Category Archives: Interiors + Home Decor

Hotel Stay: HOTEL SORELLA

Written by Jess. Posted on September 01 | 10. Filed under Americana, Entertainment, Interiors + Home Decor, Two Things. Tagged , , . No comments.

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TWO THINGS: Second thing. This past weekend was one of the best ever. Friday was Steven and my 6 year anniversary--our last "dating" anniversary to celebrate because the count will go back to zero when we get married! AND Saturday I went WEDDING DRESS shopping!! And then after that Steven and I travelled a really long two-minutes to Hotel Sorella in CityCentre for an in-town getaway. We lounged at the pool both days and ate a fancy-schmancy dinner at Eddie V's. Jesse Dayton was playing at Monnalisa Bar but we both had food hang-overs and didn't make it. Sad face. The Platters - My PrayerI ate breakfast twice on Sunday and took full advantage of all-day Katz's coffee!

I'd like to recommend Hotel Sorella to our friends and family that will be traveling to Houston from out-of-town for our wedding---located in our 'hood in Memorial at CityCentre, Sorella is the epicenter of various restaurants, cafes, shopping, Studio Movie Grill (we're there every week) and more which are tightly wound up so there's no long-distance walking. It's right at I-10 and the Beltway so you've got extremely easy access to all of Houston from this very spot, to get to our wedding venue would take about 20-30 minutes.

Hotel Sorella is a warm, contemporary space with super comfortable beds + linens, modern furnishings, amazing views-- but the best feature is its' location. If you want to walk there are a ton of options: the pool is on Monnalisa's 2nd-level patio which is above The Yardhouse, adjacent to Bistro Alex, overlooks Straits and Ruggles Green--those are just the places that are THISCLOSE. A few steps farther and you've got Anthropologie, Studio Movie Grill, Cafe Rose, RA Sushi, Brio Tuscan, Chipolte and Jamba Juice!  There's always something going on, like farmers markets or dog parties in the park--we love it here, and this is our favorite hotel we've ever stayed at in Houston.

Hotel Stay: the MOONRISE

Written by Jess. Posted on August 30 | 10. Filed under Americana, Entertainment, Interiors + Home Decor, Two Things. Tagged , . No comments.

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TWO THINGS! Two fabulous hotels in one month--August has been such fun this year! First up is the Moonrise Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri where Steven and I stayed August 6th. You may remember this post about our trip. I loved all the ultra-outerspacey modern design--classic midcentury furniture (chairs especially) bring you back to a time when space travel was new and futurism ruled--also loved the bright blue hallways that were dark and felt like walking on the moon! The proximity of the Moonrise to all kinds of great eating, shopping and entertainment is wonderful--we cruised around the area on Saturday morning eating breakfast at Meshugga Cafe, walking a couple miles on Delmar and going into Good Works furniture where we were tempted to buy a new sofa and ship back to Texas--the staff is super friendly and helpful here! We then walked pretty far for two ex-college-campus-walking kids to Forest Park... on the way we were yelled at by an angry cyclist who we supposedly were in the way of while crossing the road!! At the boathouse you can rent kayaks, paddle boats and row boats; we took the paddle boat through the park and it was the most freaking fun ever--the ride climaxes at Art Hill around the fountains, it's beautiful there!

I definitely recommend staying at the Moonrise if you're in St. Louis... it was a beautifully out-of-this-world hotel! VISIT: http://moonrisehotel.com


COUNTRY LIFE.

Written by Jess. Posted on August 12 | 10. Filed under Americana, Interiors + Home Decor, Shopping. No comments.

An unlikely source, the Country Living for KMART Collection is pretty good. I haven't seen these in person but if I had a gift card to spend there, this is what I'd acquire.

FRAMES 18 DOLLARS // JAR 3 DOLLARS // BED UNDER 500 DOLLARS MAYBE // BENCH 126 DOLLARS // PLATES 24 DOLLARS // CARAFE 7 DOLLARS // TEA TOWEL 3 DOLLARS // BASKET 19 DOLLARS

Jeff Lewis Love.

