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Stay TUNED!

September 25, 2013 by Percy Bright 1 Comment

When we last left you, the little full-of-potential-but-currently-devoid-of-any-charm cabin in the Catskills we were working on looked something like this:

“Not great” doesn’t even begin to cover it. But now we’re done!

Actually, we’ve been done. We packed up and (begrudgingly) shipped out of the Catskills just before Labor Day, and we’ve been neglecting our blog ever since. As usual. And when I say neglecting, I mean neglecting so willfully I can’t believe I’m even doing this right now. Not that I haven’t wanted to! “I should really do a blog post” is a thought that has popped up in my mind every day and then sunk back under only to resurface just as surely the next day. But here we are! Sort of.

The entire house is going to be on Remodelista next week, so unfortunately you’re going to have to wait a few more days to see what we did with the place. It’s a shame we aren’t better about documenting the process, because I’m not even sure the before and after photos will do justice to the amount of work we did.

We moved walls–lots of them. We spent days in a crawl space no taller than a foot in some places, redoing pretty much the entire house’s plumbing since we decided the bathroom had to move. We demo’d a big ugly kitchen worth of big ugly tiles, laid some new subfloor, and then we sanded, stained, cut, installed, and poly’d brand new hardwood floors. We built furniture, modified antique pieces from Brimfield to work as kitchen base cabinets, built open kitchen shelves, and tore out the sagging kitchen ceiling. We painted, painted, painted, and painted some more. And that’s probably doesn’t even cover half of it.

In the end, we took this place, with it’s oddly-shaped, barely functional rooms…

…and turned it into this place:

So stay tuned for the after photos! We can’t wait to share them with you all.

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!

LOCKERS FOR SALE

May 2, 2013 by Tara Mangini 1 Comment

We found these amazing lockers at Brimfield last summer and couldn’t leave home without them. Perfect pale yellow fronts, red numbers, alternating coral and bold yellow inside. How could we resist?

As much as we adore these, they have been sitting in our front room since then, and we think it’s high time we found them a home. So let the bidding begin! You need them! And they need you! Do I hear $600? x

Feels like HOME to ME

April 30, 2013 by Tara Mangini 2 Comments

Gotta give a little shout out to Huffington Post for the heads up on the AMAZING photographs of Niki Feijen. Fiejen took these shots from four different abandoned farmhouses in western Europe. These places have been untouched for years, and whether they are covered in moss, falling down, or holding up pretty well they are just stunning. If we could find a house like this to take under our wing… I can’t finish typing that sentence without letting out a huge sigh.

Enjoy these beautiful shots. And be sure to check out Feijen’s personal website for the full collection. 149 perfect moments.

Throwback THURSDAY: The Paneled Living Room

April 25, 2013 by Percy Bright 4 Comments

We’re unbelievably bad at documenting our work. At photographing before, during, and after projects. At posting those scant photos for the world to see.

We tend to do all the documenting in huge bursts, which–believe me–is not the best way to do it. It always means faking “during” shots, re-cleaning and re-styling for after photos, and getting so frustrated that we didn’t take more befores. Two great rules we need to start following: 1. Clean as you go. 2. Photograph as you go.

Anyway, here’s a project from a couple years ago! My personal favorite actually, and one that we did manage to photograph while it was happening. And thank god we did. I don’t know exactly how many hours it took altogether, but I’d guess at least a hundred. I still can’t believe it’s done. And that I did it. Everything from pulling hundreds of feet of thick old oak basecap molding (yes, oak!) out of an abandoned school in North Philly to spraying on the final coat of paint. None of it was easy, but the final result was worth every second. I doubt most visitors even realize that molding hasn’t always been there.

The first step was salvaging all the wood, which I did solo one snowy winter day a couple years ago. A friend of a friend had shown me this amazing abandoned school in North Philly. It had been sitting for years, slowly falling to ruin at the hands of kids, scrappers, and the weather. It was slated for demolition any day (but actually took another year or two), so I didn’t feel too bad about trying to preserve some of the unbelievable craftsmanship that had gone into building the place. (School photos from a different mission on a different day, thanks to Hilly Cribben!)

It’s not easy to salvage around four hundred linear feet of molding, let alone singlehandedly. Pulling it off’s just the first step. A lot of hallways and rooms like this one were left cap-less that day.

After I reached my linear foot goal, I had to haul all the pieces down a few hallways and stairs, across a courtyard, up a few more stairs in the gymnasium, and out one of the former windows. Defenestrated, the molding would land in the quickly accumulating snow about fifteen feet below, ready for me to circle back and pick it up in the clean black minivan I’d rented for the day.

After all that, at the end of a very long day, the wood ended up in the dining room, ready for action. If you ever need extra motivation to get a project done, just pile up the supplies in your dining room to the point that you can barely walk past, especially if your supplies still need to be denailed. You’ll be dying to finish before you’ve even started! And just like that, the room quickly started coming together.

We loved how the molding looked primed and for just a second thought about painting it light. But that felt a little too high tea to me, so we went bold!

There’s NO PLACE like HOME

April 22, 2013 by Tara Mangini 5 Comments

For about a year now we’ve been living like nomads. Traveling from one job (or trip!) to the next, living out of bags, subletting, crashing with friends, and living with my parents in suburbia to fill in all the time in between. There was some excitement to this lifestyle when it began last spring, but at this point we’re both desperately longing for a place to call home.

We had hopes of trying out a new city, which led to a nationwide search for the perfect place to live. There are still a few places to investigate, but as fairy tales have been trying to tell us for years, it turns out in the end, home was right in front of us. Staying in Philadelphia near our work and connections and people feels like the best thing to do for now, especially while we continue to try and figure out this crazy business of ours. The runner up awards went to LA, New Orleans and Savannah, and the five year plan still involves moving somewhere warm and beautiful and building a house and having a vineyard and maybe even some blonde kids running around, so don’t get TOO used to us being in one spot. Yes, I’m already thinking about our next house and we haven’t even found our first one yet. But I know you’re crazy and do the same exact thing, so cheers to being human!

Anyway, house hunting! What a glorious, fun, all-consuming, disappointing, heart-breaking, dream-making activity. We pretty quickly have realized that the more completely falling down a place is, the more we love it. Remodeled kitchens? Shiny new wood floors? Freshly tiled bathrooms? No thanks! Bring on the cracking plaster, the hidden wide plank flooring, the tattered wallpaper that I can’t get out of my brain, and make the place super affordable while you’re at it?

Here is a glimpse of the things that have been making our hearts flutter, and some glitter popcorn walls just for the fun of it. And if you believe in magic, send out a little prayer to the housing gods that the guy selling 728 S. 6th comes to his senses and let’s us turn a crumbling mess into a beautiful home. If it happens, our guest room is wide open.

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