Café Design

Dear readers, my apologies for being so loose with my blogging schedule lately. It’s taken me longer than usual to catch-up with your emails and messages, and I’m sorry for that, but it’s been a whirlwind month and I’ve had so much on my mind that writing on here has taken a backseat. We’re about to start 3rd grade online, with all the anxiety that the new learning format entails, and there’s a lot to figure out right now. Our schedules look quite different this fall, don’t they? We’re all doing our best to navigate these uncertain times, working from home, learning and enjoying our time together the best we can so please bear with me while I regroup and figure out a new blogging routine. In the meantime, I thought I’d share with you what’s been on my mind (obsessively) over the last couple of weeks.

Apologies for the lack of a Wednesday post, the tropical storm the other night left our block in the dark and our gardens a hot mess. Luckily no major damage was done to our property but the amount of leaves and branches and young trees that have fallen is beyond anything we’ve experienced before. (On the positive side, all those dried-up branches on our 20-foot tall trees were downed, a job we could never have tackled ourselves. Silver linings…) Anyway, we spent the best part of our day yesterday clearing out the front yard, hence the change of schedule. I managed to clip a few Stargazer lilies from our garden before the onset of the storm on Tuesday so I now have a sweet little bouquet to remind me of my pretty flowers before the storm. As I snapped a photo this morning, I thought I’d show you a quick before-and-after of how a neglected corner of our living room has changed over the last year. This image below was taken a couple of days before our move last summer…

Decorating a home is a lot like working on a puzzle, wouldn’t you agree? A grand, 3-dimensional, incredibly rewarding  (if at times frustrating) puzzle. Luckily for us homemakers, in decorating, unlike real puzzles, there is no one single perfect piece to fit our scheme but rather multiple great choices, and a good couple exceptional ones. In the end, an interesting and personal home means the puzzle is never quite finished, you’re always tweaking things and leaving spots open for those serendipitous finds that somehow, if you’re patient, will find you. 

Over the last couple of months, our family room has become a fun decorating obsession for me. I’ve been going back and forth in my mind with some of the decorating decisions regarding the space and thought it might give me much needed clarity, and maybe even amuse some of you, to lay down in writing the tangle of thoughts in my head. So, behold our family room (former spare bedroom)…

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Hope everyone’s having a chilled week so far… Summer is slowly slipping away but not without a few enchanting book releases to tide us over to fall. Like many of you I’m sure, summer is the time I’m most drawn to coastal decor. Decorated for easy summer living, beach houses are among my favorite design inspirations year-round because the best of them feel fun, loose and uncontrived. There has been a string of coastal-inspired decorating books  that I love or have been meaning to add to my collection lately and I thought it would be fun to share my list with you. Maybe even get your thoughts on them? Some of these books I’ve purchased and greatly enjoyed while others are still out there for me to get.