The Beginnings of a Nursery

My husband and I recently found out Baby #2 is a....GIRL!

I'm so excited that Auden will have a little sister as close in age as me and my sister were.  I can't wait to watch them grow up and form the sweetest bond.  Jon and Remi (our boy dog) will be outnumbered in the best possible way.

Now that we know the baby's gender, it's time to begin the nursery design!  Unfortunately, Jon's man cave was a short-lived affair and will now become the new nursery. Because we recently painted and added board and batten in the room, we are going to keep that as the backdrop.  The room is currently painted in Benjamin Moore's Charcoal Slate so to combat the dark hue, I'm going to add soft colors and textures to the space.

Several of the items from Auden's room will be moved over including the crib, crib bumper, floor lamp and rocker.  And the dresser I'm going to use is a family piece that currently resides in our guest room.  So the only items left to buy are a new crib skirt, curtains, rug, accessories and art.   

Here's what I'm imagining at the present...

I want the overall feel to be warm, sophisticated and cozy with lots of character. 

SOURCES:
Crib-Tate Crib by Restoration Hardware Baby & Child (sold out)
Empire Rocker by NurseryWorks
Gray and White Pique Bumper
Rug-vintage from Etsy
Dresser-family piece
Crib Skirt-RHB&C
Flax Stripe Pillow (on final sale at RHB&C)
Vintage Brass Chandelier-Thrift store find from years ago
Floral Block Pillow-Williams-Sonoma Home (sold out)
Paint-Charcoal Slate by Benjamin Moore

So that's the plan for right now.  What do you guys think?  

Zara Home - Favorite Kids Picks

Clothing retailer Zara is a favorite of mine to visit when when shopping in larger cities. While looking through their website the other day, I was happy to discover they offer a kids home line. Since we resource from quality, easy-accessible retailers for our E-Design clients to shop from and based on all their adorable offerings, Zara for sure will be added to our list. Here are a few of my top picks. Click images for links.

How cute would these baskets make for toy storage?!

These crochet baskets and garland

I am considering purchasing the lemon for Amelia's room.

would look so sweet in a bohemian inspired nursery.

Did You Know?--Three Reasons to Choose E-Design

E-Design marries our design expertise with our clients’ inner creativity 

It’s rare that we don’t end up explaining the E-Design process to people when we talk about what we do. We love sharing our passion for design and a glimpse into our world through our blog, but the real bread and butter of our work seems to be somewhat of a gray area to some.

So we decided to lay out some of the basics. Maybe you’ll decide E-Design is for you. Or maybe it isn’t, but when you have a friend struggling to put together a space in his or her home, maybe you can suggest and explain E-Design and its benefits!

Here they are:

1.     It’s the most affordable way to receive design expertise.

Well…unless you have a close friend or relative that’s a designer and willing to do it for practically nothing. But I can tell you from experience—it doesn’t happen that way! ;)

Here’s how E-design is so affordable:

• we don’t have a retail or commercial office space for overhead expense
• we don’t mark-up furnishings or fixtures or finishes
• because we don’t typically make site visits, we don’t have the travel or time expenses of coming to a project site multiple times before it’s finished
• turn around time for our end product is two or three weeks on average--compare this to the months on average that traditional interior design projects take--less time = less money 

So basically, you’re paying for time and expertise to put together a cohesive and beautiful room plan that suits you and your needs, all in a very short time frame—fewer hours for us, and less wait time for you. Win-win.

image via 3A Design Studio

2.     You are in control. 

Most people are afraid of hiring a professional because of the large financial undertaking--not only because of the hourly rates but the cost of the materials and furnishings as well. Unfortunately people see $$$ when they see beautiful rooms. We want you to know it doesn't have to be that way!! With E-Design, your only up-front expense is the cost of the E-Design package. Once it’s in your hands, YOU decide when and how everything is purchased to incorporate our package into your space.

On this project, we left the wall-hangings to the control of the client by allowing her to choose which photos will go in her gallery wall. Not only does this leave the very personal aspects in the hands of the client, but it also saves us from having to investigate every photo in their household worth hanging! You can also see that the dining table is part of an option--sometimes we think more than one piece may work in a room for different reasons. We leave those reasons to be decided upon by the client as it works best for their home.

On top of that, E-Design doesn't use custom and/or private high-end vendors that most designers do. While we love and appreciate that area of design (as much as I could curl up with and marry a Scalamandre wallcovering or an Eames lounge chair), we understand that the general public wants easy access to design. That’s why we choose the elements of your design package from well-known, easily-accessible, quality retailers where YOU can go and visit and see in person before you make a purchase. 

And for those large purchases --the ones we know will not only take up the biggest portion of your budget, but also determine the design direction of the rest of the room--we typically send options. On the same project as the dining room featured above, we followed the client along with her sofa purchase to ensure we were selecting items for the rest of the room accordingly. We love that she was able to take her family along on the buying experience and purchase something that was uniquely fitting for them--not necessarily just something that works in our design. Everybody wins!

3.     You can still live out your DIY dreams.

We get that this is the time of DIY. Not only because people like to get creative, but they are in love with the idea of being able to put a little elbow grease into something and—at a fraction of the cost—have a result that they can be proud of, knowing that they completed it themselves. It’s a great sense of accomplishment!

But hey! Guess what? We love those things too! We are total fans of DIY. We DIY in our own homes, and we see no reason you can’t do the same—under professional guidance, of course (because, let's face it: not all DIY turns out to be good DIY). 

If we know you’ve got a tight budget (and often times our clients do), we may suggest you “ikea hack” a piece, go thrifting or antique market hunting, or re-purpose a piece in your home that needs a facelift. 

Here's an example of a media console makeover we suggested for a client. The piece was perfectly functional. Just a few small changes would help it become a more cohesive element to the space--there was just no need for her to spend the hundreds of dollars on a new console.

