Tag: Target

Pink Skirted Library Chairs
I had thought that the round Dawson table made its way here sometime in the past year, but looking back through my archives I see that it arrived mid-2015. So I’ve been looking for chairs for the library for a year and a half. (I mean, it’s not like I would wake up everyday and search, but on and off for sure.)

Then I came across these Nate Berkus skirted slipper chairs at Target. I had been thinking of going with a skirted chair, but most were a bit more than I was hoping to spend. Restoration Hardware has beautiful options. Ballard Designs offered several, including with an interesting camelback design. Even IKEA’s skirted Parsons chair was a contender, with or without a new slipcover, though the shape wasn’t interesting enough to persuade me.

I Photoshopped the new Target chairs into my mockup file, thought about it for a day or two, then placed my order. (You’ve seen this mockup before, with different options. These lights and sconces, and now chairs, have all been made reality.)

Of course, in between ordering the chairs and waiting for them to arrive, a new contender entered the ring.

SO PRETTY. But really, I’ve gone down the road of those metallic legs before. That was my biggest dislike with these temporary chairs in the space. Still, very tempting, West Elm!

Anyway. I mentioned on Instagram that I chose these chairs for several reasons:
1. the right shade of pink (blush, on the peachy side)
2. skirted, to break up the leggy furniture and all of the wood in the room
3. slipcovered (hello, three messy children)
4. the right size and scale, and the back has an interesting details
5. they fit my budget (I cashed out credit card points to buy them)
I’m always thinking I should sell the striped sofa because it’s too big for the space, but I do love it. There are other changes I’d like to see in the room, but I’m open to serendipity and taking my time.

Done!

The library has come together in stages, with each step moving us further along.
- September, 2013: move in (blank slate!)
- October, 2013: striped vintage sofa
- February, 2014: decide on built-in shelving
- April, 2014: thinking about a round table
- May, 2014: finished shelving and a rolling library ladder
- July, 2014: paint the walls (Pink Ground, Farrow & Ball)
- December, 2014: secretary desk
- June, 2015: finally order that round table when it goes on sale
- October, 2015: so many chairs, none quite right
- December, 2015: new lighting fixtures and sconces
- January, 2017: pink skirted chairs
To Do!

Eventually. The rug and curtains need to work in the larger context of the home, so I’m taking my time there.
- add a large rug (9×12 or 10×14)
- brass curtain rods (custom for the curved windows?)
- add two pairs of pinch-pleat curtains and a roman shade
- sturdier chair with the secretary desk
- custom bench cushion (for below the window, unless we just accept that it will always be covered in books)
p.s. That table was cleared off after photos, and immediately covered in Legos. The books, vase with flowers, and ginger jar are pretty, but the kids love playing in the library and I give them space to spread out with breakables moved elsewhere.
January 9, 2017
A Porch for Cozy Outdoor Entertaining

This post is brought to you by TargetStyle.
Shop the new Home collection in stores and online.

I don’t think I’ve shown this porch much since we moved in. Come on out! It’s a small but comfortably cozy area. It fits our family of five perfectly, and after the kids go to sleep, me and Brandon can hang out back here with a few friends.

It looked like this before. Squished!

It’s a tiny space, but it felt even tinier with that little gap to squeeze through between the loveseat and the chair. Those big pieces came out right away after we moved in. We replaced them with a few things we brought with us from our first house, but did little else until now. I spent the weekend cleaning it up a bit. It looks pretty good outside for a 125-year-old house and I may try gently scrubbing the siding (I know you’re not supposed to pressure wash it), but I’m worried it may hasten a paint job.

Avoiding opening that can of worms, I stuck to sweeping out the dust and dirt, and turned my attention to maximizing the space. I added a wooden bistro table to a pair of metal chairs we already had. The small size of the table is better suited to the space, making it feel larger, and a bistro set is more useful than another armchair.

