textured walls

Texture in interiors makes me happy. The more different textures the better – no big news.

Currently I dream of texturizing a whole wall in the Texan house. The wall behind the open kitchen that faces the living room.

During our travels I always inhale the interior of restaurants, hotels, even airports into my inspiration memory.

These feathered walls were on display in a Hotel in China, Commune by the Great Wall.

These fantastic wall of sliced stones I found in Ningbo, China. I love the matte grey tones in combination with the warm wicker sofa and the beige cushions.

And finally my friend Suzie from Palazzo Pizzo send me these pictures of a hotel lobby in Thailand, Khao Yai. Lucky her she got to spend the night at this fabulous house.

The tiles and the purple impact are my favorite.

What do you think about texturizing walls? Have you ever done it? Would you go for it? Please tell me.

I have to admit – I collect chairs

I guess I inherited this trait from my mother. She always likes to decorate with chairs. So when I moved into my very first apartment she was fast in joining me with the furniture shopping. We hit several antique stores to find accent pieces – that was what she taught me. Anchor the room with great antiques. We found some really nice stuff and had some really nice fun together, but this is a post about chairs. So we bought chairs and she also sent me off with a pair from her collection. I did not have a bed yet, nor a sofa – but at least 4-5 chairs. In the meantime those chairs had moved around with me 9 times and my collection is still growing.

Whenever we host a large group of people I am always glad to be able to find extra chairs in different corners of our home. They live in the bedroom, the kids rooms, the bathroom, the hallway, everywhere.

In my chair collection craze there was even a time when I thought I MUST have a Ghost Chair. It was one of these moments when you have looked at so many pictures online and you are suddenly so sure that you always wanted to have exactly this ghost chair. Well, I am glad I ordered only one. To be honest, it scratches easily, it collects dust super fast, shows fatty fingerprints – and it is not really too comfy to sit on during a longer dinner party.

Same with the white Panton Chair. I thought I would need it, but was wise enough to order just one. It looks cool, it sits in our living room now. Perfectly fine! But it is way too low for our dining table and even adults need to sit on a pillow to be able to eat in a kind of proper way. We had it sit outside for a while with our patio furniture. But after every storm it was glad in mud and leaves. There were times when I thought of getting rid of those two additions, I even felt embarrassed to have been such a trend follower. But you know what? I don’ t care! They are fine, they will fit in – a single chair always fits in.

My favorite chair of chairs so far: the Elm Horseshoe Ming Chair from China. The best story about this chair is that I found it in China on vacation and we had to find a way to bring it back to me as a “souvenir”. Rocky Road, I can tell you! But so worth it.

Update: after reading this post my husband wanted to make sure you knew that he schlepped the chair around Beijing, he found the one taxi out of over 30 that finally took us back to the hotel…. thanks, hubby!

What do you collect? Big or small? Old or new? Please do tell!

breakfast nook

A lot of houses we have seen come with the so called recipe desks in the kitchen area. I feel women being under appreciated of doing their paperwork close to the kitchen while the men can enjoy their full own room with closed doors. But that is me – please do not feel offended…

In our house this desk is once more a built in among the others that would rather take away flexibility than being helpful – for our lifestyle that is.

The first agreement I made with my husband on closing day was: this one had to go!

We love how it opens up the whole area and will give us so many more options  to use this space now. Either for art…

These wooden artsy people represent our family. We had them screwed to the wall in our previous homes but later the artist Ingrid Wild came up with the idea of those metal feet. Now they really are 3D art and can be moved around easily. One night I came home from the movies with this little red card saying ” Love your movie theatre”. Changing only the letter “O” to an “D” was changing the meaning to “child”. Love your child! Made a lot more sense to my son  – he had to correct it immediately. We then attached it with kitchen string to our wooden family. Voilà!

The other option we are contemplating would be to create a banquette seating or add a sofa as part of our overall concept for this area. We call it the “communication area” it would involve more than the seating.

The green settee is from Horchow. And then add some other seating options plus side tables like these from Westelm. Better even, have some custom built banquette seating with very cool fabric.

What would you do with this area? I would love to hear your ideas in the comment section! 

chair envy

I found a pair of these chairs on ebay and simply changed the fabric with an IKEA one I had on hand.

This is the very before version.

Later I switched it to the grey velvet and painted the wood a warm beige.

Now it is very popular and sometimes you have to wait for your turn…

aligning the lines

As  I mentioned before – my eyes need to be able to relax before my body can.

Looking at a place where too many lines are not aligned makes me restless. The least thing you want to feel in your own home. I am no architect and could never construct a house but am saying that there are some architects that can do their job better than others.

My parent’s home is a superb example of how important it is that a house has straight lines and that this concept is followed throughout the house. An electrical outlet aligned with a doorframe or shelf. A window aligned with the door across. The height of doorframes versus window frames. Position of doorknob to light switch. It is endless. Once you got used to that you are addicted.

Unfortunately many of the cookie cutter developer homes do lack this thought. I takes me a while to figure out what is off with a room but then it becomes very obvious.

This house in Texas I would rate a 6 out of a 10. Some changes are possible, others will never be solved. We do our best, we are no builders and money does not grow on trees.

One example were the ornate window frames we had in a few rooms. Easy to be solved. Done! 

