Café Design
Decorating Consultations

Rose Cottage

During this long and relaxing holiday weekend, my Instagram feed exploded with beautiful images of quintessential American homes in some of my favorite locations. Nantucket is one of those places that, although I’ve not seen much of, I feel a special connection to. It is difficult to find a Nantucket home that isn’t charming so it ’s no surprise that this cottage by the sea is one of the most photographed homes in America. I’ve long admired its rose-covered exterior and was wondering how much prettier it could be on the inside. 

View Post

Fixer Upper | Part 3 | The Living Room

Last month, my husband and I attended a couple of open houses in our neighborhood. We’re renting right now but at that point we were contemplating the idea of buying our first home here in Urbana. It wouldn’t have been the wisest of decisions (and we knew that) since we’ll be leaving by the end of the year, but nevertheless, we wanted to get a feel of the market and see what’s available in our price range. We saw several houses of different sizes and styles (a handsome Georgian, a tiny bungalow and a Tudor style cottage) but my favorite was a sweet little Cape.

cape 1

View Post

Café Design Interviews | Alison Carabasi of Hillbrook Collections

Happy Friday! You won’t believe the treat I’ve got for you today!!! My ever-growing love of gardens has led me to read a feature in House Beautiful several years ago about a mother & daughter enterprise called Hillbrook Collections. I was stunned at the time because their garden sheds were some of the most beautiful I’d ever seen. You see, Hillbrook Collections is for many garden lovers the answer to an unspoken prayer. Run by Alison Carabasi, it is a family owned company that fills a gap in the market. They produce beautiful garden structures, inspired by classical architecture, that are tailored and handcrafted out of the finest woods by local Pennsylvania craftsmen.

View Post

Fixer Upper | Part 2 | The Exterior

A couple of weeks ago I started a series of blog posts about a small Cape Cod style cottage that is for sale in our neighborhood. You can read the first post HERE. We won’t be putting an offer on the house but we were seriously thinking about it at some point. To make sure we were prepared, I had a virtual makeover planned to see whether this home could fit our needs and style.

Today I’ll share some of my ideas for the exterior.  My starting point was a picture of a beautiful home in Lyme, Connecticut that I saved a long time ago for occasions just like this one. I think it’s made its way onto most of my wish-lists over the years because it scores so high on all aspects – architecture, scale, landscaping. The architecture is rooted in the American vernacular, which I adore, and the landscaping includes that ideal boxwood hedge and pickets the American dream is all about.

country house

View Post