Tara Mangini, Author at Jersey Ice Cream Co.

BEFORES & AFTERS: NORTH FORK MASTER BATH

November 13, 2015 by Tara Mangini 1 Comment

Sometimes you walk into a space and are instantly able to see past the peeling paint and linoleum floors to the potential gorgeous future-room lying ahead. And sometimes, you walk into a bathroom that looks like this and you kind of want to cry.

Thank god for those ceilings, but can we take a moment to talk about the five (six?) different types of tile used in here? Actually, you’re right, let’s not. Just the thought is giving me flashbacks to the days of demo it took to get all that tile out of there. Percy was the one ripping it off the wall, but I did my fair share of lugging it out to the garage, and I can tell you that stuff was as heavy as it was hideous.

Way too many hours, three or four pizzas, a crazy craigslist delivery, a tiling nightmare, and one cracked vintage mirror (RIP) later…

Miracles do happen.

A MERRY LITTLE EVERYTHING

December 26, 2013 by Tara Mangini 2 Comments

The day after Christmas has always been a little heart breaking to me. As a child, the thought of waiting 364 days until Santa returns was unbearable, but even as an adult, I can’t help but feel that something magical has vanished and suddenly all that’s left in its place is the thought that winter, the real bleakness of it, has only just begun. Sigh.

It’s so tempting to just curl up into bed with no honest plans to leave until Spring, but this year (like everything) I find myself wondering what I can do to make the cold days a little more bearable. But with a trip to Hawaii not in the works, and new snow boots waiting by the door to make their debut, I know that the only place the warmth is going to come from is a fire, the heat turned to full blast, or my own little shivering heart. Life in those precious weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas seems to be fueled by a frenzy of glitter and goodwill. People love to mumble about trimming trees and baking cookies and wrapping gifts for other people, but I have to believe that it’s part of the Christmas cheer equation. Hide behind your Grinch face if you must, but I know that tasting the first homemade cookie made you smile, especially if it was mom’s recipe, or maybe something new you came up with yourself. And there’s a reason that the tree looks a little more special when you go chop it down yourself, or when it’s hung with ornaments that each have a little story to tell. The more love you put in, the more love you get out. And that simple equation is the only thing that’s going to keep us warm for the next few months.

So hold your loved ones close. Treat yourself to a cup of hot chocolate and put extra marshmallows in for the 3 year old you once were. Stay up past midnight to watch the snow start falling, and spend an entire Saturday in your pajamas writing letters to your favorite people. Be in awe of yourself and the things that your two little hands can make. Take the time to create little moments of beauty, and most importantly, share them with everyone you can. Because with the days so dark and cold, we need all the light we can get.

And now, from me to you, some Christmas moments of beauty. And my most successful (and easiest!) shortbread recipe of the season.

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MINI-MAKEOVERS: Better with Kittens

December 4, 2013 by Tara Mangini 2 Comments

Yes, I used a cute kitten picture to lure you in. But it’s going to be totally worth it! We’ve been working on a mini-makeover the past few weeks, turning a barren apartment into a haven for a do-gooder client who absolutely deserves a place to relax at the end of the day. We finished up most of the work in the wee hours of the night, but I was able to snag some shots of the bedroom before the sun went down. And of course, a photo of the adorable kitten she was fostering at the time. Enjoy!

More pics (including what the place looked like before we started) after the jump!

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Big Indian REVEAL Revealed

October 11, 2013 by Tara Mangini 5 Comments

Last week we had the honor of sharing our Big Indian project with the world. In case you missed the beautifully done feature on Remodelista, be sure to take a look. We owe a huge thanks to Justine Hand for putting so much care into entire piece, and for taking the time to so eloquently explain the insane amount of work that went into the project.

It’s always so exciting to have these big projects revealed. We spend so many months working in isolation, doubting ourselves, sweating, sanding, etc, that it’s so thrilling-and slightly nerve wracking!- to throw the cover off and say, here it is! This article in particular was a total stunner, and I found myself bragging to complete strangers about the feature, something I swear I never usually do. So really, be sure to take a peek at it.

Luckily for all of you die hard fans out there, I am a compulsive picture taker, which means that even though Remodelista filled their post with tons of pictures, there are still tons more to share! So now, for your viewing pleasure, a personal peek into our Big Indian project, with some never-before-seen final shots. Enjoy!

Tons more photos after the jump!

