Tablescape: Going Coastal

With Spring around the corner I was in the mood to update the tablescaping on my repurposed IKEA Lack table. Here's what I put together:

Found the starfish and shell on sale about 2 years ago.

 

I also use the shell to store our 3 remote controls - decorative and functional!

The coral was purchased at a pet store last year. Keeping it in tact with a 3 year old is proving to be quite the challenge. I stacked a few Louis Vuitton boxes underneath for added height.

I broke off a few twigs from a small tree to frame the tablescape.

Voila! The outcome? A quick and simple change that is also reflection of the island girl that I am.

And here she is... my first legit publication

I know it's been two months since the July 2012 Real Living issue came out featuring Noah's Room. When my mom visited last month she brought me a few copies from the Philippines but with all the traveling I couldn't get it up here until now.

But anyway, here are the pictures of the actual magazine, in July I posted pictures of the electronic version. Nothing like the real thing tho :)

Obviously the cover page

Page 24... first cover story of the lot!

Et voila! Noah in his jammies lol.

 

 

The write-up... if you can read it :)

 

Noah lounging in his chair. That hair, yeah, that's why I stopped cutting his hair, so he won't hate me for the rest of his life haha.



If you click on the image above (or any of the other images) a close-up of it will pop up for easier reading.

Thanks for joining me in this fun ride of creating a happy space for Noah. In the next month or two we may be moving out of our current rental and into another home... which means another kids room challenge may be in the horizon!

My Summer 2012 Travel Diary: Paris Part 2

Welcome to the continuation of my Paris holiday, the first leg of summer travels. For Part I of my Paris trip please click here.

Where were we? Oh, on one of the days we took a cruise along the River Seine. It was a nice way to see the major sites without exhausting ourselves.


I took this same cruise with my husband after our wedding years ago. Funny to think that I've returned with a son in tow! 

During the cruise we passed Pont des Arts, a pedestrian bridge made out of metal. See all the padlocks attached to the railings? It's a tradition for lovers to wish for everlasting love by securing a padlock to the railing and throwing the keys in the water. I'm suprised there weren't any vendors selling locks nearby.

After the cruise I explored these stalls along Pont Neuf, the Seine's oldest (rebuilt) bridge. The vendors mostly sold vintage goods (books, magazines etc) and souvenirs. I ended up buying several fashion magazines (Circa 1920-40s) and vintage posters which I can't wait to frame.

While walking the streets of Paris one thing I kept admiring was the application of gold and bronze gilding on everything and anything possible.


It's as if they've adorned the city with jewelry.

How majestic is this?

It wasn't enough to have one winged horse dripping in gold, no, they had to have another one on the other side too.

I wasn't exaggerating when I said there was gold everywhere!
In fashion the French may be masters of understated elegance but when it comes to architecture "understated" it is not.

I also loved the random bursts of color in a sea of grey structures.

 

 

Another thing I appreciate is the attention to detail in the mundane things. Check out the beautiful carvings on this lamp post. Apparently the French left nothing untouched.

Paris was indeed a feast for the eyes. Even Noah agrees, here he is admiring Gucci's window display.

Uhh Noah, your taste is too expensive for a 2.5 yo. Plus, you need a job to buy those.

Speaking of window displays, I was amused by this storefront display on Rue de St. Honore.


The sheep was a witty way to represent Fall season/collection.

Now here is a feast in the literal sense.



Why wait in line for an iphone at the Apple Store when you can have these?

 

And that my friends concludes my Paris adventures. I hope you enjoyed looking at my pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them. If you couldn't get enough, visit soon for pictures from our next destination, Roma. Ciao!

 

 

Room Tour: Noah's Room

Almost a year ago I blogged about painting a tree mural in my son Noah's room. Well, I've finally taken photos of not just the finished mural but also the rest of the space.

With all the possibilities for Noah's room, I really had a hard time honing in on a concept. Shopping one day, I came across a rug (pic above) in neutral colors which tied in nicely with the existing flooring in his room. It had a playful tree bark texture which gave me the idea of incorporating nature and the outdoors. Slowly a concept for the room started to come together.

