A Sweet, Modern, Owl Themed Nursery with Handcrafted Touches in Shades of Lavender and Sage

Before I start this post, I need to say that this room wouldn't be as special as it is to K. and me without Sunshine and all her crafting skillz and the always astounding generosity of my dear family and friends who gave many of the items in the room, from video monitors to toys to books to gear to clothes. I am eternally humbled and grateful for the support of all our family and friends: thank you all so much.

I'm really happy with how the nursery turned out; it's always been my favorite room in the house with the high ceilings, balcony and view of the pine trees, and now it's really the one room that I feel is complete, down to every last detail. As babies are expensive, I tried to work with what I already had in terms of furniture and color scheme. The bed and nightstand are from my parent's place (we swapped our spare queen size bed for their full size bed), we've had the ABC Home purple geometric deco area rug for several years now; it was previously in the master bedroom, and the West Elm curtains were already in the room. We've had the white organic West Elm pintuck duvet cover and shams for awhile now, as they were previously used in the guest room. We actually aren't using the duvet cover right now because the pintucks are really delicate and rip easily. Because we already had the sage curtains and purple area rug, I decided to go with a lavender and sage color theme for the room. I didn't want the room to be overly saccharine so I thought the sage was a nice contrast. Plus lavender / purple was one of my wedding colors and I had plenty of leftover lavender ribbon from the wedding almost four years ago. We were going to leave the room white, which was the original color, but we noticed small scuffs everywhere, so we painted it using Benjamin Moore's Natura non-VOC paint line in Violet Pearl. It's a nice gray / purple contrast to the mostly white furniture. Not cheap at over $54 a gallon, but worth it for the lack of fumes, especially for a little one.

I made fabric covered letters spelling out her name using mod podge and cheap wooden letters from Joann's (~$1 each), but I've blurred them out in the photos as small fry told me she wants to remain anonymous

Munire Urban Crib from USA Baby San Dimas, handmade giraffe and elephant mobile and bunting flags, sleepytime giraffe, pottery barn kids' Hayley organic cotton owl sheets, Dwellstudio for Target Menagerie crib skirt, old ABC Home area rug, owl blanket from JK

Ikea Expedit bookcase, lavender bins from amazon.com, lots of book and toys. Never too early for storytime!

Room & Board Carter swivel chair (the Carter chair currently online also rocks back and forth in addition to swiveling side to side, but this one was a custom order that was returned, hence the 50% off back in December). Ikea lamp and shade, Etsy "What a Wonderful World" print from rawartletterpress, and lavender, gray and sage paper lanterns from Paper Lantern Store.

West Elm white organic pin tuck bedding (shams here, duvet cover not used because too delicate for a high traffic area), pottery barn kids harper personalized sham, colorful stuffed cat from Main Street (formerly known as "A.") and stuffed bunny blanket from Ah ma (grandma). Ikea white ceramic table lamp in corner

To save money and just because it's fun, Sunshine and I crafted pretty much all the little finishing touches, including the two animal mobiles, various owl pillows, the bunting, modge podge letters for small fry's name, and the arm sleeves for the Room & Board swivel chair. We probably spent about $50 or so (using lots of coupons) at Joann's on all the crafting supplies and were able to use all the materials and scraps for all our little projects. It's nice, because we were able to customize the exact color scheme we wanted, and everything matches! I'll be updating the blog with instructions for some of these projects, although at least for the ones that I was involved with, they were quite simple, which is good, because I have no crafting skills. Sunshine actually taught me how to sew a button, that's how elementary my skills were / are. The owl inspiration came from this Jonathan Adler-esque Owl Lamp from Target, that A., Sunshine and I all bought on sale a few months ago. The only purchased decorations was the "Wonderful World" print from etsy (one of my all-time fave songs, plus I like the lyrics re: babies crying) and the paper lanterns which are a super cheap way to add a little color and hanging interest in the room at ~ $1 a piece.

Target Owl Lamp. Cheap sage basket for diapering from clearance section of Bed Bath& Beyond

Bonavita Peyton Dresser from USA Baby, Naturepedic organic changing pad and changing pad cover from Amazon.com. Handmade fabric bunting, owl mobile and mod podge fabric covered wooden letters.

Our first craft project, the owl mobile. Tutorials for all the craft projects to come on the blog.

Handmade Giraffe and Elephant felt mobile. I made this one all by myself! I'm proud because I literally did not know how to sew a button before making the owl mobile, which was our first project.

