Archive for June, 2012

Color and Style Inspiration for the House!

by readmakedo on June 28, 2012 in Design, Home with 1 Comment

Ever since I moved into my current home, I started planning for what my long term vision for the house would be. We knew we needed to undertake some big projects immediately (i.e., revamping the patio, adding new windows), determining how the house would actually LOOK became a big question mark.

When we originally were house-hunting, it made me even MORE aware of how many different house styles there are out there: My previous home was a 1940s glamazon Bungalow, we looked at a gorgeous old mission-style home that needed a ton of work, and we even saw a few ultra-modern flipped houses. Still, nothing quite felt like home until I saw the house we ended up with: A charming, comfortable 1960′s California Rancher, that wasn’t overly modern, but also not overly traditional either. The house wasn’t perfect, but somehow it just spoke to me.

So what is the inspiration for our current home?

California Living.

For starters, I wanted to let the ease of California-living be something that really stood out. The house has an enormous (9′ deep!!!) pool, which was not on our wish-list…still, the pool is a central focal point of the house. We are lucky to live in an area that we can use our patio about 8 months out of the year, and we wanted to maximize the use of outdoor space, and have a very natural flow between the inside and the outside. I’m a HUGE fan of Eichler homes and they are a beautiful source of inspiration for how to have a nice flow between indoor and outdoor living spaces.

Source: sfgate.com via Kate on Pinterest

 

 Green

The one thing that our landscaping is definitely not lacking is a ton of greenery. Our backyard has a hillside, which is covered in bright green ivy. While ivy is not necessarily my favorite plant, there is something really beautiful about the hue it reflects when the sun hits it in the morning. It is always very bright, and brings a lime green tint to the back rooms of the house. I tried to pull in accents of this lime green and really go with it.

Hence our Lime Green front door:

Our Lime Green Dog Beds


and some lime accessories throughout the house.

Calm Colors

You can’t have all that lime green and not balance it out somewhat! Key Lime Pies are only good because there’s just a TEENY bit of Lime in them, and the rest is all eggs and milk. That would be a nasty pie if it were all lime. Geez, my mouth hurts just thinking about it.

I’m a big fan of “Greige”, but I’m very aware of the fact that there needs to be a balance between Greige, other neutral colors, and other colors and textures to break things up, so it doesn’t just become a sea of foggy gray. That would be too sad!

Source: sfgate.com via Kate on Pinterest

Source: decorpad.com via Elisha on Pinterest

Source: decorpad.com via Kate on Pinterest

 

 

So, all in all if I were to sum it up with a color palette, it would be this:

What about you, where do you go to look for inspiration for your home? Do you just have certain things that you always gravitate towards? Do you make it up as you go along?

Read more about where to find awesome inspiration for your own space, check out these links:

http://www.housebeautiful.com/decorating/colors/design-blogs-color-inspiration#slide-1

 http://www.hgtv.com/decorating/best-places-to-find-color-inspiration/index.html

 http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/1027652

 

TOTES! A Post about Totes.

by readmakedo on June 26, 2012 in Design, DIY with 1 Comment

We’re ’bout to delve down into some next level meta-thinking here. I’m totes about to talk to you about totes.

Translation: We’re totally going to talk about tote-bags.

About 2 or 3 years ago, the word “Totes” crept into my vernacular. It was one of those things that I couldn’t help, it was just natural to use it in day-to-day speech. Eventually, it totes became my calling card.

Fast forward to a few months ago, when I had the idea to make some tote bags for my bridesmaids’ gifts. I went on Zazzle.com and uploaded a design I had made, a heart that said “Totes Love” in the center.

They came out pretty cute, but the only problem was the yellow was REALLY hard to read on the natural canvas. If you’re totes going to be out sporting your tote, you totes need to be able to read what is written on there. Totes, right?

Okay, I’ll calm down.

I’ve been tinkering with setting up screen printing in my garage…but given the state of my garage (which makes our backyard look downright pulled together), I decided to make a spray-paint stencil. Check it:

Here’s how to do it.

I designed and printed my image onto some bristol board. Then, I gingerly cut it out with my good friend Mr. X-acto knife and Ms. Cutting Mat.

Cute! Then, I stenciled out the heart on a larger, slightly thicker piece of paper.

