Sunny Rooms

This week is Spring Break at our house and it has gotten me thinking about how inspiring a bright sun room can be. It's the perfect spot to let Spring flood in and spend the lazy days of summer. Check out some of my favorite sun porches and a couple of my own.

I love that this room literally brings the outdoors in.

The glass gives this room the illusion that it is actually outside.

I love the exposed shingles in this lovely room and all of the soft colors.

Casual and relaxing. I could nap on that day bed.

Great for entertaining (lots of people)

I love the sophistication of this room. The red packs a lot of punch. If you had the space, and tons of sunlight, what would you do? Happy Spring!

Bye bye birdie,
~H

credit to: Apartment Therapy, Decor Pad, Polyvore, Remodelista, Cococozy: Kelley Interior Design

What's Your Style?

If anyone watches our friend Em on Secrets of  Stylist you are familiar with the part of the show where she does a style diagnosis or as she calls it a 'style diagnostic.' By placing random objects on the table

            (ie: creepy doll, neck ties and door knobs) 
...and asking a few questions, she determines her clients' style. And we are not talking eclectic, or traditional. We're talking out of the box styles like 'modern artsy nouveau' , 'rustic mantique', 'Neo-southern modern scottish re-belle', 'prostitute classy' (oh did you miss that episode? I'm just kidding, that's not really one).

But If you ever wondered what "Neo-southern modern scottish re-belle" looks like, here it is (and it's pretty great).


For those who've been following us, you know we are very different (from each other), as clients point out daily: You two are nothing alike, how did you get to be friends again? So.... we decided to do our own style diagnostic to determine our personal styles. We picked from a random (and I mean, random) group of items and here is what we chose.


Can you guess who chose what? If we mixed them, what would we call our style?



Organic Dynasty?
Bohemian Hollywood Regency Hippie?
Ugly pretty or Pretty Ugly? 
Preppy Modern Traditional Homely?
Blinged out Worn In?


We're not really sure what we'd call it, but it seems to work. Tons of contradictions or our word of the week: Juxtaposition 


Whatever it is, we love how Em does it and love when our client's let us do it.
What's your style diagnosis?


Bye bye birdie,
~A&H


credit to: Style by Emily Henderson, Polyvore

Pink-a-li-cious

Pantone's color of the year has found it's way into this little girl's room. Remember the headboard from the Bamboozeled Post? Well... it got a fresh coat of ballet pink paint and Emmie got a whole new room! Refurbished side tables, Lowes (yes Home Improvement) milk glass lamps and some fabrics for a little girl to grow up with = a sweet retreat. 

The ruffled bedding from Urban Outfitters is dreamy...

The Pink lattice fabric has an Asian vibe that plays of the of the bamboo headboard and ...

...cherry blossom pillows in miniature metal chairs.

 But the best part (photography doesn't do it justice) is Ann's beautiful stylized Cherry Blossom Mural.

Accessories finish it off.

Remember the baby nesting table from the Spring Makeover post, It was the perfect fit beside this glider. 

Well, what do ya think?

Happy Monday!

Bye bye birdie,

~A&H

Spring Makeover: Before and After

Today was a day. Sunny, fun and FULL of potential. We loaded up the truck (and I mean LOADED) and headed out of town. Clearly we were not going very far considering anything could have flown out of truck at any time. Soooo, you are now thinking, who packs with pink packing blankets? We do. Yes, it adds pizazz when riding down the road at 13 miles an hour. We travel in style baby.

Ok, so you want the "before", you got it. Great room, great trim work, great light.... great everything except absolutely no function what so ever and client never sets foot in room to sit/read/relax in lone chair. So what's a girl to do?

 Blank slate. Hmmmm. Must have been feeling dreary and tired of winter when designed room because... well, today, 

Spring has Sprung!

Very tired after day-long install and drapery hardware disaster, so, not going to give my usual play by play...

 Let's suffice it to say that we came across some amazing finds (even more amazing prices) and had them redesigned, recovered and revamped. 

 Beautiful antique coffee table. Can't tell you the price but looks like a million bucks and um, it wasn't.

 Custom pillows mixed in with some from Homegoods. Can you guess which are the steal and which are the splurge?

 Craig's List down filled Baker chairs. Steal. Recovered in a natural linen. 

 Acrylic nesting tables. Great buy because you can split them up! Stay tuned for next post to see where the baby table found a home. 

 Client had lots of great accessories for layers of color and texture in her fab book cases. We mixed in some of our own finds too!

