I want our bed to look as perfectly rumpled and luxurious as these gorgeous beds that are dressed in Belle Notte Linens. Don’t you?

After sleeping on a camping mattress on the floor (everywhere on the property except the master bedroom!) for the last three months – a mattress is being delivered to the house today. I will be sleeping soundly tonight, even if it isn’t dressed in Belle Notte linens…yet! {winkwink}

3 Comments » Posted by ABCDDesigns / Dream Decorating and Uncategorized

I realize I have been a little food-centric with my posts the last week or so, but I am just so happy to see my cookery books! I mean really, really thrilled. It’s the start of September which means that the cabinetry boards have been cut and they’ll soon be moving from the wood barn into the production building - more on that process later! Today, I want to talk a bit about the kitchen pantry/laundry room.{Images: Apartment Therapy, Vision Decor, and ABCD Designs’ Notes for the Design File – totally a post worth checking out!}Yesterday, my cabinet guys told me that we’re looking at a mid-October installation date. Hooray! Sounds like I’ll be able to host Thanksgiving at the ABCD Homestead! I know, it’s going to be a tight schedule by the time we get the counter tops in. Kitchens always take a lot longer to install than anyone ever thinks to account for. Of course, once it is finished, I will have the job of unpacking and washing all the dishes…{Sorry the image is so blurry – clearly I wasn’t focused on photos, it was more about washing all the dishes and crystal!}
One portion of the kitchen drawings I neglected to show you a few weeks ago is the laundry room, which will double as the kitchen pantry. You remember when I dream decorated that space over at Blu Label Bungalo a few months ago, right? As a reminder, we were blessed with an entire wall of built-in open shelves, similar to the image above. On the other side we have a sink, the washer, the dryer and a set of open ikea shelves. I decided to add a closed door upper cabinet, and a shaker style shelf above the washer and dryer. We’ll be repurposing the ikea shelves in our attic.Gosh, I l-o-v-e this shelf! As a matter of fact, I showed my cabinet makers this exact image and said “Let’s do this, only more shaker-style, less country.” Ahhhh… the benefits of going local! I quoted out stock cabinetry at the big box stores as well as semi-custom lines at smaller kitchen and bath outfitters – and guess what? By going local, I was able to get a quote for fully custom cabinets at a fraction of the price of the big box store.Cabinets are expensive no matter which way you go. I spent a lot of time getting pricing. I got quotes on everything from Quality Cabinets to Kraftmaid, Decora to Crown Point, Plain and Fancy, Thomasville, and several more. My local guy came in at a third of the cost. ONE THIRD! Not to mention, since he is literally around the corner from me, the delivery of my entire kitchen is only $90.00. The.Entire.Kitchen! Did I mention that the estimates we got for delivery with other companies (in many cases) came in at thousands of dollars? I feel like I really scored by staying local - Yes, there are often cost benefits to using a slow home frame of mind.
In the pantry: I know I told you that I had planned to arrange the cook books in color-coded fashion, but super organized personality won’t allow for it. Each time I put all the green, yellow, red or black bindings together I get all stressed about how long it will take me to find the cook book I want. Lesson learned. I need organization more than I love color-coded prettiness.
Speaking of cost, the Bayview Utility Sink looks like exactly what I could imagine in this laundry room come pantry space. I have been hunting around, and the best price I found was at Home Center. I wouldn’t be surprised if I hunt more, I’ll find a better deal or something like it that gives the same feeling.I know it’s not ideal to have closed shelving on that wall blocking the view of the window frame – but I can’t change that situation. I feel a little closed cabinetry in that room is a necessity for me. I am overwhelmed by all the visual stimulation of too many open shelves. I plan to house holiday dishes in those cabinets. If I left them open…just think of the unnecessary dusting I’d have to do…Ugh! As you know, the kitchen cabinetry is black, but we’ll be doing these laundry room cabinets in dove white to match the trim throughout the house. I plan to have matte black pulls and latches for all of the cabinets.

What else? Am I missing anything? Is there anything you’d add to this space?

