ROAD TRIP!!!

Let's pretend that is me. (Geena Davis). That's Ann driving. We are headed to the Furniture Market. This picture looks so much cooler than the actual. Me, Ann, mini-van... Stay tuned for our Market adventures. Hopefully they won't be as dramatic as Thelma and Louise's but do keep your fingers crossed for a Brad Pitt character.

Bye, bye birdie...

~A&H

Credit to: Star Pulse images, Thelma and Louise

Stools in the garden??? Or Garden Stools.

Garden Stools. They can serve as a seat, hold a drink, or a glossy mag... live indoors or out. They come in a multitude of colors, styles and have a cool Asian flair. Like the white stool (bottom center)? I am about to put that in a client's family room. The ultimate multi-tasker...

Love this reading nook with a spot for a book...

Wow. That is all I can say.

Love the Chiang Mai Dragon...

Ohhh la la spa...
Yum.
This is the stool in my garden (currently). Pun intended. Do you think anyone will mistake it for a "garden stool"?

Bye bye birdie,

~A&H

Credit to: House of Turquoise, Apartment Therapy

Demo Diary Day 2

When I was a little girl, my great-grandmother's beach house had a claw foot tub. I can remember everything about it. It was cast iron with vintage fixtures and my great-grandmother hated it. She thought it was too small and eventually "updated" with a fiberglass unit.

I loved that tub. At this point, I would love ANY tub. My bathroom is almost too scary to blog about. I don't want any of you having nightmares about the crawl space and.... OK, enough. Back to my happy place. I am going to close my eyes and pretend that Sarah Richardson has created this for me.

It is the perfect mix of modern meets vintage with a touch of glam. Very me, don't ya think? So during this horrifying bathroom remodel, I have given much thought to what I would do, how I would change it. Our previous tub was so big our kids would take their snorkel and mask into bathe. I have shopped around, I have researched. I have blogged. I have narrowed it down to one criteria. My tub will hold one person and one person only. ME.

So, my dear bloggers. I have a treat. A teaser, if you will. I guess the fact that I can walk into my bathroom and fall into the ground is not a big enough challenge. I have decided to remodel my entire bathroom... from Craig's List. Really. Tub, check. Vanity, check, Lighting, check. Here is a sneak peak. This is not yet mine, but is about to be...

Stay tuned...

Bye, bye birdie,

~H

Credit to: Sarah Richardson, Design Sponge, Craig's List

Demolition Date Night

This morning started off like every other morning. I ran the kids to school and was headed to Ocean Isle for an install while my husband was left at home... alone... unsupervised. The last thing I remember about my bathroom was that it looked like this AND, we had a small leak. Oh yeah, and Read, my oh so handy hubby was "going to work on it".

When I got home, the Schutte family was here, all seven kids were in this cage and after a long day, I retreated to my bathroom for a much needed Calgon, take me away moment.

Uh oh, where's my tub? and floor? and husband? Ann? Are you down there?

NEVER leave your husbands home alone.

Ann??? Call me! I need to go to my happy place and this is not what I had in mind...

I finally found Ann relaxing in my tub...in the yard. We ordered pizza, watched the kids as my bathroom paraded out the door, piece by piece.

Bye bye birdie, bye bye bathroom.

~A&H

Go to your happy place...

Yes...I spent another weekend taking care of sick kids. This time I was not productive at all...no demolition, no painting, in fact I got nothing accomplished at all. When the kids are better and off to school, I will have to use a leaf blower to clean this joint! By Sunday I had to take a few minutes to go to my happy place.

(I do not do sleep deprivation well).

In my happy place I might roll out of this bed... around 8. (that's seriously sleeping in to me!)

I would slip into this claw foot tub for a nice relaxing bubble bath. You can't see them but that bamboo chair would be piled high with magazines to read....




Oh my gosh! This is soooo my beautiful staircase that descends into my lovely foyer. I have to tell you I looooove this foyer. (Cue music) lo'ovin you ..is easy cause you're beautifuuul.. dododododo...ahh ahh ahh ahh ahh ahhhhhh....

