...because home doesn't happen overnight.
07.20.15 / Liked & Linked

bye BHG

shoot leftovers

Whew! Last week was surreal and quite the whirlwind in the best way. Living behind the scenes of a magazine shoot opened my eyes to so many things. I will never look at house tours in print the same way again! I snuck a few behind-the-scenes shots and jotted down a ton of notes to share when the feature goes live. For those of you who have asked, I don’t know yet which issue our home will be featured in but, as soon as I do, I will let you know. (I’m told it will be sometime in 2016.)

The BHG crew left on Friday. They were lovely and funny and down-to-earth. Saying goodbye was more difficult than I had anticipated. The kids really enjoyed having company and action at the house. They were so disappointed to wake up to (what felt like) an empty and quiet house the day after shooting wrapped. Mabrey grew attached to Natalie, a BHG editor. She even made up “The Natalie Song” and was bummed when she learned that Saturday was Natalie’s birthday and we wouldn’t be able to have a cupcake party for her at our house. It was the sweetest and most heartbreaking thing. Whenever I walk past one of the leftover floral props, I do a double take and think, “Wait. Did that just really happen?”

Needless to say, we had a slow weekend. We hung out poolside with dear friends all day Saturday and holed up inside while it stormed on Sunday. I got a little antsy and hit up a nearby open house just for fun. With the shoot (and several tedious projects) behind us, I’m looking forward to getting back to work on the studio and enjoying a few more slow weekends before the kids start back to school.

A few links…

*Ogling this custom printed upholstery fabric.

*After months of brainstorming, we’re thinking about replacing a closet at the end of our hallway with built-in cabinets similar to this setup. Yes? No?

*Remodelista’s best of the best. Which will you vote for?

simpler_times-australian-vacation-home-sunken-living-room

*I dogeared this simple, family-friendly beach house in the latest issue of Dwell. I can’t believe it’s <700 square feet!

*I am forever adding design books to my wish list. This week it was this, this and this.

*I finally found the perfect swim trunks for the boys. They love them! They can do all the cannonballs they want without readjusting or retying their waistbands. Pool time just got waaaaaaayyy easier mamas.

Happy start to your week!

images: 1 & 2) Dana Miller for House*Tweaking 3) Sean Fennessy for Dwell magazine

23 Comments

20.July.2015

Oh my goodness! Cannot wait to get this issue!! Congrats! You really deserve it. :-)
I’m fairly new to your blog but was wondering if you can do a post (or do you have a post) dedicated to how exactly you organize since downsizing? We are making a similar move (4000+ sq/ft to 1600) and I’m excited but nervous at the same time. Would love to see how you organize your closets, drawers and such. (Sorry if I missed it!)
Thanks & Congrats again!

20.July.2015

LOVE the hallway closet solution. I have the same issue and this never crossed my mind, but seems so obvious now. Duh. Thanks! And congrats on the shoot! Totally deserved, your house is beautiful.

20.July.2015

Yes!! Go for the closet change! It’s the kind of thing that would lighten up the space, feel so lux, and make you smile every time you walk by. And the best: drawers are the best for functionality! I’m all for making storage just as pleasing as the living spaces (because we *do* live with them, don’t we?).

20.July.2015

Love the built-ins, but it really all depends on what you want to store.

20.July.2015

I like your idea for the hallway closet as well. My sister has builtins at the top of her staircase and it’s right in between the bathroom and the other rooms. It’s a very convenient location for towels and toilet paper, etc.

20.July.2015

Don’t change it. We changed ours from that countertop/built in style back into a closet. Yes, you create another little area to “Stage.” And to dust. And to declutter. And to not-store-stuff in. You can build in some drawers if you want, but those hallway counter top areas are just pointless. Esp in a house your size – why lose enclosed storage space. #teamno

20.July.2015

yessssss! do the built in. It’ll look beautiful :-)

20.July.2015

So, how tight do those swim trunks come? Would they work for super skinny boys, say, a 7 year old who still wears his 2T trunks because they don’t fall off? I mean, just as an example.

20.July.2015

Happy start to your week as well. Sorry to hear Mabrey is sad. But it is nice that the team was so nice to deal with. As far as the closet. Where will you put the vacuum? I agree with the other comment, I can’t answer until I know what you have to store and put away. And in my book storage and function would win over looks, just sayin.

20.July.2015

I always think about line of sight and find doors at the end of corridors unpleasant, as you do. But what about simplifying the plane; put in a pair of simple pivot doors with shelves behind (with pivots in the floor and ceiling so the doors seem invisible). Then you have the doors as a canvas for: chalk board, Basquiat-like hand done art, dark and dreamy ocean scape with simple horizon line, a beautiful veneer of book matched wood, paint color that you can change on a whim, 6 lg. picture frames with same size frame stacked 3 per door … I look forward to your final solution which I know will be well thought out.

20.July.2015

I agree, although that is pretty, I would evaluate what you would like to store here and see if the drawers, counter, cabinet combo would work for your storage needs. I thought about doing this for our hall closet and ultimately decided shelves and a door to conceal it all works better for us. #teamno too

20.July.2015

I have cabinets in my hallway and i do not like it. Perhaps mine are oddly sized (they came with the house) but I can’t seem to fold my towels the normal way and fit them in! I perhaps might like it if I had some drawers for storage, but in our small house, an extra closet would have been lovely. Especially to store items like the vacuum (which lives in my pantry, of all places). It’s absolutely lovely, but I think it depends on your storage needs and willingness to sacrifice options (but those may exist elsewhere in your house, I don’t know).

20.July.2015

Yes to the built-ins, you need interest in your hallway.

20.July.2015

Love the idea of the built-ins to replace the hall closet!

20.July.2015

Yes to the closet solution! Love the idea of extra darwers rather than shelves in a closet.

Can’t wait for the BHG feature!!!

21.July.2015

I bought the same size for both boys even though there are 3 years between them! That was our biggest problem with every other trunk option…too baggy for my skinny boys. Layne is 10 yrs and was wearing size 5 trunks just to make the waist fit somewhat. These are great!

21.July.2015

The closet is home to toilet paper, paper towels, bathroom linens, hamper (portable…could be moved to boys’ closet), a few cleaning supplies and miscellaneous medicinal items. I store the vacuum in a linen closet at the opposite end of the hallway nearer the main bathroom. The closet at the end of the hallway is pretty deep so we were thinking we could do two deep drawers on the bottom for paper items and towels with upper cabinets holding medicinal and cleaning supplies.

21.July.2015

I am so excited for you! What an amazing dream come true!! You’re house is totally worth the feature though!

Katy
http://www.alittledailyhappiness.com

22.July.2015

I absolutely love your floors! We are looking to replace our floors, but we have dogs…Do your floors scratch easily?

23.July.2015

There is a huge, underserved niche market out there for clothes made to fit kids with normal-to-skinny waists. /OT

23.July.2015

I have seriously considered making some of my kids’ clothing. Nothing fits!! Those adjustable waistbands are worthless. They just make everything super uncomfortable and bunchy.

23.July.2015

They are birch…not the hardest material out there. We have a cat (not declawed) and they are fine with her but I don’t know if I would trust them with dogs, especially big ones.

23.July.2015

YES YES YES and YES to the hallway closet reconfiguration. I love it. Also I cant wait to see your feature sweet friend.