EXTERIOR PAINT FACE-LIFT

Don't get me started on how I feel about beige. In my opinion 90% of the time it is the worst color choice for your home. Beige sucks the life out of everything around it. It's so blah! Ugh. The worst.

So when my sister asked me to help her with her newly-purchased home, one of the first things we agreed on was the exterior needed to be painted.

Here is the before:

It really is a nice home, but with such a beautiful landscape and cool front door, the home needed fresher colors to help update it's look. We decided to go for a more "California" inspired look.

 

*The white is brighter in these photos than in real life* 

I am in love with the Benjamin Moore Woodlawn Blue front door. It's such a pretty front door - it's nice that it will finally be noticed. And yes, please ignore the fact that my sister has not taken her Christmas lights down!! 

But isn't it a nice change and what a difference it made! Before the home just blended in, but now the greens look greener and the florals are more beautiful. You notice the stone accents and the front door. All of the details come to life. 

Are you getting the itch to paint your exterior? I know that it's one of my favorite updates to a home. We are working on some exterior updates on my home as well. Update to follow soon...

WHAT'S UP - 10.1.12

This post was meant for Friday but that's the kind of week I've been having - I'm behind on everything! Sometimes I feel a little burned out and I don't want anything to do with work when I'm not working. But after my weekend of no blogs, design magazines, work, and (almost) no Pinterest I am excited to be back.

+ Last week Jamie and I worked on the N Street project quite a bit. We narrowed down our exterior paint colors for this historical home to two colors...

Benjamin Moore's Amherst Gray 

OR

Benjamin Moore Whale Gray

Exterior paint colors are tricky because when you are dealing with paint on this large of scale it is hard to imagine the paint on the whole house. It's way easier to work off of pictures so you can see what it looks like on a grand scale. I'll be picking up samples of the paint today and trying it on the house. ALWAYS paint samples!! That is a very expensive lesson I have definitely learned!

+ I've been looking for really cool black + white tile patterns for a client who is redoing their master bathroom. We have been inspired by these photos...

We are loving this tile from Ann Sacks (but don't love the price :)

This tile from Ann Sacks is also very fabulous.

This bathroom is so amazing and expensive (marble slabs on the walls!!) I love the floor!

+ Jamie has been searching for another client who is looking for rugs. I'm the biggest fan of Madeline Weinrib but she also found some other fantastic rugs that would look amazing in her home.

Madeline Weinrib

But I also love these beauties as well!

I could do a very long (Tolstoy long) blog post on rugs. But I would love to hear from you if you have a rug you recently bought and love. Especially if you got a great deal on it and it looks like you paid a lot more :) 

+  And it's this little girl's birthday in one week and I'm trying to throw together a game plan for her birthday party. Turning 4 is a big deal! 

You have to see this kitchen we bought for her birthday. I wanted the Pottery Barn one, but it wasn't a $700 want. I mostly wanted the PB one because it came in white. All of the other kitchens are so gender specific and we are hoping to one day have a boy and I don't want him to feel like he lives in a sea of pink. So, when I found this KidKraft all-wood turquoise kitchen it was an instant buy. 

Someone is going to have a very happy birthday!

Hope you all had a fantastic week.
And that's what's up!

BEAUTIFUL EXTERIORS

A friend of mine is thinking of building a home soon so I have been looking at exteriors and dreaming of what my own home would look like if I had the opportunity to build (with a good amount of money :)

Here are some of my favorites...

West Coast/Contemporary

a courtyard pool is a must!

a shout-out to Mad Men style

Traditional/East Coast/French