18 Comments » Posted by ABCDDesigns / Dream Decorating and The Country House and Uncategorized

To my pure and utter delight, I spent early this past Monday evening at Bunny Williams‘ Upper East Side atelier. Bunny was throwing a bit of a celebration to announce all the wonderful plans she has for Fall. There were lovely pimento cheese and cucumber sandwiches – with the crusts cut off, of course! There were plenty of refreshments, beautiful flower arrangements and a whole slew of NYC based designers and design bloggers.Bunny took a moment to speak to the party attendees as a group. She told us that Beeline Home Collection II debuting at Highpoint in October. She went on to speak to us about what inspires her. Bunny recommends that you always keep your eyes open when traveling ~ you might find a gem! She found rusted tin hut cladding on a trip to Honduras ultra fascinating. So she made a deal on it and now it’s going to make an appearance on the walls of her Highpoint booth.Bunny explained how her husband is an expert at faux finishing and gilding, so she sent him to South America to teach the artisans how to keep the Beeline product at the highest quality standards that will meet Bunny’s expectations. Quality is key – that piqued my attention! I am absolutely looking forward to seeing the new pieces first hand. Are any of you going to Highpoint in October?Bunny’s husband spoke for a few moments to us. He was a joy to listen to. (I loved his pink linen jacket!) He says has hope for the future of interior design when he looks out to the crowd of us young designers. What an honor it was to be this event. I feel truly blessed for having had the opportunity to go.

She also told us about a fresh Bunny Williams Website renovation that will be going live this Fall. The new site will allow customers to shop online and register for wedding gifts. You will be able to shop in Bunny Williams style from anywhere in the world while wearing your pajamas – if pj shopping pleases you - How cool is that?As you may know, Bunny has written several beautiful books. She has a new one coming out later this Fall. It is called A Scrapbook For Living. Bunny is known for the attention to detail that she puts into the homes belonging to her clients. She expressed that she doesn’t like a house to look so done that it doesn’t look or allow people live there comfortably. This book is focused on the little vignettes that make everyday life more beautiful. I can not wait for the book to launch on her birthday!I truly appreciate the fact that I was invited to attend Bunny’s cocktail party. It was such a beautiful space. I met so many interesting people. The very best part was that (after several years of spotting Bunny around New York City) I actually had the opportunity to finally meet her in person! Is it possible for Bunny to be any more delightful? No. She was so utterly approachable and kind-hearted. Bunny even offered to have me over for a private tour of her garden in Litchfield County ~ now that we’re nearly neighbors after all. How wonderfully gracious of her!Pop by Habitually Chic‘s post about the party to ooh and ahh at the beautiful space that Bunny Williams has created to work in! All the images are from Bunny Williams’ Portfolio, except where noted.

7 Comments » Posted by ABCDDesigns / Design and Dream Decorating and Uncategorized and What's on?

As I suspected, the wood flooring job that the “specialist” came in to “patch” last Friday still looks like phooey. There are sanding marks, areas where the stain was put on heavier than others, and a distinctive black ring around the perimeter of our entire second floor. The steps were about 3 shades darker than the rest of the wood. They completely obliterated the beautiful bull nose on many of the steps and at the landing. Not to mention, they left areas so rough that I am bound to get splinters should I ever dare touch it. Now that is a fine quality – kidding!The unfortunate thing is that now I am stuck with a botched floor and I will have to refinish them after we’ve moved in. Given how incredibly dusty these guys were the first time around – all of my belongings are going to be laden with construction dust. The one thing I was trying so hard to avoid! I am contemplating telling the wood floor guy to go away. I really, truly think I might just paint them white.Did I mention that there is a fine coat of dust on every surface in the house? The flooring guy led me astray by insisting I have the painters come in first and that he go last. All my fresh paint looks terrible! Always, always paint last – I knew this, and he convinced me otherwise. I am still trying to get through cleaning out the romper room. My right shoulder is so sore from my bike accident that I really can only do little bits and pieces at a time before my shoulder gives out and I need a rest. Since I am moving so slow, I had hoped to have an entire week to prepare the house for move-in. Now I am down to one day. I decided to hire a team of fellas to come in and help me clean the mess that the wood floor guy left behind. It’s the only way I will be ready for the movers to arrive. Why bother to clean if they have to come back? Oh lordy, will we ever be settled?I have been collecting images of painted steps and floors for a while, but didn’t realize I might be painting my own! Here are some images to check out painted floors and stairways: red steps from Dos Family, pink painted steps image via Michael Graydon, black and white steps via pretty organized palace, checkerboard floor via Decorno, an array of flooring options from Wide Open Spaces, High Heeled Foot in the Door gives a tutorial on painting wood floors, white steps with natural wood “runner” and turquoise painted steps featured in this post are from Apartment Therapy.

