A Bath By the Sea, Part III

And voila! We are so excited to take you on a photographic tour of this finished beauty. Take a look:









We are loving the way the light shimmers down the Vihari glass tiles!








The darker wood on the vanity and cabinet adds a touch of warmth:







We hope you enjoyed viewing our bath-by-the-sea as much as we enjoyed designing it!

Lonny Reminder...

The newest issue of Lonny magazine is out, and it is goooo-od! Grab your beverage of choice and click through some fabulous pages...

I really enjoyed this issue - I was inspired by the large article on the 16 YEAR OLD designer whiz-kid, all the upholstered headboard photos, and this page...

Have you heard of this Decorator Tag Sale website? How cool?! I checked it out, and there are so many fun items for sale. I'm definitely adding this to my list of shopping resources! I need a new coffee table and wouldn't mind giving that Hermes tray table a new home. :)

Kiddo Kool

Guess who this adorable kids room was designed for...

This stylish brood...

{ps. for those to-be-mommas out there, chris martin is pushing my exact stroller (bugaboo dark grey chameleon), and it is AMAZING! }

Gwyneth Palthrow is my favorite female celebrity. She is beautiful, has great taste, an adorable family, and the best part, she deals with being in the public eye with grace and humility. I always love to watch her do interviews and check out her outfits!

If you like her too, you should definitely read her blog/website GOOP. It's all about Gwyneth's favorite things - food, shopping, trends, kids books, traveling, etc, etc, etc.

Check out some pictures from GOOP's most recent newsletter of the amazing loft that was created for Paltrow and her family in Nashville - IN 10 DAYS!

You should really read the whole article and see all the pictures. Designer Annette Joseph gives great details on how she created this space with such a time crunch, and sources just about everything. A very fun read!

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Don't forget to enter our $60 CSN giveaway!

His & Hers

I happen to think this idea is really fun - perfect for a casual beach house or rustic cottage!

{Canadian House & Home Magazine}

We are currently renovating our family lake house, and I will DEFINITELY be recommending this for my parents' master bath.

Attention HGTV Lovers...

I know many of you likely watch HGTV and so I wanted to make you aware of a show that they just recently started to air. My all-time favorite TV design host is Sarah Richardson, who has 4 - count them FOUR! - design shows! I have a love/hate relationship with her. Well really it's love/jealously because hey, I'm a Saara from Toronto who's a designer. And well, I want to be her. And if her beautiful room designs aren't enough for me to covet, she also designs great furniture.

For 5 long years I have missed watching new episodes of Room Service, Design Inc, Sarah's House and Sarah's Cottage because only really old episodes were shown on FLN in the US but now very luckily for me, and you, they are airing brand new seasons of Sarah's House on HGTV. Yay! You must check out the farmhouse she is currently renovating - the show always starts with her real estate search and goes through all the steps to create the home she wants. And at the end she has her realtor assess the new value of her project. It's fun and educational watching her go through all of the steps.

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To lure you in, here are some shots from the first season of Sarah's House...

I think she does a great job at keeping the charm in old houses apparent while mixing in new and vintage materials and furnishings.

I love the way she mixes patterns in wallpaper and fabric so effortlessly...

The shows talk a lot about budget which is nice to see on TV and she regularly uses stock cabinets and has them sprayed for a more economic, custom look...

Lots of her shopping is done if thrift stores and at auctions (which makes me miss home because I recognize all of her favorite stops). She bought these dining chairs for peanuts and had them refinished along with a slew of other items for this house...

I really liked the adult den in the house and would love to have that brass pendant and coffee table! I know the coffee table was vintage and super cheap, just another item that makes me thirsty for furniture hunting!

The kids bathroom was fun and a great example of how she uses inexpensive tile in interesting ways to create a more expensive look (hard to see but the white tiles are laid in varying directions and patterns). The vanity was a nightstand that was purchased online and then painted and topped with a sink...

Even I wouldn't mind doing laundry in this room. She really gives every room a lot of thought. The large frame on the left is hung on a piano hinge so it can swing open to reveal the ugly circuit breaker box. So smart...

All of these photos were taken from Sarah Richardson Design, and you can view the complete set of photos from this home 'here'.

Anyway, check her out. I think you'll be glad you did!