Took it outside, covered up the areas that weren’t meant to be sprayed, and weighed down the stencil with some, uh, kind of hoopty rocks. Work with whatchu got.

For this next part, I could have taken the individual letters I had previously cut out from the first stencil, but that would involve re-setting each letter and keeping them all straight. That would be a nightmare.

So, I used my old trusty friend from my Screen Printing days, contact paper! I took the contact paper, drew onto it with the letterforms from the stencil, and then did a little bit more X-acto-ing.

Next, back out to my “spray booth”.

Make sure you cover up your areas you don’t want sprayed. I used plastic bags, and magazines featuring Kristen Stewart. SORRY VANITY FAIR, NOT READING IT <3

I had to spray the white paint using Primer, because for some reason regular white spray paint would not adhere to the teal spray paint underneath. Bummer.

Anyways, after I sprayed it and waited a bit, I removed the stencil and voila!

Pool Party Countdown

by readmakedo on June 21, 2012 in Home, Landscaping with 2 Comments

IT’S THE FINAL COUNT-DOWN!

After months and months and months (since OCTOBER!) our patio is starting to look like more than just dirt. We had to tear out our patio shortly after moving in, in order to take care of some drainage issues before winter set in.

Since then, it’s pretty much sat dormant, taunting us and our inability to clean the pool, or go swimming, or walk through the yard without tracking mud into the house. Until recently!

“Can I go swimming yet? JUST KIDDING I HATE WATER.” – Skipper

That’s right, we have a partial patio! And the makings of the rest of the patio!

Allow me to show you around.

Admittedly, I can’t take credit for any of the construction that’s going on. I’ve left that to professionals, because I wouldn’t know how to mortar my way out of a paper bag (actually, that sounds like a recipe for mortaring yourself into a paper bag…). Still, I’m really excited with how this project is shaping up, and for those of you who have been dying to come over and use the pool I thought it would be nice to share pictures.

We had the largest, and most involved portion of the patio done first–the brick deck. Previously, there was a rotting wood deck that looked more like a pirate plank out here. When you walked on it, the wood would sway and bounce, which wasn’t the most reassuring feeling. You can see that the brick deck ends slightly short from where the cement portion of the deck will end. This was for two reasons:

a) We wanted to break up the brick area, so it doesn’t seem like a brick-overload (Also, bricks are really expensive!) and…

b) We’re not super sure what our pool reno plans are going to be in the future. If for some reason we don’t re-do our current pool, we could easily install a spa elsewhere. Of course, we wouldn’t want to just rip up brand-new cement to put a spa in. That would waste time + $$$. If we did want to put a spa there, it is a straight shot down the lawn to our pool equipment, so we would need to do minimal digging. Easy peasy!

So, we’re planning on leaving a small portion at the end of the brick patio unpaved, and covering it with slate, flagstone, or maybe some cement molds and filling in the gaps with grass and moss.

Like so:

Source: patio-ideas.org via Kate on Pinterest

 

It makes the transition from patio to grass a little bit more natural-feeling as well.

We’re trying to decide between these different materials. I’ve always been partial to cement pavers, but a part of me loves the idea of having some slate out there with moss growing in between it.

This is what the patio looks like from the house. Try to ignore the BBQ and tons of patio furniture stacked in the side yard.

The framed out section of the deck is going to be cement, with courses of brick running every few feet. Dividing the patio into sections like this is beneficial for a few reasons:

a) It’s prettier this way. It makes the deck more visually appealing, so it isn’t just all cement. It brings the brick theme-through, and adds dimensionality to the overall design.

b) Structural reasons. The sections allow for the patio not to crack. Since all ground inevitably shifts (plant roots can shift things, temperature changes, and just settling over time), you need to break up a solid structure like this patio so there isn’t pressure build up.

c) Removing panels. Life happens. Pool equipment breaks (fingers crossed ours doesn’t), electrical work needs to be replaced, Archaeologists inform you there’s some Dino DNA under one portion of your patio, etc. Sometimes, parts of your patio need to be removed. And it is INFINITELY more convenient to have to pull out one portion of the patio, rather than starting all over from scratch (As someone who has lived with a torn up patio for about 8 months, I can tell you it isn’t fun).

