Monday, March 26, 2012

Outdoor Lovelies

I just LOVE Houston's spring weather this year!


Besides having LOTS of outdoor patio meals and cappuccino's, I spent a lot of this beautiful weekend picnic-ing with friends! We spent Friday night at Discovery Green and Sunday night at Miller Outdoor Theatre to see Matisyahu. Best weekend I've had in a long time. And so much time outside!

I think everyone is loving this weather, Houston and beyond? Or maybe I'm just really aware of it since it's been so rainy and gray this winter. 

So of course I'm noticing all the cool indoor outdoor furniture and it seems EVERY company is jumping on the outdoor furniture bandwagon- including West Elm! They usually have great accessories and a cool piece of furniture here and there, but they have recently updated their inventory and catalog and it's goooood lookin'!


That chair, those pots, and those succulents!


This space is just great. How about that red little table?!


I want to hang out here with friends and drink wine and make a few s'mores.


Chic lay-out loungers. Armed with some tanning oil, I could spend the whole summer on this thing.

Wire lanterns. Sculptural, modern, and just plain cool. I want 'em.


Evening dinner party? yes.

Great job on the indoor-outdoor, West Elm.


xoxo,


 

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Drumroll please....

After years of hard study, testing, and gaining work experience with other licensed designers, I have earned my own interior design license!




Words cannot express my excitement....


- SG

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Fabulous Outdoors


The weather is warming up significantly AND it's still muggy from all the recent rain... must be spring in Houston! Not my favorite season here. At least I've got a fun outdoor patio to design today. Between Michael Taylor pieces and Janus et Cie, I've got a lot of eye candy in front of me. Here are some of my fave. Janus pieces. The catalog photos are just so pretty, I had to share.



That gorgeously contemporary house doesn't make a bad backdrop for the furniture, does it? 

Now let's pretend we live in sunny Los Angeles and can live outdoors all year long, lounging on such pretty pieces, sipping sparkly cocktails.... that is, unless you do live in sunny Los Angeles, in which case, I'm horrifically jealous and might even hate you (just a teency bit). ;)


xoxo,

 

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Design on a Dime... errr, Nickel?

Most of you know of my obsessive love of apartment therapy- it truly knows no bounds.

Just had to share this great article about working with whatcha got! Listen, people, I know most of us don't have wads of cash to throw at our abodes, but having a lovely, comfortable, good-lookin' home is important! So try some of these tips for making some changes with what you have.

photo from Elle Decor via AT; interior decorator Georgia Tapert.




xoxo,

 

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Sexy Lighting Apparatus

So um, yah, I didn't realize I just posted my 300th blog post yesterday! What in the world?!?!?! Happy blog-birthday to me? Weird. 

Anyway, I came across Apparatus via Scout Design, a super cool design due in NYC who I met last year while working for Julie. Remind me to tell y'all more about that trip and my semi-stalking Nate Berkus. Callie, of Scout Design, is a good ol' Texas girl, from Fredricksberg, apparently. But I digress (this rabbit-trailing of my stories is making me sound more and more like my sweet grandmother who is constantly weaving together long threads of stories tied together that don't really relate. It's genetic, I guess)....


So yah, I was checking out Scout Design's cool blog and saw these incredible INCREDIBLE light fixtures. This chandelier is so so yummy. Mid Century meets industrial, right? It would work in almost any interior.

 I mean....



Cool, sconces. Grasspaper doesn't hurt either. ;)



Hanging industrial chain light w/exposed bulbs? yes.


New take on a Hollywood mirror bathroom sconce- so interesting.


The piece de resistance- come on y'all, this stuff is crazy gorgeous! Just look at that chandelier! And do those guys know how to style or what. That marblized wall finish is incredible paired with the linear rug. I love this.



That art is so cool too!



Gallery lighting, updated and reinterpreted- genius.


Anyway, the two dudes behind Apparatus, are pretty hip. Check out this cool Q&A blogged over here. And get yo'self some sexy lighting apparatus... or apparati? Does it matter? No. Cuz this stuff is so good-looking.



xoxo

 

Monday, March 5, 2012

Why Design Matters

A few times a year, I have these introspective moments, pondering the validity of my career choice. I ultimately chose interior design because I love making interior spaces more organized, pretty, and livable but also for the flexibility the career would give my life.

I could have the flexibility of working for a big firm, strutting my heels as I walk downtown going from meeting to meeting as well as have a baby or two and open up my home office to help clients with their homes, one at a time. I was thinking that the variety of options would allow me to have "something to do" in any season of my life.

So it is in this in between season that is so difficult. The transition.

And as in any season of change, I begin to question everything, including the validity of interior design as it relates to be significant. There are times I wonder, is what I'm doing really going to matter? Shouldn't I be feeding hungry kids in Africa or working for a church to love hurting people rather than showing people the latest and greatest home accessory to spend money on?!

And it's in voicing these fears and worries (that maybe my life isn't going to matter), that I'm often met with the resounding truth that ANY career a person is in matters! If I was a garbage man, working to serve others and love others and be the best at it I can be, then my life would be a success. It's so Western-thinking, so black-and-white, to think that these careers are "right/Godly/good" and those over there are "secular/selfish/wordly."

I still struggle with that thinking. That what I do identifies me. And if what I do isn't big enough, then I must be failing at rising to the grand call of life, to be what God wants me to be, to meet my potential. So once I get the idea that there are no right or wrong, spiritual or un-spiritual careers, I'm then faced with my career- design.

How can it help others? How can I use it to do good in the world, to see beyond myself? Well, by helping people with their homes, a very intimate and personal place, I am invited in. I'm invited into a space where their daily life happens. And when someone wants to see about making that space more beautiful, functional, organized, inspirational, they are asking for help to live in a better mental/emotional/spiritual space.

And then of course there's the whole discussion of why and how the home are so very important to human psychology. The home is a very extension of a person. It's where one goes to feel safe, after a long stressful day at work or school. There's a reason we call it "home-base." So making that more inviting and comfortable- priceless!

via

A very good friend of mine said that your life is the art. How you get dressed in the morning, how you make your coffee when you wake up, how you drive your car, how you kiss your husband- these are all expressions of your uniqueness, of YOU. And you are the canvas. Your life is your art. And your home is an extension of that art, of you. It's meant to be safe, beautiful, comforting, inspiring, inviting.

There is purpose in adding beauty to the home. And from there is where I draw comfort, reminding myself that design does matter. It is important. It is how I express myself, my life art. And it's how you do too.



xoxo,