Poppies at Play - Parade of Home

Growing up with parents who were always designing and building - new house, new cottage, etc - I was dragged to many parade of homes. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, it's where one or more houses are designed by various decorators, designers and architects and their work is showcased to the public. I wonder if my parents ever thought I would become an interior designer and my brother an architect?! I guess we were definitely influenced!

Lately I've been enjoying the Pasadena showcase houses but I was just made aware of an online parade of homes...blogger homes! Check out Parade of Homes on Poppies at Play - what a fun way to sneak peaks (legally) into other peoples homes and be inspired!

Every day four bloggers' homes are showcased, so be sure to revisit daily! Oh and they are holding a linky party on Saturday where you can upload a photo of your favorite room in your house. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's photos!

Enjoy!

A Pot of (Design) Gold

I'm back after a few weeks off! I couldn't resist writing a post about all the wonderful green items and rooms I've spied. Green is my FAVORITE color!

A fellow UCLA Interior Design grad was featured in Lonny magazine. The whole featured house is gorgeous, but I particularly love this green dresser. What an amazing shade of green, and the style of the dresser isn't too shabby either...

This is such a beautiful bathroom by the ever so talented Erika from Urban Grace Interiors - her blog is one of my daily reads. I love the perfectly imperfect green glass tiles, along with just about everything else she chose...

For just a touch of green, how about some Ikat celery pillows? Would love a few of these for my living room...

What is it about green paired with gold? It's a match made in heaven! So fresh and elegant...

CB2 sells some great Ikat styled bowls...again my fav with the green and gold. These would be great to add a smidgen of green to your dining table or as a cute decorative dish on a side table or shelf...

Hope you enjoy some good luck & some good design today...

Happy St Patrick's Day!

An Orderly Bath

I'm heading into my bathroom tomorrow, and I'm not leaving until I've created some order in there...

I just learned something handy! Did you know that most cosmetic products have a use-within-this-many-months-once-openned symbol? Check out the back of your hair products, foundations, etc...you will likely see an image of an opened jar with a number and an M.

Alright, so all the old stuff has been retired. Probably a good idea to start labeling the bottom of all new products with the month/year so you won't have to guess the age of your cosmetics in the future...

Time to make things presentable - and findable! Small boxes are great for keeping things tidy in your drawers. If you can't find any individual containers, head to the kitchen aisle and grab a silverware insert. It should do the trick just as well...

Another repurposed kitchen item - try a hanging three-tiered basket to hold shower goodies. Perfect for small jars, toys and loofahs...

Keep make-up brushes clean, organized and easily accessible by storing them in a pretty glass or vase. Pretty vases and lidded jars are great for cotton balls and swabs too.

This Ikea vase is really inexpensive - only $2.50! - and a nice modern shape. It could hold your brushes, but it just so happens to be the EXACT length for cotton swabs to lie in it...perfect!

Bathroom Pitfalls 101

Bathroom designs that we LOVE but don’t know how people live with...

We love wood countertops. They look beautiful and have a rustic elegance but would most certainly warp or suffer water damage over time. We also love the vessel sink and exposed chrome decorative trap, and the wood plank floors.

Love the self-rimming stainless steel sink for a cool bachelor pad, although he might resent mopping up the water around the basin with a wall-mounted faucet mounted that high!

Love the stone wall cladding in the bathroom for a sophisticated clean look, but we don’t recommend a rainhead shower head as your only showerhead, as you can't vary the water flow strength and you end up with more of a drizzle versus a waterfall. Look for pre-fab solutions this vanity at Pottery Barn or Restoration Hardware.

Love the tiny wall-mounted lav solution for a tight space – especially with the quirky mirror. Overall a well done design, although we are not sure how you control water temperature with a single criss-cross valve.

Love the under-mounted lavatories with space for decorative towel folding AND storage. This is a very well executed vanity design!

Love the vessel sinks with the side-mounted widespread faucet. Great floating cabinet with ample storage space and cool peek-a-boo vanity mirrors.

Love the beautiful chrome legs and tile work, but not extremely functional for a bathroom lavatory. Who doesn't have bathroom clutter to hide?!

And lastly, love the integral lav (basin carved right out of the counter slab) with a shelf for towels. Not much storage, but would be great for a powder room or a rarely used guest room.