So that’s the word on our current patio situation. As soon as it is done, I’m going to get myself some sort of chaise lounge or Adirondack chair and park it out there with a magazine and a limeade until I look like this lady:

(FACT: To find this image I googled “Too Tan Lady”. I love you Googz.)

Grab your water-wings, I’ll see you poolside! <3

Ready, Set, SOFA!

by readmakedo on June 19, 2012 in Decor, Design, Home with 3 Comments

BIG NEWS.

Wait for it.

WAIT FOR IT:

We’re almost ready to buy ourselves a new sofa.

BOOYAH!

To recap, we (okay, realistically just me…but I talked Jason into it) have been considering getting a new sofa for omg it seems like forever a while now. Since we have an oddly shaped living room, finding the perfect sofa for the space has been a  Very astute readers will notice the sofa pictured above is different from the original sofa we considered. Well, that’s because we got real and realized the sofa that we were considering was…well….ginormous. This isn’t Cribs, we don’t have that kind of space. So we stepped it down a notch, and found a suitable alternative.

Thanks to some awesome discounts from Pottery Barn (Woohoo, 10% off for wedding registry “completion”!), we crunched some numbers (I busted out some High School Algebra skills that would make any Mathlete jealous) and decided the time has come.

But before we take the plunge, we’ve got some key issues to address.

Ideal Upholstery Needs

I’ve owned a sofa or two in my life (actually, I owned my Ethan Allen sofa twice….), and so I know a thing or two about what I need from upholstery. For starters…

1. Comfort

Nobody likes a scratchy sofa.

2. Durability

I’ve got 2 little Hurricanes that live with me, plus I seem to inevitably spill whatever I’m holding. I’d like to hide the evidence of my inability to eat a Vietnamese sandwich without making a colossal mess by buying a sofa with a washable slip-cover.

3. Girl Gotta Look Good

How is this so far down the list? You ask yourself incredulously! Not that it isn’t important. In fact, it’s super important! But let this serve as a yardstick for you about HOW MUCH I spill things, and how much I need to have some sort of fail-safe in place in the future (Slip covers, slip covers, slip covers!). But seriously, I’m not getting a fabric that’s ugly.

Alright, Kate, enough of your yimma-yammerin’!  You shout impatiently in your head, Show me some options to keep up with your impossibly high standards! 

And SURPRISE, they’re Greige!

We grabbed a bunch of samples from Pottery Barn, but after having a Final Four bracket, we decided our two favorites were the Brushed Canvas Stone (left), and the Linen Stone (right). Crazily enough, they are supposed to be the same color, but as you can see just by looking at the photos, they are extremely different.

You also might notice that the samples look a little worn. That’s because Jason tested them using our patented Dog-Wear-n-Tear-Simulating-Technology (he scratched the swatches with a wire hanger for a few minutes). Tragically, the Linen didn’t hold up as well. The Brushed Canvas, however, held up like a CHAMP.

Our dilemma is that we love the Linen (it is so soft!! And beautiful!!!), but we don’t know how well it’s going to hold up. Since we only have one true living space in the house, is it better to err on the side of of beauty / comfort, or practicality? Ideas? 

Sofa Size

As I mentioned earlier, we measured how big the new sofa would be in the space. Check it out!

The measuring tape on the ground denotes where the new sofa would end. It’s actually a good deal longer than our current sofa, which was a surprise to us!

The ottoman that’s there now is placed exactly how long the chaise lounge portion of the sofa would stick out. Not too bad.

(For those of you wondering how big the OTHER sofa was, it extended to past the white table. Uh, too much!)

We have a lot of space on that wall to play around with, so we can scootch our furniture to the right a bit. Currently, since I moved my patterned linen chair back to it’s original spot by the hallway, the space feels really empty, so it will be nice to have it more filled in.

What are your thoughts? Do we go for comfort & beauty? Practicality? Wrap our sofas in plastic like it’s 1955?

Lemon-Lemon Ombre Cake

by readmakedo on June 14, 2012 in Cooking with 6 Comments

Even though our wedding was a total cake-fest, I barely had time to eat any. I was too busy cutting a rug out on the dance floor, chatting with all our guests, and attempting to shuffle.

The one cake I really wanted to try, but didn’t get a chance was the Lemon cake. What’s a girl to do? Read about it > Make it > Do it. Obvz.

