sharing her sources! It's clear that trolling Craigslist and eBay and shopping at thrift stores pays off in a big way. Those are some lucky girls who get to sleep in such a stylish room - and who have such a talented mom!