The color scheme is a little kooky with the stained glass. It’s an odd addition that doesn’t really go with the rest of the house, but the privacy is nice. I didn’t want to add a lot of competing colors, so I kept the furniture and accessories mostly neutral, and brought in some natural textures, wood tones, and brass accents to warm things up.

The lounge seating was on the porch at our first house. Half of it was reused here on the front porch, and the other half here. I got that pink polka dot pillow maybe five years ago, and the woven pillow is new.

I got a matching outdoor pouf too because the kids were super into it. It’s too bad I only had room for one because they’re kind of fighting over who gets to sit there.

We weren’t using this spot much at night because it was too dark, but it will be a whole lot nicer now that I hung string lights. I used removable hooks to test out the placement because I wasn’t sure if I’d like them to be swagged (as they are now) or pulled taut. What do you think?

I popped back out at night to take a few shots of them all aglow.

Candles help with the ambiance too. We have a hanging candle holder with open sides out there (came with the house), and you never realize how breezy it is until you try to keep an unsheltered candle lit! I bought a set of LED votives for the first time (along wtih a few perforated gold votive holders), and they are so much easier to deal with. No worries with kids around, I can put them anywhere without risking a fire hazard, and they don’t blow out with the slightest wind.

The table is just the right size for two people. I brought out our patterned plates, gold flatware, and our everyday pressed glass tumblers, and added cute polka dot napkins to tie in with the pink pillow. And of course, there’s the brass Nate Berkus vase that has been all over Blogland. It’s the perfect tall vase for big floofy flowers (hydrangeas, peonies, dahlias, you get the idea).

This little porch looks and feels so much better now. Having breakfast out here, late night drinks, coffee and a newspaper… I can’t wait. It’s such a special part of the house, and we’ve already been enjoying the spruced up space!

May 24, 2016
Decorating for a Cute and Casual Backyard Party

This post is brought to you by TargetStyle.
Shop the new Home collection in stores and online.

I was in charge of decorating for a party this past weekend. (Friends! Family! Put me in charge of these things — I love it.) It was a casual get together, but we still wanted to make the space cute.

I got everything we needed from Target, mixing it in with everyday white plates, silverware, and glass tumblers. Once the basics are covered, I think of decorating for a party (especially one without a strict theme) the same way I would for any room, in terms of pattern, color, and texture.

Pattern

The main pattern came in through the rope-print tablecloth and coordinating napkins. From there, I added a couple of substantial vases in stripes and zigzags, and even a patterned pillow that you’ll see a few pictures down.

Tablecloth • Napkins • Wooden Bowl

Color

The tablecloth had a white background with a pattern in navy that was so dark it almost looked black. It covered a table with a weathered gray fence behind it, and we used simple dishes on the table, so to bring in a little more color, I picked up a fun set of triangular serving dishes. A black and white vase with a green top matched one of the dishes, along with the green striped paper straws. A coral candle matched another, and then I hung two strands of colorful raffia tassels along the top of the fence.

Wooden Footed Bowl • Geometric Vase • Striped Vase • Serving Bowl • Candle • Wooden Candle Holder

Rattan Chair • Rattan Stool • Panama Hat • Shirt Dress • Cheese Board • Triangle Serving Dishes

Ignore the crazy hair under my hat. Right now it’s at the baby bangs and borderline mullet growing-it-out phase. (A haircut has been scheduled for next week. Grow it out? Keep it short? Ah, the perpetual struggle of the pixie cut. Hence, the hat!)

Texture

We needed extra seating, so I brought this rattan chair and matching stool outside. The shape and details are great, and they were nice and sturdy — heavier than I expected!

Rattan Chair • Rattan Stool • Black and White Pillow

The rattan was repeated in a tray that corralled drinks, and I also brought in some natural wood with turned candleholders and a footed decorative bowl. (Note that the bowl is not food safe. I placed a plate inside to use it for serving.) Wood and rattan are contrasted with smooth ceramic dishes, serving trays, and a white pitcher, and then the vases added even more depth with matte finishes and details. Plants and flowers are always a must, and of course the tassels in the background were a nice way to bring in even more texture.