19 Comments » Posted by ABCDDesigns / Nesting and The Country House and Uncategorized

How incredibly handsome is this Steamline Luggage? With a wink and a nod to the good ole days ~ when traveling was a luxury ~ Steamline is totally on-point with these gorgeous travel pieces. How I’d love one for weekends in the country! But for now, I will have to settle with my laundry basket and my m0851 postman bag. Glamorous, I know. *winkwink* BTW: I discovered these pretties thanks to a blog called Lake Jane. Such a fab find! Since they floors are wet, I had to get out of The Country House for a few days. The Rubio Monocoat went onto the floor upstairs yesterday afternoon. Wood floors cover the steps as well as the entirety of the second floor. Our only full bathroom is up there and I need to give the floors a few days to fully dry and harden. I like this product because it is a natural oil wood floor finish. It is VOC-free and completely non-toxic. The wood flooring specialist tells me that it is extraordinarily durable and that it’s super easy to fix scratches. I heard that and said “Sign us up!”We chose the Castle Brown color. It’s got medium tone warm brownish-grey highlights, but still shows through the gold pine color which speaks to the ceiling in the master bedroom and bathroom. Speaking of the ceilings on the second floor… I have been chatting with my interior designer friends on Twitter about them. The question: do we paint the ceiling in those rooms high-gloss white, or do we leave them natural?Off my point for a moment: The man who sold us the house guaranteed me that my painters would not know how to do the artisan installed plaster work on the second floor. He sent me the link to the faux finish artist who is based in Brooklyn. ($$$ cha-ching! $$$) He strongly recommended that I hire her to come all the way to Northwestern Connecticut do the repairs. Unfortunately, hiring a artist out of New York City to do repairs on our plaster is not in the plan. I’d have to pay for her travel, food, and hotel. Ugh – That is what they call a budget buster!! In the end, think our painters did a lovely job matching the finish and they didn’t charge us a dime extra. Back to the ceilings…
The online Twitter consensus was to paint it white. I was all but settled on white until after they painted our bedroom walls with the first coat. Both me and the Mr. were drawn to the cozy feeling of the knotty pine – or as my friend Jonathan Legate likes to call it “naughty” pine! As a side note: you must check out his beautiful website! Jonathan certainly knows his stuff. I can’t believe that I am going against his impeccable taste and recommendation to paint it white! It’s funny to me, in some light the walls look warm grey, and in other light they have a blue undertone. I couldn’t be happier with the decision to paint them Kendall Charcoal – either way, I love the color. It’s incredibly cool, yet cozy! As suspected, the Shaker Peg Rail gives a nice white break between the walls and ceiling. That was exactly what I was going for when I installed them. Hooray = design success!It’s come time for me to settle back into the City for a few days. The Blogher conference is going on this week, so there are a lot of blogger and twitter meet-ups happening. I was lucky enough to share the elevator last week with Nate Berkus at the So Haute event. Nate himself invited me to a cocktail party this Saturday night. How wonderful of him to ask, right? You bet I said “YES, with pleasure!” to that invitation – what an awesome opportunity!

12 Comments » Posted by ABCDDesigns / Personal and The Country House and Uncategorized and What's on?