This would be the kitchen where my chef would prepare my morning cups of joe. I might even pour my own coffee in here... heck, I might even cook more if could do it on that stove surrounded by carrera... (Are you reading this Jeff?) Do you see the eggs in the basket from my chickens?

I know this might throw you and you might not be able to imagine me hanging out in here, but this is Sting's house. I thought maybe I would spend the rest of my day listening to some tunes, flipping through magazines and admiring my art collection...seriously? This is definitely my happy place with an art collection!

And all this would take place here...in my farmhouse (I just showed you this house a couple of post ago but this is my daydream so here it is again!)

Well, the reality is my happy place is here with my fam. Picking up dirty clothes and cooking dinner in a tiny kitchen for a bunch of kids that sometimes forget to say thanks. But as you know I wouldn't have it any other way. It's fun to daydream and think the Cleavers really do exist and that the glossy people in the beautiful homes don't get sick, but they do...

Enjoy your happy week in your happy place...

Bye bye birdie...

~A

credit to: Country Living, Vera Bradley, House Beautiful

Wallpaper the kids?

So we love wallpaper. Kind of a catch 22 or a oxy-moron (did I spell moron right)??? Coming from a crew that loves to paint wall murals.

At any rate, all of the grass cloth in Nora Walker's home has inspired me and forced me to share my ALL TIME FAVORITE resource. I LOVE Phillip Jeffries. Their wallcoverings are so inspired that they take everyday materials that you would never think of and yes, cover walls!

I am waiting for the day that the PJ designers stop by my house and decide to do their next line out of food that sticks to walls (hot dogs, chicken nugget crumbs etc).

In all seriousness, they use bamboo, granite, silk, embroidery, leather, faux hides and horsehair, lacquers, sea grass and sisals, metallics and yes grass cloth galore. Every color, texture and design imaginable. I ordered some of the "Fine Arrowroot" this morning for a client and quizzed my fabulous rep on the latest and greatest. Needless to say, they will be my first stop at market. Check out some of my favorite rooms that have been graced by the gods of grasscloth and more...

The "Arches" from the Voyage Collection. I would love to put this in a powder room I am working on... Client, are you reading this??

Philip Gorrivan for the 2009 Traditional Home Showhouse.

Ahhh. The "Chain Link" -- comes in an array of colors from aqua, to gray to orange and celery. I would wallpaper my kids in this stuff.

Lacquered Strie. Pretty and sophisticated.

Jackson Square... Imagine it on an entire wall.

I love this room by Elizabeth Dinkel for the 2008 Veranda Showhouse. She used the Extra Fine Arrowroot too.

This another shot from the Traditional Home Showhouse done by color genius, Amanda Nisbet. Check out the metallic ceilings. I used to babysit for her children, way back when. I recall her wall-to-wall leopard carpet. I was inspired even then. Amanda, remember me?

Are you inspired? For am amazing gallery of work, check out the designer installs at Phillip Jeffries. If you want samples, let me know, I'll send 'em to ya!

Bye, bye birdie,

~H

Credit to: Phillip Jeffries, Amanda Nisbet, Philip Gorrivan, Elizabeth Dinkel, Traditional Home, Veranda, Holly Hunt

Taking a sick day....

While Hooper and her crew were forced family funnin' it on Bald Head I was home with some forced family fun of my own.

What IS one to do when a child is home for a week with a fever of 101? Well... since the other kids are in school and sicky sleeps all day... hmmm... Redo my dining room! Of course!

Now for a little inspiration...

For inspiration purposes only I am going to pretend my D.R. is in this house.... (a girl can dream)

I spy with my little eye.... Wainscoting!

Totally loving the height of this but I have lots of scary portraits that must be hung on the walls!

Though I am looking for wainscoting inspiration I got a little distracted by the pillars on the table from Anthropologie. I'll take all 5 please. Thank you...

I should definitely paint mine high gloss white.

I am so thankful to have brothers that are carpenters and willing to throw some board and baton up for a sister on a Tuesday afternoon!

I am also thankful for my friends at Benjamin Moore who let me call in paint and pick up curbside!