The weather cooperated for us and it was so nice to be able to spend time with everyone outside. (Hopefully there’s no more snow to be seen until winter now!) I’d like to think that the decorations added to everyone’s enjoyment too. And I’ll leave you with this pro tip: make sure any adorable dogs present are suitably attired in a bandana to match your party decor.

(Such a party animal.)

April 19, 2016
A Cute New Kids’ Line (& Scalloped Table!)

This post is brought to you by TargetStyle. Shop the new Home collection in stores and online.

I saw it in a magazine a couple of months ago: a round side table from Target with a scalloped edge along the top and brass legs. It was just a little thumbnail-sized image and the table wasn’t even available then, but I made a note to check back for it because whoa, it was cute. I imagined it next to a chair, with a small lamp on top and maybe some flowers. Basically, something like this…

I didn’t have a specific spot in mind for it though, and the table wasn’t even available at that point anyway. Fast forward a month or two and as I was browsing through a preview of Target’s new Pillowfort collection for kids, I spotted the table. I had no idea it was part of their new kids’ line! They were styling it as a play table in the ‘Marvelous Manor’ collection, but I still liked the idea of one next to a chair and I realized that I did actually have a good spot for it.

Our playroom had a couple of vintage chairs in it that I had rescued years ago from an alley. They were outside of a building that housed many doctors’ offices, and I’m pretty sure they were waiting room chairs. Kind of cool, but not actually all that comfortable for long periods of time, so I brought up my floral armchair a while back to have a nicer spot to sit while the kids played.

What better table to pair with my crazy-flower-print chair than an adorable scalloped one? It comes in white, gray, or pink; you can guess which color I went for. I even picked up a little glass lamp for it, along with a party giraffe (why not?).

That’s a happy spot for sipping imaginary tea and eating fake cookies with the kids.

When I’m looking for things for the kid spaces in our house, I choose things with them that they like, but I want to like them too. Calvin’s still so little that he doesn’t have strong opinions on how his room is decorated, but Eleanor and August do. Eleanor likes cute, girly things, but not in the typical girly pink. (Early form of rebellion against her mother? I chose aqua for the lamp in the play room because I knew E would like the color.) She also really likes cages, and anything that looks like it could be used as one. August is pretty into sharks and sea creatures right now, but above all right now, he wants everything to be red. I had been looking for a matching pair of lamps to go in his room, and I grabbed two ceramic column lamps in red for him and he was thrilled. We didn’t need anything else right now, but here’s what caught my eye for each kid.

I liked these for my girl

Floral sheets, but in blue! Shelving that looks like a cage, and then an actual cage as a light! (She would flip.) The lamp that I bought for the playroom with her in mind, and the cutest bear.
— cage pendant ceiling light • circle shelf • floral bear • glass table lamp • floral sheets

I liked these for my boy

He likes the red lamps (I bought a matching pair), and I’m pretty sure he’d be into a red bed with shark sheets and an octopus friend.
— upholstered headboard • octopus • column table lamp • great white shark sheets

I liked these for my toddler

Really cute furniture, a few forest friends, and black and white patterned blanket with trees. We aren’t ready to transition from nursery to big-kid-room yet, but I’m keeping these in mind.
— drum shade ceiling light • mid-century kids’ nightstand • bear • fox pillow • mint kids’ chairs • forest plush blanket

This post is brought to you by TargetStyle. Shop the new Home collection in stores and online.

March 1, 2016
Talking Rugs and Lighting (Aren’t I Always?)
The closet is looking good, and it’s so close to being done.