IKEA Lack table Rehashed

A few weeks ago I was browsing through some really creative repurposed IKEA products on Ikeahackers.net. Being an IKEA hacker myself, I was inspired to submit my repurposed Lack side table. I waited, and waited, and waited for my hack to be posted but it never showed up, that is until yesterday.

A more recent picture of the table

Magazine Files: Mediterranean Villa

The other day at the bookstore I picked up this month's UK edition of '25 Beautiful Homes' magazine. I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of the 25 homes featured is located along the mediterranean coast of Turkey (representing!). Very rarely are homes in this part of Europe featured in international shelter magazines so this is a big deal, for me anyway :)

Coincidentally, this villa is located in Kalkan, a vacation town I visited with the Mister a few years ago. According to the article Kalkan is supposedly the "Beverly Hills" of that part of the Mediterranean which I didn't know at the time I was there. I'll include my pictures from that my, but first I want to show you this villa.
This 8-bedroom home was built from scratch by a gentleman from the UK. It took 2 years to be completed because local restrictions prevented him from doing any construction work in the summer. Interesting fact. Of course my favorite thing about this place is the spectacular view of the turquoise water, or turkuaz as locals would say. Here are the photos of the villa and a glimpse of one of Turkey's many, many gorgeous summer destinations.

~ That view, that view, that view! A-mazing. On that note, I think I would have preferred to see glass balustrade to maximize on the view of the sea from those comfy looking lounge chairs ~

Seat Cover for Boys

A few months ago I met a mom and her son who is only a few months older than Noah. We became dear friends but sadly she is leaving the country for good. The other day I accompanied her shopping for a booster seat for her son to sit on in the plane. She found what she was looking for, it was light and compact, however it only came in pink and it was as girly as they come.

~ This is what we found but they sold out of the boy version and this was their last piece ~

So I offered to sew a more boyish looking cover thinking it would be easy to whip up. At first I was just going to sew together some left over fabric to go over the existing pink cover, but as I was working on it I decided to customize it a bit and add her son's intial to the cover.

Ikat Invasion

Not all interior and fashion trends in the States make their way to Turkey. The color 'grey' for home interiors, and Pantone's color of the year 'honeysuckle' for example have remained on the other side of the pond, for now anyway. Hence I was really surprised to see a lot of ikat prints appearing in shelves of home and fashion stores around here. Bathing suits, tea cups, trays, rugs, you name it, its got ikat all over it.

I think more than any other print this season the ikat stands out the most to me because I studied the technique in a Textiles class. I won't bore you with the details (well, that and I cant remember the exact process), but naturally when I walk into a store the print is the first thing that catches my attention. Anyway, here are pictures of some ikat items that I've come across in my window shopping expeditions, starting with a bikini below...

A catalogue picture of the bikini

DIY: Tree Mural

UPDATE: This tree mural is finally complete!!! If you want to see a more recent blog about this please click here.

I wanted to share with you a sneak peak of a project I've been working on for Noah's room.

For the longest time I didn't know what direction to go in his nursery. It wasn't until recently when we finally found a decent rug for his room that I felt like I had a good starting point. The rug (pic below) is neutral and has a playful texture similar to tree bark.

Outcome of my repurposed furniture

UPDATE: Click here to read a more recent (newer pics) post of this Lack table.

So it didn't take a day to build the frame for my repurposed IKEA Lack side table as promised by the metal shop (referring to previous blog post). But I'm not complaining because it was well worth the wait. In 2 days my IKEA side table was transformed from THIS:

TO THIS:

What do you think? Are we a furniture designer in the making? Just kidding. But honestly it's not bad right?! Certainly a vast improvement from what it was before.

Dont forget to check out this more recent post on the above table.

Window shopping adventures

Yesterday Noah and I spent some time at a nearby mall while hubby was out car shopping. My goal was to get an idea of what's available for home furnishings to decorate our home with. Took some pictures of items that gave me some ideas/inspiration. Thought I would share what I've found so far.