Here is our living room built in wall before. A lot of crazy non-aligning going on there. Do you see? Shelves versus mantle, top of cut out versus wall on the left, doorframe in the back hallway on a totally different height, etc. At first I only wanted to get rid of the arch on top and the little overhang to the left. But the domino effect hit us hard in the living room! Oh, my dear! It was the last built in that we agreed to stay in. “People want that in their living rooms”, we were told. And we wanted to stay within our budget and willing to compromise here – to compromise a lot.

As always one thing led to the other and long story short: All is gone now!

And while at it, we took off the wooden panel over the fireplace and opened up the drywall up until the ceiling.

Oops, shit happens! The fire place exhaust duct on the right side could not be removed so easily. So we had to close it up again but were aligning the lines! We stayed within the same height than the opening on the left side of the room.

While at it, the fireplace mantle was made a little thinner, too.

Before:

after:

The fireplace is in need of some changes for sure. But no granite for me! Most likely just paint. We already went overboard with the rest of this room…

On a different note: the hardwood floors had been in and out again within 24 hours. Long and frustrating story to be told another time.

secret of a remote remodel – The Angel

Remodeling a house is a tricky process. But remodeling a house in Texas and living in Germany is very tricky! Numerous trips back and forth are not only very, very exhausting but also very, very expensive. So our stays in Texas are usually full of hard work, lots of decisions and even more running around. Well, of course there is the yummie food and the great shopping, too – if time allows. And the occasional cowboy boots for sure!

But – after all- the most important thing is our Angel on site. A very dear friend who we just met in September of last year, we had coffee and instantly connected. She is now the master of the key, the voice of reason. She gives the best input and besides being a wonderful friend she is our remodeling Angel in every aspect. Having gone through many remodeling phases herself she knows everything from paint finish, to best deals for appliances to shutting off the sprinkler system.

Really, you do need to winterize pools in warm Texas?

Dear Angel, we are so grateful we have met and that we are in this adventure together. Bringing Eurostyle to Texas without going too overboard!

Leather stairs anyone??

white walls for art

We love to live with art and the best canvas for art display in my eyes are white walls.

Sure, I have been down the accent wall road and we do have some accent walls in our home right now. But I am willing to give them up, we will see. I am not a fan of trends, so I do not care if they are “in” or “out”. It is our home, we can do whatever we like!

If we feel like another accent wall, we will go for it.

If we do not feel like one, we will pass. That easy. Why would you care what others say about your home? Those wanna-be designers who want to dictate the rules in your house? Really?

But for this project we choose all white. We grew up with white walls and feel most at home with them.

Today in the world of pinterest and with the blogs it is easy to loose track what you really want from deep inside. It is tempting to just go with the flow, since you are exposed to the mass of pictures all around you. But I like to do what our family feels most comfortable with. And of course sometimes it is hard to tell whether you like some style because you have seen it so many times that you finally feel comfortable with it or because you really loved it from the beginning.

Everyone is collecting inspiration everywhere. Everything is inspired by something. No one is really “inventing” interior design in my eyes. It is the ability to sort your inspirations and transfer them into your own style or your clients style.

That said, I might have another accent wall in the future…

And, I will always love buddhas. Not because they are trendy, but because our collection reminds us of our travels and how we transported them back. As I mentioned before, every piece of art in our home has a very unique story to tell. And sometimes it is a story about the struggles with carry-on restrictions on the plane.

The painting is by Vladimir Prodanovich. We happened to find him on a trip to California several years ago when he used to have a studio in Laguna Beach. He now works out of Florida.

simplifying the counters

The kitchen is fine, there is nothing wrong with it.

Just, we wanted to spice it up a little. When we started we did not really know what we wanted in detail.

We thought we needed paint, we needed to upgrade the appliances, the countertops had seen better days. Of course this leads to the backsplash, the sink, the faucet.

Starting to discuss the new overhang at the bar area we were questioning it altogether. The domino effect had us again!

So, no overhang.

Then why would we need the two tier counters?

Ok, let us remove that.

How easy is that and what would it cost?

This is what our commications was all day long. Decision making is so exhausting. But my husband keeps telling me that it also burns calories…

The work began.

The walkway between kitchen and wall gained so much space! And the kitchen does look less like a kitchen now – at least if you are looking from the living room. The white walls and the white outer cabinets blend in more.

Easier on the eyes – at least on mine!

Now the next steps are the new counters.

Also, in this picture a little sneak peak into the wood flooring….

antique fair success

Strolling through the booths at the Antique fair Urban Market in the pouring rain was not really an easy task with two jet lagged kids. But of course the mood lightened as soon as our son spotted this old worn metal sign – art for the bedroom, the gym room, the dining area?

Time will tell.

Schlepping it back to the car it shielded us from the rain – always seeing the bright side of life, right?

Also our son wanted this jar for decorating pencils.

fireplace inspiration

There is no doubt that we are in need of some fireplace inspiration.

But is this it?

I gues not so much!

We had been to the RV Show in Houston this weekend and wanted to get some ideas for our upcoming summer vacation on Route 66.

Of course the kids opted for the version with bunkbeds and entertainment centers and 4 big fat flatscreens, 2 bathrooms, fireplace, balcony and outside build in BBQ area…

The price tag on their favorite RV was over $400.000.