The couple of sneak peeks above are on Instagram, and if you follow me on Snapchat, you might have seen the design plan for the closet. I was thinking of using a pink rug and bench. Either something all pink like Pottery Barn’s Leila tufted rug, or in a pattern that features the color prominently like Caitlin Wilson’s Kismet rug. We had an antique/vintage (no details on how old it is) Tibetan meditation rug in the hallway though that’s mostly red with a little pink, and it looks great in the closet. Our hallway is a bit more naked now, but that hallway is in serious need of repair right now anyway after all of the rewiring work on the second floor (another story for another day).

I ordered a small tufted ottoman from Target in pink that hasn’t arrived yet. Then I saw the same ottoman in the store in a pretty grayish blue color that hadn’t been listed online. I brought it home yesterday and the other is due to arrive tomorrow, so I’ll keep whichever is better with the rug.

Which means there are only three more things to do, and then the closet is done!
1. Sew a sink skirt.
  Easy enough, I was just waiting on the rug so I can choose fabric. Moving ahead with that one.
2. Hem the curtains.
  Easy peasy.
3. Find a new light.
  Not so easy, but it needs to happen.
Yeah, so the light. I put up one of the fixtures from downstairs because why not? I’ll tell you why not: it’s way to low and I bump into it constantly. I knew that the scale was wrong, but I figured it would be fine and buy some time until I found something else. It wasn’t a visual assault on my eyes or anything, it just looked silly, being to big. I failed to take into account how annoying and potentially dangerous it would be — I’m worried I might break the glass.

I came across this image that I posted here in 2011, before I had ever set foot in our Victorian.

Beautiful, right? And I’ve been so drawn to that simple style of lighting lately. I want to replace our foyer pendant and was considering something similar, but now I’m also considering it in a smaller, semi-flush mount version for the closet. I’m still not 100%, but I think it could work.
January 28, 2016
Playing Plaid by the Rules

This post is brought to you by Target Style.
Shop the new Home collection in stores and online.

I was ready for a change from the usual mix of colorful pillows on my sofa, so I brought in a plaid blanket and pillows to switch things up for fall. We already had the big fluffy pillow on hand, and the cream, oatmeal, and caramel colors that have been added break up the teal of the couch and play up the woodwork behind it.

I went for pale neutrals, playing by the rules of pattern and plaid, mixing scale and keeping to an overall refined palette. You can break the rules by mixing them up and taking it further though! There were options in red, black, navy, and orange to choose from too, with the patterns going from subtle to loud.

The smaller pillow on the right is from the new Adam Lippes for Target collaboration. It reverses from plaid to a sunburst design, and both sides look good against the larger pillow behind it.

There’s a new throw blanket in the living room for the kids to steal! (They’re always taking them for fort building or whatever else they’re up to for the day, so I’m constantly tracking them down and putting them back.) The blanket is another reversible piece from the Adam Lippes collection, but the difference is more subtle (from a buffalo check to gingham).

I usually have a small brass dish on the coffee table, but I swapped it out for one of these little appetizer plates in assorted plaids. It’s hanging out with a few books, my lil ceramic nudies, and a pothos. (Looking for a house plant you can keep alive? Pothos. $4 at the grocery store and easy.) I’m not sure how much longer these things will be safe where they are though — they are just out of reach for Calvin right now, but not for long.

Hello, deer. Fancy seeing you here.

He’s actually going to go in August’s room, but I couldn’t resist popping him up above the secretary desk for a little while first. Libraries do well with a bit of taxidermy — this one just happens to be of the plush plaid variety.

Brandon wears plaid shirts all the time (exhibit A), and I buy it a lot for the kids, but I haven’t gone much for plaid myself since I was a young goth/punk with zippers all over my pants. It looks awesome in the house though, and I even picked up a windowpane interpretation of the pattern in a top for myself. Teenage me would be a little surprised by the pink I’m so fond of now, but the black walls and plaid would get a nod of approval.

When you add a new pattern in your home, do you go crazy with it, or just a little touch here or there? Are you more of a play by the rules or a break the rules kind of person?

October 6, 2015