PS photos were taken with my phone's camera so quality may not be the best. Also, I'm never sure if I'm allowed to take pictures in stores (most likely not) so these were taken in a rush, I apologize for poor styling/composition. Here they are:


Stepped into Zara Home. Until I came to Turkey I had no idea Zara had a Home store, did you? I love the texture on this bleach white bathroom set.



We are in desperate need of curtains at home. At the present time we have borrowed curtains installed. I've been debating on whether to purchase neutral colored curtains or add a pop of color. Saw the tan striped curtain in the middle (top photo), and the light mocha on the very left (bottom photo) which both work with a neutral color scheme, however prices are not cooperating - I think they were selling at $100 each! I thought the concept behind Zara was trendy yet affordable?!


Also need to replace our light fixtures for all our rooms. The trend in Turkey seems to be crystal chandeliers which is too formal for my taste, and prob wouldn't mesh well with my not so high-end furnishings. I'm looking for a simple, oversized pendant lamp shade. Saw these lanterns in Pasabahce (our version of Crate and Barel) and thought it would be fun to convert the tall, round lantern into a pendant light fixture. It's not a lampshade but it's oversized which is what I'm looking for. Wouldnt that bring character to a room?


This picture makes me wish I had taken a proper camera with me because it doesn't do the colors on the mugs any justice. Color and pattern would make a great jumping off point to decorate a room.


This display was at the entrance of the mall. Good thing Noah was napping when we passed this because he would have been terrified for life at the sight of these maneqins or whatever on earth they are. My guess is this is a display on the history of fashion, but for heavens sake, are those monster-like mannequins necessary? Check out the arm on the left dummy and the Egyptian cat face on the "lady".


Here's a pic of my local GAP store. The display is a bland black and white, a far cry from the colorful window display I'm used to at Copley Mall. Hey at least we have GAP right!


Last but not lease, a pic of mama + baby taking a coffee break. The barristo made my day - when asked how old I was I asked him to guess and he said 24! Hey at least he didn't say 15 which is what the guy at my (former) local CVS said.

Design your own fabric!

Best discovery of the day - Spoonflower.

In my hunt for design inspiration for my little man's nursery I came accross the above website which allows you to design your own fabric and then have it printed. To quote my hubby "Where have you been all my life???"

This website has opened all kinds of options for DIY'ers or aspiring ones like myself. I'm no longer limited to the monotonous options available at fabric stores in Ulus, this discovery means I can design bold prints, bright prints, any print! I can customize the upholstery for our sofa, pillows, drapes, bedding, and create harmonious looking rooms. Spoonflower also offers international shipping which puts the icing on the cake. And if I am feeling too lazy to design my own fabric I can purchase designs previously submitted by others. How fantastic is that.



Right off the bat this robot print stood out for me. Last year owls were big in nurseries, this year vintage robots seem to be making a comeback.

My dilemna for Noah's room is what design element to feature. Do I want objects found in nature (trees, plants...animals?), or man-made/mechanical objects (robots, cars, trains), or what about something educational (letters, numbers)? Hmm....

Noah's Nursery

We've only just started apartment hunting but I'm already bursting with excitement for Noah's room. In our last apartment we shared our one bedroom with Noah. In our next apartment our baby will be getting his own room and I finally get the chance to decorate a nursery.

I've been pulling inspiration from different websites and TV shows. I love, love, love Sarah Richardson's HGTV show called "Sarah's House". In one of the seasons she designed a simple nursery and added visual interest by use of patterned fabrics.







I cannot express how much I am in love with this room. The furniture is simple, the color palette soothing, she manages to make all the magic happen with the combination of fun fabric patterns on the drapery, chairs and ottomans. Let me not forget to acknowledge the creative use of the alphabet on the walls and the split wall colors. I am almost tempted to duplicate this exact room, but that would be shameful considering my "design" background.

I'm going to continue pulling inspiration from other sources. My next target is to sift through Ohdeedoh's website (Apartment Therapy's sister site). I've already taken a sneak peak at the nursery tours and am already tickled with excitement. Noah's room, here I come!

What about you, if you could design a nursery what would it look like?