Sunshine's sleepy owl pillow (matching pair with the awake owl pillow on the Room & Board chair)

As for the other pieces, the only major purchases were the Munire Urban Crib and the Bonavita Peyton dresser. I did a lot of research to triangulate on the pieces with the most real hardwood (Munire is solid wood), best value for the money, while remaining aesthetically pleasing. I like clean modern lines for the larger pieces of furniture, using accessories and toys for a pop of color and excitement. The white Ikea bookcase is also new (we bought it after a lot of hesitation since it wasn't real wood obviously, but it was hard to find a similar alternative for so cheap. We tried to mitigate the fumes by airing it out in another room for several months), and the Room & Board Carter Swivel Chair was a gift from my parents from the annual Room & Board clearance sale; a great deal at almost 50% off especially since it's a style and fabric that is currently still full price in the stores (staying up past midnight on Christmas Eve always pays off!). All the lighting, closet storage units, hangars, even wall bracket for the giraffe and elephant mobile are from Target / Ikea. We tried to go with organic materials when possible; in addition to the organic West Elm bedding, we have a Naturepedic organic changing pad and changing pad cover, a natural nook pebble mattress from Gilt, pottery barn kids organic crib sheets (only $19 each in cute patterns, a bargain compared with most the other often overpriced pottery barn kids items) and personalized white and lavender embroidered sham. I'm definitely an over-researcher and bargain hunter and spent a ton of time researching, deciding on an item and searching around for the best price. Getting the best deal is pretty much the most satisfying part of the whole process  In the case of the crib and dresser, the big ticket items, I played several retailers off of each other, going back and forth on haggling for the best price (I did this with car shopping as well). USA Baby San Dimas was able to price match my best offer and also throw in a free toddler bed conversion rail, so they won. We ordered the crib and dresser in January, which is a popular month for twice yearly furniture sales (other being ~ June / July).

Sunshine's handmade owl pillow, 1 week stuffed balloon and armchair covers, West Elm purple pillow and organic white throw, Pump Station lavender back support feeding pillow, Luna Lullaby Bosom Buddy sage nursing pillow. I spent A LOT of time in this chair so comfort and support is paramount

Pretty much everything else was shower gifts from friends and family. At least so far, the room and configuration has been perfect for a newborn. Everything is functional and well-organized, I find the room calm and relaxing and small fry seems quite happy! I'll be updating this post with more specific links and descriptions of the various items, but just wanted to get some pics and background up.

So fashionable! Little Marc Jacobs mouse shoes from Claire in Seattle (see here for more pics) and lavender rhinestone sunglasses from Ryan of Malibu.

All the classic books.

Carter elephant hamper from Amazon.com (thanks to my shopping buddy N!) and Ikea antonius wire basket storage system. We have at least half dozen of these storage systems in closets around the house. We are too cheap for a custom solution or even containerstore.com solution, this works great.

She is definitely her mother's daughter although in terms of fashion / clothes, although even I don't have as many leggings as her. Love the DVF for babygap ones as well as the ruffly butt Carter ones (thanks Main Street!)

Year 3: Room and Board Annual Clearance Sale 2011

Reese Sectional from the 2009 sale

It's become an annual tradition to stay up all night for the launch of the online Room & Board Annual Clearance sale. I'm pretty good about being patient and waiting all year for the once a year sale on December 26th for my furniture needs. Usually the discount ranges from 30-50% off, and a little more for floor samples. They usually load all the clearance items at midnight Minnesota (central) time, and it's worthwhile to stay up as items sell out really quickly. I'm not the only waiting up as the website has crashed the last few years that I've been following the sale. Despite technical issues, I've always gotten lucky every year and been able to buy exactly what I was looking for, mostly thanks to the great customer service from the folks in the call center in Minnesota. I do all my research all year long, visiting showrooms, reviewing the catalog, so I'm ready to pull the trigger as soon as the clearance page is loaded. The first year, 2009, was the Reese Sectional and a pair of Meade chairs for our living room. Last year was the Kartell Phillipe Starck Louis Ghost chairs. I've always had to follow up with the Minnesota call center in the morning due to the technical issues or delivery questions, but the service I get from them is outstanding. Seriously the best customer service out there. I prefer to shop with them over the phone rather than in the stores. For even more savings, I've had my mom go to the floor sample sale on December 26th at the stores, since I'm always traveling on Christmas. Usually you can save another 20 percent or so, but there's always a line before the store opens so you have to get there early and know what you want. If things sell out online overnight, it's a good idea to try your luck in stores in the morning.