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JERSEY ICE CREAM CO to HEAD WEST

October 2, 2013 by Tara Mangini 4 Comments

Yes, yes, yes it’s all true! We are packing our bags, leaving our lousy winter coats behind and heading west to a place where the grass may truly be greener. We’ve been secretly planning our big escape to west coast for months, maybe forever. I remember reading in some book, or lost article a brilliant quote. It went something like, “There are two types of people in this world. People who live in California, and people who wish they lived in California.” Based on a personal study of one, I would say that quote is completely true, and I have big hopes about transitioning from a wisher to a liver. As in, one who is living their big, glorious, beauty filled life in California.

That all being said, we are happy to announce that we are on the hunt for our first California project. Just to really get the word out, I am going to resort to shouting. WE ARE ON THE HUNT FOR OUR FIRST CALIFORNIA PROJECT! So if you, or someone you know, lives in CA and has a renovation or design project that we might be able to help with, let us know! As always, we are up for a challenge, so don’t hesitate to overwhelm us with something that you might think is a little nuts. It’s the crazy things that we get excited about. Please send all requests and questions to jerseyicecreamco@gmail.com, where we will be checking our email compulsively.

California, here we come!

LITTLE JOYS & The Great Outdoor Shower

August 6, 2013 by Tara Mangini Leave a Comment

Today is the kind of day that makes you grateful. I’m not sure if it’s the blue skies, the unexpected warmth that means so much more now that an autumn chill has hit the air, or that it’s day two of the Oprah meditation thing I’m doing, but my guess is that it’s a perfect combination of all three.

The days here are filled with tiny joys and discoveries. Learning the name of a flower you’ve loved for years, bringing home boxes of fresh produce, finding a hike quite literally in your backyard. When you have such a simple backdrop, these details are easier to see. We now have an indoor toilet, a bathroom sink AND a bathroom door. That my friends, is happiness. Sure, there are still frustrating moments, there are still gloomy days, and I may never learn how to properly use commas, but when the sun shines and a hummingbird hovers in front of you for a moment, you can’t help but feel pretty darn lucky.

Whoa. I just swatted a daddy longlegs off my arm and it somehow shattered into a million pieces, or eight I guess. Did you know the little legs still wiggle around on their own, like a chicken with its head cut off? There’s your science lesson for the day. Also, powdered sugar is just regular sugar put through a tornado! Throw some sugar into a Vitamix and you’ll see what I mean. It’s pretty magical.

I digress, but perfectly. That’s what it’s all about these days. It feels like we’re building life from scratch sometimes, so little thing are something to be celebrated, or at the very least, noticed. Life doesn’t always feel this way, and so often it gets swarmed up into one big stress ball, so for now this change of pace is a blessing wrapped in a blessing, even though I still complain about it every three days. You can take the girl out of the crazy, but you can’t take the crazy out of the girl.

There are so many things to be grateful for. But you all need to SEE some beauty today. And I think you deserve to look at something a little more appealing than a bathroom door. And with that, I awkwardly transition into the second half of this post, which is an ode to the outdoor shower!

I’ve been swooning over the joy of showering outdoors since we waved goodbye to the confines of indoors a few months ago. There is no better way to wash off a long run or a hard day’s work. Fresh air, fresh water and naked bodies. I feel a little dirty writing that sentence, but it’s the perfect combination and it must be said. If you have the chance to get outside and lather up before the summer ends I strongly urge you to do so. Don’t let rain or a chill in the air stop you, they truly only add to the experience. And oh, what a glorious one it is.

So without future ado, an ode to the outdoor shower. I love you in the sun, I love you in the rain.
And if you don’t feel the same way after checking out these beauties, you’re just plain crazy.

More photos after the jump!

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BIG INDIAN, NY

July 8, 2013 by Tara Mangini 3 Comments

Try as we might to plan our lives these days, our job seems to be leading the way, introducing us to new people, plopping us down in parts of the country that are nowhere on our “Places We Should Maybe Live” list. For now, it’s really the most perfect thing for us, since as the aforementioned list title might suggest, we’re a little unsure which way to point the wagon at this point. You know, the covered wagon that we’ll take to travel west, with hammers and saws and paint brushes and old mason jars falling out of the back.

So where in the world are we? Thanks to some soon-to-be famous Brooklyn restauranteurs, we are spending the summer in Big Indian, NY. A tiny little enclave up in the Catskill mountains, bursting with green trees, wildflowers, rushing rivers, and mosquitos. The project? To bring some charm and authenticity to a Catskill cabin that currently feels a bit too much like a modern condo in the middle of the woods. Well, currently it feels like a house with it’s guts hanging out, but one thing at a time here.

We are insistent that we have some time to enjoy the glories of summer, so we’ve tried to build in some time for weekends and afternoons trips to the local watering hole. (And yes, I do mean that in the good old-fashioned watering hole kind of way.) Still, we’ve given ourselves 8 weeks to take this place from an empty house with little charm, to a perfect, fully furnished and decorated, cabin getaway. As of now we’ve been here for about two weeks, and the place looks VERY different than it does in these pictures. But to give you an idea of what we’re working with, let the grand tour begin!

