Master Bedroom Reveal...

That's right - my master bedroom, which we talked about so much a few months ago, is now on HGTV.com.  Pop on over today and check out how fab the space turned out.

Click here!


Note :: The pink wall is Benjamin Moore Pink Flamingo, the blue wall is Benjamin Moore Indigo-go, and white is Benjamin Moore Gardenia - all were painted with the new Aura paint.

at what point is it too much pattern?

I'm not sure I can judge anymore...

Bedroom Redux

The basement is finished.  You haven't seen images because we haven't hung pictures or done any 'last minute' touch ups because the sun came out.  When the sun comes out in Seattle, you go outside.  Immediately.  You never know how long it could last.

Now that our basement is shiny and lovely, the rest of our house looks quite shabby.  When we moved into this house I was very pregnant.  Instead of worrying about paint colors, clean carpets, or even furniture layout, I was worried about getting the stuff we needed out of boxes.  The master bedroom was especially neglected.

So when Benjamin Moore invited me to choose two colors of paint to make over any room of the house I immediately started dreaming of a bedroom that doesn't make me gag.

I decided to do something super fun, slightly romantic, and filled with personality.

rug (similar) :: mirror :: lamps :: linens :: pink paint :: blue paint

A very happy B Day

In honor of my sister's birthday, we hosted a sit down dinner for thirty people at our house.  It was a really fun and over the top evening with rented tables and chairs, champagne toasts, and an abundance of "B"s.  My sister has always chosen Bs - both the letter and the insect - to have have around her.  It seemed appropriate to flood the room with a big green B (her initial).

I made a stamp (tutorial to come later this week) to stamp the napkins and the kraft paper covering the tables.  The theme was carried through in a banner and tiny tags on the herb plant favors.

While we may have taken the party slightly over the top (overheard :: "This is the nicest wedding I've ever been to.") there are elements that are super easy for you to recreate for your own party.  All week I'll share with you the elements so you can host your own B Day party.

Happy B Day!

Color of the Month :: May Brass

domino magazine

I am super crazy into brass right now.  The funny thing about being into something like this is that it's still considered "old lady" by the vast majority of people, but a select handful (I call them the cool kids) are starting to use shiny brass.

It's totally making a comeback.  You can quote me.

While I wait for the rest of the world to catch up to me, I am struggling with finding fixtures and finishes for the basement that are shiny brass.  I found pulls for the cabinets at a salvage, the door hinges were easy because brass is a stock choice, the knobs were available but the hardware shop had a hard time finding them because no one had ever ordered brass before, and the problem has come down to faucets.

my board for the basement

The bathroom has chrome finishes because it was easiest (and brass actually makes Mr. Hedin roll his eyes).  But the other spaces will have brass.  It's just going to be a trick finding brass faucets that don't look like your grandma just moved out.  Or that it's left over from 1986.

If anyone has suggestions for faucets that are modern and brass, please let me know!  Otherwise, you can follow me on Pinterest for all of my brass finds and loves.  I LOVE BRASS!


Find January Yellow here
Find Febraruy Funfetti here
Find March Turquoise here
Find April Purple here

Weekend Chevron

This weekend I was swathed in chevron print fabric as I *almost* finished the cushions for the little couches in the living room.

*BEFORE*

*AFTER*

 I say *almost* because I made one two inches too big.  I have to remove the zipper and start over.  That did not sound fun.

House Projects :: Really ugly wall

Our house was a major grandma house for a really long time before we bought it.  She had espaliered everything around the house to grow "artfully" against the walls.  There are some that look cool, and some that don't.  Unfortunately, right outside of our back window was a major "don't."

So we took it down.  Built a wood frame and covered the frame with yellow boat fabric.  It won't fade or streak and it's a great nod to the modern influence slowing invading our home.  It also covers the unpainted sections that were behind the tree and the massive number of staples and nails that had been used to train the tree.

Here's the inspiration ::

Color of the Month :: Yellow!

So I get that Pantone is the expert on color.  But orange?  You can call it what you will, but orange is as tired as Mario Batali's crocs.  As tired as the handles on Rachael Ray's cookware.  As tired as Snooki's tan.

You get the picture.  I don't agree that orange is the color of the year.

I love color an find myself strategizing new ways to bring new colors into my house.  With bright green floors, my palette for adding more color is limited.  But I thought I'd share what I'm thinking for color each month.  I'll also be posting boards on Pintrest with my new favorite color.

This month I'm thinking yellow.  I've been loving yellow for a while, and now with snow on the ground I'm craving the bright color even more.

In our house I want to incorporate a lot of yellow in the basement.  It's not a particularly dark basement, but it's still a basement and it will feel pretty dark once the walls are up, etc.

