Holiday Decorating

Three years ago I started holiday decorating for a client in Dana Point. She has an amazing home overlooking the ocean, so it's basically like I have an office with a view for the three days that I spend decorating her home for Christmas. Who can argue with that?

Her house has a really earthy, rustic feel and her main request is that the decorations mesh well with her existing decor and furnishings. I could spend days and weeks shopping for wreaths and garland with all of the perfect elements to coordinate with our desired look and feel, so instead, I buy plain greenery and then make custom wreaths and garland. I start from scratch every year, so I use the same color scheme, but each year the decor turns out a little different! She loves ribbon and bows mixed with sparkly poinsettias and ornaments. I keep everything in rusts, browns, and golds to blend well with her furnishings and wall color. This year I integrated wood and bark type elements with feathers nestled in the garland to add to the woodland, rustic feel.

Here are some photos of the festive decor...

Wreaths on the front gate.

I was really happy with how this family room mantle turned out. This past year we had these cushions and pillows custom made to fit around her fireplace so this is the first time that I got to see the finished space decked out for Christmas. Having the cushions and pillows around the fireplace adds to the cozy Christmas vibe and the colors in the garland fit right in.

This is the living room mantle. We both decided we really liked the loose hanging look instead of propping the greenery up on the mantle.

There was actually a lot more greenery throughout her home but it was dark by the time it was completed and my camera flash + shiny reflective ribbon and ornaments = not so great photos. If I go back over before Christmas, I'll have to snag some more photos.

If you or anyone you know wants to get decked out for the holidays but doesn't have a lot of time, give me a call and I'll have you feeling festive in no time. Or, if you only want one strand of garland or a wreath, check out my holiday etsy shop here for custom options. Happy decorating!

Handmade Stockings and Christmas Crafting

It's time to say good-bye to Thanksgiving and hello to the Christmas season! While we were home for Thanksgiving my sister decided she was going to sew a Christmas stocking for her new husband. My dad and oldest sister are great with the sewing machine so it was the perfect opportunity. I went with her to the fabric store and since I have a little bit of weakness for fabric... before I knew it I had an armful of fabric and trim and decided that I needed to make some stockings myself.

Through the process, I realized that I am much more of a designer than a "crafter". Luckily my oldest sister wanted to help, so I was the designer and she was my little worker bee, but I did end up doing a little sewing as well. It was a fun bonding activity for all of us and I think they are so adorable. Since I don't really need 4 stockings for myself, I decided to open up a little Etsy shop for the holidays. Check it out here.

The stockings are made of various textured fabric including burlap and wool and the red trim is a custom made ruffle that we sewed ourselves.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I had a great time with my family and had one of the best ever Thanksgiving feasts thanks to my mother's amazing cooking.

My family use to do huge get together Thanksgivings. You know the ones, with our entire extended family, complete with a buffet/potluck style meal served on plastic plates with extra folding tables set up throughout the house. Real classy. But for the past few years it has just been my immediate family (7 total plus 2 brother-in-laws) plus a couple of friends/boyfriends/aunt, etc. As much as we like our extended family and all of our friends, we all decided that we sort of like saving the large parties for Christmas Eve, and keeping our Thanksgiving more formal and intimate. It is now a sit down dinner with Grandma's real silverware and my mom's beautiful china. I love it!

I wasn't originally planning on doing anything to the table because I don't live near my parent's house (6 hour drive) so I would have had to pack up everything and haul it with me, not to mention I was crazy busy before I left, but after I got inspired by all of those beautiful Thanksgiving tablescapes I posted about yesterday, I decided I better whip something together.

Below (and above) are some photos of what I came up with. I wasn't in love with the flower selection, but I worked with what I had at 6:00 the night before (every store was completely picked over, of course). A lot of the other items are things my mom had laying around or away in storage. I actually sewed together the table runner this morning with some of my mom's left over fabric and my brother helped me print and put together the place cards. Before before I knew it, we had a pretty decent Thanksgiving table! Take a look...

Thanksgiving Table Decor

Can you believe Thanksgiving is already upon us? This year has gone by so fast, but I'm kind of ok with that because I happen to love Thanksgiving. While trying to get inspired for our Thanksgiving table decor I came across some really beautiful and creative table settings.

For fabulously festive Thanksgiving tables, I found that there were three main cateogories or themes: Pumpkins & Fall Fruit, Beautiful Fall Florals, and Rustic Chic.

{Pumpkins & Fall Fruit}



{Beautiful Fall Florals}



{Rustic Chic}

My inspiration photos were gathered from Martha Stewart (of course!), Seasons For All at Home, Country Living Magazine, Design Public Blog, Traditional Home, and New York Social Diary.

