Details from the Designer - Vol. 3

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Happy September, Everyone! It’s my favorite month of the year. I’m looking forward to apple pies, chilly nights that require sweaters, surprisingly hot days when I can still wear sandals, watching my kids play all the fall sports (so many), season two of Welcome to Wrexham (Tuesday, Sept. 12) and a blowout stockroom sale to celebrate ONE YEAR in our studio!!! Details will be solidified and shared in the coming weeks.

For this month’s edition of Details from the Designer, I have included some art in the Styling Breakdown and an excellent Amazon fashion find. Enjoy the start of this new season!

Styling Breakdown

SOURCE LIST

Keeping Myself Busy

I’ve been reading the book The Seven Husband’s of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid and listening to the book Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant. I’m usually a one book person but these are very different genres and very different topics, and I read one before bed and listen to the other in the car and it’s somehow all working! I realize I’m behind the buzz when it comes to The Seven Husband’s of Evelyn Hugo, but I never stumbled upon spoilers so the end is still completely unknown to me. And I’m clueless, which I love. Think Again is one of the more powerful nonfictions I’ve read in a very long time. It’s part about how to change other people’s mind, part about how to change your own mind and part about the sheer power of edits/revisions/feedback/criticism and the like.

Fashion Find

I have owned the medium transport tote from Madewell forever. It’s such a classic bag that works just as well heading to the gym as it does heading to a client meeting. The leather wears beautifully and it holds so much without being a truly large tote. BUT, the cross body strap on mine broke off a few weeks back. The metal piece that attaches the leather literally snapped. The bag does hold a lot, but I’ve always pushed whatever weight limit may/should exist (a tape measure alone is 2 lbs). So, I decided to get a new strap and found this one on Amazon. It’s comfortable, coordinates beautifully with the english saddle color and looks good. Not quite a Parker Thatch (SO pretty)…but I’m very happy with it.

Local Fun

I took my daughters back-to-school shopping at Love Struck in Reading a couple weeks ago. I had never been and I fell in love. I was, in fact, love struck with Love Struck. It is a woman owned business and we were assisted by the owner herself and her incredibly sweet daughter. The selection is absolutely perfect for tween and teenage girls. Cool, fun, unique pieces. The store is beautifully decorated and my girls and their friends had a whole Pretty Woman afternoon trying on options. There is absolutely a bigger price point that comes with the style and quality, so we found first-day-school-outfits and not wardrobes. But, we are all obsessed with what we found and will absolutely return for the next special occasion.

Until October!

Cheers, Leah

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Details from the Designer - Vol. 2

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I’m off to a great start - two months in a row of these fun newsletters! Going strong.

August is a favorite around here. It’s about slowing down and even taking a full pause to breath in the second half of summer before the rush of September. We’ll share lots of project updates on social media throughout the month, but we will also try our best to be a little unplugged as we focus on family and ice cream.

Styling Breakdown

 

Photo credit: Kendall pestana

 

Today I’m sharing a pretty and purposeful kitchen vignette from our Fairchild Project. Everyone has a counter in their kitchen and yours can look like this with relative ease. It’s a spot for your frequently used cookbooks, so you’re not searching through the back of a cabinet above your fridge (or where ever you hide all your cookbooks), a beautiful storage container and a fruit bowl. For mini open shelves, we suggest tiny plants and stacks of little bowls.

SOURCE LIST

Keeping Myself Busy

I first heard about Drive to Survive on the Armchair Expert podcast. Thereafter it felt like friend after friend was talking about it. Raving about it. Addicted to it. It’s a documentary on Formula 1 racing. To me, it’s somewhere between Real Housewives and Fox Sports (or NESN if you’re local). A mix of big egos and fierce competition all set in a ultra boujee circumstances. I can’t believe I’m obsessively binging a show about car racing. This is not me. But…it is.

Fashion Find

It’s too early to wear cardigans, but not too early to get your fall wardrobe in order. Add just a few new things that will make your whole closet feel fresh. This cardigan was new to my wardrobe last fall and it was a quick favorite. Classic, quality and so, so pretty. It always evoked a compliment. There are too many beautiful colors to choose - I went with Rosewood, but I’m now eyeing the Birch (below).

 
 

Local Fun

Did you know that Treehouse Brewery hosts live events, including concerts? At the end of this month, the Deerfield location is hosting Trombone Shorty. You can sip THE best beer (literally) and listen to excellent jazz. Sounds delightful.

Let’s see if I can keep this up! And please let me know about any local events, stores or restaurants that you’re loving. I would love to share them in my upcoming posts.

Cheers, Leah

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Fern Playroom - Reveal

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I’m surprising you with a fun reveal today. Frankly, I’m surprising myself. Turns out I’m going for gold with this re-commitment to the blog.

The playroom from our Fern Project has a few easy and inexpensive design details you can consider for your home. The truth is that most playrooms will look this great only once a year (or however often you choose to clean and/or overhaul yours). But, at least if you start from a point of pretty organization you can journey your way back once in a while.

We chose wall mounted bookshelves because they are particularly narrow. The idea is to keep as much space as possible open for play. And the etagere style (no solid sides) makes them feel airy and less visually obtrusive. We chose white, but these shelves also comes in black. We could see a cool, teenage hangout making great use of the black version. Bins of video games, books and board games instead of blocks, toy food and trucks. And we have also used this look for less.

 
 

For the lowest shelves, we love acrylic bins with an opening in the front. The clear material lets kiddos see what is being stored and the dipped opening lets them easily help themselves. Seagrass baskets on the next two shelves create true hidden storage. Over the year (maybe on a monthly basis), toys can be rotated from the seagrass baskets to the acrylic baskets to reignite interest in forgotten toys and hide toys that have lost their luster.

The top two shelves were saved for true decor - framed family photos or kid art and plants - and some larger toys or books that require adult supervision or assistance. It’s also a nice spot for sentimental toys that are more for display than play.

 
 

For this room, we had plenty of space to add a table and chairs that can be used for puzzles or art or playing. A solid color, flat weave rug in a rich shade of blue anchors the room. We often choose solid colors for playrooms because there is enough color chaos with all the toys. A simple, plain rug is a nice backdrop for the naturally occurring rainbow.

 
 

And we always recommend a lidded basket to throw all the extraneous toys that you don’t feel like sorting out (or don’t have time to sort out). More than one is even better!

Maybe this is your inspiration to do that annual playroom overhaul?! Add a few storage elements. Clear out some broken toys or games with missing pieces. Donate a few books that your kids have aged out of. It certainly is for me!

Cheers, Leah

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