Jordan's Living Room

Have you ever stumbled across a blog and then subsequently neglected home, family and self for hours/days until you had devoured every. single. post? Oh Happy Day was one of the first blogs that did that for me. Jordan has an amazing eye and is talented in just about everything she tries.

It was a really fun day when she contacted me to work with her on decorating her San Francisco apartment.

We're still working on her entry and bedroom, but check out what we've done so far with her living room:

Jordan wanted more color and pattern in the space, so we used Celerie Kemble for Schumacher's Hothouse fabric as our color palette inspiration, since it went so well with Jordan's navy Crate & Barrel sofa. We used this print for a long pillow on the sofa.


We had two mid-century chairs recovered in a small scale trellis patterned green velvet.

We used this navy and white stripe fabric from IKEA for two throw pillows with white piping.

There needed to be more seating in the room, but space was limited, so we opted for this small settee by Nate Berkus for HSN.


I love how the ikat pattern works with the big floral and the velvet.


Jordan had a small round ottoman with a great shape but it needed to be reupholstered.


I found this really beautiful yellow fabric a while back at a fabric outlet and bought the whole roll because I loved the color and pattern so much. I think it's perfect in this space.


We also had an orange velvet pillow made, seen here next to the Jonathan Adler lemon pillow.

Jordan used to have her computer and office space in her bedroom. I'm a big fan of having the office space incorporated into the living space, especially for city-dwelling, work-at-home mothers. It's not always an option for everyone, but I love being right next to my kids while I'm working.

We got an IKEA armoire off Craigslist, painted it BM Casco Bay and added my favorite brass ring pulls.

The best part is the office space that can be completely shut away.

Next to the work space is a little play area for Jordan's son, Moses. Don't you love the white Bertoia kid's chairs? They are from Room Service Home and are a great price (see my post about Room Service here).

{As a side note, I really admire Jordan's curated toy collection. I know first hand how easy it is to amass an obscene amount of plastic junk. It feels like 90% of the toys we own are unnecessary. I've done some spring cleaning in our play room (aka other half of my office) and I'm committed to continuing the editing process. Jordan recommends reading this really interesting article about children and toys.}

Other elements in the room include the TV console that got a couple coats of my favorite red, Rustoleum's Saftey Red. The previously mis-matched bookshelves were painted BM's Spring Dust. The area rug is from IKEA. And the awesome cowboy print has a great back-story.

There are a couple more projects left in this room, but Jordan is having her second son any day now, so I'm pretty sure she's willing to call it a day with decorating!! I love it and hope she enjoys spending time here with her soon-to-be-expanded family!

NYC Chic

Another reason why 2010 will be a big year for me and my family? This is the year that we move to New York City. We have been going back and forth between living in the city and living in the suburbs. Right now we are thinking city, mostly for commute reasons. {Well, mostly because the city is AWESOME, but secondly because an hour+ commute for my husband after a 14 hour work day is no good for him or me}

This NYC apartment was featured in September's Martha Stewart Living and has already been posted about a few times, but I LOVE it. I think if we end up in the city, this sort of decorating is the way to go. Spare and clean, but lived-in looking and real. Jennifer Chused owns this Brooklyn apartment with her son and husband. She is one of the head designers at Dwell Studio.

First up, the foyer. Check out the antiqued mirror! Who really wants to see a wrinkles-and-all-reflection every time they walk in or out of the house? Here's a great tutorial for turning any plain-jane mirror into an "antique."

I think this is an awesome kitchen for a city apartment - butcher block counters and subway tiles all the way to the ceiling. The rug is from Madeline Weinrib and the bull's head is from a flea market.

Here's Jennifer in her stunning dining room. I love the yellow rug and all the pretty wood furniture. Noticing a trend with the creamy white walls? So fresh! And I like that she opted for simple cream fabric shades on the windows. Not at all fussy.

The linens are from Dwell (naturally). They look great paired with the peacock dinnerware from Anthropologie.

Jennifer's son's play room is absolutely adorable. The rug is from Dwell Studio, as are the fabric shades. The red rocker in the back corner is such a fun punch of color! It is Ron Arad's design for Vitra, called the Tom Rock chair. I could only find the straight leg version online, at Unica Home. Craigslist sometimes produces this chair or similar rockers.

Jennifer made the soft storage bins shown here, but there are some available for purchase from the Dwell brown dots collection. The red toy bridges are available here.
And don't you just LOVE the framed series? Yup, you guessed it. The prints are pages from a book about vintage airplanes (I wish they had shared the title of that book!! Anyone know?).

The vintage pronunciation chart, also in the playroom, is absolutely adorable!

You can purchase similar vintage educational charts on eBay and etsy. I like this one


and this one is very cute (especially if your child's name begins with R!).


There is a whole series of these adorable charts. Love the black and yellow! Someone should snatch these up ASAP.

Jennifer and her husband's bedroom is probably my favorite room in the apartment. I love the subtle gray-green wall color, the chandelier, that mirror!, THOSE PRINTS!!, and the chest (purchased on eBay). I also spy Dwell's Pearl Chinoiserie bedding. Very pretty!

So here's my question for you readers - would you rather live a little on the spare side in the city? Or are you more inclined to the urban sprawl with lots of room for lots of stuff?

Here's my problem: I have lots of stuff and I love the city. Boo.