I’m always trying to improve my cake-baking skills, and I wasn’t satisfied with how my attempt at an ombre cake turned out last time. This time, I decided to make a true ombre-colored cake, but also try to ombre the flavor a bit too. Girl, what??? You’re thinking. Chill, I got this.

My goals for this latest ombre cake were to:

1) Make it even more delicious (and try ombre flavoring).

2) Cut the layers to fit (which I’ve always been too scared to do before, which has led to some wonky cakes)

3) Improve my icing skills. (Read tips here).

To start, I based my recipe off of one from Martha Stewart (because let’s be real, Martha knows what’s up), but I skipped the part about coating it with a lemon glaze and used a lemon curd filling instead. You can find Martha’s recipe here. Then I made icing from my own recipe. For a great, super easy icing recipe, check out this classic one from Magnolia Bakery. (For this recipe, sub out the vanilla for lemon curd!).

In order to achieve an “ombre flavor” effect, I divided up the lemon zest into 1 tsp, 3/4 tsp, 1/2 tsp, and then just a pinch. I added the zest to bowls of divided up ingredients. I also washed a lot of bowls after this project was done.

Then I mixed the “wet” ingredients, and divided them into 4 parts (for 4 layers, if you haven’t caught on yet..). I also added proportional amounts of lemon juice to the wet mixtures, and food coloring. The most food coloring went into the layer that had the most lemon flavoring, which was my bottom layer. Again, lots of bowl washing.

Stir stir stir. Bake bake bake. Cool cool cool.

After allowing the cake layers to thoroughly cool, I cut the tops off so they would be even. Then I cut a round template out of cardboard, and used that as a guide to help me trim the edges of the cake.

I assembled the cake layers with lemon curd as the filling (delicious), and then popped it in the fridge for 30 minutes to let the filling set. (This was something new I learned!)

Next, I lightly covered the cold cake with room-temperature icing. This layer is called a crumb layer, and it is meant to trap all the crumbs, then you chill the cake again before putting the final layer of icing on. This explains why every single one of my previous cakes has been hella covered in crumbs. Knowledge is power.

Do your thang, crumb layer. I ain’t gonna rush you. 

After giving the crumb-layer of icing a while in the fridge to set (I gave it about an hour), I applied my final layer of icing. *ANOTHER COOL TIP* – I used a cup of hot water to dip my icing knife into every time before I loaded it up with icing. This encourages the icing to melt a little bit and go onto the cake smoothly.

DANG! So smooth! Okay not perfectly smooth, but considering how janky my previous cakes looked, I was pretty proud. Now time for the money shot:

HELLO LEMON CAKE! <3

Not to hype this cake up too much (I know, I hype cake up a lot), but everyone who had some said it was my best cake yet. The flavor-intensity effect really came through, and was definitely a success. The cake had the perfect amount of lemon-y goodness, without being too sour or overwhelming.

It was such a hit, my friend Empe asked me if I’d make one for her graduation party that’s coming up. Really excited to see how I can continue to improve this recipe. GO CAKE!

Cake Cake Cake Cake.

by readmakedo on June 12, 2012 in Design, wedding with No comments

Anyone who has known me for more than half an hour, or has simply googled my name, knows that I love cake. I really really do. Psychologically, there’s probably some sort of association with the idea of celebrating, parties, and gathering friends together, because you don’t ever really eat cake by yourself. Okay, I’m not saying it hasn’t ever happened, but in general: Cake = good times with good friends.

And what better time is there to celebrate than a wedding? That is precisely why Jason and I wanted our wedding reception to basically be Cake Overload + Dance Party.

Even though it doesn't look like I'm enjoying the cake, I'm partying on the inside.

Jason and I had gone to a wedding several years ago, and they served the same chocolate-buttercream cake on every table, which was an AWESOME idea because:
a) You got an awesome centerpiece right there.
b) You ensure that everyone gets their cake in a timely manner.
c) You can accommodate people who have dietary restrictions (I’m allergic to certain kinds of berries, and I have a lot of friends who are Gluten Free, so I know how important this is)
d) If you go for just your basic, bakery standard decorations, even from an upscale bakery your total cake costs are going to be wayyy down.

