interiors : jessica de ruiter’s california home

this home tour, that i originally spotted on c home, is what my modern house dreams are made of. this gem is the mid-century silver lake home of jessica de ruiter, a fashion stylist, and her husband, jed lind, who worked on the design and maintained the home’s original architecture. lind works for one of my favorite firms to follow, commune design. i love the warm wood tones mixed with the eclectic textiles and minimal aesthetic. that front door…

sourced images from multiple tours :  c home / one kings lane / the hive / rip and tan

madeline

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midcentury modern for chairish

i am still mourning the loss of my beloved mad men this week. did you watch? when chairish asked me to put together some of my favorite pieces from their mid-century collection, i immediately thought of the interiors of the 60’s and how they informed why i became a designer. when in design school, i admired 60’s icon couple charles and ray eames and their love for primary colors. their color palette and designs are timeless and still relevant today. i love that chairish has so many authentic designer pieces that can be used in all styles.

check out my favorites picks here from chairish and sources below. the eames documentary (the architect and the painter) is wonderful and you can see their home was full of color and life.

lady lithograph / skyline silkscreen / lucite chandelier / eames molded plywood chairs / brass hex table / blue tufted sofa / brass magazine rack / herman miller nelson bench / marble brass coffee table / blue landscape / brass pendant / red platner chairs / brass elephant bookends / danish sideboard

i have lots to tell and excited to share about my new nephew, business, and projects. happy memorial day weekend. madeline

interiors : best of mad men

with the premiere of the final season of mad men sunday, i have been thinking on how far it has come in the past 6 seasons. this show was the beginning of my love for great television…(AMC, amirite?) the direction has stayed on point with the cultural references and fashions, and i am looking forward to what this season will bring. the writing still gives me chills, like the opening scene in the premier of don on the moving sidewalk reminiscent of the same scene in the graduate. let’s take a look back at all time favorite mad men interiors…

 

early mad men…who can forget betty’s velvet tufted headboard?

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12  / 13 / 14

 

there is no lack of eames, knoll, saarinen, and herman miller in claudette didul’s designs. the sets have evolved with the culture and plot and have ushered mad men into the 1970’s.

 

what is your favorite mad men interior from the past six seasons…

have you seen the new episode? and will you be watching this season?

moving sale finds

more on the really fun weekend – this saturday we decided to check out this moving sale from the bloggers at pencil and paper co. the house they flipped was so beautiful and there were loads of incredible items for sale… like this bertoia chair that i snatched up! it was not a bad price so i could not resist. it needs a sandblasting and powder coat refinish.

we look like hoarders from our pile (yes, that’s a giraffe). i wish i had grabbed these danish beauties or the thonet below, but only had so much room in my car!

i did get the squirrel jar, the ceiling mounts, and the espresso machine. the lights were free, (i plan on painting the housing brass and using these in the entry hall) and espresso machine was only $20 – i think a deal! we enjoyed espresso this morning and am so excited to make cappuccinos and lattes this winter.

we watched the most charming movie last night and will share more about it this week on the blog. we spent today ‘fall cleaning’ the closets, making a big pot of soup for the week, and my husband drew up some plans for our closet renovation. i wish the weekend was not over!

 

if you need something to listen to on this rainy night, remember the rainy days playlist?

xoxo madeline

dining room dreaming

just dreaming about different schemes for the dining room tonight. i am very drawn to the brass and gold mixed with the natural print (love these deer beds, they remind me of my childhood), a neutral light rug and bright accents. i bought this lovely print from ohmydeer etsy shop of a hemingway quote from a moveable feast. it will be perfect nested above the barcart. happy almost friday!

sources: satellite light from dwr/deerbed print from katherine wolkoff/delta lamp from lampsplus/rug from loloi/credenza from organic modernism/barcart from cb2/print from ohmydeer etsy/chair from overstock/table from cb2

xoxo madeline

inspiration: dining room

since we have been working on updating our dining room this month, i thought i would share some images that have been design inspiration to my husband and myself. between the two of us, being an interior designer and him being an architect, it is difficult to reign ourselves in. we get so excited about all the design possibilities. i am taking a little bit from each image to create our look and this week will also be sharing our before photos, ideas, and progress photos. i am excited to finally move forward with some new design ideas for the space.

  

1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10

madeline

dining chair ideas

we have been saving for new dining room furniture for a long time – not only because it gets expensive, also because we can’t decide. our taste has changed so much over the past two years, but we are finally learning our personal design style. this week, we bought these new dining chairs (image one) – a knockoff of the eames molded plastic. i hate knockoffs (!), but i would rather have them now and invest in the real ones down the line. i only bought four dining chairs so i would really like to buy a set of captains chair for the ends. here are my four ideas (that i can afford). which one do you like? i already have one in mind that is my favorite…go with the upholstered tweed, the clean matching white, the saarinen, or the contrasting tolix look?

all chairs from overstock

xoxo madeline

hairpin ottoman restyle

Our weekend has been full of much needed family time as my sister and brother-in-law were in town from Houston. A weekend of reunions – family, neighborhood, old friends, and sisters. Every time my sister and I see one another it is like no time has passed; for this I am thankful, because I can not go long without her in my life.

With some time to reflect on Sunday night in front of the firepit, I thought I might share my hairpin ottoman restyle story. Our home is a 50’s rancher with a lot of character – but we are still working on making this character look current. Insert picture of wood panelling.

{before: living room with wood coffee table}

We have been ‘borrowing’ this wooden coffee table to pair with our 9′ (?!?!) long sofa because not many tables will work with it. How do you arrange furniture in this forever long room? I was out shopping in the antique district in Nashville and ran into Pre-Post Modern, a local favorite. I spotted this hairpin leg ottoman and snatched it up.

{vintage ottoman find}

The atomic ranch fabric may work for some – but not our style, so I started shopping around for fabrics. I have seen a lot lately in bold graphic black and white that I have liked and later almost settled on a navy velvet. I went home to mull it over and looked through old fabric scraps and found something that will work for the interim – the fabric I chose is still busy enough to not show every imperfection.

{fabric shopping: graphic stripe + navy velvet}

It took a couple of hours total to transform the piece – I unscrewed the legs, suspended them and spray painted them gold with trusty Rustoleum brass spray paint. I love this product and highly recommend. There were not 1, not 2, but 6 layers of old, dingy fabric under the atomic ranch fabric. Removing the staples went quickly with a flathead screwdriver and pliers. The foam was in decent shape so I cut the fabric to size, restapled to the frame, and replaced the legs. This is the easiest upholstery job for amateurs like myself.

{stripping the old fabric and staples}

{after: ottoman still drying}

I really love the final product in our home and we have enjoyed having a place to kick up our feet or work on our computers. We are planning on also using hairpin legs on our DIY dining table – post coming soon.

{living room with new ottoman}

madeline