I know... the pictures are not hung and the chair is begging to be recovered in a blue & white zig-zag. (not that I already have it picked out or anything...) I am also still debating the color. It might need more blue, less green. But, overall ...not bad for an unplanned week home!

May your sick days always be productive...

Bye Bye Birdie...

~A

Credit: Anthropologie, Country Living, Soundside Carpentry, West Elm

Brothers and Sisters

So here we are. All 16 of us. It is day 6 of the family vacay. Picture Griswold's meet Walkers. Because I could totally jump right into Nora Walker's family (and home) from Brother's and Sisters, I prefer to compare us to them. Plus I wouldn't want to pay Clark Griswold's power bill and Cousin Eddie hits a little too close to home.

The Walker's on the other hand, are all gorgeous, own a vineyard and live in a fabulous house in Pasadena. Sure, we have a lot in common. We think we are all great looking, we drink enough wine to support a vineyard but sadly our house looks nothing like theirs.

I wanted to share some pictures from the set of Brother's and Sisters because it is truly one of my favorites. Tons of grasscloth, incredible moldings, hand scraped floors... it feels lived in and "real". At least as real as you can get on an ABC set. Cue the drama. They fight, gossip, spill each others secrets episode by episode, often discover they have a long-lost sibling. All of this down home disfunction has inspired me and reminds me quite a bit of last night (minus the sibling part, there are still just four of us. That we know of...)

Luckily, they always make up in the end around a huge feast and tons of wine. Since this is our last night here, maybe we should give it shot?

P.S. Don't tell my mom, she thinks we all sit around after she goes to bed and sing "Kumbayah".

Bye, bye birdie,

~H

Credit to: ABC, Hooked on Houses

Bald Head, Here We Come!

In a last ditch effort to hang onto summer and celebrate my mom's 60th birthday, my family (all 16 of us) are headed to Bald Head Island for a week. (She may not be glad that I just announced her age to the world). Oh well...

For those of you who have been to Bald Head, you already know how special it is. For those of you who haven't, I wanted to share some of my favorite spots with you. It is like diving head first into an issue of Coastal Living (only with very loud children tagging along).

I have been coming to Bald Head since I was five years old and there is no other place in the world like it. We would spend the entire summer here with just a handful of people. There were very few houses, no phones, no TV's, no cars. It was good ol' fashioned summer. While things have changed a lot over here, it is still breathtaking, peaceful and the perfect way to end a summer... the good ol' fashioned way.

At 7 am this morning, with tons of kids and coffee in tow, I scouted out some of my favorite spots to share with you.

You can't see in the picture, but there is a basket of flip flops on the porch and a swing. Sit back and have a lemonade with me. Uh oh, here come my kids... spike it quick.

These are a couple of my favorite houses on the harbor. You can hear the ferry roll in.

I love this Charleston style porch. I am sure that at 7:00 am the homeowners thought it was strange that I was stalking their house to get the best light.

This one is right next door. I love the flamingos.

Notice my child is barefooted, she lost her flip flops...

Ah ha! Don't know how these got lost with the fist-size bling on the toe. Good to have if you get stuck on a deserted island.

This is one of the three houses at Captain Charlie's Station and was built in the early 1900's for the lighthouse keeper. They are restored and rentable. I wonder if the renter's thought it was strange this morning when I was peeking around in their dining room. They still have the same old painted gray floors and exposed brick.

I love these garage doors. Since cars are not allowed on the island. This garage houses two golf carts.

Thankfully, these homeowners weren't home when I was trying to figure out who makes these benches. I am thinking Century?

Then I was trying to figure out how to move here. (To see the interiors of this home, check out the September issue of Coastal Living).

or here...

A friend of my mom's brought over this festive sign so everyone will know we are celebrating. Cute huh?

Thought you should see the picture of us arriving by golf cart. Remind you of anything?

Well now its time to say good by to Ted and all his kin.
And they would like to thank you folks fer kindly droppin in.
You're all invited back a gain to this locality
To have a heapin helpin of their hospitality

Hillybilly that is. Set a spell, Take your shoes off.
Y'all come back now, y'hear?.

Bye, bye birdie,

~H

Credit to: Bald Head Island, Coastal Living