Jay and I loved this idea, but we took it one step further. Since there are so many types of incredible cake in the world, why just have one at the wedding? We decided every table at our wedding should be named after each of the different cake flavors.

I designed and made signs for each cake flavor/table name.

A family member suggested Sweetie Pies, an awesome bakery in Napa to us. We went and sampled some cake (you can buy mini-versions of all of their most popular cake flavors, they are adorable), and I think I had some sort of spiritual awakening after I had their cake. Not even over-selling it, it was incredible.

Sweetie Pies’ decorations were really festive, fun and tasteful, so we decided rather than having all the cakes look uniform, we would use the bakery-standard finishes. After all, they really know what they’re doing.

We ordered 12 cakes (we had 10 tables, plus 2 extra cakes for the head table), and at around $40 per 8-inch round cake, we ended up spending less than $500 for our entire cake budget. Most wedding cakes easily cost around $1000, so we felt pretty good about our awesome cake idea. Plus, do you have any idea how much cake twelve 8-inch round cakes is? IT IS A LOT. That was awesome though, because we wanted people to go from table to table and socialize, and try different cakes in case they didn’t like the flavor they were seated at.

The result? People got REALLY into it! People were treating their tables like they were sports teams, or dare I say, Twilight-esque allegiances. Go Team Carrot Cake! No way man, I’m Team Lemon Cake all the way!

 

We had a good amount of cake to take home, which was also a bonus. The really cool thing though is we can go back next year and buy a mini-cake for our Anniversary. I know, the tradition is you save the top of your cake in your freezer for a year, but you have not seen the inside of my freezer. The poor cake would not survive. Also, I don’t personally think eating frozen year-old cake is super romantic. I think it’s a little icky.

HOORAY FOR CAKE!

Photos from Wedding Reception / Photo booth by Alfred & Emma Photography. 

Pre-Fab to Post-FAB! or: Trapped in the Closet Part II

by readmakedo on June 7, 2012 in Before and After, Decor, Design, Home, Organization with 4 Comments

Hello! Well, I’m back from Europe. The second half of our trip was great, though in unexpected ways. I got some sort of insane French Flu that lasted for 4 days straight–how is that great you ask? Well, I suppose for most people it wouldn’t be. But the company I kept during that time was the best I could have asked for, and it was nice to know I’m married to someone who will always take excellent care of me, even in a foreign country where we don’t speak the language, and apparently they don’t believe in Pepto-Bismol. Seriously, it’s apparently illegal.

I’ll share some more about our wedding and a few other stories from our trip next week, but in the meantime, here’s a little something we’ve been working on.

Remember this?

An extra bedroom in our house had been converted into a den off the dining room, and I decided it would be great to use as an office / studio. More importantly, that meant we had to find an elegant solution for how to utilize what once was closet space when this room functioned as a bedroom.

We figured the best way to go is to find a low-cost way to create a built-in look. Why low-cost? Because we’d like to keep it so if whoever buys this house in the future feels the need to convert this den back into a bedroom, it will be worth it. Also, because who wants to spend thousands on cabinets? Nobody.

There was an AWESOME reader-submitted makeover on Young House Love that featured a similar project, with some beautiful results.

So we added some pre-fab cabinets. Well now these pre-fab cabinets are POST-FAB, because we fancied them up quite a bit.

F-F-FANCY! How did it get so fancy?? Let me tell you!

For starters, the pre-fab shelves don’t hold much weight when they are this long. So we doubled them up, and glued them together with wood glue.

Next, we added some trim along the outside/front of the shelves, they hang down a bit from the top so there’s a little bit of a lip.

 

The best part of all, is the shelves are still completely adjustable, so even though these look like custom-built cabinets we can still move the shelves around as necessary.

Check out this detail shot, where you can see how smooth the trim looks.

SO SMOOTH! Like a James Ingram song.

Also, we added this cute little toe-kick on the bottom, to make things really looked finished. So classy!

We still need to match the floor-board color, since in the past it had been re-sanded but not sealed for some reason.

I can’t believe what a difference trimming out this cabinet made! Also, the room looks 10,000 times cleaner now that it’s painted. It’s exciting to have some built-in shelves again to display all my favorite things (like my gigantor Charley Harper illustration book!). I’m still considering painting the back of the built-in a fun bright color, like maybe a sunny yellow or lime green. What do you think?