Meade Chairs from the 2009 sale

This year, the front clearance page wasn't loaded right at Midnight central time, more like 1am. Then, although the clearance page was loaded, most of the discontinued / limited items weren't loaded onto the clearance page, it was still mostly special orders that had been that had been there for awhile. They was a lot of activity on the website: loaded a lot of new items and colors and completely pulled the discontinued items off the website but didn't reload them in the clearance section. The website froze a couple of times but didn't
completely crash as badly as previous years. I checked a few more times, around 3am, 7am, but still nothing new was loaded. Finally, by the time I woke up at about 9:30am central, everything had been loaded. At least I had company this year, my friend S who was waiting for the sale from West Coast. Alls well that ends well though, and despite a sleepless night, we both snagged exactly what we wanted at great prices, and we will be picking up our purchases from the distribution center (to save on delivery costs) in early January. Pictures of the latest purchase to come!

A pair of Louis Ghost Chairs from the 2010 sale

The Infamous Missoni for Target Throw: a Review

It's finally here, the elusive Missoni for Target throw in passione (with the matching pillows from the collection)

One of the most sought after Missoni for Target items aside from the espresso cup set and the copper bike were the throws. The throw was the first thing that jumped out at me from the lookbook and my top priority for purchase when I went to the store that unfortunate morning of the launch. Me and everyone else I suppose! Especially after getting lucky with finding the complete sets of passione pillows, I was even more determined to find the matching Missoni x Target passione throw to complete the collection for my family room couch. We always use throws in that room, as it is the coldest room in the house in the winter (as well as the room we spend the most time in), particularly my usual seat next to the window and french doors. Unfortunately, I've had zero luck finding the throw in the stores, since no one is returning them as they are still going for 3-4x original asking price on Ebay. I won't bore with the details, but I ended up paying more than I wanted for the passione throw through a buy / trade on Craigslist (although still significantly less than Ebay prices). As soon as I got home, I ripped the tags off and unfurled the throw on the couch. The Missoni for Target throw is perfect; thick, heavy and soft, plus the happy colors and pattern make me smile every time I look at them. It's thicker than a normal fleece throw, with a double layer for some heft and plushness. I just love the beautiful magenta, fuschia, violet, grape, with just a splash of lime colors of the throw, it is by far my favorite colorway of all the Missoni for Target throws. Overspending for the throw is part of the reason I'm being extra judicious and returning all the clothes / accessories that I won't wear as much. I'm enormously relieved and happy to say with the acquisition of the throw, finally Missoni mission accomplished and I can stop obsessing about Missoni and visiting the stores (except to return the remaining items).

Unfortunately, I bet the dogs are going to love the throw too. Good thing it's machine washable.

So in love with all the matching colors

A Very Missoni Living Room (Updated)

Updated: the complete Missoni for Target pillow family: chevron pillow, loops pillow and oblong pillow (I have a pair of each)

My Missoni for Target toss pillows arrived in the mail today thanks to Mom W. who was able to track it down in upstate New York after a lot of persistence. She managed to snag a pair of the loops ribbon pillows as well as a pair of the chevron / zig zag embroidered pillows both in the passione / fuchsia colorway. As previously posted, the home goods were the part of this Missoni x Target collection that I was most looking forward to. We completely refurnished our family room few months ago and I'm really happy with all our new furniture. It's a little monochromatic; everything is a shade of brown, from the sectional, to the coffee table, to the jute rug, to the media stand. The room definitely needed to be livened up with a little color and personality and I think these awesome Missoni pillows do the trick. I've been looking for the perfect throw pillows for awhile, and I knew these would be the perfect pop of color and pattern for the otherwise traditional brown room. The rainbow of ribbon loops on the smaller loops pillow is so cheery and fun and the chevron embroidered zig zags on the other pillows are signature Missoni. I think the bright fuchsia really goes well with the brown sectional, plus there are similar tones of brown in the zig zags as the sectional. The quality of the Missoni for Target toss pillows are really good; the covers are 100% cotton and the ribbon loops are 70% wool. The fill and embroidery is rayon / polyester. The chevron embroidery is stitched well and cleanly, the edges and seams all appear straight and the pillows are really soft. They seem pretty durable, my dogs love them, especially the loops pillow and clearly have been testing them out even though they are not allowed on the couch... Unfortunately the lighting today has been bad for pictures, hopefully better pictures to come later.
Updated 9/26/11: I was able to find a pair of the copper / beige patterned oblong toss pillows in the famiglia colorway today which are perfect, as I needed a pair of lumbar pillows for lower back support as our couch is so deep. These famiglia pillows are perfect as they blend in with the couch really well as they are a little more neutral than the loop pillow and zig zag pillows. I really like the slightly raised velour lighter beige color and slightly shiny copper darker color pattern.
Family room before:

And after:

New Family Room Furnishings

Bristol Sectional from Flores Design, CB2 Bengal Coffee Table (floor sample), Overstock jute rug

Previously, our family furniture was a hodgepodge of mismatched hand-me-down and Ikea pieces, a few that were probably 20+ years old. It was all a bit of an eyesore, plus not very comfortable for either conversation or tv watching, which was unfortunate since we tend to spend the most time in this room with the dogs. I've procrastinated long enough in getting new furniture for the room, but I finally had enough about a month ago and completely redid the room, getting rid of all the old furniture completely. I even bought a new vacuum cleaner, the Hoover WindTunnel T-Series Rewind Bagless Upright (thanks Consumer Reports), an amazing vacuum cleaner for less than $100. I did a ton of online research, a lot of negotiating, shopped around a lot, and took advantage of many mid-year furniture sales including floor sample sales. I'm usually wary of purchasing floor samples, but sometimes it can be good as it's a good test as to the durability of the piece. June / July and year end is a great time to buy furniture. I've also found that a lot of retailers carry the same exact stock / catalog from big wholesalers like Flores Design, so it's definitely worth the time to do the research and price compare. A good tip is to call the wholesaler for a list of their retailers and price shop around those retailers. As an example, one place on San Vicente quoted us over $2,400 more for our sectional than what we ultimately ended up paying for the exact same piece. When possible, we tried to stick with real wood and natural fibers since we spend so much time in the room and wanted durability. We're very happy with the end result; it's not the most stylish looking room, but it's incredibly comfortable and functional, which was our priority in the first place. Perhaps too comfortable since we never want to leave the couch anymore.  We just need to accessorize a little bit, but otherwise we are done with the room (happily).

The best seat in the house, a double chaise. Alemeda laptop table from World Market. Also got a jute runner from World Market, which is slightly better quality, thicker, than the Overstock one, although both are quite good for the price

The Bengal Coffee Table from CB2 made of reclaimed Indian rail ties. It is unfinished, so we finished it with a few coats of Howard's Feed and Wax.

The dogs love the new rug; so much better than the cold floor tiles. Although it bears similarity to their rope chew toys which is not a good thing as we caught Otis chewing on the new rug.

SEI Virtuoso Walnut Media Stand. We bought it from Amazon which was cheapest at the time, although Amazon prices fluctuate strangely day to day. I think the stand is currently cheapest on Overstock, although it's still more than we paid. A bit of a pain to put together as it is 98 pounds and quality wasn't the greatest with some chipped edges, but it fits the space and all our equipment perfectly. It's the only piece in the room that isn't 100% real wood. I probably spent the most time looking for media stands; it took a long time to find a relatively cheap, simple, functional and not ugly media stand.

Vote for Viesso!

My friends over at Viesso have been chosen as one of the top 10 finalists out of 11,000 entries for Facebook / American Express Big Break contest for small businesses. I've known the founders of Viesso since college and they are based right here in Santa Monica, making modern furniture in Los Angeles with tons of customizable and eco-friendly options. I'm super excited for them; check out their video and offerings on their website and vote for them through Facebook, they would love the support! Click on the video below:

Viesso
2834 Colorado Avenue #53
Santa Monica, CA 90404 
(310) 453-3604

Saturday at the Getty Museum

Saturday was a perfect day to take in the beautiful scenery of the Getty Museum with my local sorority alumnae group. We met up for a guided garden tour of the grounds followed by lunch at the Restaurant at the Getty followed by a little bit of museum time and more strolling of the grounds. I highly recommend taking one of the several free guided tours offered by the museum; I'd been to the museum dozens of times, but never really slowed down enough to appreciate the many tiny details as well as overall conception of the spaces and resulting beauty. It was just lovely to pause and smell the proverbial roses. The tour only takes an hour but you learn and gain such a different perspective. Next time I visit, I definitely want to take the architecture tour.

We learned that the different kinds of cactus represent different neighboring communities around the Getty

 And lunch:

Cobb Salad with blue cheese, apples, bacon, cranberries. Gotta make this at home