little birthday present for myself...

Yesterday I bought myself a little pre-birthday present! Notice what it is? Yes, that is the 3rd lamp to sit on this table in a matter of 2 months....

$30 at TJ Maxx......yes please! It's the perfect cream color for my living room. The lamp with the black shade will eventually go into my bedroom when it's painted....yes, I still haven't painted it. I still have that gray blotch on my wall that reminds me every day that "maybe I should paint my room sometime".
Another glamour shot...okay not really, I took these very quickly this morning before work.

Anyways, I hope everyone has a wonderful day! I will be "celebrating" my 23rd birthday at work by setting up for Dining by Design, after all, what says a little birthday fun other than a little manual labor?

designer love...

Again with the designer love....

Today I'm loving SF/Seattle/LA based Massucco Warner Miller Interior Design. Love their bold use of graphic patterns, their mixing of classic and contemporary pieces seamlessly, and color!

Way too tired from painting to add in my own commentary, so I'm making you do all the work.....

But before the pictures, remember the boots I ordered? Well there was actually a different pair that I was obsessed with, but they cost too much. The day after I ordered the ones that I showed you guys I found the boots I REALLY wanted on Endless Shoes for $109! (originally $169, and I think they were the last pair in black, not on website anymore)...still with free overnight shipping. Long story short, I quickly snatched them up and this morning they arrived, and they're amazing! Soooo, now I have 2 pairs of boots, need to return the other ones or I might give them to my sister for a hefty discount.

Okay, okay, okay....somehow I had energy to tell you about the boots, and no energy to give some commentary on the pictures. Believe it or not, I'm not really a shoe person, but on the occasion that I am it's because I've found a pair of shoes that for some reason I feel I cannot live without and would be a great addition to my life, and that's the way I rationalize it. I do this with other things too, like lamps, tables, pillows, miscellaneous deco items etc.....

Massuco Warner Miller

another busy week ahead...

By the end of this week I will become the stenciling queen of San Francisco...

With Dining by Design just around the corner (like next week!!) I have been working on painting these wood panels that will become folding screens. On Friday I painted them a metallic gold paint, and today I started stenciling them with a bright orange paint. I got 9 our of 13 done today! Back will be sore tomorrow...
Once they're all stenciled I will go over the orange with a brown glaze so they'll look more "antiqued" and less, well, bright orange. It's kind of hard to tell in the picture, but the gold is actually shiny and metallic.

So this is basically my week right now! Painting and stenciling, all day everyday! Very relaxing, but tiring!

Can't wait to share the whole setup when it's put together next week for the actual Dining by Design!

i love working for a designer...

...especially when I get free furniture. On Friday I was getting ready to paint some wooden screens for Dining by Design when my boss asked me if I wanted this cute little table that had been sitting in her garage. Ummm, yes please!

It's the cutest little table, vintage from the 1940s, with wood inlay on the top. The top opens like a lid, and it has a really cute little key that goes with it. Is this not an adorable table or what?
Other small projects in my home...

On Saturday I finally got around to hanging those cute gilt sconces (bought at a garage sale) in my living room...

I also hung some pictures. The two in the middle were already there, but the wall needed more so I added 2 smaller ones. Oh and I know the lamp is blocking the sconces. The lamp will go in my room when it's painted, the lamp that I usually have here is much smaller and will look great with the sconces.

Below is probably the tiniest project ever hehe. I hung that tiny little picture above the TV, and yes it took about 2 seconds to hang and is probably not worth sharing with everyone, but I wanted to show the cabinet that my TV is on...
I don't think I've ever put a picture of it on my blog before. It's a family heirloom (like a lot of my furniture), from my maternal grandfathers parents. We think it's from the 1920s or 30s when they built their home in Forest Hill Gardens in Long Island. I love the funky geometric shapes, and it reminds me of my childhood when it used to be in my parents bedroom. I used to lay on the carpet and trace the shapes with my fingers, somehow this seemed to entertain me for quite a while...

By the way, you've probably notice a lot of electrical cords in my house. We seem to have a little problem with outlets in my home. There are absolutely zero outlets down the center of my house. Therefore any lamps or electronics in those places need extension cords. The one for the TV had to be run around the door frame and stapled to the wall, but I guess that's the price for choosing style over function...
As you can see in my home, I kind of a have a mish mash of decor. I would love to have a house with an ongoing color theme, but it just doesn't work for me. I have a lot of family heirlooms in many different colors, and to me having things that are special and mean something to me is better than having a house full of perfectly matching decor. I think it shows my personality more. I decorate with what I have, and I think it all seems to work out nicely. People come over and tell me that my house really feels like a home, and I think that is the best compliment ever. It's a little bit quirky, fun, colorful, and most of all it's me!

What do you think? How do you tend to decorate? Do family heirlooms make an impact on your decorating style?

i love good deals...

