renovation: e+j bedroom

Yes, I know we are in the middle of renovating our son's room (just purchased the flooring last night ... install to take place this weekend ... yikes!) but I just couldn't resist tackling our own bedroom as well.

As I have lamented before, our bedroom looks like the inside of a Dijon mustard jar. I love Dijon mustard, don't get me wrong. Just not on my walls. Even worse: the ceiling. I have no idea what the previous homeowners were thinking when they picked this paint. Perhaps, "this sandwich could use some mustard" was running through their mind as they sat over lunch perusing swatches. All I know is "barf" is what runs through my head every morning as I open my eyes and see this icky color.

What I would love my room to be is a restful, peaceful, calming place. The colors that do that for me are celedon, watery blues and greens of any kind, greys and taupes. I'm taking inspiration from my favorite pieces of artwork and the sea as I build the color palette for our bedroom.

Each time I go to Home Depot (which feels like every five minutes) I have the lovely paint peeps mix up a new test jar of paint for me.

So far three have made it onto the wall: 1. Light French Grey (Behr 720E-2); 2. Pensive Sky (Behr 710E-2); and 3. Sea Anemone (Martha Stewart MSL087).

The verdict: French Grey is too blue; Pensive Sky is too boring; Sea Anemone is too chalky. Looks like we're headed back to The Home Depot ...

renovation: a's "big boy" room

Our first grader has been asking for a "Big Boy Room" for more than a year now. He loves Legos, his kitty, experiments, trains, matchbox cars, computer games, and being mischevious. Two weekends ago we started the project by painting his ceiling white and the walls a medium cool grey with blue undertones.

Before: the entire room was a medium blue shade, which came with the house, and was fine for his baby-blue and white striped furniture and pale green crib.

A few things we're keeping: his white twin bed with star headboard, Ryan's surfboard, his armoire and dresser (though they will be repainted), the cute side table, and the star lantern. We're losing the gross shaggy carpet, the bleached out rug, the "baby" artwork, and the curtains.

This past weekend we finished painting the room and started on the furniture. I'll post photos soon of the progress. My favorite things so far is a big magnetic strip of paint on one wall, so A can post up favorite pictures.

decorate: kitten ornament

click on photo to enlarge.

Ajax the kitten is the best Christmas tree ornament ever. Though he does make the tree lean a bit.

delphine sneak peek on design*sponge

Thanks Grace and Anne at Design*Sponge for posting a Sneak Peek into our home! You can check out the post here, and there are more photos of the house here and photos of the studio here.

kids party: scooch is 5

big boy orange birthday party

Last week our son turned five. I can't believe how quickly the time has passed. When I was trying to come up with a theme for his party, he told me he wanted a "Big Boy" party. To him, "Big Boy" means this big steam locomotive; to everyone else it means, well, Big Boy! I put a picture of the train on his invitation, and on the goodie bags, but otherwise I went with orange as the theme. It's his favorite color and his favorite fruit. He loves to pick oranges and tangerines from our orchard, so we gave a sack of them away to all the guests (pretty and free!). The kids drank clementine Izze soda and at cocktail hour the adults drank ruby red and clementine martinis. I made cupcakes with an orange-flavored icing, and decorated the table with all the orange things I could find in my house (which was not difficult, since it's one of my favorite colors and was the theme of a few of our delphine trade show booths).

studio makeover

white ceramic owl and green ceramic "chinese lion" foo dogs from z gallerie

WANTED for the studio (we're planning a little makeover): white ceramic owl and green ceramic "chinese lion" foo dogs (both from Z Gallerie).

work table

A work table similar to this polished nickel Dering Console table would look great with the Ghost Chair in B's jewelry studio. Doesn't look like we could fit a chair under here, so we're still searching, but we both love this table from Martha Stewart's Lily Pond collection at Bernhardt.

ghostly décor

photos from hive modern

B has this fun Louis Ghost Chair in her jewelry studio. I've been eyeing this Bourgie Lamp to go along with it. Both are available at Hive Modern. The designs are thoroughly modern, with a nod to the amazing French baroque style. I find this combination of old & new trés inspiring!