Written by Jess. Posted on July 15 | 10. Filed under Interiors + Home Decor, Shopping. Tagged , . No comments.

You guys have to love Jeff Lewis. It's not an option for you not to, just like it's not an option for you to not love Rufus Wainwright. 'Cause it ain't. I'm not forcing you into anything--maybe you just don't know what's good for you?

JEFF LEWIS FLIPS THE SHIT OUTTA HOUSES.

Have you seen his line for QVC? During the last season of Flipping Out I was really anxious for the line to drop and then I kindof forgot about it, but now that the new season's about to premiere it got me thinking about it all over again. Look at some of the awesome shit available--it's even inexpensive! So I kindof delayed on this post and now a bunch of the JLQVC stuff is gone! There's not much left, but I do like both of these inexpensive sets below:

Jeff Lewis Set of Three Decorative Clear Glass Vases $30

Set of Four Multi-Sized Striped Ceramic Vases $21

Dang, now you know what happens when you procrastinate.

More Light to Love.

Written by Jess. Posted on June 29 | 10. Filed under Cravings, Interiors + Home Decor, Shopping. Tagged , . No comments.

Round Two. How about some of these gems?

Over Kitchen Table?

Old Bronze Warehouse Shade Pendant $36

Over Kitchen Sink?

American Nail Plate Warehouse Pendant, Navy $74

3-in-a-row on Front Porch Ceiling?

Sea Gull Outdoor Ceiling Light $86

...or this one, 3-in-a-row on Front Porch Ceiling?

Vapor Tight Outdoor Ceiling Light $28

One or multiples in Carport?

Vapor Tight 2-Jar Boat Dock Outdoor Ceiling Light, Black Leather $225

In my bathroom's corner so my hair always looks great when I blow-dry it?

Matthews Fan Co. Directional Ceiling Fan $490-630 (yikes!)

Lover of Light.

Written by Jess. Posted on June 29 | 10. Filed under Interiors + Home Decor, Shopping. Tagged , . No comments.

The move is over! We had lots of help--16 helpers, thank you guys so much, we couldn't have done it without you!! We're not yet unpacked and there's still two bathrooms and two bedrooms to paint, as well as curtains to hang up in every single room.

The move was over in less than 3 hours on Saturday, so Sunday we took a road trip with friends to the Outlets and I got hooked up at Restoration Hardware--I bought a full suite of replacement hardware for both of our bathrooms for under $60!! I can't wait to paint the bathrooms, get the new brass hardware in and post the results. It's going to be baller.

So now I need new lighting. There's currently a ceiling fan in the kitchen--and I'm not a fan of fans in the kitchen--so we need a light for over the table, I want something special in there, maybe a little large? Our front porch has a broken light, and fumbling in the dark with your keys is never fun, so I'm on the hunt for a new outdoor light to go with our 1950s ranch. Modern? Industrial? Schoolhouse? Barn? WTF do I choose? Since I've got lights on the brain, here's some great candidates for other industrial/schoolhouse lovers via LampGoods on etsy.

Minimalist Pendants with Filament $139

Clear Halophane Pendant Pair $119

Large Vintage Schoolhouse Pendant $219

Industrial Minimalist Pendant $69

Minimalist Pendants with Filament $139

I love this army green military pendant for over the sink via Kam Lamp Co.. It's my favorite, I wish there were a bigger version for over the table!

Vintage Minimalist Porcelain Pendant w/ 1945 Military Shade $135

Vintage Minimalist 3-Light Pendant $345

Mod Facade.

Written by Jess. Posted on June 08 | 10. Filed under Entertainment, Interiors + Home Decor. Tagged , . No comments.

Desire to Inspire is a favorite blog of mine. Today Kim posted a letter from a fellow reader inquiring about help for her house.

From Kim: I could not resist posting this request we got recently from Marcelo and Shanti: "We bought a house for us and our three kids... but the facade is ugly as it gets... Please help us as our kids are ashamed from the house..." I have to admit that this may be one of the ugliest exteriors I've ever seen.