So I really, really needed a new black pair of boots. I have a cute pair, but they are completely flat and can't ever be dressed up. I didn't want too high of a heel because I want to be able to actually wear them.

After browsing about 10 online stores, I stumbled across these pretties on Endless Shoes & Handbags...

I got a pretty good deal on them too. Originally $158, but they have a special promotion right now with free overnight shipping, and I also got $25 off! Not too bad!

I know, I know, $133 is still kind of a lot, but I don't mind spending it on a nice pair of boots. I still have boots that I bought well over 2 years ago.

The only pair of boots that probably weren't worth paying over $100 for were a pair of really cute gray boots I bought in Budapest (I studied abroad there in Spring of 2008). The boots were very well made, but cobblestone streets can be extremely destructive on shoes! I'm so glad I realized this pretty fast so I only destroyed one pair of boots. I can't even wear them when it's raining because water seeps in through the sole. Too bad, they were really cute!

The boots are supposed to arrive on Tuesday, can't wait!!

On a completely different note, my sister's bedroom transformation was featured on the blog Better After last Thursday!

Check it out here.

designer love...

I think I am in love with these interiors by SF interior designer Palmer Weiss.

Here are some of my favorites....

Fantastic mix of timeless and modern pieces in this living room, love the ghost table!

Love this simple yet beautiful stair hall with the unexpected pop of the zebra runner. Definitely adds some much needed fun in a very typical SF Victorian.

Where is this wallpaper from?? I swear I've seen it in a showroom.

Love the saturated emerald green sofa...

What a fun girls room! Sophisticated, but not the typical "child's' room"!

While she doesn't seem to use much wall color, there is definitely no lack of color in these rooms.

This might possibly be my dream dining room, casual but still elegant with an eclectic mix of antique and modern pieces. (I have been known to change my mind quite often though...)

I've recently noticed that I have a thing for oversized lanterns in dining rooms.

Gorgeous armoire!

a little teaser...

The firm I work at is participating in SF's Dining by Design event this month (this is our third year!) so today we had a photo shoot at the design center and we mocked up a vignette of our table for this year. This has to be one of my favorite events of the year. Always a lot of prep work and stress, but we work so well as a team that it's always fun and we are always happy with the final product!

Below is our table from 2008's DBD...

Obviously the theme here was "Breakfast at Tiffany's". I loved the retro feel of this design. By the way, my boss custom designed those lovely folding screens which I then painted an gilded (I actually like painting, so it wasn't that bad at all and she helped me gild too). I think there were 14 all-together! My boss even threw in a "Special Thank You" to me on our page in the brochure for the event, so sweet!

Below (and not the best picture, but I couldn't find another one) is our table from 2007. The theme was, oddly enough, the 1960s version of the "The Prisoner", notice the numbered place cards on the table (Number 6: "I am not a number, I am a free man"). What can I say, apparently we were ahead of our time on pop culture trends, we had no idea they would re-make the original 1960s show two years later. I have a feeling if we had chosen this theme this year A LOT more people would know what it was than 2 years ago.

If you're wondering what I painted for this DBD, do you see the checkerboard grass? Well, you can't really see the awesomeness of it, but yes, I painted the checkerboard on it and it was quite a tedious process.

busy busy busy...

There has been a lack of posting again....

I've been really busy at work lately because we have a few events and deadlines coming up so I've been neglecting the blog. I did, however, do a couple fun things last week!

On Wednesday I went to the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show Gala Preview Party with my co-workers. So so sooooo much fun! Loved it. It was basically a preview cocktail party for the Fall Antiques Show which opened to the public the next day. I had no idea that it was supposedly the kick-off party for the wealthy social scene in SF. Lots of Chanel, Prada, Louis Vuitton, I was hoping no one noticed my Target shoes ;)

Interesting fact about the Fall Antiques Show according to 7x7 Magazine... "Every year, this party has the largest single-night caviar consumption in the continental United States".

Damn, I should have eaten some caviar, it was free! But I think I was too intimidated by the the crowds of women with giant diamonds on their fingers hounding the caviar tables--not to mention, I had chipped fingernail polish, heaven forbid! (I have taken plenty of mental notes if I attend next year).

Anyways, it was awesome. And the people watching was even better.

On Saturday I went back to the Antiques Show with my good friend to see a lecture given by legendary San Francisco designer Suzanne Tucker of Tucker & Marks. It was such a good lecture. She was very laid back and seems like a very personable person for the amount of success she has had. Not stuffy at all!

While her work is VERY, and I mean VERY, high end, she has a very classic and timeless aesthetic. She has a wonderful eye for mixing antiques and contemporary pieces. You can't tell from the pictures, but during the lecture she explained a lot of her projects and her work really embodies the lifestyle and personalities of her clients.

Enough with the chit chat, here are some of my favorites....

Tucker & Marks