Café Design

Decorating Consultations

This Week’s Finds

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This week’s finds are an assortment of trending design stories and items I have recently purchased – from Amazon, of all places. I hope you see something that interests you. One of my favorite home tours this week is a feature in the current issue of Veranda magazine on the restoration of Grey Gardens, the storied mansion featured in the controversial 1970s documentary staring Jacqueline Onassis’s aunt and first cousin, both named Edith Bouvier Beale. Fashion designer Liz Lange purchased Grey Gardens in 2017 and has embarked on a complete makeover of its interiors, with the help of interior designer Mark D. Sikes. The gardens have been redesigned as well, and they are absolutely stunning – links below.

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Our Finished Family Room | Extras

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Dear friends, thank you so much for your kind comments and for your interest in our family room redesign!  As I was working my way through your messages and emails, I thought it would be easier to answer some of your questions regarding paint color, fabrics, lighting etc in a blog post rather than individual replies. This way all sourcing info will be available in one place and, if you see something you like, you can refer back to it at a later time. While I cannot always share sources for client work, I am very happy to share what I use in my own home. To add more clarity to my previous post about our family room, I also included a couple of sketches of the floor plan, just to give you a bird’s eye view of the changes I was telling you about in THIS POST. I hope they will better illustrate my descriptions and clarify some of your questions regarding the placement of the new doors and windows.

Sketch of our living room + guest bedroom – BEFORE
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Renovating a Cape Cod Style Cottage | Family Room Reveal

We all dream of beautiful homes that are comfortable, welcoming and deeply personal yet, ironically, creating a home that is easy to live in can be at times a daunting process, even for those of us who happen to do this for a living.  If you’ve been following Cafe Design for some time, then you may know that our family room has been the main object of my efforts since we bought our cottage three summers ago. We began implementing changes slowly over time and it’s taken me the better part of the last three years to bring the family room to a place where it makes life in our house considerably more pleasant and comfortable.  It has also required every ounce of patience on my end, but we’ve recently completed the final steps of this renovation and I’m excited to share the finished room with you!

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Learn the Art of Floral Arranging with Cathy Graham

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If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about the art of arranging flowers and create beautiful table designs your guests will admire, then Cathy Graham: Full Bloom: Joyful Designs for the Table, by Clinton Smith, will be an inspiring new resource.  An acclaimed artist, host and gardener, Cathy Graham approaches the world of flowers with playfulness and whimsy. Her floral designs are brilliant and surprising, and showcase her artistic skills with a variety of different media. Following her first volume, Second Bloom, Full Bloom is an impressive collection of colorful designs for the table, home, and party we can be inspired by, learn from, and even replicate.

Cathy Graham - floral arrangement
Photography by Quentin Bacon
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A Visit to Beacon Hill Books

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Happy New Year, dear friends! Thank you so much for your well wishes and for your patience! At last I’m back to our regular posting schedule and for the first story of 2023 I thought we could all visit Boston’s chicest new bookshop, Beacon Hill Books and Cafe! If you’ve seen images of it in Veranda magazine and on social media, and are curious for more, during a recent family trip to Boston I stopped by and snapped enough pictures to show you every nook and cranny! 

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