View of the house! And our trusty Suburban.

More after the jump!

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HOLY SHIPLAP and Other Pieces of Cake

July 3, 2013 by Tara Mangini 6 Comments

I can’t believe it was just a few weeks ago I was working in this gorgeous home, surrounded by some of the nicest things I’ve ever seen, including a personal favorite, central air. As I write this now I am continually being swarmed by ants and mosquitos, surrounded by tools in a house with no running water, no toilet, no tub, no sink, and nowhere to sit except the very chair I am sitting on. So you can see why it seems like a distant dream. A dream that I am very happy to sink into.

We knew this was going to be a great job when we walked in and were greeted with lemon squares, crumb cake and freshly pressed coffee. Future clients, take note. Kristian (names have not been changed to protect the fabulous) has spectacular taste, so his house already looked amazing, but we needed to bring in some warmth and texture to soften up the new construction-ness of it. The whole place is open and clean and filled with light, so we knew it was going to look great, but we didn’t know it was going to look THIS great.

We used wood from Lowe’s, and washed it with Farrow & Ball’s Cornforth White. (0kay, okay, we just color matched a sample of the color. Sue me.) A few days of cutting and nailing and sanding and caulking and touching up and voila! Best darn looking living room north of Spring Garden.

It just goes to show that shiplap, like baked goods, makes everything a little bit better.

DOMAINE HOME AND WALLPAPER CHASING

May 29, 2013 by Tara Mangini Leave a Comment

We are so excited about our feature this week with Domaine Home, a new shoppable online magazine launched by the creators of WhoWhatWear.com and led by the brilliant Mat Sanders, who brought us such wonderful things as Domino and Apartment Therapy. The site is absolutely beautiful, and our feature is running alongside a piece about Greta Gerwig, so we’re pretty much thrilled.

I’ve only been a(n instant) fan of the site for a few weeks now, but I already find myself checking it daily for inspiration and and ideas. Yesterday did not disappoint, and a few paragraphs into their My Favorite Space: Cat Deeley article I found myself newly obsessed and deep into a wallpaper hunt.

From my experience so far, this is the kind of thing that could easily go on for days, weeks, even months. Just when you think you’ve found something you love you see something completely different that makes you reconsider your direction altogether. There are just SO MANY beautiful options, and it’s incredible to see what a major impact the right wallpaper can have on a room. I spent hours looking and really only checked out a handful of websites, so beware. This will take over your life. In the best way possible.

My number one criticism of the whole experience is that way too many wallpaper website are doing things all wrong! A pattern in a 2x2inch square is one thing, but who on earth can tell how it’s going to look plastered across a 12 foot wall? Luckily, a lot of sites are clued into this, and for the ones that’s aren’t there are usually samples you can order, or perhaps the magic of Photoshop to give you an idea. This small hang-up aside, I love online wallpaper shopping as much as I love picking out paint swatches, an act that that for me is equal parts enjoyable and completely obsessive.

For now, I have yet to find a house, let alone a wall for any of these beauties, but I can’t wait until I have a space that’s begging to be covered in banana leaf print.

Check out some of my favorites from the hunt, and you’ll see what I mean.

The ultimate Martinique Banana Leaf print, made famous by the Beverly Hills Hotel. Seems to be a big favorite of Nate Berkus, who used it in his own home in Milan. Available from Hinson & Co. You can also find it at Designer Wall Coverings. I can’t seem to track down the amazing wallpaper from the image on the right, but it’s featured in Houses in my Heart by Carleton Varney.

I adore these prints by Turner Pocock Wallpaper, a London based company whose designs grow from quirky, hand-sketched ideas. I would have never thought tennis racket and zebra wallpaper could be so fantastic.

Speaking of Zebras, I’m basically in love with this print from Designer Wallcoverings and Fabrics.

These Jaipur Hand Block prints from Schumacher are so perfect to me. And there are even more options to choose from. I’ll take them all.

This kid’s series is hard not to love, and I could easily see these prints in a children’s room or a studio space.

If you basically just want someone to give you a promise that you’ll love your wallpaper, you can always rely on the folks at Farrow & Ball. No matter what they send you, it will be beautiful.

HOUZZ STARZZ!

May 20, 2013 by Tara Mangini Leave a Comment

Welcome, Houzz readers! To see some before photos of the house, check out our before & after section. And while you’re at it, check out some of our other design work too!

Many thanks to Sara for all her hard work and the beautiful feature!

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