 The client's grandmother's sofa got a whole new look! Since it floats in the room, I wanted the back of this wing back beauty to have a some personality. 

 Nothing has more personality than coral leopard, so that was the obvious choice. 

 Love books covered in Thomas Paul prints... 

 Happy client! (we didn't tell her to wear coordinating pants for the reveal). 

What do you think? We'd love to hear from you!


Bye bye birdie...
~A&H

We're baaaack and have a surprise!

Ok, we're back from market. Our husbands are thrilled. Us? Not so much. It was 48 hours of shopping 'til you drop. You know, the good kind. The kind where you check off tons of wishes on those dreamy clients' wish lists and come home with enough stuff to fill up hiding spaces in garage. Ann is asleep, so I don't have to worry about her reading this. I am guessing she passed out on her sofa around 7. Me, my adrenaline is still flowing, so I am trying to get this blog down before I crash, or worse, husband decides he needs something out of garage. 
So here is how it went down. We left very early Friday morning. Dark-thirty. But, you say... market didn't start until Saturday. Yes, you are right, however, in our bargain hunting (genius) minds, going up a day early for preview sales would be very beneficial. Don't tell  husbands market didn't actually start until Saturday. I would show pictures, but, at 6 am, they just aren't that pretty. 
Arrive at preview sale. Start picking. For what you ask? Well... that is another surprise post. We were shopping for you (hint hint). So here are some shots of the fabulous warehouse we hit first....

 Let's suffice it to say that we couldn't quite fit it all in the car. This is Jesus (not THE Jesus, although it would have been great if He had been around to help miraculously fit everything in our car).

So then, packed to the gills, we headed to the showrooms. Again, since market wasn't open yet, we got the benefit of eating all of the food (rationed for market) and drinking pre-market (um, rationed for market) wine. They are smart. Feed us and ply us with alcohol and we will place orders. Even joined in on an employee dinner. Great you say, sounds fun. Yes, until we wake up on the actual day of market feeling not so hot and exhausted for chumming it up with reps. Loving this new released rug at the Feizy showroom... the perfect expression of how we were feeling. 

No pics of us either because after a night of eating market food and drinking market wine, we are so bloated, we can barely shop. Harder to write orders on second day when fingers are like sausages. Ok, I digress... This brightened the morning. Lucite and chrome... so pretty.

 Then onto Global Views. Bright cheery and glam (unlike us)

 Remember Ann's find at the junk shop? This isn't it.... put throw on a neutral fabric and for a fraction of the cost (OK, 100th of the cost....) you could have this.  Maybe I should take a load off and have another salty appetizer and glass of wine.  

.
If you are just getting to market, enjoy, it's a great one! Tons to see. We just ate  shopped our way right through. Stay tuned for more on our market finds and how you too can get your hot little hands on some. Night night. My adrenaline just ran out...
Bye bye birdie,
A&H

Best junk shop EVER!!!!

So I have been a busy bee... I was in Durham and then Southern Pines working. The beauty of traveling back roads is every now and then you come across something pretty great. My friend whose nursery I worked on told me I had to visit this big old rambling house because she was pretty sure I would love what was inside. She was so right. Not only was it filled with treasures but the owners were the nicest people ever and didn't seem to mind that I was there for an hour and a half and occasionally drooled on the merchandise...

 this was the house behind the store front... packed and way cool too....

 this is an iron headboard and foot board but with custom rails and painted would be perfect twin beds for a little girl... and then....

OMG! Do you see this chair? Is this the coolest EVER! I almost cried when I saw the sold tag... really...

and then  drank myself into a stupor and stuck the bottles on a tree. Just kidding but this did cheer me up...

This tobacco basket came home with me and is huge. Jeff is encouraging me to move my Dad's scary portrait and hang it there. I think the better solution is to add on...

These little beauties were my find of the day. My heart raced when I saw them and I am planning for them to reside next to my bed. I bought some pagoda shades and am debating on keeping them creamy yellow or painting them white. What do you think?

love, love, love this chair. Love the tufting. Can't you just see it painted white and reupholstered in a bright velvet? emerald green, hot pink, orange, teal, gold.... hmmm...

I am a sucker for old china...

and sofas that remind me of my grandmothers house. Only hers were blue...

As I was leaving I made a detour and did a quick trip down memory lane. I drove by the first house Jeff and I owned before we moved back to Wilmington. It was a great first house and where we brought Jackson home...

I'm back in Wilmington now but headed to Highpoint tomorrow with Hooper for more treasure hunting at market...We will keep you posted!

Have a GREAT weekend!

Bye, bye birdie,

~A