I love shit like this so I got right to editing. If it were my house, I'd go modern--the facade is already boxy enough for it to work well. The couple living here has kids--so why not inspire their creativity and imagination and they'll be proud of their home! I assume you wouldn't have to spend a ton to achieve this look.

What do you think? What would you have done?

AFTER: Nightstands

Written by Jess. Posted on March 24 | 10. Filed under Interiors + Home Decor. Tagged , , , . 4 Comments.

When we got back from St. Louis, I needed to do something productive--to keep myself busy. The week before I left, I'd bought the nightstands [ don't remember? ] for $150.

Hope it wasn't too valuable! "John Widdicomb Co."

All along, I'd planned on mounting two pairs of brass numbers to each nightstand, and doing two brass suitcase pulls on both drawers.

Ok so see the brass [68] on top of the books? Well, those numbers were part of what I was planning on mounting onto the drawer centers, as drawn in the aforementioned post. For his side I got [68] and [69] and for my side I got [54] and [55] --- [68] represents the year of his Chevelle, [69] is the year of the Continental; [54] and [55] are just nice looking in Helvetica.

Then the existing handles grew on me. So all I did was paint the damn things and they look freaking awesome.

Here is Steven's side. ABOVE

View of my side.

Here is my side, close to the windows, far from the door/closet. ABOVE

My side.

My side again. ABOVE

ooh la la, a fancy new drawer!

Duh this is my nightstand.

Next: I want new lampshades for the tulip lamps. I need a black on the outside, white on the inside drum shade about 14" in diameter. Because I hate how these shades provide pretty much no light whatsoever. Any suggestions?

Here's our dresser, across from the bed. You think the nightstands complement it well? It used to be avocado green, but was DIY'ed in like, OH-SIX.

RH Nottingham Oxidized Brass Bed - footboard close-up

Here's a shot of the bed. It's a Nottingham in Oxidized Brass from Restoration Hardware.

DIY Ahead.

Written by Jess. Posted on February 23 | 10. Filed under Interiors + Home Decor. Tagged , . 1 Comment.

Steven & I had matching night stands twice in our "since living together" lives. First, we had two black Parsons square side tables to go with our Malm bed. Those matched but they were boring. Then we got two 60s mammoth square tables with marble tops to replace them. Those were cool, but it didn't look good with the malm bed, I think the table tops were higher than the headboard. For the past 6 months or so, poor Steven's had a skirted table at his bedside, and that just feels wrong! In my drawing below, I had pictured something with two drawers and long legs. I was going to paint those black and mount brass numbers and suitcase pulls onto the fronts.

This weekend we went to Ikea to pick up two of the Edland dressers for $199 each. I have been calling them Federalist-style. Steven thought they would be too big for our 950 sq. ft. apartment, he said "let's go home and measure first..." Fine with me, seeing this thing in person makes me sort of hate its legs anyway. So then I'm looking on Craigslist, just to check and found these:

$150 for BOTH?! Fuck yes! Hi, are these still available?! YES! So yesterday we picked up two matching night stands for $150! Less than one Edland and I don't have to put it together myself. They're from the 60s; I love them and now I'm ready to paint them--probably won't happen until this weekend, but hold your horses 'cuz I'm gonna make these baller.

Furniture Love.

Written by Jess. Posted on January 16 | 10. Filed under Interiors + Home Decor. Tagged , , . No comments.

I can't help but make visual lists of the furniture I'm thinking about getting, arranging polyvore-style rooms around maybe 1 thing I really love, then adding things that compliment it, then I fall in love with the whole freaking thing. The photos are whack because they were created on a PC. (I'm a Mac.)

I always refer to my interior style as minimalist-industrial-equestrian. I love dark, broken-in leathers, anything gold or navy blue, black fo' sho', abstract art, americana, hides and leopard print, rich velvet. Crossed fingers we'll get a home soon and make this a freaking reality.