This photo is my inspiration.  I love the colors, the textures, and the elegance of the space.  So in the basement I'm painting one wall black.  I think.  I'm nervous to do it - but it would look pretty cool.  Then I'm adding a yellow pattern fabric to the walls around the 'bar' area and a butcher block countertop.  It's going to look awesome.  And if by some miracle I find upper cabinets that are glass with limited metal framing around them (think like a pharmacy cabinet) the look will be complete.  I can't wait to get started on it!

The Hedin House at Christmas

Christmas this year feels a little scattered.  A lot of that has to do with the fact that our Christmas decorations and other bits are stored in a variety of locations depending on when they were moved out of the house.  Some have never even been in the new house.  They didn't make it out of storage before we began the remodel.

And so, this year, there are things that are missing.  Our traditional advent calendar is in a box.  As are our stockings.  And our Christmas books.  But we've (read :: I've) made the house festive despite the missing items and I dare say it looks fabulous.

For reasons I'm not questioning, Mr. Hedin thought a white tree was as good of an idea as I did.  That rarely happens.  It may have had something to do with my non-stop chatter about how divine a white or flocked tree would be and he gave in.  What ever the case, I love it.

It's the first year my pink flamingo looks good on the tree.  It usually looks large and awkward and I always hope for a gaping hole in the tree so it can have a home.  I also decorated with glittered pinecones.  They were a score from last year - from Walmart of all places!  My mom and I found ourselves there on Whidbey Island and the Christmas decorations were all 80% off.  I stocked up.

I have only wrapped a small number of packages, but what I have wrapped is in bright colors.  Who says Christmas has to be drab?  Certainly not me.  (See here for further proof)

Yes, those are Tiffany boxes.  If you haven't checked out the selection of Tiffany glassware and crystal you are missing out on an affordable luxury that is a FAB gift.  No one knows just how reasonable some things are - especially when they are cloaked in a pale blue box.

The bar.  And I scored a set of gold rimmed champagne coupes last week that I adore.  They are featured in an upcoming 425 Magazine shoot - I can't wait to see the photos!

Merry Christmas!  Next year I hope to have everything present and accounted for!

Craft it :: Beyond Easy Candle Holders

Truly - the most simple candle holder ever.  Mostly because Mr. Hedin does the actual work.  But even then, it's not really work.  And because they are dirt cheap and easy you can make them for any reason - and paint them any color.  Adding more colors of spray paint actually helps them as they age and gain a nice thick coat of paint.

You'll need
2x4 pieces of wood cut into 3.75 inch lengths
Drill + 1 inch drill bit
Metal tape
Hammer
Nails
Spray Paint

Step 1 :: Drill a hole in the center of each 2x4 square of wood being careful not to go all the way through.
Step 2 :: Spray paint wood covering entirely.
Step 3 :: Wrap around the wood with metal tape.
Step 4 :: Hammer a nail into the end of the tape to secure.

(this is before I fancied them up - the candlesticks too)

Craft it :: Sparkly Candles

I love the idea of glittery candles - but I didn't want to run out to the store to find one.  Plus it seemed a waste because I had a cabinet full of plain white candles from Ikea.  So I decided to make my own.


Glittery Candles

You'll need ::
Plain candles
Blue tape
Spray Glue
Glitter

Step 1 :: Wrap the top and bottom of each candle with blue tape.
Step 2 :: Spray candles with spray glue.
Step 3 :: Roll candle in glitter.
Step 4 :: Unwrap tape and place candle in candle holder.
Step 5 :: Light candle

Inspiration :: Lopez Island Retreat

Did you see this fab cabin on Design*Sponge yesterday?  I love the mid-century-ness of it all - and the fact that it's all original.  Amazing that it wasn't "fixed up" in the '80's.

See the rest of the house here.

House Projects :: Living Room Shelves

Our living room is long and a little awkward.  The space is so vastly different from our old house.  At the old house we had to make use of every little nook and cranny just to make the space seem large enough to fit a couch.  

Now we have plenty of room for couches and chairs and bikes to all live in the same space.  It's really lovely.  The only thing we are missing now is storage!  At the old house we had fabulous shelves that Mr. Hedin built to hold the massive quantity of books we have collected over the years.  I don't think anyone realized how many books we owned because the shelves held so many so well.  

The Seattle Times ran an article a little while ago with the above modern house.  The shelves that are hanging on the wall were perfect for our house.  There is a mid-century vibe in the house that I would love to run with.  It helps that all of our furniture is vintage too...

Since Mr. Hedin is my resident carpenter (and he's awesome at it) I drew up a picture of what I wanted and handed it off.  Unfortunately, this isn't the only drawing I have handed off for him to create and the list of projects is ever growing.  It fell to the bottom of the list and I was annoyed.  It would be so nice to just have the living room done!

