Have I been under a rock?

So lately while reading my standard design magazines I have found myself studying the advertisements for Hinkley lighting. I admire the details in the homes or the landscape they showcase as well as the light fixtures. There is always something in the ads that I flag to add to my "in our dream house" files. So tonight I drifted off to the Hickley website between updating budget trackers and status sheets for work.

OK have I been under a rock? - did anyone else know they uses Lee Kleinhelter's home for some of those amazing photos? I am sure if my brain was not so tired from all the spreadsheets it would even recognize more of the rooms from other long admired homes.

Even if I am months behind realizing this from everyone else, it has perked me up with more great inspiring interiors. Here are my favorites.

Of course her kitchen. Love all the white. Next house I am using oiled hardware on white cabinets.

Her guest bedroom, with the best green bedside table. Have the same room flagged from my old Cottage Living collection.

Not sure if this is also in her house or not, but LOVE the tile on the wall. And the smokey gray cabinets makes me want to paint our guest bath cabinet grey.

And finally, this is the first Hinkley ad I added to my collection of great images. I like the floor color, the grey walls, black steel windows, the sleek almost outdoor furniture and the yellow cushions. Plus I kinda like the idea of the models pouring over design books/magazines. Totally dorky, but I would lie if I did not try to see what tiles they had.

Too much! - so a quickie...

There is too much for me to share that I am having trouble organizing thoughts. So really quick, while flipping channels while working and peanut was napping (I promise I don't want TV during the day, no time between watching peanut, working and attempting to stay on top of house work) I found Nate Berkus on HSN, which is good background noise while to crank out project plans. He was standing on the most amazing rug. LOVE!! and great price!

I think I like the runner that is 2x9 (for $99). Now the question is what color and where to use it, I like them all!!

Darcy Moment - number one

So I have slowly been working on creating my version of Darcy Miller's photo/memory wall. Our tip to Ikea the other weekend supplied wonderful frames to allow progress on the wall. So far I only have one frame going (had slight glass breakage with other frames), but have plans for two more for this week.

Here is the vintage cake topper from our wedding. It has been sitting in shelf for the past few years, and I love that now it has a home and a place of importance. I need to change the photo to be of Nick and I and thinking black and white. The plan is to have all the frames be white with a mix of shadow boxes and normal frames salon style.

We have friends visiting at the end of June, so there is a fire under us to get some projects going on the house.

The Chairs are back!!

About 5 weeks ago we sent the (fugly) peach chairs out to be recovered in wool felt and on Saturday they arrived back home!! Our lovely $10 chairs have come so far. Plus now Nick cannot make fun of me for never getting anything recovered. The felt might not have been the best choice of fabric for this style of chair, however they feel like butter.

I realize these two photos will be much more impactful if I show you the before photo of the chairs. We have no idea who was the orginal maker of these chairs since they had already been recovered at least once before. I love the chrome legs and the long arms so don't really care if they are a big name or not.

And to show you how comfortable these chairs are, just take a look at our peanut lounging for the first time. Approved. The only bad part is right now the edges are covred in tape to make sure the cats don't start scratching at the new fabric.

Livable Kids Space

So as we are making a baby safe play space, I have been looking really hard for some inspiration. Since our living room is right when you come in the front door I don't want for it to scream plastic toys, but I still want for it to be an area that if we make a mess playing it is ok. I have been collecting images for a while that will work for either the future basement play room or now. We have not made too many choices, but know that the room will go back to being a universal room so don't wan to make any structural changes.

I love the chalkboard walls. I think for now will be a bit of a stretch, but I am thinking of find an old school house chalk board to use. Could be a cool art display. Also we have a similar rug that I was thinking of moving into the guest bedroom, but might work well in this room.

I love this room. The white walls, fun play poofs in bright colors and open space to play what ever. I wish we could paint the walls white, but I think I am at my limit with Nick and white walls.

I love the bookcases in this room. I wish we could do something similar, but I think it will be too permanent for a room that is only temporarily baby proof. I have found an interesting solution to book storage that I will share later. I am still trying to find more storage solutions for toys overall, but we have a few that will work for now.

How to Baby Proof

So I have been debating on the best method for baby proofing. Option 1 is getting a large movable play pin to use around the house. Option 2 is baby proofing the entire house. Option 3, baby proofing one large area of the house. We have decided to go with Option 3 for the time being. It does not seem right to keep James so confined, and now that he is crawling there is no way the whole house can be baby proofed. Plus the cats did not do very well with the baby gate.

The best room to make James safe is our living room. It gets great sunlight, is large enough that James has plenty of space to crawl around and installing a baby gate to cut of this area of the house will be the least traumatic to the cats. Time to say farewell to the old family room as we make slow but sure progress on the James safe version. The other bonus is we have can get rid of the blue/green color scheme. Taking down the curtians alone was a huge improvement!

The sofa will stay and so will the bench tucked under the table. My attempt at being Damien Hirst has moved to another room, but might come back.

The desk has moved into the den and all the plants have to moved into the guest bedroom. Even though the coffee table has "sharp corners of death," it is the perfect height for James to pull himself up and play. Currently it is a highly watched play area untill we get more padding on it.

The funiture/accessories shuffle has made the entire house a mess with items being displaced all over. Hopefully we will end up with a better arrangement once all is said and done. Plus I am excited for another project.

Random items

So working on the house has been slow, but that has not stopped us from shopping for house items. We have found a lot of great deals lately. Two weekends ago, we went to Half Priced Books and found amazing books. I got all the books below for $10 or less. Good deal!

This weekend found a local store that is selling the fixtures from the closed Ruhel stores. Nick got a great 10 foot table for the Nursery, while I purchased this print. The framing is wonderful. We also ordered a rug that will be in two weeks. I love buying store fixtures.

Finally. It is a very long story, but I was able to purchase 19 yards of Burnschwig Zebra fabric for $150. Looking at the shipping information, it was shipped from Burnschwig in 1980. Not really sure what I am going to do with the fabric yet, but are thinking of some ideas for James' room.