We also know most people interested in design have the ability to put together a great-looking room, and most of the time, they’re just looking for pointers. A road map to where they want to go.  And that’s exactly what E-Design offers. E-Design marries our design expertise with our clients’ inner creative drive.

Based on the photos of her home, we knew this client had great taste to begin with. We knew that we could give her loose instructions and that she would be able to execute them well. And all those mirrors--they were ones she already had in her home. She just needed to know how to arrange them!

We truly believe there is no one "right" way to put together a room--we know this based on the fact that all three of us can look at a space and each envision something slightly different, but equally beautiful. We like to empower our clients to do the same. We've yet to meet a client that we don't trust to implement our advice in their space in a way that they feel works best. 

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The most common comment we get when telling people we are designers (overwhelmingly!) is:

“Oh! Then will you please come and tell me what to do in my house?!”

Of course we can! That’s why there’s E-Design. We value our expertise and through this blog and us sharing a peek into our design world, we hope you can see why!

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What questions do you have for us? What room can we take a look at in your home so we can help you improve it? If you want to know more about the process, drop us a line! We would love to help.

Favorite Online Bedding Resources

If there's one way to finish off a bedroom or nursery with a designer's touch, it's with great bedding.  Just as we are against a matching set of furniture, so too are we against the good ol' "bed in a bag."  I know that these are made in an attempt to have you believe that by using the pieces provided, you'll achieve custom-looking bedding but I assure you, the opposite is true.  

Mixing and matching bedding pieces is the way to go--and it's so fun!  Mixing and matching colors, textures and patterns will instantly give your bedding a beautiful layered look that was thoughtfully put together.  

Below I've outlined a few of my favorite online bedding resources for adults and children/babies for easy shopping.  Don't be afraid to mix and match items from different retailers to finish your look!

CRATE & BARREL
They have a lot of great foundation pieces (linen duvet covers, solid quilts) on which to build the rest of your bedding.  I also love their patterned sheets to add a little fun to any room.  And furthermore, they have great sales!

CRANE & CANOPY
Bedding is what they do so naturally they are going to have a lot of great options.  Beautiful, subtle patterned sheets and shams, soft duvets outlined in every color of the rainbow and gorgeous scalloped sheets that I mentioned here.  They also usually run a lot great sales.

POTTERY BARN
This retailer is not new to anyone.  My favorite pieces from them are the embroidered duvets and pick-stitch quilts.  They also have a new line of greek key throws that are amazing.

For kids and babies in your life, here are my favorites sources:

View fullsize

SERENA & LILY
They have well-designed crib sheet patterns (that are also super soft), a bedding basics collection with bumpers/crib skirts in every color and an assortment of unique pieces like this macramé crib skirt.  

LAND OF NOD
Home to whimsical and playful bedding options from crib sizes up to a queen (something that's usually hard to find in kid-friendly prints).  They also have an assortment of duvets and unique crib bedding.  And when they run a sale, it's usually a great one!

RESTORATION HARDWARE BABY & CHILD
If you're looking for soft tones, comfortable fabrics and subtle patterns, RHBC is your guy.  I'm particularly fond of their washed linen and matelasse crib bedding collections.  They also have a ton of great sheet options and will send you swatch samples for free!

So the next time you're looking to update your bedding, give these sources a look first and say "good bye!" to the bed in the bag!

Artist Spotlight: Teil Duncan

A young talent from Charleston, Teil Duncan is the artist behind these beautiful abstracts and gestural figure paintings. Her paintings consist of lovely color palettes and contain a feminine quality to them. My favorites are from her beach series.

Teil's art can be purchased on her website but be warned she sells out fast. Many of her paintings sell for around $1950-$1400. However, she offers a couple affordable prints for $110 such as, the ones below.

All Images Via

Gorgeous, no? If there is an artist you think we should know about, share with us. We are always looking for great art.

Nursery/Toddler Room Update

A very short 6 weeks (give or take) sits between our one-kid house and the arrival of our second baby.

We are starting to prep tiny baby laundry, finalize our baby needs list, and most importantly, we had to turn the crib back into a crib—my daughter has been sleeping in it as a toddler bed. You may remember our plans to incorporate a twin bed into the room, which we have now done—finally!

As most things go, I’ve changed some things since the original room plan, but it’s coming together. Here’s a peek at the toddler corner of the room:

The room ended up in a layout similar to this one (only mirrored, so the bed and crib are on opposite sides from where I have them drawn--the bed against the window wall and the crib immediately in front as you enter the room): 

Even though I didn’t think I’d get much done as far as decorating the new space, I did order some new sheets for the bed and fabrics to be made into something functional and cute. The when and how that will happen I’ll worry about later ;) For now here’s a look at what I have left to incorporate into the space:

garland // window fabric // eyeball sconce // rocker // footstool // rug // bolster fabric // coral fabric // aqua fabric

The windows already have some linen curtains up, but they only serve as dressings, and unfortunately the window receives Eastern light—meaning my daughter is up with the sun. Every. Day.  So I’m thinking of making either blackouts with the window fabric, or even some roman shades.

What do you think?

If this baby ends up being a boy I’ll probably bring more of the reds into that side of the room. But that will be tacked on to the other tasks for the room, I’m sure. (For example, I'd also like to paint the room a cooler, lighter color, but that's definitely not happening anytime soon!)

For now I’m just worried about making sure we have all the essentials for bringing home a baby. It’s surprising how much you forget about needing in those early days—but it’s also helpful to have done it once before so I know exactly how much we don’t need. Sometimes I think it’s just as important to decide what you don’t need when creating a functional design for a space. The phrase “less is more” didn’t come about for nothing!

Until next time…