A sneak peek into my home.

          I mentioned last week that things were hectic around here and that i would be filling you all in on what’s going on. Well, my house is officially for sale because i found and fell in love with a lot. Therefore, we’re going to embark on building a new home. Exciting, right? I really didn’t want to move, however, our home has only three bedrooms and since we hope to expand our family in the future, we decided to take the plunge. In addition, we almost always have visitors. Of course, since i am very picky, i know that no house would suit me, hence the decision to build(plus, i really fell in love with a lot on a cul-de sac). I know that we could always make a home our own, but we did that with this one(i put all my love and tlc into it), and really didn’t want to go through that process again. I have been having back to back meetings with realtors and the builder, having minor repairs done on the home so that it “shows well.” Needless to say, things are a bit chaotic right now:).
      I decided to give you all just a bit of a sneak peek before we move. In addition, the house as you’re about to see it is not complete. As a designer(yes, i do consider myself one), my home is always dynamic and evolving. My mind literally never stops with the ideas. I thought i should really post the before pics so that you can get a better idea of the renovations that were done. However, those pictures are on an external hard drive in my “closet office” and i’m sitting elsewhere-basically, i’m just lazy to get up. We can revisit the before pictures later:-).

Well, i’m sure you expected to see orange everywhere. I also don’t follow design rules-i basically go with what i am passionately in love with and the look usually works cohesively. The coffee table was purchased in a furniture store in Bolzano Vicentino, Italy, the chaise was a gift from me to my hubby and was purchased in Nove, Italy. The couch is i believe the Axis sofa from Crate and Barrel.

 

One thing i'm looking forward to in the new home is a smooth ceiling. When i just moved here to NC or rather this part of NC(since i am not sure this is common in all of NC), i couldn't fathom what was so "fashionable" about textured ceilings. Most of the builders seem to use that finish on their ceilings. It's not popcorn, but i absolutely hate it. I also had plans of getting rid of that fan too(builder's basic), but other things in the home took priority. I still love this room though. It's big and open with lots of natural light.


I am smiling as i look at this pic because if you look carefully, you can see some pillows on a lamp in an adjoining room. They are there to be tucked safely away from baby Z, although he still climbs up to try to get to them. Oh, and that’s Ginger(our lovely dog) chilling in her favourite spot.

      I had posted about my office being in the closet here. I mentioned revisiting it then. Well, i had the idea to place it in the closet because i knew that we would be trying for a baby soon and since baby Z's prospective room was being used as an office, i thought, why not place our office in this closet? It is deep enough and we really didn't use it as a coat closet. In addition, because of it's location, it still received lots of natural light from the windows in the great room and the entry way. We also have wireless internet which enables us to use our laptops anywhere in the house. I painted the interior a day before the closet people came to install the shelving. It's a cozy office and it's quite efficient. I had to store most of our books away, but that was a sacrifice worth taking. Now, baby Z has his own room, not a nursery/office:-)

I am a big fan of the artist Joan Miro' and that is one of my pieces from him. Of course below is the Eames bench which i purchased from DWR.

  That piece is called a Soggiorno in Italy and i bought it and the same store where i purchased the teak coffee table. If you notice, it’s sparsely decorated because baby Z would be scattering everything in all directions.

I actually had this storage piece in my classroom that i had built to house my students’ books. When i took leave from teaching, i brought it home, painted it with Benjamin Moore Aura(no VOC) paint and voila, it is now housing baby Z’s books and stuff. The books never look neat because he’s always tossing them around which is fine with me:-). The containers are from the Land of Nod.

The dots were from allmodern.com and i’ve been meaning to change that wall since he’s now a bit older, but haven’t yet.

Another creative use of books, wouldn’t you say? Since baby Z is so curious, mounting his camera on the wall was out of the question, so i decided to use one of  my Pier one vases and since it still wasn’t tall enough, i added two of baby Zion’s books and created the perfect height to place his monitor for ultimate viewing.

The framed piece is one of two that i have in his room. I bought the Olli and lime prints from allmodern.com and had them framed at Michaels. The mobile, i bought at giggle.com. It’s from the Bla bla kids line which i love.

The crib is actually from Walmart Baby Mod line. I decided to splurge on the mattress which is from Naturepedic and is totally green. Of course the paint is Benjamin Moore Aura(custom colour). Believe it or not, i bought the paint online at perfect color.com. I have a Benjamin Moore store here, but they don’t carry the Aura paint. You can customize your shade at perfect colour and customer service is great. The paint is usually promptly delivered too.

This kitchen has seen a major overhaul. There was a hideous apple wall paper in here when we bought the house and vinyl floors. There was also no island. We basically upgraded almost everything. Well, we didn’t get stainless steel appliances since the ones that were here worked just fine. This is where i spend most of my time. The room across from the kitchen is actually the formal dining room, but we use it for baby Z’s play area(which is perfect because i can always see him).

   Usually, this is where i hang out and read your blogs with a cup of coffee. Although i removed the  hideous apple wall paper that i mentioned before, i couldn’t resist wall papering this one wall with the Ferm Living Wild flower wall paper.

FYI- I painted every single wall in this house. I love to paint and i feel i could definitely get hired as a professional painter because i am very meticulous(which is why i don’t allow my hubby to do it) Sorry darling. Hopefully, you enjoyed my sneak peek. :-). XX