Home Tour

Today's home tour is a bit spur of the moment. I am on summer vacation and went to visit a friend I used to work with. She moved into a new home, has killer style, and so I was dying to see her new abode. I am in love. She has beautiful new floors and some amazing statement pieces. I snapped a few photos with my iPhone, so they do not do her justice. She also wanted a disclaimer that she has not fully styled or finished any of her rooms. She describes her style as modern, earthy, understated cool. She likes playing with different materials and appreciates the value of holding out for the perfect piece. She is not very trendy and likes a neutral color palette. She has 3 kids (ages 15 months, 8 and 12) so she is aware of being kid-proof but yet still lives in a very adult space. While many of her pieces are custom, you can buy similar items in retail stores. To get the same look I found a few items for your home as well: available at tuvaluhome.com available at Restoration Hardware Found at your local Ikea Available through Hudson Goods Happy Shopping!

HomeMint

Hey guys! I have been enjoying our summer vacay obviously a bit too much considering I haven't posted in almost 3 weeks. Yikes! But I promise to try and be better (although we are moving from CA to MD to NY over the next month....lots going on in the Simmons household!). Back to design. Have you heard of Home Mint? It is yet another new company that Justin Timberlake has cofounded. What is there that he doesn't do or hasn't tried? In any case it is a home decorating website where you enter in your style through a series of questions, and it comes up with a bunch of suggestions for you. The good thing is that a lot of the items are unique, many incredibly affordable. The bad thing is that I don't like being typecasted in a certain style. I haven't yet figured out if I can just search all the products on the website or just those within my search results. In anycase, it's always fun to look through a new online decorating shop to see if anything catches my eye. Here are a few things from my search results: Some good accessory finds....bed linens, pillows, rugs and art. I've got a few ideas for posts coming up, so get ready! Hope you are all enjoying your summer too!!!

Bali Lovin

As a Happy Graduation present to ourselves (and a 2nd honeymoon type) my husband and I dropped the kids off at their Grandparent's house and flew to Bali. It was such an amazing vacation! It was such a carefree adventure. I saw some of the most beautiful beaches and amazing hotels in the world. So, as an ode to Bali and Island style, I thought I'd share a few 'inspiration photos' from our trip. We hopped around from hotel to hotel in various cities and felt like we saw a great deal of the Country and got a real sense of the culture. We stayed in Bingin (Uluwatu area), Ubud and Seminyak. The shops in Seminyak were mostly owned by Europeans and they had some great upscale shopping for both clothing and home. It was a memorable trip.....but we were both excited to get back to our little boys!!