Four Years

Today marks four years of wedded bliss for my husband and me. I seriously cannot believe how fast time has flown by and how amazing these years have been. Sure, like any couple it's not all puppies and rainbows all the time (like when I sometimes yell at him to stop being lazy and to do whatever random chore I want him to do). But for the majority of the time it's amazing.. we're a team, and we're always on each others side no matter what.

We got married pretty young.. I was 23 and he was 24. It wasn't for religious reasons (we were living together after all), and a lot of people told us "you are too young!" (Isn't it amazing what comes out of people's mouths?). But we never thought twice about it. There was never a thought in my mind that I shouldn't marry this guy.. he is my best friend and he means the world to me. He makes me a better person and he understands me completely.. the good, the bad and the ugly. Not to mention he is the most supportive husband I could ever have. When I said "I'm going to quit my decently-lucrative day job to be a decorator" he didn't bat an eye.

It's funny because we are soooo different. A true example of "ying" and "yang". You could say I'm aloof, artsy and stubborn. He's "square" and simple and always with it. But I think that's the key to our relationship.

I started this blog to write about our lives (Did you know it used to be called Newlywedisms? haha). It's turned into so much more and it's made all my dreams come true, but sometimes I still want to document things and feelings, which is the reason for this post. No one ever knows what the future will bring, but this is how I feel here and now.

And in honor of our anniversary, some pictures of our wedding. They make me so happy because I can really see how happy we were that day. It was perfect!

Look For Less

I usually leave the "look for less" category to the professionals, like my blog friend Copy Cat Chic, but I had to share this one today.


Look: Lattice pillow by Dransfield & Ross, $240


For Less: Lattice pillow by Lands End, $44.50 + insert

Obviously there are differences in materials, but the look is very similar. I'm considering the Lands End pillow for a project!

Organization Inspiration

If you only could see my office right now... it's a HOT MESS. Fabric is everywhere. The rest of the house is neat and tidy, but my office is my dirty little secret.

My husband actually thinks I should show you. I agree that bloggers should keep things real more often.. so here it goes:




So anyway, I'm finding some comfort in these highly organized spaces and ideas today!

This is about exactly the same size as the linen closet in our guest bathroom. I would LOVE for it to look something like this... someday!

Great idea for managing pot lids. This would be perfect for under our kitchen island!!

Can you get any better than this organized "junk drawer"?

I've put together a "For My Office" board on Pinterest to help get my butt in gear for finishing my office. Here are some things I've added to my list to help me get organized:

Bonjour!

One of my clients went to France this summer and when she came back she told me she wanted to add a "French" vibe to her home. I wasn't quite sure what she meant by it, but my initial thought went to Kirklands.

But off to the internet I went to do some research and I started to look up Paris hotels.

This hotel, Hotel Keppler, was featured in Lonny.. soo pretty!

[ images via here ]

And another hotel, Belle Juliette Paris:











And my favorite, Le Sainte Beuve. They have the best virtual tour.. click here to view it. All the images below are screen shots from the virtual tour so they aren't the best images, but I definitely recommend checking the tour out for yourself. I love every single thing about this place, and I have added it to my "bucket list" to stay here one day :)













In each bedroom they have the most beautiful draperies.. they have two different fabrics/textures with a thin accent band in the middle. I loved them so much I recommended we do the same with the Show House, and we are! I cannot wait to show you.

Once I got on the French kick, I picked up this nude for my client, and the "French looking" chair (which I've posted about before):



I cannot write about France without mentioning my mom.. she is the biggest Francophile I know. She lived in France when she was younger, is fluent in French and there is actually a French student living with my parents right now! We've been to Paris together when I was young but I think we must go back again now that I really appreciate the art and architecture.

Sneak Peek

When our seamstress got all our fabric for the Show House pillows, she pinned up this beauty and sent us an iPhone picture asking us if we'd be interested.



Um, amazing!

Everything from the Show House will be for sale, so if you are interested in this pillow email me. Or if you want this pillow in different colors, our seamstress can do it.. email me! brynalexandra at gmail.

Fall

Fall.... It's my very favorite season of all (he he).

I cannot wait until all the leaves start changing here in NC! I've vowed to myself to get up to Asheville to take in the beauty (and maybe a little antique shopping, too) this fall.. I hope I can keep that promise to myself!



I love this living room, it definitely reads "fall" to me (the orange!):

[ via ]

And speaking of orange & fall, I recently came across this awesome orange & gold paper:



Put it in a frame and voila - beautiful, inexpensive art. (a little side note - this paper is so inexpensive, $5.95, I would actually have it professionally framed. It will make it look so expensive and the price of the art would really only be the framing cost!)

Happy Fall!

2011 Designer Show House in Charlotte!

I have some fun and exciting news for you guys. There is a 2011 Designer Show House in the works right now in Charlotte, and Isabella is a part of it! Even though my own decorating business takes up most of my time, I also am so blessed to be one of three designers at Isabella, and we've been working hard on an AWESOME bedroom for the show house!

Here is a sneak peak at our design plan:



We're doing a sophisticated neutral room with rich jewel tones and lots of texture. We're blogging all about it over at the Isabella blog, but I'll also be posting updates on this blog since working at Isabella is a big part of my life too!

I'll be sharing more info about the show house later but here is some info for now:

Yup, I'm still working on them.

Remember I told you guys I was painting our french doors in the living room black? It's been the project that is taking forever. I have been working on it in my free time and I don't have much free time.

But both doors have been painting, and now I'm in the process of scraping the glass panes.



In case you are curious, I like to scrap the glass clean rather than use painters tape. Taping takes FOREVER and even when I do it, there still ends up being leaks that I need to scrape anyway. Plus when you don't tape, the paint gets into all the little crevices and covers completely.

I can't wait until I'm finished and I can get these babies up!

I've learned in decorating that sometimes the game plan changes a little bit. Now that I've painted the doors, I feel like the dining room wall color is a bit too "flat" (not finish-wise, but color-wise) for the doors. It's a dark purple, but it usually looks dark brown or black-ish most of the time. It doesn't give much contrast to the doors (you can see what I mean in the picture above).

Here is another angle at a different time:



This is the actual color:

Kalamata Olive, BEHR

It's a great color, but with the addition of the black doors I think I need something a bit warmer to create a distinction between the black and the purple (you see the dining room when looking through the doors from the living room).

I'm now considering this:

Chianti, BEHR

The entire dining room needs another coat anyway, so no big deal if I switch things up a bit. We'll see!

And that's what's going on at the home front.

Beat It

Yesterday I was in Home Goods and they had some great new things. Here are some iPhone pictures I took..

I wanted to take this chair home but had no use for it.



They had tons of great beat-up storage pieces. They were a lot better in person than in my crappy phone pictures.





"Beat up" furniture (no, I won't call it Shabby Chic or Rustic) is a new thing for me.. I never liked it much but I've started to be really drawn to it. I think a bit of Charlotte (the city) is rubbing off on me; it's pretty common in design here.

For example, check out the "beat up" demilune tables in this Charlotte home I featured last week:


I really like when it's mixed with all contemporary pieces.

Here is a chair I'm using for a project, it will be reupholstered and put next to a contemporary Karlstad sofa (and yes the zebra cowhide will also be in the space).



And a goodie from Pinterest...


Old + New... I love it.