light with dark

I've been really drawn to mostly light interiors with pops of dark and/or natural elements lately. There is just something about the little hits of warmth that make me able to justify such a light interior with out it feeling stark and cold.  

Have beautiful Thursday!

*all images via 

new photos of Rachel's Shabby Chic Malibu Pad

The L.A. Times recently featured Rachel Ashwell's stunning Malibu beach house. While I've always felt Rachel does a fabulous job at styling the spaces in her books, I'm really loving the particularly relaxed and easy feel of these images. So grab a cup of coffee, kick back and enjoy!

See the full article with more yummy images here. 

*images by Brian van der Brug for the L.A. Times.

white hot

The dog days of summer have definitely set in here with a heat index  again today forcasted to be above 100. In contrast I find myself drawn towards light, bright and airy spaces to balance out the "sweatyness" like this beautiful turn of the century home in Stockholm.

*images via 

This is how we've been staying cool...

Hope you have a great start to your week! I see lots of McDonald's 59 cent cones in my immediate future.

white painted frenchies

I've got a bit of a natural wood glass paneled door collection on my hands in this house. One pair of french and 4 more singles. Thats 6 doors or 12 sides which need 2 coats of primer each= 24 plus 2 more coats of white trim paint= 24. 24+24= 48 whopping coats of paint not to mention all of the scraping afterwards. So far I've got one side of the frenchies totally done. 8 down 40 more coats to go. 

I need a little inspiration to keep me going! 

wish me luck!

*source

tolix chair inspiration

The chairs to go with the new table are on their way. In the end durability and budget won out. While I love a good louis chair that seems pretty impractical at this stage in life. I just loved the look of the Tolix chair and so did Nick. Loved the chair but not the price tag. But after some research I found what I hope to be a steal of a deal from OverStock.com. Four chairs for $169 TOTAL people (no tax and free shipping). They got great reviews as well so I'm just hoping I really like them and for that price I figured would could give them a spin. I bought them in white and I plan on keeping the table's dark mink stain for now. I think it would provide for a fresh contrast so we'll see. I'll let you know when they get here what the final verdict is. Below are some of my inspiration photos.

 Below are the chairs we bought. Can't wait to get them!

stay tuned because I did something amazing with spray paint that i can't wait to share!

hold the phone...

deep breath...

inhale....

hold it 1..2.....3..........

and exhale.........................

I've been a little scarce this week. Real life has taken over with all of the Easter Holiday craziness, not to mention we're in the middle of gathering quotes this week for a new fence and I began my tennis class today (so fun by the way!). It's time to slow down though and regain some perspective. I beat myself up too much on the days I run out of time and don't post and I really shouldn't. I figured you guys would rather have quality over quantity right? I did visit my friend Daisy over at Sunny Room Studios where I guest posted about children and art. You can read all about it here. 

Smooches!

*images via

spring fresh

Bam! It's here, it almost snuck by me thats how much I've been paying attention lately. If it weren't for some random ad on the radio yesterday I wouldn't have even realized Spring was officially here. Nick and I were in the jungle aka our yard working all weekend. We took advantage of every nap the baby took and that extra DLS hour of light at the end of every day. We must have hauled away 30+ bags of leaves brush and debris from raking out our beds alone it was insane people. I'm pumped though, so ready for fresh cut grass and farmers markets. 

Hope you all have a wonderful week ahead.