Then, scanning through Crate and Barrel, my mom found almost the same cabinets.  Fate!  I was beyond thrilled because if C&B builds them, then the only challenge for Mr. Hedin is hanging them.  Hooray!

Over the weekend he hung them up!  I am so thrilled.  They look great - but now I still have oodles of books to stash somewhere and Mr. Hedin doesn't want me loading these up too much in case the brackets don't hold 500,000 pounds of books.  But it's a great start.  Now we need to get the TV hooked up and hung on the wall and that end of the room is finished.  Just a few more projects to go...

Next up, recovering the small couches in a zig-zag fabric from Spoonflower.

Our New House :: The living room, v2

Our living room is making slow progress.  Mostly because everything costs a lot of money and we want to be really thoughtful about what we are doing.  Also, we have a lot going on and this room is perfectly comfortable - just not entirely attractive...

But not having a TV in this room is starting to get REALLY old.  Our only TV that's hooked up (outside of the master bedroom) is in the kitchen.  Most of the time, that's great; morning news, cartoons, it's fine.  But at night it's a little rough - and our poor nanny has sat hunched on a little stool in the kitchen while she waits for us to come home.  So getting the television situated has risen up the ladder of importance.

The original plan for this room was to build a long thin console - as inspired by the many mid-century homes we looked at - but in white to make it fit in our style.

While it's been on Mr. Hedin's task list, so have a lot of other things, like taking the kids so I can have a break.  As we've evaluated Mr. Hedin's task list we've realized that we're not going to get as many things built ourselves as we did in the last house AND that it takes a lot longer when you have a three year old helping and a one year old stealing your tools.

Lucky for us, we found almost exactly what we were looking for in the latest Crate and Barrel catalogue.  It's white and shiny but has silver handles instead of the brushed brass that I wanted.  But it's done.  And, quite frankly, probably cheaper than if Mr. Hedin built it and I had it painted in white lacquer.

So it's on order.

The hard part about buying something and not just building it in place is figuring out the scale.  At the store, they look tiny.  But the store is huge.  So that's not really a good judge.

Mr. Hedin and I together make up the most anal retentive couple you know.   So out came the blue tape!  I measured the wall and placed the blue tape where the cabinets would go.  This isn't the first time blue tape has been employed and we were a bit low.  So I only got one cabinet on the wall + the base of the second one.

It's a perfect fit.  So the cabinets are on order.  Now the only thing Mr. Hedin has to figure out is how to hang them on the wall.  Because I don't want them on the floor - that's not the look...

Our New House :: The dining room

Originally I had talked about moving the dining room into where the living room is.  We tried it.  No one liked it.  It felt awkward or like maybe I was trying to hard.  What ever the reason, it just was weird.  So we moved the table back to where it was intended to be and the room felt a little better.

BEFORE

The only looming problem was the most hideous chandelier you've ever seen.  I know that the previous owners removed the original lighting to sell the house and installed some 'new' pieces - this was one of them.  Unfortunate, really, because I think I would have probably dug the original.  Or at least liked it better.

DURING

The old light  ::  Mr. Hedin (in the mirror) getting ready to hang the new one

I scoured through Design within Reach and Rejuvenation to find something to replace the light.  Nothing especially jumped out at me and, as I'm sure you can imagine, I complained about the light to everyone who came over.  It paid off!  My painter, and friend, just happened to have old '60s lamps in the attic.  No one was using them!  Can you believe it?  So she painted it white for me and we hung it up this weekend.

I am thrilled.  It's so much better.  It's so cool.  And at last I feel like another room is completed... for now.

AFTER

Royal Inspiration

Paper Dolls!

I'm not really the kind of girl to get all bent about someone elses wedding.  Especially celebrity weddings.  And the royal wedding has proved no different.  I wasn't up at 1am watching the ceremony but I will be watching all of the highlights and recaps this morning.  

However, all this wedding talk - with lots of lovely British accents - has had me thinking about the Union Jack.  It's such a remarkable symbol of the British people and has become an icon recently in interior design, popping up almost everywhere.  

Via Design*Sponge

If I were a little more English.  Or had been to London more than once, I may consider this for a dresser that I am painting.  

via Daily Mail

via homedit.com

from Andrew Martin

from Hudson Goods

It kind of makes me want to do something fun with the American flag image.  But does that seem wrong?  And somehow, it seems a lot less hip.  It has a super country vibe.  I wonder how we could change that...  What could we do to 'hip' it up and make it a modern statement the way the Union Jack has become a modern icon?

Laurel Adams Design

House Beautiful

Meredith Hutchinson Interiors

Let's brainstorm...  I'll see what I can come up with and you throw your ideas my way!