Hope you all have a beautiful holiday!

Urban Electric Co.

Urban Electric Co. has some really beautiful new lighting available. Below is a sampling of some of their new eye candy.



And it gets better...Urban Electric Co. is currently having a tent sale where you can find some of their lighting at up to 50% off, if you have a trade discount. Here are some of my favorites on sale now. {Feel free contact me if you're interested in any of these beauties, but don't have a trade account.}

Diamond Hanging Small, sale price: $840.50 (originally $1681), 1 available:


Markham sconce, sale price: $315 (originally $515), 30 available:


Piedmont lantern, sale price: $985 (originally $1785), 2 available:


RavenspointWall Regular, sale price: $515 (originally $810), 10 available:

Fall Weddings

There are so many fabulous wedding blogs out there and today I got caught up looking at several amazing fall weddings. Here were some of my favorites found on Green Wedding Shoes, Style Me Pretty, and Hostess Blog. Enjoy!

Florence Knoll Lounge Chairs

I'm working on a complete living room design for a client in Newport Beach. They moved from a craftsman style home to their current home which is really modern. This meant we got to start from scratch...my favorite!

We needed a pair of chairs so I showed my clients a photo of this Florence Knoll Lounge chair. They really liked the style and the classic modern design, so we had a few options; go vintage and reupholster in a fabric of our choice, order the chairs from Knoll and wait 10-16 weeks, or do our own take on this classic design, wait just 4 weeks, and go custom. After I lost the eBay auction on the vintage option, we decided to go custom.

We changed the design slightly by making the arms a little chunkier and using a white wood base instead of stainless steel legs. I really love how they turned out, take a look...

I Heart NY

I've been to New York a few times, but this past trip I took for my birthday was the first time that I've had an overwhelming desire to move there. Maybe it's because this time I didn't feel an urgency to sightsee every square inch of Manhattan like my past 3 NY adventures. This time I got a chance to just to eat, shop, walk around, and just enjoy the city.

The other day I was cruising around the Australian blog TheDesignFiles.net and became acquainted with the photography of Sandra Juto. Last year she took a trip to New York and took some killer photos. As if I didn't already want to go back, these just made it worse...

Barclay Butera Online

Orange County's own Barclay Butera is now offering online shopping for pillows and accessories with free shipping through December 23. Barclay Butera furniture is not currently available for purchase online but the site is still great for viewing his furniture collection.

Barclay Butera currenlty has showrooms in Los Angeles, Newport Beach, Park City, and New York.

Below are some of Barclay's pillows now available online...

Coastal.Cool indigo.

I'm a sucker for stripes.

Barclay Butera's new design book, Living In Style

Flock Wallpaper

After I saw Melissa Palazzo's flock wallpapered powder room at the Casa California showhouse I've been meaning to blog about this fun, velvety wallcovering. After being a huge hit in the 60's and 70's, flock (or flocked) wallpaper virtually disapeared as everyone ripped it from their walls, but now it's back and popping up everywhere. I admit is takes a specific person and specific interior to make it work, but flock wallpaper is definitely an easy way to make a bold statement.

Many wallcovering manufacturers are coming out (if they haven't already) with flock collections. Some of my favorites are from Woodson & Rummerfield and Cole & Sons. Examples of some of these flocked beauties are shown below.

Also check out FlockedWallpaper.com for an endless array of flocked goodness.

Image from Woodson & Rummerfield

From Cole & Son's Classix Exotic Flock collection:

From Woodson & Rummerfield's House of Design:

Jonathan Adler at Fashion Island

Today I just heard some fantastic news....Jonathan Adler has recently opened up a showroom in Fashion Island in Newport Beach. I always get excited when new fun places to shop pop up close to home. Jonathan Adler is known for his bold use of color, modern lines, and funky pottery.

While blog surfing today, I also found out that my friend Aubrey Messick got hired as the showroom manager. Ok, so we're really more of aquaintances, but I did eat crepes at her birthday party this past year, so that counts for something. I can't wait to stop in, say hello, and check out the new space!

Interior Renderings at The Met

While in New York we took a little night stroll through the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They have a new American Wing which was really cool, complete with period rooms full of early American furniture, decor, and artwork. I also always love checking out the Van Gogh's, Degas' and Monet's, but while wandering around I came across these lovely paintings of various 20th century rooms. I believe some were specifically intended as artwork, while others were rendered by designer's for their clients.

{I believe this one is a photograph but still just as fun to look at.}